This week in Tweets

This Week in Tweets
  • Shoulder & neck are killing me. Half from sleeping funny, half from stress. #
  • Today should be a productive day. Mainly because I’ll either focus on work to the exclusion of all else or hide under my desk from the world #
  • Neck/back are really killing me. Time to try to find some advil. I know I have some somewhere. #
  • RT @BuildingCamelot: The Secret To A Lasting Marriage http://ff.im/-2oJ7r <= “A Simple Marriage” is now number 1 on my “Want to Read” list. #
  • How long until Ibuprofen should work? Took 2 tablets 1hr 15min ago and my neck/back are still killing me. #
  • I’m following @ScanMyPhotos to win another Kodak Zi6 HD Digital Camera – http://bit.ly/RkcD2. #
  • Hulu.com blocked at work & curious about something. Can someone check & see what kids’ shows are on Hulu? Any Noggin/Sprout stuff? #
  • Any #DirecTV users out there? Is the protection plan worth the $5.99/month? Or is it a waste of money? #
  • Oh #Mythbusters, why can’t you put full episodes online? I can’t drop Cable TV unless I can get me some Mythbustin’ action! #
  • I hate it when I get weird debugging calls just before I’m about to leave. #
  • I’m loving the Heroes Season Finale. #
  • Love the #Heroes seasion finale ending! So cool! Yet, I hate the Heroes season finale ending. So long to go until new episodes! #
  • Working on my Twitter app. Think I have something good going now. #
  • Nothing like starting your day by almost being sideswiped. Some people just don’t look to the side before they swerve between lanes. #
  • Turns out that #Mythbusters is available online – From Amazon’s Video on Demand for $1.99 an ep. Not free like others, but still available. #
  • Whole season of Mythbusters via Amazon VoD costs ~$50. (Cable TV is $66/mo.) Could prob make a set top box that supports Hulu & Amazon VoD. #
  • RT @grantimahara: Last night there were people in a caged-off area in the back of the bar knitting. Was it for our protection?? #
  • Really surprised that no one complained when our intranet’s WebMD feed showed the story titled “Penis Spray for Premature Ejaculation” 😉 #
  • Was looking for a good book to read during “wind down” times at Disney World. Think might be it. http://bit.ly/yL0S0 (by @BadAstronomer) #
  • RT @HisBoysCanSwim: Would you put your baby in this? Looks like a cage to me: http://tinyurl.com/dnmtzz #
  • Closing down now to head for home. Pretty productive day. Only 8 more work days until Disney World! #
  • RT @mike_elgan Voters in Indian state of Maharashtra get indelible ink on middle finger Chief minister & wife flip proof http://bit.ly/hiHJL #
  • 10 days until our Disney World trip. Finger countdown time! 😀 #
  • Wondering how many other Twitterfolk will be at #DisneyWorld when we’re there. Twitter search shows @runningmama & @JessEdgar99. Any others? #
  • RT @mike_elgan The opposite of TinyURL: DickensURL.com converts long URLs into longer quotes from Charles Dickens! http://dickensurl.com/ #
  • RE DickensURL: My Dickens quote is: “There is a wisdom of the Head, and … there is a wisdom of the Heart.” From Hard Times #
  • http://tinyurl.com/dg659a. #
  • LOL. Seesmic Desktop changed my DickensURL into a TinyURL link. The link goes to TinyURL which goes to DickensURL which goes to my website. #
  • hmmm…. Wubbzy Clean Room door hangers http://bit.ly/so4Mo What if my kids hang this on my room though. 😉 #
  • RT @grantimahara: Want to see what kind of mayhem a one-ton ball of solid Lego does? Watch NEW #Mythbusters episode tonite 9pm on Discovery. #
  • Interesting. Apparently, you can use TVersity to stream videos from your PC to your Nintendo Wii over your wireless network. #
  • Why does my laptop always insist on freezing up when I’m feeling productive? It’s a conspiracy! #
  • Scale this morning indicated that I’ve finally shed my Passover weight gain. 3 pounds away from my Disney World weight loss goal of 185. #
  • Time to go home. No clue what I’m making for dinner though. #
  • RT @Shortpacked “i cant imagine how insulted jesus & moses would feel if they were called jewish” http://bit.ly/tWrWH <= Religion FAIL! #
  • 9 Days until Disney World! #
  • Looks like @SARAG517 & @kristsu will be at Disney when we are. As I walk through Disney, I’ll be wondering who’s tweeting their trip. 😉 #
  • RT @FitAndBusyDad: NEW Blog Post – Do Cheat Meals Really Work? http://bit.ly/pthFQ #
  • Back still hurting. This is the 3rd day. I can turn my head now but w/ shooting pain. Hope its better by the time we go to Disney World. #
  • It’s only 12 noon, but I already want to eat my lunch. That probably doesn’t bode well for my snacking over the rest of the day. #
  • All switched over from Sectorlink to Arvixe. On phone to cancel Sectorlink now. #
  • Sectorlink won’t prorate my hosting fee (5 days into the 1 month renewal). Sent an e-mail to their billing dept to see if they can do it. #
  • Sectorlink won’t promise to prorate my account. But if I make a note in my cancellation, they might possibly decide to. *grrr* #
  • *grrr* Not liking how Sectorlink is handling this. They absolutely refuse to do any prorating at all. #
  • Gets better. Sectorlink’s TOS seems to say that if they cancel my acct, they’d prorate the fees. #
  • So if I host warez & get disconnected, Sectorlink will prorate. If I just cancel the account, no prorating. Great policy there! #
  • Cool! Sectorlink made good and issued me a full refund for my month of hosting when they cancelled my account. #
  • RT @mike_elgan: Swine flu, it turns out, isn’t as bad as regular flu. http://bit.ly/10opwC <=The hype is more infectious than the flu itself #
  • RT @mike_elgan: This is madness, I tell you: http://visibletweets.com/ (RT @steverubel) <= Quite a cool way to view tweets. #
  • 1hr 15 minutes to go. Motivation is plummeting, though. #
  • 45 seconds to generate a report, 42 seconds to display it. Think I need to work on cutting down the display time. #
  • Trying to shut down, but computer’s not letting me. Freezing up. C’mon already!!!!! #
  • Can you believe what this mother feeds her babies?!!! http://bit.ly/1aQOHu #
  • She’s too busy for housework or making meals, but they “only get dressed & go out 1x a week to collect her benefits.” What’s she busy doing? #
  • 8 more days until we go to Disney World! #
  • Have 9GB in memory cards for our upcoming Disney trip. Wonder if that’s enough. That’s only 1.2 GB of photos per day. 😉 #
  • Each photo tends to be around 2.2MB, so that means I’ll need to limit myself to around 550 photos per day. Don’t know if I can do that. 😉 #
  • My wife (@TheAngelForever) just found her old camera w/ a 1GB memory card in it. That gives us 10GB to play with. “Only” 630 photos per day. #
  • All totaled, we’ll be able to take 4,450 photos during our 7 days at Disney World. (Plus Photo Pass photos & photos taken by my in-laws.) #
  • Anyone know of a good, free Hangman game for the computer? NHL loves playing hangman & I’d love to let him play it while on the computer. #
  • Suddenly tired. Is it nap time yet? #
  • No wonder computer was running slow, it was running out of disk space. Cleaned it up some. #
  • Have to reboot because of a previously installed Windows Update. Perhaps a short nap while my computer reboots. #
  • Yay! The weekend is here. Time to go home and plan for our Disney World trip. Only a week more to go! #
  • PHP, why must you torment me? When I think I’ve fixed the last bug, another one rears its ugly head. #
  • Bug tracked down. Unfortunately, it looks like the problem is that str_replace in #PHP is taking up too much memory. #
  • I’m trying to replace an array of values with “” (empty string) in a string of length 87,654,081. Is that too much to ask of #PHP? 😉 #
  • Note visitors of my across-the-street neighbors: When you stop by at 1am, DON’T HONK YOUR HORN!!! Get out of the car & go to the door! #
  • Time for bed. If anyone has any #PHP suggestions, tweet me. I’ll check my @replies when I sign on tomorrow (or is it today now?) #
  • Thinking of buying “Einstein: His Life and Universe” or “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” for downtime reading on our Disney trip. #
  • Coding my PHP app while JSL sleeps on the floor & @TheAngelForever picks up NHL. Wishing I was sleeping too. Don’t feel well. #
  • Lack of sleep + Allergies = Feeling blech. #

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Must See Television and The Real Reason for Cable Bandwidth Caps

Internet, Technology

A few weeks ago, Time Warner Cable announced the expansion of bandwidth cap trials.  Their plan was to cap users at various levels (from 1GB to 40GB depending on how much you paid) with overage fees if you went over.  They claimed this was to help protect their networks from bandwidth hogs, but don’t believe them.  Claims of a so-called "exaflood" have been debunked.  In the end, there is one big reason for cable companies to cap bandwidth and I can sum it up in two words:  Internet Video.

With the rise of Hulu, YouTube, Netflix and other legal online video offerings, the reliance on cable TV has dimished.  (I won’t touch upon illegal online video offerings now.  These are much more vast, but open up a whole other complicated set of arguments.)  Nowadays, you can watch nearly all of your favorite shows online without worrying about timeslots or channel numbers.  If I miss the latest episode of Heroes (i.e. if my DVR experiences technical difficulties), I can watch it online the very next day.  In some respects, the online offering is even better than the broadcast version.  The ads are fewer and the "schedule" doesn’t require a DVR to adjust.  I can watch it whenever I want, whereever I want (assuming a computer and high-speed Internet access).  The broadcast version can either be watched whenever I want – in front of the TV with my DVR – or whereever I am at the time that the show airs assuming a TV is nearby.

This scares Cable companies.  If people can get good, legal cable content online, Cable TV subscriptions could drop and cable companies would face dire financial straits.  The cable company response is to cap Internet usage.  This results in a win-win for cable companies.  If people don’t use their capped Internet for online video, cable wins.  If people use their capped Internet for online video and wind up with overage fees, cable wins.

In the case of Time Warner Cable, their caps plans were pushed back by angry consumers.  However, they haven’t tossed the plans.  They just sent them back to the PR department to get a nicy shiny coat of PR paint.  Expect them to be released again either in a quieter fashion or with some glitzier PR attached to them.  (In fact, there are already some signs that they’re going the quiet path. At least 3 users have been disconnected for exceeding some nebulous cap that Time Warner won’t name.)

I happen to have Time Warner Cable, Digital Phone, and RoadRunner Internet access.  Where Digital Phone is concerned, I don’t have much choice.  I refuse to go back to Verizon and their many hidden fees.  There just isn’t another option beyond ditching our land-line entirely.  Not sure if we’re ready for that.  Likewise, there isn’t much option for Internet access.  FIOS doesn’t reach our home yet and DSL is much slower than my current cable speeds.  So I decided to aim my rebellion at Time Warner Cable’s Cable TV service.

First, I looked into DirecTV.  I examined a few different plans and options and came to the conclusion that we could save $100-200 the first year with DirecTV.  However, the second year and third years would deplete those savings.  Then I got to thinking: What is our "Must See TV" anyway?  What are the shows that if the TV worked for them, we wouldn’t mind if it was dark for all else.  For me, it is Heroes, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Mythbusters.  For my wife, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice and The Biggest Loser.  Of those, only Batman and Mythbusters aren’t online already.  I might survive without Batman, but I need a weekly dose of Mythbusting action.

NHL currently likes Secret Agent Oso and Penguins of Madagascar, but he’s versitile TV-wise.  His "favorite show" changes on a monthly basis.  Given a steady supply of purchased DVDs (and a set top box to play them on), he could be satisfied.  The same goes for JSL and his Sesame Street addiction.  If we dropped cable TV entirely, we would save over $65 per month, or about $790 per year.  If we only used half of those saved funds to buy DVDs (which would be ripped onto the set top video player), we would be able to spend $33 per month on DVDs.  We would still save nearly $400 per year.  Alternatively, we could get a subscription to Netflix for $16.99 per month and would save over $586.  Either way, our cable TV habits could be satiated by non-cable TV sources.

We’re not going to drop cable TV tomorrow, but it certainly something for us to mull over.  The lure of saving nearly $600 every year is pretty strong.

This week in Tweets

This Week in Tweets
  • in Long Island for my Grandmother’s funeral (tomorrow). Missing my wife and kids already. #
  • Thinking of sneaking into the kitchen and sneaking some of my mom’s sponge cake. #
  • My Twitter app will have 5 different size settings. The smallest will be “Twitter Bird”, the biggest: “Whale”. What to name the other 3? #
  • Also, any place to get good (free or low cost) Twitter icons to use? (Twitter Bird, Whale similar to Fail Whale but not exactly) #
  • Maybe 2nd smallest could be Twitter Duck? http://tinyurl.com/6m3ums #
  • 2nd Biggest: Twitter Elephant? Middle one: Twitter Lion? (In honor of NHL’s favorite animal) #
  • Where to get Bird/Duck/Lion/Elephant/Whale/whatever icons though? Any artists out there willing to do it for website credit/links? #
  • Ok, time for bed now. Busy day tomorrow. Goodnight all! #
  • Just remembered what I forgot to pack. A dress belt to go with my suit! I had it w/ my suit but during various shuffles, it got left behind. #
  • Luckily, my normal belt is black & looks somewhat decent. #
  • Actually, the front of the belt is pretty worn, but it’ll have to do. These things happen when you pack in a hurry. #
  • Headed offline now to head to the funeral home. #
  • Funeral went off as well as can be expected. It was windy and cold, but at least the rain held off until we left the cemetery. #
  • Spoke to my relatives for so long that my throat is sore. #
  • 1 relative was very tacky. She walked around my parents’ house & pointed out things she wanted which she assumed belonged to my grandmother. #
  • Many items were really my parents’, not my grandma’s. Still, who is she to just walk in & try to claim things right after we buried grandma? #
  • Up early. All packed to go home. Off to temple w/ my dad at 6am, back to my parents’ house for breakfast, & then off to catch my train home. #
  • Hope JSL is feeling better. 103 last night scared me & made me feel bad for “deserting” him & my wife to go to my grandmother’s funeral. 🙁 #
  • Heading off to the train in a few minutes. #
  • Wish there was a way for DMs only from certain people (namely @TheAngelForever) to be sent to me as text messages. #
  • Just set my prefs so that DMs get sent to me as txt messages. Will turn it off when my train ride is done. #
  • Set the “sleep time” to 4pm – after I get back – to midnight to give me time to reset it. #
  • I pay for txt messages, but this will give @TheAngelForever another way to reach me if she needs to & I’m in a low signal area. #
  • Ok, headed off Twitter now to take care of a few last minute things before I head to the train. #
  • Back from my parents’ house. Actually been back since for 6hrs but had no time to tweet. #
  • JSL is sleeping beside me. Feels cool. Here’s hoping that his fever is actually down and not just hiding like it likes to do. #
  • Was loving Seesmic Desktop, but now it won’t come up at all. Tray icon appears, but no windows show up! #
  • Anyone know how to scan artwork? Specifically, paintings that are bigger than a normal scanner. Want to scan my grandfather’s old paintings. #
  • Looks like photographing my grandfather’s paintings is my only option. Just checked the back of 1 & the canvas is stapled to the wood frame. #
  • I wouldn’t be able to detach canvas from frame without risking damage to the painting & I can’t scan with the frame still on. #
  • Two of my grandfathers paintings that I have already photographed: http://twitpic.com/3s7lg http://twitpic.com/3s7lv #
  • My grandfather also painted a clown. Eyes follow you around. Scared me when I was a kid. Thought the clown was going to jump out & get me. #
  • Now I love the painting because it reminds me of my grandpa. @TheAngelForever won’t let me hang it in the house though. I wonder why. 😉 #
  • Gotta catch up with #Heroes. Monday’s ep still unwatched on my DVR. Was at my parents’ house after my grandmother’s funeral & couldn’t watch #
  • RT @grantimahara: http://twitpic.com/3s7lm – Captain Buster and 1st mate #karibyron. <= Wow! Kari’s popped. Wonder when she’s due. #
  • RT @TheAngelForever: This is the clown painting that @TechyDad is talking about. http://www.theangelforever.com/?p=67 #
  • My Twitter personality: popular inquisitive fair My style: garrulous coherent POET http://twanalyst.com/TechyDad #
  • Garrulous = pointlessly or annoyingly talkative. Me? Pointlessly or annoyingly talkative? Never!!! 😉 #
  • Bra deflects bullet aimed at woman. http://bit.ly/NucoP #Mythbusters should replicate this. @donttrythis @grantimahara, What do you think? #
  • Looking at DirecTV as a replacement for TW Cable. I’d still need TWC for Internet/Phone, but could save ~$10/mo if I switched TV to DirecTV. #
  • DirecTV Live Chat sales guy says they can transfer recordings from a failing DVR to a new one. Advantage: DirecTV! TWC can’t do that. #
  • It is very frustrating to lose all of your recorded shows because your DVR box goes funky. #
  • TWC FAIL: Searched KB for extra receiver price. Told to check Pricings or Build-A-Bundle page. Former had info removed, latter is 404. #
  • Found 2 catches in DirecTV’s prices. 1) Prices are for 1 yr. After that the price rises by $21/mo. 2) You pay $5/mo to lease each receiver. #
  • After factoring those in, DTV is cheaper than TWC for the 1st year, but those savings are quickly negated soon after the 2nd year. #
  • Sheesh. Jim Carrey claims aluminum & anti-freeze in vaccines could hurt kids. There’s no anti-freeze in vaccines! As for aluminum… #
  • …There’s also aluminum in breastmilk. A child BFing for 51-346 days gets the same amt of aluminum as from the entire US vaccine schedule. #
  • Carrey also rails against formaldehyde in vaccines. Amt in all vaccines for 6yr old: 1.2mg. Amt in 1 banana: 16.3mg. SAVE KIDS! BAN BANANAS! #
  • Best comment I’ve seen RE: Jim’s statements: “1 should not take medical advice from Ace Ventura and a Playboy bunny.” http://bit.ly/NGkGx #
  • Only 15 more days until we leave for Disney World! #
  • Just realized that w/ everything that’s been happening, I forgot to move my last sites off Sectorlink. Gotta try to take care of that today. #
  • Meeting time with marketing. #
  • Is it bad that I want to eat my lunch now? #
  • Looking over lists of things to bring to Disney World. http://bit.ly/ekhaE http://bit.ly/qJzSf and http://allears.net/pl/forgot.htm #
  • RT @fitnessdiet is giving away a new Ipod Touch to 1 lucky winner. http://www.fitnessdiet.info/freeipodtouchcontest.php #
  • This is a really nice use of photography to make a stop motion video. http://bit.ly/4Js0X Must have taken a long time to make. #

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This week in Tweets

This Week in Tweets
  • Tried Quinoa, raisins, cinnamon, honey, & milk for Passover breakfast this morning. Quite tasty. Pics & blog post coming soon. #
  • The new Seesmic Desktop client is nice, but I’m missing the ability to see what messages weren’t read. #
  • Also there doesn’t seem to be a window to see your favorites. I often use that to check on links at home if they’re blocked at work/NSFW. #
  • RT @classymommy: Hot topic: ABC News covers a story on how Parenting Blogs May Be Held Liable for Product Reveiws http://tinyurl.com/cq55un #
  • Was out of work for 3 days due to Passover. E-mail inbox went from 8 e-mails to 29. Got it back down to 10 now. #
  • Fav Slashdot comment today about Google Updater going open source: http://tinyurl.com/ce3pxf #
  • Preparing to burn a hole in my nasal cavity with horseradish and gefilte fish. It’s the jarred stuff, but a brand that’s actually strong. #
  • Twitter worm creator “is hoping that it will result in employment from a security firm rather than prosecution.” http://is.gd/sc5q #
  • My view: I would hope security firms don’t hire someone who would make a worm due to “boredom.” You don’t want someone like that on staff. #
  • Today was really productive. Took my To Do List from 58 items down to 25. Even built an entire web app. Time to celebrate w/ … matzoh?!! #
  • SOCKS! #Heroes #
  • is wondering whether adults can use the same sun lotion that kids use. Or do we need to bring 2 different types: 1 for adults & 1 for kids. #
  • Is is sad that my first thought upon reading this was “The #Mythbusters did this one! Confirmed!” http://bit.ly/HNRTF #
  • RT @mike_elgan: Porn: The new tobacco. http://tinyurl.com/d8dau3 <= Porn tobacco’s are different. There’s no 2nd hand porn harm. #
  • Oops. That should have been porn & tobacco’s harms are different. #
  • Been off Twitter for a bit. Day was not good. JSL has a high temp that won’t go down & my grandmother passed away today. 🙁 #
  • Long night. Had to wake up every 2 hours to give JSL his medicine. #
  • Not sure how/if I’m going to my grandmother’s funeral. Don’t want to miss it, but how can I leave B/JSL if JSL’s temp won’t drop below 101? #
  • Would you travel to your grandmother’s funeral if you would be leaving your spouse & sick child for 2 days? Not sure what to do. 🙁 #
  • Checking on bereavement fares now. USAir doesn’t have “bereavement fares per se.” Cost for flight would be over $550! Checking Southwest now #

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