Last week, I received an e-mail from a friend asking about a home theater quote. I looked over the component list and was impressed with the quality components and the reasonable prices — until I saw the following line item:

• HDMI Cable - 5 meters - $129

I pointed to him to an equivalent $8 HDMI cable from MonoPrice.com - and that was for the "premium" version. Since HDMI is a digital specification and the specifications for the electronics that produce the signal are quite high, the cable resistance and shielding have very little impact. However, I've never been able to quantify this.

I just ran across a very interesting article by Raj Nair confirming what I had long believed: premium HDMI cables are a complete waste of money. Here is an excerpt:

Studies conducted most recently at ComLSI show that Cat-5e cabling can be just as good from a signal transmission and reception perspective over very significant lengths (25m+) as any advanced cable architecture. A prior paper goes farther, disclosing SXGA video transmission over 300 meters of Cat 5 cabling.

Thinking of "upgrading" to premium cables to "improve picture quality?" Don't bother. Check out the entire article at DigitalTVDesignLine.

I just received an unsolicited commercial e-mail from a company named, ironically, PermissionEmailCorp.com. They did not receive my permission before sending me the e-mail. Their site states that they provide "choice / opt-out" for recipients. Funny, the spam message they sent me didn't contain any such option.

Apparently they provide "free advertising for charities." They also promise not to collect any customer information. Wow, how nice of them. But if they really cared about your charity, they wouldn't use "third-parties" to "advertise and collect information about customers." The company appears to be based out of China and related to AdvertisingEmailCorporation.com.

PermissionEmailCorp.com retrieved the e-mail address from my Godaddy account. Not from my public DNS who-is information, but from my GoDaddy account itself. GoDaddy needs to set-up their customer protection.

Update 13-March-2007: I started receiving e-mail messages to the address I use in my domain name whois information. Every domain has to have a contact e-mail address and it must be shared (unless your pay your registrar to make is private.) This is information is not allowed to be used for this purpose, but obviously this company is not playing by the rules. Once your e-mail address is out there for them to use, there is nothing you can do to get it hidden again. Either setup a spam filter or change your e-mail address (which may be found again.) Be careful about using a false e-mail address for your domain contact information. Your registrar may charge you an administrative fee if someone reports not being able to contact you because of that. To see you public whois information for your domain, try the Network Solutions Whois Lookup page.

Edit: MoScroll is a great, free, open source alternative: http://codescribes.blogspot.com/2007/02/moscroll.html

I've recently found myself using nothing but point devices with no scroll wheel: my Mogo Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, my 3M Renaissance Ergonomic Mouse, my Dell Latitude laptop. One thing is missing: the ability to scroll. That is, until now.

History: About 10 years ago, when Steve Jenkins was running Windows95.com shareware site (which become download.com), he would select the best software each year and give it a "WINner Award." One of the software products that deservedly earned that designation was Pointix Scroll ++, a handy little app that sits in the Windows tray and allows you to scroll by holding and dragging the left (or center) mouse button. Back in those days, the first scroll wheel mouse was just released and Scroll ++ gave "old school mice" the ability to scroll without one. I downloaded it, gave it a try, and purchased it instantly. But soon the scroll wheel became common place in the cheapest mice, Pointix was acquired and disappeared into oblivion, and this piece of software history was all but forgotten.

Fast-forward to present day: There are new and innovative pointing devices that just don't have room for a scroll wheel. Users are frustrated, everyone complains about it, and there is no apparent solution. Unless you remember Pointix Scroll ++. Unfortunately, I couldn't even activate the version I purchased because the company is long gone. I tried to contact the original copyright holder, but had no luck (it's just a generic spam-like advertising site now.). Since the US Copyright Office has given approval to share abandoned software, I'm posting for download Pointix Scroll ++ version 2.05 for Windows (including activation) for anyone else who may need it. Below are details on how to install it and activate it.

Download, Installation, and Configuration Instructions (after the break): Read the rest of this entry »

I've long championed the use of AccurateRip for bit-perfect audio extraction from CDs. Exact Audio Copy (EAC) has been my program of choice for years because it offered the best extraction quality and the largest feature set. Unfortunately, it's also pretty difficult to configure, which lead me to create my EAC configuration guide. The only other option was dBpoweramp Music Converter, but it was not as accurate as EAC, it didn't handle Compilation CDs (i.e. Various Artists CDs) well, and it didn't handle queued ripping very well. But now things have changed.

Spoon over at Illustrate has just released dBpoweramp Music Converter version 12. It is now even more accurate than EAC (here are the details), it now properly supports Compilation CDs, and (as always) it is pretty darn simple to configure. Plus, it offers features that EAC does not, including the ability to automatically download album cover art. Based on all of this dBpoweramp Music Converter version 12 Reference Edition is my new ripper of choice.

But wait a second — what's that Reference Edition? Ah, here's the rub for those fans of free software (EAC) and those who have already purchased the PowerPack version. To get the most secure ripping possible, you have to pay $28 (or $12 if you've already purchased the PowerPack.) Existing PowerPack owners get most of the new benefits — with the exception of "Ultra Secure & C2 Pointers" ripping, which is highly desirable for an audiophile.

There is one other small rub. After the first year, you'll have to pay $4.90 per year to continue to get access to the AMG (allmusic.com) service. Before you get too upset over this, consider that AMG charges all commercial software vendors per customer per year, so the costs are just being passed along from AMG. And I'm pretty sure you can revert back to freedb if you don't continue to use those features (though I think the simplified cover art download is well worth it.)

So, if you're a huge fan of free software, stick with EAC. But if you're looking for the ultimate in CD Audio Extraction as well conversion between just about any music format out there, give dMc a try.

We experienced a loss in my family today and my wife Nicole wrote a beautiful post about it.

As Nicole mentioned mentioned in a post today, we were completely snowed-in until a entrepreneurial BobCat operator cleared our driveway (see her blog entry for pictures.) I was thankful for the modern mechanical marvel, especially given the fact that I spent an hour-and-a-half clearing the driveway last night only to have my work completely erased by snow drifts during the night.

Seeing all the snow and the machinery makes me think of a pretty amazing piece of equipment designed to function in a similar environment, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser. I first learned of the novel approach to polar exploration about 4 years ago when someone at worked passed me a PDF detailing this vehicle (it was powered by two Cummins engines.) I was wanting to read about it again and thought I'd turn to Wikipedia for some more info. I was surprised to find little more than three sentences detailing this 55-foot long monster. Instead of shrugging my shoulders, I decided to write a comprehensive entry myself. As of today, about 95% of the info in the Wikipedia article was entered by me and I included as many links to external sources as possible. Without further delay, here is the article.

To pique your interest, here is a brief description: The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was built in the late 1930's to explore the south pole. A crew of 5 was supposed to be able to live in it for a year without any external supplies or fuel. It could cross crevasses up to 15 feet wide. Unfortunately, the gaint smooth tires had virtually no traction once they touched the Antarctic snow and the vehicle was abandoned. The vehicle may still be buried under the antarctic snow and ice, or it may have fallen into the ocean when the ice shelf fractured.

Nicole visited the doctor again today. It was just a quick check-up and not a big deal. They made sure speck is still growing and checked the heart beat. Everything is just fine.

Nicole got a bit worried when the nurse couldn't find the heartbeat, but the doctor was much more skilled and found it within a few seconds. Too bad she had to endure 5 minutes of stress and uncertainty. Anyway, all is well. Looking forward to the next checkup.

My wife and I had a group of friends over last Monday night to watch the latest episode of Heroes in our HD home theater. We were all looking forward to watching the newest episode of our favorite show. But it was cold that evening and many of the local schools were on a two hour delay the next morning. The local NBC affiliate decided that a cancellation crawl at the bottom of the screen was necessary to communicate this information. But they can't overlay a HD broadcast, so the showed a letterboxed standard def version on the HD channel. Our guests were disappointed and we were a little embarrassed because we had no HD to watch.

I was very disappointed in WTHR 13 for not broadcasting prime-time shows in HD. I was even more disappointed when it occurred again the very next night. I would much rather watch my favorite shows in HD than be forced to watch a letterboxed standard definition version with cancellation notices (and advertisements) crawling along the bottom of the screen. If I were interested in the cancellation notices, I'd rather just go to to their website and avoid the scrolling distractions all together. I'd wager that there are very few people watching the HD broadcast whom do not have an Internet connection.

Disappointed with the situation, I called the station yesterday and left a voice mail message detailing my complaint. About 15 minutes later, my call was returned and I got the scoop. FCC regulations require that any Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages displayed on the SD station also be displayed on the HD station. The station didn't want to get a fine from the FCC and don't yet have equipment to overlay the HD broadcast with the cancellation crawl. Luckily they are upgrading to HD-capable equipment in the next month to address this problem.

It's great that they won't revert back to SD for cancellation notices, but is that really the best solution? I hate those distracting scrolling notices at the bottom of the screen. I think they're waste of time and space. If you're actually going to try to pay attention to them, you won't be able to follow the show. What I'd like to see is a crawl during the commercials stating only that "there are multiple school closings; please visit our website or channel 13-2 for more details."

Most stations have an extra channel devoted to weather (13-2 in this case.) I think this channel not very useful — but it could be. I changed to it and there were no cancellation notices being shown, just a radar picture. Wouldn't it be a much better use of that frequency to display the cancellations in full screen? And not interrupt the other programming?

I did some more research on the FCC website and found out that stations don't have to broadcast state or local messages at all. So why bother? We're not living in 1989 anymore. TV and Radio are no longer the only (or even the best) sources for cancellation info. We're in the Internet age now and a website is much more effective at disseminating this type of news. It's not necessary to broadcast to the entire state that a tiny dance school is closed tomorrow evening. Only about 15 people care. Tell them to go to the website and please spare the rest of us from a bombardment of useless information.

I'm afraid this might not be enough to convince the stations. If not, I guess I have one last option. Forget broadcast TV and commercials all together and just rent the full season from Netflix.

In 2004, the Colts were red hot but I watched them to the New England Patriots (after a long, cold drive home after the heater in my car quit.) It was a long, cold, miserable terrible night.

In 2005, the Colts were on fire but I watched them lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Colts were rusty and disappointing.

Before each of these post seasons, my wife and I agreed that we'd get a flat screen TV in our family room (in addition to the front projector in the home theater room) to watch the Super Bowl if the Colts made it. But they didn't.

In 2006, the Colts got off to a great start but sputtered later in the regular season, losing to weak teams. I thought they'd missed their chance. At our house, there was no talk of getting that new TV. That is, until the Colts won the AFC championship in spectacular fashion. We hadn't talked about it in over a year and I somewhat jokingly I asked Nicole "Can I go get that new TV now?" I was expecting at least a little debate, but really wasn't all that surprised by her too-good-to-be-true Super Wife response: "Yep." End of discussion!

It was a somewhat unlikely year for the Colts to make it to and win the Super Bowl, but I'm glad they did and I'm glad I'm in Indianapolis to experience it. It's been an interesting few years since 1999 when I started dating and eventually married a Colts fan. I think back to those Sunday afternoon I spent watching football with my wife-to-be. I was an instant convert (because there are no NFL team in Kentucky). I was worried they'd never make it to the Super Bowl and that Nicole and I would never be able to celebrate such a victory together. They did and we did. Go Colts!!!

With the Super Bowl just hours away, I finished mounting my new Mitsubishi LT-46131 Flat Panel LCD TV. I'm only watching off-the-air HD right now as I have yet order a second HD satellite receiver. As is my history for all things related to home theater, I couldn't simply sit it on the table or even mount it flat against the wall — I went all-out with a Chief PNR articulating arm mount with an in-wall PAC500 housing. Since those model numbers mean nothing to pretty much everyone (including myself a week ago) here are some pictures.

Please note: I still have some drywall work to do around the edge of the mounting box.