Friday, April 11, 2008

And Friday makes five.

Yep, this post marks the fifth straight day in a row that I've posted a blog entry. Woohoo, can you say, streak? And I don't mean running around unclothed (which I'm sure you all appreciate!).

This kind of story is what really makes you proud to be an American. Or, at the very least, proud of our troops: a completely selfless act, costing his life, and saving the lives of those around him. Let me take this moment to say "Thank you!" to all those who have and are sacrificing, both great and small, for our freedom. Of course, there's one who sacrificed everything for our ultimate freedom; find out more here.

On a completely different note, have you heard about the "On-Time Device"? It's a little electronic ignition interrupt that is timed to your payment cycle at in-house financing places (like local Madison auto sales place Chase Cars, which is where I first noticed the device). It gives you a warning when you get close to your payment due date; once you've made the payment, you get a code to enter into the device, which will activate it until the next payment date. If you don't make the payment on time, it interrupts the ignition so that you can't start the car once you turn it off (I suppose you could just attempt to leave the car running if you're late on your payment...). Allows places to feel a bit more secure in lending to people with credit problems (like me, thanks to my stupid spending habits).

For one last change of subject, if you're in need of an antenna for over-the-air digital TV (you are getting your converter boxes, right? with the coupon you can get one at Wal-Mart for $13 or so after tax), and you don't want to spend a lot, check out this video:


Coat Hanger HDTV Antenna: Better Than Store Bought! AMAZING! - More amazing video clips are a click away


Yep, clothes hangers. And, yes, it does work. I did it myself. Granted, it's not great, but I also didn't spend a lot of time making it "perfect." It does about as good a job as my amplified, store-bought antenna, and that's with a super-cheap, poorly done one! I didn't even have the right UHF/VHF transformer - I just hooked up one of the old "here's how to connect your rabbit-ears to a cable-type connector" things. It even does a pretty good job pulling in current analog signals, too. Actually, I currently have both antennas hooked up through a splitter (although the coat-hanger one is going to the "in" on the splitter and the amp'ed one is going to one of the four "out" connections on the splitter, a second "out" goes to the converter box, and a third "out" goes to the TiVo for analog recording). But it all works pretty well together. I think I may look at similar designs to put an antenna in my attic, which might get better reception than the antenna leaning against my TV stand.

Have a great weekend! Of course, if you're reading this in the middle of the week, have a great middle of the week, I guess.

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