David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • Time Warner Cable moves OTA HD Stations

    According to FCC Sec 76.630 and CFR Title 47, Sec 76.901(a), a cable provider who chooses to “rebroadcast” local Over-the-Air (“OTA”) channels, must do so in what is known as clear QAM. Clear QAM is still an encrypted signal, but a newer television set with an ATSC tuner will be able to decrypt and display…

  • Delete files using crontab

    Got some files on your *NIX system that need a good deletin on a regular basis?. Well then crontab is going to be your friend. There are tons of articles that painstakingly explain the crontab format when you Google “scheduled job Linux”, but how to actually implement a scheduled job using crontab from start to…

  • WW2 era fighter planes

    Wings over Camarillo was a wonderful opportunity spend some up close and personal time with the kind of fighter planes that ruled the sky during world war II. The air show included aerobatic displays by close to 40 ww2 era aircraft including P-38’s and some of the famous Grumman cats. Seeing these awe inspiring warbirds perform just…

  • Buy by rating and get free shipping

    Buy a lot of stuff online? Get a free year of Amazon Prime membership for students with a valid .edu email address. Later, when buying electronics or computer parts using said Amazon Prime membership, use newegg.com to comparison shop online. Its rating system is one of the most honest in the industry and they carry…

  • Skype blocks local Apache server

    Apparently Skype thinks that occupying ports 80 and/or 443 would be a great idea on Windows. I guess that’s fine for the most part, I mean you don’t really want to be debugging your local web app while chatting with grannie. So what about when you’re not using Skype? What possible reason could there be…

  • Long Beach harbor cruise

    Last weekend I went on a three hour urban ocean boat cruise covering the Port of Long Beach. Sponsored by the Aquarium of the Pacific it’s one of a few attractions there that isn’t mercilessly overrun by exhausted moms, rows upon rows of strollers and screaming kids on the weekend. It was a perfect day…

  • Macbook pro palm rest discoloration

    A few months ago I noticed that my brand new Macbook Pro had developed some permanent stains on the palm rest. A trip to the Apple store “genius bar” ended in a 45 minute wait session followed by an interrogation about my palm moisture levels. Finally I felt I needed to make the following concession:…

  • Streaming HD content over WIFI

    SageTV Media Center can stream shows effortlessly to any SageTV Client in your house, but if you want to stream HD content you’ll need to step up to Wireless N for additional bandwidth. I’ve configured SageTV Client on my VAIO notebook in the bedroom and it now plays streamed HD content on an external 24″…

  • My MacBook’s trackpad clicks aren’t registering

    I recently got a 2009 MacBook Pro. I wrote about my experience with it a few months ago (generally positive), but now six months in I’ve got a really annoying problem. My trackpad (or touchpad) doesn’t register some clicks. The most annoying part about it is that the problem isn’t consistent. It just happens sometimes…

  • Serial commuications on a MacBook Pro

    Connecting to a device using via a rs232 using a MacBook is not straight forward, but possible if you have one of the more popular USB-to-Serial adapters. The PL2303 adapter is sold by a number of manufacturers under different model names. Luckily, however, most of them run on the same basic chip for which an…