Cornucopia Day

Lotsa neat stuff arrived today, more than fit on my patio rack. A stack of dress shirts, Dr. Who Series 4 #1 DVD, three books which will be gifts (one gift wrapped, two not since I want to read them first - coffee table books, no one will notice), and three days early, the HD car radio and mounting kit, which arrived in a badly crushed box. The mounting bracket of the insert was jammed so much it put a 1-inch hole in the radio's box, and went a half inch into the Styrofoam which holds the radio in its box. The bracket is plastic, and it was bent, but I was able to bend it back enough to use it. It took me maybe 5 minutes to remove the old radio and install the new one (same brand, and the old one was mounted mostly with silicone sealer. Remind me never to go to AudioWerk in San Jose again).  It works fine, but the real test is tomorrow when I'll see if the display is bright enough to make out in daylight. And hear what HD radio sounds like. If I can find any. So far all I've gotten is analog. Unfortunately, like the higher priced unit I just removed, the bluetooth adapter uses the CD changer connector, so you can't have both a CD changer and bluetooth. Otherwise it looks like great little radio, and now it's mounted solidly and looks like it belongs there.

Yesterday the Nat Geo cheek swab DNA collection kit arrived, I took the samples (one last night one this morning) and  mailed them in.

Early Start

Up early to phone my Baltimore sister and wish her a happy birthday. Seems she is being visited next week by both of our sisters - Israeli sister will stop by on her way to Seattle and at the same time Poulsbo sister will be on one of her regular business trips to Bethesda (she's a civilian who works for the Navy).

Amazon sent email asking me to review a product I have bought from them. I'll pass. How does one review Carnation Malted Milk?

Vista is having trouble sleeping. It goes to sleep just fine, fans turn off and everything, there is power to USB ports, but when it wakes up it doesn't power up the wireless keyboard/mouse. So I downloaded the latest (cleverly hidden) Intellipoint/type software just in case that helps. It probably won't.

It's not over till its over

Note that the Obama "victory" is based on a delegate count which includes people who are free to change their mind. If you only count delegate who are required to vote for a candidate, nobody is coming into the convention with enough votes.

McCain passed that mark handily fairly early in the primary process.

As I've said before, I'm not pro-Clinton or anti-Obama. I am pro-choice, and the choice will be made in late August in Denver. A lot can happen in two months, and until the delegates vote, it's not over. If Barak wins on the first ballot, fine. If Hilary concedes before the convention starts, also fine, but I would rather have her see it through to the end because nothing sucks more for a delegate than to show up at a convention pledged to a candidate who has withdrawn from the race. Been there, done that.

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Lots of punditry this morning about who Obama will choose to run with him. If it isn't John Edwards, I'll be very surprised.

HD Radio First Impressions

The JVC radio in the car find the HD programs in the same scan as analog programs, so I am able to keep my eyes on the road, push the scan button and listen to the channel for a bit and guess whether I am hearing HD or analog. Most of the time HD is clearer audio, better high frequency response, better subwoofer separation and uses all 6 speakers. However, there is at least one analog channel which sounds as good as HD, and at least two HD stations which are obviously using analog source equipment.

The biggest diff is just what I get every day at work testing HD vs. SD TV. Analog will play some sound, even if it's white noise, as long as it gets a signal. Digital is silent if it loses signal, and with an intermittent signal it skips like a scratched CD.

Most of the Bay Area HD stations are broadcasting two programs (HD1 and HD2) on the same frequency. They are always different content, sometimes even aimed at a different audience. One of the Spanish channels has English content on HD2.

Edit add: The new radio is more powerful and has better sound quality all around than the old one

Deleted comments to this post and the other post about HD radio because the bozo who started the comment thread keeps a locked LJ with all comments screened and unread - an LJ site set up solely to harrass people who say anything nice about HD radio.

Baycon Photos Are up

DSC_4070
Originally uploaded by how3ird.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/how3ird/sets/72157605445039955/

Not many, since I was not able to attend much of the con, but in addition to iamradar and scendan there are some of the panel caprine was on, and the opening ceremonies.