Episode 184: $2 HDMI Cables Rule! DIY Dropbox Clones, Steve Jobs Steps Down, Stop WiFi From Dropping Out, 8th Grader Tops Angry Birds [Discussion]

[serafina]

Sony's Personal 3D Camcorder, Rebuild Your Blog From AN XML Backup! Magic eSATA USB Adapters? 10 Needles, 1000 Stitches Per Minute and an LED Flatpanel: Brother's High Tech Sewing Machine!InstantWatcher Makes Netflix Streaming Better. Wow, did the Tekzilla Crew have some great Dropbox Alternatives for business use.

Watch or download this episode here

[xfuuey]

Someone was going to do it anyway...

[revision3fan]

Suggestion for Pri: One thing that wasn't mentioned is the acoustical resonance of the theater room. The material that the walls in the room are made of, the upholstery, the furnishings and speaker placements will all factor in audio reproduction. This could be a factor given the dimensions of the room; 9'x22'x7'11". All rooms have resonant frequencies. The length gives a resonant frequency of 51 Hz while the width and height have approx. 140 Hz frequencies. This could definitely affect the bass response, making it too "boomy", at those frequencies.

• If your HDMI, audio and speaker cable runs are short, there should be no problem with a less expensive cable. I bring this up because the theater room is in the basement and it might be in a "noisy" environment; 220V appliances, circuit breaker panels, 60 Hz hum etc.
  
  Two other things are AC power conditioning and Wi-Fi.
• For the AC power, you might need a UPS.
• Also, getting a Wi-Fi signal to the basement from an upper floor may be a problem.
  
  
  Suggestion for Keith:
• Make sure that the iPod touch, Wi-Fi printer and Tivo are "all on the same page". If only one device is 802.11b, then set the router to 802.11b and shut off any automatic detection settings. Check to make sure that the encryption is the same for all the devices: WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.
  
• Since all the devices can drop at once, check for interference. A microwave oven, 2.4 GHz cordless phone, wireless intercom, etc. could be in close proximity to the router or any of the Wi-Fi devices.
  
• Raise the signal strength on the router, if possible.

[revision3fan]

I thought it had something to do with the Five Elements in traditional Chinese medicine: earth, wind, water, fire and metal. In this tradition, an element has a corresponding element that it dominates and another that it is dominated by. An acupuncturist, for example, will then try to rebalance the relationship.

However, the symbols on the T-shirt are for the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock", a variation on Rock, Paper, Scissors but played with five gestures. It's the same type of relationships as the Five Elements.

[serafina]

Originally Posted by revision3fan

I thought it had something to do with the Five Elements in traditional Chinese medicine: earth, wind, water, fire and metal. In this tradition, an element has a corresponding element that it dominates and another that it is dominated by. An acupuncturist, for example, will then try to rebalance the relationship.

However, the symbols on the T-shirt are for the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock", a variation on Rock, Paper, Scissors but played with five gestures. It's the same type of relationships as the Five Elements.

Ah, Lizard!! I thought it was Dinosaur.

[sdreelin]

I had the exact same problem and while resetting the router sometimes fixes the issue, because the router picks up a new IP address from Comcast, that is not the fix. If the person is using any kind of splitters, it's probably degrading the signal. My fix was to buy a cable drop amp (the kind used by the cable companies, and not cheap) and use that instead of the crappy splitters. Just do a search online for drop-amps and make sure you get one with zero return loss. That is key since the modem talks two ways. Since I put it in a year ago, I haven't lost my connection yet and I don't have drop outs on the digital cable channels.

Shawn
Virginia

[revision3fan]

Originally Posted by sdreelin

I had the exact same problem and while resetting the router sometimes fixes the issue, because the router picks up a new IP address from Comcast, that is not the fix. If the person is using any kind of splitters, it's probably degrading the signal. My fix was to buy a cable drop amp (the kind used by the cable companies, and not cheap) and use that instead of the crappy splitters. Just do a search online for drop-amps and make sure you get one with zero return loss. That is key since the modem talks two ways. Since I put it in a year ago, I haven't lost my connection yet and I don't have drop outs on the digital cable channels.

Shawn
Virginia

Great point. Make sure of all of the connections are tight with no sharp turns in the cable itself. If that doesn't work, tell Comcast to come to the house and have them check the signal strength of the cable modem on the outside wire just before it enters your house. If it isn't strong enough, Comcast should run a new cable to your house just for your cable modem.

Also, check that the power cord for the router is working all the time since the router is a few years old.

[davmoo]

For anyone local to a Fry's Electronics, they have three-packs of 6 foot HDMI cables for $10.

[atork]

I have a refurbished Linksys WRT160Nv3... piece of junk. I installed third party firmware by dd-wrt and it's now the most reliable router I've ever owned!

check to see if your device is compatible here:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php...evices#Netgear

Openwrt is not bad either. Installed it in the new cheap fry's router. (basically a dlink)