Pages

Monday, December 1, 2014

Home Depot rejects bad reviews. Had a disaster with a Vigo Corner shower. Got some refund after 2 weeks of battle.

I wrote this review and Home Depot rejected it. So, I go public.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/vigo-industries-edison?hrid=el6ZnqGX-oxbUIn-7-amOQ

I had a very bad experience with a Vigo frameless shower. I ended up scrapping $1k after wasting labor for 2 people for 2 days.

Here is what happened.

1. I bought this from homedepot for about $1k after taxes. homedepot.com/p/Vigo-42-…

2. Problem 1: Mine is a remodel and not new construction. The wall on the right was not perfect 90degrees. The right panel on the top was off by about 3/8 inch. I thought Vigo would have an adapter or a sealing strip which is 1" to account for it. There was none.

3. Problem 2: The hinges were not holding the door securely to the left panel and not holding the left panel to the wall. The screws were hex and needed Allen wrench used often in fancy furniture and not in rugged uses.

4. Problem 3: The gaskets which stop water leak around the door were not factory cut to size for this particular enclousure. They are geenric and the instructions provided are so confusing that the gaskets were cut wrongly by not one but 2 separate teams of labor.

5. Vigo sent replacement gaskets and hinges. Still the problem was not solved even though I was prepared to order a custom glass panel on the right for $600.

6. The only favor Vigo did for me was to refer me to Blossom Hill Glass in Campbell, CA which came, measured and replaced the entire shower in 1 week. Perfect gaskets, no leaks. I paid $2100.

Feedback to Vigo:

1. Make hinges and screws more robust.
2. Gaskets MUST be perfectly sized for each shower.
3. There must be wiggle room for imperfections in existing walls or warn people buying that this is meant only for perfect 90 degrees before buying.

Conclusion:

I went to local Home Depot. The store manager was not authorized to give any refund. The store customer service was kind enough to call homedepot.com and ask them to give me refund but they asked me to come on the line and told me to contact the manufacturer which was what I did to begin with and I was back to square one. The local home depot customer service gave me a corporate phone number to call for refund. I finally did that and they agreed to put in a request for refund to the refunds department. 4 days later I get an email from the refunds department saying they need more information and there was a phone number and extension to call. I called twice and left voice mail and got no response. 2 days later, I emailed a photo of my attempted installation of the Vigo enclosure, an invoice for a custom enclosure and the leftover hardware because the glass was damaged and had to be disposed off. Another 2 days later I called and spoke to another person who promised 70% refund which was posted a day later. Boy! It was a battle!

Net summary: Spent $1k on parts,  $1k on labor, got back $750 on parts, spent $2.1k on custom enclosure. Effectively I lost $1.25k but lot of grief on top of it.

Moral of the story: Order online from Home Depot ONLY if installation is available.
If they cannot install, they cannot charge.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

My opinion about Toyota Mirai Hydrogen Fuel cell Car.

Here is what I gathered from announcements and public info.

By the time the Toyota Mirai car is available in the US, rebates will be gone. MSRP $57k probably means that actual price paid plus taxes and registration will be $57k.

Toyota has a warranty of 100k miles for 8 years. Apparently they provide fuel for 3yrs at 12k miles per yr. Estimated MPG is 60. Current price per gallon is $1 in Southern California.

Since most 4 cylinder Toyotas last 150k+ miles and 6 cylinder toyotas last 200k+ miles, let us assume that Mirai would last 200k miles. At 12k miles per year, that would be 16 years. If the value is zero at 16 years, the cost per yr without considering fuel, maintenance, insurance is about $3.5k. Since Toyota pays 36k miles of Hydrogen, 114k miles at $1 per gallon would cost $2k which is barely $250 per yr for 9 yrs. So cost per yr including fuel is $3.75k.

Mirai is bigger than Toyota corolla and smaller than Toyota camry. So, I assume that it is about the size of Prius in the cabin with more luggage room than a Corolla. A new 4 cylinder Camry can be had for about $25k on the road and expected to last over 150k miles which is over 12yrs. Cost per year in $2k not counting gas. At $4 per gallon and just 25mpg overall, it costs about $24k to run a camry for 150k miles. That is $4.5k per yr.

So, that means Mirai is cheaper than Camry. Compare it to Corolla and the answer may be that Mirai costs bit more than Corolla per year but then it is a bigger and quieter car and certainly has a bigger cool factor than Corolla.

If you buy a Tesla for $75k on the road (without rebates) and fuel is free (charge only at the free stations) and if you are lucky and the battery lasts 200k miles in 16 years, the cost per year with fuel is $4.7k. Now you should argue if Mira is more of an image car than Tesla. I am not going there...

Disclaimer: I bought a Certified Lexus LS430 for $30k on the road with 40k miles on it and many cars lasted 300k+ miles at 12k per yr. That means I can run this car for 260k miles in 22 years if I don't get bored. So cost per yr would be $1.4k and I get a paltry 18mpg. That would be $58k in 22yrs or  $2.6k per year. So, incuding fuel my cost is $4.1k per year.

Conclusion: My car is cheaper than Tesla and has the same amount of luxury without the hassle of charging or concern about range :-)

I will let the dust settle and take a look at what is available when I get bored with my car...


Friday, October 31, 2014

Managed to remove decades old wall paper easily.

I think the wall paper is probably about 30 to 40 years old.

I tried a steam cleaner hoping to remove it without any chemicals. Did not work.

I tired Rust-Oleum 2422 DIF Wallpaper Stripper Concentrate, 22-Ounce which is supposed to make 2 gallons 128oz . I tried a sample using the recommended amount of water which is about 6 to 1. I applied it using a brush. Did not work. Tried a 3 to 1 and it also did nothing. Finally I used a spray bottle and tried the concentrate directly with a window open. After 15 minutes it almost dried up.

I decided that this was not penetrating. So, I tried a scorer to poke little holes in the wall paper which I got in Walmart for $6 (much cheaper than Amazon) and Zinsser 2466 DIF GEL Spray Ready To Use Wallpaper Stripper, 32-Ounce
also $5 in Walmart compared to $10 on Amazon.

I used the scorer on a 18" x 18" section and used the gel spray barely 3" from the wall to soak it. Waited for 20 minutes, used a chisel to pry at the end and bingo, the entire 18" x 18" section came out in one shot in 5 minutes. When I tried a larger section, the problem was that after 20 minutes, I start peeling but 10 minutes later some section dried up and needed another coat of Gel. So, I went back to 18" x 18" sections. It sure takes a while to do a bigger room but it does work. For example a 8 x 10 wall (80sq ft ) may take 15 hrs if only one person does it. So, make it a family party on a weekend folks!


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Shopping at IKEA. Exhausting to say the least!

I have had love hate relationship with IKEA since 1987 when I first shopped at IKEA. It was all love back then when we just started married life and did not have kids....

So, why the hate?

Here is how my last 2 visits went.

We wanted to get vanity top mirror closets for 3 bathrooms.We were in the parking lot at 1:30pm on a Saturday. 95% of the parking is 10 minutes walk from the entrance (only 1 entrance). No isles in the store. Only isles and bins are in the self checkout area. We had to take the escalator up, go through a maze and finally spot a IKEA employee (not sure what they really do for customers) and come down a different way and walk for 10 minutes through another maze to find the mirror cabinets. By then it was 3pm and we took a coffee break and went back to the mirror/vanity place in 3 minutes which is much less that the 1hour 20 minutes from the entrance after 10 minutes to locate them in the first place.

I guess the idea was to keep us in the store looking at lot of stuff that we did not need and take several detours to avoid crowds which kept us in the store longer.

We went back to pick 2 of the mirror vanities. One of them was not a self checkout item. We were lucky enough to find an IKEA person who entered the order and gave us invoice to take to checkout. It would have been so easy to accept payment and notify the pickup place. But that would not keep us in the store long enough.

Even before we picked up one of the self-help items from the bin, we had to wait in a line for a flat bed cart.

Checkout took "only" 10 minutes even though just one person with a cart with 20 items was in front of us. We could have used grocery store or Walmart-like self checkout if they had it.

Then we go to the furniture pickup area and stand in yet another line to give the receipt and ask for the item. I walked 10 minutes to bring my minivan closer to the pick up place. Not a single space reserved for loading. I had to turn ON the hazards for barely 1 minute and a security patrol glares at me and shakes his head as if he is a cop at an airport "excusing" my "bad" behavior. Even a 7 eleven would have more parking at than the entrance of this monster store. We start driving at 5:15pm. That was 3 hrs 45 minutes from the we parked just to get 2 items.

That was the first trip. To have uniformity, we needed to decide between small and medium mirror cabinet for the third bedroom. So, we went back the following Saturday hoping to be in and out in 30 minutes. I found a parking space near the entrance. Good start! The we took 10 minutes because we forgot that it was on the first level but we went all over the second level, and asked some IKEA person (lucky find) and went down. Then we found that the item we want needs an IKEA person to print an invoice. There was no real line but there was only one IKEA person. A second person came 15 minutes later when my wife went and asked for help. All of a sudden a couple snuck in front of them claiming they were in line even though we did not see them when we first got there. So, almost 1 hr later we went to pay. There were 10 people in front of us and it took 20 minutes to pay and 10 minutes to get the item. I noticed that half of the checkouts were closed.

We started driving 1hr 30 minutes after we arrived when we knew exactly what we wanted to buy!

Enough of IKEA for us for a long time to come. We will perhaps order online at IKEA if we can help it but look on Amazon, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowes, Walmart, Target, Macy's, Kohl's, Sears before we even think of entering IKEA store.



Saturday, October 18, 2014

Had real success in restoring the bounce in Tennis balls.

I have been using Penn Championship Extra Duty for many years.

I came up with a marking system of 1 bar per 1hr of tennis rally. In Fremont, CA where the temperature on the court between 8:30am and 10:30am is about 50 to 60F in winter and 65 to 80F in summer, I noticed that the bounce is good enough to use for about 6 hrs in summer and about 4hrs in winter. As winter is approaching in mid October, last week I did 3 things.

1. Put 1 Silicagel packet in each 3 pack can and put the cans in the house instead of leaving it in the Garage.

2. At 8AM, I put 6 balls on a plate and put them in a 1000Watt microwave for 1 min checked them (not at all hot) and then 1 more minute.

When we stopped playing tennis at about 9:45AM the balls certainly had more bounce than they had when they were opened the first time!

I will update this as I gather more experience. Till then happy bouncing!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Friendly service I had at local bike shop. Amazing.

I have been to Fremont Schwinn Cyclery to buy my first Schwinn Hybrid bike 4 years ago back in 2010 for $400. I ride only on weekends and have 2000 miles on it. I had excellent service from James and his dad I would like to respectfully refer to as  Mr. Ha. Often, the comment is no charge. I probably spent $100 over the last 4 years to maintain this bike and that includes rear view mirrors I added.

A biking partner of mine had a carbon fiber Canondale bike. He wanted better gear ratio to climb steepr roads. For less than $100 his bike can climb. No kidding!

I wanted to go up a little faster on the same slopes to keep up with my partners. James suggested smaller tires and isntalled them for about $50. Nice improvement. In fact, I got smaller tires put on my son's $200 Walmart bike and he is very happy with that bike.

I bought a Fuji Newest 4.0 2012 road bike used for $250 ($550 new) and took it and asked James to tell me what it needs. He took 10 minutes to test and said it is good to go as is. I asked him to install trip meter and kickstand. 45minutes and $55 later, I rode the bike.

They are so refreshingly low tech (no email, web page, smart phones) but very high in service...

Welcome to small town America where people trust people and do the right thing!

Update 9/28:

After my first ride up a slope, I needed more climbing gear. Went back to the bike shop. James took 15 min and $40 including parts to replace the rear cassette to increase teeth for 25 to 32. I am a happy climber!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Nice! Google Voice again working on obi devices. Switched back from Phonepower. Free to call US unlimited.

Folks, as always the only thing guaranteed in tech is change! Those who can adapt, can come out ahead.

In May when Googlevoice stopped working on Obi and all such devices, I took the 1 year promotion at Phonepower for $60 offered to Obi customers. My average calls to India were 350min a month. Googlevoice was charging 2cents a minute and Phonepower was charging about the same 1.9cents. Now Googlevoice dropped the price to 1cent per minute. So, I logged on to obi account accepted the software update on obi, deleted SP1 Phonepower, added service provider, selected Google voice, couple of check boxes and accept buttons and calls are going through fine. Phonepower was acceptable but I felt Googlevoice sounded somewhat better.

So, until something else changes, this is what I will have.

Summary: If you have Vonage, check your calling pattern. You are probably paying about $32 a month after the initial promo. Unless you call India more than 3000 minutes a month, you come out ahead with Googlevoice. See my post on how to port your number to Googlevoice.

All you need is an obi adapter for $60.

Only one thing to note. You can pick up Googlevoice voice mail from Panasonic cordless handset by entering your google voice phone number as the VM access number. Only thing is the missed call shows up and not voicemail amber LED.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

5 yrs ago when someone asked me about car, I created a spreadsheet to evaluate.

Yesterday some one else asked me about a particular car.

Car is a very personal thing. What ever works for you that you can afford is the best for you. It may be a Toyota Corolla, a Tesla, a Roll Royce, a Porsche....

I came across many people buy a car because of fuel economy. Example Prius.
Sure MPG is great if you are looking in that price range. However, if you are replacing a Toyota Corolla with a Prius for better MPG, consider the difference in price over lifetime with your expected use.

I also wrote a blog on Nissan Leaf Vs Nissan Versa as an example.
http://hari-google-blog.blogspot.com/2014/07/nissan-leaf-vs-nissan-versa.html

See the link to spreadsheet as a tool. Comments are welcome to improve the spreadsheet.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Installed Samsung Smartcam HD video Surveillance cameras.

I bought 2 of these Samsung SmartCam HD Pro 1080p Full-HD Wi-Fi Camera

Step 1.

Connected camera to power near my wifi router just be sure to connect. Installed Smartcam Android App on my phone.

Step 2.

Pushed the wifi direct button on the back of the camera and followed instructions on the Android App to find the camera to connect to. Connected the phone to the camera. It then asked me to chose the wifi network to connect to and asked for the password. It connected and I could see the camera.

For security reasons, I will stop here. Post a question if you know me and I will tell you more. You can read the info on Amazon website. I can say that I can easily know when motion was detected and actually go and check the video before and after the motion. Photos are preserved online in case someone tampers with the camera which is inside my house but monitors all access. I like this better than Dropcam (I did not try) because it has pretty much the same features plus the ability to use optional SD card to record a local copy and no monthly fee. FYI, 5GHz has very limited range. There is also wired network option which I may use if I need to. Not hard to bring a wire near the camera.

One limitation I did not like. Online video is 720p as seen on Android. Using a PC or Mac or VLC media player on any platform, 1080p video live can be seen. Recorded video is 720p which is not bad. Enough to identify faces and license plates.


Saturday, September 13, 2014

Did you wake up in the morning and found garage door open?

I went to the garage to get food for our 3yr old princess German Shepherd Ziva and garage was much cooler than usual. Of course the door was open for a while.

I asked my wife and assured me that when she came home before midnight, she pushed the button to close the door. My in laws were home and my wife her mom. He mom said, " I saw  a blinking red light near TV". My wife asserted that something strange happened and the door opened. Now that is scary, right?

So, I start investigating. Blinking red is my gadget which got a signal from a garage door sensor that garage door is open. Then, I open an App on my phone and find out that the garage door was opened just before mid night and closed when I closed it in the morning. I open another app which showed a photo of my wife's van entering the driveway before midnight. Then I open a video captured by the same camera showing her van enter the garage and later at night 3 cars drove to the end of the street only to make a u turn and the morning newspaper delivery person.

Mystery solved. Call it humor with technology.

This morning my mother in law heard Ziva bark furiously near the front door. She came running to see the Amazon delivery guy dropped a package and knocked on the door. My mother in law was suitably impressed and felt safe. Since we did not open the door, decided that the guy who knocked was a bad character. Now that is a great non-tech alarm. All that is required is lot of pampering, feeding and of course taking her out to walk...



Thursday, September 11, 2014

A pleasant experience at a neighborhood ACE hardware store and a local handyman.

For a change this a totally non-tech blog.

When our younger son moved to an apartment with a friend, he emptied his room. At least that is what I can expect him to do. Last Sunday, I completed clearing the floor of all debris (You don't want to know). The I decided we want to paint. I walked over to my stash of left over paint in the tool shed. I thought we have enough to finish the job. We decided we want a neutral light gray color for the wall.

On Monday, I called a local handyman Al Rivera, big young man from Hawaii. He came immediately and asked for $200 for the job. So, we settled on Wed as the day for painting. He asked me if I have the paint. I showed him and he nodded in agreement.

On Wed at 7:30am I called Aaron Auer at McKivor's Hardware in Fremont and asked him if he can do me a favor and add tint to my left over 2.5 gallons of whitish paint and shake up some left over 1 gallon containers of paint for the ceiling to mix. He said, "Sure. Come over". We (me and our 3+ female German Shepherd always ready to tag along) went right away. In 30 min, Aaron helped us load the paint all ready including 2 new empty 1 gallon cans for the old paint he stirred in his machine. Of course, I always pick up stuff. This time I picked up a mallet to close the paint tin and for any other use, a handy tool to pry open the paint can and a magnifying glass. My wife cannot have enough of them and I too am warming up to it. The fine print seems to shrink!

Al Rivera showed up with his assistant also Al. I asked Al to replace a shit off valve I bought for my guest toilet and see if I replaced the flush handle and the flap properly. By 5pm, it was all done. Since they did more work than I asked, Al asked for $240. I wrote a check for $240 and added $20 extra. Off they went beaming!

I am glad I live in a city big enough to buy anything from food to a Tesla electric car by driving 5miles even in rush hour and yet have the small town friendly service with a smile. Did I say that Ziva loves the attention on our outings?

Now the commercial...

If you live in Fremont, CA feel free to follow the links and get yourself some good old small town service...

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Remember the days when Toyota Camry 1984 imitated Audi 4000? Now there is a huge surprise.

In fact I am talking about Hyundai!

I am not talking about who they copied but who has copied them. Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Audi...

What Hyundai needs to do is not lie about MPG. Just be honest. Great improvement over time. No need to be dishonest.

Take a look at 2011 Hyundai Sonata below:
2015 Mercedes C Class:
2015 BMW 3:
2015 Honda Accord:

2015 Audi A4:

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Replaced Belkin WeMo Insight $60 wifi plug with Smartthings multi-sensor to get notification at the end of clothes washer cycle.

Update 9/2 /14: Received replacement Belkin WeMo Insight as RMA and sold it right away because smartthings vibration sensor worked very well. Read on..

I first got Belkin WeMo Insight for $60 for the washer because it measures power and detects end of cycle when the power goes from normal level to standby level. As I wrote in a blog, it did work fine until I had to replace my router. New router is Asus RT-N66U which is very well rated and more RAM and CPU than the previous router and also had 3 external antennas to increase the range.

For the 220V electric dryer, Belkin does not have a solution. WeMo Insight is only for 110V. So, I tried smartthings multi-sensor which detects vibration of the dryer and so detects end of dryer cycle as the end of vibration. I decided to to try the same solution for the clothes washer it works just fine.

From this experience, I am convinced that Z-Wave and ZigBee are the way to go than Wifi. There is a big installed base of Z-Wave sensors. Smarthings is one of the few companies now part of Samsung to come out with ZigBee sensors but their hub supports both standards. Problem with WiFi is that they add too much to the interference at home or even enterprise. Also, they consume more power for the Radio and even need more expensive processor and software in the sensor. WiFi's main use case at home will continue to be the laptops, tablets and phones in addition to TVs or Bluray players or Chromecast like devices for watching or hearing media. No need to add to the clutter. Bluetooth low energy is a potential challenger to Z-Wave and ZigBee now that mesh networking (one device passes on the message to another) is coming to bluetooth.

Beauty of mesh networking with Bluetooth is that laptops, tablets and phones are going to have bluetooth in addition to WiFi. They are great for peer to peer communications even without connection to internet (example keyboard, mouse). Android touchscreens can be made really cheap and integrated into most appliances, home automation/security controllers, thermostats etc without causing congestion to the WiFi network. Main disadvantage of Bluetooth is the frequency band is too close to the 2.4GHz wifi band. That is where Z-Wave (single vendor) ZigBee (open standard multi-vendor) 900MHz radios shine.

There will be a war for the control of the Hub and cloud services. It is ridiculous to have so many hubs in the house. Router, Home Automation, Security, Cable/Sat master box and even game boxes, AppleTV. Too many players pulling in different directions and no motivation to inter-operate. I think Samsung is the common denominator at home with the acquisition of Smartthings. They are very much in TV, Bluray players, Home Appliances, smartphones, tablets. They do have some presence in laptop market. What they lack is router. With so many companies in that space, it is not hard for them to acquire a good enough router company. But then LG could enter the field by acquiring a player like iSmartAlarm.

It will be interesting to watch....

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Downloaded parts of youtube videos combined them.

mencoder on linux can merge files if they are all encoded the same way. So, the idea is to re-encode them to be the same. If you do not have lot of motion 1000bits/sec bit rate is fine for a 720p video. If there is lot of motion try 2500 which is what you see usually on Netflix.

mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vocdec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1000 -oac faac file1-in.mp4 file1-out.mp4

mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vocdec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1000 -oac faac file2-in.mp4 file2-out.mp4
mencoder -ovc lavc -lavcopts vocdec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1000 -oac faac file3-in.mp4 file3-out.mp4

mencoder -ovc copy -oac copy file1-out.mp4 file2-out.mp4 file3-out.mp4 -o merged-out.mp4

If you are using Windows platform, try this
http://mplayerwin.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

If you are using Mac platform, try this
http://matt.fragilegeek.com/mencoder

Disclaimer: I did this on Xubuntu 14.04. Just used synaptics package manager to install youtube-dl and mencoder. I am not the right person to tell you how to install mencoder on other platforms. Once you do and have the right codecs, the above command line should work. Good luck.



An example of Big Brother Amazon.com censoring the reviews.

My review:



2.0 out of 5 stars Not compatible with some routers?, August 21, 2014
By Srihari Kotcherlakota "Hari" (Fremont, CA)
(REAL NAME)   
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, Control Your Electronics and Monitor Energy Usage From Anywhere with the Home Automation App for Smartphones and Tablets, Wi-Fi Enabled (Electronics)
I had to replace my router with Asus RT-N66U 802.11N router. Just 7 months after I bought, this switch will connect to the Smartphone with great difficulty after a reset and then it will just not connect properly to the router. It shows up as a connected device in the router but does not communicate with the App or respond to "ping" from any computer in the house. I spent 2hrs myself and 4 hrs on a chat session.

They offered me 2 ways to get exchange.
1. I ship the old unit at my cost and give them my credit card for replacement unit. They will ship in 2 to 3 business days and then I would get it another 3 to 4 days later.
2. I ship the old unit at my cost. They will ship the replacement unit in 2 to 3 to business days and then I would get it another 3 to 4 days later.

When I complained that after spending 6hrs to trouble shoot, the least they should do is send me a shipping label by email. I received the shipping label 2 days after I called and I shipped it on saturday. They may receive it today Thursday and then send me a replacement. If it does not work, I will test it with another router and return it or just sell it on Craigslist for someone who wants a new unit without paying tax or waiting for 2 days.

smartthings sells a hub for $100 and this kind of switch for $50 but it actually works with many off the shelf z-wave or zigbee sensors. You can read my blogs at hari dash google dash blog dot blogspot dot com...
 
Amazon's respinse:
Thanks for submitting a customer review on Amazon. Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines:
We encourage you to revise your review and submit it again. A few common issues to keep in mind:
  • Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it. Feedback on the seller or your shipment experience should be provided at www.amazon.com/feedback.
  • We do not allow profane or obscene content. This applies to adult products too.
  • Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively are considered spam.
  • Please do not include URLs external to Amazon or personally identifiable content in your review.
We welcome your honest opinion about products - positive or negative. We do not remove reviews because they are critical. We believe all helpful information can inform our customers’ buying decisions. If you have questions about the product or opinions that do not fit the review format, please feel free to use the Customer Discussions feature on the product page.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

If you are interested in Solar power, have you tried the free Solar dryer?

If you are living in California and using more than 400Kwh per month in electricity, the rate climbs to about 35cents per KWh. A family of 4 with 2 kids in a single family home may need to do 15 loads of dryer a month. At 5000W, in 1hr a load consumes 5Kwh, 15 loads consume 150KWh or about $60 a month in dryer alone.

Luckily there is lots of sun shine. $20 invested in clothes line and White Vinegar as a clothes softener can save $70 a month. I have been doing it. Great ROI. That is like getting free high speed internet for life!

Are no fee ETFs offered by brokerage houses really a bargain?

Fidelity for example offers ETF with symbol IVE to track S & P 500 Index. If you are a long term investor and bought $1000 worth of IVE 5 yrs ago and saved $8 in commissions, your paper profit today would be a nice $858.90. Instead you bought $1000 worth of SPY and paid $8 commission your paper profit today is $972.90 - 8 = $964.90 which is extra $100 for you.

If you are short term options trader or you want to use options as insurance on your investment, there is hardly any trading in IVE. The spread between as bid and ask is so much and your trade may never go through. Use ctrl + to increase the zoom to see the graphics.




Monday, August 18, 2014

Replaced surboard 5120 modem with surfboard 6141 modem on Comcast.

In the last one week, the internet connection was intermittent. Changing the router did help on the range and stability. Bought the Surfboard 5120 modem was bought in Dec 2008 for $28 on E-Bay when DOCSIS 1.1 was common and I replaced an old DOCSIS 1.1 modem with a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. I saw that the market value is just $10 now and Comcast recommends DOCSIS 3.0 modems effective July 2014.
http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/
http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Basic-Internet-Connectivity-And/Connection-Troubleshooting-Tips/m-p/1253575#U1253575
"As of July 2014, all DOCSIS 1 and 2 modems are being phased out." Comcast sent me email  recently that with "Performance High Speed Internet" I was supposed to get 50Mbps down if I just reset the modem. I got about 31Mbps up from 25Mbps.

I did some reading and decided to get Surfboard 6141 modem white retail version with warranty by Arris for $88 on Amazon.

It may be cheaper on E-Bay.

I had to call Comcast in Fremont, CA to provide the new MAC address, make and serial number. Self-activation was not possible unless I buy directly from Comcast. I had to call Comcast twice due to a dropped call. The second time I called I gave the call back number before I said anything. Got it activated 15 min after I opened the box. Remember to connect a laptop or PC directly to the cable modem before calling Comcast or your cable provider unless you can self-activate with your cable provider.

So, what was the difference? I have so called  according to an email I received from Comcast recently. The best I saw was 31Mbps with Surfboard 5120. Today I measured 57+Mbps!

Here is the comparison of the 5120 and 6141 modem status reported by looking at 192.168.100.1
Note that there is only 1 channel up and 1 channel down and note the signal level.

Here is the same status with 6141.

Note that signal is about the same but there are 8 channels down and 4 up. I guess the fatter pipe helped get the bandwidth I paid for.

Moral of the story: Do not rent a cable modem. Do your homework and buy a modem. $88 was well worth the higher speed I was paying for.

I will update this blog based on my experience. Hope to see no intermittent failures.


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Now when my Garage door is open, I get a text message and I can close it remotely too.

I already $100 have a smarthings hub

I bought a smarthings multi-sensor for $50.

On hindsight, I should have got the kit for $50 more.

I attached the sensor (larger) part to the garage door added the device using my phone as a Garage Door sensor and that is it.


If I want to control it, this is all I need to do. That will be another blog if I do it.

Optional control module:
http://www.amazon.com/Evolve-LFM-20-Fixture-Module/dp/B006U1O978/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

http://blog.smartthings.com/how-to/how-to-openclose-your-garage-door/

I went ahead and installed the LFM-20 control module. I placed the module on the garage door opener. Used a 2 pin plug from a dead old rice cooker to tap on to the power socket of the garage door opener, stripped off about 1/4" insulation on 2 wires from the garage remote coming to the garage door opener and taped 2 wires of the LFM-20. Opened smarthings app on my phone and added it. Opened a smartapp in smartthings to add control feature. Done. I even added my wife's phone to it. Security is at least 2 levels which is more secure than most old fashioned locks. Of course I do have 2 alarm systems and a German Shepherd! Nothing to beat the Shepherd for sure if there is an intruder. She only likes the people we open the door to...


T Mobile charges $2 a minute to call India. If you call very often, take their $15 a month plan.

I am usually careful about making international calls but when I swapped my phone, I made the mistake of making 50min of calls to India without realizing that I did not set my Android phone to use Google Voice for all International  calls. The 50min would have cost me $1 at 2 cents a minute. It is galling that the rate is 100 times more on T Mobile and not a thing a consumer can do about it. There is no way to set a warning if a single call bill is so high. This is typical of how cell phone companies make huge profits to make up for all the promotions. My only saving grace is that I bought a 8 month old Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on Swappa for $420 instead of buying directly from  T Mobile a new one for $750. You just cannot win them all and you have to hope that when you get older and not so quick to spot so many ways of getting ripped off, you trained your kids in how to watch out and they are available to watch out for you..

===========================================
 I sent this the following email and got a phone call back in few hours!
===========================================
Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 8:29 AM
Subject: I admire your pro-consumer messages but your company really disappointed me.
To: john.legere@t-mobile.com, Michael.Sievert@t-mobile.com

My first shock came when I saw my phone bill was 30% more and there was no change in my calling pattern. My second shock came when I discovered that 2 calls of 50 min to India cost $100. I swapped my phone and I made the mistake of making those calls without setting Google Voice to make International calls which would have cost me 2 cents a minute.

Really! 100 times more? Obviously you are entitled to charge what ever but this is beyond ridiculous.
===========================================
I got a phone call from the Executive Response team about 4hrs later.
===========================================
They said that the normal rate is $1.95 a minute but there is an international calling plan for $15 a month. So, they reduced the $99.50 to $15 for that month and gave me credit. That is fair and I maintain my regard for John Legere.

This is the follow-up email.
-------------------------------------------
Per our conversation on August 12, 2014, I have applied a courtesy credit of $84.50 to been applied to your account.

Thank you,

Leah Tokar
Executive Response
Office of the President/CEO
===========================================
Good job John!

I suggest that you announce that T Mobile will limit international call overage to $15 for the first time a user has this kind of experience and send a text message right after the expensive call offering $15 a month plan.You will win more loyal customers!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Different ways of adding a video surveiilance system without monthly payments.

I was asked by a friend for advice on how to add surveillance to home without monthly payments. I have iSmartAlarm and well as Smarthings and so 2 levels of security without monthly payment. You can read my blogs about them.

I suggested 3 approaches in addition to the conventional set of video cameras and a recorder.

1. Smarthings hub, motion sensor and Dropcam. Total cost $550.

You can start with this kit. The add this Dropcam.
There are many videos on youtube on Smarthings.
This link shows how Dropcam works with Smarthings.
If you want to know more about IFTTT read here.

This link shows how you can detect motion using smarthings sensor and take picture. You may have to monthly fee for some features but not all.

Note that Nest which was bought by Google now bought dropcam
http://support.dropcam.com/entries/87199006

2. Smarthings hub, motion sensor and Samsung Smartcom.
With this, you can use smartthings motion sensor to send you email using IFTTT and then you can watch live while recording and make phone calls. You can use IFTTT to call cell phones based on this trigger. I like that level of control without monthly payment.

I personally favor this.

3. iSmartAlarm system with a camera added.

Basic system is under $400. Main thing is this is proprietary vs the zigbee and zwave device support of smarthings.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Is Amazon is the cheapest and fastest to order and receive? Not necessarily.

Like many people who have Amazon Prime account, I was used to looking at Amazon and ordering almost assuming that the local place is not the same price.

Here is what happened.

1. My wireless router needed replacement. It is was $120 on Amazon when I looked on a Friday evening. If I ordered, I was going to get it on Tuesday. I looked at a local store Fry's electronics online 2 miles away. Same price. I paid online Friday night and picked it up Sat morning. For what it is worth, there is a $20 mail in rebate to pay for my gas plus some. I needed to fill a propane gas tank near there anyway.

2. I needed to replace a dead Panasonic rice cooker. I looked for it on Sunday on Amazon. It was $38. If I ordered, I could have received it on Wed by end of the day. I did google search and found the same directly from Panasonic for $30 with free shipping. I ordered 2 cookers. They were delivered on Thu morning at 9:30am.

3. I needed a chimney starter on Sun for an outdoor barbecue grill. The cheapest was $15 on Amazon. I looked at the local stores and found one at Ace Hardware store 1.5 miles away for $10. Incidentally I needed an outdoor thermometer which was $15 on Amazon. Also $10 at Ace. As a bonus, I was able to find a unique lamp socket I needed to revive a floor lamp for just $4 at Ace. Besides, my dog was happy to get out of the house and she is welcome at Ace. Winners all around including support for a local merchant who is very good at service!

I can go on...

You get the idea?

Monday, August 4, 2014

You may be able to repair your Tivo and even "upgrade" and keep the lifetime service really cheap.

Recently I got a call from someone who owns a Tivo Premier DVR. There were some LEDs but not showing anything on the screen. He called Tivo. They offered to swap his Premier for a Tivo Premier XL4 4 tuners 1TB drive and transfer the lifetime service for about $280. I did some home work and found out that usual failures are the power supply and hard drive. The lifetime service is tied to the motherboard.

Remove original hard drive.
Install hard drive from a working Tivo Premier.
Reboot Tivo and perform a clear and reset under Help menu,

The drive swap was easy because it was pre formatted for Premier and Premier XL.

On my suggestion he shopped around and bought for $50 a working Tivo Premier DVR with 1TB hard drive good for over 150hrs of HD recording but no lifetime service. He needed to replace 6 screws to open the box and a couple of screws to remove the hard drive and swap it. It came back to life!

The data ID changed and so he had to call the cable company to re-authenticate the cable card but once that was done, his problem was solved for $50 and he upgraded to Premier 1TB. He did not not 2 more tuners

As a bonus he has spare power supply and an extra remote just in case.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

You hear about micro climates within a city but check your own house.

Micro climate in my own house.

81F Inside with no AC. Cooled the house to 75 in the morning and closed the doors and windows.
90F Garage if the door is left open
93F in the shade of concrete patio
103F in the sun
77F on the lawn under the shade of a big tree

Measured using the temperature sensor in Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Replaced 3yr old CISCO/Linksys E4200 router with Asus RT-N66U for $110.

Strange failure on wired network port of the E4200. There is a gigabit switch connected to it. Devices connected to the switch for loosing connection every few hours after power cycling the switch. Replaced the switch and problem was even worse. So, replaced the router and now very stable connection for 7hrs and counting. Also, in a room about 30ft and 3 walls away where I had spotty connection, I got nearly the speed of wired connection.

This one is not a 802.11AC router which costs about $30 to $40 more. I have only 2 802.11AC capable devices in the house and they are phones which need range more than speed. AC works in 5GHz band. So, decided against it. These routers seem to fail after 3yrs. My guess is that memory may be corrupted or buffer is full and I have more devices in the house than I had 3 yrs ago.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

How to get best deal for foreign channels these days?

Currently you can get 3 months of 1 language 13 to 15 channels for $15 a month for 3 months and watch on PC, MAC, Android, IOS or using Roku box. All you need is an email address and a credit card or debit card.

For example: Hindi Channels

I don't recommend the Dishworld App on Samsung Bluray Player. The aspect ratio is distorted. SD is widened to 16:9. People look fat and short.

After 3 months the price jumps to $45 a month if you go month to month or $40 a month if you agree to 9 month contract. Do neither.  A day before the 3 month period open a new account with a different email address. Get another 3 months of promo and cancel the first one. If they want to play bait and switch, so can you. I look forward to the day when MSOs stop playing dirty games. Till then, look out for yourself. Loyalty does not pay. Just don't lock yourself into contract.



Saturday, July 12, 2014

4K TV. The good, the bad and the ugly.

In 2013 Dec, Costco was selling a 55" Hisense 4k 3840 x 2160 TV for as little as $1500 now selling for $1000 and 65" for 1700. I asked a good friend what the deal is and then did my own looking up. In fact the specs may look very impressive to most people who can read the spec.

For flicker free experience the panel should support 60 frames per second and 120 for 3D.

3D was dead before arrival. The few people bought them realized that their brain and not the TV was creating the TV image and after a while the brain gets tired and they have headache if they don't feel dizzy.

So, what is wrong with the specs of TVs now available as 4K? Most TVs released in 2013 supported max 3840 x 2160 24 frames per second. In Sep 2013, HDMI 2.0 spec was released supporting 3840 x 2160 60 frames per second which makes it flicker free. Still there is an issue. For ages we are used to seeing 8bits per color Red, Green, Blue in a color format known as 4:4:4. HDMI 2.0 limits the color format to 4:2:0 effectively half the possible range of colors. To get 4:4:4 3840 x 2160 60 frames per second, 2X the bandwidth of HDMI 2.0 is required. If you really want to know try reading this link.
Understanding HDMI 2.0: Enabling the Ultra-High Definition Experience
If you more inclined to read tables, read this link.
HDMI From Wikipedia
There is a technology called Display Port 1.3 which does that today used in high end computer monitors but not in TVs. It is a different cable. May be there will be HDMI 2.x or 3.0 to make it possible to see in 2160p the same color depth 4:4:4 and same frame rate 60 as the current entry level 1080p TV in 2016. But then the price of such 4k TV would probably be $5k for 65" Vs $1300 I paid for my 65" 1080p 120Hz 4:4:4 Tv 2 years ago. That means I may have to wait for 5yrs to replace my 65" 1080p TV with 2160p (aka ultra HD) for $1300.



Sunday, July 6, 2014

Advice to 50yr olds and older from a wise Chinese.

This is one of my shortest blogs. Credit goes to the person who translated a Chinese blog to English.

I received this by email from a good friend. The only thing I would add to this is: Realize that food is not your best friend. Don't waste your life cooking and eating. Food is the best medicine if consumed properly. Age gracefully and command respect. No need to be desperate to look young with makeup and clothes. Focus on fitness and what you can do to pass on good habits and don't be afraid to admit your mistakes to the next generation. Realize that we have only one life to live and make a difference to others.

CHINESE ADVICE TO 50-YEAR OLDS & OLDER 

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Nissan Leaf vs Nissan Versa

After a conversation at a friend's place, I looked up real world range and mileage data for these 2 cars. In the SF bay area both cares with 20k miles cost around the same $14k used. Battery life on leaf is 60k miles. Assume that both cars are used for 60k miles. Assuming that off-peak charging costs 10cents per Kwh. My finding was that both cars cost exactly 13 cents per mile based on $6k for the leaf battery. What do you think?

Miles Kwh 3.9 http://insideevs.com/real-world-test-2013-nissan-leaf-range-vs-2012-nissan-leaf-range/
Kwh per day 8.46
Cost per Kwh 0.1 If charged using off-peak rates
Cost per day 0.85
Electricity Cost per mile 0.03
Battery life in miles 60000
Battery life in years 5.0
Battery cost 6000
Battery cost per mile 0.1
Cost per mile 0.13
Nissan Versa Avg mpg 32
Cost per gallon 4
Cost per mile 0.125 http://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/5458/nissan/versa/nissan-versa-real-world-mpg

Friday, June 27, 2014

Replaced 640GB hard drive with SSD on Windows 8.1/Xubuntu 14.04 Dual boot with all programs, data.

Laptop: Toshiba R835-P94 Core i5
Old Drive:  640GB 5400rpm
Boot: 100MB
Windows 8.1: 300GB Used data was 90GB. Moved big data files to external drive
Xubuntu: The rest which is about 340GB. Used data was 10GB

New Drive: Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE250BW

Step1: Prepare the partitions on the old drive to match the new smaller drive.

Used Gparted in Xubuntu and changed old drive to:

Boot: 100MB
Windows 8.1: Little less than 50GB
Xubuntu: Little less than 50GB
ntfs DATA: Remaining space

Did all the cleanup to make the move fast.

Step 2: Replace the old Toshiba drive with the SSD.

Required removing 2 screws on the memory cover and 2 screws to remove the hard drive cover, lift the old drive, remove ribbon cable, connect the ribbon cable to the new drive, place the new SSD in the slot, put back the screws. I should have removed the battery but forgot.

Step 3: Used Gparted boot CD to create device table and partition the new drive as follows

Boot: 100MB
Windows 8.1: Little more than 50GB
Xubuntu: Little more than 50GB
ntfs DATA: Remaining space

Step 4: Placed the 640GB drive in 2.5" Sabrent USB2 SATA enclosure.

Just needed to remove 2 screws, connect the SATA, put the screws back.

Step 5: Used Clonezilla boot CD to copy one partition at a time from the old drive to the SSD.

See example video on youtube.
It took me total 25min for about 40GB of data.

Step 6: Try booting the computer. If it does not work, you may have to fix the boot partition.

I would like to give credit to my son Harsha Kotcherlakota for finding this. It took all of 5 min to do it. Here is how to do it. Note that all he had to do was push one button "Recommended Repair"

Bingo! All done. Much faster startup and opening of programs on the local disk. I think the computer is not so warm. I think battery life improved. I will post some update here but I really don't want to put back the old drive just to do the numbers. Others posted such data already.

The battery life for internet browsing text and images and small video clips was about 3.5hrs on HDD and about 6hrs on Xubuntu as well as Windows 8.1.

My power setting on Windows 8.1:
My power setting on Xubuntu 14.04:
A final note. I used ext2fsd version 0.52 to mount my linux partion as L: on Windows 8.1. It worked fine. I am editing this blog from windows side. I was able to paste the screenshot from the /home/hari/Pictures folder in linux.



Sunday, June 8, 2014

Roku 3 bad USB playback and terrible customer support. Refund 1 month after complaint to BBB for non-working App purchase.

I used Roku 3 with Dishworld. It worked great.

I tried CNET, Netflix, Youtube, News videos. Slingplayer with Slingbox 350 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. All good.

I tried their media player app. Did not work for any of my mkv files created using makemkv. No sound or picture. Won't even show mkv files.

The I bought USB playback App for $3.99 which supposedly plays MKV. It did not play sound. Now I thought I will call tech support number supposedly open at this time Sunday 1:30pm US Pacific time June 8th. Wait time is 25min. They suggest I try their web page. There there is chat. Wait time is 31min. Then I tried Web request asking for refund.
Name:
Email:
Phone:
Order #:
Serial #
Problem Description:
Channel Play USB for which I paid $3.99 is not working as advertised for mkv playback. No audio on any file I checked. Please refund this. I was annoyed that it takes 48hrs to get reply.

Every App must have a trial period like Android, iPhone and ability to ask for refund. Shame on you Roku.

It took 48hrs for an email from Roku and my response below.
> Thank you for contacting Roku Customer Service.
> From your email I understand that you are experiencing issue with Play USB channel on Roku player.
> We apologize for the inconvenience and delay in responding to your email.
>
> Do not worry Srihari, we will help you to resolve this issue.
> In this case, We request you to remove and add the channel from the Roku
> player to resolve this issue.
> Kindly follow these steps to remove the channel:
>
> 1. From the Roku home screen
> 2. Select "My Channels"
> 3. Highlight the channel you wish to remove
> 4. Click the Star* button on Roku remote
> 5. Select remove channel
> 6. Confirm channel removal
>
> After removing the channels, unplug the power cable from the Roku player and after 30 seconds plug it back.
> Kindly add the Play USB channel and follow the on screen instructions.
>
> We appreciate your patience and understanding in this concern.
>
> Please feel free to contact us for further issues and we will be more than
> happy to assist you.

I did as you said. The result was same. NONE of the bluray movies I have with makemkv worked. In fact even video did not start on mkv files from DVD.

They all had the original audio track which plays on WDTV Media player and my laptop using VLC player.

Either your hardware does not support the audio codecs or software app is bad.

Please refund my account. I will delete this channel and use my WDTV media player as always.

Update 6/22 No response and no refund  12 days later. Total 14 days since purchase of the USB Media play App for $3.99. I will update this blog if at all I get a response or a refund. Take it as a warning not to buy paid apps on Roku folks.

Update 7/8 No fix to USB playback App, no refund. Wanted response to survey.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ROKU Technical Support
Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 12:20 AM
Subject: Roku would like your feedback
To: 

Dear Customer,

Thank you for using our support service.  We would like to know if we have
 met your expectations during the most recent support experience by inviting
 you to take the brief online survey below.


Update 7/17/14:

Filed a complaint with Better Business Bureau for what it is worth.

Update 7/28/14

BBB Processing

07/13/2014 web BBB Case Received by BBB
07/16/2014 RN BBB Case Reviewed by BBB - Member
07/16/2014 Otto EMAIL Send Acknowledgement to Consumer
07/16/2014 Otto EMAIL Notify Business of Dispute - Member
07/28/2014 WEB BBB RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : Hi Srihari,
Thanks for your message. I am sorry that it didn't work out, but not sure which file format didn't work for you. Typically we only refund when the app/channel does not work as stated in the description, but will make an exception in this case.
Thanks for trying it out, again, sorry that it didn't work out.
Vince
Roku, Inc Director, Customer Support vthai@roku.com
07/29/2014 RN EMAIL Forward Business response to Consumer
07/30/2014 WEB BBB BBB REVIEWS CONSUMER REBUTTAL TO BUSINESS RESPONSE : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They said that they will make an exception but I received no refund or email to that effect. Also, I clearly stated that.mkv format as advertised did not work and provided very clear feedback.

Update 8/15/04
Finally got email from Roku posting refund. I wish good luck to Roku. They should not make it this hard to get a refund. There MUST be a trial period like Android apps. For such few Apps offered by Roku, one expects them to work like consumer electronics devices. Much better user support is required. For now I would recommend Roku only based on streaming needs. They have lots of competition from Google, Apple, Western Digital, Netgear and of course PC, MAC, Linux...


Monday, June 2, 2014

Beware of calls from Windows Computer Maintenance department saying that your computer has virus.

Just got a call from 776-500-2921 claiming to be Windows Maintenance Department. The caller Annie Perira claims that she is based in Atlanta, GA and representing a company called Global Service Provider for Windows Operating system. They also do not want to give their phone number. They claimed that a computer registered to me just downloaded a virus. This is a scam. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. None of my computers is running windows at the moment. I plan to report this to Microsoft.

When I try to use caller ID to return the call, I get the message "Your call cannot be completed as dialed". I am sure that all the info I was given was fake.

I suspect that call originated from India. Listen to the youtube audio on this link.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/98757/psa-the-computer-maintenance-department-scam-calls/

I reported this matter to FTC.
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Update on Kwikset 900 series Z-wave lock controlled by smartthings hub and android App.

I am using this lock with #smartthings hub. I noticed that I can lock it using the smartthings app on my android phone but status is always unlocked. I also noticed that the motor in the lock runs multiple times in bursts to lock. It seems that the motor was struggling because the hole in the frame was not wide enough for the deadbolt to go all the way in. I removed the metal plate, filed the wood and also the metal deadbolt, applied WD-40 and now the deadbolt goes all the way inside in one shot pulse of the motor. The app on the phone shows status is locked correctly.

Hope this helps another user.



Tuesday, May 13, 2014

How the heck do you put a number on pain?

Almost any one who is reading this was perhaps asked on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your pain level?

Sometimes, they say 0 is no pain
and 10 is "take me to hospital", "worst you ever experienced"

A paranoid person could ask to be taken to hospital for fever over 100 and
some body ache.

A very tough woman could say that birth of a child was 5 compared to broken bones.

Obviously the numbers can be all over the map. So, I did some internet search and came across these helpful links for which I take no credit.
healthcentral
The max I ever felt was a 8 based on this. So, we have to really communicate
the pain as accurately as possible.

If you say 8 and you are in a hospital after a surgery they could give you morphine and it would stay in your system for about 4 weeks it seems.

Hope a standard chart is used to help patients communicate.

Disclaimer: I am retired engineer. I try to put a number on everything which is not really easy and can get you into trouble :-)

Monday, May 5, 2014

Replaced Google Voice obi110 phone service with Phonepower. $60 per yr US unlimited.

I decided not to wait till May 14th when Googlevoice will stop working
on obi110 using XMPP for free voice calls within US. I accepted the
promo by Phonepower for obitalk customers.

The sign up took few minutes.

I forwarded googlevoice calls to my googlevoice "landline" number to
phonepower.

On phonepower, I used my googlevoice "landline" number as outgoing caller ID
for people to see.

I made calls to my googlevoice "landline" number as always and it ran my phone at home as usual. When I did not pick up, it went to my googlevoice number. So, I guess it seems to work for now.

I get 60min of international calls free which I probably use. Those are worth 2cents a min to me. So, my effective rate is less than $4 a month. As a side benefit, I get E911 which I did not have earlier.

I wonder if Google will lose some business (mostly international calls)
and drop the prices.

Well, only thing guaranteed is change in technology...



Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Firefox 29 copied Chrome. Had to use add-on to get back tabs on bottom.

Folks, This is a very short post.

Earlier I was able to do the following
browser.tabs.onTop false

Now it did not work. Luckily the following add-on made it work.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabs-on-bottom/

In case you are using user agent switcher like me, you will need
to call it firefox 29. Mine was earlier called firefox 26.

Shame on you Mozilla. In the name of allowing drag-and-drop customization,
you forced me install an add-on to keep what I customized.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Net neutrality and future of internet. Here is my 2 cents.

In principle, getting rid of net neutrality seems like a bad thing which favors ISPs. ISPs like comcast could force all media providers to pay more or throttle them. ISPs could continue to increase the price paid for intrenet access lot more than inflation.

Netflix just raised prices and probably it is to offset what they pay to ISPs.
Ultimately consumer prices are going up for internet access.

Most of the ISPs in the US and perhaps the rest of the world are really either Telcos or Cable providers with the Satellite TV companies trying to get the rural market.

As more and more people has smart phones and tablets the demand for amount of data and bandwidth has increased and video continues to be the biggest hog.

So, what is the solution?

Smart phones and tablets have become commodities. Most of the data used is
at home. Soon each individual user is likely to add more devices to the existing list of Phone, Tablet, game system, Media player. Internet connected home automation and security also need internet. Security video cameras help fight crime and keep kids and pets safer. Cellular network has a limit due to available spectrum and spectral efficiency. Wired internet can be scaled. In the long run, Fiber is more scalable than coaxial cable. Now that we have moved to digital cable, the next logical step is packetized TV over internet. Dish network has done a decent job of providing international channels over internet. Netflix has become a way of watching video over internet. I still see room for Satellite for remote areas even for internet.

What if internet is also delivered like electricity? Bandwidth limit is like the limit of circuit breaker. ISPs can become like utility companies because it is expensive to have multiple wires coming to each neighborhood. The internet access prices are also tiered like utility rates. Just like we can have solar, we are allowed to have Satellite for internet to keep the competition alive.

Just like there is energystar for lowering energy use, we can have "bandstar" for lowering bandwidth. High efficiency codes care here today to enable 4k video. ISPs like comcast charge about $60 a month and allow "unlimited" internet up to 300GB and then send warnings or throttle. That is 20cents per Gigabyte. They are experimenting with new rates
http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/exp-fdo-data-plan
which can charge as much as $1 per Gigabyte. That is gouging.

A netflix 720p video can consume 1GByte per hr. Average TV use in the house is
5hrs. Average household has 2.5 people. That means average hours of TV watched is 12.5hrs. That is 375hrs a month or 375GB at 720p. Assume high efficiency codec will cancel out higher definition content. Other than video, all other internet use is going to be probably 5GB per person per month for computer, tablet and smartphone use. The total is 400GB for average household.

How do we pay for all this?

My cable + internet bill is $150 a month now. Then I pay $8 for Netflix.

If the price is 20cents per GB and I use 400GB per month, that is $80.
Of the hundreds of channels I get, like most people my household watches
at most 10 channels. Bundles are the culprit. I am paying $30 a month for 30
channels of foreign programming on Dishworld over internet. That is $1 per channel per month. No one needs 300 channels for $90 a month. Let the
garbage channels die if people are not interested.

Higher quality video costs more. More channels cost more. Let people choose. 

Since there is minimum cost for delivering internet and low income people, disabled and elderly do need internet, there needs to be a low cost alternative.
That can be cellular data which is more reliable in the even of power outage anyway.

In the long run, the price per GB needs to go down to tiers like utility.

What if the tiers were?

$20 gets you 50GB per month at 40cents per GB. That should help low income people, disabled and elderly. They can pay $20 to get 20 channels of lower bandwidth TV.

After that $20 gets 100GB and 10cents per GB. The max bandwidth limit
should be set and changed only if there is a capacity constraint on the backbone.

ISPs can partner with content providers like netflix and offer promos. More Ads implies lower price like the free Apps on the phone with Ads. Let the free market flourish. End of monopoly by ISPs and content providers.

Internet to home should be regulated like utilities.