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:

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....

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:

Not compatible with some routers?, August 21, 2014

By Srihari Kotcherlakota "Hari" (Fremont, CA)
  

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: http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines We encourage you to revise your review and submit it again. A few common issues to keep in mind:

Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, Cont...  (1,035)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 

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

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.

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...

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

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.

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

how-to-use-a-pain-scale-chart

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 :-)

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...

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.

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.

Finally there is a way to get foreign TV channels for your visitors without a contract for Sat or Cable TV.

We bought a Roku 3 box and got dishworld by Dish Network for my in laws.

Currently there is a promo of $15 for 3 months for about 30 channels
in one language and after that it is $15 per month with no contract.

It has wifi to connect to your wireless router but my house is wired with
ethernet for all video streaming and my in laws actually said tht the quality was better than what they saw on Dish Sat TV.

Good move by dish network. I guess they were not able to negotiate with
their content providers to allow US channels too. Then we could cut cable TV or Sat TV for good.

May be Google or Apple will prevail one day but that is wishful thinking..

Have trouble giving tablets to your dog? I had success today.

I need to give my 3yr old German Shepherd female dog Ziva a Trifexis every month.

 
First I tried a pill sleeve. She ate the sleeve.

Then I tried to put it in her kibbles. She left the tablet.

The I powdered the tablet and mixed in kibbles. She was leaving half of it.

Then I tried to mix it with bits of beef jerky bought at Costco, She needed 2 attempts to finish it.

I added it in her favourite veggie carrot. That helped. I realized that she loves the fish oil capsule.

So, I mixed trifexis powder, bits of beef jerky, thin slices of carrots, broke the fish oil and hand mixed it. Bingo, she ate it up in 20 seconds!

Good luck with your pet.

I cleaned 24 Solar panels in 30 min. See before and after pictures, power gen.

I have Asphalt composition shingle roof on 1 story ranch home
slope probably 20% and easy to walk on.

I have a ladder for easy access. My detergent was generic household
dish washing detergent which is safe enough for hands.

Mop is also a $10 mop with changeable pad.

I use a trickle of water from the garden hose to rinse the panel, apply the detergent on the pad and wipe the panel, then rinse it off.

Panel before cleaning:

Panel after cleaning (about 30min for 24 panels)

Not exactly the same angle I guess. Next time I will use tripod.

2 days ago it was a completely clear sunny day like today. Panels were cleaned
between 10:30am and 11am. You can notice the difference in the next 2 pictures. Power generated was about 4% higher. Not bad for 30 min of my time.

Did you lose good tennis balls every time your were on the court? Have trouble tracking the use of your balls?

You are not alone. For years, I never figured out the way to keep track of the tennis balls.

I am really finicky about the quality of the bounce and the weight of the ball. In the past when I played with worn out balls, I ended up getting tennis elbow because I had to hit much harder. To make it complicated, the temperature and humidity does affect the bounce. Temperature more than humidity?

Here are a few interesting links
Approval Tests
The Effect of Temperature, Time, and Humidity on the Bounce of Tennis Balls
Does Temperature Affect How High a Tennis Ball Will Bounce?
The tennis ball bounce test
Does a tennis ball bounce higher in cold weather or warm weather?

So, a wise friend of mine named Kumar (last name concealed to protect the innocent:-)) suggested that sharpie can be used to mark the balls. That motivated me to look through my so called worn balls. I took the balls to my kitchen and dropped them to the kitchen floor one at a time using a new ball as a reference and then I saw how much the new ball bounced up. Then I sorted my Costco Penn Heavy Championship Heavy Duty balls used at least once by the numbers. BTW, number is just an identifier. No reference to the type of the ball. Out of 21 balls, I ended up picking up 18 as good. I took them to the court where 3 of us played today from 9:45am in Fremont, CA for 90 minutes where we rotated every 10 minutes. Temperature was about 70F on a totally clear sky.

After 90 minutes of play, we felt they still had a lot of good bounce left. We decided to mark the ball with 1 horizontal bar for every 1 hr of play for 2 peopel with 6 balls or 90 min of play with 3 people with 9 balls. These balls will get 2 horizontal bars because we used them at least once if not twice.

I did a "scientific" bounce test on 9 balls. They were all dropped 43" on to a laminate floor. The average bounce seems to be be about 50% or about 21 to 22".

I will repeat this test on the same balls after I use them for 90min with the same 3 people next week and see how much the degrade.

Here are the photos of marking the balls.

Here is how I measured the bounce.

Here is the video

 How I measured the bounce of tennis balls.

Just what do we mean by Internet of Things.

Internet first came to universities, then companies and their employees. Then came ISPs and it came to people. What that means is that devices like computers, smartphones, tablets people own connect to Internet.

Along with people came their "things" which they may not carry but wanted them to be visible or controllable from Internet.

This topic is too elaborate to make it a blog. I decided to put in a
PDF file.

Unlike my previous blogs, I asked for input from two of my close friends with the idea that this article may be something any one can make sense of rather than use a lot of techy jargon.

Feel free to ask questions or leave comments. I can add more articles on this topic based on that.

Now when my Clothes dryer stops, I get a text message. Cost $50.

No more wrinkled clothes at least if I am home when the dryer stops :-)

How did I do it?

I bought a smarthings multi-sensor for $50.

Opened my Smarthings App and added this sensor in few seconds.

Installed the magnet part of the sensor on the Dryer above the door and the sensor below the door. That way, I can also see 3-axis motion of the sensor for what it is worth. See photo below.

67 is the temperature. Inactive above the temperature is the accelerometer.
To the left of the battery is 3 axis x, y and z. That can be used if mounted on
a old garage door which is vertical when closed and horizontal when open for example.

Then I used my smartphone and installed an App to sense end of vibration when the dryer stops. My dryer has manual timer and "wrinkle guard". To test it I used a 10 min timer, set the Min cycle time to 10, "fill time" to 1 (really it is time between cycles if the dryer supports it. The default is 5 min.

I then entered my phone number for the text.

 As you can see, I renamed the App Clothes Dryer stopped.
That is why I got the text message about 5 min after the dryer stopped.

(Thanks to Tyler Lange of Smarthings who actually walked me through how to copy this App and create my own version of it on the smartthings website.)










Part of my chat conversation to the nice support guy Tyler Lange.

Me: ok. opened the Laundry monitor app.
Tyler: Alright two settings to tinker with
Tyler: Minimum cycle time and time to fill tub
Me: ok. I am doing a test case. I set the dryer to 10min. set min cycle time to 5 min. Fill time blank.
Tyler: Sounds good. If we can't get it right I can escalate your ticket to our development team so they can give you more specific feedback.
Me: OK Dryer stopped.
Me: No text message yet.
Tyler: Alright the SmartApp is still running
Tyler: Give me a minute as I check into this
Tyler: Alright the app just changed to inactive
Tyler: And a notification was sent
Tyler: Did you receive it?
Me: Hey. Just got text message. I guess it takes time?
Tyler: Here's what I think is going on
Tyler: There's a 5 minute window at the end of the cycle where it's verifying that it's not just moving on to the next cycle
Tyler: If you go into our ide at http://ide.smartthings.com, create a new SmartApp then click Browse SmartApps in the top right
Tyler: You can paste in the code for Laundry Monitor and lower the value of the default fill time
Tyler: That should make that notify you quicker
Me: Got it. One sec.
Me: OK.. Created blank new app. How do I copy the Laundry monitor App?
Tyler: Click browse smartapps in the top right
Me: Got it. Changed the defalut to 1min.
Tyler: That should help
Me: Yes. Thanks. You are terrific. I will write a blog. What is your full name Tyler? http://hari-google-blog.blogspot.com/
Me: You can see my blogs on this topic.
Tyler: Thanks for the link! I'm Tyler Lange 

Does you US home need Solar Power to lower your bill? May be. may be not...

I was sent a link sent around by an electrician who is claiming that he spent less than $100 to do his own and install solar power and he is actually getting back a few dollars from his power company rather than paying $100 to $150 a month. That is utter nonsense. 

After US federal credit of 30% I have 4300w solar system with 24 175W BP solar panels and a 4000W inverter to connect to the grid. It is supposed to have a lifetime of 25yrs. Inverter has a lifetime of 10yrs. It is 4.5yrs since I had the system. I paid $14k back then. Prices have fallen a lot since then. It generates about 500KWh per month on the average.
Assuming nothing really fails for 25yrs (I may have to replace the inverter. Paid $4k now $2k and may be $1k to replace) 6000 KWh per yr * 25 = 150,000KWh for $15k is about 10 cents per KWhr.

I did a spot check of what I would do today for a similar system.

Realistic way to do it the low cost way is to panels and supplies, Have a certified electrician install. I found these 250W solar panels by Sharp which is know for relaibility.

See this link.

You need 17 panels for a 4250W system. $200 each plus tax, shipping probably costs $4k.

Panels produce DC. To converter to AC, you need  inverter.

You need one per panel if we use enphase micro inverter 250-60-2LL-S22

That would be 17 * 200 = $3400. 

A single sunny-4000 inverter like the one I have costs $2500 with tax and shipping.

So the cost would be $4k + $2.5k + permits, electrician costs, misc mounts $1.5k

You get 30% federal credit on income tax. Net cost $5.6k. Over lifetime and $1k to replace the inverter. Your Assuming it produces the same 150,000KWh the cost per KWh would be 5 to 6 cents.

First of all you need know the cost per KWhr and what your real bill is.
I found this list of energy prices for each state
Electricity tables state by state 2013

Note that the average cost per KWh was 11.72 cents.

However, in each state, the rates differ in each county.

"In 2012, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,837 kWh, an average of 903 kilowatthours (kWh) per month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 15,046 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,367 kWh."

See details at this link
Electical Energy consumption by state

In theory, an average state with 11.72 cents per KWh and average home consuming 903 KWh is costs about $106 per month. So, you could say that savings could be $50 per month on an investment of $5.6k. That sounds great?

Not so fast. Size of each panel is about 5f x 2.5ft. You need a south facing roof big enough to mount 17 panels of this size and no trees or other building blocking the sun. If you live in a gated community or a condo, they should not object to your solar panels.

Why did I do it then? in Alameda county, CA where my home is, the "baseline" quantity is about 400KWh which varies from season to season and above the baseline, the price per KWh was 24 to 42 cents. My energy consumption was about 1000KWh per month and I was paying $250 per month electric bill.
With Solar system generating 500KWh per month and replacing bulbs with energy efficient bulbs, old single pane windows with double pane windows, I got my usage down to 750KWh because I did energy audit and found these things. Now I pay $300 per year instead of $3000 per yr. I am getting my money back in another 1yr or so (about 5.5yrs from start). Worked for me.

So, do you jump on the Solar band wagon? May be, may be not...