Your Mother Should Know ...

Sherry has the World's First Digital Cable Quad Tuner PC Card!

And she is happy!!!  Here's what the beauty looks like:

 
Not impressed?  I guess  can see why -- it looks like something you would put inside your computer!  And it is.  Was it spendy?  More than I'd pay for shoes but less than I paid for my computer!  I am impressed and so very thankful! 

Some of you may remember that I posted in June 2009 that I had been recordng tv shows on my computer.  It was a great setup, and I seldom watched live TV -- which was also an option on my computer with Microsoft's Windows Media Center.  Then Comcast dropped their analog signal and went digital.  And I lost the quality of service I'd had. Even through Comcast reps and other techies assured me I would be fine, I was not fine with the digital conversion.  The digital cable required a converter box, and that meant that Windows Media Center no longer could switch channels for me.  I had to manually change the channel and could only record one at a time.  And if I wanted to record something on Ch.6 at 8 and Ch. 10 at 9, I hd to (a) be home to make the change and (b) rememberto change the channel!   Not a happy camper.

My repeated calls to Comcast gained me nothing.  My internet research led me to a couple stop gap measures, but there was nothing in the world that would make my system function properly!  HD?  I didn't care about hi def!  I would have gladly taken the analog channels back because at least I could view them!

Then last fall I learned about a company called Ceton Corp. who was doing protype testing on a digita tuner.  Not dual, but a quad.  All the research and buzz said this digital tuner, which would require a cablecard from Comcast (essentially a cable box but on the inside of the computer and way better), would solve my problems.  I waited. Impatiently.   Finally they began taking advance orders for May 2010 shipments.  I jumped on it.  Then there were production delays.  Finally, on August 27th, I received my shipment.   I had Comcast out here on the 28th!  And before I went to bed that night, my system was working!!!!  And all the hype was actually TRUE!  I have all my old channels back PLUS more AND I can record four programs at once instead of two!   AND I have HD channels.  I love technology!  When it works, it really works well!

Thank you, Ceton, for improving the quality of my life!  LOL  I can't imagine recording four programs at one time; nor can I imagine having the time to watch all those recordings. But I am thrilled to be able to set my recordings like a DVR instead of a manual channel change for the early 80s!

Oh, Skype, we hardly know ya

Skype.  Anyone use it?  It's a video conferencing tool that's free from Skype account to Skype account in the US (I think there may be a fee for international).  When I visited Illinois last October, my darling first daughter (dd1 or DFD) and I set up accounts.  Then we connected from her laptop in the Pacific Northwest to my laptop in the Midwest so that my darling grandson (DG) could meet his great aunt and uncle and his great grandmother.  It was awesome!  

Friday I learned that Verizon offers Skype as a download on their 3G Smartphones.  And I have one!  I've loaded it, set it up, and I am ready!  DFD and DG are only a click away -- anywhere I am as long as I have my phone with me.  And, provided DFD can load it on her phone (hmmm.... does AT&T have an app for that?  Yep, I'm throwing down the challenge and hope they win), I can even 'attend' school events and such when I can't get there in person! 

And I can video conference with my out-of-county and out-of-state friends!  Anyone interested?  www.skype.com  It's not hard to set up.  If I can do it, you can.  ;)

Life is [truly] good! 

A new toy and another layout

Oh, can anyone resist playing with a new toy?  I cannot.  And I got one -- a new toy that is -- this week!  Isn't IT beautiful?  I can load games, music, videos, my calendar items ... did I mention music!  Yippee!  When I practically begged Robert, I didn't even mention that the six-CD changer in my car is died last week.  Robert caved before I got to that piece of news.  I mean, really, a girl just can't do without music.  And I've been debating this purchase for over a year.  There always been something I wanted more -- like should we buy the house or an iPod; dining room table or an iPod, scrapbook convention or an iPod.  Now I know that an external hard drive would cost about half of what I paid, but they don't come with screens to read the contents, and they're not as small as this, not as portable.  And I would have nothing to plug it into a work.  Or the car.  And if we factor in the cost of a new CD changer for the car with that portable hard drive to store music, I got a better deal with the iPod!  Yep, this was the way to go.  Purchased an extravagance lately?  Just tell me; I can rationalize it out for ya!  LOL

And for the last three nights I've been loading it with music from my CD collection.  I'm only doing about ten CDs a night, but it's interrupting other projects.  Like this:

This was my take on One Little Word's "automatic" challenge.  They give you about ten days to complete the layout.  Of course, it takes me a week to mull over what I want to do.  Then I stayed up tonight to finish the layout.

Scanner is giving me muddy images again.  I just didn't have time to muck around with it tonight.  And I'll have to muck around with it for a while now since I bought the iPod.  Let's see -- buy a scanner or an iPod.  Scanner loses.  Lucky me, I get to see the LO IRL, and it looks pretty good for an hour's work.  Fastest layout I've ever done (if you don't count the thinking time and you don't count scrapbook classes).

Well, time to get to bed.  I'm getting up in four hours to head to the nursery (as in plants) sale.  Can't be late.  Good prices and good selection to those willing to get up early.  Since it won't be raining tomorrow, there will probably be a crowd.  Here's trusting that everyone will be courteous with one another.

Nite.