If it doesn't say 'HD' ......

If it doesn't say 'HD' after the channel's identification letters, then it isn't.

The antenna that is working for me is my own home-built.

This isn't a very informative look at it, because it is sandwiched between these two sheets of corrugated plastic board behind the poster. It is made of the now old-fashioned twinlead TV antenna wire, arranged like a smaller version of one of those big old outdoor TV antennas that used to be on our rooftops. Mine was originally made to bring in a favorite FM station from Seattle, Washington, which is about 150 miles away as the crow flies. It did that quite well, considering the signals had to come through all the other parts of the building to get to my antenna. So I've always known that it works. But I didn't know until a couple of days ago that it can also receive seven channels of digital TV.

This antenna makes the cable company redundant.

But I didn't really need it. After I got it assembled and connected and did a new channel search, I discovered it gives me only one more channel than I was already receiving on my own home-built FM/UHF antenna that I made 20 years ago. But now that I have it, I'll probably keep it. I'm not quite sure why...

My favorite media player, Winamp

Can your media player show you constantly changing visualizations in time to the music you are playing, like this?

 

I'm still impressed with my "new" TV signals...

One thing that impresses me is that a home-built FM antenna I made about 20 years ago for my stereo now is also capable of receiving 6 channels of digital TV. So all along, I've had the capability of using my own system, which is able to deliver a better signal than the local cable company.

And something I didn't mention is that if your TV has been made since 2007, then it comes with the digital converter built in, so you don't need an extra box to make it work. If you program it to do an auto channel search, it will search first for digital channels, and then for analog ones. And if you're using an over-the-air antenna like mine, then it won't find any analog channels, because all of our over-the-air signals are now digital.

So you can save yourself $40 a month or more, and get a better picture by using your own setup instead of paying for someone else's. And they won't tell you this, of course. You have to find out from guys like me.

In addition to the main 40-inch TV, I've also connected this 30-inch on my computer, so that I can switch it between computer monitor and TV if I wish.

Please Note:

Talking about this with Steve, our maintenance man, he says that if you connect a signal booster to your antenna, it brings in addition channels that are not found without it. He increased the number of channels received from 6 to 14 by adding his booster. 

More about Over-The-Air Digital TV

Tom in New York asks, "How many channels can you get?" That depends on the local area you are in, of course. Here, with basic rabbit ears as an antenna, I get six channels. You should go onto Google and do a search for over-the-air digital TV in your own area. There's also information available about how to build your own simple antenna. It doesn't have to be fancy, and the good news is, it either works perfectly, or probably not at all, or you will see "drop-outs" like with a faulty DVD. Generally speaking, the reception is better than you have been getting on your cable or satellite network. Here's an example of an air signal using rabbit ears here this morning....

As you will probably agree, this is a sharper and more detailed image than the usual satellite (analog) picture, and it's a freebie, and quite legal, and shows really good detail.

TV or no TV?

Two days ago, I found a notice in the elevator saying our TV was being shut off on February 9th, because Shaw Direct was pulling our plug. We've had their half-assed service of seventy-two channels of crap for decades here. They suggested we sign up for their cable service once the satellite service stops.

They didn't even send out official notices, not even to my rental management company's office. When I contacted the girls there, they said I was one of only two people who let them know about it. So after I confirmed with them that it is about to happen whenever Shaw gets around to it, I decided to try something.

I got out an old pair of rabbit ears I've been saving, and switched the source of my signals from the building's feed to the rabbit ears antenna. Here's what kind of picture I'm getting....

....and this isn't costing me $40 a month, like the analog signals from Shaw, and this is a digital signal like I've never seen before around here. I should have got out the rabbit ears a long time ago!
 

More "This and That" - a potpourri, s'il vous plaît.

I was watching a movie last night on Vumoo, while in bed, and fell asleep with my glasses on. I woke up this morning with the glasses still on, wondering how the movie ended.....

I love swashbucklers, and this one swashes and buckles with the best of them. And I can remember when Antonio Banderas was the sexiest man alive, and Salma Hayek, who voices Kitty Softpaws, is still one of the sexiest women alive. It has a great cast. Too bad I fell asleep. But I can always watch it again...

Moving along here, yesterday, while I was trying to make that New Year greeting for our Chinese friends, I made an interesting discovery. If you want to paste one image inside another, Gimp 2 can do this.

Just copy the image to your clipboard, and then select Edit > Paste Into, which will let you paste it into the image already showing in the program. You can also drag the new addition to whatever location within the larger image you wish. And that's your Windows 'Tip of the Day' for today. And if you have Gimp 2 and Paint.NET then you probably don't need Photoshop. And both are freebies and they work fine in Windows 10. Incidentally, Gimp is the image editor used with Linux Mint, so if you're dual-booting Linux Mint with Windows 10, like I do, then you already will be familiar with it. It isn't terribly user-friendly, but it has a wonderful selection of various options, such as this feature mentioned above. And you really should try it.
 
 

To our Chinese friends

My oldest digital camera....

This is a panorama using my oldest zoom camera, a Pentax X70 from 2009, with only 24X of zoom. I haven't used it for a long time, so yesterday, I recharged the battery, and today, with the weather better, I put it to work. I'm pleasantly surprised that it still does quite a respectable job, and it compares quite well to the images from newer cameras. Its image stabilization isn't quite as good as the more recent ones, but on a small tripod it works very well.

About Paint.Net, the image editing program

This is comparable to Gimp or Photoshop, or other similar editing programs, with the exception that this has a huge collection of plugins, which can do almost anything. There are also collections of these, in packs for easier installation. "So, give me an example of one of these plugins," you say. - OK....

Here's a screenshot taken recently. I'm going to use the 'Water Reflection' plugin on it, to turn part of it into a reflection on water of the rest of it..... first, here's the unaltered image....

And now here's the image with the 'Water Reflection' applied. You can configure it for how much of the image it covers, the density of the waves on it, the effects of wind on those waves, etc. so as you suspect, there's a lot of adjustments you can make.  And this is just one of hundreds of plugins for this program. You can have a lot of fun with it.

 

Spring has sprung

This is a composite, and for some reason, parts of it are better focused than others. Same camera, same time. Don't know why. This shows a neighbor's garden across in the next block.

Same scene, different camera. The first was a Fuji SL-1000, this is a Nikon P510. A little less zoom, but sharper. Also a composite, five images.

A little more "This and That"

I will be just delighted when the presidential election in the USA is over. I can hardly believe the quantity and quality of the bullshit being circulated about it. To the outside observer, like myself, it almost seems like we're seeing the decline and fall of a great nation. It seems to be consumed with political rivalry to the exclusion of common sense and the best interests of the nation as a whole. I can't believe grown men in responsible positions can act like this. It is really bizarre.

And that brings me to Facebook. In twelve short years, its boss has gone from obscurity to being the sixth richest man on the planet. And it makes several dollars in advertising revenue for each user it has. 

My problem with Facebook is its bullshit content; the seemingly factual stories that look like authentic news sources, but are really just opinion pieces being cranked out on someone's personal website, and passed off as real news. That, and all those childish or mean-spirited messages arguing politics or religion, most often done by people who haven't the foggiest idea what they're talking about most of the time. People who frequently couldn't spell 'shit' if they had a mouthful of it.  People who insult my stupidity.

And all of that is being seen and being read by the 95.6 percent of us who do not live in the USA. Many of us are increasingly thankful we can say this. And just as many of us are most likely wondering what's wrong with those people.

As for news in general, and print news in particular, the following is an interesting article about the newspapers of today, and what is happening to them. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/marty-baron-neil-macdonald-1.3435715

Looking out the window

Mountains in the mist - the big picture.

The close-up.

Grouse Mountain Skyride, Upper Terminal



Looking up the valley, in search of Winter.

About Writing

For years, mistakenly, I've fancied myself a writer. I'm fascinated by the ability to string words together into sentences, frequently too long, while enjoying the thrill of creation. I get carried away.

I should read 'Words Fail Me' more often. It is a wonderful book for anyone who writes or aspires to, and I'd like to reprint a couple of parts of it here to show how it goes. Chapter 12, 'Too Marvelous for Words', begins: Like a superhighway, the sentence is a triumph of engineering: the stately capital letter, the procession of words in their proper order, every arch and tunnel, bridge and buttress perfectly fitted to its job.

It continues: If many writers believe bigger is better, who can blame them? Building a sentence can give you a thrill. It's easy to become infatuated with your own words, and once you get started you hate to stop. The noble pageant goes on and on, especially if you've discovered dashes and semicolons, and gluey words like however and nevertheless. Your mighty sentence swells, as does your head.

And that, Dear Reader, is a too-accurate description of my writing style. The rest of that chapter suggests what to do about it. Yesterday on Facebook, the subject of punctuation came up. So let's move along to Chapter 18, 'Grammar Moses', Thou Shalt Not Embarrass Thyself. Patricia says, "I certainly can't tell you in a few paragraphs everything you need to know about punctuation. But I can hit the high spots, the problems that show up most often."

Then she continues: 
* A comma by itself usually isn't enough to hold together two expressions that could be separate sentences: Jack broke his crown, Jill wasn't seriously injured. (This is sometimes called a run-on sentence.) If you want to join those expressions with a comma, add a linking word, like and or but: Jack broke his crown, but Jill wasn't seriously injured. There's more on joining parts of a sentence in chapter 12.
* The semicolon may be the most unappreciated and underused punctuation mark. If you find semicolons intimidating, relax. They're handy for joining expressions that could stand alone, like the ones above: Jack broke his crown; Jill wasn't seriously injured. Semicolons can also be used to tidy up a series of items with commas inside them. Imagine how hard it would be to read this sentence if only commas were used: Jack broke his crown, which was fractured in two places; scraped his knee, nearly to the bone; and ruined his lederhosen. Lincoln found the semicolon a "useful little chap"; you will, too.
* Dashes and parentheses shouldn't be abused. They do roughly the same thing - they let the writer say something (like this) in an aside - though dashes  are somewhat more in-your-face. If your writing breaks out in dashes, try using parentheses for variety (and vice versa). But if commas would work as well, as they often do, use them instead.

I don't want to copy too much of Pat's wonderfully helpful book, but I suggest you try to find your own at a bookstore near you. It's from Harcourt Brace & Company, and the ISBN is 0-15-100371-8.

This is where the new wallpapers go...

This is because I have a favorite image editor in Windows, so I did the editing there, but the wallpapers are really for use here in Linux....

Another panorama...

Fun with Wallpapers....

Sunset

Winter in the hills, and spring in the valley...

It's still winter up in the hills nearby, and the skiers and boarders love it....

While across the street in the next block, an old fence that was completely covered in wonderful shrubbery and vines is coming down. It won't be the same without that mass of color we saw each spring as those vines and shrubs came into bloom in various shades of red.

And this is another look at the hills, as they slowly emerge from the clouds.