Tech Watch

I feel compelled to keep you all up to date with some of the note-worthy tech-geek things going on in the world today....and I'm not talking about TWITTER, damnit! Why won't that go away? Twitter is like a talentless pop start that won't fade into anonymity. Anyway, real tech issues.

Who needs a wireless router? My house is already wired!

It's called 'powerline communications'. This isn't new, but 'standards' are being approved and published now which would bring this technology to the mainstream. The concept is that you can use the electric wiring in your house to also network your computers (and anything else you want to connect to the internet). You literally buy something roughly the size of a Glade AirWick Plug-in, plug your CAT-5 cable (standard DSL cable) in to one end and the other end into an outlet. Then you can use the same device at any other electric outlet (that is obviously electrically connected. won't be a problem in your house) - and you have a wired connection - TADA! The primary issue is 'speed', but it is already faster than typical internet service so the only speed issue is really longer term speed increases from your service provider. (You probably have 3 or 6 Mb/s and powerline communications can go upwards of 100 Mb/s now.) Unless you are concerned about high speed computer-to-computer connections on your own network, this speed is fine. Here's an example - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GR1CBI

The War for Communication / TV Dominance Continues to Heat Up

One of the main discriminators between cable TV and satellite TV has been that cable could provide shows 'OnDemand' while satellite TV could only broadcast out signal on a pre-determined schedule. It's why you can order a PPV movie on cable and it can start playing immediately, but if you order one on direcTV they will just let you have access to a channel for 24 hours that is playing the movie continuously. You have to time it so you start watching at the beginning. Well, DirecTV has thrown a glitch in that system - they will provide things 'OnDemand' by letting the customer connect the receiver to the internet so that you can download the program / movie and start watching it whenever you want. This isn't as 'OnDemand' as cable, but you can pre-load these downloads. Say you might want to watch a movie that is on PPV. Put it on your list and your receiver will download it. If you don't actually watch it; you aren't charged. This is awesome for DirecTV because it not only gives their customers more flexibility, it KILLS cable companies that are providing that internet service (and thus have to carry the burden of all this extra data moving around.). Time Warner planned a pilot program to start charging internet service based on total downloaded data, which would be a way to curtail this problem for them. But it's so wildly unpopular that consumers won't put up with it. Unless they can get ALL internet providers to make this change they will just lose their customers. They canceled the pilot program.

On a related note, Adobe (the company that makes 'Flash', the plug-in for basically all streaming video on the internet) is working with TV makers to install Flash directly onto the TV. It is becoming more and more popular to stream shows through the internet (look at Comedy Central or Hulu), but you have to watch it on your computer unless you have a way to support streaming it to your TV somehow (most people don't). With this idea you could just plug your internet cable into your TV and watch your shows through the internet....

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Chuck tried to attack me this weekend. I bravely took some fuzzy pictures during the attack via my iPhone. I will load these up soon. What you're about to see may disturb you.

Ramblings

• There are strange happenings with mother nature in the neighborhood. There is a goose in my neighborhood that thinks she is Chuck Norris. She will start charging you from a good 50' away. This is a problem for everyone because SHE LAID HER EGGS BESIDE THE SIDEWALK. She'll charge cars, people, dogs, gay ducks - anything. Crazy.....

• ALSO, I'm no duck expert, so this is probably not unusual but I will say my concern is growing. About a week ago I noticed a single male duck hanging out in one of our wonderful drainage ponds at the front of the neighborhood. No big deal, but I thought ducks usually hung out in pairs. Well, then I saw two ducks (both male) hanging out there. Now this morning we are up to 4 male ducks in this pond. Did they start a gay male duck commune there? Seems odd.

Request for Female Insight

I'm going to predict that every female family member that reads this will give the same (correct) answer to this question. I guess this is just a sign that guys and girls think very differently. I'll have to give you all some background, because unless you are cheating on your spouse you aren't on eHarmony. Here's the deal: on eHarmony you fill out a profile and answer all the basic stuff you would guess is in there. What's your age? Where do you live? Do you drink? Do you smoke? Do you want to have kids? What are you most passionate about? What are you most thankful for? What are you looking for from a partner? yada yada yada. Then every day they send you some "matches" based on their 4 billion dimensions of compatibility (which is ridiculous, because they send you 5-8 a day from the day you start until the end of time. I can't be that good of a match with these people or the whole gig would be over by now. Here's what I've learned - they send you the ugly matches first. Probably because they've been on the website the longest.)

Also, I have one other sidenote. The question "Do you want kids?" can only be answered "yes", "no", or "maybe" (no write-in answers). Without fail, if someone answers "maybe", this is code for "I already have at least one". Guaranteed. I don't know if these people really want to answer "sometimes", and "maybe" is the closest they can get. Or maybe having kids is that horrible and if you wait too long after your 1st one you'd have to be insane to have more. It looks ominous.....

OK, I'll eventually get to my question. If you get a "match" that you are interested in, you go through this "guided communication". You can't just write them. That's fine. First you do these multiple choice questions, then you send a list of "Must Have's" (intellect, ambition, etc.) and "Can't Stand's" (drug user, lazy, etc.). Then you ask these "short answer" questions where the person responding can actually type in their own words. After that everything is open.
When you ask a question it's for a specific purpose, for both the multiple choice and short answer questions. For instance, during the multiple choice questions (that you pick from a list. You can't write your own) I ask "When going somewhere, are you usually:" "early / on time / late / so late that sometimes I don't show up at all". It's obvious why I ask this question - because if you consistently can't plan ahead in minutes and can't make it to a movie before the 30 minute previews are over, you're going to stress me out and piss me off. So maybe we shouldn't bother dating. Likewise, I'm pretty much ALWAYS on time and plan ahead in weeks, months, and years, so I will probably annoy you, though your life would probably be more successful if I was in it ;-) You would also 'get' more movies because we would see the beginning of them even if your hair is in a ponytail because I was complaining that you weren't going to be ready on time. I digress.....

Here's where my question comes in. There is a 'short answer' question that gets asked A LOT, and I can't figure out what the purpose is. There are 2 variants to this question - here they are:

Tonight you can do anything you want, no penalties, no reprisals, and the cost is unimportant. What are you going to do?

If you had three wishes, what would they be?

So, what is it about how I would deal with magical wishes that can help a girl determine if they would be interested in me? Seriously, I don't get it, but any normal girl can probably shed light on this with some obvious answer that doesn't hypothesize that witchcraft is becoming trendy in the Dayton area. Are they looking for creativity? Are they trying to catch me "cheating"? (a night with Scarlett Johannson could be one potential good use of a wish, but it's not like I would list this....) The truth is, I don't want any wishes. Was I the only person that saw the (horrible) movie BeDazzled? Well, hello there, unintended consequences! (They were probably late to the movie and didn't understand what was going on.) I DON'T GET IT....

(I know, I'm ridiculous)

The Pork Trilogy - Recipe #2
Lime Pork Tenderlooin

This also comes from the Good Housekeeping 'Grill It!' cookbook (though I'm simplifying it here), and is incredibly easy to pull off. The hardest part is remembering to buy a lime at the grocery store. You will need:

1 pork tenderloin
1 lime
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp honey
pinch of ground cloves

1. Fire up the grill to medium heat
2. Cut the tenderlooin in half, lengthwise
3. Grate 1 tsp. of peel from the lime and mix with the salt and pepper
4. Rub this mixture on the meat
5. Spray the pork with nonstick cooking spray
6. Grill 12-15 minutes, turning once.
7. Meanwhile, mix honey, cloves, and 2 tbsp of lime juice in a bowl. Serve this with the pork
   

Technically you are also supposed to grill plums and add that to the honey/lime juice mixture. I'm just not a fruit-griller. It's not my style. Don't take the measurements on salt, pepper, or lime peel too seriously. Just salt/pepper however much you want, and then grate the lime peel onto the pork until it looks like you 'have enough'. Everybody likes lemon pepper seasoning, right? This is just lime pepper instead. And then you're basically dipping it in honey - what's not to like about this?