A buddy of mine used to tease me about using a blue filter to adjust the color on my TV sets. My first encounter with a blue filter was with Joe Kane’s A Video Standard LaserDisc, back when there were only conventional CRT screens. More recently, a blue filter came with the Spears & Munsil Blu-ray disc.
Blue filters seem quaint now, with all of the advanced technology in TV’s today. Vincent in England gets into the nit-picky nitty gritty of nits and display calibration.
Speaking of video, the YouTube app on my Sony Blu-ray player has a feature I haven’t seen anywhere else. Stats for Nerds, displayed here with nerdy Joe Pera.
Today was tire buying day. My 2017 Toyota Camry has 21,500 miles on it, and before winter arrives I want to replace the very noisy Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires that came with the car. For an all-season tire, I wasn’t impressed with its traction in snow.
I have been very pleased with the Michelin Defender T+H tires on my 2011 Honda CR-V. The ride in the CR-V is quieter with the Michelins than in Camry is with the Bridgestones! Which isn’t how it should be, comparing an SUV with a passenger car. Having a set of Defenders on the Camry seemed like a good idea, but another Michelin option seems even better — the CrossClimate2. Here’s the CR comparison.
The Camry’s mileage — up to 40 mpg highway — is much better than the CR-V’s, so the CrossClimate’s lower rating for rolling resistance compared to the Defender isn’t a concern. The Camry being FWD, not AWD like the CR-V, the CrossClimate’s superior snow traction is the big attraction.
Taking advantage of a Michelin promotion at BJ’s (the warehouse store for those of us not near a Costco), four CrossClimate2’s, including installation and tax, cost $800. The tires are on order and are scheduled to be installed a week from Monday. So if there’s a freak Halloween snowstorm like the one we had in 2011, I’ll be ready!
There are a lot of YouTube videos about the CrossClimate2. This one is the most informative and interesting overall.
I’m going to amend what I’ve been saying about why I am hanging onto FiOS TV. First, now that Turner Classic Movies is in true HD, and looks and so good on the JVC D-ILA video projector, I’ve cleared out DVR disk space to record selections from the channel. Being able to watch something at my convenience, without keeping an eye on the “Expires in X Days” notice in the Watch TCM app is nice. So there’s that.
Also, I would like give a nod to Music Choice, which like Watch TCM continues to require a cable subscription.
My buddy Bismo, a serious Blues fan, says the Blues channel on Music Choice is very good. I have the same opinion of the Classical Masterpieces channel, which plays a widely varied selection of music. I first heard the Swedish composers Franz Berwald and Kurt Atterberg (19th and 20th century, respectively) on Music Choice.
This blog/site was down for a while today. Note: going to dograt.com is the same as accessing www.dograt.com.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping dograt.com
Pinging dograt.com [173.254.3.155] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 173.254.3.155:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)
I don’t know why it was down. Stuff happens, as I know all too well from my many years working with computers, enterprise class as well as consumer grade. It came back briefly before crashing again, but now it seems to be holding. While it was down, SMTP continued to work.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping mail.dograt.com
Pinging mail.dograt.com [173.254.3.155] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 173.254.3.155: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=54
Reply from 173.254.3.155: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=54
Reply from 173.254.3.155: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=54
Reply from 173.254.3.155: bytes=32 time=61ms TTL=54
Ping statistics for 173.254.3.155:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 55ms, Maximum = 61ms, Average = 57ms
Although I had no direct access to my mail service via IMAP, I forward everything to Microsoft Mail. That made it possible for me to continue directing e-mail through my domain. The Department of Redundancy Department in action.
Not only can Turner Classic Movies be watched live in HD with WatchTCM…
… after airing, movies are available for on-demand viewing.
TCM is on FiOS TV standard definition channel 230. Having TCM available only in SD, unlike other cable TV providers, I haven’t watched channel 230 since WatchTCM became a reliable online platform.
Tonight I was stunned to see TCM appearing in HD on FiOS TV channel 730. Verizon sends me all sorts of messages and promotions, but there was nothing from them at all about this long overdue upgrade. It doesn’t really matter to me anymore, because of WatchTCM. I’m nonetheless very pleased they’re finally offering TCM in HD because it was something I had wanted for a long time. I’m recording Thunderbird 6 right now.
Update – February, 2025: Verizon has forced a replacement of the DVR with a Fios TV One. TCM picture quality is terrible. It’s obvious even on my 32″ 720p bedroom TV, let alone the JVC projector, when comparing Fios TV against Watch TCM on a Roku stick. TCM needs to become a streaming subscription service on its own.
