The Birds

We’re under attack! Birds are trying to take over our house.

First, they built a nest in some exposed insulation in the garage, after taking some of the insulation to build nests outside, accounting for why the insulation is less pink on the right.

Bird\'s nest in garage

And now there’s a bird attacking the roof. Look at the hole he made!

Hole in roof from bird pecking

Several mornings recently, including today, we heard pecking outside our bedroom window, and this afternoon, while cleaning the gutters (again), I saw the damage. It’s been below 40° at night, and I can’t imagine there are insects that are attracting him, so I don’t know what’s inspired the activity. Maybe they’re upset that I had two trees taken down from that side of the house.

Before going to bed last night, I concluded there’s no way some birds, except a woodpecker, could have created such a large and deep gouge, and we didn’t hear a woodpecker. I figure what happened is a large branch hit when one of the trees was taken down. The birds have been mistaking the hole for something they would expect to have insects in it.

Composite video beats HDMI?

This will be a totally techie comment, but I’m so surprised by something I’ve got to explain it. I have a Verizon FiOS Motorola QIP6416 DVR set to 720p with an HDMI cable going to my Panasonic video projector. HDTV looks wet-your-pants fantastic. SDTV is rather disappointing, and I avoid it.

I have a FiOS Motorola DCT-700 digital/analog converter with a cheapie RCA composite video cable going into a Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD Recorder that’s set to 480p. From there is a 12-ft component video cable going to a Kenwood THX receiver that has a 50-ft component cable going to the projector.

There is absolutely no comparison in picture quality. The bottom-of-the-line DCT-700 going through the recorder and the receiver totally blows away the video going directly from the top-of-the-line DVR over HDMI. Savvy techies would say “no way!” but I’m telling you definitely yes.

Global Reach

A guilty pleasure of mine is looking through the Global Industrial catalog whenever it shows up at work. It has almost everything. Hasn’t everybody imagined decorating their living room like a doctor’s office reception area?

Reception Area Furniture

How about lockers for the mud room? And wouldn’t one of these magazine racks be great, assuming you still get magazines?

LockersMagazine StandMagazine Rack

But what I really have my eye on is the pre-engineered mezzanine…

Metal mezzanine

I want to get one for the backyard, so when K3 come to visit they can address the admiring throngs below, like they do in Belgium and the Netherlands. 😉

K3 in Holland

Boston Globe goes color, wimps out

The paper edition of The Boston Globe now prints the daily comics in color. They’ve gotten letters of complaint from some readers, including one old codger (are there any young codgers?) who said the only way he knows it’s Sunday is because the comics are in color, as if having them printed bigger in a separate section isn’t enough of a clue. Anyway, I’m all for it, because other cities have had color daily comics for twenty years. Back then the papers had to do their own coloring, but now the syndicate provides the color guides.

But I’m disappointed that the Globe didn’t run G.B. Trudeau’s intended installment of Doonesbury for November 5, declaring Obama the President-elect. Instead, this strip was reprinted.

Boston Globe Doonesbury, 5Nov08

Newspaper people love to rag on other newspapers, and the suburban Boston paper I get, The Metrowest Daily News, had this commentary on the Globe’s wimpery.