NeutralAxis

For one of my commercial clients, I’ve been looking at ways to save water, and thus money.  The figures for water savings are eye opening. (continue reading…)

The replacement drive I found on ebay for my ReplayTV arrived.  Its a 400GB Seagate 7200.8 which theoretically should work.  I copied an image of the 500MB system partition to it from a backup, and … IT BOOTS!

Its hooked up now getting a 250GB infusion of recorded shows from my earlier drive that started occasionally having clicking fits.  These are PATA IDE drives and rather than mucking around in a case to hook them up, I just use a IDE to USB adapter.  Transfers aren’t as fast as they could be, but it’ll do.  About 6 hours from now I ought to know if everything transferred OK and can quit watching TV on the networks’ schedules.

Update:  6 hours later and the new drive is installed and working fine, giving me nearly 150 hours of high quality mode capacity.

Wow!

Thought I’d try out the WordPress app for the iPhone.

1. Install app.  Check
2. Run app.  Check
3. Enter account information.  Check
4. Post worthless comment about posting a comment.  Check

Looks like it works.

No, that’s not a 1990′s caller ID box.  That’s TED, The Energy Detective; a gizmo that monitors your whole house electric usage.  If you’ve ever seen a kill-a-watt, TED is basically the same thing with better data collection, and it monitors the whole house instead of a single circuit.  With a 15 minute installation that’s only mildly deadly, you can get a detailed breakdown of your home’s energy usage. (continue reading…)

The current issue of WIRED magazine has a good article about the need for updating the nation’s electric grid and goes into what needs to be done and why.  Check it out in print in the Aptil 2009 issue, or online.  My electric utility company expects to have smart meters in place by the end of the year.  I’m hopeful they’ve done their homework and picked a good system.  More on that when it happens.

Wired.com

I learned this afternoon how to split posts into a teaser on the main page with a “contine reading…” link to lead to the rest of the post. Some previous posts are edited.

AO Smith and State water heater companies make identical 96% efficient gas-fired water heaters.  But they have what I consider to be a design flaw that can render them unsuitable at best, or useless at worst, in certain settings. (continue reading…)

The hard drive in one of my old ReplayTV DVRs started an ominous clicking noise last week.  I powered it down for a day and then turned it back on.  The clicking stopped and its been running for a week now, but I’ve been looking for a replacement drive.  They’re getting harder to find at a reasonable price.  SATA drives don’t work and the typical off-the-shelf IDE’s won’t work either.  There’s only a few model numbers proven to work and they’re apparently not the current versions.  This may finally force me into moving to Tivo.

Update [3/26/09]:  The clicking started again last night.  Crap.  Fortunately, I found a Seagate drive on Ebay for a reasonable cost that I think will work.

The ReplayTV DIY Information/Repair/Upgrade Site

After a couple of weeks of studying, I’ve taken and passed the LEED Accredited Professional exam, so I can add some new initials after the PE when I sign my name. (continue reading…)