HP Stream Laptop - Plus Office 365

I've rolled the dice on an HP Stream 13" laptop. When I bought it, it was $200. It is back to $230 now. We needed something for my wife and I was thinking about shelling out for some cloud storage. The laptop comes with one year of Office 365 Personal which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage. If I had bought the Office 365 subscription separately, it would have been $70.

I've completely rationalized this now, so it is just a $130 laptop. If it doesn't meet her needs, then we aren't out much. I could probably let my 6 year old use it. Although, she would probably be baffled by the lack of a touch screen!

Boafeng Squelch Changes via CHIRP

A follow-up on the Baofeng Squelch fix....

John (http://www.miklor.com) comments:

"The newest release of CHIRP 

http://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_CHIRP.php 

Allows settings to go as high as 123, but a max of 64 seems to be the most preferable range."

And Hans has some measurements that quantify the changes. Looks good.

Bodybuilder Math

OMG. This really made me laugh. Bodybuilder Math. Have a quick read http://t.co/r93pI1N9z1 h/t @biggiesu
— Mark Suster (@msuster) January 8, 2015

Xfinity X1

So while my cable was out, I learned that the Xfinity X1 Platform requires the network to view your recordings. I've not researched it, but I assumed the X1 has a hard drive and that this is a design choice. Boo I say. Boo.

Watching some of my recorded programs would have been a nice option to have since I was without cable for 18 hours.

Clancy to Lead Secret Service

Clancy to lead Secret Service. Sounds like a good fit. He and Jack Ryan always seem to get the bad guy.

Baofeng Tech Teaser Speculation

It's been fun reading the speculation that resulted from the teaser from Baofeng Tech.

Reddit
AR15

Vero Telecom VR-6600PRO

Hans starts his review of the VR-6600PRO. Initial impressions seem to be good with a few speed issues (scanning slow, menus exit quickly, sluggish response to commands).

Rules

Rules are important, but, boy, can hams spend a lot of time debating the interpretation of them.

Mother Nature

Boo. No internet (or TV) for 18 hours. Good news is we kept power the whole time.

Skynet Begins

Internet enabled... crock-pot.