The Practical Meter

A Kickstarter project to help you monitor the capabilities of your charging device (wall outlet, solar panel, car charger, laptop, etc.) for your phone or other USB device.

WIREDInsider Kickstarter: Not all USB ports are created equal. This little device can tell you which one to use: ow.ly/mxCCD Mon, Jul 01 14:03:27 from HootSuite

Sensoria Fitness Smart Sock Tracker

I like the idea of a device like the Sensoria Fitness Smart Sock Tracker that helps with cadence and especially foot strikes, but I got away from carrying my phone as my data recording device. Pair this with a small iPod and then we are talking.


Via Wired

Puxing PX-UV973: Cross Band Repeat/Link Video

John demonstrates the Puxing PX-UV973 cross band repeat.

Leixen VV-808: Popping Follow-up

I sent my video of the popping sound to Leixen and got the following response:

"We know what you mean for Popping. We did test, it really popping sometimes when the antenna connected. For the PoPPing, We can't find what is the problem for now. We will try to solve the problem. Thank you for your feedback."

They've been quite helpful (including with getting a rotary encoder), so I really hope they are able to solve this issue. I'd like to buy another VV-808 or two - one for the office and two for the cars. I'd like to standardize on one radio and this one is small enough that my wife won't balk at having it put in her car. Plus the price is pretty good even with the increase after they sold the first several.

Doh

Check your output before starting your personal entertainment.

WOW HBO Go!

Some good news... I'm getting HBO Go later this year. Game of Thrones on the iPad Mini! Knology was always slower than Comcast at getting features. We switched to Knology years ago when they had just a few high def stations. Their offering lacked some features the other cable companies, but the internet connection has always been fast and the I've saved a ton of money using them. Now if they will upgrade the cable boxes, so that I can control them from my smartphone or tablet, we will be rocking.

"Dear WOW! Customer, 

We’ve heard from many of you, our HBO customers, that you want HBO GO. At WOW!, we’re HBO GO enthusiasts too, so we understand why you are asking. If you’re not familiar with HBO GO, it’s an online application available only to HBO subscribers that offers video streaming of HBO programs on your computer and other mobile devices.

To make HBO GO available, we need to do some technical work that takes a bit of time to complete. This involves integrating systems between WOW! and the former cable provider in your market, Knology. We are working hard to make this content available as quickly as possible and aim to have HBO GO ready this fall. We realize that it’s frustrating knowing that HBO GO is already available in other WOW! markets and we want you to know that we will make it happen for you, too. Once we’ve completed the technical integration, all WOW! customers will be able to enjoy the HBO GO experience, no matter where you are located.

Please hang in there and know that we are on our way with HBO GO.

Thank you for letting us serve you.

Cathy Kuo
Mom, Karaoke Fan, Optimist
Chief Marketing Officer
WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone"

It's Dead, Jim

Google Reader:

Thank you for stopping by.

Google Reader has been discontinued. We want to thank all our loyal fans. We understand you may not agree with this decision, but we hope you'll come to love these alternatives as much as you loved Reader.

Sincerely,

The Google Reader team

Frequently-asked questions

1. What will happen to my Google Reader data?

   All Google Reader subscription data (eg. lists of people that you follow, items you have starred, notes you have created, etc.) will be systematically deleted from Google servers. You can download a copy of your Google Reader data via Google Takeout until 12PM PST July 15, 2013.

2. Will there be any way to retrieve my subscription data from Google in the future?

   No -- all subscription data will be permanently, and irrevocably deleted. Google will not be able to recover any Google Reader subscription data for any user after July 15, 2013.

3. Why was Google Reader discontinued?

   Please refer to our blog post for more information.

And I'm using Feedly for now. Although someone pointed out Inoreader in the comments and it looks good, too.

Puxing PX-UV973: Full Review

John has his full review here. Highlights for me:

"The radio can be set to use both display lines for a single channel. You could use one line to display the channel name, and the other line the frequency and such. When scanning, however, it reverts back to use of both lines of the display. I wonder why they did that. 

The cross band repeater works great. you program one frequency in the upper display, and another in the lower display. If a signal is received on one of these frequencies, the signal is simultaneously retransmitted on the other frequency! One frequency must be VHF and the other UHF. I am unsure if the radio is programmed to disallow same band repeating. The manual cautions against it... so be careful if you set it up wrong. 

The radio has a true dual receiver. You can select the volume levels via the menus and software to differentiate which VFO is louder than the other. 

I didn't test the full duplex option, as I didn't have a satellite pass handy to test. Also, there are no linked VHF/UHF repeaters in my area."

And:

"Volume in all cases can be loud enough in most cases without distortion. BUT, if a signal is not full quieting, it seems the noise in the signal is enhanced if the received signal is very weak. You could receive a faint signal, but only hear noise."

And:

"What I did not like: The battery life could be better; but this can be fixed by getting a more powerful battery. 

The scan speed is terribly slow! If the dual watch function is disabled and the radio operating in single channel mode the scan speed does improve a but; but is still slow. 

This radio does not have a compander, so narrow band fidelity may be lacking. This radio does include a scrambler, which is really more or less something that would be used far less than a compander. 

The annoying amplification of noise is not a deal breaker by any means; but is a real pain at times."

 Overall, he likes it for the features and despite the shortcoming mentioned above.

Baofeng UV-82: Batteries

What is 1000 mAh among friends?

AliExpress and eBay say that the UV-82 has an 1800 mAh battery.

Martyn says his are 2800 mAh.

Hans want to know for sure.

Baofeng UV-82: Yahoo Group

In case you were afraid there wouldn't be one... a UV-82 Yahoo Group.