04 January 2009
Linkpost: 01/04/09
- Obama the Magic Negro-gate (Larry Elder, IBD)
- A show that Springer couldn't even conceive (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Continuing to unwrap the gift of the governor (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- For sheer brazenness, nobody surpasses Rod (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Rapid streetcar (Intermodality) The streetcars in Prague were remarkably effective, a nice complement to the subway. They would make much more sense in Houston than robbing busy traffic corridors of lanes just for the sake of having a token train, but of course the toy train fans won't concede this point.
- A new streetcar era? (Intermodality)
- Andrea Ristorante Italiano (Alison Cook, Houston Chronicle) It sounds like a cool place to visit when the chef is there, but since it's impossible to know this, the place won't be on my 2009 to-do list.
- TV-Radio Notebook: KGOW strikes blow in recent ratings (David Barron, Houston Chronicle) Most local radio is unlistenable, but Lance and John are very listenable.
- 2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved (Christopher Booker, Telegraph) I seem to have missed this on Eric Berger's blog.
- Shanahan should be Cowboys’ next coach (Randy Galloway, FWST) Agreed.
- BCS has ruined New Year's Day (Michael Wilbon, WaPo) The old system produced crappy games too, so the real complaint seems to be that not all the games are on the same day anymore.
- Waking from lever-lever land (Spengler, Asia Times)
- new @ rainbow lodge (I'm Never Full) Nearly orgasmic garnish?
- Frequent Flier - Finding What Makes Happy People Happy (Greg Hicks, NY Times) I could be happy doing what this guy does!
- Hi, I'm a frequent-flier addict (Michael Whitley, LA Times) The trick is to fly enough to attain status AND to have some fun going to new places. Some people confuse ends and means.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/04/09 21:23 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
31 December 2008
Bye bye 2008
That's just about enough of 2008.
On to 2009!
Happy New Year's everyone.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/31/08 23:08 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)
27 December 2008
A few Prague photos posted
In mid-December, Callie and I spent a few days in Prague with our friend Ethan.
I've finally posted some of the photos here.
Prague was well worth visiting, and surprisingly affordable for Europe. Highlights included:
- A visit to the Orthodox Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, where the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich hid out and then took their own lives rather than perish at the hands of the Nazis.
- An exhibit put on by the Vaclav Havel Library near the Kafka Museum. We spent hours there, pretty much to ourselves.
- Wenceslas Square, where the Velvet Revolution culminated
- The Old Town
- The Castle
- Czech ghoulash and beers at some hole-in-the-wall pub on the way down from the Castle (yum!)
- Dinner on our last night at Maze, a Gordon Ramsay restaurant that was fantastic.
We stayed at the Hotel Metropol, which was smallish but suited our needs perfectly (right down to the complimentary high speed internet). We splurged on a ride to/from the airport -- the young lady (Alena) with this service did a great job, so give her a shout if you're hitting the Prague airport.
I would definitely hit Prague again, although preferably sans the cold I came down with towards the end.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/27/08 13:09 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (4)
24 December 2008
Merry Christmas...
or whatever you celebrate.
:)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/24/08 20:27 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)
22 December 2008
Linkpost: 12/22/08
- Governor waxes poetic, but Combine rolls on (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Got corruption? Get Jesse Junior G-Man (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Advice for Obama (Karl Rove, WSJ)
- As emailer Steve Jacobsen asks... (Brothers Judd)
how many reporters does it take to not ask the Unicorn Rider any questions he doesn't feel like ...
- Shadowed by $200 oil (Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle)
It’snot [sic] too early to talk about the prospect of $200 oil.
Yes it is. - Chris Bell to run for two offices at the same time? (Perry vs World) Onion-like! Nicely done.
- What’s next up for Mayor Bill White? (Miya Shay, West U Examiner)
If the leading Democrats in Harris County got their way, Bill White would run for governor. Actually, they wanted him to run for governor two years ago, when Chris Bell’s campaign put up decent numbers, despite being woefully underfunded.
Decent numbers? He couldn't outdraw a corpse! Maybe he'll take back over this column soon, though. That would be a win. - If I have to, I'll write about Chris Bell's defeat (Burka Blog)
The problem with the Democratic party, in Texas and throughout the Southern states, is that, even though the Republicans have had such a terrible three years that many R’s have abandoned the party, the Democrats are not credible enough to win over these newly minted independents. Few voters had any incentive to go vote for Bell. On top of that, the Democrats have very little consultant talent. The people involved in the Bell race were not even second-tier. The mail was terrible. The message was missing. And there is no first tier.
Ouch. - Who moved my train? (Intermodality)
If we get what we’ve been promised, we’ll have one of the best transit systems in the country.
Sometimes, cheerleaders wave the pom poms so hard they seem to come up short of oxygen! - What were they thinking with these hires? (Pat Forde, ESPN.com) H/T to Alex for this one. How Mike Leach or Turner Gill (or even Kevin Wilson or Brent Venables) didn't get harder looks over some of these hires is astounding.
- College football: Meyer’s dream a slap in the face to Florida (Mike Bianchi, Daily Oklahoman)
- UH holds off Toledo 71-63 in men's hoops (Houston Chronicle) Penders has himself a nice little team that just keeps improving. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.
- Dallas Cowboys' Phillips takes another step toward firing line (Jean-Jacques Taylor, DMN) Yes, this whole underachieving staff deserves to be fired. But so long as Jerruh hires another yes man, what will it matter? Unless you're bringing Bill Cowher on board, might as well keep this group of underachievers.
- Cowboys close down stadium, season's next (Matt Mosley, ESPN.com)
- Cupcakes for everyone! Wade Phillips will be back next season! (Jennifer Floyd Engel, FWST)
- It’s time for Jerry Jones to fire himself (Randy Galloway, FWST) Yeah, well, that's not happening.
- Hey, Marshall Faulk, shut up and watch the game (Randy Galloway, FWST) THAT is a spanking.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/22/08 07:48 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 December 2008
Linkpost: "Back but no time to catch up" edition
I've been back a few days, but the combination of lots of work and a bug I picked up towards the end of my trip have kept me away from my blog(s) and twitter. Here's a quick dump to clear the backlog a bit. :)
- The price of oil returns to 'normal' (Terence Corcoran, National Post) Wouldn't it be great if all those journalists who were citing Matthew Simmons and T. Boone Pickens and the other Peak Oil Cultists this summer would do followup stories now, and quote those guys?
- Most Likely to Succeed (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker)
- The Case Against Blogs and Twitter (Patrick Ruffini, The Next Right) I have to admit that Twitter is one of the more fun net things since.... I used to play around with IRC. Now, whether it's a tool that's great for politics and policy (instead of simply being fun)... is an open question in my mind.
- What would a Republican "green" agenda look like? (Christopher Beam, Slate) Conservatives my age and younger will have to take the lead on this. The older white guy Republicans just don't care. Those of us who regularly treat the outdoors as an extra room already agree with much that is here.
- The Enduring Worth of Compassionate Conservatism (Michael Gerson, WaPo) The phrase will have to be ditched. Third-Way Conservatism, not so much.
- TSA Aiding Luggage Thieves (Bruce Schneier) TSA is the joke that many of us thought it would become. These days, it's more of a glorified jobs program than it is a security program.
- Will 'feditis' spread to Obama and Daley? (John Kass, Chicago Tribune) Every city should have a muni columnist like John Kass, but not many do. Houston certainly falls way short with its Plagiarist and Teen Diarist.
- Man behind curtain is wizard of Rod, Rahm (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- By Chicago standards, Blagojevich isn't crazy (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- He's the clown, but joke's on us (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- A novel way to tackle Pakistan (Sreeram Chaulia, Asia Times)
- The failed Muslim states to come (Spengler, Asia Times)
- Pakistan groups banned but not bowed (Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times)
- Pakistan's top general reins in own Army (Mark Sappenfield & Issam Ahmed, CSM)
- Kidnapping of US antikidnapping consultant rattles Mexico (Sara Miller Llana, CSM) Kidnapping Consultant FAIL.
- Bolivia's divisions herald more turmoil (Daniel Schweimler, BBC News)
- After we were so rudely interrupted (Economist) Bad news for Bangladesh.
- Rod Blagojevich, the Stupidest Governor in the Country, Puts Obama in a Bad Light (Michael Barone, US News)
- BBTROE: Govern, don’t just rule (Lone Star Times)
- BBTROE: Address GOP-gap with Hispanic & younger voters (Lone Star Times)
- BBTRO: Focus on the economy (Lone Star Times)
- BBTROE: Appeal to the Critical Middle (David Benzion, Lone Star Times)
- BBTROE: Educate GOP Base re: danger of TX going way of CO (Lone Star Times)
- Storm-ravaged Galveston faces 'disaster tourism' dilemma (TJ Aulds, Galveston County Daily News)
- You're going to miss us when we're gone (MeMo) We? Umm, I would miss the sort of hard news that increasingly is being replaced with efforts to appeal to demographic groups (Jeff Cohen's approach) and with "fact check" editorializing and the like. But the "we" that is MeMo's domain -- fluff -- not so much. Hell, Chron.com already IS that.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/08 07:46 | Links | Technorati | Comments (5)
10 December 2008
Radio Silence
I'm heading away for a few days (assuming the wintry weather lets me).
Net access will be sporadic at best, and I won't be updating here. Maybe a random tweet, we'll see. See ya next week!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/10/08 15:32 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
07 December 2008
Linkpost: 12/07/08
- Insanely Great: What if Steve Jobs ran one of the Big Three auto companies? (Robert Cringely, PBS.org) This isn't as "out there" as it sounds. If any of the Big Three hope to survive as anything but a ward of the state, they need to start thinking this creatively.
- Bridge Loan to Nowhere (WSJ)
- India Is a Key Ally in the War on Terror (Douglas Feith, WSJ)
- An Enduring Crisis for the Black Family (Kay Hymowitz, WaPo)
- Who is the Real 'Dumbest Generation'? (Neil Howe, WaPo)
- This Wasn't Quite the Change We Pictured (David Corn, WaPo)
- Infighting in the making (Dick Morris & Eileen McGann, Boston Herald)
- Meet Obama's New Hero: Hillary Clinton (Dana Milbank, WaPo)
- Skepticism on climate change (Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe)
- Where did the illegals go and why? (James Jay Carafano)
- What would Jesus have to say about illegal immigration? (Bill King, Houston Chronicle) Edd Hendee and Pat Gray won't like this.
- Endorsement watch: Bell again (Off the Kuff)
And if you've got a little spare change that's burning a hole in your pocket, you can make a donation to Team Bell. Whatever you can do to help, please do it.
Ah yes, because with Xmas approaching in an economic downturn, surely perennial loser Chris Bell is much more deserving of your spare change than, say, the truly needy. - Give (Lose an Eye, it's a Sport)
If you have some extra change this Holiday Season and can donate to Star of Hope I encourage you to do so. You can do it online Here.
That is, if you have any extra change after donating to perennial loser Chris Bell. - Internet Allsorts (By The Bayou) A local lefty blogger prone to emotional outbursts on the topic of religion cites respected columnist Dan Henninger's column on religion and virtue as an example of "batshit crazy opinion." Errm, okee!
- Big 12 South rises again as Oklahoma takes title (Kevin Sherrington, DMN)
- Oklahoma ends debate with Big 12 title (Jerome Solomon, Houston Chronicle) Not really. Texas had/has a legitimate argument that they deserved to be in the Big 12 title game, and might also have blown out Mizzou. Mack Brown went overboard with the whining, though.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/07/08 16:16 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 December 2008
Linkpost: 12/05/08
- God, Man, and the Ballot Box (Reuel Marc Gerecht, The American)
- Back to the old 9/11 days (Victor Davis Hanson, RCP)
- Detroit's Delusion (Daniel Gross, Newsweek)
- The Latest Song of Detroit (Paul Ingrassia, WSJ)
- Big Three Spending Millions On Lobbying, Auto Makers Drowning In Red, But Still Give Nearly 50 Million Dollars To Politicians (CBS News)
- MIA in Mumbai (Edward Luttwak, LA Times)
- Obama's Not-So-Bold Job-Creation Promise (George Will, WaPo)
- Why Charlie Rangel Is Still Smiling (Steve Kornacki, The New York Observer)
- Next major Android handset revealed: the Agora (CrunchGear) Sweet! Where is the Sprint Android device?
- Slogan Fail It's a fail worthy of Biden.
- PolitickerTX
- Mayor touts plan for $7M pedestrian bridge with a twist (Bradley Olson, Houston Chronicle) Who cares about the name (except the local lockstep left blogosphere)? It's FUGLY.
- New DA Fires 6 Prosecutors (Phil Archer, KPRC-2 News)Surely people didn't expect reform as opposed to spite and vindictiveness from Pat Lykos?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/08 21:36 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 December 2008
Linkpost: 12/03/08
- The Bailout So Far (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- Nationalize GM (Dan Neil, LA Times) There's a great idea. Why not nationalize newspapers and magazines while we're at it?
- What's Good for GM Could Be Good for America (William McGurn, WSJ)
- Poll's shocking SOS for Texas GOP (Rod Dreher, DMN)
- Closet centrist (Michael Gerson, WaPo)
- Continuity We Can Believe In (David Brooks, NY Times)
- He doesn't really say anything, but he must share my vision (Brothers Judd)
- Media Narratives Feed Terrorist Fantasies (Bret Stephens, WSJ)
- Bad CAIR Day (Frank J. Gaffney, NRO)
- The sovereignty dodge: What Pakistan won't do, the world should (Robert Kagan, WaPo)
- America's diminishing role in Iraq (Jane Arraf, CSM)
- Thailand court dissolves governing party, sanctions premier (Paul Watson, LA Times)
- Court brings down Thai government (Shawn Crispin, Asia Times)
- The conspiracy theory on BCS (John Rohde, Daily Oklahoman)
- Human element is a bug in BCS system (Gil LeBreton, FWST)
- Seven Things We'll Miss About The Houston Comets (Hair Balls)
- Treo 800w Hack: Enable MMS in Palm Threaded Messaging (WMExperts) Nice!
- 646944 (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport)
- Nice Texans Battle Red Day victory; I need your help for a more important battle (Texans Chick)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/03/08 22:26 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
01 December 2008
Linkpost: 12/01/08
- Saving Detroit (Robert Cringely, PBS.org)
- A Car Wreck Made in Washington (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- America's Other Auto Industry (WSJ)
- Our friends in Bombay (Christopher Hitchens, Slate)
- It’s Not the Cold War (Mark Steyn, NRO)
- Al Qaeda "hijack" led to Mumbai attack (Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times)
- Making Sense of the Mumbai Attacks: In the Triangle of Terror (Spiegel)
- Mumbai attacks pose test for India (Mark Sappenfield, CSM)
- Systemic failure seen in India's response to attacks (Mark Magnier, LA Times)
- Thailand crashes and burns (Shawn Crispin, Asia Times)
- Political crisis ripples across Thai economy (Bettina Wassener, IHT)
- Robert Mundell’s New Wisdom (Larry Kudlow, NRO)
- The Krugman Recipe for Depression (Amity Shlaes, WSJ)
- Obama's one-trick wizards (Spengler, Asia Times)
- Obama's small-donor 'myth' (Andrew Malcolm, LA Times)
- Democrats may tax health benefits (Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe)
- Artifact - Personal Ads From an Ayn Rand Fan Dating Site (New York Mag) Randroids and relationships always has high entertainment potential!
- NFL Tie-Breaking Procedures Brent Musberger made a really good point during the Bedlam game when he said that he didn't like the BCS ranking deciding a conference tie, and that he would prefer a system that stays inside the conference. He's right -- why turn over your conference tie breaker to dumb voters OR computers? Go with some variant of the NFL tie breaking rules, which would be preferable to the Big 12's current tiebreaker AND to that self-serving tiebreaker Mack Brown offered up (which still depends on the BCS, but in a way that would favor his team).
- Politicking doesn’t save Texas in BCS standings (Jake Trotter, Daily Oklahoman) Mack Brown's whinging was kind of pathetic. Check that -- it was really pathetic.
- Sooners take high road to Kansas City (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman)
- A Harris Interactive poll head-scratcher (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman)
- Strength of schedule carries the day for Sooners (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman)
- Here’s a new twist to the Big 12 South champion debate (Jimmy Burch, FWST)
- Oklahoma advances to Big 12 title game, but little was gained from BCS input (Jimmy Burch, FWST)
- Whine All You Want, Longhorn Fans (Ballz)
- League president says Comets franchise disbanding (Jenny Dial, Houston Chronicle) League president? There is still a league?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/08 23:10 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
Pylon FAIL
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/01/08 21:48 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
27 November 2008
Happy Thanksgiving
The relative calm of Oklahoma has been nice over the last few days, compared to the madness of the big city.
Today, I give thanks for Greenberg smoked Turkey, Dallas Cowboys football, and family -- not necessarily in that order. :)
Here's wishing everyone a good turkey day!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/27/08 08:04 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 November 2008
Mumbai attacks
I'm streaming this site and following realtime updates on Twitter.
Talk about the net changing everything...
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/26/08 13:00 | International | Technorati | Comments (0)
25 November 2008
Linkpost: 11/25/08
- The beginnings of a disintegrating China - Part I (David DuByne, Online Opinion)
- The beginnings of a disintegrating China - Part II (David DuByne, Online Opinion)
- Civically Illiterate (Joseph Lawler, TAS)
- A Libertarian Defense of Social Conservatism (Randall Hoven, American Thinker)
- The Fed Is Out of Ammunition (Christopher Wood, WSJ)
- Paulson's True Successor (John Berlau, TAS)
- Kids need more than "happiness" (Ruben Navarrette, RCP)
- Our Hapless Automakers (Irwin Stelzer, Weekly Standard)
- Change Our Public Schools Need (Terry Moe, WSJ)
- Election Fraud in Nicaragua (Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ)
- Iraq's new dawn (Michael Yon, NY Post)
- $280,000 per job (Greg Mankiw)
- Is that what Doug Kmiec meant by our Catholicest president ever? (Brothers Judd)
- Rant on, brother: Why WM still rules mobile podcasts (Phil Nickinson, WMExperts) Yes, but Apple just works. Except when it doesn't work as well and isn't as configurable as WM.
- A shocking confession (By the Bayou) Apple just works. But sometimes, the better tool for the job works better.
- Mayor: News coverage killed recovery committee (Leigh Jones, Galveston County Daily News) What can happen when a community newspaper explores connections and engages in watchdog journalism.
- Short week? Not worth it (MeMo) It's so stressful when people expect you to do your job. Better to doodle or otherwise avoid.
- Aha! (Fabulous Jen)
What in the hell is the Houston Chronicle still doing in business? I counted three articles today with bad editing and repeated paragraphs...and I only read FIVE articles total.
One wonders at times. - "Socialism" is not the problem (Steve Chapman, RCP)
Obama exhibits blithe confidence in the government's power to take economic problems and make them better. He will fare better if he keeps in mind its unbounded capacity to make things worse.
- Why I give thanks to big government (Elizabeth Rigby, Houston Chronicle) An academic effectively employed by the public sector... loves the public sector. Go figure. But see above.
- Shapleigh: "In my view you miss the point" (Burkablog)
- UT decision to slash jobs is irresponsible, immoral (Dolph Tillotson, Galveston County Daily News) UT is sitting on millions upon millions in its endowment. Why not direct some of it towards quickly rebuilding an important medical resource?
- 36 Hours in Seattle (Matthew Preusch, NY Times) Things to do when you are in Mr. Whitlock's neck of the woods!
- It's time for New Orleans to admit it's a shrinking city, some say (Gordon Russell, New Orleans Times-Picayune)
- Austin fights to keep its reputation as 'live music capital' (Jay Root, AP)
- acruw This is one nice travel affinity program tracker. Good find, Evan!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/25/08 19:04 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
23 November 2008
Linkpost: 11/23/08
- Ten Random, Politically-incorrect Thoughts (Victor Davis Hanson, Pajamas Media)
- World confronts a choice between chaos and order (Philip Stephens, FT)
- Just What This Downturn Demands - A Consumption Tax (Robert Frank, NY Times)
- The Auto Makers Are Already Bankrupt (Paul Ingrassia, WSJ)
- How to get Hispanics into the GOP (Linda Chavez, San Diego Union Tribune)
- While we're happy to have them all on board... (Brothers Judd)
...if your feelings about your country depend on the color of the leader, it's racism, not patriotism.
- Halperin at Politico/USC conf.: 'extreme pro-Obama' press bias (Alexander Burns, Politico)
- The Insider’s Crusade (David Brooks, NYT)
And yet as much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition.
Resent them? This populist routine might be more convincing if Brooks weren't one of the biggest metrosexual elitist types going -- and with a U Chicago degree to boot! Nothing wrong with any of that, but Brooks is not exactly a populist or a common man. - Is it OK to be liberal again, instead of progressive?(Michael Lind, Salon) Knock yourselves out!
- Success in Iraq (Michael Gerson, WaPo)
- Obama Looks to Axe Daylight Time -- NYT Explains Why (Eugene Sandhu, Green Daily) DST needs to go the way of the 55 MPH speed limit.
- Al Qaeda Detainees and Congress's Duty (Michael Mukasey, WSJ)
- Obama's Senate Play (Kimberley Strassel, WSJ)
- The Waxman Democrats (WSJ)
- Obama may delay tax-cut rollback for wealthy (Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters) Change!
- Is Obama embarking on Bill Clinton's third term? (Austin Hill, Town Hall)
- Austin fights to keep its reputation as 'live music capital' (Jay Root, AP)
- Facebook in a Crowd (Hal Niedzviecki, NY Times)
- Oklahoma's message soundly delivered with destruction of Texas Tech (AP) Boomer Sooner!
- Brine-inebriated bird a perfect holiday guest (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Google, It Wasn’t Broke (Michael Arrington, Tech Crunch)
- New Gmail Security Flaw. More Domains Get Stolen! (MakeUseOf.com)
- An Effort by Deep-Sea Divers to Repair a New York Water Tunnel (Ken Belson, NY Times) Fascinating.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/23/08 16:39 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
Ten Second Review: AT&T U-Verse
Wednesday, I had AT&T U-Verse IPTV and internet installed, with the goal of ditching my Dish Network/Comcast Internet combo if everything worked satisfactorily.
I'm really pleased with the U-Verse service so far, and canceled the Dish/Comcast combo over the weekend.
Here are some quick thoughts comparing U-Verse and Dish/Comcast:
Video: The quality of the Dish HD streams is a little higher than the AT&T HD streams -- but only slightly (probably not discernible to many), and neither is quite as good as OTA HD; the U-Verse SD streams seem a little better than Dish. The nearly instantaneous channel change of U-Verse beats the 2-3 second lag of Dish. I liked the Dish programming guide a little better, but that's subjective. I had comparable channel lineups with both services (although the Dish Sirius radio channels were better than whatever service U-Verse uses). I have noticed an occasional stutter with the U-Verse stream, but I also had occasional stutters with Dish (more frequent during heavy rain, which obviously won't be a problem with U-Verse), so that's a wash. I initially had some sporadic audio issues with my Toshiba HDTV hooked to U-Verse DVR via HDMI cable, but fiddling with the Toshiba settings resolved the problem.
DVR: Dish has a GREAT DVR, with really good program guide info and scheduling of recordings. U-Verse DVR is close (including a 30 second advance/7 second rewind popularized by Dish), but scheduling series recording is a bit buggy (Dish was GREAT at recording new shows only; U-Verse DVR seems to miss some new shows, so it's wise to set it to record all). The ability to schedule a recording over the web is a big plus for U-Verse, though. Both systems allow for a remote television to watch recorded DVR programs.
Streams: U-Verse allows for four video streams (2 HD) at once at this time (that's an increase over what was initially offered, and could easily increase if AT&T fattens their pipe). Dish two-room DVR allows for two streams total plus one OTA stream if you have an antenna connected. Advantage U-Verse.
Internet: I signed up for the U-Verse 6M/1M service (they now offer 10M and 18M down). The connection has been rock solid and right up to spec, with consistent speeds and consistent ping times at different times of the day. The 2Wire residential gateway provided by AT&T is highly configurable -- after suffering a few wifi disconnect/reconnects, I changed the broadcast channel and it has worked well since. The Comcast Powerboost feature was nice, but the U-Verse overall performance seems more consistent/stable. And for people who want to pay for much more speed, it's available.
Installation: My installation window was 2-4 pm. The tech called just before 3pm and said he was on his way. He arrived at 3pm, scoped out my wiring situation, and by 4:30pm, the install was complete and I had a working system. The tech tapped into my existing coax cable wiring, which is effectively being used as the IPTV network through the townhouse, so my install was pretty easy (no new wiring required). The tech was pleasant, and it was interesting chatting with him about the technology.
Price: The U-Verse package beats the Dish/Comcast combo by about $20/month, which is pretty sweet. There was also a $200 rebate promotion when I signed up.
As I said above, I'm really pleased with the switch so far (although I had no real complaints with Dish/Comcast). I'll update the post if any issues pop up along the way.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/23/08 12:25 | Tech | Technorati | Comments (2)
20 November 2008
Linkpost: 11/20/08
- Detroit DIP (NRO)
- Mad Max and the Meltdown (Daniel Henninger, WSJ)
- Let Detroit Go Bankrupt (Mitt Romney, NY Times) Where was this Mitt Romney during the primaries?
- Tarp the TARP (Larry Kudlow, TCS)
- Obama Hears a Giant Sucking Sound (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- How Obama can energise the economy (Glenn Hubbard, FT)
- Paulson, Bernanke, and Congress on the Bailout: Incompetence All Around (Michael Barone, US News)
- Debt Man Walking (John Judis, TNR)
- Indian frigate destroys 'mothership' as raids off Somalia continue (Xan Rice, Guardian) Maybe the President-elect will get around to calling India, one day.
- The loose-lipped ship (Brothers Judd)
- Citysearch remakes itself into 75,000 neighborhood guides (Jefferson Graham, USA Today)
- Pacman Jones isn’t worth all this fuss (Randy Galloway, FWST) No, he was not. The Cowboys are stuck with PacMan and Jerruh, and the Jones they need (Felix) is out for the season. Great.
- Texas Tech’s defensive boss shortchanged by Texas Longhorns love-in (Jennifer Floyd Engel, FWST)
- Exploring in Houston (Steve MacNaull, Canadian Press)
- FAIL Funniest blog EVAH!
- Not Enough Indians: Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang's -$20 billion legacy (Robert Cringely, PBS.org)
- Blog postings holler for Smith’s removal (John McClain, Houston Chronicle) Inane columns about reader comments? Pathetic. Once again, you get better analysis of the Texans from Stephanie Stradley than any writer employed by the Chron.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/20/08 22:16 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
18 November 2008
Linkpost: 11/08/08
- Wall Street Lays Another Egg (Niall Ferguson, Vanity Fair)
- Why Detroit Needs Chapter 11 (Martin Feldstein, WaPo)
- Let the Automakers Go Bankrupt (George Will, WaPo)
- Deprogramming Jihadists (Katherine Zoepf, NY Times)
- The Test Passes, Colleges Fail (Peter Salins, NYT)
- A Critic in Full: A Conversation with Tom Wolfe (Carol Iannone, NAS)
- Double standards and the Roman predicament (Brothers Judd)
- Our Spendthrift States Don't Need a Bailout (Steve Malanga, WSJ)
- 'No Excuses' for Liberals (Bret Stephens, WSJ)
- 'No' to Obama's experimental government (Jonah Goldberg, LA Times)
- Infrastructure Spending to Nowhere (Rich Lowry, NRO)
- The iPhone Intervention (John Carnett, Popular Science) Apple just works. Unless you want to use the phone to make a call.
- Will and Mack Mack Brown's new successor-designate (wth?!) has mastered the head coach's "I think I'll take a dump on the sideline" look.
- ‘A Matter of the People’: Careening towards chaos in Caracas (John Thomson, NRO)
- Iraq 'Fails' Upward (WSJ)
- Texas Sen. John Cornyn chosen to lead National Republican Senatorial Committee (Todd Gillman, DMN) He ran such an impressive campaign this time (impersonating Ansel Adams!) that the GOP is going to let him spread the magic. Genius!
- Galveston's Road to Recovery (Erik Runge, WOAI)
- Houston Texans defense: The NFL's worst over the last 4 years (TexansChick) Chron cheerleader Jerome Solomon said Richard Smith isn't the problem. A blogger rebuts that cheerleader silliness. Stephanie Stradley consistently provides better analysis than anyone at the Chronicle who writes about the Texans.
- Post-Game Breakdown: It's Broke, So Why Aren't They Trying To Fix It? (Battle Red Blog)
- VoiceofSanDiego.org is putting local politicians and businesses on the hot seat (Romenesko) Good. Here's hoping Texas Watchdog does the same thing here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/18/08 22:27 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
17 November 2008
Linkpost: 11/17/08
- By Meat Alone: The best Texas BBQ in the world (Calvin Trillin, New Yorker) Heh, Calvin Trillin visits Texas. I love that. Thanks to K for the link!
- Depression 2009: What would it look like? (Drake Bennett, Boston Globe)
- Connections could touch every somebody (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Murdoch to media: You dug yourself a huge hole (Charles Cooper, CNET)
- Obama's Triumph, the GOP's Calamity (John Podhoretz, Commentary)
- Change - How Political Eras End and Begin (Ron Suskind, NY Times)
- Hispanic Panic: Back to square uno para el GOP (Duncan Currie, Weekly Standard)
- Keep the war, lose the rhetoric (David Ignatius, RCP) How about keep the war, offer more intelligible rhetoric?
- Journalists, Glorying in Obama's Moment (Howard Kurtz, WaPo) Oh my goodness -- will this prompt completely self-unaware frothing about Kurtz's hate and partisanship from the hating partisan nacho crowd? *laugh*
- Crisis lets Dems push old agendas (Amity Shlaes, NY Post)
- Freedom agenda in flames (Jackson Diehl, WaPo)
- To Prevent Bubbles, Restrain the Fed (Gerald Driscoll, WSJ)
- The $639 Million Loophole (WSJ)
- In Peru, a Rebellion Reborn (Joshua Partlow, WaPo)
- Peru Economy Grows, But Problems Abound (Joshua Partlow, WaPo)
- Fighting in Congo Despite Rebel Promises to U.N. (Todd Pitman, AP)
- Myanmar: Long sentences for democracy advocates (AP)
- Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Confront a Financial Disaster (Deirdre Tynan, EurasiaNet)
- Georgia: Is Natural Gas the New Weapon in the Conflict Between Tbilisi and Moscow? (Nino Patsuria, EurasiaNet)
- How to steal an election (Economist)
- Beware of a stampede to war (Economist)
- The see-no-evil foreign policy (Economist)
- Among Latin leftists, Brazil's moderate Lula leads the way (Sara Miller Llana, CSM)
- Brazil as a new kind of oil giant (Sara Miller LLana, CSM)
- Latin jitters over Obama's free-trade policies (Sibylla Brodzinsky & Sara Miller Llana, CSM) One can understand jitters given the anti-trade party's big election victory.
- Foreign troops 'drawn into Congo' (BBC News)
- Saudis step into Pakistan's quagmire (Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times)
- The end of an NGO era in Cambodia (Craig Guthrie, Asia Times)
- Pakistan torn over its tribal areas (Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times)
- Kurdistan: The other Iraq (Anna Fifield, FT) Call me weird, but I would love to visit.
- How do you ask the last Kurd to die so the Unicorn Rider can fix W's 'mistake'? (Brothers Judd)
- Prague - Under Wintry Skies, a City Revealed (Evan Rail, NY Times) I can't wait to visit in a few weeks.
- OU football: A look at Texas Tech's ‘genius’ (Jake Trotter, Daily Oklahoman) Coach Leach is the bomb.
- McNabb's reign likely is over (Ashley Fox, Philadelphia Inquirer) People have written off Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb before. But they sure don't look very good right now.
- Rice outrebounded, outplayed by Portland State (Moisekapenda Bower, Houston Chronicle) Good gawd, that lede is awful. It reads like something from a nacho chomper.
- Coordinator isn’t Texans’ largest issue (Jerome Solomon, Houston Chronicle) No -- bad personnel and game management decisions from the head coach are the largest issues. But the D-Coordinator comes right after that. Too bad Chron cheerleaders never want to make a source mad at them by.. say... doing their jobs instead of waving the pom poms.
- Time to gear up for Chris Bell (Off the Kuff) Perennial loser Chris Bell is hard for anybody but true believers to "gear up" for.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/08 22:59 | Links | Technorati | Comments (2)
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