Video over Cat5

While working on my audio, I was reading in forums about video over Cat5. This sounded like a great idea to me as my experiments with video over 2.4 GHz wireless were pretty poor. However, there were mixed reviews on some of the forums. So, I decided to wire in Cat5 from our TV/TiVo to our bedroom on the other side of the house because it was easy to do while I was doing the other wiring. I was reluctant to buy the components online as I'd have trouble returning them if I didn't like the results. I saw that my least favorite store, Fry's, seemed to have similar components, but was always out of what I wanted. On one trip to Fry's (I was looking for a punch down block which you can't really find elsewhere), I found the parts I needed made by Unicom Electric. I hooked everything up when I got home and was amazed that the quality was pretty good given the distance and conversions (I got the S-video modules; my TiVo outputs S-video, but my upstairs TV only has an RCA connection, so I needed another adapter). That was great for audio/video, but what about controlling the TiVo? I had already hooked up the TiVo to the audio system and the audio system will repeat IR signals from all the volume controls. Perfect! The next question was, did I have to point the remote at the wall which was behind me? Well, the Harmony 520 remote I bought has an IR signal so powerful, that I aim it at the TV and it seems to bounce around the room and hit the volume control.I'm extremely pleased with this. At first, my wife always thinks I'm crazy with my gadgets and technology stuff, but when she actually gets to use them, she changes her mind pretty quickly. We can now watch TiVo in our bedroom which is great for when my wife falls asleep before me.

Received my new phone!

The UPS guy shows up with my new phone. I open the box and found my new Samsung A940 phone. Wait a second, I ordered a Samsung A900. I could almost understand if I ordered on the phone, but I ordered on the website and got confirmation:

YOUR ORDER:
Phone(s) and Accessories:
PCS Phone by MM-A900 by Samsung®
Price: $349.99
Quantity: 1
Subtotal: $349.99

So I call Sprint, tell "Richard" that I ordered a Samsung A900 yesterday and received a Samsung A940 today; did he see a problem with this? He said no. So I had to explain the problem to him. He couldn't contact anyone so he'll send me a return kit for the phone and order an A900 for me, but I won't get credited for the 940 until they receive it. That's fine, my credit card bill doesn't come for a few weeks, so I'll dispute the charge if need be. What a hassle; this is after spending 40 minutes this morning getting a tracking number for the phone.

As I said before, the saga continues...

Phone obsession

I my desire to get the new Samsung MM-A900 phone, I've been dutifully checking HowardForums and SprintUsers. I saw this morning that the phone was available on Sprint's website, so I ordered it. One poster reminded me that if you give Sprint your current phone number, they do weird things to your bill when buying a new phone. Basically, they post a credit for the amount they charge to your credit card to your account and then bill the phone to your account. Last time they did this, I got a major headache trying to figure out why my bill was screwed up. So, I didn't enter my Sprint number and hopefully I'll have the phone soon.One trick, however, is that the new phone is a Power Vision (fast data) phone, but I already have unlimited Vision, text messaging, and picture mail on my account. From what I've read, Sprint says you have to give up the free stuff and get a Power Vision plan. On the other side of the fence is people that say Sprint will just swap phones if you call them; further reading suggests that the call center has a different system than the stores and the stores can't do the swap without changing the plan. I'm not out to cheat Sprint, I just want to switch phones and have the same functionality I currently have. Is that too much to ask?The saga continues...

Upgraded my server

Yesterday I received email that the OS my server was running (Fedora Core 3) was going to be put on legacy status and only security updates would be posted or something like that. Normally I don't like to do major upgrades on my server as I always spend tons of time futzing. However, in order to get bug fixes and such, I had to upgrade. So I followed the directions on upgrading to Fedora Core 4. It downloaded 420 MB of stuff, installed, and rebooted without a problem. I had to do a few minor tweaks to get MRTG working again as well as MySQL with PHP (old configuration file had to be removed), but other than that, things went smoothly. I got new versions of lots of stuff, but I'm not sure any of it will be all that helpful to me. At least I know that I'll be getting updates for awhile. (Fedora Core 3 has been out for about a year, so it was probably about time for me to upgrade.)