The Lance J. Technoweb

A few quick updates. I ended up moving my backboard from a location that was impeded by plumbing to a more accessible spot.  This change does mean extending some cables, but access to my backboard panel and power will be far easier.  It's a big win. Speaking of the backboard, I have an 8 port network switch mounted, along with a PoE injector and a giant amplified cable TV splitter.  I also mounted a power strip, which I might later replace with a UPS.  I don't plan to mount any more equipment in the short term.  I Now that my backboard has moved 8 feet away, I needed a way to drag over a dozen+ cables over 8 feet away, and most need to be extended.  Extending is easy with couplers, and  I figured my best solution for dealing with the extra cabling is to use a cable tray. Cable trays are not inexpensive (they are not free), so instead I have gutted an old light fluorescent light fixture and am using the steel housing as a poor man's cable tray.  I ...

Lots of tech things have come to an end, but some things still live on even though they feel like they should have come to an end. Our classic analog broadcast TV system here in the US ended about 10 years ago after a 70 year run, although many US cable TV companies embarrassingly still use it to transfer video to millions of customers despite its poor quality and inefficiency.  After all, US cable TV companies don't want to replace their profitable-but-obsolete systems. FAX machines seem dead, but due to the poor security of software services, coupled with a lack of legal privacy protections, FAX machines are still a staple within the medical and legal businesses. But mobile phone tech?  Yeah, that's dying on a schedule, as cell phone tech in the US is centrally controlled by the telecom oligarchy of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.  So given industry clout, some old and not-so-old iPhones are going to be unusable on US phone networks. The Retiring iPhones Apple made a b...

I've had a Roomba for a long time, and it's fair to ask why.  A robot vacuum cleaner seems expensive and fragile and gimmicky, but in my case Roomba is an incredible money-and-space saver. I live in a small apartment with a pet.  I have very little storage space, and I certainly have no room for a traditional bulky vacuum cleaner.  So instead I have a Roomba vacuum cleaner. Roomba as my only vacuum cleaner?  Hardly. You might now be thinking that a Roomba is not an all-purpose vacuum, and you're right.  A Roomba cannot vacuum everything, as it is restricted to the floor.  It can't clean stairs or under some furniture or the tops of the baseboard or under the oven.  So for those jobs, I have a higher-end handheld lithium-powered Dustbuster . Yes, I vacuum my place exclusively with a Roomba and a Dustbuster, and I've been doing this for many years. And now you're thinking I'm very nuts.  HOLD ON. Life with "Roombie and Dusty" My Roomba (a 500-series...

I recycle a lot of stuff that comes into my house, but I don't recycle everything.  Here is my rule: "If I don't know with confidence that it is recyclable, it goes in the trash". "Trash" in my area isn't as bad as others.  Where I live, trash is processed.  Valuables like metals are pulled out, and the remaining stuff is turned to energy.  Although incineration does release CO2, the same amount of CO2 is release when putting trash in the ground. After the incineration process, the more metals are pulled out of the ash, and the ash is turned into bricks for capping old landfills. Each locality has its own rules on what to recycle because each recycling facility has specific technical capabilities.  And these abilities can change over time.  So therefore, my first job is to pay attention to the current rules. Without overriding the rules, here's what I generally do where I live: Food containers I generally recycle food containers made out of cardboard...

Wow, it was a big WWDC keynote. Supported Hardware: Good and Bad First, the best news: Basically all devices that can run iOS, iPadOS, and TVOS version 13 will also be able to run version 14.  That's great news, as our good hardware will be able to continue with their useful lives. But in some disappointing news, WatchOS 7 will kill off the Series 1 and Series 2 watches.  Trust me, I appreciate that old hardware is hard to keep running forever.  Hardware doesn't improve with age, especially in a highly integrated device like a watch.  Still, it will be a shame to see all those old watches heading towards the recycle bin in the next five years.  Seiko's business model looks worse than ever. Similarly, MacOS v11 kills off all the 2012 Macs.  There are a lot of them, but I guess the writing was on the wall.  So they'll get a couple more years of updates, and then people will have to do something else with them.  Happily, these old beasts can easily r...

I've decided to power ahead in some areas, but to limit my spending. My main goal now is wiring, and not buying equipment that I won't need within the next six months... or that I might never need. Here are the details: Television At first I was going to buy an HDTV Streaming box with a large OTA TV antenna mounted in the attic.   I was getting excited and putting all sorts of stuff into my Amazon and eBay carts.  But I'm not nearly ready to start watching more TV in my house, and so I've decided to delay any TV-related purchasing decisions for now. Instead of buying new equipment, I'm just going to plan for possibilities.  That means prepping the building with appropriate cabling.   I learned that all of my major local TV stations are nearby (within 8 miles), and all the "weak and missing" TV stations are pointless IRN stations ("infomercial/religious/nut-job").  Furthermore, all the "weak" stations will be in the fringe even if ...

A few new ideas and discoveries In the Attic I was in the attic today just to further understand the current state of things. First, I found and removed a cable TV splitter that was up in the attic, so now my attic cable TV cabling issues are likely solved.  I still need to prove that the cables are OK with my tester, but my guess is that everything is good. It seems like I can easily run cables up from the basement via the plumbing chase.  In either case, I need to clean out the attic area and dress up the current cables emanating from the plumbing chase. I'm imagining sticking a 1 inch flex conduit down here, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.  I need to better inspect the chase, and it's in a challenging spot both int he basement and in the attic. I plan to install a 6-position keystone plate on a low voltage frame in the attic.  This will operate as a "mini patch panel" in the attic.   I'll stick with the current "one ethernet, one coax...