It doesn’t matter really. When a customer gets to the point where they are ready to explode oddly enough, that seems to be when I would show up at their house.

Strange really.

Even stranger, is just how happy and thankful these same people get when someone finally finds and fixes their concern. It’s like night and day. The same person that had so many terrible things to say is trying to shove money in your hand as you are leaving.

That’s where the trouble begins…

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What are they and what do they do?

A RF Signal Amplifier or house amp, is a device used to raise the signal level. They come in all flavors from many different manufacturers and amounts that they amplify. Very often, if you have a large number of television sets you will be using one of these devices. If you ever had Dish Service you may also have one of these in your attached garage or basement. While they are very useful when used properly, they often are the cause of trouble with your television or cable modem.

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At least that’s the technical term for it AFAIK. Now, it must be human nature that whenever electronics that you don’t understand in the first place start acting up you just have to poke at them. The favorite method seems to be to randomly change things and then feign ignorance.

Tech: “Did you do anything recently?”

Cust: “No, it was always like that.”

Tech: “Are you sure, we usually don’t attach the television to the microwave.”

Cust: “Nope, been like that for years. It used to work great!”

OK, I’m not here to throw stones, I’m going to try and help you avoid simple problems with your cable modem that I see over and over (and over) again.

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So many years, so many different systems. One thing that they all have in common is illegal hook-ups. These can range from the downright ugly to very professional. When someone makes one of these connections to steal service they are of course reducing themselves to a mere thief.

But who really pays the price…

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One of the more common problems with cable in underground neighborhoods is damage to the buried cable. There are many reason for this but far and away the most common is something physically striking the cable. Perhaps you or one of your neighbors put a new fence in. Maybe an invisible fence was installed. New sidewalks, driveways or a myriad of things are common culprits. That is why there are programs in place for this very problem.

Call before you dig!

A good practice is to investigate the One Call Centers around the country. While researching this entry I found out something new. The 811 service. This is a handy way to find out contact information for your area. Here’s what happens.

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Now, since I had contacted a number of charter boats in the area I knew that most were booked already. But we got to talking (fishermen just love to talk) and I asked about the charter prices and how the fishing has been. When I heard that people had been catching rockfish (striped bass) I was intrigued. Now, maybe the gods of the committed fisherman were smiling on me. I was standing at the counter when I was told that a cancellation had opened up a morning trip on Sunday.

Interesting… (more…)

Well, last week I got a real eye opener and it was at about 10:30 in the morning.

Anyone that knows me knows that I can be very vocal about idiots that use cell phones while driving. In fact, I sometimes wish the story told by Stephen King in Cell would actually happen to them. They are more than just a nuisance, they should be ticketed more aggressively than the non-seatbelt wearers.

Here is what happened… (more…)

Many times people say that their internet connection is slow. So testing to the point where the fiber gets out of the system and into the world beyond can be very helpful. In my case, it is a matter of testing to NYC or Washington DC depending on where I am at the moment. So periodically I will run tests to one of those two places. Speakeasy just so happens to be in a common physical location for me and gives good results in an overall kind of way. That’s why I added the button to the sidebar. So instead of remembering where I put the *&%@ link, I can just do it here. Maybe it will be helpful to you, maybe not. But I do know it will be helpful to me.

Now, off to do some fishing. Happy Birthday to me! As they say, a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work…

About 3 months ago I bought some Xenoophorus captivus at an auction. They are native to Mexico and listed as endangered on FishBase.org. You can see their geographic location at Jesus Maria google satellite maps if you are at all interested. But what about these Green Goodeid’s already.

OK, lets just say when I got them there were eight. Now there are about twenty-eight. If you have never had live-bearers you don’t know what you are missing. (more…)

So how do things stay running all the time? Quite simply they don’t, they just seem to. For me, tonight is one of those nights … (more…)