I want my ABC

Last week the switch to digital TV finally happened. I thought that I was fully prepared for the change. I convinced my wife to let me buy a 46" LCD TV along with a digital outdoor antenna. I'm too cheap to pay the $5 a month to Dish Network to get local channels that are available for free over the air. Before the DTV transition, everything worked great. I got all the major networks digital broadcast over my antenna. I was kind of shocked to find post transition I am no longer able to get ABC. What is up with that? I did everything on my end to be prepared. Come to find out our local ABC affiliate that broadcasts to about a mere 1,000,000 viewers has not yet upgraded their antenna for the transition. The antenna they used for their analog broadcast was the same one for their digital broadcast. This happens to be the antenna that they turned off on DTV day. While ABC does have an antenna broadcasting in digital, the signal just isn't strong enough to reach most of Silicon Valley. They are in the process of upgrading. My only hope is that they get this resolved before the next season of Lost. I'm one of those few people that still likes to watch TV in real time.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Tweeting My Girl's Birth

This last Sunday my wife gave birth to our daughter Claire. It was an amazing experience and mother & daughter are doing great. This birth was quite a different experience than the birth of my son. One major difference was the way I was able to keep friends and family updated moment by moment through Facebook and Twitter. It started with me posting a few updates once we got to the hospital. After about the third post people were cheering us on. My wife asked me, "You're not going to post everything are you?". I said back to her, "I can't stop now, they're rooting for us." After letting her read peoples comments, she decided to give in to my posting frenzy. It turned out to be really exciting having an online community sharing the experience with us. So, I decided to share the feed here on my blog. Realize that it reads from bottom to top. Enjoy.


Jeff: Thanks for everyone's support. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Goodnight. June 14 at 11:13pm
Michelle: Jeff...that is so awesome! I enjoyed you posting so frequently during her labor...I hope your wife felt the same :) What a beautiful blessing to have a sweet little girl! Can't wait to see pictures...congrats to your family! June 14 at 10:39pm
Jeff: 8.3 lbs 21.5" long. June 14 at 10:38pm
You and Shakeh Angelo like this.
Shakeh Angelo likes this.
Carole at 10:38pm June 14 Big girl! no wonder
Shakeh Angelo at 1:36am June 15 Congrats on #2! Yay!
Mark at 5:14am June 15 Solid...praise God! How's Cristin?
Jeff Yea!! Welcome baby Claire!!!
June 14 at 10:33pm You and Carole like this.
Carole likes this.
Carrie at 10:34pm June 14 it is YAY!!!!
Michelle at 10:50pm June 14 Congratulations Jeff...from Pat and Michelle
Charlie at 11:12pm June 14 Hooray!!!!
Jeff More pushing!!!
June 14 at 10:29pm You like this.
Jeff Spotlight on. Waiting for Claire to make her entrance! She'll be here real soon. Promise!
June 14 at 10:24pm You and Carole like this.
Carole likes this.
Cassandra at 10:27pm June 14 Yeah!!!
Stacy at 10:29pm June 14 I love the play by play. ;) Go Claire go!
Jeff Still waiting. This is one stubborn girl.
June 14 at 10:18pm You like this.
Jeff 14 at 9:42pm
Carrie at 9:59pm June 14 oy! come on claire!!!!
Carole at 10:01pm June 14 oy vay!
Carrie at 10:04pm June 14 seriously!!!!
Jeff Pushing!!!
Carole at 9:30pm June 14 push, push!!!
Lynsey at 9:34pm June 14 ooohhh good! i can't wait to hear the good news!
Cassandra at 9:41pm June 14 How exciting!!!
Jeff Doctors here!!!
Charlie at 9:28pm June 14 anticipation!
Jeff Bearing down! June 14 at 9:26pm
Jeff 8 centimeters!!! Doctors on the way in. June 14 at 9:14pm
Carole at 9:15pm June 14 hang in there! Waiting to hear! Love you!
Cassandra at 9:18pm June 14 Yeah!!!
Jeff It won't be long now. Everyone: push her out, shove her out, way out! June 14 at 8:54pm
Erin at 8:56pm June 14 You can do it Cristin! We love you guys!!!
Anne at 9:08pm June 14 Go Cristin go, push her out, shove her out, waaaaaaay out!!!!!
Charlie at 9:10pm June 14 I keep refreshing my home page to find out the latest from you, Jeff!
Jeff We have water breakage.
June 14 at 8:31pm Erin at 8:34pm June 14 woo hoo!
Anne at 8:36pm June 14 sounds like things are moving along. Praying it goes super smoothly and everyone is healthy!
Stacy at 8:47pm June 14 yay!
Jeff iContraction is a great iPhone App for tracking contractions.June 14 at 7:31pm You like this.
Charlie at 7:33pm June 14 oh my goodness.
Carole at 7:46pm June 14 how's she dong?
Jeff at 7:49pm June 14 She's doing great!
Jeff RT @c: @avman26 are you going to tweet the whole birth??? you are cracking me up!! I'll tweet as much as Cristin will let me.
Jeff 5 centimeters! Wohoo June 14 at 5:49pm
You and Carole like this.
Carole likes this.
Erin at 6:33pm June 14 Finally!! We're praying she comes quick!
Steve at 6:57pm June 14 Good luck hope all is going well !!
Charlie at 7:26pm June 14 go baby go!
Jeff We're at the hospital!!
June 14 at 5:34pm
You and Carrie like this.
Carrie likes this.
Carrie at 5:40pm June 14 YAY!!

Apple iphone available on Sprint and Verizon

Apple's developers conference is this week and they just announced the new version of the iPhone. Unfortunately, the phone is still only available on AT&T's network. This is an ongoing pet peeve of mine. I believe that all phones should be available on all cell networks. I have finally become a fan of an Apple product with the iPod touch and cannot get the iPhone because I'm locked into a contract with Sprint. Whenever I get frustrated with technology limits, I try to find a work around. So yes there is now a way to have an iPhone with Sprint or Verizon. Wel,l sort of...
Both Sprint and Verizon offer a data plan with a new device called a MIFI 2200. This device combines 3G cell network technology with wifi. It allows you to connect up to 5 wifi devices to it. It's battery operated and slim enough to fit in your pocket. The battery lasts 4 hours, but you can extend it to about 14 with a 3rd party battery. Combine the MIFI 2200 with an iPod touch using the Skype app and you now have an iPhone (minus the camera) on a cell network other than AT&T. Now if we can just get the cell companies get rid of their ridiculous 5GB data limits.

Downloading Woe's

I recently decided to download Windows 7 Release Candidate to see what the buzz was about. Since the download is only a measly 3 gigabytes, I decided to let it download overnight. The first attempt got to 99% and then failed. Second attempt, ditto. For the third attempt, I tried using FireFox instead of Internet Explorer 8. I got to 97% and it seemed to stall. I then tried downloading the last 3% from IE8. Success! You would think the company that makes IE and Windows could figure out how to make the one be able to download the other. I still haven't gotten around to installing Windows 7. I'm still recovering from post traumatic download disorder.