Neal Waterstreet

Update – Cutting the cable cord

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It’s been almost 4 months since I cut cable service. At this point I have no regrets at all. The amount of money I save every month more than compensates for the convenience of what I had with cable. Here is an update on some of the concerns I had.

Roku or HTPC
I think it is perfect. I’ve added several channels and some are good, some not. The USB support along with Plex is big. I am also very happy that it continues to receive new channels regularly. PBS/PBS Kids was just added a few weeks ago. I hope many other channels follow in the coming months.

DVR
I was looking at some options, but I was accepted for the beta for Aereo. We are just getting it in Atlanta and it is a game changer. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s similar to having an OTA antenna with DVR support included. Aereo has all of the OTA channels, plus a few that I will probably never watch. The big win here is with the DVR service. It has 20 hours with the base service and 40 hours with the higher level. Roku already has an Aereo channel.

Local channels
Aereo solves this too. The channels look almost as good as OTA and at least equal to what I had with cable. If my ISP goes down, I still have the antenna as a backup.

Overall
I was a little worried that I would spent the money to get everything set up and then go back. I don’t think that will happen at this point. My best estimate is that I spent 2 months in what I had payed in cable to get all the equipment. This includes the Roku, antenna, hard drives, etc… Now my only costs are the streaming fees for Netflix, Amazon Prime and now Aereo. All of this easily totals to less than $20 per month.

I think the set up that I have is simple to put together – if I can do it anyone can. Everything that I have is available out of the box, with a little configuration for Plex and the antenna. There is definitely some functionality that I don’t have that a HTPC would provide, but so far it is more than good enough.

PASS Healthcare VC June Presentation

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Topic: How Data Standardization Impacts Healthcare BI
Attendee Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6285539990531223552
Speaker: Laura Madsen (@lbmadsen)
Date/Time: June 20, 2013 1:00PM EDT

Topic Synopsis:
As Healthcare BI moves forward in its maturity and data sharing is becoming the norm, lack of data standardization is becoming a better known and understood issue.  In this webinar we will discuss the impact that the lack of data standards had on healthcare BI and what BI professionals can do to ease the pain.

Speaker Bio:
Laura Madsen, Author of Healthcare Business Intelligence:  A Guide to Empowering Successful Data Reporting and Analytics, is the BI Evangelist and Healthcare Services Lead at Lancet Software, a BI Consulting firm based in Minneapolis, MN.

Pouring coffee on your laptop checklist

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Just in case you ever pour an entire cup of coffee on your laptop here are a few things to think about.

1. Turn it off immediately. This is the most important thing to remember. Hopefully you won’t just restart your machine like I did. Make sure it is off and disconnect the power supply and the battery. I pulled the power cord but forgot to remove the battery. Ouch.

2. Don’t touch the keyboard. I found this post which details why. I did not realize that the keyboard is designed to help protect the internals. This probably works well unless you try typing and break the seal on the keys like I did.

3. Disassemble it and wipe it down as soon as you can. Do you put sugar and cream in your coffee? In this case I hope not. I didn’t need to worry about that, but it didn’t really matter in the end. Take the laptop apart and break it down as far as you can. Let it dry and don’t mess with it. Even if the laptop is dead you still want the components, right? You can try to clean your keyboard in the dishwasher. I thought it was worth a shot since it was probably ruined anyway.

4. Put it in a bag of rice? I heard about this, but it didn’t work for me. I was very skeptical, but a person I work with had success with it. I had probably done more damage than drying out could help.

5. Wait… Don’t mess with it.

6. It is probably a good time to check your backups. You had them right? I created a backup solution based on Scott Hanselman’s backup strategy. I completed backing everything up just 2 days prior to the spill. I was extremely lucky to have gotten that completed when I did.

7. Wait… Don’t mess with it and don’t try to dry it with a hair dryer.

8. Run a consistency check on the hard drive. My SSD drive was fine – it wasn’t touched, but the HDD was toast. I tried copying the data as I had before but it didn’t go well. Luckily, only applications were on my HDD and those could be reinstalled.

9. Test it. You waited a few days right?

10. If your laptop runs, you may want to back it up right now. I ended up needing a replacement, but on the bright side I now have an extra power supply (sold!), battery and a clean keyboard.

Any other ideas on what I should have done? This must happen to people on flights all the time.

Logitech h800 wireless headset

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I needed a replacement for my computer headset and picked the Logitech h800 wireless headset. So far, so good. The big selling point for me where was that it is wireless using Nano USB and Bluetooth. It is convenient to be able to pair it with a phone or tablet and the process was straightforward and quick.

Pros:
Wireless Bluetooth and Nano USB
Lightweight
Comfortable
Sound quality is very good

Cons:
The microphone is noise canceling, but the headphones are not
The foam feels like it could tear easily

The headphones are rechargeable via micro USB and claim to have a 6 hour charge. I haven’t tested that, but they’ve made it through multiple webinars and phone calls easily. You can also use them while charging.

The controls on the side took a few tries to get used to but are now easy to change. If you get them you might want to get used to them before your first call.

I was able to walk around the office and house with them on and not notice any change in quality. I am sure this will vary depending where you are. This is a major improvement over what I had before.

Overall:
I bought the headset a couple of weeks ago and have had time to check it out. I like the h800 and would buy it again.