Ed Stoffel

It won't stop the 9-11 conspiracy theories, but at least offers thoughtful, researched answers to many of the questions raised:

Trust that conspiracy theorists will attempt to exploit the fifth anniversary of 9/11 to spread sensational claims and sensational lies. Moreover, it's a fair bet sensationalist media will collaborate, not because the squawk show host or headline scribbler believes the poisoned foolishness, but because anger, fear and trembling sell. Conspiracy theories are public ghost stories of a sort, campfire horror tales tarted up with government devils, corporate witches and other demons-of-convenience. However, Popular Mechanics magazine and Hearst Communications have provided a handy antidote to the conspiracy theorists' more noxious rhetorical poisons. Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up To The Facts expands to book-length a collection of articles Popular Mechanics published in March 2005. The book contains new appendices and updated analyzes.

 Continue Reading: 9/11 Myths, Debunked, TCS Daily

This Thursday will mark the 52nd weekly podcast of Security Now, a show featuring Steve Gibson, on issues of computer security. Steve is the author of SpinRite, a hard-drive utility that works to prevent hard drive problems as well as repairing them when little else works. Steve also created the ShieldsUp utility, exposing the open-port flaws of Windows. In each podcast, Steve makes complex concepts understandable. It's a show computer experts shouldn't be without.

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Our DirecTV receivers were SO OLD that they received local channels in the 900 range, and had to wait for the data stream to get authorized and identified each time we changed from non-local to local channel numbers. They were the original Hughes receivers given to us in exchange for our old Primestar receivers when that company went under and sold their accounts to DirecTV.

I've been thinking about the fact that our subscription would be worth more if we actually got to watch some of the shows that get broadcast but missed by us for various reasons. I've been watching and waiting for the specials that DirecTV offers from time to time, giving away DVRs to existing customers... but rebates and specials are like a watched pot that never boils... the specials abruptly ceased once I started watching for them. Truly, I saw a special and called, and found it had just expired. So I've waited... and waited. Finally, during the delay one day when we were waiting for our local channels to authorize, I got to thinking about how nice it would be to actually see the channels we're paying for when I enter them in my remote control. So I called DirecTV to order a DVR.

I got passed off to some order-taking specialist in India, I think. After talking with them for awhile, I was transferred to someone else, somewhere else. This third person in the call-chain said that their order-taking system was down, and that they'd call me back as soon as it was restored. I waited and waited and finally called them back 10 days later. In the end, they offered me a free DVR, and I reciprocated by offering to purchase a second one.

Though they offered to do all the wiring, I prewired things where I wanted them to be in the walls - triple coax runs, two for each DVR and one for an RF return to share the love with the kitchen TV. I didn't want the installer drilling through my nice, hardwood floors. Now maybe their installer would have taken the time to fish the wires through the wall, but I wanted to be certain it was done right.

When Rusty arrived today, all he had to do was put fresh wire from my new wall plates to the DVRs, and install a multi-switch downstairs - converting a dual LNB signal to feed what amounts to four receivers. Each DVR actually contains two receivers and a hard drive, so you can record two things and watch a third, if it's already recorded. You could also watch one live event while recording another. You can even jump from watching a live event to "pausing" which begins recording so you can resume and catch up through time-compression or by fast-forwarding through the commercials. It even has a 6-second buffer for instant replays or those "what'd he say" moments.

The receivers also display incoming caller ID information on screen -- a nice feature. Of course, that gets subscribers to actually hook up the phone line so those PPV charges get sent home to mama. The first thing I did was to lock-out the PPV and raunchy channels (XM XLs). I wish the "Channels I Get" list were really just the channels I get, and not every conceivable channel I could get... that would have saved Charlene and I the two-hours it took us to go through and list all the channels to delete from our custom-lists... that to save us time on ordinary days from having to scroll through all the channels we don't actually get. Why doesn't DirecTV allow us to edit the "channels I get" list, or make it match the channels they actually authorized? Do other families spend a lot of time browsing through the channels they don't get? If so, why? I don't get it.

Word today that a whole lot of Christians are imprisoned in North Korea, presumably because of their faith:

An international missionary organization Open Doors International asserted that of 200,000 Christians residing in North Korea, 50,000~70,000 believers are being detained in gulags. Open Doors International is an organization known for ministering to communist countries. In an interview with 'Radio Free Asia' (RFA) on the 14th, Director Estabrooks revealed "Although 200,000 Christians in North Korea may seem like an exaggerated number, in actual this figure does not even amount to 1% of North Korea's population." Open Doors International began its ministry in 1955 during the Cold War era where bibles were distributed to communist countries such as the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China. Last March, the organization announced the world's top 50 countries under persecution, with North Korea maintaining the lead for the past 4 years.

 Continue Reading: 50,000-70,000 North Korean Christians Detained in Gulags, Daily NK