Grey boxes and green lights
John Haskey
on utility poles are for? There seem to be more of them appearing all
the time. Smart meter mother ships? Cable TV? ???
---john.
Jeff Liebermann
I'm about 51.3% sure that they're something that TCI/AT&T/Comcast
cable inherited from Teleprompter/Westinghouse cable sometime in the
late 1970's. My guess(tm) is that they're power injectors for the
line amps, which are not currently being used as Comcast is currently
shoving power down the coax for these. I don't think that they're
installing those currently as I haven't seen any new boxes in SLV.
I'll ask or take a closer look as there's one on the road up to my
house.
Incidentally, PG&E will (hopefully) be speaking at the Santa Cruz
County Radio Club meeting on Mar 18 (7:30PM at the Dominican Hospital
Education building) on Smartmeters. Along with the usual public
relations person will hopefully be an engineer than can answer techy
questions.
--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com je...@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
Jeff Liebermann
wrote:
>I'll ask or take a closer look as there's one on the road up to my
>house.
Please ignore my bad guess(tm). I just received email from a
knowledgable Comcast employee. The boxes contain batteries that act
as a backup in case of power loss. These run the fiber to coax
converters and line amps. No clue how long the batteries will power
the amps.
Comcast is feeding power from the head end (Scotts Valley) to some
parts of the network, but is also replacing copper with fiber wherever
possible (i.e. Hwy 9, Empire Grade, etc). For fiber segments, they
get their power locally from PG&E with backup from the gray boxes with
the green light. The light means that everything is working
correctly. Next time you have a power outage, let me know if the
light changes color.
spamtrap1888
> Incidentally, PG&E will (hopefully) be speaking at the Santa Cruz
> County Radio Club meeting on Mar 18 (7:30PM at the Dominican Hospital
> Education building) on Smartmeters. Along with the usual public
> relations person will hopefully be an engineer than can answer techy
> questions.
Do PG&E employees have any power to reassure any more?
PG&E employee: There's no problem with Smartmeters. They only read the
amount you use, and they don't emit any harmful radiation.
PG&E employee: We didn't know there would be a problem with the San
Bruno pipeline yet we're oddly certain there are no problems with any
other of our gas pipelines.
PG&E employee: There is absolutely no chance that what happened to the
Fukushima reactors could happen to Diablo Canyon.
Jeff Liebermann
<spamtr...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Mar 14, 6:40�pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>> Incidentally, PG&E will (hopefully) be speaking at the Santa Cruz
>> County Radio Club meeting on Mar 18 (7:30PM at the Dominican Hospital
>> Education building) on Smartmeters. �Along with the usual public
>> relations person will hopefully be an engineer than can answer techy
>> questions.
>
>Do PG&E employees have any power to reassure any more?
You're welcome to show up and ask them yourself.
>PG&E employee: There's no problem with Smartmeters. They only read the
>amount you use, and they don't emit any harmful radiation.
I used to play RF engineer and know a little about such things.
There's not enough RF coming out of the meters to affect anything
other than your paranoia. Even with a large number of meters
concentrated in a small area (electro-smog), there's not enough RF to
be considered harmful.
>PG&E employee: We didn't know there would be a problem with the San
>Bruno pipeline yet we're oddly certain there are no problems with any
>other of our gas pipelines.
I don't think anyone actually said that, but you're welcome to believe
that one disaster predicts the collapse of the entire system. There's
not much that I can offer to change that logic.
>PG&E employee: There is absolutely no chance that what happened to the
>Fukushima reactors could happen to Diablo Canyon.
The basic problem was that 13 diesel generators got wiped off the site
by houses and debris floating on the tsunami waves. With no power,
the delivery of coolant necessary to cool the reactors was lost. The
actual quake did little direct damage to the reactors, but the Tsunami
caused the subsquent problems. Seen any tsunami damage to hardened
installations in California lately?
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
John Haskey
Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:40:16 -0700, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com>
>wrote:
>
>knowledgable Comcast employee. The boxes contain batteries that act
>as a backup in case of power loss. These run the fiber to coax
>converters and line amps. No clue how long the batteries will power
>the amps.
Thanks for the info!
Outages up here are spotty (ie not all of Empire Grade goes dark
at the same time) but if the lights change and I notice it I'll report
back.
---john.
spamtrap1888
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:20:09 -0700 (PDT), spamtrap1888
>
> >On Mar 14, 6:40 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
>
> >> Incidentally, PG&E will (hopefully) be speaking at the Santa Cruz
> >> County Radio Club meeting on Mar 18 (7:30PM at the Dominican Hospital
> >> Education building) on Smartmeters. Along with the usual public
> >> relations person will hopefully be an engineer than can answer techy
> >> questions.
>
> >Do PG&E employees have any power to reassure any more?
>
> You're welcome to show up and ask them yourself.
I do hope a few skeptics show up to probe them
>
> >PG&E employee: There's no problem with Smartmeters. They only read the
> >amount you use, and they don't emit any harmful radiation.
>
> I used to play RF engineer and know a little about such things.
> There's not enough RF coming out of the meters to affect anything
> other than your paranoia. Even with a large number of meters
> concentrated in a small area (electro-smog), there's not enough RF to
> be considered harmful.
I tried to accurately reflect the company line.
>
> >PG&E employee: We didn't know there would be a problem with the San
> >Bruno pipeline yet we're oddly certain there are no problems with any
> >other of our gas pipelines.
>
> I don't think anyone actually said that, but you're welcome to believe
> that one disaster predicts the collapse of the entire system. There's
> not much that I can offer to change that logic.
Here I tried to telescope their serial fibs.
>
> >PG&E employee: There is absolutely no chance that what happened to the
> >Fukushima reactors could happen to Diablo Canyon.
>
> The basic problem was that 13 diesel generators got wiped off the site
> by houses and debris floating on the tsunami waves. With no power,
> the delivery of coolant necessary to cool the reactors was lost. The
> actual quake did little direct damage to the reactors, but the Tsunami
> caused the subsquent problems. Seen any tsunami damage to hardened
> installations in California lately?
This was a 500 year quake, so no.
Peter Lawrence
Hindsight is 20/20 (usually), but maybe in future designs of nuclear power
plants, they could incorporate emergency water storage tanks (or reservoirs)
that can feed water to cool down the reactors by gravity alone so electric
pumps wouldn't be required to cool down the reactor in an emergency shutdown.
- Peter
van...@vsta.org
> Hindsight is 20/20 (usually), but maybe in future designs of nuclear power
> plants, they could incorporate emergency water storage tanks (or reservoirs)
> that can feed water to cool down the reactors by gravity alone so electric
> pumps wouldn't be required to cool down the reactor in an emergency shutdown.
Here's one writer with some pretty concrete guesses for what the Japanese
will do in the future:
http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/is-anything-nuclear-ever-really-super-safe-small-and-simple/
--
Andy Valencia
Home page: http://www.vsta.org/andy/
To contact me: http://www.vsta.org/contact/andy.html
Geoff Miller
"Jeff Liebermann" <je...@cruzio.com> writes:
> I just received email from a knowledgable Comcast employee.
Peeve: Comcast.
Several months ago I decided to join the 21st century and invest in
a TiVo. As a serendipitous benefit, I learned that the name of the
thing is pronounced "TEE-vo" and not "TYE-vo." I hadn't felt so
hip since the day I learned what "WiFi" was.
The instructions said the device needed a network connection, either
via a phone line or a wireless router, so that it could download
programming information. This was news to me. I'd assumed that
a DVR worked like a VCR, and that it was my responsibility to know
what shows were on when and to manually program the thing. I was
actually about to order a new subscription to TV Guide.
How far we've come since the '80s, eh? That's what I get for being
such a bookworm and essentially turning my back on most video
entertainment for so long: I had no idea of these advances in video
technology. It took me back to the early days of VHS tapes, when
I seriously thought you had to pop the thing out halfway through a
movie, turn it over, and load it back in.
So I had to go to Fry's and buy a wireless router.
The instructions said to get a card from my cable provider to plug into
the back of the unit. Okay, fine. So I drove over to the Comcast store
on Whispering Pines Drive in Scotts Valley.
Closed. Kaput.
There was a sign in the door telling people to go to the Santa Cruz store
instead, located on Soquel Avenue in the same shopping center as Whole
Paycheck. Back into the car. I had just enough time to get over there
before it closed at six.
Closed.
A sign in the window told customers to go to the Scotts Valley store, as
the Santa Cruz store was closed for remodeling for a few days.
Goddammit! I wanted instant gratification! Whatever happened to being
able to buy a piece of electronic gear, take it home, hook it up, and enjoy
it right away? I felt like a kid who got a toy for Christmas, and not only
didn't get batteries to go with it, but was told that there ws a nationwide
battery shortage.
The Scotts Valley Comcast store was re-opened on a temporary basis
starting the following day, while the Santa Cruz store was being
remodeled, so I got my card the next afternoon. Not ideal, and I didn't
apprecite having to make a second trip. And why was it closed the day
before? But at least I had what I neded.
Fast-forward a couple of months. The card died. I elected to go to the
Comcast store in Milpitas for a replacement, since it's not far from where
I work. I could go over there at lunchtime.
There were two employees serving customers from behind a desk and five
people in line ahead of me. Fine. This shouldn't take too long, I thought.
Ha!
As is usually the case when I have to stand in line, I was the only one in
the place with a simple, straightforward transaction that required no
conversation. I stood there for twenty minutes, shifting my weight from
let to leg while half-watching some movie with a lot of explosions that
was playing on a big-screen TV in the corner.
One guy ahead of me was up there for almost half of that time, ordering
new service and negotiating to rent a DVR. Apparently he had
questonable credit.
Somebody else was monopolizing the other only employee onduty the
whole time I was there. He wouldn't stop asking questions, and every
question that was answered led to three more. The guy was at the
counter when I came in, and he was still there when I left.
Finally, I made my way to the counter and dealt with a surly, disinterested
woman sitting imperously behind a flat-screen monitor. She took my old
card, disappeared into the back room, emerged a full five minutes later,
and wordlessly and unsmilingly handed me a replacement card. It was
real Soviet-style customer service.
Oddly enough, while I've heard people complain about Comcast's cable
TV and high-speed Internet service, I've had reasonably good luck with
those. But I hate having to go to their "service" centers. It's almost
like
dealing with the DMV.
Geoff
--
"The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that
Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what
thinking is; he confuses it with feeling." -- Thomas Sowell
Steve Daniels
compelled "Geoff Miller" <geo...@netgate.net>, to say:
> How far we've come since the '80s, eh? That's what I get for being
> such a bookworm and essentially turning my back on most video
> entertainment for so long: I had no idea of these advances in video
> technology. It took me back to the early days of VHS tapes, when
> I seriously thought you had to pop the thing out halfway through a
> movie, turn it over, and load it back in.
It's too bad they weren't like eight tracks. Then, you wouldn't
have to rewind the porn.
Uncle Steve
Hey, Steve. Still down with child soldiers and remote-control
warfare?
Regards,
Uncle Steve
--
Canadian citizenship is massively devalued. In much the same way that
the financial system has fallen prey to gangs of marauding opp-
ourtunits, so too have the legislative and executive branches of
government. The difference between Canada and Somalia in this view is
only one of kind and degree -- significant but not fundamental.
C-130FE
Uncle Steve <stevet...@gmail.com> asks:
> Hey, Steve. Still down with child soldiers and remote-control
> warfare?
I'd never attempt to speak for Mr.Daniels, but those concepts
certainly give *me* a boehner.
Geoff
--
"One death is a tragedy; one million deaths is a statistic."
-- Josef Stalin
Julian Macassey
>
>
> Uncle Steve <stevet...@gmail.com> asks:
>
>
>> Hey, Steve. Still down with child soldiers and remote-control
>> warfare?
>
>
> I'd never attempt to speak for Mr.Daniels, but those concepts
> certainly give *me* a boehner.
Do you put bronzer on your boehner? Does it weep in
public?
--
Guantanamo will be closed, no later than a year from now. - Barack
Obama Signing Executive Order 22 Jan 2009
Uncle Steve
>
>
> Uncle Steve <stevet...@gmail.com> asks:
>
>
> > Hey, Steve. Still down with child soldiers and remote-control
> > warfare?
>
>
> I'd never attempt to speak for Mr.Daniels, but those concepts
> certainly give *me* a boehner.
Stop begging for my attention like some pathetic little puppy dog.
Regards,
Uncle Steve
--
Never send a war-pig to inquire into the behavior of another war-pig.