Tech DC – home and office computer support for D.C., Virginia & Maryland
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Kindle Battery Update.. Not For Most People
It has been widely reported that the recent Kindle firmware update improved battery life up to 85%. Unfortunately, this is not true for almost all Kindle owners. The battery life improvement only applies to the recent Kindle 2 (Global Wireless)
The Kindle 2 (U.S. Wireless) version does get the other benefits like built-in PDF reader and manual screen rotation.
Be Kind to Your Cables
Bending cables hurts them over time. That’s why it’s helpful to know the “over-under” looping technique to minimize bends and kinks. It’s simple and can give your cables a longer life. Here’s a video from HackCollege explaining the over-under method. I find this especially useful to prevent kinks in longer cables.
Over-the-air (OTA) high definition television is great. It provides free high definition programming that is higher bitrate (meaning higher quality) than high definition TV from cable, fios, or satellite.
But it can be tricky to get antenna placement correct.
Channel Spreadsheet
I use a spreadsheet that I create from antennaweb.org data for installing HD OTA TV for DC Metro area clients.
This allows you to write down signal strength numbers on all your channels using different configurations:
Generally a higher placement for the antenna is best. For the Washington D.C. channel lineup, I have found the Winegard SS-3000 Amplified Indoor UHF/VHF Antenna
There is typically a trade-off in choosing the best configuration. A particular setup might favor one channel and hurt another because channels use various tower locations and frequencies.
At Tech DC, we regularly set up home theater systems for people. We rely on Monoprice for all our cables. They are great quality and only a fraction the cost of cables from big box and other retail stores.
Local retail stores try to sell a HDMI video cable for $50 with every TV. See the HDMI cable selection at Monoprice showing equivalent cables for $10-20.
From a Virginia Target store:
From a Best Buy advertisement in the Washington Post:
If you have computers or electronics that you don’t want to be killed by power fluctuations, it’s a good idea to have a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). The battery in the UPS keeps your equipment running through blackouts our brownouts (reduced power).
Dead Battery
The main problem with a UPS is that its battery might only last a couple of years. A dead battery is often announced by a UPS through regular beeping. Because a UPS is expensive, consider just replacing the battery instead of the whole UPS when the battery dies.
You can buy a replacement from the UPS company or for significantly less money from a third party such as Battery Mart. Just be sure to get a battery that is designed for your specific UPS. I have had good luck with with Battery Mart, but there are some third party batteries which are of poor quality, possibly having a short life, acid leakage, or even causing a fire.
I replaced the battery for the APC Back-UPS 500 ES for $26.39 from Battery Mart instead of $48.99 from APC (prices include shipping).
