5819 replies to this topic

[Pedro Cerrano]

It's only bad for me in the summer during real bad rain storms. In the winter I've never had an issue.

[Don Quixote]

Actually didn't have a problem with the snow this past winter. It's rained hard enough to knock it out maybe four times since we got it in January. It's expected, I just worry about it coming at the worst possible time one day. 

 

Sure. The technology has improved since my parents got theirs (2000), both in signal reliability (much less rain fade in more recent years) and in dish types. They still have the same 18" single-LNB setup at the low end of the roof. If the snows aren't too bad, they're still all right, but if a system means business, they have to break out the broom out (or hand-clear it, or whatever) from time to time. 

[RShack]

So I have DirecTV. It's raining cats and dogs out out the signal is out. Ok. Fine. 

 

I'm really worried this is going to happen when it really counts, like the Ravens are on, or Super Bowl, etc...

 

I flip aimlessly through the channels because one time it was out, once the rain stopped, the signal won't come back until you change a channel. Come to find out, every single channel that runs 24 hours of infomercials, or QVC, Home shopping channel, they all work just fine in this monsoon. 

 

You're telling me that only channels that sell you something can pick up the signal through a storm? What gives?

 

I had DirecTV on the Gulf where hurricanes come, and here's what I found out...  it all comes down to whether your dish is aimed right, which in turn is dependent on the mast it is mounted to being absolutely, perfectly plumb.  Whether that happened or not depends on whether your installer was OCD enough...  the issues is that the dish has to be properly oriented in 3 dimensions, and if the mast isn't exactly plumb, it's impossible to do that.... which in turn guarantees that you won't get strong signal from all of the satellites... you can get strong signal from some of them, but not all of them...

 

It's easy to get good enough signal when there's not thick, wet clouds... the test is what happens when there's thick, wet, clouds...

 

If it was me, I'd do a wee bit of google-homework to remind myself how to use the DirecTV box to  check signal strength on all of the different satellites you're getting channels from... my hunch is that the one with all the QVC crap will be stronger than the signal from the one or ones that has what you wanna watch that went dark...

 

Once I re-did the mast to make it really-plumb instead of almost-plumb, I quit losing signal except maybe a couple times per year during hurricane season when the thick wet clouds were especially thick...

 

When I re-aimed the dish after having it off the mast, being able to hit just the right tiny imaginary spot in the sky was actually kinda amazing... I mean, I know enough to know that physics and astronomy actually work, but it just feels a lot different when you look up at the sky and realize that with the use of just a compass and the marks on the dish, you managed to aim it exactly between 3 or 4 satellites that are way the hell up there...

[glenn__davis]

I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent human being.

 

But I cannot tie knots to save my life.  I've always sucked at them.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that I'm left handed and do things a little backwards.  My boys do cub scouts and tonight they learned to do a simple square knot.  I tried to learn it with them, even brought some ropes home, still can't figure it out.  I can do it if I watch a step-by-step video, but I try to do it on my own, and I end up with a granny knot.  

 

Seriously, if life consisted of knot-tying, people would think I was a moron.

[Mackus]

Me too. I do bunny ears on my shoes.

I did learn how to do a clove hitch while sailing this weekend.

[DJ MC]

I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent human being.

 

But I cannot tie knots to save my life.  I've always sucked at them.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that I'm left handed and do things a little backwards.  My boys do cub scouts and tonight they learned to do a simple square knot.  I tried to learn it with them, even brought some ropes home, still can't figure it out.  I can do it if I watch a step-by-step video, but I try to do it on my own, and I end up with a granny knot.  

 

Seriously, if life consisted of knot-tying, people would think I was a moron.

 

I can do a square knot fine (right over left, left over right), but even when I was in scouts I could never remember beyond that, a clove hitch and two-half hitches.

[You Play to Win the Game]

I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent human being.
 
But I cannot tie knots to save my life.  I've always sucked at them.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that I'm left handed and do things a little backwards.  My boys do cub scouts and tonight they learned to do a simple square knot.  I tried to learn it with them, even brought some ropes home, still can't figure it out.  I can do it if I watch a step-by-step video, but I try to do it on my own, and I end up with a granny knot.  
 
Seriously, if life consisted of knot-tying, people would think I was a moron.

Nah, you'd just be scrubbing the deck when you're not cleaning the shitter. That'd be your job. Still an important roll.

[RShack]

I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent human being.

 

But I cannot tie knots to save my life.  I've always sucked at them.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that I'm left handed and do things a little backwards.  My boys do cub scouts and tonight they learned to do a simple square knot.  I tried to learn it with them, even brought some ropes home, still can't figure it out.  I can do it if I watch a step-by-step video, but I try to do it on my own, and I end up with a granny knot.  

 

Seriously, if life consisted of knot-tying, people would think I was a moron.

 

It's just more proof that not all intelligence resides in your head... some of it is in your fingers, some of it is in your feet... some in your arms, some in your legs... when it comes to knots, you've just got dumb fingers, that's all...

 

Just recently, they discovered that some of it lives at the cellular level... although some scientists have been saying it for years... http://www.basic.nor...ehler/FRAME.HTM

[Markus]

Dear Draft Kings:

Fuck off.

Signed,

-Me

[Dupin]

Dear Draft Kings:

Fuck off.

Signed,

-Me

What's wrong with it specifically? Daily Fantasy seems like such a scam, like penny auctions, that I've actively avoided it.

[Markus]

What's wrong with it specifically? Daily Fantasy seems like such a scam, like penny auctions, that I've actively avoided it.

Just sick of seeing their ads every-freaking-where.

[Dr. FLK]

I had DirecTV on the Gulf where hurricanes come, and here's what I found out...  it all comes down to whether your dish is aimed right, which in turn is dependent on the mast it is mounted to being absolutely, perfectly plumb.  Whether that happened or not depends on whether your installer was OCD enough...  the issues is that the dish has to be properly oriented in 3 dimensions, and if the mast isn't exactly plumb, it's impossible to do that.... which in turn guarantees that you won't get strong signal from all of the satellites... you can get strong signal from some of them, but not all of them...

 

It's easy to get good enough signal when there's not thick, wet clouds... the test is what happens when there's thick, wet, clouds...

 

If it was me, I'd do a wee bit of google-homework to remind myself how to use the DirecTV box to  check signal strength on all of the different satellites you're getting channels from... my hunch is that the one with all the QVC crap will be stronger than the signal from the one or ones that has what you wanna watch that went dark...

 

Once I re-did the mast to make it really-plumb instead of almost-plumb, I quit losing signal except maybe a couple times per year during hurricane season when the thick wet clouds were especially thick...

 

When I re-aimed the dish after having it off the mast, being able to hit just the right tiny imaginary spot in the sky was actually kinda amazing... I mean, I know enough to know that physics and astronomy actually work, but it just feels a lot different when you look up at the sky and realize that with the use of just a compass and the marks on the dish, you managed to aim it exactly between 3 or 4 satellites that are way the hell up there...

 

This.  You have very little margin built into your link budget with these things.  And, your antenna is quite directional.  So, if it's off by too much, it's gain is more or less wasted...and you have even less margin for error.

[Dupin]

Just sick of seeing their ads every-freaking-where.

Oh, definitely. TV, podcasts, internet, they're almost at Peyton Manning levels of market penetration.

[DJ MC]

Just sick of seeing their ads every-freaking-where.

 

The worst part is that MLB owns a piece of them, so baseball fans are just getting crushed by the amount of those ads.

 

But it's OK, because it's "daily fantasy", not "gambling"

[bnickle]

The worst part is that MLB owns a piece of them, so baseball fans are just getting crushed by the amount of those ads.

But it's OK, because it's "daily fantasy", not "gambling"

Clearly more skill than poker which for the most part remains banned in this country.

[DuffMan]

Clearly more skill than poker which for the most part remains banned in this country.

False.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I think poker requires substantially more skill than daily fantasy leagues.

[RShack]

I hate the modern habit of referring to every school by 3 letters... it's ambiguous way to often... which is needless...

 

Is OSU OhowIhateohiostate or Okla-St or Oreg-St?   Is MSU Mich-St or Miss-St?  Is USC Southern Cal or S.Car?

 

I blame ESPN... they started using abbrev's that nobody ever used before...before them, nobody ever called that school in Ohio "OSU"... and nobody ever called Michigan State "MSU"... and nobody ever called S.Car "USC"...

 

If they'd only used 4 letters instead of 3, it wouldn't be ambiguous... OhSt / OkSt / OrSt... MiSt / MsSt... SCal / SCar... plus, there's often no reason to use even 3 letters... you can do all the the U's that are just state names with just 2 letters...

 

I bet nobody ever thought it through and officially decided to do it... I bet it was just some guy in the onscreen-graphics dept that did it, and then everybody just followed suit.. and I bet he wasn't even a sports fan...because if he was, he would've known better...

 

The last straw was when they used "GTU" for GT... there is no place on the planet called Georgia Tech University...

[SBTarheel]

I like to think I'm a reasonably intelligent human being.

 

But I cannot tie knots to save my life.  I've always sucked at them.  I don't know what it is, maybe it's just that I'm left handed and do things a little backwards.  My boys do cub scouts and tonight they learned to do a simple square knot.  I tried to learn it with them, even brought some ropes home, still can't figure it out.  I can do it if I watch a step-by-step video, but I try to do it on my own, and I end up with a granny knot.  

 

Seriously, if life consisted of knot-tying, people would think I was a moron.

Ill be 44 in a month..

 

cannot tie a tie. Whatever

I'm a lefty too

[bnickle]

Clearly more skill than poker which for the most part remains banned in this country.

Sarcasm guys. Obviously, it's ridiculous that these daily fantasy leagues are legal and for the most part online poker is not.


It all should be legal, including sports betting.