Roku Repair

I had an odd problem with my Roku last week. After about 2 months of regular trouble-free use of the Roku in the theater, we turned it on one night to discover that it was only showing the left half of the screen. Troubleshooting via swapping cables and receiver inputs confirmed that it was the Roku itself that was at fault. My wife quipped that at least we could still watch half a movie. Changing the output settings form 1080p to widescreen (16:9) worked around the problem and we were able to watch the movie of our choice that evening.

First Ride of the Year

High in the 60s, clear skies, and just a little wind. After weeks of winter weather, including 3 days of being snowed in, yesterday was a welcome taste of spring. Now that the snows have melted and the trail is clear, it was the perfect day to take advantage of one of the best trails in Atlanta: the Silver Comet.

I am riding RAGBRAI

I just sent my money in today so it is official. I am riding RAGBRAI.

What is RAGBRAI? It is The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. And I don't mean North to South. It starts somewhere along the Missouri River, ends somewhere along the Mississippi River, and lasts 7 days. This year will be the 39th annual ride.

I have never ridden in RAGBRAI before. In fact, I have never ridden in any multi-day bike ride before. Based on the descriptions I have read, it sounds like a mobile week-long party on wheels. I'm not necessarily riding it to party: I'm more interested in the challenge. But I'm sure my fellow riders will make it a fun and enjoyable experience.

Each year RAGBRAI accepts up to 10,000 bike riders. The route is around 500 miles so it averages about 70 miles a day (for 7 days). RAGBRAI is not a race: it is a ride for fun. You can take all day to arrive in the next town if you want.

The ride starts July 24. If conditions permit I plan to blog about my trip every day during the ride. Hopefully I will even have a chance to post a few pictures.

Why would I want to do something this crazy? Well, I will be celebrating something. Those of you who know me will probably know what I'm celebrating. In the meantime, I need to ride some more so that I will be ready.

hiFace: the details

I've seen some interest in my previous article on the hiFace, so I thought the technically minded readers might like some more details. The company that builds it is M2Tech. They have exclusive agreements with distributors around the world. In the US the unit is only available through the website www.tweekgeek.com starting at $150.

The hiFace is a USB device that outputs S/PDIF on a coaxial connector (either RCA or BNC). It is designed to produce a signal with low jitter and low phase noise. It can produce a data stream signal with sampling as high as 192 Kbps and 24 bit resolution. It does this by using a proprietary device driver, which you load from the provided CD the first time you plug the unit in to your computer. There are drivers for Windows XP, Vista and 7 as well as MacOS 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6. Not all receivers or DACs are able to process S/PDIF at 192 Kbps even if the hiFace can send it that fast. Consult your owner's manual for the specifications of your particular system.

M2Tech hiFace

My latest electronic toy arrived last month and was immediately put to use in the theater. The unit is called a "hiFace" and it is made by an interesting Italian company named "M2Tech". The hiFace plugs in to a computer's USB port and provides digital audio output that you can feed to a digital-analog converter (DAC) or a receiver equipped with one. Rather than connecting the computer to the receiver with the usual two red and white cables, this allows me to connect the computer to the receiver using digital audio, much in the same way that a DVD player can be connected to a home theater receiver (one equipped to handle Dolby Digital and other surround-sound inputs). By using this device I can completely bypass the computer's sound card and output all digital audio directly to my receiver. This means the task of producing the sound is in the hands of the equipment that can do the best job.

Morning Drive and Ride

This morning I had planned on joining a large group ride leaving from the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Cartersville, GA. About 50 or so riders were going to get together and ride the same 48-mile route as the Cartersville "Beautiful Backroads Century" with a stop at a convenience store at the halfway point. Rides like this are routinely scheduled on holidays, and someone decided that the day before Halloween was close enough to a holiday to use it as an excuse for a ride.

Nighttime flying

Last weekend we wanted to fly up to northern Kentucky to visit relatives. In order to make a Sunday morning departure a bit easier I decided to move the plane to a closer airport on Saturday evening. At the same time I thought it would be a good opportunity to get in some night landings.

FAA rules require me to have at least 3 night time landings in the past 90 days in order to carry passengers at night. As we all know, once is an accident and twice is coincidence. So obviously I will be infinitely safer after three repetitions than after two. Well, at least that's what the FAA believes.