Rob's Rants

I caught a recent interview with Grace Potter at Artist Direct. It began with this description, “If Led Zeppelin came out today and were fronted by Dusty Springfield, they’d sound something like Grace Potter & the Nocturnals,” so I knew I’d like the rest of it.

Grace had this quote, which perfectly sums up my teenage music experience:

I grew up through the ’80s with some of the worst pop music ever. However, The Talking Heads were the great band that emerged and made me think, “Okay, not everybody is a total dickhead!”

For me, it was actually the Police. Their Synchronicity album gave me faith that music would survive the pop years. You can read the whole Grace Potter interview at Artist Direct.

And as always, you can find everything you need to know about the band at http://www.gracepotter.com/

First Impressions of my La Caja China Roasting Box

When I hear that it’s supposed to be a cold, slightly icy, rainy, and windy mid-December day in Massachusetts, I naturally think of slow roasted Cuban-style pork, don’t you?

My La Caja Chine

So began my adventure of testing out my new La Caja China Model #1 roasting box. For those not familiar with a La Caja China, it’s a kind of oven or roaster made to roast a whole pig or a large number of other cuts, like eight to ten pork shoulders or eight racks of ribs. It’s really just a plywood box on wheels that’s lined with aluminum and topped with a steel cover that holds charcoal. Coals are lit and spread on the lid of the box, and the pig inside is cooked by a combination of the radiant heat from the top and the convection that occurs inside. One unique characteristic is that the box is almost sealed, so all of the moisture released from the meat is kept inside creating a very moist atmosphere. So meat cooks a lot like if it has been wrapped in foil in a regular oven, though one side does brown very well due to the intense heat from the coals on the lid. I guess is many ways, it’s like a giant dutch oven.

The La Caja China was introduced by the Cuban community in Miami, and so most recipes for it have a bit of a Cuban flair. In general, most everything follows the same progression:

My Marinade Ingredients

1. Meat is injected with a flavorful marinade (typically a mojo-type marinade with citrus and garlic).
2. Meat is rubbed with a minimal rub (typically salt and pepper, perhaps a little brown sugar and some spices, but not usually as intense as a typical American bar-b-que rub)
3. Meat marinades for several hours
4. Meat is roasted for five or more hours until cooked, skin side down is possible
5. Meat is flipped skin side up, and the skin is allowed to crisp

The results are best served community-style: just let your friends gather and pick it apart while it’s still hot and the skin is crisp.

I have seen a few people do either a whole small pig or a bunch of pork shoulder in a La Caja China before and it’s always been a great experience. I’ve always wanted to get one myself but just never had the right excuse. Until now … when my wife and daughter were planning her next birthday party (in January) my daughter decided she wanted a Hawaiian themed party. My wife and I joked about trucking a few hundred pounds of sand into our breezeway to simulate a beach in the middle of winter, but then I jokingly suggested that we have a luau so the parents would have an excuse to sit around and drink beer and eat meat. But there’s no way to dig a proper pit in the frozen New England ground I figured … but what about that pig roasting box that my father-in-law had? Thus my excuse. One quick internet order and a week’s wait later. Violá: my very own La Caja China!

My Preperation

Injection/Marinade

For my first roast I stuck to the basics. I used two pork shoulders (bone-in Boston butts) and I even threw on a couple of racks of ribs too. The night before my planned roast I used the syringe and needle that ships with the La Caja China to inject the shoulders with a bottled mojo marinade. Actually, I used a bottled mojo cut with 1/3 sour orange juice. (Badia brand – seen in the picture above.)

Strainer Full of Goodness

One important note – you really need to strain the marinade if you intend to inject it. The needle that comes with the kit is only 14 gauge and the chunks of garlic and spices in the marinade straight from the bottle would clog it in an instant.

I injected each shoulder with what amounted to a full bottle of the marinade! I don’t often inject meats that I cook so I was surprised at how much liquid I could really get to hold inside the meat. I just kept poking and injecting until liquid was running out all over the shoulder.

But before you go thinking that I wasted all the goodness in the garlic and chunks that I strained from the marinade, don’t worry. That became the basis of the rub that I put on the top of the roast.

The Rub

Wrapped Shoulder

I tried to keep the rub simple, to see how much flavor the marinade gave the meat. So I opted for a paste made of coarse salt, black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and paprika. I mixed these with the garlic and other chunks I strained from the marinade and rubbed both shoulders with it. Then I wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator over night. And I have to say: using an industrial-sized box of cling film from BJ’s makes the job a lot easier.

The Roast

Charcoal, Lighter Fluid, and a Blowtorch. Now it's a party ...

This is really the easy part. Basically, you put the meat in the rack, the rack in the box, build a fire, and add charcoal until the meat reaches the proper temperature. Unlike a bar-b-que pit where you are trying to keep a fire at a low level to control the heat and generate smoke, here the charcoal is exposed and you can have the fire as hot as it naturally gets. So there is much less fussing about with coals and dampers and stuff. Just pour on charcoal every hour and go.

Since the meat is never exposed to the fire, regular briquettes are the perfect choice for this kind of cooking. No worries about off flavors or anything, the food is completely shielded. Plus briquettes burn longer than natural lump, so it makes tending the fire that much easier.

So, basically, I loaded the meat and started the fire. It’s kind of fun to be able to use lighter fluid again. I always avoid the stuff when cooking bar-b-que because of the bad flavors it can impart, but again, it didn’t matter here, so I applied it liberally. And just because I can, here’s a video I uploaded to YouTube of the lighting.

The Results

The end product of all of this was some good roast pork. I won’t say it’s the best I’ve ever had … my recipes have a long way to go to get there, but for a couple of pork shoulders roasted in a box, they were good.

Here’s the final results after just after the top was opened.

The Final Product

The meat really fell off the bone, and the marinade did impart a welcome citrus note. But at the end of the day, they call pork “the other white meat” for a reason. It’s pretty bland. Don’t get me wrong, the bark on the outside of the roast had a great flavor and crispy texture, but there was a lot of meat in the middle that needed some extra flavor, even after the injecting.

Like many good pork dishes, I think shoulder roasted like this would benefit from some kind of sauce, perhaps even as simple as hitting the meat with another batch of the mojo marinade after it’s pulled apart. I also think that because there is no smoke flavor imparted by this technique, that the rub can be much stronger than I thought. So in the future I will boost the flavor – using more spices and adding some brown sugar to make a nice crust.

I think I’ll also stud the roast with some extra flavor enhancers, like garlic cloves and perhaps some lime zest.

But I will definitely be doing this again soon, adding some pineapple and other flavors for a Hawaiian theme for my daughter’s birthday party.

I’ll end the cooking part of this post with one final nighttime shot of the La Caja China.

End of a Long Day

A Note About The Day

What A Day

The day I chose for this turned out to be one of the worst of the month of December. It started cold and a bit icy, and then the wind and rain picked up to a true, albeit weak, Nor’easter. Starting in late morning, the temperature rose by about 20 degrees and we got 2.5 inches of rain and wind gusting to 25 mph. I had planned to cook under my EZ-Up canopy, but the wind was just too gusty. It was blowing the tent all over the place. In the end, with some weight and some luck I kept the tent upright, but just barely. I took some additional video during the day and I post them here for your enjoyment.

I periodically put together a list of things which make the bar-b-que enthusiast’s life easier. Usually around Father’s Day. I posted a recent list outlining the necessities back in December of last year. Once those basics are covered, here are some more ideas:

Lodge Cast Iron Cookware

Other than cooking over fire, the next best way to cook outside is in durable cast iron. Most modern gas grills have a side burner, and even for those that don’t you can put a cast iron pan right on the grate or even over the burners. And they work great right on a charcoal fire as well. I have a 10″ skillet that’s over 20 years old and nothing sticks to it after that many years of seasoning. You can find Lodge at many stores or online at Lodge Cast Iron.

Commercial Cookware and Accessories

Some of the most useful things around any BBQ are large sturdy trays. Known as sheet pans in the commercial world, they are sold in full, three-quarter, half, and quarter sizes. Here’s a handy chart I borrowed from Wikipedia’s article about sheet pans.

Made of sturdy aluminum, they’re all I use for baking and for carrying lots of stuff in and out of the kitchen. I buy mine (1/2 size) at a local restaurant supply in Worcester, but they can be found on EBay for as little as $9 a piece in quantity. One at a time, they go for about $20. But believe me, they’ll outlast any kitchen store cookie sheet by many years.

Another useful BBQ item – a dredge. In baker’s terminology, the little shaker cans with handles are called dredges. these are great for shaking on a bar-b-que rub. Sure you can re-use the big seasoning bottles that McCormick spices come in, but after a while they get really greasy and dirty and are hard to clean. A nice aluminum or stainless dredge pops right into the dishwasher. On EBay they go for $4 – $5. Search for ‘dredge’ in the ‘Business & Industrial/Reataurant & Catering/Commercial Kitchen Equipment’ category

Charcoal

Really, who wants to get coal in their stocking for Christmas? Bar-b-que people, that’s who. Some people have never had the pleasure of cooking over real hardwood charcoal and still suffer with briquettes and all their impurities. So take the time and get your favorite cook some of the good stuff. Some manufacturers, like Humphrey Charcoal, will let you buy online. So give the good stuff a try. Order some from http://charcoalbq.com/index.php.

Custom-Made Spice Rubs

Does your BBQ lover have a really special custom rub blend that they use on everything? And do they mess up the kitchen every time they make a big batch of it? Solve two problems with one great gift and have a good spice house custom-blend and package a spice rub to your specifications. Places like Vanns Spices in Baltimore will make up and package as little as 50 pounds of a custom order. See them on the web at http://www.vannsspices.com/custom-blend.php.

In addition to always seeking better bar-b-que I’m also always questing for a better steak. Over the years, I’ve grilled just about every cut of beef – T-bones, ribeyes, filets, NY strips, flank steak, skirt steak – it doesn’t matter. All of the typical American steak cuts come from the loin primals (sirloin, short loin, tenderloin). And they share the typical characteristics of the loin: they’re lean and flavorful.

But lately I’ve been jumping on the Flat Iron bandwagon.

Beef Primals

The flat iron steak is a relatively new cut, invented by the beef industry as a way to use a typically cheap cut of meat from the chuck (shoulder) primal. The beauty of meat from the chuck is that it’s naturally full of fat and connective tissue. And as any carnivore knows, fat = flavor. So the beauty of the flat iron steak is that it has a natural marbling such that even a choice grade flat iron steak has the kind of marbling that you’d see in a prime grade ribeye.

This gives the flat iron unique cooking characteristics. Like pork shoulder, the amount of connective tissue means that the meat can absorb quite a bit of heat before the internal temperature really starts to rise. This means that the flat iron is best cooked over a medium high heat, and in my experience, doesn’t sear as well as other cuts.

But man is it flavorful. All that fat gives it a really rich flavor. And the way it’s cut makes it really tender. If you love to grill and haven’t had the chance to try a flat iron steak, I suggest you do.

More information:

• Wikipedia has a good article about flat iron steak.
• Derek Riches at About.com has a good article about the flat iron.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Kaspersky anti-virus products. I’ve been a loyal user for years and even switched my Mom over from Norton a few months ago. But when my own subscription came due a few weeks ago I upgraded into a nightmare that’s just killing my computer’s performance.

It seems that Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 11 (at least as of 11.0.1.400) has an issue with CPU usage on Windows Vista systems. As soon as I start the computer and KIS begins an update, my CPU usage spikes to 100% and stays there. Needless to say, that really reduces system performance. And for weeks it seemed like I wasn’t the only one suffering with this and no one had any idea how to fix it.

But finally I may have found something that helps.

First, the basics of my configuration:

• Dell Studio1735 laptop
• Intel Core2 Duo @2 GHz
• 3 GB RAM
• Windows Vista SP2

The system is about 2 years old now and has never been a great performer, mostly due to crappy video hardware, but some would say because of Vista itself.

Anyway, after installing KIS 11 the CPU would routinely spike to 100% use and stay there for hours. And KIS itself would routinely show that it was either updating or scanning, even when the system wasn’t really ding much.

I searched the web and found threads with many people suffering the same problems. Some examples:

• KIS 2011 – High / Erratic CPU Usage, Gets worse with time.
• KIS 2011-CPU usage 90% (intermittent), High CPU usage

The first thread finally yielded a partial solution: it seems that having the Windows Vista ‘Superfetch’  enabled causes KIS to constantly scan the files being written in and out of memory, thus pegging the CPU. I finally disabled the service today and it seems to be keeping the CPU under control.

If you have a CPU usage spike with Kaspersky and Vista, I recommend trying it.

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was finally sick and tired of the technical problems I was having with my local cable company, Charter Cable. In fact, I called Verizon and switched to FiOS because I had a problem with a few missing channels on Charter, which was a common (once a month) problem. Soon after I called, that turned into no channels above #99. Then a few days later it resolved itself and I was getting my channels again. Until my scheduled FiOS install day, when all the channels above #99 went black again. Figures.

Install and First Impressions

For what it’s worth, the technician who came to do the install really knew his stuff. He answered every question (with what seemed to be the correct answer) ans was incredibly efficient during the install. He knew exactly how everything went together and wasted no time. And it was pouring rain. I mean raining like you wouldn’t believe. And he pulled the new cable through that mess super quickly. People complain about Verizon customer service, but I was impressed. He arrived right on time, called ahead of time, and knew what he was doing. Can’t ask for more than that.

Anyway, the installation steps were:

My New ONT & Phone + Cable Distribution Box

1. Remove old Verizon NID.
2. Connect new fiber cable at pole on street.
3. Using old copper cable, pull new fiber to house and install hanger hardware. Route cable into basement via old NID passthrough.
4. Install the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) in the basement.
5. Route Cat-3 cable to the phone panel in the house and bring up the phone.
6. Route coax cable to the location of the network router (about 4 feet away in my case) and bring up the data connection.
7. Connect the home’s cable TV lines.
8. Install any Cable Cards needed (one multi-stream card in my TiVO).
9. Using a local computer on the network and software on a USB stick the tech had, verify connectivity and enable the cable boxes and cable cards.

In my case, everything worked flawlessly and the tech had the job complete in five hours. And so far, two weeks latr, everything works as promised. In fact here’s a speedtest from Speedtest.net. This is a pretty typical result:

My Speedtest

And the telephone and television work flawlessly too. Please note though that I have a TiVO with a CableCard for my primary set (which is only a 35″ 720P resolution TV anyway), so I have no experience with the Verizon box or tuner. That also means that I miss out on all the supposedly cool features like caller ID on the TV screen and the programmable crawl for traffic and weather etc. But the channels I do receive kick ass. And with the Ultimate TV package there is just a ridiculous number of channels. It’s truly obscene.

So far, unlike Charter, every single channel tunes in and there have been no disruptions, even with some foul weather. And I’m pretty sure that the standard definition channels look better than they did with Charter. This may be a misguided perception, but I think they do.

Internet Setup

My Network

This is where I expected to have trouble. For FiOS you have to use the router they give you, because it enables other functions like control of the set top boxes. And the router they give you is an Actiontec MI424WR. Mine is a Rev. C. Not exactly the most popular device in the world. And earlier versions had some issues, most of which are documented in the Verizon FiOS forum on Broadband Reports.com.

Unsecured Network

It took some digging through the menus, but I was ultimately able to get the Actiontec set up in a way that matched my network. Verizon has the routers configured with WEP on by default, and the WEP key and default SSID are printed on the Actiontec label. Frankly I applaud this … there are countless people out there who run unsecured wireless networks because the default is no security at all. Usually with the default SSID too. Need proof? One of my neighbors has been running their ‘Netgear’ wireless network for more than a year now. I just captured this screen as proof.

So, with a little digging I was able to set the SSID to match my own wireless network, and change the security to WPA2 instead of WEP (settings are on the ‘Advanced Security Settings’ link on the ‘Wireless Settings’ page). [For a discussion of the differences between WEP, WPA, and WPA2 wireless security protocols, I recommend this article. I run WPA2 with 128 bit AES encryption. I'll admit that my passphrase isn't 20 characters long, but it is a pretty unique combination of upper & lowercase letters and numbers. And I have a non dictionary word SSID. So I feel OK.] The WPA2 part was a pain because although the Actiontec can do it, it isn’t an easy setting to find, and then when you do find it and enable it, it looks like you’ve actually turned off all security. That was a bit freaky. Here’s what the wireless status screen shows:

No Security

Luckily, after a reboot, the main status screen does begin to show the proper security settings:

Updated Wireless Status

So, in the end, I ended up with a second access point to supplement my current Linksys AP and I am getting much better wireless coverage in the house, even if the Actiontec router is in the basement.

The rest of the network seems to be operating well. I set the DHCP server in the Actiontec to start assigning addresses at 192.168.1.10, leaving me with eight fixed addresses to assign to things that get managed frequently like my Access Point and my print server and my weather station server. I have a pretty good sized network for most home users. At any given time there are nine or ten devices connected and working away. This includes two networked printers, two TiVOs, a Linux server, a one Terabyte storage server, my weather station, and a couple of laptops and cellphones. And also an internet radio (a Logitech Squeezebox) and a Skype phone by Belkin. So far, no issues for the Actiontec or the FiOS connection.

Telephone Setup

There’s nothing really to say about this. My phone works. I barely use it. We have a home phone because my wife just can’t bring herself to give it up. Oh well.

Conclusion

So far this has been an awesome switch. Verizon delivered everything on time and the technician knew what he was doing. Everything works. I would highly recommend that people make the switch.

NO!

I am a big fan of dedicated devices. By that I mean I usually prefer a device built for a specific task rather than a device built for multiple uses. So yes, I’d rather carry a Buck knife, a saw, tweezers, and scissors separately in my backpack than a single Swiss Army Knife.

This applies to electronics too. I have an iPhone, but I don’t have a single song or video on it. I use my iPod for that. I could use my laptop to listen to internet radio at home, but instead I have a Logitech Squeezebox internet radio. I have a cordless drill for drilling, and a cordless impact driver for driving screws. Drills don’t drive screws – they drill holes.

And so, finally, I’ve found the perfect dedicated device for people who have weather stations at home and want a dedicated system for logging and uploading the data. A company called Ambient Weather makes a small plug computer loaded with an awesome weather data logging and uploading package. Yes, I’m a weather geek. And for years I’ve had a weather station at home and uploaded my data to the internet. You can usually see a real-time display in the right-hand sidebar of this page. But on April 21, 2010 the PC that had been collecting and uploading the data from my station had a catastrophic failure.

For about two and a half years I uploaded data from my system using a desktop PC that I built from parts from Tiger Direct. It was nothing special, just an 1.2 GHz AMD Athlon processor on a Asus motherboard. It ran Windows XP and had a Western Digital hard drive in it and it ran Ambient Weather’s Virtual Weather Station software to handle the data. And honestly, it was a royal pain in the ass to keep running. First, because it was a system in my home office, it had accounts for my wife and me on it in addition to the one that ran my weather station software. And over time the system got polluted with drivers and software that made it unstable. Then there is the problem that consumer-grade parts, like cooling fans and power supplies, just aren’t designed to run 24/7/365 without wearing out. So the case fans were constantly making grinding and squeaking noises and the thing was constantly shutting down. So when it died, I just couldn’t bring myself to rebuild it. So for five months – no weather data.

In addition to the hardware and software problems, I also realized that running an entire PC 24/7 with a 350 watt power supply wasn’t the greenest or most efficient way to get data from a weather station to the internet. The thing threw off all kinds of heat and I’m sure it cost more than a few dollars a month just to have running. There had to be a better way. After a few months of no PC I considered building a dedicated server for the weather station using a micro ATX style case and a simple motherboard. But I’d still have the problem of running a couple hundred watts 24/7 for no good reason.

WeatherHub 2

Then, while looking at the Ambient Weather site I discovered their WeatherHub2 dedicated server. It seemed too good to be true. Someone was selling a complete kit with the fantastic MeteoHub package installed and configured on a SheevaPlug server. It promised to do everything I needed and use only 2 watts at idle and maybe 7 watts at 100% use. The plug server runs a 1.2 GHz ATOM processor made by Marvell and an embedded Linux OS. Normally the SheevaPlug ships with Ubuntu installed, but for the MeteoHub package, a version of Debian is installed and then the MeteoHub package is installed on top of that. The server has a USB port which can connect to the weather station and an SD card slot which can be used to store weather data.

So, for $279 I ordered one and I can say that I’n not disappointed. It’s only been running for about 3 days (so I’ll save the detailed review for later) but it does exactly what I need with a minimum of configuration necessary. Honestly, I took it out of the box, followed the quick setup instructions, and was completely up and running in under 2 hours. And most of that time was spent figuring out a quirk (OK, bug) in the MeteoHub software that requires data collection to be enabled manually after making certain changes.

So, no more big hulking loud PC for me. I now have a dedicated weather station appliance taking up 1/10th of the room of a PC and using 1/100th of the electricity.

You can see the data from my weather station in the sidebar or directly on the WeatherUnderground website at http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMANORTH12. I also submit my data for quality control checking via the CWOP/MADIS program. You can see my quality reports at http://weather.gladstonefamily.net/site/search?site=as792.

The other day I wrote that I was abandoning my cable company and switching to Verizon FiOS service.  Since I’ve had relatively unreliable service for years, you might wonder why it’s taken me so long to switch. There’s one main reason which still gives me pause about Verizon service: you must use Verizon’s router. Honestly, this bothers the hell out of me. Verizon gives all kinds of innocent sounding reasons for why you must use their router, but they’re all crap. In fact, one of the reasons they give, is the exact reason customers shouldn’t put up with it:

Your router also contains special diagnostic software that can help us trouble-shoot and correct problems should you experience trouble with your Internet Service. You will need to use the Verizon router with your FiOS Internet service.

Can you believe that – “special diagnostic software?” Inside your network. How can this be legal? Why don’t they just say “special diagnostic software that allows us to monitor traffic inside your network which we can turn over to the US Government like we did with your phone calls after 9/11.” And I get that they already do that with WAN/Internet traffic. But I’m talking about stuff inside my network. That’s unconscionable.

The second, and less conspiratorial reason to avoid the Verizon router is that it leaves you no recourse should it fail. And it inevitably will. At least with Charter I can use any standard hardware – I currently have a Motorola Surfboard cable modem and a Linksys router (without wireless). So, should something die, it takes only a quick trip to Staples and I’m back in business. In fact, several years ago lightning struck a tree right outside the house and fried both the modem and router. On a Saturday. I was running again in under 90 minutes with all new equipment. I don’t suppose Verizon is going to rush out with a new “special” router within 90 minutes of my failure.

So without much recourse, my plan is to build out one of the scenarios on Broadband Reports to put my own router in line. Heck, with a little luck I can get an Ethernet port enabled on the ONT and just use my own router. We’ll see. But you know Charter must be horrible if I’m willing to put up with this just to get away from them.

That's all I can stands ... I can't stands no more!

I’ve been a Charter Cable customer in Worcester County Massachusetts for almost eight years. Today I ordered Verizon FiOS. As Popeye was fond of saying, “That’s all I can stands; I can’t stands no more.” I am currently a Charter Triple Play customer and I am switching everything to FiOS – TV, Internet, and phone.

Charter has never been particularly reliable for me. Soon after I moved into this house and Charter was installed, it started taking forever to connect to websites. For long stretches of time the web was just unresponsive. I was able to hit the gateway, but my browsers just spun while trying to resolve website addresses. So right off the bat, Charter’s DNS servers were a weak link. So I switched my servers to Open DNS and the problem was solved. I’ve had reliable DNS service ever since. But everything else has just sucked.

Speed Problems

First there was the speed. Regardless of the plan I had I was never able to get anything approaching a decent speed. After tweaking my system as much as possible I finally decided that it must be Charter’s problem. They didn’t think so. At least until I got HD TV a few years ago. When the tech (a contractor, not a Charter employee) came to install the service, several channels gave him trouble. They either wouldn’t tune at all or cut in and out. So he went and did some things that didn’t help and said he’d need to return with another tech on the following day. I suggested that the signal strength was weak and he said that it could be boosted on the line to fix the issue. To shorten the story, after a while deliberating, they realized that the signal strength wasn’t getting better because the line from the pole to the house was a wreck. So they finally ran a new cable and I got my channels and a moderate Internet speed boost. The problem is that I’ve been a customer since there was only one Internet speed to pay for. You got 768 Kbps down and 128 Kbps up. But that was eight years ago. Since then they’ve upgraded me whatever then next to the bottom service is, but even with the Triple Play discount I’m paying $39.99 for “up to 8″ Mbps down while FiOS would give me 15 Mbps down for the same price. But at least it delivers what is supposed to now …

Reliability

This is where Charter lost me. Over the last several months my Internet connection has been frequently going out. And it’s always a gateway problem at Charter. At least three times a week for 30 minutes at a time it just stops dead. And my wife and I work all day so we only catch the problems that happen when we’re home. And TV hasn’t been much better. I have a TiVO HD and I use a multi-stream cable card in the TiVO tuner to get my channels. And I cannot count how many times I’ve needed a Charter tech to re-sync the Cable Cards to get them to tune channels. On any given day I have at least two or three black channels until I get around to calling Charter or using the online chat to get them to send a reset signal. A few months ago it seems I was losing whole sections of channels each week. Like 100 to 120, 200 to 220, and 300 to 320, every time.

So I finally gave up. Today I called Verizon and signed up for the Triple Play with the Ultimate TV bundle. So for the same price per month as my current Charter subscription I should be getting Internet speeds up to 35 Mbps up and down as well as about 20 more HD channels plus a ton more sports channels. My install is scheduled for October 1. I’ll write updates along the way.

A while ago I wrote about my Black and Decker home energy monitor. I mentioned that I had problems with the sending unit leaking and then failing soon after I received it. So Black and Decker replaced the sending unit under warranty. Well guess what … the second one died about six months later. This time it didn’t leak, it just stopped transmitting. Yes I’ve changed the batteries and re-sync’d it. I’ve removed and reinstalled it. It simply doesn’t transmit a radio signal any more.

So even though I was originally pretty happy with this thing, I now recommend that you stay away from this and do not buy a Black and Decker Power Monitor. Unlike many of the negative reviews on Amazon, mine has nothing to do with setup or whether it will work on your meter. Rather, the quality of the sending unit seems poor. As always, your mileage may vary, but my experience with this unit has been bad. I think I’ll buy a TED monitor system instead.