The Problem:

My old man had a second generation treadmill that when turned on would knock out his DSL and even cause his television to shut off. After some quick googling I discovered that this is a very common issue. According to dslreports.com

RFI is insidious. It can sneak around no matter what you do … totally wipe out your DSL.

Noisy RFI … can reach your computer or modem through the AC lines, but more likely by radiating from the AC lines to your phone line. … RFI can interfere with various sections of the spectrum needed for DSL, causing lower sync rates and throughput, and in some cases repeated interruption or even total failure to sync.

The Solution:

Find a power bar with an RFI/EMI filter to clean the power/signal coming from the offending treadmill. I had tried 2 different powerbars and only one worked.

    1. Didn’t Work Rocketfish 7-Outlet Surge Protector (RF-HTS105)

• This powerbar/surge protector sports a  A 47 dB EMI/RFI noise filter which DIDNT work at all

    2. Did Work Monster Power Center (FS MP HTS400)

• This powerbar/surge protector sports some technology called “Monster Clean Power Stage 1 v2.0”

Once I plugged the treadmill into the Monster Power Center I was able to see the improvements immediately.

 I hope this younger generation never has to deal with IDE ribbons, floppy drive, dip switches, and CRUSH-ABLE CPU CORES!!!!! 

I have been working on this old laptop project for the last 4 or 5 days; Taking an old laptop(Pentium III 600mhz) and converting it into a digital picture frame. I had the fitment in the frame done, all my cables and ribbons run flat, linux distro tuned for speed and purpose … all it needed was a backing and one of those legs to hold the frame up.

I figured time for pictures!

I take 2 pictures of the frame booting and cycling images then I flip the frame over to take a shot of the back. I dont know how it happened but when I layed it face I crushed 2 corners of the CPU … check out the hi-res pics.

I know its my own fault but i think Intel should take partial responsibility for building a heat-sink that rests on 3 legs … wtf blue men !

Anyways time to find a mobile P3 cpu on ebay …..fuck 

For my fellow Canadians thinking about purchasing a years worth of online NHL streaming you may want to know this tidbit of information.

Unlike normal sports blackouts for local teams, the NHL has broadcaster and local team blackouts. So if CBC, TSN and TSN2 are broadcasting the game on their channel then you wont be able to view the game on-line. Samething goes if my local team(Ottawa Senators) is playing a game anywhere … it will be blacked out as well :( .

To see a Canadian schedule I built from the NHL, CBC and TSNs go here. 

If you have purchase Gamecenter Live during the pre-season then move fast as you only have 5 days to receive a full refund.