The Ignition Project: Tag douchebags

A Letter to SiriusXM

Keith Gable — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:26:00 -0600

I wrote this letter on their online feedback system. I hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears:

I would like to complain about the new channel lineup. I previously called customer care and they were supposed to note this on my account, but to ensure the customer care operator actually noted my account, I am writing you.

Here are my complaints:

Most music is censored now. I understand this is because the same feed is used on XM and Sirius now and those channels aren’t marked XL on XM. That’s fine - give them the shitty feed and let us keep our profanity. The artist would have left the profanity out if that’s how they wanted the song to sound. And, hey, that’s one of the reasons Stern is on here - because of the lack of censorship. Yet now you’re censoring music.
BuzzSaw 19 is now Boneyard 19, and Eddie Trunk is an asshole, so fuck him. But besides that, you’ve replaced it with the AC/DC limited engagement channel for the next two months. Sorry, AC/DC is not that great. Give me back BuzzSaw or move AC/DC, please!
BackSpin 43 is gone, leaving effectively three rap channels - new rap, new rap, and well, new rap. Awesome thinkin’ Gomer! XM still has their old school hip-hop channel - I want ours back.

Please give me a reasonable timeline for when you guys will undo some of what you did, in particular the censorship. One of the reasons I even chose Sirius was the lack of censorship and therefore Howard Stern and my music as I want to hear it. Expect to lose all three radios as well as a loyal Stern fan if you continue to censor your music channels.

Also, be rest assured that the contents of this are being posted to a relatively high traffic website - please don’t sit around and do nothing. I would love for the manager of programming to read this and set all of his/her minions straight and fix this mess. And for the love of God, don’t send me a canned response.

SiriusXM Channel Changes

Keith Gable — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:45:00 -0600

I’m pretty happy to be a Sirius subscriber. Commercial free music for the win! Anyway, today they pushed a major channel update that incorporated a ton of channels from XM, sans commercials. Among those channels they moved, they replaced almost all of the pop channels 4-9 with XM versions or combined with Sirius versions. Which I like a lot better. The Pulse moved up to 12 (taking over what used to be Super Shuffle?), and they put a real 90’s pop channel there, which is awesome because I didn’t like The Pulse, but I definitely dig 90’s on 9. I’m also pretty happy with the fact there’s a 2000’s pop channel, because people in my car sometimes want to listen to something besides my presets, and that’s fine. Now, it’s stupid they didn’t put it on channel 10 or 20 to fit in the numbering scheme they’ve been using (except that would piss off Bruce Springsteen and/or Octane, but screw them both). And what pisses me off about that is that they replaced Boombox with that channel.

And that’s not the only channel they killed that I liked. They killed BackSpin 43 and BuzzSaw 19 too. I would say BuzzSaw wasn’t dead per se, but Eddie Trunk is annoying - I much prefer Long Paul, Keith Roth, and Kim Mulligan - and my experience with Eddie is just at Rocklahoma. Especially since they replaced BuzzSaw with AC/DC radio until next year. Yeuck - AC/DC rules, but not 24/7. Throw in some other hard bands and you get, well, BuzzSaw! Either way, it looks like we screwed XM out of Boneyard, so I guess I can be happy about that (but we got screwed out of it too - it doesn’t start until next year).

That said, on the other presets I had that changed, I am totally happy with the new changes. bpm can replace Boombox as far as I’m concerned, and they kept the Sirius DJs for Big 80’s (80s on 8).

Update 11/13: Since they’re broadcasting the same feed on both XM and Sirius, the XM “non explicit channels” that made me not buy XM in the first place are fed over to Sirius. I’m fucking pissed. 1-888-539-SIRIUS (7474) is the number to call. Seriously, I’m paying $6/mo, I want my profanity goddamnit.

Spam, spam, eggs, and spam

Keith Gable — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:04:00 -0600

We just got a spam attack. I marked all of the messages spam (they were all spam). I’ve also limited the comments form so that hopefully only humans can fill it out. Unfortunately, JavaScript is involved, so to leave a comment, you need JS turned on. Additionally, after 60 days, the comments for an article will be disabled. Hopefully that quenches the spam problem.

The Apple Cinema Display Saga (part 2: Take-Apart Guide)

Keith Gable — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:31:00 -0600

If you missed part 1, you should go back and read it, so you understand why I’m taking apart such an expensive monitor.

Before I cut the end of the cable off, I wanted to know what I was working with. Maybe the cable was simple to replace. Maybe it was something that I could easily find. By following this take-apart guide, you’ll see, the cable is really simple to remove. The Mac mini and Nintendo Wii are much more difficult to open up (though not really that hard).

But a word of warning: After I took apart the monitor, and saw how easy the cable was to replace, I tried to locate one on the Internet. Nobody sells one. So, I went to an Apple store. Evidently, even though the monitor is easy to service, they send the monitor back to China and have the underaged children with small hands refurbish my monitor and they send me another refurbished one. There is a $120-$200 cost for this. Unless, of course, you take it apart first, in which case the refurbishment charge is $800 (for those keeping score, that’s $300 more than I paid for it). Even though the monitor is not under warranty, taking it apart is one of the Seven Deadly Apple Sins. So, don’t do it if you’re in the same boat I am. Unless you have a cable already, in which case, let me know how you got it! :)

So, anyway, on with the guide.

Tools

You’re going to need Allen wrenches. Just get a set. You’ll use like two or three. You’re also going to need a good Torx set. The smaller ones. I ended up using my Console Access Pro Toolkit because my other Torx set didn’t have a Torx bit small enough. You’ll also need a #1 Philips screwdriver, and another Philips screwdriver that is much bigger. The screw is weird though, I couldn’t get it to turn with any of my bigger Philips screwdrivers, so I ended up using a big flathead screwdriver to turn it. You’ll also need a knife or this same flathead screwdriver for prying purposes, and it would really help if you had a magnetic probe. You can get one at AutoZone at the counter where they sell the M&Ms and tire gauges, and you will learn to love it. Perhaps more than yourself or the Weighted Companion Cube.

You might also need a couple pairs of pliers to seperate connectors, but I didn’t (I did on my Nintendo Wii, however).

The Guide

You’re going to start with this:

Apple Cinema Display Before Opening

From there, you need to take the white side panels off. To do this, grab your knife or screwdriver and use it to pry up the white panel from the top. They’re glued on with really strong glue, but if you open them like this, you’ll get them off (pull gently, but don’t be afraid to use a little force!):

On the side of the display with the power button, you’ll have to unplug a small cable. I just pulled the cable out of the socket since I could pull by the connector easily. If you cannot, use pliers. Do not pull by the wire!

Next, remove the base. It’s really rather simple, so I didn’t take pictures of it. Remove four Torx screws from the part of the base where it meets the monitor (you have to look for them a little). Then, you have to remove the big screws on the sides of the base that open with Allen wrenches. They’re silver. Can’t miss them.

After that, you’ll need to remove all of the little screws on the sides of the monitor. Not the two or three bigger ones - don’t mess with those yet.

Next, pull up on the bracket you just unscrewed and remove it. Then remove the topmost big screw on the sides of the monitor (top in relation to the monitor).

You’re almost there! You need to release these.. levers.. that hold it all together. Use pliers, a screwdriver, your finger (if you want it to hurt), or something else to pull the levers. They don’t come out very far. Here’s what they look like:

There’s one on both sides, by the way.

You’ll need to disconnect the status LED. The connector is taped to the screen, remove the tape and disconnect the connector.

Finally, use gravity to your benefit, and ease the screen out of the aluminum casing. You will have to feed the cable through the hole in the back, and you can’t do it at an angle (the screen will only slide out exactly vertically). You’ll end up with this:

Screen Removed

From here, remove the tape and unplug the cable, if that’s what you took it apart for. You’ll probably want to mark what went where, just in case.

But, again, remember that even if you have no warranty, this will not be good if you need to order parts and aren’t an Apple Authorized Service Provider…

Liked this story? Digg it!

The Apple Cinema Display Saga (part 1)

Keith Gable — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:05:00 -0600

I own a 20” aluminum Apple Cinema Display. When I bought it, it was the best 20” widescreen you could buy. It’s still quite awesome. Except, the DVI connector is permanently attached to the monitor. Which wouldn’t be a problem if you were a normal Apple user in that you have a studio and keep your stuff in mainly the same place.

Well. I’m not. I go to LAN parties. I move my monitor two or three times a month. Lots of stress on the DVI connector. Finally, the DVI cable gave out. And, it’s not under warranty anymore (I was two days late getting AppleCare). And unlike every other manufacturer of hardware I know of, they won’t sell end-users repair parts. And it’s not like I can just go to a parts store and order a part. I have to pay Apple however much money they want for labor and then however much it costs for the cable. Which probably will end up around $100. For a DVI cable. That costs $2.

So, what am I doing? I’m doing the absolute geekiest thing: I’m soldering the $2 (free) DVI cable on to the attached Apple DVI cable. But, I did take it apart. It’s extremely simple to get it apart and replace the cable. And I’m hoping David from Galaxy Hardware Publishers can find a cable for me, just in case my solder job fails.

I’ll post take-apart pictures and a take-apart guide in part 2.