Monday, July 28, 2008

Off The Top Of My Head

I've been hearing how good "HD" radio is. Now, the "HD" doesn't mean high definition; it means high density. This means that a radio station's digital signal can carry many programs at the same time. "HD 1" may mean the main channel; while "HD 2" may be in Spanish; "HD 3" may be traffic information; and so on.

The problem is that the "HD" signal can't be heard in some areas, but the main (analog) program can. The "HD" signal creates adjacent channel noise. This means that, if there is a weak station you want to listen to that's next to the "HD" station, the weak station can't be heard over the noise.

The company licensing the "HD" concept, and equipment (iBiquity) has a monoply on everything made, and that ain't right. There's no competition, which means that iBiquity can set the prices of transmitting and receiving equipment.

If that ain't bad enough, the programming on most "HD" channels is a computer playing a few songs in its library, sort of like an iPod on random play. Here, in southern California, the entertainment capitol of the world, the programming sucks.

I'm not going to buy a "HD" radio anytime soon.

Big 22 Doubles Tournament

OK - a lot has happened since my last entry.

Over the weekend, my bowling partner and I competed in a doubles tournament. We went against 28 teams and made the semi-finals. Now it got down to a one-game-beat-the-board semi final. The field was cut in half again, and we were still in it. We went against two other teams for final positions.

My partner had a spare in the ninth, and left the 6 - 10 in the tenth. Going for the spare, he pulled the shot, which went wide missing the two pins. He finished with a respectable 198, ten pins over his average.

I had a clean game, including picking up the 5 - 7 split early on. I had a strike in the ninth, and my first ball in the tenth was a strike. My first bonus ball was a half of a board high, and left a wobbly 7 pin, which I spared, giving me a clean 229 game.

When our handicap was added in, we ended two pins short of making the final match. We ended the tourney in third place, which was good for $500 each.

First place paid $1000 each, and second paid $750. $500 for an afternoon's work was good. The main thing was that we put on a great show. Getting paid for it was a bonus.