Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Cat duty. DONE.
• Dispense Mom’s meds. DONE.
• Shower. DONE.
• Pay all pending bills.  IN PROGRESS.
• Do all pending laundry (4 loads).  DONE.

Log

07:45 AM: I’m up. My weight is the same as yesterday; 74.0 Lbs.

09:30 AM: Talked to Mom’s medical insurance company about the N insulin we bought yesterday.  Her copay was nearly a hundred dollars for four viles.  That seemed rather high to the both of us.  But the insurance company insisted that it’s correct.  However, they would not discuss lower-cost alternatives to this “preferred brand” of insulin, as they called it.  So we’ll run the bases with our pharmacy and her PCP to see if she can use any cheaper insulins.

10:45 AM: Worked the   IRIS WebRadio WiFi Problems   project.  Called Verizon to see if I could get some of the cost of that call to the Netherlands refunded (11 minutes cost over $37).  Unfortunately, they said no, since I did not have an international calling plan on my line at the time the call was made.  So, friends, use extreme caution when making calls to places outside the continental United States, because if you don’t have an international calling plan, Verizon will really sock it to you, and they don’t take ignorance as an excuse.  So be careful.

11:00 AM: Posted the details of    yesterday’s shopping trip.

12:15 PM: Getting all tax papers and receipts together.

12:45 PM: Processed all pending email in my inbox.

02:40 PM: Watched the 2009-12-27 and 2010-01-03 episodes of CBS’s news show,   Face The Nation  on the DVR.

04:00 PM: The washer filled very slowly today, and a check of the strainer on the hot water inlet revealed many small stones and mineral pieces clogging it.  I unscrewed the hoses and rinsed off both the hot and cold inlets, and normal hot water flow was restored; for one load of wash.  But for the next load, the water was but a trickle once more.  This got me thinking that the water heater may need flushed; haven’t done that in over a year.  Well, today, I did, and wow!  I got a large pale full of dark brown, rusty water from it with lots of little white speckles floating around in it, and several other pales of lighter-colored but still dirty-looking liquid.  Perhaps I’m foolish for hoping that this rust doesn’t mean that we’re nearing the end-of-life for the water heater.  But I know better. It does.  So I’ll embrace its end, by dreaming about the next heater we’ll by.  Next time around, I’d like to install a 75 gallon unit, to replace the 50-gallon one we have now.

05:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

06:50 PM: Watched the 2010-01-20 and 2010-01-21 episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.

07:50 PM: Posted the   iPod Touch Has Weak Wifi   piece.

09:00 PM: Watched the 2010-01-22 and 2010-01-23 episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.

09:30 PM: Sister Christine’s dog had four puppies earlier today.  I hear that they’re cute.  But then, I hear that about most any warm-blooded, newly-spung offspring. So I can’t vouch for just how cute they really are. 

10:05 PM: Talked with [Emmy].  We’re both tickled because [Emmy] has found someone to take her to the grocery store and help her shop and find things.  It’s been a half a year since the last fellow determined that he could not take her anymore due to changes at work.  We’d still like to find three or four others to help her as well, and I encouraged her to go onto facebook and make friends.  With so many people on that social networking site, there are likely to be some nice people in the Pittsburgh area that frequent facebook, that would enjoy assisting her.  She’s not convinced yet.  But I’ll keep working on her; gently mind you, but persistently nonetheless. 

10:45 PM: Speaking of facebook, I visited there myself a few times today, and hope to use it to locate rides myself, and find good friends in the deal as well.

11:30 PM: Listened to KYW News Radio for a half hour on the iPod Touch.  Hmmm.  I think I’ll charge the Touch up tonight, then run it down tomorrow, playing KYW, and see how long it will play on a single charge.  I’ve read that using the wifi on it significantly shortens the battery life.  But I’ll find out by just how much, by comparing how long it lasts playing Internet radio with the time it plays per charge if I’m just listening to music files stored locally.

11:50 PM: Yawn.  Good night all.  I’m off to bed.  Take care, and I’ll write more tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

•  (1) Biddeford electric blanket replacement control.

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2010-02-11
• iPod Touch Has Weak Wifi
• IRIS WebRadio WiFi Problems
• Mom’s Status: 2010-02-11
• Shopping Trip: 2010-02-10
• Today’s Diet: 2010-02-11

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in  the   Tom’s Diary   blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance,  and search-ability:

Tom

I purchased the 64 GB WiFi version of the iPod touch last week.  I’m quite pleased with the fidelity and versatility of this little media computer, and I especially being able to go anywhere in the house with the thing in my back pocket and the ear buds inserted, and listen to Internet radio. 

I’m running a Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000, which is a full-power access point (AP) (1 watt), and this gives tremendous coverage throughout the house and several hundred feet surrounding the house, at least, when I’m surfing the web on a laptop.  However, the WiFi range appears to be much shorter with the iPod Touch. 

The other night, while shoveling snow, I noticed that the Internet radio stations repeatedly cut out as I moved away from the house; reception became erratic at a distance of 80 to 100 feet.  Occasionally, they’d return on their own as I moved back into a strong signal pocket.  But mostly, once they dropped, they’d stay out for good, until I pulled the Touch out and pressed the play button to restart them. Then, they’d drop again a few seconds later. 

Part of the difficulty may be that the AOL Radio app I’m playing the stations on does not recover from momentarily dropped WiFi signals very well.  I’ve got the current version of this app as of 2010-02-05.  Indeed, when the stations go silent, pressing the play button usually makes them resume when I’m standing still, unless I’m 200 feet or more away.  At that distance, they might not play again until I walk closer to the AP.  So while I may be on the inner fringes of WiFi reception at 90 feet from the house, there still appears to be plenty of strong signal around; my laptop reads signal in the “very good” strength range at 200 feet distance. 

So given these strong but admittedly sporadic signal conditions (conditions that one would likely encounter in a residential wifi installation), I’d think that a well-designed app for the iPod Touch would retry every second or two when the signal is lost; particularly on a device so portable as the Touch.  People using the Touch will likely be moving around with it, just as I was while shoveling.  So an iron-clad error detection and correction design is mandatory for such a player and the software that it hosts.  However, I realize that this would deaden the battery faster, and it could be that the app designers may have been searching for that ideal balance between good battery life and robust recovery from wifi signal loss. 

Still though, even if the designers had implemented the perfect app, the problem remains that the iPod touch does not put out a very strong wifi signal.  Why?  A couple of reasons: The wifi antenna is housed inside its metal-clad shell; indeed there’s just a little plastic area on the top edge, near the left corner (a “hole” in the metal case if you will), where wifi signals enter and exit the unit.  Internal antennas like this don’t work as well as the full-length external “duck” aerials found on many of the better wifi network cards and less portable devices such as desktop Internet radios.  I suspect that the antenna in the Touch is not full-length.

Further, Apple limits the wifi transmit power in the Touch to increase battery life per charge.  In fact, my Handi-Cassette II tape recorder in play mode, with the volume adjusted to maximum, makes a pretty good wifi field strength tester, and I used it to verify this hypothesis.  Indeed, when positioned near the antennas on my AP, I clearly hear the “woodpecker” sound of the wifi packet transmissions.  However, I do not hear them when I put the iPod Touch near the HandiCassette II while the Touch plays an Internet radio station.  The Touch is definitely transmitting ACK packets back to the AP during radio station play.  So I suspect that its power output to be very much less than my wireless G access point.  I doubt it even outputs a hundred milliwatts.  

When I purchased the iPod Touch with WiFi, I thought I’d be able to enjoy it throughout the entire two acres of property here, especially while cutting the grass, burning brush out back, and so on.  While that’s still possible if I move my AP to the attic and invest in outdoor antennas and cabling, I was nonetheless saddened to learn that the Touch doesn’t work well nearly as far away as my laptop.  While I get great wifi connections on the laptop as far away as my pavilion, which is 220 feet or so down into the back yard, the iPod Touch only works well to about half-way there before sporadically cutting out.  Now it does work at the pavilion as long as you don’t walk around with it too much, because the further away from the AP you get, the more sensitive to movement the Touch becomes.  Move around too much, and you lose your stations.  So though I invested in a full-power AP, the low wifi output of the Touch coupled with its low sensitivity (which is how well it can hear nearby APs) seems to severely limit the usable distance available. 

Don’t misunderstand.  I still think the iPod Touch with WiFi is a great device; mine works very well all throughout the house and the connected porches outside.  But as with most other things, there’s definitely room for improvements for the next generation of iPod Touch.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Improving iPod Touch WiFi
• Improving Pavilion WiFi; Attempt #1
• Improving Pavilion WiFi; Attempt #2
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-11

Today, I consumed the following items:

• Peppermint tea and diet caffeine-free Pepsi throughout the day.  0 calories.
• 01:00 PM: 1 dozen of vanilla sugar-free waffers.  390 calories.
• 01:30 PM: 1 cup oatmeal.  300 calories. 
• 01:30 PM: 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.  360 calories.
• 02:45 PM: Multivitamin.
• 05:00 PM: Salad.  300 calories.
• 05:30 PM: 3 cups Cheerios.  300 calories.
• 05:30 PM: 2 cups skim milk.  160 calories.
• 05:30 PM: 1 cup raisins.  520 calories.
• 05:30 PM: 12 Oz. blueberries.  180 calories.

Total calories: 2510.

Tom

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-02-11
• Weight Loss: 2010

Pending Appointments And Issues

1. 2010-02-19 @ 11:00 AM:  Friday: Appointment with her eye doctor to check the progress of the clearing up of the blood in her right eye.
2. 2010-03-12 @ 1:15 PM: Friday: PCP appointment to see if the edema has gone down. 
3. 2010-04-14 @ 11:10 AM: Wednesday: Appointment with orthopedist for the next quarterly checkup on the progress of healing of her charcot foot. 

Log

08:00 AM: Blood sugar: 158.  Covered this and a glass of orange juice with 12 units of log insulin.

08:30 AM: The physical therapist just arrived to help Mom exercise, although I heard her telling the therapist that she doesn’t feel like doing very much today. 

09:00 AM: Dispensed Mom’s morning meds.

01:00 PM: Dispensed Mom’s lunch-time meds.

05:30 PM: Dispensed Mom’s evening meds.

10:10 PM: Blood sugar: 143.  Covered with 8 units of log insulin.

10:15 PM: Dispensed Mom’s night-time meds.

Tom

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-02-11