Fun with Dip Tubes

Dip what? Dip tubes I say.

So, last week I was in the bathroom (on the second floor) and while brushing my teeth I noticed that the water pressure suddenly dropped down very low. I checked both the hot and cold side and it was low on both. I dismissed it for the evening.

The next day while taking a shower, right in the middle of the shower, the pressure dropped off so low that barely any water was coming out of the shower head. Hmm.

I then checked a few things and surmised that the problem couldn't be a simple clog as the hot and cold water are on separate lines once they leave the water heater. It could be a leak outside and I do have a sprinkler system. I called the water company and they verified that the leak wasn't on their side. With all my sources turned off the water meter wasn't moving so there was no leak on my side either. Furthermore the water company checked my water pressure and it was at nearly 60 pounds. 20 is all they have to provide and 60 is excellent.

I then went back to the shower head. When I removed it the water blew out of the raw pipe with ease. Hmm. I put an older shower head on and that seemed to "solve" the problem. I looked at the first head and found it had tiny little white flecks in it but when I'd touch them they'd crumble into a fine powder. Then I started posting to plumbing forums.

One plumber replied with the answer. First, let me explain a bit about a dip tube. The dip tube feeds cold water into the water heater. It's a long tube that feeds this cold water into the bottom of the water heater. That's important because without it the cold water would mix with the hot water at the top and cool it off while you're trying to use it. Sending it to the bottom lets you keep using the hot water at the top of the tank while the cold water is heated at the bottom.

So, back to the problem: Back in the 90's (my water heater is at the end of its life as it was made in 1995) every single water heater made used dip tubes that came from the same manufacturer. These tubes were all made of a plastic called EVA (Ethylene-vinyl acetate). It's a bit like PVC. The problem is that later it became apparent that this type of plastic wasn't up to the long-term punishment of being continually heated and cooled over a decade or more. It would slowly break down and disintegrate. For some it just starts eroding at the bottom of the tube slowly working upwards. Each inch up reduces the efficiency of the heater. In other cases it erodes anywhere along its length and eventually breaks off falling into the tank beyond reach.

The flecks I was seeing were the remnants of the EVA that broke off and were being pushed into my water lines. This got me to drain the water heater which isn't as simple as it sounds. You need to be sure to turn off the power to the water heater and there's not just a nice easy switch. Then you have to turn off the water supply to it. Then you hook up a hose to the spigot at the bottom. Great, except that mine is in the basement and there's no drain there so I had to drain 80 gallons of water into a bin a couple gallons at a time and have my son drag that up the stairs, outside and back again (thank God for off-spring as slave labor). The flecks came out in chunks and the rest of what came out looked so disgusting that I had a hard time believing any shower could be "clean". Thankfully after the first couple of gallons it changed over into very clean water.

So now the choice was to either replace the dip tube or to replace the whole water heater. Complicating matters is that I'm currently in the process of changing jobs and haven't gotten my new situation fully resolved so I really don't want to spend a lot of money until that happens. If I could fix this I could put off the big purchase until this was resolved.

Dip tubes, it turns out, are pretty inexpensive. We're talking below $10 to $15. My problem was that every plumbing supply shop I called claimed not to have the one I needed even though it's a fairly standard part.

I got a bit annoyed by this and then realized we'd been paying PSE&G (the power company) for a service contract that included the water heater. I called them, waited on hold for 30 minutes, and found out that the dip tube isn't covered. It's time to re-evaluate this so-called WorryFree contract as every time I've tried to benefit from it I've been told the item in question isn't covered. It didn't help when my ice maker broke. It didn't cover the thermostats on the dryer. It didn't cover the plastic teeth that turn the tub in the washer when they broke. It was of no value when the elements in our range died. So much for worry-free. It seems like yet another plan that's designed to send more money to a company in return for nothing.

I then remembered that I could order a replacement water heater from them and put out no up-front money and just pay for it over time. That would work. So I called about that. It took 2 hours to reach someone. When I did it all went downhill. They only carry water heaters from one company, A.O. Smith. That might be okay except that they ask you to choose a model from the linked company brochure but the first two models I chose they don't carry. The ones they do carry are mid-level models that aren't as efficient as I'd prefer. What's worse is that they're incredibly overpriced.

I need an 80-gallon electric water heater. You can get a top-of-the-line Whirlpool from Lowe's for $600 and installation is very easy. They wanted $1,300-$1,550 to install their mid-level models. No way.

So now I've just ordered a replacement dip tube with the hopes that it'll extend the life of the water heater for another year or so while the employment situation is resolved. In the meantime I've cleaned out all the faucets of the EVA flecks and that should cover me until the replacement gets here.

40 Americans Who Need To Apologize

There are 40 Americans this week that owe this country an apology--an apology that has nothing to do with racism or police in the Northeast.

These 40 are from the ranks of our own representatives in the Senate. This past week, in an amazing show of strength against waste in government, the Senate voted to finally say "no" to the problem-plagued, overly-expensive, nearly-universally-unwanted F-22 Raptor.

The issue is pretty clear. The 40 Senators who voted for it can only say that they voted to keep it as a matter of self preservation that puts their continued power above the whole. Each of these Senators should be ashamed.

You do have to give it to Lockheed Martin and Boeing. They figured out long ago that the best way to insure your bottom line with Washington is to make certain your product spreads the wealth. The F-22 contains parts made in 44 different states which makes it very hard to vote against in the self-centered environment of Washington D.C.

I'd really love to grill the Republicans on this list that want to open up their mouths to use the phrase "socialism" to describe health care reform. This is about as hypocritical as it gets. They're against government money going to provide health care but okay with it providing jobs in their state? Interesting.

For the record here are the 40 (25 Republicans and 15 Democrats. ) who voted to keep this plane around (in State order):

Sessions (R-AL)
Begich (D-AK)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Boxer (D-CA)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Martinez (R-FL)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Isakson (R-GA)
Akaka (D-HI)
Inouye (D-HI)
Crapo (R-ID)
Risch (R-ID)
Grassley (R-IA)
Brownback (R-KS)
Roberts (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
McConnell (R-KY)
Vitter (R-LA)
Collins (R-ME)
Snowe (R-ME)
Cochran (R-MS)
Wicker (R-MS)
Baucus (D-MT)
Tester (D-MT)
Johanns (R-NE)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Udall (D-NM)
Burr (R-NC)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Thune (R-SD)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Bennett (R-UT)
Hatch (R-UT)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Murray (D-WA)
Byrd (D-WV)

Birth Announcement Time Machine

Apparently we've invented a time machine and I totally missed the story. I'd have jumped at the chance to invest in the company behind it. What time machine? Well, that's the only conclusion I can reach to explain the tinfoil hat crowd that believe President Obama wasn't born in this country and continue to push this issue as if it actually has any merit.

Forget that Hawaii has gone out of its way to tell and re-tell everyone that approaches them that he was born there and that they've certified him.

The absolute undeniable proof is as simple as simple can get. On August 13, 1961 a birth announcement appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser:



How else can this be explained except the use of a time machine? Devine intervention perhaps? Maybe, given the common nature of his name, this was one of the many Barack H. Obama's who just happened to have a son that week. Maybe Mrs. Obama was into seeking advice from psychics who alerted her to an amazing problem that would befall her son nearly 50 years later.

Can we please put this story to rest so I can go back to the fun of debunking the myth that Obama also has never pledged allegiance to the flag?

It's About Time MTV Figured It Out

MTV and Harmonix, the makers of the highly successful game series Rock Band, have finally figured out the biggest reality in their market segment--that is that they were the biggest logjam to taking this concept to the stratosphere.

In my post of just over a year ago called, It's Time For A New Music Standard, I pointed out that these games needed to open up their architecture so that the bands themselves could be given the option of creating their own Rock Band and Guitar Hero tracks. It seems obvious to me that once that happened you'd have bands all over the world wanting to get their own music into the game as soon as possible. Only the most anal-retentive (and vision-less) band leaders would pass up such an opportunity. I'd buy a CD all over again if it came with digitally remastered audio tracks AND included tracks for these games.

While that seems to still be a ways off the companies behind Rock Band have just announced that, later this year, they're finally making it possible for any band to create note charts for each instrument in the game from their own master-track recordings. This is going to catch on fire pretty fast once everyone gets over the learning curve. I can see an entire cottage industry cropping up of development houses that specialize in creating these note charts, for a fee, for any willing bands.

The bands can price the songs from .50 to $3.00 and get 30% of the take which is a ton more money than they get from their own CD sales (at least any of the bands that have standard recording contracts with major labels).

It won't happen soon enough for me. Suddenly I can see a deluge of content on the horizon instead of the slow trickle of widely varying bands and music types we have now. Yes!

Bruno Won't Reach The Moon

This weekend I found the time to do something I haven't done in a while and that's seeing two movies.

The first film was Bruno. This is the second movie from Sacha Baron Cohen who first brought us the hilarious Borat. When Borat first came on the scene I avoided it for quite some time. I haven't, in the past, been a big fan of over-the-top character films especially when the star appears on late-night shows as the character. I hated when he did it with Borat. I hated it when Will Ferrell did it with Talledaga Nights (another film that coincidentally stars Cohen) and so forth.

However, as the positive reviews from both mainstream reviewers and friends poured in I finally gave in and saw Borat. I loved it. Yes it was sophomoric with some of the humor but it was also quite brilliant and original.

This experience softened my thinking when I heard about Bruno. Early reviews said it took the mantle from Borat and pushed it even higher. This I had to see.

Well, it turns out that my initial concerns about Borat might have been better placed here. Bruno is funny. In a few sparing scenes it's very funny. However, for me, it never even came close to reaching the brilliance of Borat. Contrary to some reviews I found this story to be far more disjointed than the earlier effort. It seemed much more like sketches tossed together in the guise of a completed storyline. I found several of the scenes so over-the-top ridiculous that they just weren't funny. One involves a real rotating penis. Yep. Imagine 30 seconds (or was it minutes?) of watching a real penis being swung in circles and bouncing up and down all while zoomed in to have it take up the whole screen. This sort of thing I just don't get.

I walked out of the movie thinking that it was a funny enough movie but lacking. In hindsight I found The Hangover to be a better movie in almost every area and that Baron Cohen will have to try again if he plans to top Borat.

Next up I saw a film I doubt few will get the chance to see. It's playing at a local art house theater and nowhere else that I could find. The movie is called, simply, Moon. It stars Sam Rockwell as a lonely miner living on the backside of the moon somewhere in the "near" future. The movie opens with a mock commercial explaining that the moon has incredible previously untapped energy resources that are now being mined 24/7 and sent back to Earth to meet our power demands. The company is able to run this show almost entirely by automation with the help of a single human that signs up for a three-year term. It's a lonely existence except for a HAL-like robotic machine called GERTY and voiced perfectly by Kevin Spacey.

This is a wonderful movie from nearly every aspect. The script is first-rate keeping you engaged at every turn. The theater was full of hushed conversation debating the various potential paths the story might take. The acting is excellent. The look is spot on. At times it looks spartan but only where spartan is called for. The space suit he wears is exactly as dirty as you'd expect it to be. There are times when you think it might be veering towards being too low-budget. It's then that it blows you away with phenomenal outside vistas that look like they could have only been shot on the surface of the moon. There are times you can feel the lower budget in play but not often and not enough to ruin the fun. Just don't go into it expecting everything to look like The Matrix.

This movie will keep anyone with a passing interest in real science fiction entertained for the duration. I'd have to say that, so far, this is definitely in the running for one of the best movies of the year.

Does No One Understand Population Now?

Yesterday I caught a news item and the instant I read it I knew it would only be a short wait before some at Fox News distorted it. Much to my non-surprise it was Sean Hannity leading the way.

The news story was from USA Today and was titled, "Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08". While the article sounds damning on the surface when you read the article it all becomes clear. In fact, even the investigators in the article point out that they don't believe there's anything nefarious at play here.

This is yet another case of why having "news organizations" with a clear political agenda and pundits of the same bent being supported on it is a bad idea. These people prey on two key elements of their viewership--ignorance and political blindness. Sean Hannity works these two like magic. He took this story, ignored half of it, and then played it as if everyone involved had planned to buy off counties that voted for President Obama. The ignorant will hear it and just believe it. The politically blind hear what they want to hear and add it to their arsenal of misinformation without bothering to even apply common sense to the equation.

Let me state this simply: Anyone who is surprised that more money has gone to New York or Los Angeles than to counties in the middle of nowhere that are mostly dominated by barren landscape is a complete idiot. Remember that a bulk of the stimulus package has gone, so far, to infrastructure projects for things like roads and bridges. So why would a place like Jerome, Idaho get as much of this money as Boston? There just aren't as many roads and bridges there. In other words, they don't need it. Sorry about that but those are the facts.

To suggest that someone sat down and planned out how to reward voters for their blue vote with this money is ludicrous and, frankly, bordering on criminal in my view. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Fox anchor, said on the show, "Absolutely, but definitely expected, right? I mean, come on, we're not born yesterday. Of course it's going to go to the blue states. It's called, like, you know, you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. It's very simple."

Like, you know, maybe you were born yesterday....

Getting Started With Carbonite

Backing up is one of those challenging tasks that's as looked forward to as trips to the dentist. In fact, it's even more of a problem because we all know that if you don't go to the dentist you're likely to experience pain whereas not backing up has the specter of pain but it may or may not happen.

Decades ago I backed up my entire system. In the DOS days this was a breeze to do. Many of us used a popular product of the day called Fastback. We backed up everything onto floppies and tape systems. The backups were generally easy though restoring was often fraught with difficulties.

Many times I'd religiously back up my system only to find later that the tapes I put the data on weren't reliable. In other words I'd been wasting my time. When Windows 95 came on the scene things only got more complicated. Hard drives started to go down in price and storage skyrocketed. Adding to the complexity was the Windows registry design making simple backups and restores hard to achieve for mere mortals.

I tried solutions like Norton's Ghost (now owned by Symantec) but they too never worked right for me. In the end I did what most of us do. I stopped backing up my data and tried, here and there, to back up key files and data. I'd copy things to flash drives, to secondary PC's like my laptop, my son's PC, etc. If I ever had a crash I'd be in real trouble as these backups are very hit-and-miss and often many months go by between runs. It's not a good situation.

Recently I've been involved in a technology advisory group discussion on backups when someone mentioned that they'd had good luck with a product I'd been hearing about on the fringes called Carbonite. Carbonite works on both Windows PC's and Mac's.

Carbonite isn't a new idea but it is an evolved one. It backs up your data and stores it online on Carbonite's offsite servers. Online storage seems like a grand idea. You backup your data and don't have to worry about big hardware costs, media costs, the hassle, etc. However, my past experience with them has shown me that they also have their own problems. Many of these companies have gone out of business months after starting up leaving users with no security and a hole in their wallets. Mass backup to such services is extremely slow. Backing up your whole system over one is not very feasible and restoring everything at once is equally problematic.

However, as a tool to backup critical data it does pose as a very nice possible solution. Carbonite lets anyone try the service for 14 days free of charge. I started with that but then quickly bought a one year license (you can buy one, two or three years at a time with discounts for more than one year). Also, if you look online you can find a slew of discount offers. I got one year for just under $44.

Installing its small applet is a breeze. You go to their website, click on the download link, and away you go. In a matter of a few minutes you're ready to start backing up. By default Carbonite will backup your My Documents folder. I told it not to use the defaults as I personally don't use and don't recommend using this folder structure. I store all my documents in a folder called "Documents Archive". I also want to backup my huge digital music collection (lossless FLAC files) and my digital pictures along with some other miscellaneous files.

The Carbonite interface is easy to use and, to be honest, a bit too spartan for my tastes. You can see the main menu of the interface in the first picture. Notice anything funny? There's a Restore Files section but no Backup Files section. It took me a bit to realize that you do all your backing up using the regular Windows tools like My Computer and Explorer. Once you realize this you won't bother with the interface all that much except to change settings and check the progress of your backup.

The first thing I did was to right-click on my "Documents Archive" folder. Installing adds a Carbonite menu item there that includes a new selection--"Back this up". If you select this on a file then Carbonite will initiate a backup of the file. If you select a folder then it'll backup the folder. Select a drive and the whole drive will be selected and so on.

Once you get some files selected Carbonite uses an icon system to let you know what's going on (you can turn the icons off if they bug you). You can just watch the progress in the main interface. It'll tell you the overall progress using progress bars and what file is currently being transferred or you can just look at Explorer. Notice in the picture to the right this view of some of my music folders. See the small dots? Yellow dots mean that the folder is selected for backup but hasn't been transferred yet. A green dot means the data below has all been backed up. The Jerry Lee Lewis folder, for example, might have several albums below it and this icon tells me that they're all now safely stored.

Another interesting tidbit is shown on the right. Notice this small view of my main C: drive. See the small green circle with a white hole in the center? This icon means that only some of the files below this folder are backed up and that's accurate. I didn't want all of my C: drive backed up but just, for now, the Documents Archive folder backed up. So here we can see that the Communications folder not only isn't backed up (no green icon) but it also isn't scheduled to be backed up (no yellow icon). We do see a green/white icon at the Documents Archive and that means only some of the data below are backed up. I can see at a glance that all my digital manuals are backed up but the other folders are only partially backed up. Why? By default Carbonite excluded some files from backup and in most of these cases the excluded files were huge video files. If I want them backed up I can override the defaults and tell Carbonite to go ahead and back them up. There are some confusing situations. The Eclipse folder (Eclipse is a Java programming tool) didn't back up or even schedule its bin and src folders. I found later that it's because these folders are empty. I've also found that if you click on any file you think should have been backed up and isn't the Carbonite menu item will explain why it wasn't.

Another nice feature is how seamlessly Carbonite integrates into Windows. It creates a virtualized Carbonite "drive" that appears in My Computer or Explorer and provides a nice amount of information. The picture to the right shows this "drive" and its folders. You can select information about all the backed up files, those pending backup and recovery logs. When you select a folder you are shown information about all the actual files that were backed up. Here I've selected my digital manuals folder. Explorer's right-side window would update to show me a complete list of all those documents and information about their storage. It shows the filename, the size of the file, what version is backed up, it's backup status (whether it's backed up or not) and the number of files involved (if this is a folder).

Notice that I mentioned the version that's backed up. Carbonite supports a nifty feature that keeps track of everything I wanted backed up. Its utility watches those locations for any changes and if anything in them does change then the files added or changed are backed up. What's really neat is that Carbonite keeps more than one version of the file backed up. From what I understand it keeps up to three copies of each file stored just in case I need to get an older version. This is very handy in case the current version is incorrect or mangled in some way. Plus it doesn't require any extra work from me. It just does it.

One thing that is a concern is that the progress bar approach doesn't provide enough information. I'm in the middle of my initial backup which is expected to take about a week. Again, since I can't feel any impact of that I really don't care how long it takes. However, I just brought up the status screen and along with the progress bar was a note saying that Carbonite has been unable to connect to the server for more than 24 hours. I really have no other information or way to see if things are moving, stuck, etc. The progress bar is just a bar. It would help if you could get information showing you that you're currently connected and that the file shown is actually being backed up at that moment.

Restoring looks to be just as straight-forward but I'll report on that later after my first full backup is completed. As I mentioned the first backup can take a LONG time. It'll be days in my case but it's all going on as I write this and I'm noticing no difference in performance from my system. It all feels as responsive as normal. Because of that I really don't care that it'll be a few days before this all completes. Once it's there it'll be a relief to know it's backed up. Restoring also, unlike several other apps, appears to be at the file level. In other words, some online backup solutions require you to restore entire folders, drives or the entire image. Carbonite looks like it fully supports any type of restore I want to do from a single version of a file all the way up to the entire image.

Pretty slick if it all works as advertised.

Don't Judge A Mailer By Its Headline

Just got a new advertisement from my bank and it bothers me. My bank, for the record, is TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank) and they've been a rather exceptional bank over the years with just a hiccup or two along the way.

However, this latest marketing effort just hit me entirely the wrong way. Let me give you the details before I outline the problems.

It purports to be a mailer designed to inform me about the benefits of using my debit card instead of my checkbook. It highlights several benefits in big bold print--Enjoy A Faster, Easier Way To Make Purchases. Just Use Your TD Bank Visa Debit Card Instead Of Checks. It then lists "some of the reasons to reach for your debit card instead of your checkbook". The list mentions four key items that I get by "using my debit card".

The problem is that this isn't what the mailer is about at all. All of the items and minutia are really about getting me to use the Visa side of the card instead of the debit side of the card. In case you're not aware of it all of these cards are essentially two services in one. There's a debit side that is activated when you input your PIN and a credit card company side when you sign for a purchase.

I'm given all these incentives within this mailer to use my debit card but to remember to always sign for my purchases instead of using the PIN. None of the benefits are given when I use my pin. Why? Well, because Visa and the bank make more money from the retailers I'm buying from when I do this. It's that simple. They're trying to offer me a bribe to make them more money at a direct negative cost to the very retailers I'm frequenting.

First of all, the mailer is dishonest on several levels. It says it's about one thing but it's about another. It also says things like, "...plus you won't hold up the checkout line writing checks." While that's true, the fact is that signing is slower and more complicated than just entering my PIN. This mailer treats the recipient like a total moron.

Second, if this sort of thing does succeed the end result will be higher prices for all of us as the retailers move to offset the increased costs they're bearing. The only ones happy in this arms race will be the bank and Visa. Sure, I get points I can use to get some crap that's worth a fraction of what the bank makes but I end up paying more in the end.

For the first time ever I called the bank to complain about this sort of approach. If this is what the new owners of Commerce Bank have in mind with regard to how I should be treated then it's time to find a new bank.

Jackson Coverage Is Not A Liberal Conspiracy

I was watching Fox News last night and listening to WPHT 1210 AM over the last few days. The interesting part of it is all the gnashing of teeth over the idea that all this Michael Jackson coverage has nothing to do with popularity and everything to do with media hype for no good reason.

Once again the fanatical conservatives out there can only see as far as the bubbled walls they live within. They are so consumed by hate and fear of anything that strikes them as unusual that they will attack even when that target is a classic embodiment of their own ideals.

Michael Jackson was a strange, strange person. He was clearly emotionally challenged and had enough issues to keep a team of top psychiatrists busy. Regardless he was also a self-made wonder of the American dream.

No other single music star has the resume of Michael Jackson. It's just that simple. I keep hearing callers calling in saying that he's no Elvis. This one bugs me because what I hear when I take that in is Michael Jackson isn't white--at least not in natural skin color that is. The fact is that Elvis was not in the same league as Michael Jackson--and I'm not a big fan. I own only one of his albums and it isn't even Thriller.

Michael Jackson died and immediately his impact was shown. Billboard announced that the first nine positions of its Top Pop Catalog Albums chart will house Jackson-related titles. Jackson alone has a record eight of the positions with another coming from the Jackson 5.

In digital sales Jackson has six of the top ten spots and set a number of sales records there. He also has a record 25 songs in top 75 digital downloads list.

It's not just in death that he pulled off this kind of magic. His re-issue of the Thriller album in February of last year debuted in the number one spot at the time.

This is a star who turned MTV into a major network and was responsible for a top Disney attraction.

Elvis meanwhile made a few forgettable movies and sang songs other people created. Don't get me wrong--Elvis had a wonderful voice but he was no Michael Jackson.

What's more is that the coverage that is going on now is deserved and has nothing to do with a media creation. The media is simply providing their audience with what they believe it wants. Get over it.

Public Enemies Not Number One

I saw Public Enemies today. The movie, about 1930's era bank robber and public fascination John Dillinger, stars Johnny Depp.

For me, the review really should stop right there. It just gets worse from that point in.

Much of the movie manages to come in strongly. The look is fantastic including both the camera work and the era details. Everything just evokes the 1930's seemingly without effort. Then there's the acting. No one does a bad job and that's no small undertaking as there seems to be no less than six major stars involved along with what feels like 100 or more total roles.

The problem is that the story is both highly inaccurate and, frankly, lacking in key details and boring in long stretches. Many elements of Dillinger's life story were altered for no positive reason I can think of. He's included in events that he never took part in. Major players die before he does even though they outlived him. Key plot elements are glossed over or entirely ignored.

In the end I could not help but compare this with the 1973 movie, Dillinger, starring Warren Oates. This older film presented the story far more convincingly without the need for all the shenanigans. Dillinger's life story is entertaining enough on its own merits without the need for re-writes.