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May 14, 2010

Property Taxes Up 9.9% in Comcast Town

Filed under: Fubars,In the News,Rants — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 6:05 pm
In the news, May 14, 2010 from NBCs Philadelphia affiliate: If you live in Philadelphia, higher property taxes and a fee for trash pickup may be two things you’ll pay for next year.  Philadelphia City Council approved Mayor Michael Nutter’s $3.9 billion budget for 2011 with a vote Thursday evening.  To fill in a $150 [...]

In the news, May 14, 2010 from NBCs Philadelphia affiliate:
If you live in Philadelphia, higher property taxes and a fee for trash pickup may be two things you’ll pay for next year.  Philadelphia City Council approved Mayor Michael Nutter’s $3.9 billion budget for 2011 with a vote Thursday evening.  To fill in a $150 million budget gap, officials made several tax increases, the most notable being a 9.9-percent jump in property taxes, officials told NBC Philadelphia. That increase will only last for two years [That's what they all say].  The 9.9 percent temporary tax hike has to get final approval from council next week.  Council also passed measures that will institute a new, yearly $300 fee for trash pickup from small businesses, duplexes and apartment buildings and a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.

Flash Back to November 2004

Comcast Center - Philly

Comcast was not able to get their new COMCAST CENTER at One Pennsylvania Plaza in Philadelphia designated as a Keystone Opportunity Improvement Zone (KOZ) even though they had the support of Pennsylvania Governor Rendell.   The KOZ designation would have exempted tenants from most taxes for fifteen years as a way to encourage development in disadvantaged areas.  This ploy did not get past House Republicans in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.  However, later that year Governor Rendell released $30 million from the Redevelopment Assistance Budget to Liberty Property Trust. Through the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, Comcast received $12.75 million that included a $4 million opportunity grant, $6.75 million in job creation tax credits, and $2 million in job training assistance. Despite their failure of receiving KOZ status, the project received $42.75 million in financial incentives from the state. [Hmmm, do you thing that Rendell owns any Comcast stock or just gets paid under the table?]

Jump forward to April 28th, 2010 (less than 1-month ago)

Comcast Corp (CMCSA) reports 4th quarter earnings.  Revenues are up 3.8% to $9,2 BILLION [with a capital "B" folks]. Comcast’s stock has risen around 12% this year but counterparts like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have risen around 29% and 23 % respectively. [Translation: Comcast and the cable industry as a whole are robbing the public blind and are laughing all the way to the bank]

For those of you that have been following the bouncing ball, we have a clear illustration of some of the root causes of the  problems facing tax paying home owners in Philly today.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship”  — Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee

May 13, 2010

Smart Antennas Promises a Clean DTV Signal

Filed under: Products — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 9:04 pm
I’ve been a big fan of the DTV conversion ever since it happened a little over a year ago, even taking into account that I had already CUT-THE-CABLE from Comcast months before it occurred.  We had to go out and buy converter boxes to make our old analog TV sets work with the new digital [...]

I’ve been a big fan of the DTV conversion ever since it happened a little over a year ago, even taking into account that I had already CUT-THE-CABLE from Comcast months before it occurred.  We had to go out and buy converter boxes to make our old analog TV sets work with the new digital signal, and we had to cross our fingers and hope that our analog TV antenna would work just as well as a new antenna designed for DTV and HDTV.  We didn’t mind that too much.  We had the government rebate coupons to work with and we picked up a few low end converters which ended up costing us $10 each after the rebate.  We got lucky with our antenna.  The results for me and many others have been extraordinary.

Before the conversion I was able to receive a total of 11 channels (4 on VHS and 7 on UHF) with varying degrees of reception quality.  Now that we have DTV over the air, I’m getting 44 channels all with CRYSTAL CLEAR pictures…better than cable!  “How can this be” you ask?  It because with DTV, you are getting the signal directly from the source.  With cable TV, your local channels are filtered and compressed before they are re-transmitted which will ALWAYS result in an inferior picture.  Watch this video that was created right before the DTV conversion occurred which still holds true for today and it will explain more.

Pretty interesting stuff, huh?  As I mentioned earlier, I have an old-school directional antenna mounted to the rafters inside my attic which is doing the job just fine for me.  However, I have some friends that weren’t as lucky in the antenna department and others that live in multi-family dwellings that didn’t have that option to start with.

The most cost-effective solution is an indoor smart antenna.  Ever since the DTV conversion, antenna technology has exponentially improved.  Now these SMART antennas have been designed to be OMNI DIRECTIONAL antennas, meaning that no manual adjustment is required and some of them contain algorithms to essentially FOCUS on the signal and filter out interference.

Terk Flat Antenna

This particular design is essentially flat which allows you to sit it on a surface or mount it on a wall, or even hide it behind a wall hanging.  My friends that are using this antenna say they have never seen pictures this clear before.  This DTV multi-directional antenna picks up both High Definition and Standard Definition signals from your local broadcasters.  My friends selected this particular one because of its low cost and because it was a signal amplifying antenna.  The plan was that if it didn’t work they would return it and go the next level up until they found one that did the trick.  Well, there was no need to go any further for them…this one is doing the job.

The other thing you need to know about shopping for an antenna is that you can’t rely on reviews from individuals because no two people have the same operating conditions.  They could be different distances from the broadcast stations, or have things between them and the station that interfere with the signal.  In the case of antennas in general, the only reviews that I would give any merit to are the once conducted by an independent lab in a controlled environment, kind of like what Consumer Report does.  This particular HDTV antenna has exceptional reviews and my personal experiences from seeing it in action at my friends’ places, but the bottom line is that it is your individual conditions that will determine if it will work for your application.

Give it a try.  If it works for you then you got a great product at a great price and you can send me buck for helping you out (*wink*), otherwise send it back and dust off your wallet a bit for the next level up, like the RCA Digital Flat Amplified Antenna with Easel Stand or the RCA ANT806 Indoor/Outdoor Digital TV Antenna.

Here’s another whole page of HDTV antennas at excellent prices.  I’ll keep throwing them up here as I find them.  Just pick one…you can’t go wrong.

No matter which one you choose, it will be yours.  You will OWN it.  There will be no monthly rental fees to pay for obsolete equipment leased from Comcast.  There will be no subscription fees to enjoy FREE DIGITAL TV over the air which is superior to anything that Comcast can provide.  There will be no more bills to decipher with miscellaneous fees and taxes that come and go at will when you eventually decide to CUT-THE-CABLE!

All you need now is a DTV tuner and you’ve turned that flat panel monitor in your car into live HDTV on-the-go!

Enjoy!

May 12, 2010

Help Save the Internet from Comcast

Filed under: In the News — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 2:32 pm
The gauntlet has been thrown down and a show down is brewing. On April 6th, A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously tossed out the FCC’s August 2008 cease and desist order against Comcast, which had taken measures to stop their  ‘management’ of BitTorrent transfers. Because the FCC [...]

The gauntlet has been thrown down and a show down is brewing. On April 6th, A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously tossed out the FCC’s August 2008 cease and desist order against Comcast, which had taken measures to stop their  ‘management’ of BitTorrent transfers.

Because the FCC “has failed to tie its assertion” of regulatory authority to an actual law enacted by Congress, the agency does not have the power to regulate an Internet provider’s network management practices, wrote Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. [But Your Honor, isn't the whole concept of Network Management as it pertains to the Internet contrary to the fundamental tenets of Net Neutrality?]

So, what is this “Net Neutrality” that everyone is making such a fuss about?  Here’s a quick and dirty video to give you the run down.

So that sounds simple enough, right?  Well here’s the rest of the story…

The April 6th decision could doom the whole initiative to empower the FCC along these lines.  Comcast (and other ISPs for that matter) can now BLOCK ANY AND ALL WEB SITES without any fear of repercussions and could eliminate the agency’s ability to write new open- Internet rules.

Fortunately this is not the end.  The FCC may appeal the case, and may seriously consider placing Internet services into a stricter regulatory classification by moving Internet service under telephone rules which could happen with a simple simple majority vote within the agency. [To some this might seem like a step backward, but from a political standpoint, it may be a necessary evil to get the job done]

The large ISPs claim that such a reclassification of Internet service would have far-reaching and destructive consequences including years of investment-deterring uncertainty and litigation.  [Whatever!  The bottom line is that if we want The Internet to continue to be The Internet, then someone need to keep these big boys on a leash]

So what can you do you ask?  Go to “Save The Internet” which is sponsored by Free Press and sign the petition.  Let the FCC know that you are on their side.  Tell them that you want the regulations needed to insure that the Internet will not be turned into something else altogether.  Tell them you want regulated pricing for Internet services.  Let them know that we believe in the free market, but the large ISPs refuse to compete on price which creates an artificially inflated cost to the consumers.

Click here >>>> “Save The Internet”

[...and Thank You for your support]

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