A few weeks ago, Time Warner Cable announced the expansion of bandwidth cap trials.  Their plan was to cap users at various levels (from 1GB to 40GB depending on how much you paid) with overage fees if you went over.  They claimed this was to help protect their networks from bandwidth hogs, but don’t believe them.  Claims of a so-called "exaflood" have been debunked.  In the end, there is one big reason for cable companies to cap bandwidth and I can sum it up in two words:  Internet Video.

With the rise of Hulu, YouTube, Netflix and other legal online video offerings, the reliance on cable TV has dimished.  (I won’t touch upon illegal online video offerings now.  These are much more vast, but open up a whole other complicated set of arguments.)  Nowadays, you can watch nearly all of your favorite shows online without worrying about timeslots or channel numbers.  If I miss the latest episode of Heroes (i.e. if my DVR experiences technical difficulties), I can watch it online the very next day.  In some respects, the online offering is even better than the broadcast version.  The ads are fewer and the "schedule" doesn’t require a DVR to adjust.  I can watch it whenever I want, whereever I want (assuming a computer and high-speed Internet access).  The broadcast version can either be watched whenever I want – in front of the TV with my DVR – or whereever I am at the time that the show airs assuming a TV is nearby.

This scares Cable companies.  If people can get good, legal cable content online, Cable TV subscriptions could drop and cable companies would face dire financial straits.  The cable company response is to cap Internet usage.  This results in a win-win for cable companies.  If people don’t use their capped Internet for online video, cable wins.  If people use their capped Internet for online video and wind up with overage fees, cable wins.

In the case of Time Warner Cable, their caps plans were pushed back by angry consumers.  However, they haven’t tossed the plans.  They just sent them back to the PR department to get a nicy shiny coat of PR paint.  Expect them to be released again either in a quieter fashion or with some glitzier PR attached to them.  (In fact, there are already some signs that they’re going the quiet path. At least 3 users have been disconnected for exceeding some nebulous cap that Time Warner won’t name.)

I happen to have Time Warner Cable, Digital Phone, and RoadRunner Internet access.  Where Digital Phone is concerned, I don’t have much choice.  I refuse to go back to Verizon and their many hidden fees.  There just isn’t another option beyond ditching our land-line entirely.  Not sure if we’re ready for that.  Likewise, there isn’t much option for Internet access.  FIOS doesn’t reach our home yet and DSL is much slower than my current cable speeds.  So I decided to aim my rebellion at Time Warner Cable’s Cable TV service.

First, I looked into DirecTV.  I examined a few different plans and options and came to the conclusion that we could save $100-200 the first year with DirecTV.  However, the second year and third years would deplete those savings.  Then I got to thinking: What is our "Must See TV" anyway?  What are the shows that if the TV worked for them, we wouldn’t mind if it was dark for all else.  For me, it is Heroes, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Mythbusters.  For my wife, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice and The Biggest Loser.  Of those, only Batman and Mythbusters aren’t online already.  I might survive without Batman, but I need a weekly dose of Mythbusting action.

NHL currently likes Secret Agent Oso and Penguins of Madagascar, but he’s versitile TV-wise.  His "favorite show" changes on a monthly basis.  Given a steady supply of purchased DVDs (and a set top box to play them on), he could be satisfied.  The same goes for JSL and his Sesame Street addiction.  If we dropped cable TV entirely, we would save over $65 per month, or about $790 per year.  If we only used half of those saved funds to buy DVDs (which would be ripped onto the set top video player), we would be able to spend $33 per month on DVDs.  We would still save nearly $400 per year.  Alternatively, we could get a subscription to Netflix for $16.99 per month and would save over $586.  Either way, our cable TV habits could be satiated by non-cable TV sources.

We’re not going to drop cable TV tomorrow, but it certainly something for us to mull over.  The lure of saving nearly $600 every year is pretty strong.

• in Long Island for my Grandmother’s funeral (tomorrow). Missing my wife and kids already. #
• Thinking of sneaking into the kitchen and sneaking some of my mom’s sponge cake. #
• My Twitter app will have 5 different size settings. The smallest will be “Twitter Bird”, the biggest: “Whale”. What to name the other 3? #
• Also, any place to get good (free or low cost) Twitter icons to use? (Twitter Bird, Whale similar to Fail Whale but not exactly) #
• Maybe 2nd smallest could be Twitter Duck? http://tinyurl.com/6m3ums #
• 2nd Biggest: Twitter Elephant? Middle one: Twitter Lion? (In honor of NHL’s favorite animal) #
• Where to get Bird/Duck/Lion/Elephant/Whale/whatever icons though? Any artists out there willing to do it for website credit/links? #
• Ok, time for bed now. Busy day tomorrow. Goodnight all! #
• Just remembered what I forgot to pack. A dress belt to go with my suit! I had it w/ my suit but during various shuffles, it got left behind. #
• Luckily, my normal belt is black & looks somewhat decent. #
• Actually, the front of the belt is pretty worn, but it’ll have to do. These things happen when you pack in a hurry. #
• Headed offline now to head to the funeral home. #
• Funeral went off as well as can be expected. It was windy and cold, but at least the rain held off until we left the cemetery. #
• Spoke to my relatives for so long that my throat is sore. #
• 1 relative was very tacky. She walked around my parents’ house & pointed out things she wanted which she assumed belonged to my grandmother. #
• Many items were really my parents’, not my grandma’s. Still, who is she to just walk in & try to claim things right after we buried grandma? #
• Up early. All packed to go home. Off to temple w/ my dad at 6am, back to my parents’ house for breakfast, & then off to catch my train home. #
• Hope JSL is feeling better. 103 last night scared me & made me feel bad for “deserting” him & my wife to go to my grandmother’s funeral. #
• Heading off to the train in a few minutes. #
• Wish there was a way for DMs only from certain people (namely @TheAngelForever) to be sent to me as text messages. #
• Just set my prefs so that DMs get sent to me as txt messages. Will turn it off when my train ride is done. #
• Set the “sleep time” to 4pm – after I get back – to midnight to give me time to reset it. #
• I pay for txt messages, but this will give @TheAngelForever another way to reach me if she needs to & I’m in a low signal area. #
• Ok, headed off Twitter now to take care of a few last minute things before I head to the train. #
• Back from my parents’ house. Actually been back since for 6hrs but had no time to tweet. #
• JSL is sleeping beside me. Feels cool. Here’s hoping that his fever is actually down and not just hiding like it likes to do. #
• Was loving Seesmic Desktop, but now it won’t come up at all. Tray icon appears, but no windows show up! #
• Anyone know how to scan artwork? Specifically, paintings that are bigger than a normal scanner. Want to scan my grandfather’s old paintings. #
• Looks like photographing my grandfather’s paintings is my only option. Just checked the back of 1 & the canvas is stapled to the wood frame. #
• I wouldn’t be able to detach canvas from frame without risking damage to the painting & I can’t scan with the frame still on. #
• Two of my grandfathers paintings that I have already photographed: http://twitpic.com/3s7lg http://twitpic.com/3s7lv #
• My grandfather also painted a clown. Eyes follow you around. Scared me when I was a kid. Thought the clown was going to jump out & get me. #
• Now I love the painting because it reminds me of my grandpa. @TheAngelForever won’t let me hang it in the house though. I wonder why. #
• Gotta catch up with #Heroes. Monday’s ep still unwatched on my DVR. Was at my parents’ house after my grandmother’s funeral & couldn’t watch #
• RT @grantimahara: http://twitpic.com/3s7lm – Captain Buster and 1st mate #karibyron. <= Wow! Kari’s popped. Wonder when she’s due. #
• RT @TheAngelForever: This is the clown painting that @TechyDad is talking about. http://www.theangelforever.com/?p=67 #
• My Twitter personality: popular inquisitive fair My style: garrulous coherent POET http://twanalyst.com/TechyDad #
• Garrulous = pointlessly or annoyingly talkative. Me? Pointlessly or annoyingly talkative? Never!!! #
• Bra deflects bullet aimed at woman. http://bit.ly/NucoP #Mythbusters should replicate this. @donttrythis @grantimahara, What do you think? #
• Looking at DirecTV as a replacement for TW Cable. I’d still need TWC for Internet/Phone, but could save ~$10/mo if I switched TV to DirecTV. #
• DirecTV Live Chat sales guy says they can transfer recordings from a failing DVR to a new one. Advantage: DirecTV! TWC can’t do that. #
• It is very frustrating to lose all of your recorded shows because your DVR box goes funky. #
• TWC FAIL: Searched KB for extra receiver price. Told to check Pricings or Build-A-Bundle page. Former had info removed, latter is 404. #
• Found 2 catches in DirecTV’s prices. 1) Prices are for 1 yr. After that the price rises by $21/mo. 2) You pay $5/mo to lease each receiver. #
• After factoring those in, DTV is cheaper than TWC for the 1st year, but those savings are quickly negated soon after the 2nd year. #
• Sheesh. Jim Carrey claims aluminum & anti-freeze in vaccines could hurt kids. There’s no anti-freeze in vaccines! As for aluminum… #
• …There’s also aluminum in breastmilk. A child BFing for 51-346 days gets the same amt of aluminum as from the entire US vaccine schedule. #
• Carrey also rails against formaldehyde in vaccines. Amt in all vaccines for 6yr old: 1.2mg. Amt in 1 banana: 16.3mg. SAVE KIDS! BAN BANANAS! #
• Best comment I’ve seen RE: Jim’s statements: “1 should not take medical advice from Ace Ventura and a Playboy bunny.” http://bit.ly/NGkGx #
• Only 15 more days until we leave for Disney World! #
• Just realized that w/ everything that’s been happening, I forgot to move my last sites off Sectorlink. Gotta try to take care of that today. #
• Meeting time with marketing. #
• Is it bad that I want to eat my lunch now? #
• Looking over lists of things to bring to Disney World. http://bit.ly/ekhaE http://bit.ly/qJzSf and http://allears.net/pl/forgot.htm #
• RT @fitnessdiet is giving away a new Ipod Touch to 1 lucky winner. http://www.fitnessdiet.info/freeipodtouchcontest.php #
• This is a really nice use of photography to make a stop motion video. http://bit.ly/4Js0X Must have taken a long time to make. #

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• Tried Quinoa, raisins, cinnamon, honey, & milk for Passover breakfast this morning. Quite tasty. Pics & blog post coming soon. #
• The new Seesmic Desktop client is nice, but I’m missing the ability to see what messages weren’t read. #
• Also there doesn’t seem to be a window to see your favorites. I often use that to check on links at home if they’re blocked at work/NSFW. #
• RT @classymommy: Hot topic: ABC News covers a story on how Parenting Blogs May Be Held Liable for Product Reveiws http://tinyurl.com/cq55un #
• Was out of work for 3 days due to Passover. E-mail inbox went from 8 e-mails to 29. Got it back down to 10 now. #
• Fav Slashdot comment today about Google Updater going open source: http://tinyurl.com/ce3pxf #
• Preparing to burn a hole in my nasal cavity with horseradish and gefilte fish. It’s the jarred stuff, but a brand that’s actually strong. #
• Twitter worm creator “is hoping that it will result in employment from a security firm rather than prosecution.” http://is.gd/sc5q #
• My view: I would hope security firms don’t hire someone who would make a worm due to “boredom.” You don’t want someone like that on staff. #
• Today was really productive. Took my To Do List from 58 items down to 25. Even built an entire web app. Time to celebrate w/ … matzoh?!! #
• SOCKS! #Heroes #
• is wondering whether adults can use the same sun lotion that kids use. Or do we need to bring 2 different types: 1 for adults & 1 for kids. #
• Is is sad that my first thought upon reading this was “The #Mythbusters did this one! Confirmed!” http://bit.ly/HNRTF #
• RT @mike_elgan: Porn: The new tobacco. http://tinyurl.com/d8dau3 <= Porn tobacco’s are different. There’s no 2nd hand porn harm. #
• Oops. That should have been porn & tobacco’s harms are different. #
• Been off Twitter for a bit. Day was not good. JSL has a high temp that won’t go down & my grandmother passed away today. #
• Long night. Had to wake up every 2 hours to give JSL his medicine. #
• Not sure how/if I’m going to my grandmother’s funeral. Don’t want to miss it, but how can I leave B/JSL if JSL’s temp won’t drop below 101? #
• Would you travel to your grandmother’s funeral if you would be leaving your spouse & sick child for 2 days? Not sure what to do. #
• Checking on bereavement fares now. USAir doesn’t have “bereavement fares per se.” Cost for flight would be over $550! Checking Southwest now #

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Yesterday, JSL felt warm. We checked his temperature and it was high. We gave him Motrin and Tylenol but that didn’t take his fever down. Worried about another febrile seizure, we prepared to take him to Urgent Care. We were almost ready to go when the phone rang. It was my parents. Now, my parents don’t observe Shabbat as much as I do, but they *NEVER* call during Shabbat. The minute I saw their number come up on the caller ID, I knew it was bad news.

B got on the phone and talked with them. They told her that they were sitting down eating lunch with my grandmother when she said she wasn’t feeling well. She took another bite, then began to shake. My mother took her hand and she passed away. My parents called 911 but my grandmother was already gone by that point. Besides, she had a DNR. The fire department and ambulance left, but the police officer remained with them. My parents called the funeral home, but they refused to come get the body. They said that the coroner had to declare her dead and get the body. The coroner, however, refused to declare her dead and said her doctor had to do it. He was on vacation so they had trouble reaching her. This continued on for hours (hours that my father had to sit with the dead body of his mother in his house) until they got the doctor on the phone. The doctor declared her dead. The coroner said that the funeral home needed to pick up the body. When the funeral home still tried to insist that the coroner needed to get the body, the police officer got on the phone and ordered them to pick up the body.

Grandma was my last surviving grandparent. She was 94 years old, so she had a nice, long life. I have many great memories of her growing up. I’ve also taken it upon myself to collect the hundreds of photographs that she left behind and scan them in so that everyone in the family can have copies. (I’ll probably use a service like Scan My Photos.)

We finally did get to Urgent Care and found out that JSL has an ear infection. We got him antibiotics but even that, along with Motrin and Tylenol (dosed out every 2 hours last night), didn’t get his fever to drop. As it stands now, the funeral will be on Monday morning so I’m leaving today. B, JSL, and NHL will go to stay with B’s parents while I’m gone. I’m not entirely comfortable leaving them with JSL sick like this, but I also don’t want to miss my grandmother’s funeral. Hopefully, JSL will feel better by the time I get back on Tuesday.

Usually, during Passover, your “bread” choices are limited. You have matzoh, matzoh and more matzoh. Leavened bread, rice, couscous, etc are all forbidden. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many rabbinical authorities permit Quinoa. Despite the box calling it a grain, Quinoa is actually a seed. It is related to beets and spinach, not wheat or rice. However, when cooked, it can act very much like a grain (specifically rice). It doesn’t rise though so there are no chametz issues.

Anyway, I decided to try some Quinoa this year. For the second sedar, I made Quinoa pilaf. First I sauteed diced scallions, carrots, red pepper, and celery in olive oil for a few minutes. Then I tossed in the rinsed Quinoa. (It needs to be rinsed to wash off a bitter outside shell.) Finally, I poured in some chicken broth and let the whole thing simmer until the liquid was totally gone. This was a hit at the sedar. Nearly everyone took seconds of the Quinoa. The leftovers (which only existed because I made so much to begin with) were tasty too.

Next, I tried some Breakfast Quinoa. For this one, I simply boiled the Quinoa in water. Once it was cooked, I added raisins, cinnamon, honey, and a little milk. We ate it like oatmeal. Not bad at all.

Below are some more photos of the Breakfast Quinoa:

I’m not sure if I’ll make any more Quinoa before Passover ends, but I do have 2 more boxes and would like to try this Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Quinoa recipe that I found. Have you ever tried Quinoa? If so, do you have a favorite recipe?

• Happy Monday! Just messed up changing the office water cooler jug. Ignored the “remove this to install” sticker & removed the entire cap! #
• Just found out that my favorite online computer retailer, NewEgg.com, is on Twitter: @EggXpert #
• Running a poll to try to find out how many people the average Twitter user follows. Please answer & RT http://is.gd/r2To #
• RT @foodbloggernews: Is Quinoa Kosher for Passover? http://tinyurl.com/dytsy9 <= I love loopholes. Can’t wait to eat Quinoa during Passover! #
• POLL: How many people do you follow on Twitter? http://is.gd/r2To Please retweet. #
• RT @donttrythis: I just talked to Grant here & it’s official @grantimahara is real, not some impostor, & the 2nd Mythbuster on Twitter! yay! #
• Ate my breakfast. Still hungry. Is it bad that I want to go to the cafeteria and eat a bagel or something before its Passover? #
• Apparently, my work’s web filter today thinks that all “bit.ly” shortened URLs are “Malicious Web Sites”. #
• Is thinking that Passover would be so much easier if I could eat kitniyot like Sephardim do. Rice, beans, corn? I could live with those. #
• Unfortunately, nothing’s marked “Kosher For Passover For Sephardic” so I can’t tell if that can of beans was made w/ chometz & can’t eat it. #
• Just had a good customer service experience w/ @OhNuts. They sent the wrong item in my shipment. Sending the right item to arrive tomorrow. #
• For the record, @OhNuts sent me this http://tinyurl.com/c5bmbc instead of this http://tinyurl.com/chmbfs #
• RT @fitnessdiet is giving away a new Ipod Touch to 1 lucky winner. http://www.fitnessdiet.info/freeipodtouchcontest.php #
• Organizing digital camera photos. Been putting it off for months. #

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In developing my Twitter application, I decided that I needed to know how many users the average Twitter user follows.  To accomplish this, I started a poll which was a pretty sad failure.  Only 5 people responded and two of them were myself and my wife.  However, all was not lost.  As part of my Twitter application, I cache lists of who a user follows.  (This helps reduce my impact on Twitter’s servers.)  I checked and I had over 10,000 users’ information cached.  So I wrote a quick script to query that information.  The results were quite enlightening.

• 90.33% of users follow 2,600 people or less.
• 75.67% of users follow 1,400 people or less.
• 51.14% of users follow 500 people or less.

Using OpenOffice.org, I graphed the results and came up with this interesting chart:

As you can see, the percentage of users climbs sharply until around 2,500 followers.  Then it levels off for a slow ascent to 100%.  This really helps me.  If I make my application cut off checking the Friends list at 2,000 people, it will handle the complete lists for 85% of users.  I’m willing to have partial functionality for the top 15% of users (who are likely to not need my application as much) to preserve functionality for the bottom 85%.

If you’re interested in more data from this, let me know in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do.

I haven’t talked about it much (or at all) on my blog, but I’ve been developing a Twitter application for the past few months.  Every time, I think I’m done, my intrepid beta tester, HighTechDad, does what any good beta tester should do.  He finds where my application is severely lacking, sending me back for some furious code-rewriting sessions.  My latest versions seemed to work well enough for my Twitter username, but I ran into a problem when I attempted to "stress test" the application by running it through guykawasaki‘s name.  The web server runs out of memory trying to process the 100,000+ people he follows.

I was trying to think of a way around this, but then I thought: Perhaps it is best not to.  Perhaps Guy is such an edge scenario that I would be better off pulling the first 5,000 he follows and leaving it at that.  Not to give too much away, but my application is intended to analyze your following list in the hopes of finding more people for you to follow.  So the audience is most likely not someone already following over 100,000 people, but people following 1,000 or less people.

This led me to question what is the average number of people that Twitter users follow.  Is it 500?  1,000?  5,000?  More?  Less?  To help me answer this, please answer the following poll.  It is easy to determine how many people you follow.  Just stop by your Twitter page and note the number above "Following."  Then choose the answer in the poll that best matches how many people you follow.  NOTE:  Do not use the number above "Followers."  I’m not looking for the number of people that follow you.  I’m looking for the number of people that *YOU* follow.

• 40 Days until Disney World trip. NHL upon being told that on the way to school: “WOW! That’s really close!” #
• Was offline (or at least off-Twitter) most of the weekend figuring out Passover recipes and stuff. #
• Thinking of getting some Quinoa for Passover. It’s a seed, but acts like rice when cooked. Need to find Quinoa not “contaminated” w/ Chometz #
• Just added Security Freeze on my final credit file. Need to request some free Annual Credit Reports next. #
• So close to my weight loss goal. I began on Dec 7th at 208. Now at 188. Goal is 185 by Disney trip (5/9). 3lbs to go in 6 weeks. #
• I tend to eat worse during Passover so it may be a stumbling block. I’ll have 3 weeks to lose Passover weight before my Disney trip, though. #
• Passover coming up. Anyone know of any good spreads to replace Hummus? Perhaps something cauliflower or hummus based? #
• Might need to recode my entire Twitter App’s processing page. Did some PHP coding (instead of ASP) for it last night, & it ran in 3 seconds! #
• That section of the application usually took over 3 minutes. #
• RT @OhNuts: Smart fryer uses a mere tablespoon of olive oil to make chips http://adjix.com/x888 <= I’d consider buying 1 when price is less. #
• RT @mike_elgan: Now you can get a Master’s Degree in Twitter! http://tinyurl.com/cldh8n <= I’m waiting for the PhD so I can be Dr. Tweet #
• How do you get PHP/Curl to stop sending the 100-Continue header? Tried curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, array(‘Expect: ‘)); to no avail. #
• RT @mike_elgan: Saudi article scandalized by women-only coffee shops http://bit.ly/19LEGg <= Women laughing = evil? Glad I live in USA. #
• Love the Seth McFarlane/Hulu commercial. “Because we’re aliens. *Mmmmm* Giggedy!” #
• Made some major progress on my Twitter App. Still have a lot to go, though. Going to recode nearly everything into PHP. #
• For now, though, I’m too tired to focus. Goodnight all! #
• April Fool’s Day looks like it’s going to be fun…. Super Pii Pii for the Wii?!! http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/superpiipii.html #
• Great. Time Warner Cable is expanding their “consumption billing” tiers. Basically, you pay huge fines if you go over your monthly cap. #
• The caps they offer are 5, 10, 20, & 40GB. 1 HD movie download can be 8GB. Add in music, Windows updates, etc & overage fees can get pricey. #
• Have you seen @TheAngelForever’s & my April Fool’s Joke? http://www.TechyDad.com/ & http://www.TheAngelForever.com/ or was it vice versa? #
• Guess it is time to switch TechyDad.com and TheAngelForever.com back to normal. #
• …and the blogs are back to normal now. #
• RT @mike_elgan: Does Twittering at work make you a better employee? http://is.gd/qjfM <= Someone (not me) show this to my higher-ups! #
• Via @OwenC: Report: Google in ‘late-stage’ talks to buy Twitter http://tinyurl.com/chsqvf <= Google & Twitter would go well together. #
• RT @LanceUlanoff: Okay, quick survey: Who among you believes Google is Buying Twitter and who thinks it’s pure bunk? #
• Looks like Sedar at my wife’s aunt’s house is falling through. Going to do Sedar at my in-law’s now. Need to come up w/ a meal plan quickly. #
• Chicken’s pretty much a given. Simple Italian dressing marinade. Roasted sweet potatoes w/ EVOO, salt & pepper. Perhaps Quinoa pilaf. #
• Salad to begin with. Gefilte fish. Perhaps a soup (not sure what type though). #
• If I make enough, we can do the leftovers (plus maybe one extra entree) for the second sedar. #
• This Quinoa pilaf recipe looks good: http://is.gd/qylR #
• What are your favorite #Quinoa recipes? Preferably ones that are kosher for Passover! (No grains, legumes, or corn.) #
• RT @RonisWeigh: Quinoa for breakfast anyone? http://is.gd/qyrM #recipe #food <= This sounds delicious & Kosher for Passover! #
• Wow. I added a Quinoa search to my Twitter stream and it’s taking over. Apparently, a lot of people like talking about #Quinoa! #

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