Walter Talks UHF Reception

Walter gets excited about things with wires and dials and whatnot. He asked me to post this about some antenna he's building. This post has otherwise nothing to do with Wedges, except that Walter is behind it. Anyway, here goes.

Back in the 1950s, a guy named Hoverman designed an antenna. There's one pictured to the left. People used to use antennas to receive television signals before we all decided it was a good idea to pay large corporations with poor customer service to deliver more, but not necessarily better, television to us for a monthly fee.

At any rate, Hoverman's design wasn't bad, but antennas just weren't that popular anymore, and most people eventually took them down and fed them to squirrels or what have you.

Then, a few years ago, the US government decided that it would be a cool idea if everyone bought a new television even if they didn't really want or need one. They did this by mandating that all television signals be delivered digitally by the year something or other. The television networks have gone along with it, and now a whole bunch of crystal clear digital television channels are floating around in space in front of you. Some of these channels are even in high definition.

Here's the part that Walter's really excited about. The same antennas from the 50s can be used to pick up these digital channels. And some guys on the internet took Hoverman's old design and ran it through some magic computer programs and improved it a whole bunch. Then they released the plans under a GPL3 license, which is a very geeky way of saying you can use it without paying them anything. You can make your own out of wire and a 2x4! Here's the plans!




It just so happens that Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is well suited for picking up television signals from both Canadian stations broadcasting from the CN Tower, and American stations broadcasting from across Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York. It's all "very ham radio".

Here is a link to the page about this antenna: http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/index.htm. Walter is going to build one and post it here when he's done!

Wedges in TREES!

Tree: (tr) (from http://www.thefreedictionary.com)
1.

a. A perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown.

b. A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size.

2. Something, such as a clothes tree, that resembles a tree in form.

3. A wooden beam, post, stake, or bar used as part of a framework or structure.

4. A saddletree.

5. A diagram that has branches in descending lines showing relationships as of hierarchy or lineage: a family tree; a telephone tree.

6. Computer Science A structure for organizing or classifying data in which every item can be traced to a single origin through a unique path.

7. Archaic

a. A gallows.

b. The cross on which Jesus was crucified.

Dear The Free Dictionary Dot Com:

Ok, listen. Your definitions 1b and 2 are recursive. You can't define a tree in terms of itself. I mean, maybe you're assuming that we should refer back to definition 1a, which would seem to be the most common description. But, could just easily refer to, say, definition 7b to fill in the blanks.

A plant or shrub resembling the cross on which Jesus was crucified in form or size?

Something, such as a clothes tree, that resembles the cross on which Jesus was crucified in form?

Is this one of those wiki dictionaries where anyone can edit them? I'm not feeling it. But thanks for padding our blog!

Hugs and Kisses,
Walter The Wedge

What were we talking about? Oh, right, trees! We are Wedges will be at the Leslieville Tree Festival! Last year was great. Local politicians made appearances and assured us that they appreciate trees (maybe the meant gallows?) Forest City Lovers played and they were awesome as usual. Maybe they'll come back and have more tambourines destroyed by overzealous crowd members. Half naked people hung from ribbons in trees (family friendly, don't worry). A unicycling stuntman juggled knives with varying degrees of success. Come say hi!
Vital details:

Date: June 7th, 2008
Time: 12:00PM to 4:00PM
Place: Leslie Grove Park (corner of Queen St East and Jones Ave in Toronto)
Website: http://www.leaftoronto.org/leslieville

Sassy little wedges...

Wedges have decided to sass up their lives by going to the Sassy Little Craft Show!

Join the wedges family along with a few other Toronto sassy crafters and artists and...

Shop. Drink. Dance.

Mention my blog, say the code word "Wedge me" and get a free button!

Date: Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Time: 7Pm to 12:30AM
Place: The Victory Cafe 581 Markham Street (Bloor and Bathurst)

Blog Carnival Tutorial: How to Make Wedge Treats

So you adopted a Wedge and now you wonder what you should feed your wedge!

Wedges like treats! Lots of treats! but not just any treats!!!

Wedges like Tahini Cookies (or any nut butter cookies)

To satisfy your wedges cravings, here is how to make these delicious and wedge satisfying Tahini Cookies.

What you need:

• 1 cup tahini (can be replaced with peanut butter and any other nut butter)
• 3/4 cup cane sugar (brown or really any sugar)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup black or white, or both sesame seeds (optional, as this is for decoration)
  

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix all the ingredients together well.
   
3. Dampen your hands with water to prevent sticking, and roll tablespoons of dough into balls.
   
4. Roll each dough ball in the sesame seeds (this is optional)
   
5. Place balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet
6. Flatten balls slightly, perhaps with a fork, or hands. (At this time, if you did not roll your dough balls in the sesame seeds, you can sprinkle a few on top)
   
7. Bake the cookies until golden on bottom but still soft in the center. This will take about 12 minutes give or take, depending on your oven. (For convection ovens, try 10 minutes)
   
8. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
9. Feed to Wedges (Or yourself)

ENJOY!

Etsy Bloggers May Feature: Cozy comfort for wedge washers

Keep your wedges clean!!!!

How you may ask?
Some may simply dip in cold water, some may rub with a damp towel (This is the suggested means of cleaning), and some like it dirty!
But don't wash your wedges with just anything!

As a member of the etsy bloggers team, We Are Wedges wants to introduce you to Cozy!
Cozy is this May's Featured Blogger of the month!

In particular, take a look at these handmade kitchen cloth scrubbies!!!
Just perfect for cleaning your wedges.
Soft yet strong, these will give you what wedges crave...

!!!GOOD CLEAN FUN!!!

Be sure to also check out her blog: http://cozyetsy.blogspot.com/

Wedgebits!

Time for a quiz! You will be graded, so I hope you studied. Here goes:

1) Do you like downloading things?
2) Do progress bars excite you?
3) Do you like free?

Ok, now for scoring. For each time you answered "yes", allot yourself 3 points. For each time you answered "no", slap yourself in the face really hard.

Do you have points leftover? If so, then you need to check out the wedge bits. Wedge bits are stuff you can download from our website. For free!

You can download your favorite character and use it as your avatar. Or, you can download background wallpaper to spice up your boring work computer and confuse your co-workers.

Visit the wedgesite and click on the wedgebits link on the left side of the screen!

East End Nights

East End Nights had it's first party last night, and the Wedges were there! A new monthly music series, East End Nights is a new monthly(?) music series in Scarborough. The show took place at a venue called Rockgarden, a rather strange venue in the back of a semi-derelict recording studio near the Coffee Time corporate headquarters. Awesome!

Scarborough! We support this! Music events in the 'burbs are hard to come by, and they sure beat going to the Rain Forest Cafe, again. Turnout was quite good, we hope to see more of these nights in the future!

From eastendnights.com:

East End Nights is a brand new music series devoted to bringing young independent music to Toronto's East End. The first show is made up of bands that all contain members from the east side.

Thanks to the Diableros, Pink Dead Whale, Styrofoam Ones, and of course The Twin Brothers (actual twin brothers with whammy-tastic metal songs)!!!