Roomba main brush problem

My Roomba is making a thumping noise, it seems that the main brush is not turning properly. Here is the official support instruction from iRobot for fixing the problem.

2005 Santa Ema Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

winemaker's notes (from wine.com):

"The 2005 vintage in Isla de Maipo was exceptional, with low yields, no rain at all in the growing period from bud break to harvest. Maximum temperatures in the area ranged from 28-30 ºC (82 – 86 ºF), with less than 180 mm of rain during winter time so it was a dry year. These conditions allow Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to ripen fully displaying a great flavor and full concentration.

With our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Isla de Maipo, we obtained an optimal phenolic ripeness, solid and round tannins, full color and a great fruit expression."

90 points Wine Spectator:

"Muscular, with solid loam, raspberry, blackberry, fig paste and coffee notes backed by a broad, dark, toasty finish. Rock-solid. Drink now through 2010." (02/09)

Notes from klwines.com:

"One of the hardest panels of people to please is our staff here at K&L. Much more difficult than approval by the fashionistas on Oscar night, harder than the judging of any of the last three Marques vs. Vasquez fights, and tougher than judging gymnastics at the Olympics, they are simply brutal. Think you have the next big thing, someone is right around the corner to shoot it down, "too edgy," "has VA," "that's not dry" all heard before you know it, and those are just some of the nice ones. If you see Jim Barr getting out his copper pipe you know you really have problems. My point is this, to my surprise everyone thought the Santa Ema "Reserve" Cab was a great deal, I heard not a single detractor in the bunch. The reason why is simple: this is just a great wine for $10 a bottle. Packed with its loam, coffee, blueberry and mocha tones, this sings as soon as the bottle is opened. No need to lay this Cab down to resolve and rough edges, it is as smooth as Barry White in a sequined jump suit. OK, maybe that is a bad example but you get my point. So try this out with your weekly burger or even your spaghetti and meatballs, just don't try and pick it apart knowing that the toughest of the tough have already tried. "

Tennis league information

For singles play you can try tennisleague.com. You don’t need to be a USTA member for this, but leagues are organized based on USTA NTRP ratings (and the number of games one plays in a season just depends on how many matches one can fit in). So there is no requirement to play every week/weekend. Most players tend to play at their level in the singles leagues, unlike USTA tournaments where there are always players playing a level lower to go deeper into the tournament.

You can find information about USTA leagues and tournaments here:

http://www.usta.com/TennisLink/Default.aspx


You can search for USTA tournaments here:

http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Schedule/Search.aspx


another league to consider is world team tennis their website is:

http://www.wtt.com/

For singles play there are other leagues too like Ultimate Tennis and the USTA’s Flex League.

2005 Tin Roof Cellars (Merlot)

winemaker’s notes

“Our 2005 Merlot offers ripe, luscious black cherry and plum fruit aromas and flavors characteristic of the Merlot variety, enhanced by hints of tobacco, herbal spice and chocolate. With smooth, supple tannins and a long, rich finish, it pairs especially well with grilled red meats, herb-roasted chicken, pork chops, red-sauced pastas and flavorful hard cheeses.”

2006 Water Wheel Australian (Red Blend) "Memsie"

Grape blend: 87% Shiraz, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, & 6% Malbec

Wine Review (from Kenswineguide): This dark purple wine opens with a spicy blackberry like bouquet. On the palate, this medium bodied wine is round, easy to drink, and has fruit forward black current flavors along with a little black licorice and spice. The finish is dry, but brief. This would pair nicely with your favorite burger.

Winemaker Notes: The 2006 Memsie red has a dark cherry/purple colour. There are obvious blackcurrant, plum and spice characters dominating the nose. The palate is fresh with voluminous and forward, spice, berry and plum flavours obvious. These flavours are complimented by hints of sweet oak. The wine has great length with a persistent, smooth and clean finish. Ready to drink now to 2010 with a variety of food styles including risotto and red meats.

Wine Advocate notes:

"The purple-colored 2006 Memsie Red is composed of 87% Shiraz, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 6% Malbec, the wine was aged for 6 to 9 months in used American hogsheads. The aromatics are unusually expressive for a wine in this price category. Aromas of cinnamon, allspice, plum, blueberry and black currant lead to a medium to full-bodied wine with a plush texture, ripe sweet fruit, and a sense of elegance. This tasty wine will provide pleasure over the next 4-6 years. Congratulations to Water Wheel for over-delivering on a superb quartet of wine values."

Who said CDMA violates the law of physics.

Many proponents of CDMA technology, when inquired about the early days of CDMA, say that it was a tough time pushing the technology. Some Stanford professor even said CDMA violates the law of physics.

I have already been curious who said this and did some research. It turns out that in the Jan/Feb 1997 edition of IEEE internet computing, the name was mentioned in an interview "George Glider on the bandwidth of plenty", Bruce Lusignan.

Here is the quoted text from this interview "
For some reason people were unusually intense in opposition to CDMA technology. Bruce Lusignan, a brilliant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, said that CDMA, as Qualcomm described it, violates the laws of physics—and this was quoted over and over again. So that laws of physics—laws of God, if you will—were involved in this debate! And because it was said to violate the laws of physics, lots of people jumped to the conclusion that Irwin Jacobs and Andrew Viterbi (of the Viterbi algorithm fame) were pushing a technology scam!
"

It was also interesting to see that Bruce later obviously changed his opinion as he also published a number of papers on receiver design for IS-95 CDMA technology.

Bruce's original comment was hard to find, but I got something in one article (" Down to the Wireless - Stakes High as Rivals Race to Provide Next Generation of Celluar Gear") published online in May 1996 edition on LA Times website. This article quoted Bruce's comments as follows "

On the other side of the aisle is Bruce B. Lusignan, professor of electrical engineering and director of the communications satellite planning center at Stanford University, who contends that CDMA technology is actually something of a hoax and will ultimately result in a loss of capacity compared with the gains offered by other digital signaling methods.

'The basic problem is that it does not have anywhere near adequate protection from the fading that the other techniques all have,' said Lusignan, who said his lab has been studying the underlying technology, known as spread spectrum, for 20 years. 'That makes it completely inadequate to achieve the type of capacities that they have been advertising.'

"

In the book "The Qualcomm Equation", the author also pointed out that "In several forusm, two Stanford professors, Bruce Lusignan and Don Cox, took CDMA to the task and concluded that the system essentially would not work as planned."

Free DVD burning software

CDBurnerXP:

• CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.
• Used this for a couple of times by now, it seems pretty fast (compared to some other software packages I used before).
  

Video recording mode explained

MODE	DESCRIPTION	PICTURE QUALITY	SOUND QUALITY	RECORDING HOURS	VIDEO RESOLUTION (NTSC/PAL)
XP/HQ	High Quality	DVD	CD	1 hour	720 x 480/576
SP	Standard Play	DVD	MP3	2 hours	720 x 480/576
LP	Long Pay	VCD	MP3	4 hours	480 x 480/576
EP	Extended Play	VHS	MP3	6 to 8 hours	352 x 240/288