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Simulink Tester for T-VEC
Simulink Tester for T-VEC
The Simulink Tester for T-VEC integrates Simulink/Stateflow the the T-VEC VGS to automate much of the testing process by analyzing the Simulink model to determine the best test cases for validating the model and testing implementations of the model. When used with the Real-Time Workshop™ Generic and Embedded Coders, the T-VEC Tester generates test drivers (harnesses) for executing the test vectors against auto-generated source code. Comprehensive Test Suites
Test generation for Simulink models produces unit, integration and system level test vectors and test drivers necessary to fully verify implementations of models. The test selection process produces the set of test vectors most effective in revealing both decision and computational errors in logical, integer and floating-point domains.
VGS generates test vectors for every path through every atomic subsystem. Each test vector is determined from the constraints in the subsystem under test and the constraints of any lower-level subsystems it references. These tests produce
- Structured Path Coverage
- Decision (Branch) Coverage
- Modified Condition / Decision Coverage
- Statement Coverage
- Interface Coverage
See Simulink/T-VEC Examples for details.
There are potential limitations, usage issues, and guidelines associated with the integration of Simulink/Stateflow with T-VEC.
Recent Changes
T-VEC Tester for Simulink and Stateflow 4.5.0 is now generally available.
New and improved features in the Simulink Tester include:
- Improvements in the support of the following Simulink blocks - matrix concatenation, if, relay, sum, gain, product, lookup tables, data type conversion, initial condition, for, multiport switch, subsystem, and discrete time integrator blocks.
- Stateflow chart and truth table support has been enhanced.
- Additional checks warn of model problems or issues detected during translation
- Improved Simulink simulator test driver support in default schema.
- Improved C/C++ test driver support in default schema.
- Enhanced Embedded Matlab (EML) support
- Corrected issues with default support of Matlab R14 SP2
- Sl2tvec GUI now provides explicit indications of the inline vs atomic function status of each subsystem. All Simulink subsystems that are non-atomic, or atomic-auto, or atomic-inline will be indicated as "inlined into Parent".
Please see the Release Notes for more details on the changes in this release.
Design Model
The Mathworks' Simulink and Stateflow allow users to develop behavioral specification used as basis of for simulation or code generation, and more. When used for code generation, the models represents "what's in the box."
Hybrid Model
Simulink was originally used for control system modeling, but with the addition of Stateflow and other features, it now provides hybrid modeling support for integrating control system and state machine models.
Model Analysis
The analysis performed prior to test vector generation identifies model errors, such as contradictions or feature interaction problems. These model errors can result in dead code or other undesirable effects.
Complete Verification Artifacts
The T-VEC Tester produces a complete set of artifacts for verifying Simulink models
- Model Analysis Report identifies model errors
- Test Vectors
- Input values
- Expected output values
- Traceability from each test to the Simulink model
- Test Coverage Report
- Test Harnesses for GRT and ERT code generators
- Test results report that details test successes and failures
- Makefiles to fully automate the process
Scalable, Hierarchical Test Generation
Comprehensive testing is only feasible with a bottom up approach that fundamentally requires both unit and integration level testing support. When automatically generating test vectors for every condition and decision in a system, only the lowest level subsystems of the system can be tested in isolation. All higher-level subsystems must be tested in the context of the lower level subsystems on which they depend. Otherwise, there may be paths or threads in the higher-level subsystems that are not supported by the lower levels. This is especially true when multiple subsystems are related and changes could result in feature interaction problems. Some test tools generate tests based on the premise that unit testing a subsystem can ignore or stub out all subsystems on which it depends. This is a fundamentally incorrect and dangerous assumption.
Test Sequence Vectors
Test Driver Generation
The Simulink Tester provide test driver schemas for the ERT and GRT code generators supported by the Mathworks RTW, as well as the Matlab Simulator. Howevever, target execution environments have differences, and the tools provide a general purpose test driver template/schema language for describing a generic test driver that can then be instantiated with test vector information by running the test driver generator. An organization can create any number of test driver scripts/programs that are targeted to specific target environments. Schemas can be created from scratch or tailored from schemas provided with the tool installation.
These are located in the install area, normally in the directory
In the case of LDRA's TBRun environment, the Simulink Tester for T-VEC installation provides a few default test driver schemas that are designed to produce .tcf files.
There are other schema examples with the TTM training examples that are normally located in the directory
Specific differences in build environments require customization of one of these general purpose schema. To illustrate, one of these example schemas (testbed_tcf_ghs.sch) was created specifically for a Greenhills Compiler environment. The only other task is configuring the object mapping files that are descriptions of how to relate model names with target code names. Some of the object mapping information is automatically set up by the translator, but some of it needs to be identified and added to the mapping information. In a Simulink environment, only some of the necessary information is available to the translator to help in automatically creating the necessary object mappings for the ERT or GRT code generators. Simulink/Stateflow does not provide any form of API for querying this kind of information, but some of it is extracted by executing functions against the RTW. If a different coder is used, or a customization of the default GRT or ERT coder is used, this mapping information needs to be completed by the user.
There is information in the manuals and user's guide about the test driver generator mechanism, but it is also covered in training classes or workshops.


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Amana Commercial Products
For over four decades, Amana has been one of the most dependable names in commercial microwaves. Different design features, such as one-touch cooking, dial timers, variable power levels, energy distribution, and stackability, are all a part of Amana's extensive collection. Built to withstand the day-to-day rigors of a food service operation, Amana commercial microwaves and combination ovens are stainless steel, easy to clean, UL and ETL listed. Whether you're looking for light duty, heavy duty, or a radiant/convection microwave, MyBoelter has the oven to fit your needs.

subset: commoncrawl


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Please see 'Delivery & Returns' for further information.


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SimLab Composer is a 3D sharing and rendering application, which allows the user to create 3D scenes from a wide range of CAD and 3D Design formats, including Rhino, SketchUp, Solidworks, STEP, IGES, FBX, Collada, 3DS, OBJ, and STL.
3D Scenes built by SimLab Composer can be exported to other 3D applications using many standard 3D formats including Collada, obj, STL, FBX, OSG and U3D.
The new version of SimLab Composer includes an accurate and fast renderer, which enables the user to create photorealistic rendered images of created 3D scenes.
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SimLab Composer is supported on Windows and Mac OS.
Ashraf Sultan,
Simulation Lab Software


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Damn, I didn't realize that Friday was Singles' Awareness Day. For a good read on the subject of singleness, check out "Exploring Relationships with the Single Weirdo" over at lifehack.org.
The new issue of Yarnival, as edited by Miss T, is now available!
Reading Update
The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress by Audrey Niffenegger. If you're looking for something in the vein of Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, you won't find it in these visual "novels." Niffenegger writes that when she tries to explain The Three Incestuous Sisters, she tells people "to imagine a silent film made from Japanese prints, a melodrama of sibling rivalry, a silent opera that features women with very long hair and a flying green boy." Of the second non-visual novel she's working on, the biographical blurb in the back of The Adventuress notes that "she's a very slow writer, easily distracted by her cats and the lure of libraries and airplanes."
Howling Moon: A Tale of the Sazi by C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. I started out getting very involved in this tale of a werejaguar and a pack of werewolves, but I think the story was drawn out too much for the amount of story there was to tell.
Relative Magic by Tanya Huff. I admit to not reading all of the stories in this collection of Tanya Huff's short fiction. Frankly, her "high fantasy" works don't interest me (no one's "high fantasy" or "sword & sorcery" seems to interest me anymore – I'm all about contemporary fantasy now), so I stuck to the more contemporary tales.
Viewing Update
Into the Wild. I own the Eddie Vedder soundtrack, so when a friend I haven't seen in a while suggested catching the film at the Riverview Theater ($3.00) Friday night (after catching up over a glass of hard cider at the Riverview Cafe and Wine Bar), I decided I should do so. The movie is gorgeous, the story thought-provoking and ultimately, to me, very tragic.
Mayhem Update
Can you see the cat in this picture? (Um, yeah, I might have a few books and cds…)
Need some help?
This time, she's lying on about 10 pairs of wet wool socks…


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|CFDA Number:
|84.295 - Ready-To-Learn Television
|Goal 8: The Ready-to-Learn Television Program will enhance the learning strategies of preschool and elementary children.
|Objective 8.1 of 1: Develop, produce, and distribute high-quality televised educational programming for preschool and elementary school children and their caregivers.
|Indicator 8.1.1 of 1: High-quality programming and materials produced by Ready to Learn (RTL) programs will increase and provide accountability measures to yield a positive increase in readiness to learn in preschool and elementary children.
|Targets and Performance Data
|Assessment of Progress
|Sources and Data Quality
Explanation: 60 percent of funds go for TV programming and the majority of the remainder to 144 Ready to Learn stations with coordinators who conduct workshops. Parents and Child Educators read one children's book to children each day. Baseline year is 2003. For the first measure, subsequent year targets will reflect a 5 percent increase over the preceding year. For the second measure, subsequent year targets will reflect a 10 percent increase over the preceding year.
Additional Source Information: Mathematica, first year research contractor.
Frequency: Annually.
Collection Period: 2003
Data Available: September 2003
Return to table of contents


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Purely coincidence that Halle Berry has a new movie coming out this weekend, folks, purely coincidence.
We all have actors and actresses we look at and think, really? Them? Everyone else is making a big fuss, and they keep landing roles, and we just think, really? Them?
In our opinion, said star is overrated. The public and/or Hollywood thinks more of them then they're actually worth. If they were a stock, it would be time to sell, as you'd be getting more money for them then their actual value.
Who's yours? Who do YOU think is overrated? It can be someone all time… they don't necessarily have to be working today. It could be a director if you like as well.
But let's hear it! Who do YOU think is overrated?


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Spring waits for no man. My vegetable seeds are calling to me from the garage, wailing "Plant me noowww". In my last post I mentioned I am renting a house until I find the right one to buy. As such, I have been researching a garden bed that I can plant, tend and then pack up and take with me when it's time to go. It needs to be light, easy to move and extremely affordable. I thought I'd share some of the ideas I came across in my research.
Idea #1: A Truck Garden. Great mobility. Maybe a bit…too much.
Part of a project by film makers
Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis.
Photo from www.greenupgraders.com


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Find the right golf shoe for your game.
Trailing by a shot to start the day, Kenny Perry (SciFlex glove) fired a bogey-free 7-under 63 to run away with the Travelers Championship on Sunday. He set the tournament scoring record with a 22-under 258 total (61-68-66-63), including a course record-tying 61 on Thursday, to win by three shots over David Toms (SYNR-G style #53883) and Paul Goydos (ReelFit style #53918, SciFlex glove).
Perry has now won five times in just over a year, the most of any player on TOUR, and 14 times in his career. His 258 tied the fourth-best 72-hole score in TOUR history and beat the old tournament record of 259 set in 1982.
The 48-year old Perry, the new leader in the Chase for the FedEx Cup, shot a 32 on the front nine and then birdied the tenth and eleventh holes. He was up by five strokes heading to the par-4 15th and put the tournament away by making birdie on No. 17 after hitting a 164-yard approach to within 8 feet.
"I knew that I had to keep making birdies," he said. "I wasn't going to let up. I wasn't going to play defensive golf. I learned something from that (Augusta) mistake."


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Friday, January 28, 2011
The Town
Ben Affleck really likes Michael Mann's Heat. Like, really, really loves it. Like, it's his favorite movie ever. How do I know this? Because Affleck's second directorial feature, The Town, follows the template of Heat so closely, is so deeply indebted to its example in every way, that it might as well be a remake. Affleck plays Doug MacRay, the brains behind a gang of Boston bank robbers who run briskly paced jobs that could be mistaken for professional robberies if you ignore all the idiotic things that the script has these supposed crack thieves do over the course of the film. Heat was driven by the grudging professional respect and mutual intelligence of Robert De Niro's ace thief and Al Pacino's dogged police detective, so Affleck tries to develop a similar rivalry/bond between MacRay and the FBI agent trying to catch him, Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm). In some ways this is doomed to failure — Affleck and Hamm is simply not De Niro and Pacino, and there's nothing anyone can do about that — but the problems run deeper than that. Affleck can't develop the same epic but intimate scale that Mann so effortlessly infuses into his films, where the canvas might be sprawling but the characters within it are sharply defined. The characters of The Town lack that definition, and the relationships between them are consequently shallow. When Frawley half-admiringly calls his adversaries "the not-fucking-around crew" — after an armored car robbery that went so spectacularly, laughably wrong that the crooks ultimately escape only because the script says they must — it doesn't feel earned, it doesn't feel organic.
That's the case with a lot of things here. The Town isn't as deep or as smart as it clearly thinks it is, but it does have its charms. Affleck has a good feel for action, and his robbery scenes have energy and vigor to spare. Taken as a lightweight heist flick — its obvious cribbing from Heat aside — it's at least mildly enjoyable, and does a good job of conveying the hopeless cycle of these poor Boston guys who seem to have crime passed down to them in their blood from their equally lowlife fathers. As the Irish gangster Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) tells MacRay's gang at one point, he looks at them and sees their fathers; he's an old guy who's been in this racket long enough to see gangs of sons replace their fathers. That's probably the film's most compelling subtext, this emphasis on the continuity of crime from one generation to the next within this cramped part of Boston that no one ever really gets out of.
Less compelling is the budding romance between MacRay and the bank manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), who his gang had briefly taken hostage during the robbery that opens the film. Affleck seems to be going for the unlikely but surprisingly tender romance between De Niro and Amy Brenneman in Heat, but Mann developed those characters so that they were disarmingly right together. The romance in The Town just consistently feels unlikely and silly, despite a warm and nuanced performance from Hall as her character deals with the stress of the bank robbery's fallout. The drama is, in general, rather generic, just stock bits of childhood trauma that provide the characters an opportunity for ponderous soul-baring speeches. MacRay's mother left him when he was a kid, and Claire had a brother who died when she was young, though this bit of information then becomes merely a source for the clever catch phrase that Claire uses to alert MacRay to the feds' presence in her apartment when Affleck decides to rip off the farewell scene between Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd in, you guessed it, Heat.
That's not all he rips off. The film frequently feels like a collection of scenes and scenarios from Mann's heist classic. The final robbery, at Boston's Fenway Park, degenerates into a street battle between cops and crooks, with assault rifles blaring. In the midst of this chaos, the final run of MacRay's best friend James (Jeremy Renner, giving an edgy, slightly sinister performance that deepens the character far more than the script does) feels more than a little like a recreation of the final moments of Tom Sizemore's character in Heat. In the film's final act, MacRay even develops a thirst for vengeance that drives him much as De Niro's Neil McCauley in Heat.
But this is precisely where the biggest difference between The Town and its source arises. It's obvious, from his film's denouement, that Affleck is more of a romantic than Mann. Virtually no one could watch the final act of Heat without desperately hoping that Neil makes it out alive, that's he's able to evade capture and find his private paradise with the woman he loves, away from the life of violence and crime he'd made for himself. And virtually no one could watch the final act of Heat without knowing that Neil is doomed anyway, that his mythical "one last gig" will not be his last because he's gone into hiding on some tropical island. Neil is such a compelling character, as defined by Mann and De Niro, that one always wants to see him make it, even knowing he won't, and even despite everything's he done in his life. Affleck obviously watches Heat with that same yearning for Neil's success, and this is doubtless why he decided to give his own film a kind of happy ending for his own character — as though he could vicariously live out the escape and rebirth denied to Neil. Neil's desire for vengeance undid him, but MacRay is able to get his vengeance, he's able to get his escape, he's able to get his redemption by using his stolen money for good, he's even implicitly able to get his girl, who may come join him in his exile someday. Affleck is ducking away from darkness and complexity, delivering a would-be heartwarming ending in which the longtime crook redeems himself and gets away clean. It's singularly unsatisfying, and not only because of the cheesy sunset shot of a bearded MacRay looking out over a lake from his remote cabin.
What's obvious is that Affleck wanted to remake Heat without dealing with the complicated morality or deep, contradictory characters of Mann's film. The Town still has its moments, like the way James takes a sip of soda from a discarded fast food drink before making his suicidal final run at the cops: the kind of small, surprising, humanizing detail that is sorely needed in this film. The performances are largely solid, particularly Renner's James, who has an at times creepy bond with his childhood friend, and Postlethwaite as the kind of sinister, subtly nasty hood who might have fit well in one of Guy Ritchie's first couple of films. The only real exception is Blake Lively, as James' sister Krista, delivering a mumbling, over-the-top performance of such spectacular awfulness that her big dramatic moments induce only giggles. The problem with the film is not the cast, however, but the generic unoriginality of its script and the lack of anything substantial or un-borrowed to flesh out these clichés.
13 comments:
- Roderick Heath said...
I can't disagree with most of what you say here, although as you also say it does have its charms, which sneaked up on me because I wasn't expecting much at all. I found it held its own against the odds until the last few minutes made an all-out stab for some kind of elevation that the meat-and-potatoes solidity and generic qualities of what had preceded them just couldn't justify. At least Gone Baby Gone stayed a bit more true to itself.
- January 28, 2011 at 7:22 AM
- Ed Howard said...
Yeah, it's got its moments, and I probably would've been more willing to just go with it as a solid action/heist flick if not for all the distractions and the sense that Affleck thought he was making a much more substantial film than he actually was.
- January 28, 2011 at 8:50 AM
- Unknown said...
I haven't read the book that THE TOWN is based on but I'd be curious to know just how much of the book actually cribs from HEAT and how much Affleck does in his film. Maybe he mentions it somewhere on the DVD. I do know he was also influenced by Peter Yates' crime film THE FRIEND OF EDDIE COYLE.
I dunno. I guess I liked this film more than you did. Sure, all of your criticisms are valid but it was still an entertaining ride - well-acted and well-directed. Sometimes that's enough.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:12 AM
- Erich Kuersten said...
Damn, Ed I'm with you all the way on this judgment. That ending was wince inducing, like Affleck really doesn't understand good ambiguous endings, which isn't true because Gone Baby Gone had a lulu.
PS - that screenshot at the top, is that from Godard's Detective?
- January 28, 2011 at 10:36 AM
- Ed Howard said...
J.D., I haven't read the book either, so you're right, a lot of my problems with the script could've been carried over from the source. Anyway, I think if the film had been just a little tighter, or if there was just a little less fluff distracting me from the good moments, I could've enjoyed the film as a simple "entertaining ride." I like a good, tight action flick, but this didn't really scratch that itch for me in any sustained way.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:39 AM
- DavidEhrenstein said...
Actually I didn't think about Mann at all watching the film. I WAS however reminded of Melville. I'm sure Affleck has seen at least one of his cops & robbers go postmodern jamboreees. The problem is that while it begins with a neatly done heist followed by a fairly tense stretch of "what will happen next" the robbery of Fenway Park is so overblown that the film really lost me. On top of this is the fact that after initial test screenigns Affleck re-shot the ending so that he survives and connects with The Girl, thus catering to wussy "modern" audience demands for "happiness" instead of ending up dead like Jeremy Renner, as he should have.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:40 AM
- Ed Howard said...
Thanks, Erich, the ending was definitely the biggest weakness here. It could've been interesting if it played as a subversion of the usual "crime doesn't pay" message, or if Affleck was going for an ending where the bad guy wins for once - instead it's just, as you say, wince inducing, and surprisingly sappy.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:42 AM
- Ed Howard said...
David, I didn't realize the ending had been reshot. It really does feel like the result of a focus group desire for audience-pleasing happy endings. It's so over the top contrived that it would seem like a parody if it wasn't so earnest.
- January 28, 2011 at 10:43 AM
- Bryce Wilson said...
I like the film a fair site more then you did (It made #2 on my top ten list of the year). And oddly enough I thought one of the best things about it was the way it jukes The Heat narrative.
Heat set up the whole "Cops, Criminals, Grudging Respect Dynamic" and nearly every film for the next ten years has followed in it lock step.
It was almost a relief that Affleck allowed there to be such unmitigated antipathy between the two. Their dueling monologue in the interrogation scenes demolished about fifteen years of cliches in five minutes.
Part of what I like about The Town is how archetypical it is. It feels like a movie that with minor adjustment could have been made by Raoul Walsh in the 30's or Sam Fuller in the 50's, Peter Yates in 70's or yes Michael Mann in the 90's. But I personally have a great love for the traditional Warner's gangster film, and I'm happy to see it carried into the new century.
Plus as far as I'm concerned the endings of "The Nun's With Gun's" sequence is the best pay off I saw in a theater this year.
- January 28, 2011 at 12:59 PM
- Ed Howard said...
Thanks for the comment, Bryce. I wish I liked this one as much as you do, but I felt it was steeped in cliches rather than doing anything to demolish them. It's definitely in the heist/gangster tradition you cite, I'm just not convinced it brings anything new to the genre.
I'm not sure how I feel about the payoff to the nun heist, either: it felt a little too cute, somehow, although I appreciated the anticlimactic way that it allowed that whole (ridiculous) chase sequence to just sputter out.
- January 28, 2011 at 2:51 PM
I just liked how that moment emphasized how Affleck got his blue collar characters. In the movies cops are supposed to be scum or stalwarts. Well here's a guy who is as much a working stiff as a pkumber or a construction worker. And when faced with four armed men with automatics he's going to chose self preservation over duty. Probably what a real cop would do in said situatuon. Its these gray moments that make affleck an interesting filmmaker to me.
- January 28, 2011 at 3:48 PM
- CMrok93 said...
Ben Affleck's second directorial effort is an old-school heist film, with a well-picked ensemble, and even better screenplay to support it. Good Review!
- January 29, 2011 at 7:21 PM
Heat wasn't Mann's second directorial effort...and everyone in every art starts by mastering the works of those who came before.
- February 16, 2013 at 2:29 PM


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In Part I, we talked about the criteria we wanted to satisfy to ensure that a metric was good, and briefly assessed the results of our beta test of the new version of TMI. The conclusion I came to after that testing was that, in short, it needed more work.
I don't know that it's entirely true to say that I went "back to the drawing board," so much as I went back to my slew of equations and mulled over what I could tweak in them to fix the problems. To recap, the formula I was using was:
$$\large {\rm Beta\_TMI} = c_1 \ln \left [ 1 + \frac{c_2}{N} \sum_{i=1}^N e^{F(MA_i-1)} \right ],$$
with $F=10$, $c_1=500$ and $c_2=e^{10}$.
One of the problems I was running into was one of conflicting constraints. If you look back at the last blog post, you'll see that constraint #6 was that the numbers had to stay reasonable. Mentally, I had converted this constraint to be "should have a fixed range of a few thousand," possibly up to 10 or 20 thousand at a maximum. So I was rigidly trying to keep the score down around a few thousand.
But the obvious solution to the stat weight problem was to increase $c_1$, which increases the slope of the graph. That makes a small change in spike size a more significant change in TMI, and gives you larger stat weights. Multiply $c_1$ by ten, and your stat weights all get multiplied by 10. Seems simple enough.
Except that in the beta test, I got data with TMIs ranging from a few hundred to over 12 thousand. So if I multiply by ten, I'm looking at TMIs ranging from around a thousand to over 120 thousand, which is a much larger range. And a factor of ten still wouldn't have fixed everything thanks to the "knee" in the graph, because if your TMI was on the really low end you could still get garbage stat weights.
It felt like the two constraints were at odds with one another. And both at odds with a third, somewhat self-imposed constraint, which is that I wanted to keep the zero-bounding effect that the "1+" in the brackets produced. Because without that, the score could go negative, which is odd. After all, what does it mean when your arbitrary FICO-like metric goes negative? Which just led back to more fussing over the fact that I was still pretty light on "meaning" in this metric to begin with.
It was a conversation with a colleague that led me to the solution. While discussing the stat weight issues, and how I could tweak the equation to fix them, he mentioned that he would rather have a metric with large numbers that had an obvious meaning than a nicely-constrained metric that didn't. We were talking in terms of percentages of health, and it was only at that point that the answer hit me. Within a day of that conversation, I made all of the changes I needed to give TMI a meaning.
Asking The Right Question
As is often the case, the answer had been staring me in the face the entire time. I've been looking at this graph (in various different incarnations, with various different constants) for the last few months:
What that conversation led me to realize was that I was asking the wrong question. I was trying to figure out what combination of constants I needed to keep the numbers "reasonable." But my definition of "reasonable" was vague and arbitrary. So it's no surprise that what I was getting out was also… vague and arbitrary.
What I should have been doing was trying come up with a score that does a better job of communicating to the user how big those spikes were. Because that, by definition, would be "reasonable" no matter what size the numbers were.
In other words, the question I should have been asking was "how can I tweak this equation so that the number it spits out has a simple and intuitive relationship to the spike size, expressed in a scale that the user can not only easily understand, but easily remember?"
And the answer, which was clear after that conversation, was to use percent health.
To illustrate, let's flip that graph around it's diagonal, such that instead of plotting TMI vs. $MA_{\rm max}$, we were plotting $MA_{\rm max}$ vs. TMI.
At a given TMI value, the $MA_{\rm max}$ values we get from the random combat simulation always fall below the blue single-spike line. In other words, at a TMI of X, you can confidently say that the maximum spike you will take is of size Y. It could be smaller, of course – you could take a few spikes that are a little smaller than Y and get the same score. But you can be absolutely sure it isn't above Y.
So we just need to find a way to make the relationship between X and Y obvious, such that someone can look at a TMI of e.g. 20k and immediately know how large of a damage spike that is, as a percentage of their health.
We could use a one-to-one relationship, such that a TMI of 100 meant you were taking spikes that were 100% of your health. That would correspond to a slope of 100, or a $c_1$ of 10. But that would give us even smaller stat weights, which is a problem. We could literally end up with a plot in Simulationcraft where every single one of your stat weights was 0.00.
It would be nice to keep using factors of ten. Bumping it up to a slope of 1000 doesn't work. That's a $c_1$ of 100, which is still smaller than what we used in Beta_TMI. A slope of 10000, or a $c_1$ of 1000, is only a factor of two improvement over Beta_TMI, so our stat weights will still be sloppy.
But a slope of 100k… that might just work. A TMI of 100k would mean that your maximum spikes were around 100% of your health. If your TMI went up to 120k, you'd immediately know that the spikes are now about 120% of your health. Easy. Intuitive. Now we're getting somewhere. The stat weights would also be 20x as large as they were for Beta_TMI, ensuring that we would get good unnormalized weights even with two decimal places of precision.
So, assuming we're happy with that, it locks down our $c_1$ at $10^4$, so that every percentage of health corresponds to 1k TMI. Now we just have to look at the formula and figure out what else, if anything, needs to be changed.
Narrowing the Field
The very first thing I did after coming to this realization is toss out the "1+" in the formula. While I liked zero-bounding when we were treating this metric like a FICO score, it suddenly has no relevance if the metric has a distinct and clear meaning. Removing it allows for negative TMI values, but those negative values actually mean something now! If you end up with a TMI of -10k, it means that you were out-healing your damage intake by so much that the largest "spike" you ever took was smaller than your incoming healing in that time window. It also tells you exactly how much smaller: 10% of your health. While it's not a situation we'll run into that often, I suspect, it actually has meaning. There's no sense obscuring that information with zero-bounding.
Which just leaves the question of what to do with $c_2$. Let's look at the equation after removing the "+1″:
$$\large {\rm TMI} = c_1 \ln \left [ \frac{c_2}{N} \sum_{i=1}^N e^{F(MA_i-1)} \right ] $$
If we make the single-spike approximation, i.e. that we can replace the sum with a single $e^{F(MA_{\rm max}-1)}$, we get:
$$\large \begin{align} {\rm TMI_{SS}} &= c_1 (\ln c_2 – \ln N) + c_1 F (MA_{\rm max} – 1) \\&~\\ &= c_1 F MA_{\rm max} + c_1 ( \ln c_2 – \ln N – F ) \end{align}$$
just as before. Now that we've removed the "1+" from the formula, the single-spike approximation isn't limited to large spikes anymore, so this is valid for any value of $\large MA_{\rm max}.$
Remember that in our single-spike approximation, $c_2$ controlled the y-intercept of the plot. And now that this y-intercept isn't being artificially modified by zero-bounding, it actually has some meaning. It's the value of $MA_{\rm max}$ at which our TMI is zero.
And given our convention that X*1000 TMI is a spike that's X% of our health, a TMI of zero should mean that we take spikes that are 0% of our health. In other words, this should happen at $MA_{\rm max}=0$. So we want our y-intercept to be zero, or
$$\large c_1 ( \ln c_2 – \ln N – F ) = 0 .$$
Since $c_1$ can't be zero, there's only one way to accomplish this: $c_2 = N e^F.$ I was already using $e^F$ for $c_2$ in Beta_TMI, so this wasn't totally unexpected. In fact, I figured out quite a while ago that the choice of $e^F$ for $c_2$ was equivalent to simplifying the term inside the sum:
$$\large \frac{e^F}{N}\sum_{i=1}^N e^{F(MA_i-1)} = \frac{1}{N}\sum_{i=1}^N e^{F\cdot MA_i}.$$
Defining $c_2=Ne^F$ would also eliminate the $1/N$ factor in front of the sum. However, there's a problem here: I don't want to eliminate it. That $1/N$ is serving an important purpose: normalizing the metric for fight length. For example, let's consider two simulations, one being three minutes long and the other five minutes long. We'll assume the boss is identical in both cases, so the magnitude and frequency of spikes are identical. In theory, the metric should give you nearly identical results for both, because the amount of danger is identical. A fight that's twice as long should have roughly twice as many large spikes, but they're spread over twice as much time.
But a longer fight will have more terms in the sum for a particular bin size, and a shorter fight will have fewer terms. So the sum will be approximately twice as large for the longer fight. The $1/N$ cancels that effect because $N$ would also be twice as large. If we get rid of that $1/N$, then the longer fight will seem significantly more dangerous than the shorter one. In other words, it would cause the metric to vary significantly with fight length, which isn't good.
So I decided to define $c_2$ slightly differently. Rather than $Ne^F$, I chose to use $N_0e^F$, where $N_0$ is a default fight length. This means that we're normalizing the fight length to $N_0$ rather than eliminating the dependence entirely, which should mean much smaller fluctuations in the metric across a large range of fight lengths. Since the default fight length in SimC is 450 seconds, that seemed like an obvious choice for $N_0$.
To illustrate that graphically, I fired up Visual Studio and coded the new metric into Simulationcraft, with and without the normalization. I then ran a character through for fight lengths ranging from 100s to 600s. Here are the results:
The difference is pretty clear. The version where $c_2=Ne^F$ varies from a little under 65k TMI to around 86k TMI. The normalized version where $c_2 = N_0e^F=450e^F$ varies much less, from about 80k to a little over 83k, and most of that variation happening for fights that are shorter than four minutes long (i.e. not that common). This version is stable enough that it should work well for combat log analysis sites, where we'd expect a wide variety of encounter lengths.
There was one final change I felt I should make, and it's not to the formula per se, it's to the definition of $MA$. If you recall from the last post, we defined it as follows:
$$\large MA_i = \frac{T_0}{T}\sum_{j=1}^{T / dt} D_{i+j-1} / H.$$
This definition normalizes for two things: player health (by dividing by $H$), and window size (by multiplying by $T_0$). The latter is the part I wanted to change.
The reason we originally multiplied by $T_0/T$ was to allow the user to specify a shorter time window $T$ over which to calculate spikes, for example in cases where you were getting a large heal every 5 second, but were fighting a boss who could kill you in 3 or 4 seconds in-between those heals. This normalization meant that it calculated the moving average over $T$-second intervals, but always scaled the total damage up to what it would be if that damage intake rate were sustained for $T_0$ seconds. Doing this kept the metric from varying significantly with window size, as we discussed last year.
But that particular normalization doesn't make sense anymore now that the metric is representing a real quantity. If my TMI is a direct reflection of spike size, then I'd expect it to go up or down fairly significantly as I change the window size. If I take X damage in a 6-second time window, but only X/2 damage in a 3-second time window, then I want my TMI to drop by a factor of 2 when I drop the window size from 6 seconds to 3 seconds as well.
In other words, I want TMI to accurately reflect what percentage of my health I lose in the window I'm considering. If I want to analyze a 3-second window, then I want to know what percentage of my health the boss can take off in that 3 seconds, not how much he would take off if he had 6 seconds.
So we're entirely eliminating the time-window normalization in the definition of $MA_i$. That seems to match people's intuition for how the time-window control should work anyway (this topic has come up before, including in the comments of the Crowdsourcing TMI post), so it's a win on multiple fronts.
Bringing it all Together
Now, we have all the pieces we need to construct a formal definition for TMI v2.0. I'll update the TMI Standard Reference Document with the rigorous details, but since we've already discussed many of them, I'm only going to summarize it here. Assume we start with an array $D$ containing the damage we take in every time bin of size $dt$, and the player has health $H$.
The moving average array is now defined as
$$\large MA_i = \frac{1}{H}\sum_{j=1}^{T / dt} D_{i+j-1}.$$
In other words, it's the array in which each element is the $T$-second moving sum of damage taken, normalized to player health $H$.
We then take this array and use it to calculate TMI as follows:
$$\large {\rm TMI} = 10^4 \ln \left [ \frac{N_0}{N}\sum_{i=1}^N e^{10 MA_i} \right ] ,$$
where $N$ is the length of the $MA$ array, or equivalently the fight length divided by $dt$, and $N_0=450/dt$ is the "default" array size corresponding to a fight length of 450 seconds.
But Does It Work?
To illustrate how this works, let's look at some examples using Simulationcraft. I coded the new formula into my local copy and ran some tests. Here are two reports, both against the T16H25 boss, using my own character and the T16H Protection Warrior profile:
The very first thing I looked at was the stat weights:
Much, much better. This was with 25k iterations, but even 10k iterations gave us reasonable (if noisy) stat weights. The error bars here are all pretty reasonable, and it wouldn't be hard to increase the precision by bumping it up to 50k iterations if we wanted to. The warrior profile's stat weights are similarly high-precision.
We could also look at the TMI distribution:
Again, much nicer looking than before. We're still getting a bit of skew here, but that mostly has to do with being slightly overgeared for the boss definition. The warrior profile exhibits even stronger skew, but tests run with characters of lower gear levels (and thus higher average TMI values) show very little skew.
I also wanted to see exactly how well the TMI value reflected maximum spike size, and what (if any) difference there was. So you may have noticed that I've enhanced the tanking section of the SimC report a little bit by adding some new columns:
In short, SimC now also records the "Maximum Spike Damage," or MSD, for each iteration and calculates the maximum, minimum, and mean MSD value. It reports this information in units of "percentage of player health" right alongside the DTPS and TMI information that you're used to getting. Lest the multiple "max" modifiers be confusing: the MSD for one iteration is the biggest spike you take that iteration, and the "MSD Max" is the largest spike you take out of all iterations.
You may be wondering, at this point, if this isn't all superfluous. If I can code SimC to report the biggest spike, why wouldn't we want to use that directly? What does TMI add that we can't get from MSD?
The answer is continuity. MSD uses a max() function to isolate the absolute biggest spike in each iteration. Which is fine, but often misleading. For example, let's consider two different tanks, one of which takes a single spike that's 90% of their health, and another that takes one 90% spike and three or four 89% spikes. Assume nothing else in the encounter is remotely threatening them. Their MSD values will be identical, because it ignores all but the largest spike. But it's clear that the second tank is in more danger, because he's taking a large spike more frequently, and the TMI value will accurately reflect that.
That continuity also translates into generating better and more reliable stat weights. A stat that reduces the frequency of 90% spikes without eliminating them would be given a garbage stat weight if we tried to scale over MSD, because MSD doesn't retain any information about frequency. However, we know that stats like hit and expertise are strong partly because they reduce spike frequency. TMI reflects that accurately while MSD simply can't.
MSD is still useful though, in that having both TMI and MSD gives us additional information about our spike patterns. It also gives us a convenient way to compare the two to see how TMI works.
First, take a look at the TMI Max and MSD Max values. You'll notice they mimic each other pretty well: MSD Max is 150.3%, TMI Max is 151.7k. This makes sense for the extreme case because that's when all the planets align to create your worst-case scenario, which is rare. It won't happen multiple times per fight, so it's a situation where you have one giant spike that dominates the score, much like our single-spike approximation. And in that approximation, TMI is roughly equal to the largest spike size, just like it should be.
Comparing the mean TMI value (just "TMI" on the table) to the MSD mean shows a little bit of a gap: MSD Mean is 69.5%, TMI mean is 82.8k. The TMI is about 13k above where you'd expect it to be based on the single-spike model. That's because of spike frequency. You wouldn't normally expect to take one giant spike in an encounter and nothing else; the more common case is to take several spikes of similar magnitude over that 450 seconds. If we're taking 3-4 of those spikes, then that's going to raise the TMI value a little bit compared to the situation where we only take one. That's exactly what's happening here.
Mathematically, if we take $n$ spikes, we expect the TMI to be $\ln(n)$ times as large as the single-spike case. In this simulation, the TMI is about 1.2 times larger, meaning that $n\approx 3.3.$ In other words, on average we're taking about 3.3 spikes every 450 seconds, each of which is about 69.5% of our health. That's pretty useful information – in fact, I may add it to the table in the future if people would like SimC to calculate it for them.
You can see that the gap grows considerably for the minimum TMI and MSD values. The MSD Min is only about 31% while the minimum TMI is ~66k. Again, this comes down to frequency. Large spikes tend to be infrequent due to statistics, as they require a failure to avoid any one of multiple attacks. But as we eliminate those (either by gearing, or in this case, by lucky RNG on one iteration) we're left with smaller, more frequent spikes. In the extreme limit, you could imagine a scenario where you alternated between taking a full hit and avoiding every second attack, in which case you'd have loads of really tiny spikes. So what we're seeing at this end of the distribution is that we're taking about $n=8.4$ small spikes in the low-TMI iterations.
This behavior also has a more subtle, but rather important meaning. TMI is really good at prioritizing large spikes and giving you stat weights that preferentially eliminate them. Once you eliminate those spikes, it automatically shifts to prioritizing the next-biggest spikes, and so on. If you smooth your damage intake sufficiently that you're taking a lot of moderately-sized spikes, it naturally tries to reduce the frequency of those spikes. In other words, if you've successfully eliminated the danger of isolated spikes, it automatically starts optimizing you for DTPS. So it seamlessly fuses spike mitigation and DTPS into a metric that shifts the goalposts based on your biggest concern, as determined by the combat data.
A lot of those ideas can be seen graphically, as well. Here's a plot showing data generated with my own character pitted against the T16H25 boss. We're plotting MSD (which I was originally calling "Max Moving Average") against the reported TMI score. To generate this plot, I used a variety of window sizes. At each window size, I recorded the minimum, mean, and maximum TMI and MSD values. The dotted line is the expected relationship, i.e. 100k TMI = 100% max health.
Generally speaking, as we increase or decrease the window size, the MSD and TMI should similarly increase or decrease. That's certainly happening for the maximum MSD and TMI values, which should be expected. And in that limit, we see that TMI and MSD mostly agree and lie close to the dotted line.
However, the mean values show a much smaller spread, and the minimum values show almost no spread. It turns out that this is the fault of EF's crazy scaling. A paladin in this level of gear is basically self-sufficient against the T16H25 boss, so changing the window size doesn't have a large effect unless we consider the most extreme cases. If we're out-healing the boss, then a longer window won't cause a noticeable increase in damage intake or spike size. At the very low end, where the minimum TMI & MSD values show up, we're basically plotting window-edge effects.
The results look a lot cleaner if we consider a player that's undergeared for the boss (and of a class that doesn't have a strong self-healing mechanic, like a warrior):
This is one of the warriors who submitted multiple data sets for the beta test. He's got an average ilvl of 517, which is well below what would be needed to comfortably survive the 25H boss. As a result, his TMI values are fairly high, with even the smallest values being over 200k. As you can see, though, all of the values cluster nicely around the equivalence line, meaning that the TMI value is a very good representation of his expected spike size. Also note that the colors are more evenly distributed on this plot. That's because the window size adjustment is working properly here. The lowest values are from simulations with a window size of 2 seconds, while the largest ones are using a window size of 10 seconds. And the data is pretty linear: double the window size, and you double the MSD and TMI.
Report Card
So this final version of the metric seems to be hitting all the right notes. Let's get our checklist out and grade it on each of the criteria we set out to satisfy.
Accurately representing danger: Pass. There's really no difference between this version and the beta version in this category. If anything, this may be a bit better since it no longer has the "knee" obfuscating danger for smaller spikes.
Work seamlessly: Pass. Apart from coding the metric into SimC, it took no additional tweaks to get it to work properly with the default plotting and analysis tools.
Generate useful stat weights: Pass. The stat weights are being generated properly and to sufficient precision to identify differences between the stats, without having to normalize. It will generate useful stat weights even in low-damage regimes thanks to the removal of the "knee," and it automatically adapts to generate DTPS-like results when you've done all you can for smoothing. Massive improvement in this category.
Useful statistics: Pass. Again, not much difference between this version and Beta_TMI, at least in this category.
Easily interpreted: Pass. This is the most important improvement. If I get a TMI score of 80k, I immediately know that I'm in danger of taking spikes that are up to 80% of my health. I don't need to do any mental math to figure it out, just replace a "k" with a "%" and I'm there. No need to look back to a blog post or remember a funny conversion factor. As long as I know what TMI is, I know what it means.
Numbers should be reasonable: Pass. While the numbers aren't technically small, I think it's fair to say that they're reasonable. After Mists, everyone is comfortable working in thousands ("I do 400k DPS and have 500k health"), so I don't think the nomenclature will be confusing. The biggest issue with the original TMI was that it varied wildly by orders of magnitude due to small changes, which can't happen in this new form. Going from 75k to 125k has a clear and obvious meaning, and won't throw anyone for a loop, unlike going from 75k to 18.3M (an equivalent change in Old_TMI).
I'll admit that I may be a little biased when it comes to grading my own metric, but I don't think you can argue that I'm being unfairly kind in any of these categories. I set up clear expectations for what I wanted in each category, and made sure the metric met them. If it hadn't, you probably wouldn't be reading about it, because I'd have tossed it like Beta_TMI and continued working on it until I found a version that did.
But keep in mind that this doesn't mean the metric is flawless. It just means that we haven't discovered what (if any) its flaws are yet. As the logging sites get on-board with the new metric and implement it, we'll be able to look for differences between real-world performance and Simulationcraft results and identify the causes. And if we do find problems, we'll adjust it as necessary to fix them.
Looking Forward
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that I'm very happy with TMI 2.0. It finally has a solid meaning, and will be far simpler to explain to players discovering it for the first time. It's a vast improvement over the original version of the metric in so many ways that it's hard to even compare the two.
And by giving the metric a clear meaning, we've opened up a number of new possible applications. For example, let's say you sim your character and get a TMI of 85k. You and your healers now know they need to be prepared for you to take a spike that's around 85% of your health at any given moment. Which leads directly into the question, "how much healing do I need to ensure survival?"
If your healer is a druid, you might consider how many Rejuvenation ticks you can rely on in a 6-second window and how much healing that will be. If it's 20% of your health, then you (and your healer!) immediately have an estimate of how much on-demand healer throughput you'll need to keep you safe. Or if you have multiple HoTs, and they sum up to about 50% of your health in that time window, your healers know that as long as they keep you HoT-ted up, they can spend their GCDs elsewhere and just spot-heal you when you hit 50% health.
In other words, TMI may be a tanking metric, but it's got the potential to have a meaning for (and be useful to) your healers as well.
Extend this idea even further: TMI was originally defined as only including self-healing effects, not external heals. The new definition can be much looser, because it still has a meaning if you include external heals. Adding a healer to your simulation may reduce your TMI, but the end result is still meaningful because it tells you how large a spike you took with a healer focusing on you.
Likewise, a combat logging site might report your regular TMI and an "ETMI" or Effective TMI, which includes outside healing. And that ETMI would tell you something slightly different – what was the biggest spike you took and survived (or not!) on that pull. If your ETMI is less than 50k you're never really in much danger. If your ETMI is pushing 90k or 100k (and you didn't die), it means you're getting awfully close to dying at least a few times in that encounter, which may warrant some investigation. You could then analyze your own logs and your healers' logs to figure out why that's happening and determine ways to improve it.
I'm really excited to see where this goes over the next few months. For now, though, I'm going to focus on getting the foundations in place. I've already coded the new metric into Simulationcraft, so as of the next release (547-3) all TMI calculations will use the new formula.
I also plan on working with both WarcraftLogs and AskMrRobot, both of whom have expressed an interest in implementing TMI, to get it up and running on their logging sites. And I'll be updating the standard reference document shortly with a rigorous definition of the standard to facilitate that.


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Netflix is coming to Blighty early in 2012, as anticipated after it was claimed the US video streaming service is coming to continental Europe next year.
Netflix today said it will offer "unlimited TV shows and films streaming instantly over the internet to TVs and computers for one low monthly subscription price".
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Without a DVD component, the range of content Netflix can offer will be limited, making it a tough choice for punters who are currently with rival DVD-and-streaming services, such as the Amazon-owned Lovefilm.
Further details, Netflix said, would be posted closer to launch. ®
Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration


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I have to say, my first ever giveaway was a success! Over 200+ entries/comments, my blog has …. never had that many comments. Thank you for all the cupcake suggestions/ideas. I think I will have to institute a cupcake of the month feature.
Without further ado, the winner of my first ever giveaway is (drumroll, please) RUTH MAYER HILL . You will have 72 hours to claim your prize.
Congrats again, Ruth and thanks again to all that entered. Hope everyone enjoyed Blog Mania and I wish I could give you all a prize but alas I'm not a baller, shot caller. 😉
Next week be on the lookout for some "Autumn/Halloween" inspired posts.
Until Next Time,
Click on the photo to see the actual size.


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|Thread Tools
Please post your experiences with antennas, preamps, all related equipment, and installation experiences. Indoor & outdoor. To include mounting, cabling, connectors, rotors, etc.
- Be specific; brands, models, sources, prices, etc.
- What works, what doesn't, and why?
- Tricks of the trade, and unique solutions.
Thanks in advance for your participation. AVS is only as good as it's members, and our members are the best.
Moderators Note as of 2/15/2012: The "Antennas, rotators, boosters/preamps... for wide-band VHF/UHF" has been merged into this topic, which now covers not just antennas but preamps, rotors, antenna cable, mounting systems, termination, transformers, baluns, distribution amps, and all other OTA reception related equipment.
As always, set-top-boxes are covered in the Official AVS STB Topic, found 'stuck' at the top of the HDTV Technical Forum.
'Better Living Through Modern, Expensive, Electronic Devices'
Originally posted by Ken H
99.44% of the time, the following apply:
- Bigger is better
- Higher is better
- Outside is better
- Directional is better
Ken,you are sooooo right.Thanks for heading up this thread.I'll start it out with one of the best setups for UHF reception...and I've tried 'em all
Lots of pics and nice links for valuable info.
I am in a bad reception area only 11 miles from the Portland towers for all of the locals, but I am behind a hill (antennaweb.org says I shouldn't be able to receive anything). I have a big Radio Shack VU-190XR antenna in my attic (of a multi-story house) pointed in the direction of the towers. I have tried an attenuator (didn't help) and a RS line amplifier, which seemed to help a bit. I am using a new D* Hughes box. While I am getting decent to good reception of all of the analog locals, my only constant success on the digital side is with ABC. I am able to get a strong signal from CBS, NBC, WB, and UPN from time to time, but never all at the same time (usually just one or two of them along with ABC). I have not been able to get the digital versions of PBS or FOX at all, despite being able to get the analog signals decently well (and the fact that their tower are in the same place as the other stations).
Of course, the next logical step would probably be to go with an outdoor antenna, but I have a few concerns. I need an antenna that isn't too big or ugly, for the wife factor. Most people are recommending the Channel Master 4228 or 4221, but I was hoping for something a little more pretty. I'm also concerned that if I buy one and it doesn't work, that I won't be able to return it (not to mention being out the installation fee I'm going to have to pay someone to go up on my three-story roof!)?
Any suggestions of equipment to buy or things to try would be greatly appreciated. Is it wishful thinking (based on what I've described) that I'd be able to mount one small outdoor antenna to catch all of my locals?
Otherwise - there is no substitute for getting your OTA antenna outside, especially in a potentially marginal situation like yours - no matter how big or ugly it is (ugly is in the eyes of the beholder - I personally would prefer to measure this on my screen ). It comes down to - do you want HDTV OTA or not ?
Being A Beacon of Knowledge in the darkness of FUD
I was talking to a friend who wanted an antenna so he took the 3021 off my hands and I then bought a 4228 and a CM 7777 amp. I now get WNBC on ch.28. Still no WPIX on 12. If anyone has any ideas on the best cheap way to get ch.12 from here I would like to hear them.
I have about 60 feet of RG6 from the mast mounted preamp to the Samsung TS-360 STB.
I really wanted Philadelphia channels instead and I can sometimes get KYW on ch.26 but that is it. I am now wondering if a roof mount pointed at Philly would get me those stations. So much for limiting expense ... this is addicting.
Thanks to all on these forums ... you have helped me a lot.
I'd be fine with the Zenith perched in my indoor palm plant by the Samsung unit but my wife objects so any advice on a possible cause/cure would be appreciated.
Being A Beacon of Knowledge in the darkness of FUD
Originally posted by Scooper
The Dish installed by VOOM will NOT get OTA reception - that will require a REGULAR TV antenna aimed at your locals stations' transmitter towers.
VOOM installs an OTA antenna when they install their satellite dish antenna. However, you may need a better one than the "easy-install" type they use.
Originally posted by flashbacck
I have a really newbie question, so sorry if it sounds dumb. But what in the world is the difference between a Preamp and an Amp?
A preamp has two parts - the amp and the power supply. The amp is typically installed as close to the antenna as possible, "before" the coax run; hence the name preamp. The power supply is usually installed behind the TV or STB, but may be installed elsewhere in the coax run (i.e. attic)....
An "amp" is a 1-piece unit and most of the consumer ones must be installed indoors. Since best results are usually obtained by putting the amp as close to the antenna as possible (to prevent amplifying noise introduced in the coax), a preamp usually works better.
Originally posted by offandon
... I then bought a 4228 and a CM 7777 amp. I now get WNBC on ch.28. Still no WPIX on 12. If anyone has any ideas on the best cheap way to get ch.12 from here I would like to hear them...
Remove the 4 screws and open the case of the CM 7777. Change the internal Input switch from "Combined" to "Separate" antennas. Then, connect a VHF antenna to the CM7777 preamp's VHF input. Leave the 4228 on the UHF input.
Depending on distance and station power, you may only need rabbit ear dipoles laid flat and extended to the correct length (try each dipole @ ~13.5" or ~27"), or you may need an "outdoor" VHF antenna for channels 7-13.
For a really cheap channel 12 attic antenna, I made one for a friend using two 13.5" lengths of coat hanger wire attached to a small wooden block, using 2 screws. I attached a 300/75 ohm balun under the screws, and connected the coax between the balun and the CM 7777 preamp. He receives our local (27kw) channel 12 DTV station @ 100%.
YMMV, of course.
Are you boozen & cruisin the AVS? Join us here ---> https://www.avsforum.com/forum/showt...8&page=1&pp=60 good times! www.illinoiscarry.org www.nra.org
what is the best solution to a bad multipath problem?
(Terrain: hilly, forest nearby, townhouses; antenna: SilverSensor; preamp: channelmaster 7777; tuner: Dish 811)
Have had great success with their DB4.
Channel Master 9521A
Antenna rotator with infrared remote control
Programmable for up to 69 stations
Internet pricing from $70-$90, plus shipping
'Better Living Through Modern, Expensive, Electronic Devices'
WJAC-DT (NBC) 250 kW Ch 34 at 68 miles
WTAJ-DT (CBS) 3.3 kW Ch 32 at 34 miles
WATM-DT (ABC) 2.0 kW Ch 24 at 34 miles
WPSX-DT (PBS) Single Frequency Network Ch 15 at 7.9 miles/28 miles
My location is State College, PA, and I'm pointing towards Altoona/Johnstown for OTA. My house is situation such that I am aiming over downtown State College.
I started with a CM 4228 and a RatShack pre-amp. With this setup getting the three closest channels was a breeze but WJAC-DT just didn't come in well enough to lock-in. At the suggestion of a member here I ordered a set of Triax Unix 100 Band A antennae from the United Kingdom and tried just one at first. This was an improvement but not enough to stay locked in on WJAC-DT. I added a second Unix 100A in a vertical stack and had better results but still not satisfactory.
A few weeks ago an order I had placed with Warren Electronics in December showed up at my door with a CM7777 in it. I placed this up on the roof in conjunction with the stacked Unix 100A's and am now locked in to WJAC-DT about 96-98% of the time. I still get some drop outs and break ups and I think I'm fighting some sort of overload as there is a pattern to the drop outs on an analog channel 19 at 84 miles on the same azimuth as the other stations I am aiming for.
The 4228 appears to be about 12-13 dB gain at 600 Mhz, channel 35, while the Unix 100A's are about 17 dB. Tied together as I have them I should be in the neighborhood of 19.5 dB gain.
Overall I am pretty impessed with my reception of the low power digitals at 34 miles over hilly terrain and downtown. I moved the CM4228 to my parent's house which is 4 miles closer to both Altoona and Johnstown and on the other side of downtown State College and had nearly identical results to those at my house.
My next project is to try to get WHP-DT on channel 4 from Harrisburg at 59 miles. They're only transmitting at 2.35 kW so I'm not sure what kind of success I might have but the terrain path from my house to Harrisburg is more favorable than that from my house to WJAC-DT.
After a couple of years I added a RS 15-1196, 1 in to 2 Bi Directional Amp, to split the signal to a second Dish 6000. A preamp did not improve my signal, but this amp did.
I'm getting outstanding reception from D.C. (35mi) and Baltimore (60mi). I think a lot of my success is due to being several hundred feet above sea level.
I went with the UHF/VHF setup playing the odds that some of the stations will revert back to their VHF signals for digital when everything shakes out.
My Blue Theater
uhf WYDN-DT 47 DAY WORCESTER MA 04-04 161° 38.3
uhf WSBK-DT 38.1 UPN BOSTON MA 162° 37.7
uhf WNDS-DT 35.1 IND DERRY NH 115° 13.0
uhf WUNI-DT 29.1 UNI WORCESTER MA 202° 30.0
uhf WUTF-DT 66.1 TFA MARLBOROUGH MA 179° 27.5
uhf WMFP-DT 18 SAH LAWRENCE MA FCC Ext 161° 38.3
uhf WGBH-DT 2.1 PBS Boston MA 162° 37.7
uhf WGBX-DT 44.1 PBS Boston MA 162° 37.7
uhf WFXT-DT 25.1 FOX Boston MA 161° 38.6
uhf WCVB-DT 5.1 ABC Boston MA 162° 37.7
uhf WHDH-DT 7.1 NBC Boston MA 160° 38.3
uhf WBPX-DT 32 PAX BOSTON MA Awaiting FCC Permit 161° 38.3
uhf WBZ-DT 4.1 CBS Boston MA 162° 37.7
uhf WLVI-DT 56.1 WB Cambridge MA 161° 38.6
I only want the stations in the 161-162° direction, so what do I need to pull them in consistently?
~ Fred
Originally posted by Belcherwm
I went with the UHF/VHF setup playing the odds that some of the stations will revert back to their VHF signals for digital when everything shakes out.
What is your source for this belief?
I read on the FCC web site that they are reallocating the VHF band to public safety.
The TV channels that will go away after the analog shutoff are UHF channels 52 - 69, not VHF. Article here
As far as getting a VHF antenna if all of your digitals are UHF, I say don't worry about it unless you want VHF analog reception or FM reception. You'll be fine for sure for at least a few years with a UHF antenna, and if your stations switch back, you can always add a VHF only antenna to your setup. Most antennas aren't that expensive.
Originally posted by jckessler
... As far as getting a VHF antenna if all of your digitals are UHF, I say don't worry about it unless you want VHF analog reception or FM reception. You'll be fine for sure for at least a few years with a UHF antenna, and if your stations switch back, you can always add a VHF only antenna to your setup...
If you need a preamp, go ahead and get a VHF+UHF preamp, with a dedicated VHF input. That will make it easy to add a separate VHF antenna later.
Being A Beacon of Knowledge in the darkness of FUD
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text:
The sign says "All You Can Eat," and one man tried. Oh, how he tried. He accuses a restaurant of false advertising after he was told to stop eating.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: The RidicuList
This is an excellent example of someone who was offered an inch and took the entire circumference of the globe. Some people have a sense of entitlement beyond what is reasonable. It is sad that it is human nature for many to take more than we deserve.
"Charlie the idiot is the son of Philip the idiot, so what else can you expect??"
"You mean Charlie the idiot who talked to the flowers fifty years ago!!"
"You really want a comment?? Why/what is the facination about 'Ink in the skin?? Are they sick on pain.
'I had the bechance meeting of a guy around 20yrs ago, and he had all kinds of markings on his skin, and his answer was 'He needed the pain?" So to me there are all kinds of freeks
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


text:
"Janet Jackson became a mother early this year, announced her impending divorce and began to regroup for a world tour. That's a lot of change to stimulate creativity. Legendary producer Jimmy Jam spoke to reporters at the ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Awards and shared some great news: Janet's doing well and "excited to get back to her day job."
"She's so happy…I get FaceTime [calls] at like two in the morning, usually when I'm wrapping up in the studio," he said. "It's always just Isa, she's in the background somewhere. He's the cutest baby in the history of babies."
Jackson shares the five-month-old with soon-to-be-ex-husband Wissam Al Mana. Jimmy Jam expressed excitement for the ways motherhood will inform her music.
"I told her that when you have a baby, it's going to be a whole different inspiration for you," he shared."A whole different reservoir of creativity, of cadence, of love, and all these things that have always been with you but it doesn't really come out until [you become a parent]. She's recognizing that.""
Via: Radio.Com


text: I was updating my watch list of caches this morning and didn't realize that a number of them have been archived . . . some quite honestly I won't miss very much (i.e. a certain cache in a reststop heading towards Ellsworth . . . but we won't go there), but some are a real loss (i.e. Laughing Terry's Big Box of Books was a classic!) . . . this of course made me wonder if other folks have seen caches archived that were great cache hides.


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I am coming from the field trial world but have a gwp i'm interested in putting a utility title on this summer. I have a question about big running dogs in NAVHDA and how that affects their cooperation score. When released my dogs will make large casts and run forward hunting objectives unless I give a command to make a turn. I attended a NAVHDA training day this past weekend and from what I understand this is not acceptable. I was even reprimanded by the president of the club for giving my dog a turn command because he stated it wasn't a cooperative hunting dog and he should stay close and check in to see where I'm turning.
Is this just one judges opinion and should I plan to run this dog or should I just scrap it? I don't wish to cut my dog down just for a test I just thought it would be interesting to teach thim a water/duck search and see how well he would do. But if him running big basically puts him behind idk if its worth the money in testing.


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The massive and disruptive adoption of smart phones and tablet computers represents an unprecedented shift in our lives. If you still need proof, take a look at NBC News' comparison between the 2005 and 2013 crowds gathered at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.This is what we call the "mobile transformation," which poses fundamental challenges for virtually every business, including the event and meetings industry. Just take the people in the photo at the bottom to the conference room and you'll see a typical situation that many event pros face today when running a meeting or making a presentation.
The challenge is: how to keep your audience engaged and still focused in the age of distraction?
One common approach that aims to fix the nagging problem of disengagement and low-visibility content involves placing wide big screens in between the rows in addition to the main presentation screen. Joanna Moor, the technical specialist of VisionEvents, recently shared this view here in her Special Events Blog postabout the advantages of setting up the wide-screen presentations for engaging events.To my mind, wide screens can really help if you plan a huge event with a long line of sitting rows and the venue plan allows putting those screens around for the ease of middle and back rows' participants.
However, this may not always play well if the venue doesn't support placement of the screens or if screens are set higher or further out than needed. Further, if the slides are so wordy and hard to read, even on big screens they can become unreadable. As a result,the audience's attention wanders, and they become less engaged than they could be.Nobody wants that for sure.
In this case it's good to use the potential of mobile devices that people usually keep open and close at hand all day long. Using a classic "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy, why not place all the key information that's being presented on the screens of mobile devices and add some interactivity?
If we take a look at the latest mobile technology trends we see that the smartphones are getting bigger, and some tablets, a bit smaller, all with a view towards becoming easier to work with, easier to hold. And what's good for the event planners is that attendees can use their own smart devices as personal conference screens for watching what's being presented on the main screen--without missing anything--even sitting far away from the main stage.
Straw polling that we conduct at events we support affirms this. The most common complaints we hear is that slide content is too small or too dense, or that the room layout hinders visibility. Sitting in the back row can also be a problem, and there's no way to get of the back row! In some polls, more than 10 percent of respondents report difficulty in seeing the presentations at every conference they attend!
Yet, almost everyone we poll has a smartphone, and more than half report taking a laptop or tablet computer to events. It only follows that meeting organizers find more, better ways to leverage the devices that people are already bringing into the conference hall. (And as often as not, those devices serve as a diversion from the event content, as people check e-mail, stock quotes, send text messages and so on.)
There are a tremendous number of really good mobile event apps on the market today, but most of them are focused on scheduling and agendas, and enjoy only sporadic use during the event. The next step beyond this is to integrate those personal devices into the event content delivery, so that certainly, participants eyes are glued to their smart phone, but they're following the presenter, not checking-in with the home office.
Ironically, those personal "diversion" devices that distract from event content can become engagement devices, when properly exploited by savvy planners. All that's required is a shift in the planner's perspective, to turn an event's weakness into its greatest strength.
Since 2012, Golubeva has been marketing and PR manager at NiceMeeting, based in Pleasanton, Calif., an event technology company focused on mobile audience engagement technology. The company's mission: to develop game-changing solutionsthat allowevent planners to turn audience mobile devices from distraction to engagement.


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Describe the ultimate romantic meal.
Join Romance Giveaways for all Giveaway Information
Harlequin Medical Author Amy Andrews with a Giveaway!
Describe the ultimate romantic meal.
50 comments:
Nas- This was a terrific interview!ReplyDelete
Amy- wow, a heap of information here! Sticky pudding is the best. thanks for sharing!
Nas, thanks for another great interview.ReplyDelete
Amy, you can do the splits?! Impressive!
I'm interested in the 24 hour format for a book. Haven't read one like that before.
Hey Summer, a fellow sticky date devotee - yay!!ReplyDelete
Hey Rachel - it was out quite a few years ago now but I think you can still get your hands on it around the ridges.ReplyDelete
Yes, the splits is my party trick :o) Not that you would know it to look at me but I am extremely flexible
Its going to be great to talk to everyone the enxt few days but just a heads up, my Mum is very sick in hospital at the moment and I'm going to be spending a fair portion of the next couple of days there. I'll check in when I can and pleasse do leave me a comment - I promise I'll get to them all.ReplyDelete
Hi Amy!ReplyDelete
It was so much fun meeting you at RWA national!Holy cow! You can still do a split? I think if I tried I'd wind up in the hospital! And I'm still waiting for a quality book to fly from inside of me. I continue to struggle over every single word!
You and your mom are in my prayers. Take care!
Hi Amy,ReplyDelete
We all are praying for your Mum. Sincerely hope she gets well soon.
Hi Summer, thanks for coming by.ReplyDelete
Hi Rachael, thanks for your lovely comment!
Hello Wendy, I saw your RWA photo with Amy, wow! you lucky girl, getting to meet everybody!
ANd friends, just under the followers I have the links for Wendy's Mega Giveaways, please follow the tour for a signed book giveaway at every stop!
- AnonymousJuly 11, 2011 at 12:23 PM
I enjoyed meeting Amy. Thanks for hosting her, Nas. Her book sounds like a fun read. (And I'm ready with Wendy's post for Wednesday!)ReplyDelete
Ann Best, Memoir Author
Hi Ann,ReplyDelete
Ah, yes, it will be our friend Ann here, who will be hosting Wendy next! And a signed 2in 1 book giveaway!
Thanks for coming by and the reminder Ann!
Great Interview Nas! It was nice to learn more about Amy. The book sounds great! I love reunion books, becuase even though sometimes things are meant to be, that doesn't mean they're meant to be any any given point.ReplyDelete
Amy I will pray for your Mom!
I LOVE reunion stories so can't wait to read this book. I laughed at the SLEEP advice by I think you are so right, especially after you have kids :) In my non-fiction book about breastfeeding there is a chapter called 'Sleep - The New Sex.'ReplyDelete
Hi Lolarific,ReplyDelete
Thanks for coming by, and for the prayers for Amy's Mum. Last I heard she was on the mend, then she took a turn for the worse.
And yes, the reunion story in JUST ONE LAST NIGHT is full of unexpected twists and turns, you'd love it! Click through to read my review.
Hi Rachael,ReplyDelete
When I was setting up this post and reading through, I also had to chuckle at the sleep advice!
Where can we get your book from?
"Just because" flowers are the best! Nice to meet you and learn more about your books, Amy! :)ReplyDelete
Amy, my dh and I were talking just last night about your party trick! I'm *still* so impressed!ReplyDelete
Really looking forward to reading your Presents Extras too! I'm sure readers are in for a special treat there!
Hi Nas!! Thanks for asking. My non-fic is available at some books stores in Oz and also online at www.breastfeedersanonymous.com xReplyDelete
Love your story and glad you did not give up.ReplyDelete
Hi All - back from a day at the hospital. Mum's conditon has stabilised a bit so all your lovely prayers must be helping!!ReplyDelete
Thanks so much for your patience today and chatting amongst yourselves.
love Amy
Hey Wendy - great to meet you in NYC!!ReplyDelete
Those books that fly are gifts. It took me 6 books before I got one :o)
Hey Ann. Thanks for stopping by. The book IS a fun read :o)ReplyDelete
Hey Lolarific - thanks for your prayers today! I love that excat thing about reunion stories too. That whole Sliding Doors thing.ReplyDelete
lol Rachael, I love that!!! Sleep - the New Sex. So so true!!ReplyDelete
Hello PK, nice to meet you too!ReplyDelete
Hey Robbie!!! You're one of the lucky ones to have seen my party trick :o)ReplyDelete
I'm soooooooo excited about also writing now for the RIVA line. My first book - Innocent Until Proven Otherwise - is out in February. Yay!!!!
Hi Liz - I glad I didn't either!!!ReplyDelete
Nice meeting you.
Great interview ladies!! :)ReplyDelete
I love romance too - guaranteed happy endings work for me :) I love that your romantic tip is sleep - so true! And I agree on the eavesdropping kind of research too.
Another great author to add to my library...Fantastic interview...ReplyDelete
Hi Amy ! Great to meet you and hoping your mom gets well soon!!! And whoa, 12 yrs is a long time.. But as you said, if we think of it as apprenticeship, it really gives a whole new meaning to honing our craft!ReplyDelete
Fab interview, Nas!
Nice interview, Amy and Nas!ReplyDelete
I hope your Mom is doing as well as can be expected, Amy. It's always tough when someone close to us struggles with health issues.
That 24 hours book sounds cool. Just One Last Night has a great premise, too. I like stories with annoying teens. ;-)
Hey Jemi - thats you and me for the sleep club then :o) Any other takers??ReplyDelete
Thanks Savannah!ReplyDelete
I cvan tell you from personal experience ju that 12 years is a very very very looooooong time :o)ReplyDelete
So for goodbness sake y'all out there who are treading the same path be smart about it. Smarter than I was!! :o) Know your target punlisher/s and join a good group.
Thanks LP.ReplyDelete
I loved writing that annoying teen. There's a great scene (even if I do say s myself) where the heroine catches her smoking. I really enjoyed writing that scene!! :o)
Thanks Nas, for another terrific guest author.ReplyDelete
I enjoyed your interview, Amy. Your writing ideas are clear, concise and obviously true and tried. I will be looking up your books. Thank you.
Hey Mazanita - pleased you'll be looking me up :o)ReplyDelete
So, where do I get a duck???
Nas and Amy, what a fun interview! It was so fun getting to know you, Amy.ReplyDelete
Hey Julie - how lovely! Thank you :o)ReplyDelete
Thank you, that was a really good interview, I felt I got to know more about you, and I will be stalking you in my google reader feed now too!ReplyDelete
Thanks for another great interview.ReplyDelete
And being able to do the splits is an important skill to have in life ;)
Hey Alix - pleased to have you as a Google stalker :o)ReplyDelete
LOL Lynda - you have no idea how many situations that little trick has got me out of :o)ReplyDelete
Nas, this blog post sure took me back. I remember in the late 1970s reading the line of nurse romance books that filled several shelves in our hometown library. I wonder how many readers went into the nursing field as a result?ReplyDelete
I've left a response to your comment on Bird's-eye View. Thank you very much for being a new follower; I am excited about following your blog too.
Hi Michelle,ReplyDelete
I remember, and the cover always had a nurse in uniform, doctor with the stethoscope around his neck. I think the famous medical writers from back then were Mary Burchell, aye Amy?
So true about so many young girls getting direction in their lives and turning to nursing. My teen daughter after watching all these Medical TV shows is adamant about going into Med school next year. Now she devours the Medical romances!
Thanks for coming by!
Hi Michelle. Harlequin Mills and Boon first started their romance line with doctor/nurse romances so there is a long tradition of that from the London office. Betty Neels is probably the most well known I think??ReplyDelete
And the WINNER is ....ReplyDelete
Ann Best!!!!!
Ann if you'd like to contact me via my website - click on my blue highlighted name just above this post and it will take you there - and I'll organise to get Just One Last Night sent to you.
Thanks for coming to talk to me ladies - its been great getting to know you.
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
Thank you Amy for taking the time out from your busy schedule to chat with us, we all enjoyed talking with you!ReplyDelete
Prayers to your Mum for her sppedy recovery.
Congratulations Ann! Enjoy your book!
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
Amy, writing what you know and following your dream certainly worked for you. Congrats. Hope your book does continue to do well!ReplyDelete
New comments are not allowed.