All (or almost all) Cubs games are broadcast on WGN, I believe. It may be easier to see if that channel is available via a web app, Hulu, etc. rather than having to shell out money for MLBTV. 
 

We're considering subscribing to MLBTV this year so we can follow The Cubs. To get our money's worth, we'll also have to invest in a DVR. We are completely unfamiliar with the technology and have no idea how much we need (to spend) to be able to watch the games. Anyone care to advise?

Well, that helps. Guess we don't need that DVR.

You can watch any game as a rerun a few hours after it's broadcast on MLB.TV for the regular $109.99

We're considering subscribing to MLBTV this year so we can follow The Cubs. To get our money's worth, we'll also have to invest in a DVR. We are completely unfamiliar with the technology and have no idea how much we need (to spend) to be able to watch the games. Anyone care to advise?

I'd check cnet for reviews, then if you narrow down a brand, check the used market.  I would think these are pretty hardy devices, and as long as the model was no more than a couple years old, should be good. 

p.s., might be cheaper to rent one from your provider, if only needed for the season

We're considering subscribing to MLBTV this year so we can follow The Cubs. To get our money's worth, we'll also have to invest in a DVR. We are completely unfamiliar with the technology and have no idea how much we need (to spend) to be able to watch the games. Anyone care to advise?

Anyone have any experience with property management companies as far as having them handle a rental property? I won't be ready to sell for a couple years but I don't want to live here in the meantime.

Anyone use Oooma?They're running sales this week and looks almost to good to be true.The only thing I watch on TV is baseball and I can access that and get around any blackouts with a VPN.I could wind up dumping my triple play and just paying for internet and save about $50 a month.

Ooma Telo works differently from most voice-over-IP (VoIP) services: You pay for the Telo device that connects a standard landline phone to your Internet connection, but you don't have to pay a monthly service fee as you do with Vonage$25.99 at Vonage and others. Ooma is distinguished by super-easy setup, a spiffy table-top adapter with a speaker, a user-friendly Web interface, clear voice quality, and low cost—just about everything you'd want from an Internet-based landline replacement service.

I hit refresh and missed this earlier.

 Funny you should mention eyeglass cleaner.  I called the company that supplies our shop with it this morning and asked what they thought about using it for record cleaning in the solution tank.  Nanofilms USA, which is local for me.  I'm starting an email chain with a guy in their R&D dept and going to donate some beat up LP's to the cause.

I've been using it for years cleaning CD's (which are really just lacquer coated polycarbonate/aluminum sammichs), monitor screens and even the inside of the windshield in our cars.  Its really great stuff, especially if you get it free.

I've got too many LP's to clean em like you do.  I need an assembly line thing, so a tank spinner is where I'm headed and using eyeglass cleaner in the tank is what I'm thinking. In addition, I've come to understand that brand new records should be washed to get mold releasing agents off of them before playing.  

I have a  very low tech approach that seems to do the job.  First i use eye glass cleaner and one of those eye glass cleaner clothes.  then I use a fine hair paint brush from Ace Hardware, and finally I have one of these antistatic brushes (for tv screens) i got for free at some conference a few years back.  Seems to do a pretty good job cleaning even old albums. 

Hah!  A white Zerostat you say?  Albino!  Could be rare!  Mine is shiny red plastic, not this fancy-ass satin finish as displayed in this pic.  And mine doesn't have the black nose-guard, ear-barrier what have you, that this one sports.  Clearly I have a first gen product, or something.  And yeah! A) that thing is split!  Good luck selling it!  I recall the fabric changed over time, as the fabric on mine isn't like that.  2) Of course, a brush to clean a brush,  Makes perfect sense.  Or something.  I don't recall test driving the thing on myself.  Perhaps I should zap over to the mall and test it on some unsuspecting teens.   

Hah!  A white Zerostat you say?  Albino!  Could be rare!  Mine is shiny red plastic, not this fancy-ass satin finish as displayed in this pic.  And mine doesn't have the black nose-guard, ear-barrier what have you, that this one sports.  Clearly I have a first gen product, or something.  And yeah! A) that thing is split!  Good luck selling it!  I recall the fabric changed over time, as the fabric on mine isn't like that.  2) Of course, a brush to clean a brush,  Makes perfect sense.  Or something.  I don't recall test driving the thing on myself.  Perhaps I should zap over to the mall and test it on some unsuspecting teens.   

Done !  Especially like that it uses incandescents.  Everything else is LED and the price is a no brainer.

 

This is type of "Toy" usb microscope I use. Got it for $3 at a garage sale.
Works great for styli. 

I still have my Discwasher and Zerostat also. But I use a VPI I bought 30 years ago and make my own fluid and I rebuild the pickup tube myself with velour from Mal-Wart.
For general LP cleaning I use a carbon fiber brush as it works a lot better than the Discwasher and it conveniently discharges any static on a record through your own body.
Whenever I sell a cartridge on Fleabay I always include a scope pic or 2 so they know exact;y what they are getting.

Thanks.  Just spent two days scouring fleabay and amazon.  Looked at some usb scopes and lot's of carts.  I guess I should pick up a scope, even if its rarely used, got me going hmmm.  No one left here in Cleveburg where I can take the carts in and have inspected.  The last good audio store closed a couple of years ago as I discovered digging.  Seems playing vinyl as a segment of the brick and mortars is so small that there is only one store left that has a show room of sorts.

So i ended up buying a hopefully lightly used AT 14 on fleabay after a lot of hemming and hawing.  Seems that a couple of hoards of cartridges have been recently found and there is a lot more available than the last time I looked around a year ago.  I did find a brand new as in never used, AT 20Sa , the macdaddy of all shibata's in Germany for $1200, but it would break the bank and I would get killed for doing it.

So now it's time to load up on some tools and brushes and what not.

New question.  Record cleaning.  Can't afford a VPI, so is a Spin Clean worthwhile or is there a Nitty Gritty cleaner worth getting instead for a couple of hundred more ?  The head is still spinning from all the looking around.

Oh bummer! There's a Zerostat 3 !



I think mine is the original, or something.  Must mean it's worth price x10.