Sling TV

Sling TV Starting Page on Windows Application. As you can see it's very simple with minimal detail for quick channel navigation. Sling TV settings panel showing Parental, Bandwidth, and Closed Caption control


Good:

1. No contracts pay/month
2. Low price at $20/mn
3. Cancel at any time
4. Stream to many devices and platforms
5. Video On Demand (VOD)
6. HBO Now

Bad

1. Channel Offer is limited with some major networks missing
2. You'll still need to factor in your broadband service to determine total cost
3. DVR functions are nonexistent for the majority of the channels
4. Google Chromecast Not Available
5. Video On Demand (VOD) is limited, similar to Hulu's past episodes feature.
6. You can only stream to one device at a time.

My Thoughts
If you want to cut the cable from your life Sling TV may be a good option. You have complete control of your subscription on a per month basis. While the offering is limited it does seam to have the majority of channels one would need. Some of the obvious omissions are SyFy, FOX, BBC America, and On Air channels. You can handle the On Air Broadcasts with an antenna. However some of the other channels would be difficult to get without a subscription service. If you can live without them, then it's not a bad deal. The user interface is nice and flattened with drill through to advanced functions. While not greatly documented the Sling TV Blog and Help pages provide great info on how to navigate the application. Keep in mind Sling TV is just starting out. They have been adding to it since they went public so we can hope that the channel offerings will only get better.

The Great Zilog Z80

Amazing, I had this book in the early 80's. I came across it today while researching some of the old techniques used to save data to storage devices. In particular, audio cassette. Frequency Shift Key FSK was used to encode/decode the binary data to/from audio. Many of the arcade cabinet games, games such as Frogger and Dig Dug, of the time used the Zilog Z80 processor. This book, by Steve Ciarcia, was a complete guide to building your own computer with a 64KB address space from electronic components. The chips (ICs) mind you, not plug and play cards like people use these days when building home PCs. Shortly after the world of personal home computing took off and you had machines like the TRS80 and the simple beautifully functional ZX series of computers like the ZX81 and the ZX Sinclair available to the average consumer.

The wiki page is good enough for a head start on some of the history of this processor.
And if you want to build a version yourself from a parts kit this page by Donn Stewart should help you get started. It's chock full of goodies.