I have a similar issue: THere are two televisions in my house...
one automatically turns the volume down when there is no signal, but the other one gives me the full noise of the 'snow.' I sometimes leave the television turned to watch 'snow', but the noise is annoying. Can I modify my television to fix this problem?

To the OP:
My advice is to avoid cross-chaining.
While I am not sure because I never wanted to try it, will adding a spacer to one side of the bb not make the space between the crank and the frame different on either side? (Q- factor is different on either side). Is this change ever perceptable or annoying to anyone?

I have ridden with chainrings with rivets as shifting aids, and chainrings with little machined notches as shifting aids. The rivets tend to catch the chain when you cross-chain, the notches do not.

Also, the rivets actually seem to help the shifting, the notches do not.