March 16, 2005

There were 2 posts published on March 16, 2005 (this is page 1 of 1).

New Toy

I got my Hauppauge Nexus DVB-S card a few days ago, which explains why I haven’t been more active here! It has lived up to my expectations.

Having this card in North America is like being a fish out of water. DVB is the European standard for direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcasts. The American market is dominated by packaged providers like DirecTV and Dish Network. Still, there is a world of Free-To-Air channels to be had. I would love to see many more!

The card needed a little tweaking to be happy here, as it came set up for PAL format. A registry tweak here and a obscure checkbox in the software there and I was all set. The only issue now is getting Linux TV to run the card.

FTA channels are scattered all across the sky, a fact which would ordinarily require a garden of satellite dishes. Fortunately, an innovative dish exists to solve this problem. Called a toroidal dish, it can focus simultaneously on a 40 degree arc of sky, allowing reception of up to sixteen satellites! This amazing dish measures just 90cm, allowing for installation everywhere (the FCC rules trump any zoning or neighborhood covenants).

I’m just testing things out now, but I forsee DTH satellite services to be the ticket to information freedom. Now more than ever, there are compelling reasons for alternative media channels. One day, you could kill off the bloated packages cable and satellite companies force you to buy and get only the channels you care about. Each would be beamed to your home directly from the programmer’s satellite transponder. No middleman!

The industry doesn’t much like that idea, since padding its numbers helps boost advertising revenue. I’m hoping that DVB gets disruptive enough in this country that change becomes inevitable. I’m taking the first step.

(P.S., if anyone knows anyone at Microspace, I’d love to take a tour of their facilities.)

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Amelia Park To Fly Over Old Raleigh Municipal Airport

For a while now, MT.Net has been home to a page about the old Raleigh Municipal Airport between Garner and Raleigh. I became interested in the old airport when I first read about it in the paper. Who knew that the scrub pines and empty shopping mall on the corner of U.S. 70 and Tryon road once was the site of Raleigh’s original airport?

I took pictures around the property five years ago this month. It was surreal walking through the woods and seeing a runway in front of you. Fire hydrants sprouted in the midst of trees, built to service a commercial park plan that then fizzled. At the time I was unaware of the large population of homeless (and sometimes surly) people who lived in the woods there. Fortunately for me, I didn’t see a soul.

Pretty soon there will be homes on that property, but not for the homeless. The Wakefield developers are putting in a multi-use development there, with homes ranging from $100,000 to $400,000.

While it will be a bit sad to see the last remnants of the airport turned into cul-de-sacs, it is still a good thing that someone finally decided to tame that property. The Frankenstein combination of the lame strip mall and the wild woods just doesn’t work. Here’s hoping this third time developing this property is the charm.

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