November 2008

There were 84 posts published in November 2008 (this is page 7 of 9).

Channel Master CM-7000: Stunning digital TV

I hooked up our new Channel Master CM-7000 digital TV converter last night and was I amazed. The picture is stunning! It makes the picture we got with analog cable look like total crap! In fact, it may even be better than digital cable as digital cable takes an already-compressed MPEG signal (the ATSC broadcast signal) and recompresses it with QAM. Compressing the same data with two different algorithms always diminishes the quality of the data.

Setup was a snap, too. I simply hooked up the antenna cable, the SVGA cable, and a patch cable for stereo audio. Then a few clicks on the on-screen display and it automatically searched for and added all the available digital channels. It was a total breeze. The antenna I used was an old “rabbit-ears” antenna, too. I haven’t even hooked up the big honking attic antenna to it yet.
Continue reading →

Update on jazz musician Mark Turner

Aaron Parks passes along info that jazz musician Mark Turner’s hand surgery went as well as could be hoped for:

Hey everyone,

The show of support for Mark over the last few days has been incredible. Please keep the positivity flowing in.

A lot of people have been asking for an update, so I wanted to pass along the little bit of information that I know. The surgery was this morning, with one of the best hand surgeons in the country, and it apparently went as well as could be hoped for. It’ll take some time to know whether the procedure will ultimately be successful in restoring the full use of his hand, but everyone is hoping for the best. Mark is, of course, inspiringly Zen about the whole thing, already accepting things however they turn out. We’ll just have to wait: time will tell, I guess.

In the meantime, keep all the support coming. Many people have asked if there’s a way they could help financially, since he’s basically lost his main source of income for the next 6 months at least. I’ll look into it to see if he’s receptive to that kind of thing. Will let you know.

Thanks again for all the love you’ve shown towards him and his family…

Again, I hope he has a speedy recovery.

[Update 19 Jan 2009]: Good news! Mark’s apparently healing well.

Speaking of commercials

I just saw Janet Cowell’s “new” TV ad, posted to YouTube on Oct 17th. In it you can see Hallie at 17-19 seconds. She’s the girl on the far right as Janet reads on the front steps. Incidentally, I think we’re still missing that library book, which we had brought to the shoot.

The previous ad only had us in it for a half-second or so, at best. So that’s progress.

Election wrap-up

This is part two of my election day posts.

After my belly-of-the-beast morning at the Fairview Fire Department, I went home for lunch and a moment to rest. Of course I blogged the whole time I was at home, but what do you expect from MT.Net? I did manage to eat two pieces of pizza and take a quick nap before heading out to Westminster Church for the second half of my poll greeting.

I would be greeting for both Josh Stein and Grier Martin. I had campaign material for Josh but I had to pick up campaign materials for Grier’s campaign. On my way to Grier’s house I drove through the parking lot of the church. A lone poll greeter, behind an Obama sign, was outside surrounded by dozens of campaign signs but no voters. Seeing no Grier Martin greeter to relieve (and obtain campaign material from), I dropped by Grier’s house and returned with the pamphlets.
Continue reading →

Roy Cooper is a winner

One of the highlights of hanging out at the Dem’s party on election night was Roy Cooper. He gave a great speech after winning another term as attorney general and gave up the stage for the other candidates.

Thirty minutes later the crowd has thinned. I turned around and there’s Roy Cooper right behind me, with no entourage or anything, warmly shaking hands with folks in the crowd. I was impressed that the state’s top cop would take time to personally thank his supporters on election night. He was the only candidate I saw who made the effort to cross the rope line.

How cool is it that the one politician who got more North Carolina votes Tuesday than any other candidate (including McCain and Obama) is down to earth?

Keys can be duplicated from a distance

Computer scientists from UCSD have come up with a method which allows keys to be duplicated from a long-distance photograph of the keys. Using software called Sneakey, the scientists were able to accurately measure the key cuts and use this information to create a duplicate key.

Having worked with locks and keys before, I can say that while this development makes for an interesting computer problem to solve, it isn’t all that practical from a criminal’s point of view. There are far, far easier ways of gaining entry to a home or building: keys can be borrowed and pressed into a wax mold, the lock could be picked, or the door could be bypassed all together by breaking a window. And who leaves their keys in plain view where they can be photographed by outsiders?

The software likely can’t handle commercial keys like those for Medeco locks. Each cut of a Medeco key has an angled groove. If that groove doesn’t line up with the ridge in its corresponding pin the lock does not open. Thus, there are three dimensions which would need to be captured in order to correctly measure such a key. Its unlikely a photographer could get into a position in which she could accurately photograph these grooves.

Interesting problem to solve, but not exactly practical.

Fresh ‘maters for Thanksgiving?

I’ve been mourning the impending cold-weather death of my beloved tomato plants but reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated. They made it through the first round of near-freezing weather a bit tattered but still standing.

I just enjoyed a few freshly-picked tomatoes for lunch. And I’m wearing shorts in the office today, too. Did someone say it is November?

White space

Yesterday we got our Channel Master CM-7000 digital TV converter box, which makes our older Sony TV digital-ready. I unpacked everything but due to the lack of sleep I got Tuesday night I didn’t feel up to connecting it. So I’m one step away from being digital TV-ready.

And not a moment too soon. Lost in the election noise was news of the FCC’s approval of new, unlicensed bandwidth. Called white space, these frequencies have for decades acted as buffers between analog television channels but thanks to February’s upcoming digital TV transition this bandwidth will become available for new and novel uses.
Continue reading →

Paper airplanes

The News and Observer has been flying out of downtown newsstands like paper airplanes thanks to the coverage of Tuesday’s Obama win. Out of the elevator this morning stepped an African-American woman clutching six copies. I myself had to grab an extra copy yesterday morning to replace the one Hallie cut up to take to class. That same dispenser was completely empty when I walked by it again at noon. Good thing the N&O printed up 20,000 extra copies.

Yesterday I saw an African-American man walking down Hargett and clutching a freshly-bought paper. On my way home I passed another man who might have walked into traffic he was reading his paper so intensely.

Good to know more people are now engaged. America’s problems didn’t disappear overnight, though. There’s a lot of hard work still to be done.