Archive for March, 2009

Mar 30 2009

To Dallas, to ATLAS, and beyond!

Published by steve under Life, Physics

As I announced in my professional blog the other day [1], Jodi and I will be joining the faculty at Southern Methodist University [2] in August. We are VERY excited about this – the move to Dallas, teaching, mentoring students, hiring post-docs, establishing our future research careers. We rarely have such big news as this, [...]

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Mar 23 2009

Time with family

Published by steve under Life

Last Thursday, I effectively went into a communication blackout owing to the visit of many family members. Jodi’s mom and dad, her sister, and her sister’s twin sons, all visited us for four days. We rented a minivan so that we could get around, stocked up on food for the boys, as well as clearing [...]

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Mar 17 2009

Killingworth, CT – on Car Talk?

Published by steve under Random

What a shock to hear a call from my home town of Killingworth, CT, on NPR’s “Car Talk” this last weekend. I always tell people Killingworth is the CT town they’ve never heard of. Now, I guess Chester gets that distinction.

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Mar 13 2009

Lessons Learned: MythTV and the Comcast/Motorola DCT700

Published by steve under Computing

Now that digital cable seems well under the control of sTeVo, my MythTV box [1], I thought it would be helpful to post some of my lessons learned in this process.
Lesson 1: MythTV is robust and flexible. The dedicated team of MythTV developers have made an adaptable product. The fact that the software was ready [...]

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Mar 12 2009

Hooking up PC to TV is HERE

Published by steve under Computing, Life

Tonight on NPR was a timely story about why we can’t get the internet on our TV [1]. Most of the blame gets put on Cable companies and content producers in Hollywood (and other places). For me, the bottom line is: I DO have the internet on my TV – I don’t have to wait [...]

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Mar 12 2009

FY09 – language for fundamental research agencies

FY09 has been quietly signed into law by President Obama, after passing both Houses of congress with only fanfare over earmarks. This is not Obama’s budget; this is President Bush’s last budget, loaded up by Congress. Now the important work begins: FY10. FY10 is due by Oct. 1 of this year, when FY10 officially begins.
But [...]

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Mar 08 2009

The Kingdom of Cable and the Republic of the Internet

Published by steve under Computing, Rant

Today, it became clear to me that the CommandIR was not going to cut the mustard. I aimed my webcam at the emitter, and could clearly see the emitter lighting up when it was instructed to send commands to the Comcast box. That meant the emitter was transmitting, but it just wasn’t doing so in [...]

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Mar 08 2009

Almost there . . .

Published by steve under Computing

Yesterday, my IR blaster from CommandIR arrived. After going to see the movie “Watchmen”, I spent the evening setting up the new IR receiver and emitter. Step one: plug in and verify linux saw it. Step one was completed in less than 10 seconds. Step two: add the existence of the CommandIR to the system [...]

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Mar 04 2009

Progress on digital cable

Published by steve under Computing

I reported last night the trouble we’ve been having getting sTeVo ready for the Comcast transition to digital cable. I realized today that the date is even sooner than I thought – March 15 instead of April 15. Silly me.
Pressure!
After learning that all but local channels will be encrypted, it became imperative to find a [...]

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Mar 03 2009

What rhymes with Comcast?

Published by steve under Computing, Life, Rant

A few weeks ago, we received notice that Comcast would be transitioning channels above 30 to digital, away from analog. This transition is to happen on April 15. We were told we could get either a converter and a set-top box, or a pair of converters. Jodi and I opted for the box and converter. [...]

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