11-12-09: The TV Hunt is On

The last couple days have seen some extraordinary TV shopping activity, on my end. (That's partly borrowed from a line in The Hunt for Red October, one of my three favorite films).

Yesterday morning I was alerted by my friend Scott to a sale this Sunday at Bernie's (of Orange, CT) for UTC employees. Some of the prices look pretty snazzy. I've also been looking online, and plan on stopping by Walmart in Milford tomorrow. It's looking like I should get what I want for under $800, which would be great.

Here's a quick spreadsheet I've made of some models I've been looking at:

If anything really catches my eye at Bernie's on Sunday, I may buy now. Otherwise, I figure the deals at Walmart and online can only get better after Thanksgiving. Right now my old 18" Magnavox is doing me just fine. No word yet from any one on Craigslist about the old one.

11-11-09: Automated "Road Trains"

First off, Happy Veterans Day. I, like most Americans, always like to take time out every once in a while to thank all the men and women of the Armed Forces for their service. My ex-girlfriend is a Navy officer, and from what I’ve seen from her experiences, they do an absolutely astounding amount of work and truly dedicate themselves to the cause of protecting the very freedoms most Americans take for granted. Thank you.


I read an article (blog post) today from Technology Review, an online publication from MIT, about automated cars, specifically a system that would feature automated cars networked together in “road trains.” I’ve found myself driving down the highway before thinking “Wouldn’t life be better if we cleared up these highways a bit?” This sort of system absolutely fascinates me.

Ideally, you’d want to have the entire system networked together. You’d need sensors along roadways throughout the system. As the article mentions, this is tremendously expensive. The alternative is to have a professional driver in the front in a marked car. If another driver wished to follow along with them as part of a “road train”, to reduce wind drag and optimize performance and speed, they’d simply fall in behind them, or head to the back of the line, and become part of the network with that professional driver. They could then eat, sleep, read, or whatever, until they need to exit the highway, at which point they’d simply leave the “train”.

I see many engineering problems with this alternative that might make this system either unsafe or under-utilized:

For one, how many professional drivers would you have per highway? How far apart would they need to be spaced? Would this be a function of current traffic conditions? How long can a “train” effectively be?

Second, making this an optional system would mean you would still have a lot of people who don’t use it. That could present quite a hazard. Let’s say that person is unfamiliar with how a “train” works, and either cuts off the lead driver, or someone in the middle of the train? You could solve this by creating one or two designed “auto train” lanes, perhaps. Still, the danger is there.

Third, the notion of allowing drivers in the train to become distracted could be unsafe. You’d really have to be careful how you configure manual overrides and how one would be allowed to safely exit the train. Perhaps they’d need to punch in an exit number or something once they get in the train, and they’d get some sort of advisory when their exit is coming up. If they don’t respond (let’s say they fall asleep, which I’m sure can and would happen in many cases), they stay in the train.


Other considerations:

- What if a car in the train begins to run out of gas? Does the system alert the driver? What if they fell asleep?

- What if you have a network failure? Do you have a built-in failsafe strategy within each car so they perform a given action to prevent a dangerous situation?


I’m very intrigued by the idea, but if you’re going to automate, the first thing to take into account is the human factor.

11-10-09: Broken Ol' TV

Well, after nearly seven years in the family, the TV has, in all likelihood, finally bitten the dust.

The TV, a Sony KP-51WS500 Projection model, manufactured in December 2002, was purchased by my parents as a family Christmas present just about seven years ago. We bought it from the now defunct Circuit City for, I believe, close to $2000. It's worked very well, and for the last eight months or so, it has been in my apartment.

It's rather gargantuan at 51 inches. My living room isn't really that big. When we moved it in, my dad exclaimed "Christ! You're gonna go fucking blind!" So far, I'm still well sighted. Well, at least it hasn't gotten any worse.

The problem began yesterday morning. I was watching ESPN before leaving for work, and, without any warning, the TV turned off. I then noticed the Standby light on the front had started to blink. This wasn't the first time the TV has done this, which is why I'm 10% sure it might be fixable. I went online last night, after leaving the TV unplugged all day as a part of a "hard reset" strategy which failed to work. Apparently, the number of blinks per cycle emitted by the Standby light signifies a particular fault. Believe it or not, this is not too dissimilar to what I do professionally with helicopter flight controls systems (I'm actually in charge of our Warnings, Cautions, and Advisories). The code my TV was showing, four blinks per cycle, means:

"No vertical Deflection (V STOP), Screen goes to a single horizontal line then the video signal muted. Check IC1509, Q1505"


I then decided, since I'm an electrical engineer who should be able to fix this problem (and unfortunately simply showing my TV my fancy Bachelor of Science degree didn't work), that I would try to order parts and fix it myself.

That's where I ran into some issues.

First, finding a service manual for that model is a bit of a chore. I couldn't find any free ones online. So, in order to find out where the hell IC1509 and Q1505 were, I'd have to shell out cash.

Then I find out, after taking the back panel off, that, even if I did have the parts, diagnosing and fixing the problem would be quite a hassle because of how it's all laid out.

So then I went down the other avenue of seeing how much it would cost to have it repaired. I went on the Sony repair website, which is actually quite good, and found out the nearest "certified" repair facility is in Danbury, which is about 40 minutes away. I did the math quickly in my head, and realized, even if the guy fixes it in one visit, it would cost upwards of $200.

I then decided: screw it, the holidays are nye, I'll wait and buy a new HDTV as a Christmas present to myself. My currently broken TV is not HD, so it would definitely be an upgrade. I even have some HD channels already available through a mix-up when I got my DVR (they gave me an HD DVR, though I pay for a regular one). For the time being I am using my old 18 inch Magnavox tube TV from college, which works well and will easily last me until Christmas.

So far, with one day of online shopping under my belt, I'm considering getting a TV with the following specifications:

• 1080p resolution (not wasting my money on 720p or 1080i)
• LCD (unless I find a good deal on a Plasma screen)
  
• 120 Hz update rate (I watch a lot of sports and have heard 240 Hz is still a bit pricey)
• 40-45" screen size (the 51" TV was nice, but far too big for the space)
• Either a Sony (top choice), LG, or Vizio (good deals at Wal-Mart)
• Price range: around $1000 (ideally under)
  

I'm looking forward to this. I'll make follow-up posts on how things go.

FYI: I put the old one up on Craigslist.

11-8-09: Richter's and The Men Who Stare at Goats

My buddy Dan and I realized that it had been quite a while since we had gone to a bar then watched a crazy movie, so we re-started that tradition by visiting Richter's in New Haven and then seeing The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.

Richter's is a great old tavern/bar on Chapel Street near the Green, about a block away from the Yale campus. Because of its proximity to Yale, you tend to get a lot of Yalies in there during the school year. That's not necessarily a bad thing in general, as they're a lot quieter and classier than what you'll find at a few other bars in New Haven like Black Bear and some of the clubs. The downside of Yalies is that, if you're not a Yalie, they won't talk to you. They're so exclusive that you really shouldn't bother unless you know a friend of a friend from somewhere else.

But the half yards are something else. They come in a glass that's shaped like an elongated hour glass and required a special wooden holder to keep it stable while upright. It's a real chore to drink, but well worth the $9 for the experience. I'd say it's about 36-40 ounces of beer. I ended up ordering one of Radeberger Pilsner. It was quite good.

We then hoofed it a few blocks to Stella Blues to grab one more round (I had a Guinness) before seeing The Men Who Stare at Goats at the Criterion theatre.

Overall, it was an OK movie. The premise is pretty much that an underachieving reporter, played by Ewan McGregor, goes to the Kuwait to get a war story. He runs into George Clooney's character, whose name he recognizes from an interview he did of a guy back home who claimed to be a "psychic warrior" for the U.S. Army in the 80's. McGregor's character ends up following Clooney's character into Iraq to help Clooney achieve some "mission," while learning about the strange Army unit Clooney had belonged to.

In the end, it has its wacky parts, and the story doesn't really work. I thought it was goofy enough to enjoy after a few beers. Good, brainless fun, but not for true movie lovers.

11-7-09: Good Weekend for UNH and Spurs

Two of my favorite teams in their respective sports, the University of New Hampshire Men's Ice Hockey and Tottenham Hotspur, had very good, not necessarily great, games this weekend.

I had a late hockey game last night (10:15PM in Bridgeport; we won), so I invited the lady over for dinner. I made Apricot Glazed Chicken, which came out great. Leftovers for lunch are in order. We started watching the UNH game on NESN a little late (thanks to DVR). After a very, very poor first period, the Wildcats found themselves down 3-0 to Boston College, a hated Hockey East rival (though in the past the fury has been against BU). Things didn't look much better after two periods, either, with the score 4-1. UNH had absolutely nothing on the penalty kill, allowing BC to score on all four of their power plays.

The third period was stunning. UNH got a power play early on, and at 4:16 into the third stanza, Mike Sislo got the team within two goals. Then a few minutes later, Co-Captain Bobby Butler delivered a great pass to Derry's own Paul Thompson, who scored an even-strength goal to make it 4-3. The rest of the period was pretty wild, and with under a minute to play, Butler tied it up.

The overtime period was also quite exciting. LeBlanc had a great chance to end it, but Muse, BC's goaltender, came up huge. Great game.


This morning I watched Tottenham Hotspur take on Sunderland in a very good Premier League matchup. Spurs were looking to rebound after a tough away loss to rivals Arsenal last Saturday on Halloween. As scary as that match was, today's against Sunderland was almost equally as frightening at times. Yet, Heurelho Gomes, Spurs' goalkeeper, came up absolutely huge on several occasions, most notably on a penalty kick taken by ex-Spurs striker Darren Bent, who was "hell Bent on revenge" after leaving the team at the end of last season after having a great year. Robbie Keane scored on Tottenham's first attack of the game, and Tom Huddlestone scored well into the second half on a booming strike, with back-from-suspension star striker Jermain Defoe gifting him with a nice setup. Sunderland came out without any points despite dominating Spurs for most of the match. Unlucky for them, but the mighty Spurs came out on top by finishing their chances.

11-4-09: The Sonos S5

When I get a house, I shall get something like this.

11-1-09: Gary Vaynerchuk : "The Imminent Demise of Old Media"