Crosswalks to Nowhere

One thing I missed when I was a condo owner was the joy of shoveling snow.

No, really.

This was the view at around 8:00 am today when I finished the driveway. Pretty, isn't it?

Happy 2008!

Last year, I picked up an Elgato eyetv Hybrid for my MacBook. This is a great little unit that picks up not only analog TV signals, but the digital and HD channels as well. The eyetv software that comes with the Elgato is very easy to use and has helpful features such as importing your recordings to iTunes automatically.

When I connect the unit to my Mac, it's attached to an antenna on the roof of the house. I'm about 20 miles from downtown Chicago, so I can pick up all of the local digital (and HD) content easily.

The challenge for me is the fact that the MacBook comes with me pretty much everywhere, so it's rarely connected to the antenna.

I learned that the eyetv Hybrid is that same device as the Hauppauge HVR-980, a newer version of the HVR-950. This unit is marketed to Windows users with the appropriate Windows software. I downloaded the Windows drivers for the unit and all the related software, and voila-- I now have an HD tuner card in my PC.

I used Hauppauge's WinTV application but found it clunky. Then I used the built-in capabilities of Windows Media Center, which was much slicker and easier to use. The problem with Media Center is that I had to manually add the "secondary" channels (e.g. channel 26-2) and the media guide never updated with the correct program material. I have to say, though, that the timed-recording feature that's built into Media Center worked very nicely.

Right now, I'm doing a trial of SnapStream's BeyondTV and so far things are going well. The software found all the channels and updated the guide as it was supposed to. (One test is to see if I can record a program on the PC, have BeyondTV encode it for my iPod, and then transfer it over successfully.) If the coming weeks prove the software to be useful, I may spring for a license.

We've come a long way from VHS tapes...

I could argue that I'm a cool dad by virtue of the fact that I'm just, well, cool.

Last night, I took the girls to see the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert at the United Center. I managed to get connected with some tickets in a corporate Skybox, which is the only way to see a show like this.

(I think the girls are spoiled now, and probably won't want to sit in the regular seats the next time we see a Bulls game.)

The show was perfectly suited for the audience. Ms Cyrus, in both her "Hannah Montana" and real-life personae had full command of the crowd, who sang along with every number and jumped up and down and screamed to fill the spaces in between.

Here's a link to a review in the Chicago Sun-Times. They liked the show, too.

It seemed the crowd much preferred the "Miley Cyrus" portion of the show to the "Hannah Montana" part. And Kudos to Ms Cyrus and her management for launching her career in this "dual" mode-- given the way Disney first promotes and then chews up their stars, it's brilliant to market both sides of the coin. When "Hannah Montana" is long gone from the Disney Channel lineup, Miley Cyrus will have an established career that will (I hope) take her further than, say, other former Disney stars (I'm trying really hard not to mention Ms Duff and the unfortunately unfortunate Ms Lohan).

Most of the songs were from the Hannah Montana TV show and CDs, but at one point Hannah and opening act Aly & AJ went into a respectable cover of Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Night." My, how time flies.

I have to admit, that like my previous experience at a concert geared towards teenagers, I actually enjoyed the show.

And my kids think I'm the coolest dad, like, ever.

I've made a change in the way I post updates at Twitter.

Twitter is another one of those web sites that I file under the category called "Dig Me." It's basically a public blogging site/bulletin board where you answer the question "What am I doing right now?" in 140 characters or less. It's sort of like a blog, only with shorter messages and you don't have to visit multiple sites to see the entries of the people you're following.

While it's strangely addictive, I've struggled with finding a real value to Twitter. About 20% of the time I can share information on something useful (like one of my Twitter friends' asking questions about buying a Mac), but the other 80% is pretty much noise, with varying levels of relevance to, well, anything.

Some people incorrectly use Twitter as a personal communication device to all their Twitter friends-- I'll log in some mornings to see an entire page (about 20 entries) by one author to several different people, and many of those messages will be along the lines of "I hear ya, man." I usually wind up "un-following" those people.

Others seem to think the 140 character limit is optional, so they post two or three Twitter messages to get their point across. Imagine someone telling you that they're at McDonald's and they ordered a 6-piece Chicken Selects with Barbecue Sauce, Fries, and... only they tell you this across several 140-character messages. Almost like Water Torture, isn't it? Many of those people get dropped from my "follow" list as well.

It was this latter group, though that brought a challenge to mind.

Last week, I considered dropping Twitter completely, but then I realized I could make it more of a creative outlet for myself. There's already a 140-character limit, so why not challenge myself further and only post in haiku? Not only will this force me to limit the size of my postings, but it will cause me to think even more creatively about what gets communicated and how.

(This also reminded me of something said in a play I saw a few years ago-- one of the characters referred to limits, like those in haiku, as being very freeing.)

Some examples of my recent postings are on the next page.

All that said, my postings on Twitter will remain in haiku, at least until I get tired of the whole thing. :-)

In a previous blog posting, I talked about the fact that Metra, our commuter rail system, is getting tough on people who do stupid things like running in front of a moving train and walking around crossing gates when they're down. A lot of people have been cited and have paid fines for doing this.

Now I'd like the Village of Arlington Heights to get tough on some real stupidity.

I usually take a train into the city that reaches Arlington Heights at 6:10 am. When the train stops to pick up passengers, it blocks traffic on the cross streets that run through downtown. The doors where I board typically line up in the same spot every day, which happens to be right in the middle of Vail Avenue, a busy two-lane street.

(If you look at this map, the spot I'm talking about is up and to the left of the little blue train icon.)

So, a typical scenario should be:

(a) passengers wait on the sidewalk or side of the road, waiting for the train to approach, while cars and other vehicles drive up and down Vail Avenue;

(b) the train approaches and the gates come down, causing Vail traffic to stop;

(c) passengers move into position and board the train when the doors open.

Nope.

Maybe it's because it's early or maybe it's due to a serious lack of common sense, but several of my fellow commuters insist on standing right in the middle of the street several minutes before the train approaches, presumably to make sure they get a good seat on the train when it does arrive. Then, when a car comes barreling down Vail in an attempt at getting wherever someone wants to be at 6:00 am, they honk and swerve around the people standing in the middle of the street.

And my favorite part is this: the people standing in the street always give the car drivers really dirty looks, as if the commuters have a right to stand in traffic.

This spot is right next to a Jewel Food Store, so there are always trucks rushing up and down the street, heading to the store to make deliveries. At least once a week I see someone 'this close' to getting hit because they're not paying attention or thinking about their right to stand in the middle of traffic.

One of the very first things my parents taught me was to not stand in traffic. I know, this seems very basic, but I seem to be in the minority. My concern is that one of these days I'm going to witness something I don't want to see at 6:00 am.

Not that the AHPD needs more to do, but I think some basic education could be effected by the writing of some tickets. As I mentioned, I'm all for Natural Selection, but I'd rather see someone get a ticket than wind up under the wheels of an S Rosen's Bread truck.