seantorbett.com

Broadcast television engineering topics and rants.

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Video reasons why local news is such a running gag with viewers.

25 January, 2008 (01:08) | Fun, TV | No comments

Today I had a brief reminiscing with some fellow engineers about having to deal with the local news crews at former jobs and told a few tales of the regular stampede of useless, re-hashed content, multiple yet pointless liveshots and how they were more funny than informative.
I believe that local news bloopers are one of [...]

Time for a field trip. Corpses on display!

13 January, 2008 (21:00) | Education, Fun | No comments

For a little something out of the ordinary, today we went down to San Jose and visited the Body Worlds exhibit on display at The Tech Museum.
For those that haven’t gone to see it or know what it’s about; essentially it is a traveling display, which is the brainchild of Gunther von Hagens, consisting of [...]

I love Sushi and so should you. Here’s how.

12 January, 2008 (12:55) | Fun | No comments

I have been a big fan of Sushi for years and when my wife and I were living in South San Jose we were very close to a very good (in our opinion) sushi restaurant where we consumed mass quantities of fish on rice.
When I was first introduced to sushi years ago I really liked [...]

How I spent the Christmas Holiday - Modding My PS3

26 December, 2007 (12:59) | Computers, Fun, Hacks, Projects | No comments

One of the cool features of the PS3 is that it is a serious computing device and Sony provided the option to easily upgrade its hard drive as well as install an alternate OS. So I did both.
By far, the easiest HDD upgrade known to man (presently). Simply remove a panel and a [...]

Modding tech is like a lame drug deal

17 December, 2007 (15:14) | Fun, Hacks, Projects | No comments

I heard a story about a guy, not me mind you, that wanted to mod his PSP to a “homebrew” firmware which would allow him to run far more software than the lame games that were made solely for the platform. We’ll call this dashing and daring fellow “Mr. X” - kinda like Racer [...]

minor brush with fame

5 October, 2007 (12:00) | Fun | No comments

After working all night at one of my employer’s analog transmitter sites, I had arranged to catch a flight out of the Burbank (Bob Hope) airport early that same morning.
Luckily I was flying United today and not American Airlines, because their aircraft had crapped out and was screwing up everyone’s schedule (of course) and all [...]

rage against the corporate slogan machine

15 September, 2007 (17:00) | Fun | No comments

If you work in a medium to large office you probably have several of those posters glamorizing “Teamwork”, “Courage” or “Fortitude” with a single, stirring image and a slogan to drive it all home like “Because it is in your destiny for greatness!”, “You are part of machine working for the greater good of mankind” [...]

The best $600 router project for my $60.

15 July, 2007 (09:00) | Computers, Electronics, Fun, Hacks, Projects | No comments

I have heard of this custom, free firmware called DD-WRT for a while now, but I needed to purchase a compatible router that would accept the replacement software and the one that was recommended the most by others was the Linksys WRT54GL. It also was one of the most trivial to perform the upgrade.

Right [...]

A new network identity. Thank the stars!

1 July, 2005 (13:00) | TV | No comments

Today PaxTV (Paxson Communications - my current employer) begins to dig itself out of the ratings hole it has worked its way into over the years by implementing a new brand and programming outlook. PaxTV is now “i: Independent Television” or just “i”.
While the concept of providing “wholesome” entertainment primarily devoid of sex and [...]