WhistlinDixie

Don’t Touch That Remote

It looks like electronics manufacturer Philips may have just found the perfect way to mess up cable TV, more so than the broadcast flag. They have patented a system that will force you to watch commercials.

Uhh… you can stop rubbing your eyes now. It’s not healthy to rub your eyes so hard in disbelief.

What Philips has proposed is a flag that networks can mark television shows with that will prevent you from changing the channel on your television during commercials. Want to check out the football game on FOX while the game on CBS is having a commercial break? Well, too bad with Phillips’ new system. You’ll just have to sit there and watch them. Even worse, those of you with DVRs (digital video recorders), such as TiVos, could loose the option to fast-forward through commercials on content that you have recorded.

What is funny is what Philips is using for their defense. They are claiming that the content providers that broadcast content with this flag will be the ones that should receive most of the blame. They are only the enablers. Funny, providers of peer-to-peer software, such as Kazaa and Morpheus, have been arguing the same thing. Their problem was that they had no clout with the government, unlike Phillips.

All I can say is that I hope that this dies a quick and painful death. If it doesn’t, then I wish bankruptcy and total destruction upon Royal Philips Electronics and all of the networks that choose to make use of this ability.

The Disappearing Department

When I arrived for my first day of work, I was surprised to learn that my manager, Jamal, had left our the department the previous Friday to move on to greener pastures within UPS. Not only that, but two guys that we stole from TSG, Dan and Mike, had gone back because they were no longer needed. Also, one of the co-ops, Nick, was not coming back because he had gone to GM to do his thesis. To top things off, our lead programmer, Ray will be leaving us on Wednesday to go to region where he will continue to be a web developer.

Instead of filling Jamal’s position, the higher ups have split our office between two managers, Bill and Mike (different from the previously mentioned Mike), who are in a different office on the other side of the building. I later found out that we had been considered a "rogue" group. Technically, the facility should not have had its own team of software developers. To remedy this, it was decided that our group would slowly be phased out and our responsibilities be transferred to region, which is on the west side of town. As part of being phased out, we will no longer start new projects and instead only do minor fixes and changes to existing sites. We are going to slowly migrate all of our applications to the servers at region, where we will no longer have to maintain them.

This all has me a little worried. After all, I am a developer at heart and do not want to be stuck in a job that could end up making me do something like tech support or label auditing. Not only is that stuff not exactly my favorite thing to do, but it also has nothing to do with my majors: computer engineering and computer science. How will I be able to complete a thesis in a year and a half if my job no longer gives me the opportunity to solve a problem relating to one of my majors?

All of this might lead me to find a new co-op, possibly in a new location. Who knows? Only time will tell. All I can hope for is that it all turns out well.

The Great Chicago Adventure

I came back to Chicago this quarter in need of a new place to stay, since the place that I had stayed the past two work terms raised their rates by $500 a month. I had arranged to stay with another Chris in the suburb of Berwyn in an older apartment. When I arrived on Saturday, I was less than impressed. It ends up that Berwyn is an "inner" suburb, and is therefore rather tightly packed and is not very attractive. The apartment had a bad smell and looked to be in worse condition than my grandma’s house, which is over 100 years old. To top it off, I could have sworn that someone was already living here. The cabinets in the kitchen were brimming with food and the bathrooms even had towels and partially used bars of soap still in the shower. One of the rooms still had some of the landlord’s stuff in it. I slept in the master bedroom that night and was serenaded by the sound of traffic on Ogden Ave and the occasional jet plane. (Our apartment happens to be right on one of the approaches to Midway Airport.)

I woke up and spent the day trying to get a hold of someone at another place that I had been looking at that was only a mile or two from where I had stayed previously. I found out that the place that I was looking at, L’ Marquis, was going to be demolished midway through the work term to make room for townhouses. Their sister operation, Oakview Terrace, in Westmont, was not accepting any new lessees because they were holding all of their empty apartments for the people who were living at L’ Marquis who were being displaced. I was rather discouraged to find this out because I wanted to get out of Berwyn as fast as possible.

I have been using a service called RelocationCentral to help me find a place to live. (Note: RelocationCentral did not set me up with Chris. That was my own mistake.) They called on Tuesday to tell me of a place in Bolingbrook called Innsbruck Apartments. I went to visit right after work and liked the place. The downside is that it is an unfurnished apartment, so I have to rent all of my furniture. Also, I have to handle my cable and internet service myself, as it is not included in the lease. After a little number crunching, I figured out that, even with all of the extra stuff that I would have to take care of each month, I would still be paying less than I had paid previous terms. To top things off, I got a $600 a month raise this quarter for having junior status. Now my biggest concern is being able to handle all of the payments that come with the first month: credit check charges, security deposit, administrative fees, setup charges, etc. Add to that the fact that I am paying $100 a week for my current residence and that I don’t get paid until the 24th of the month and I foresee a loan from my parents.

I went in today to give them my application (they closed yesterday before I could turn it in) and found out something: Having a $12,500 yearly income doesn’t sit well with the administrators when you have to pay $629 + electricity every month. It ends up that you have to earn at least $21,600 a year to qualify for a studio apartment. I was in a bind, to say the least. I got lucky and they allowed my dad to co-sign on the lease. They faxed him the application and he will have to fax it back since it is a little inconvenient for him to drive all the way from central Ohio to Chicago just to sign a lease. I got a nice warning from him to not be late on a single payment and mess up his credit, which is very near perfect. So, at this point, I am not so patiently waiting for the credit checks to go through for both my dad and I so that I can get around to moving in.