I just ordered the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600, which seems to be one of the more popular TV tuning cards, and it has hardware encoding of analog signals and can tune QAM digital signals with the right software. (I also ordered a DVI-to-HDMI cable so that I can hook the PC up to the TV.) I’m going to start by trying out the software that comes with it and free software like GB-PVR or Yahoo! Go.

We got a large-screen TV for Christmas, and now we seem to do more TV watching. I’ve been timeshifting stuff with a VCR, but I’ve been thinking that I want something with a bit better quality. Also, eventually I hope Charter will start carrying WSBK-DT so that we can watch our Jeopardy in high-def, and VCRs don’t really deal with that.

So, I’ve been looking into DVR-like technologies, and there seems to be quite a mix of possibilities. I don’t want to spend too much, since we don’t watch TV that often. While a small recurring fee isn’t completely out of the question, something like TiVo or Charter’s $13–$15/mo. is much more than I’m willing to commit at this time. (Charter’s plan would also require us to get their Digital Cable package, which may be nice, but would also add significantly to the cost.)

“Head judging an event is much more like an RTS than a First-Person Shooter.”

National Grid finally updated their billing system to allow for email billing instead of snail mail billing (although they haven’t advertised it as far as I see). Now the only paper statements/bills I get are those for my mortgage loans, where the bank says that they can’t make those electronic “due to compliance reasons”.

So, I’m one step closer to going mail-free.

I stopped by the Town Clerk’s office after work today to be sworn in as a member of the Charlton Republican Town Committee.

This past weekend, I calculated and informed the state and federal government how much I was supposed to pay them in taxes in 2007, and scheduled the transfers to and from my bank account to settle up. I also constructed this graph, showing what portion of my total tax expenditure went for what. (Note that this only includes taxes based on assets and income, not taxes on expenditures, because I don’t track those as closely.)

I called the Town Clerk’s office today, and apparently the Republican Town Committee is in fact a real entity, but they didn’t get their list of nominees for the positions to the state by the deadline, so that’s why all the positions on the ballot were blank. That is, all the positions were filled via write-ins, and I was one of the top 35 vote getters. The person I spoke with couldn’t tell me exactly how many votes I got since that information wasn’t readily available, but said that she would call me back tomorrow with that, and said that she knew that some people made it in with only 1 or 2 votes.

Letter received today from the Charlton Town Clerk’s office (with the official embossed seal and everything):

This is to certify that Peter Cooper Jr.
Was duly elected to the REPUBLICAN TOWN COMMITTEE
at the 2008 Presidential Primary held February 5, 2008 at the
Heritage School, 34 Oxford Road, Charlton.

Please appear at the Town Clerk’s Office to be sworn into office at your earliest convenience

Jessi wrote me in on one of the 35 blank lines for Town Committee, and apparently that was enough.

I’ve decided not to run for Charlton Town Moderator. While I think I could do a fine job, the current office holder is also doing a fine job, and he is planning on running again. Also, the election and May Annual Town Meeting would be the same month as the expected arrival of Baby, so it might be a good plan to leave that month rather open for now.

Maybe in 2011.

This morning, I voted in the presidential primary. While generally there are a few more elections on a ballot than the ones you hear mostly about (since some positions have one or zero candidates), I didn’t realize that there would be some on this ballot. In addition to an uncontested race for a “man on state committee”, and a race with no candidates for a “woman on state committee”, which in retrospect shouldn’t be too surprising, there were thirty-five write-in spaces (and no listed candidates) for “town committee”. I’m now wishing I thought to write my own name in on one of the lines.