Connecticut News - Technology News from The Hartford Courant - Build Your Own PC-Based TV Recorder
Build Your Own PC-Based TV Recorderbyopvr articleBYOPVRBuild Your Own PC-Based TV Recorder###
"Early last year, Erik Pettersen found himself wondering how a personal computer might be used to record TV programs.
Information available on the Internet was sparse. So Pettersen, now 29, of Colchester, whipped up a website and asked for ideas. Suggestions poured in by the hundreds.
Today, Pettersen's website - BYOPVR.com, for "build your own personal video recorder" - has nearly 3,000 registered members and gets 10,000 to 25,000 "hits" or page-views a day.
"It just kind of took off," said Pettersen, who is employed as a technology coordinator for the Connecticut Policy and Economic Council, a nonprofit public policy organization in Hartford.
With the availability of digital video recorders such as Tivo for as little as $100, you might wonder why anyone would bother building such a device from scratch. Pettersen said there are several motivations.
One is flexibility; consumers who make their own recorders can build to suit themselves. Some might favor extra-large hard drives for spacious storage. Others might lean toward wireless connectivity or some other feature. Still others want to store photos, music and other data. Whatever the goal, the PC can be molded to achieve it.
"It's a little bit like hot-rodding a car," Pettersen said. "Anything you could think of adding in there, you can."
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Sea Legs Youth Program
A buddy of mine is running this cool youth program using maritime experiences to enrich the lives of disadvantaged / endangered youth and young adults.
Sea-Legs maratime sailing Disadvantaged Youth Program
Sea-legs is a new initiative developed by Tom Lacey and Dick Lathrop in an effort to build continuity for youth who take part in the sailing experiences offered by Virtual Voyages
The aspects of this initiative are outlined as follows:
* Organize a sequential progression of maritime skills to challenge young sailors from introductory to advanced levels of participation.
* Develop materials to present these skills, give students activities that will lead to mastery, and determine that a given student has mastered a given skill.
* Create a ranking system, based on these skills, by which a young sailor can progress and gain status as mariner.
* Create an interactive web site to serve as a repository for these skills, activities and rankings that will be accessible and attractive to the youth-sailors, their parents or guardians, and the schools or other programs that wish to take part.
Consistent with the original mission of Virtual Voyages, Inc., Sea legs is committed to making the maritime experience safe, enjoyable, and educational. Our aim is to offer youth an experience that can lead to a lifetime of recreational or career opportunities. Important to this mission is that the maritime experience be widely accessible and not limited by any given child's particular economic, social, or educational circumstances. We are particularly interested in reaching children who would not otherwise have this opportunity. Therefore, it has been necessary for Virtual Voyages, Inc. and Sea-legs to raise funds from foundations, corporations and individuals willing to donate to this cause. The children themselves and the schools and programs that serve them have not been billed for the services we provide.
