liquidcable.org

Here is a list of links to electronic products I either designed or, more often, had a hand in designing.

Accuview, Acclaro, OmniVUE, Cinema Display (LED version only) from Texas Digital

OI-7010, OI-753, OI-WF792, OI-WF910, OI-WF985, OI-WF590, OI-680, Calibration Station, from Otis Instruments.

I am now working at Tolteq.  We make MWD (measurement while drilling) tools.  My official title is electrical engineer, but its a small company so my primary responsibilities are production support, sustaining engineering, hardware design, test fixture design, and test software (LabView).

Tolteq is located in Cedar Park, which is north of Austin.

I recently had to look for a new job.  I’m an electrical engineer with experience for product development in hardware design (circuit design, PCB layout).  Below are some of my observations and recommendations.  Please note this is not a complete scientific analysis and is unique to my personal job experience. (continue reading…)

Suddenlink’s DVR is recording repeats.  I’ve created this post as Suddenlink does provides very little details about this issue and is inconsistent on the root problem and gives no time frame for when the issue is going to be fixed.  They do have a post on one of there sites, but it’s just passing the blame on one of there subcontractors (Rovi) and gives no time table for the fix.

See here for the un-offical cause of the problem:

“The digital video recorder or DVR relies on the i-Guide (digital channel guide) to tell it which TV show episodes are “new” and which are “repeats.” If a particular show is a repeat, but it’s not marked as a repeat in the i-Guide, the DVR assumes the show is new and records it.”

You can try to call tech support but you will get a different reason each time you call.  Either there tech support is not aware of the cause of the problem or Suddenlink is lying about the problem.

This is really frustrating as the fix should be very easy; 1 – make Rovi fix the issue, 2 – fire Rovi and get a new guide.

It’s really quite pathetic, as other cable/satellite companies and Tivo don’t have this issue.  Please leave comments if you are having this issue.

I’m now looking for a new job in the Bryan / College Station area (but will relocate for the right position in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, or Tyler).

I’m an electrical engineer with more than eight years of experience including project manager, engineering director, analog and digital design, board layout, documentation, and product testing.

See my resume for details.   My resume on emurse.

(continue reading…)

Just got season 1, 2, 3, and 4 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Best, Show, Ever!

I ripped the DVD to videos files to my server so I view them while I’m using the computer (second monitor).

Trying out Ubuntu 9.10, and here is what I have found so far.  Some of characteristics are directly from Ubuntu, while others are from different projects for the Linux OS (Gnome, KDE, Xorg, Firefox, etc…).

• (-) install process froze on the background screen (most likley a video driver issue), used the video fail safe and proceeded with install
• (+) the rest of the install was very easy, well thought out, and simple
• (-) grub was installed on the wrong drive, had to change the bios to boot to grub
• (+) GDM login screen is nice
• (-)installed Nvidia graphics driver failed, with a “jokey” backend crash
• (-) Gnome theme is better, but just needs a log of work
• (-) Gnome takes up to much of the screen with overly large fonts, windows decorations, menu drop down selections, etc…
• (+) installed KDE4 was easy
• (+) new software install center is very nice
• (-) Firefox looks like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue since KDE 4.0, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firfox fonts like like CRAP in KDE, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) Firefox is slow in Ubuntu, when compared to Firefix in windows, this has been an issue forever, WHY HAS THIS NOT BEEN FIXED!!
• (-) KDE crashed within 5 minutes of use
• (-) CTRL + ATL + Backspase does not appear to work, WTF Ubuntu, are you trying to make life harder for Linux users
• (-) Firefox launch feedback is broken in KDE, still an issue for years now!!!
• (-) QtCurve does not work, again WTF
• (-) KDE volume control does not preform as expected, also muted by default

Ares I launched this week, after several delays.  I watched it live, it was awesome.  But two of the three parachutes malfunctioned and caused some damage to the booster.