The Next Window

Saturday is going to be a busy day for me at the Cajun Clickers Computer Club.<br />
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At 9am, I'm leading the Web Design Special Interest Group. We focus on web design issue as well as creating web pages with FrontPage and/or HTML/CSS. Tomorrow, I plan to show the free open-source web design program Nvu (<a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=558&amp;entry_id=123" title="http://www.nvu.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.nvu.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Nvu's web site</a>).<br />
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At 1pm, we have the Digital Video Special Interest Group. I've been asked to come back and show my Home Theater PC again. My HTPC is a home-brew computer with SageTV HTPC software, three TV Tuner/Encoder cards and two 250GB hard drives. Well, I'm also using another 300GB across my home network. My web site's HTPC section shows and discusses my <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=559&amp;entry_id=123" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">my Home Theater PC</a>.<br />
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The SciFi Channel's new season started three weeks ago, with back-to-back episodes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. Stargate SG-1 is in its ninth season and is slowly transitioning to new actors. Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica are beginning their second seasons.<br />
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First the bad news: Battlestar Galactica is rapidly deteriorating. The show can't seem to decide if it wants action (defined as individual Cylons shooting hand weapons at the good guys) or character development. <br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/113-Review-SciFi-Channels-SciFi-Friday.html#extended">Continue reading "Review: SciFi Channel's &quot;SciFi Friday&quot;"</a>

Is anyone else as disgusted at this year's Battlestar Galactica as I am?<br />
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It's terribly disjointed and repetitive and repetitive. How many times are we going to visit the same team stuck on Caprica? How many times to we have to see Gaius Baltar's hallucinations about his Cylon baby? Or see Boomer's boyfriend moaning about being fooled by his girlfriend, who turned out to be a bad-guy Cylon?<br />
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<br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/110-Battlestar-Galactica-going-downhill-fast.html#extended">Continue reading "Battlestar Galactica going downhill fast"</a>

It sure is nice of the Sci-Fi Channel to use a totally different "season" than the broadcast channels. Actually they do an interesting style season – they split in half and effectively have two mini-seasons each year.<br />
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Tomorrow, Friday July 15th, is the start of a new season (the first mini-season of the year) for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.<br />
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Stargate SG-1 (Season 9), Stargate Atlantis (Season 2) and Battlestar Galactica (Season 2) return to the Friday night lineup. Warm up your VCRs and get your tapes ready. If you've got a <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=550&amp;entry_id=106" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">home theater PC</a>, get ready to record.<br />

Several years ago, I found an online television schedule website <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=546&amp;entry_id=90" title="http://www.zap2it.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.zap2it.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Zap2It</a> that was so complete and so easy to use that I immediately became a regular user. The site has a lot of additional content, but my real interest was the TV lisings. My subscription to my local cable schedule magazine started to become unused paper on the table.<br />
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Today, that same site provides the show data used by the <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=547&amp;entry_id=90" title="http://www.sagetv.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.sagetv.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">SageTV</a> software on my <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=548&amp;entry_id=90" title="http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.terrystockdale.com/htpc/htpc_1.shtml';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">home theater PC</a>. I'd almost forgotten about the website but just looked at it again.<br />
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You can use the service without creating an account (free), but that gives you limited functionality. Each time you go to the site, you would have to enter your zip code, pick your TV system (cable, digital cable, broadcast, satellite, etc).<br />
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If you create a free account, the system will remember your settings and your preferences. These include your TV system and other choices. As an example, since I use a cable modem, I prefer to show "all stations" and not just 20 at a time. <br />
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Check out <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=546&amp;entry_id=90" title="http://www.zap2it.com" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.zap2it.com';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Zap2It</a>'s TV listing system when you get a chance.<br />