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Comcast brings Science, Disney and ABC Family HD channels to Atlanta
Commenters (Dustin, in particular) were quick to point out that Comcast's initial launch of Science, Disney and ABC Family HD didn't include Atlanta, but it seems as if Georgia's capital has finally garnered some respect and acquired the trio. Oh, and if your Comcast market has yet to pick 'em up, keep a close eye on that EPG -- it seems that they're making the rounds quite briskly.[Thanks, Tim]
Georgia's AMC Avenue Forsyth theater opens with Sony 4K projectors
It's been quite some time since we heard of a theater right here in the US of A opening up with 4K projectors tucked inside, but for residents of Cumming, Georgia, such a scenario is about to unfold in your town. The AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 will be the first all-digital theater in the area when it opens on May 16th, packing Sony 4K digital cinema projectors and two auditoriums with screens stretching over three stories high and 50-feet wide. In sum, the venue will boast a dozen auditoriums with over 2,220 seats with rocking-back chairs, and folks who make their way down on opening weekend will even get a free small popcorn with each (presumably overpriced) ticket. There, we made some plans for you -- hope you're available!
Charter unleashes bevy of HD channels in Atlanta, Georgia market
Nearly three months after Comcast spruced up its HD package in Georgia's capital city, along comes Charter attempting to keep pace. Thankfully, it really brought the heat with its latest update, which delivers Animal Planet HD, TLC HD, Discovery HD, Fuse HD, WE (Women's Entertainment) HD, iFC (Independent Film Channel) HD, AMC HD and The Weather Channel HD. Granted, we've seen nothing official from Charter affirming these additions, so for any subscribers in the greater Atlanta region, are you too seeing these newcomers?[Thanks, Jim L.]
Comcast spreads the HD love to more of Southeast
Good news for Comcast users across the nation (and particularly for those in the Southeast): it seems the firm's recent HD expansion efforts are affecting more areas than just Washington, D.C. and South Carolina. Based on user reports originating in Jacksonville, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia, the channels added to the DC / SC lineups have made their way to the Peach and Sunshine states. For those needing a refresher, that includes USA HD, TLC HD, History Channel HD, Sci-Fi HD, CNN HD, Animal Planet HD and Discovery Channel HD. Additionally, it sounds as if ATLiens are also being blessed with Travel Channel HD, but we've nothing official to back that up with just yet. So, with more of the US getting all these newcomers, have any of you Comcast users in other locales seen additions in your EPG? Let's hear it![Thanks, Abby and Matthew P.]
RoboCup 2007: let the games begin
While we weren't able to get a first-hand glimpse of the mayhem that is RoboCup this time around, a camera-wielding Georgia Tech graduate student was able to do the honors for us all, and snagged quite a bit of impressive footage from the expo. Many of the shots were snapped during yesterday's practice rounds as competitors prepped their gear for battle (which began yesterday), and we must say that the oh-so-athletic Junior Soccer League robots are worth the price of admission alone. Still, even if witnessing robotic contention in person isn't enough to drag you to Atlanta, be sure to click through to get a glimpse of homegrown robotic innovation at its finest.
FIRST Robotics champion crowned, Dean Kamen elated
Tossing up autonomous robots into the galaxy to perform a variety of prototypical tests is intriguing to say the least, but a trio of high-school teams were able to bring robotic competition a bit closer to home as they took home the gold in the highly-anticipated FIRST Robotics corrivalry. Cooked up by Dean Kamen (you know, the Segway inventor) in 1989, the challenge garnered entrants from a whopping 23 countries this year, and teammates from Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor, Connecticut, Highrollers from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Gompei and the HERD from Worcester, Massachusetts were able to craft the most dexterous and successful machine. Their creation reportedly excelled at "completing simple -- albeit goofy -- tasks such as shooting balls or stacking inner tubes," but we can already imagine the evil potential these innocent bots already posses. Apparently, "thousands of screaming high-school participants" were in attendance to witness the unveiling of a new champion, and if the popularity of this contest is any indication, we could be seeing these uber-intelligent, entirely autonomous robot armies being constructed an awful lot sooner than previously expected hoped.
New Colorado, Florida, Apple Stores
Attention, Colorado and Florida: There are Apple Stores in your near future. Specifically, Colorado's Park Meadow Mall and The Galleria in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida will both open new stores this Saturday, April 21st. We're always looking for pre-opening spyshots, so let us know if you see anything. Of course, we'll be happy to receive your opening day reports as well. Have fun, and grab a T-shirt![Via ifoAppleStore]
Feds eschew e-voting paper trail for the status quo
Remember that recommendation that we expected to see come out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology pretty soon -- you know, the one that would de-certify all those fundamentally flawed direct record electronic voting machines? Well, we apparently spoke too soon, as The Washington Post now reports that the recommendation didn't even make it out of committee. The Technical Guidelines Development Committee, a section within NIST that advises the US Election Assistance Committee, failed to reach the 8 votes necessary to pass the decertification measure. Seriously. Why didn't this blindingly obvious recommendation pass? Well, it's not entirely clear, but committee member Brit Williams, a computer scientist who certified Georgia's electronic voting system (we all know how well that went), said "You are talking about basically a re-installation of the entire voting system hardware." Um, dude, last we checked, if something's broke, you gotta fix it. Seriously, when was the last time you heard about a computer scientist that went out of his or her way to avoid fixing a system they installed? Don't answer that.[Via Techdirt]
Slingbox Pro and Tuner to be released October 22?
While you've seen the first round of Slingbox photos that we posted in the wee hours this morning, more details are starting to emerge, namely that the Slingbox Pro and Tuner versions will be released on October 22. We got this luscious piece of intel from a devoted Sling fan who acquired it after spotting the AV at a Best Buy in Augusta, Georgia, and then subsequently grilled the staff on the availability of the Pro and Tuner. As we mentioned previously, the FCC confidentiality agreement lifts on September 28, so perhaps this new release date is what we should be expecting from Blake & Co.?[Thanks, Dennis]
Rolling Stone interviews a Diebold whistleblower
In what is perhaps the most astonishing turn of events in the ongoing Diebold fiasco, a new article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone -- with extensive information direct from a named former company consultant -- makes one of the most damning cases against the embattled company. The article weaves an elaborate tale of how Diebold had at the very least some extremely skeezy deals signed in 2002 with the state of Georgia, which allowed Diebold to replace all existing voting equipment, and to speed things up by the fall election: "The company was authorized to put together ballots, program machines and train poll workers across the state - all without any official supervision." As if that weren't enough, days before the primaries, the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, personally distributed a patch to the elections software. The article goes on: "Georgia law mandates that any change made in voting machines be certified by the state. But thanks to Cox's [Georgia's Secretary of State] agreement with Diebold, the company was essentially allowed to certify itself." Before the election, the two Democratic candidates in the two major races (for one Senate seat and the state governorship) had been ahead in the polls, and on Election Day, Republicans won the two races by a slim margin -- and given that no paper trail exists there is no way to prove or disprove that the election wasn't tampered with in some way. And you wonder why we continue to insist on paper ballots for the time being?
Biometrics come to lunch lady land
Since today's children will inevitably grow up to be tomorrow's criminals, what better way to get their fingerprints on file than by using biometrics as a payment method for those delicious, nutritious school lunches? Lunch has certainly gotten a lot more high-tech since the days when we were students (you used to be able to fill up on Tastycakes and chips -- no MealPayPlus to ruin your atrocious dietary regimen), and now one school district in Georgia has taken it to next level by installing print scanners that allow students to instantly put meals on their growing tabs. Apparently the Rome City Schools have already had a PIN-based payment system in place for some time now, but as second grader Adrianna Harris opined, "The finger's better because all you've got to do is put your finger in, and you don't have to do the number and get mixed up." Good point, Adrianna, although with calculators already having taken away our adeptness at simple arithmetic and cellphones making it increasingly impossible to remember anyone's phone number, this new method seems like it might hinder yet another valuable life skill: the ability to properly operate an ATM. Still, we're all for technology making the lunch line move faster, but paranoid parents looking to keep their progeny "off the grid" will probably want to start packing bagged meals from now on -- along with keeping their disappointed kids as far away from Disneyworld as possible.