robmello.com

Welcome

Welcome to the robmello.com blog.  Here you will find mostly technology tips and random musings with a sprinkle of politics and home movies. 

Like most blogs, this one is written for the author, not the audience, but what you won’t find is the all-too-familiar "here’s what I did today" entry, so don’t be afraid to click around.

When you see a PLAY button in the image above, what you are seeing is streaming video from my home office web-cam.  Not especially exciting, but I find the idea of streaming video to your blog pretty neat.  A few moths back, I setup streaming video using Stickam, but I've found that Ustream TV is much better suited for this.

It's About Time!

Normally it doesn't take me an entire YEAR to put together a family video - especially one as pedestrian as this one - but it’s understandable given that I’ve been  little busy.  :) 

Anyway - here’s the latest in Lily visit videos!  (Oh, and her brother Stanley and a few others are in it too of course!)

If you want to watch the original video by Blind Melon (one of my favorites), you can click here. 

London Trip

Click the player below to view photos of our trip to London!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brad Delp Remembered

Boston lead singer Brad Delp passed away this week.  My brother Rich met Brad and had him and his fellow band members autograph a CD for me – a real treasure.

Boston was my first "favorite" band, and I was lucky enough to see them on their third stage tour at the Worcester Centrum in August of 1987.  (The band sold out ten dates in Worcester!) 

Boston had the best selling debut album with over 17 million copies sold until another Boston-based band, New Kids on the Block, assumed that distinction.

I also had the pleasure of working with Jim Masdea (Boston’s original drummer who played on “More than a Feeling and performed with the band on the Third Stage tour) when I was a sound engineer for Showtime Sound in Westport, MA in the early 90’s.  One of my most memorable experiences was providing sound reinforcement for a boxing-match at the New Bedford armory with Jim.

Brad’s last performance as the lead singer for Boston was on Nov.13.2006 at Boston Symphony Hall in a concert honoring Doug Flutie.

My brother Rich (right) and friends pose with Brad (2nd from right).  

Comcast Remote 30 Second Skip

There are two features I missed when I switched from my dish network DVR to Tivo. Surprisingly, Tivo didn’t have a dual tuner for years after it was available from satellite providers.  The second feature I missed was the 30-second skip feature which allows you to immediately  jump +30 seconds (the length of most commercials), forcing you to use a clunky VCR-like fast-forward mechanism.

I recently switched to Comcast (dual tuner! digital! HD ready!) and found out that you can enable the 30 second skip for their system too. 

1) Press the “Cable” button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.

2) Press and hold the “Setup” button until the “Cable” button blinks twice.

3) Type in the code 994. The “Cable” button will blink twice

4) Press (do not hold) the “Setup” button

5) Type in the code 00173 (for 30 second Skip)

6) Press whatever button you want to map the skip

Special thanks to the posting on Damon Cortesi’s blog for this tip.

As it turns out, TiVo can do a 30 second skip as well -

Lily and Family on YouTube

In addition to the music videos found here, you can find classic video clips of Lily and family like “Trampoline Drama Queen” on Leslie’s YouTube page.

Leslie Visit Summer 2006

The latest in the Mello / Wood family movie series is out. Somehow Lily always ends up being the star of the show...

Road Warrior

After a year of crazy travel, my schedule is returning to a more normal pace.  While it’s great to have elite travel status with airlines, hotels and car rental agencies, I hope my road-warrior title is permanently retired!