A search of the Intel site does not bring up a single hit, and the posting on a Cnet blog from last December that started these rumors has since disappeared. So, while it is not really official, many insiders seem to think that it is more than just a rumor: Intel code-named a new 32nm Atom processor “Medfield”. The processor is planned to launch in 2010.

These plans were filed with the Registry of Deeds in June of 2008 and show the exact location of the access easement that will provide a pedestrian and bicycle connection between Woodcliff Hills and the northern side of town on one hand, and Green Street and the center of town on the other hand. At least that was the idea that was discussed in all the planning board meetings.
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This month, the award goes to …  (more…)


(This is the most recent snapshot)

A Doppler radar gun purchased on Ebay, 50 feet of Cat5 cable, a soldering iron, and a little bit of .Net programming skills were the ingredients for this low-cost (< $200) traffic data logging system. The radar detector works flawlessly, but if there is a cluster of cars going by the house, not every single car is detected, which means that the number of cars is underreported. I record the video streams of the security cameras to a network storage device and keep the data for 2 weeks. Correlating the video images from the web camera with the speed readings is a fun and interesting exercise ("who just flew down the street at almost 60 mph?"). Does this really work? See for yourself. Just refresh this page (by pressing F5, for instance) after you saw a car going by in the video above and the statistics below will be updated, including the count and most recent speed. [iframe http://cdonner.kicks-ass.net:8080/SportsRadar/ 490 1300]

For some time now Medfield Parks and Recreation has been pushing plans for a new center in various locations of the town. If you read the Medfield Hometown Weekly this week, you probably saw a good summary of the history of the project, as well as of the arguments for and against it. (more…)

I am looking for like-minded individuals who are interested in forming a local Bike Advisory Committee.
Initially, I see this group working on getting funding and town approval for the construction of bike paths on several of the Medfield streets (North St, South St, and Green St come to mind).
Please read this guide published by MassBike (Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition) and if you are interested in joining and maybe helping in forming and serving on the board of a 501(c)3 corporation, contact me.

ten.sgolbdleifdemnull@cabm

Our town has a lot of potential for the development of bike paths and trails, but for now there seems to be potential only. I have not heard of or seen evidence of any actual projects. I am particularly interested in the Millis-Medfield-Dover-Needham rail corridor (I believe this is part of what was formerly called the ‘Bay Colony’ line).
Does anybody have information about existing plans or prior initiatives for converting the rail corridor into a multi-use trail? This trail would be a hit. Imagine being able to safely bike to the Needham train station … this would be so much fun with the kids. Having used the Minuteman bike trail in Arlington and Lexington almost daily for some time, I appreciate the recreational value of a multi-use trial.
According to maps on massbikeplan.org, the MBTA has ownership of the Right of Way for this section. The line is desolate, though, and no longer seems to be usable. Particularly the bridge over the Charles no longer seems to be passable, not on foot, let alone for a train. I would actively support and participate in an initiative with the goal to convert the Bay Colony line between Millis and Needham to a bike path. Are there any other supporters? Anybody who can educate me about why this has not already been done?

Realizing that such projects face many obstacles in other communities (see Holliston, for example), I am enough of an idealist to at least educate myself a little bit about the possibility.

You have probably heard that on Febrary 17, 2009, all analog TV stations in the country will stop broadcasting, and analog TV sets will no longer function without a so-called digital converter box. The government is issuing up to two $40 coupons per household that can be used towards the purchase of such converter boxes. These devices sell between $50 to $70 at local retailers. Here is a link to the government’s website where you can sign up for the coupon program.

What you may not have heard is that you don’t have to wait until February 2009 to switch to Digital TV, because stations in the area already broadcast digital channels today. I made the switch yesterday, and I am so impressed with this technology that I decided to share my enthusiasm.
For the past several years I have been using indoor antennas sitting on top of the TV sets to receive the basic local channel lineup, with modest results. The image was often grainy and it was not really a pleasure to watch TV at all, which was fine with me and motivated the kids to do other things – a not entirely unintended side-effect of not signing up for cable or FIOS-service.
I did make the decision to buy a 160 inch outdoor antenna and install it in the attic for the switch to DTV. The house is only 3 years old and wired for cable, so it was an easy task to feed the antenna signal into my home’s cable wiring and get rid of the unsightly indoor antennas (I have yet to work on the proper grounding – yes, even attic-installed antennas need to be grounded).
I purchased this one at Radioshack and it took no more than 30 minutes to assemble it, install it on top of the collar beams, and connect the lead-in cable to the input connector of a splitter that was already present in the attic. Even without using a converter box, the resulting picture is substantially better than it was before. I am not using an antenna amplifier and have 7 cable outlets in the home. I did terminate all unused outlets, though.

Antenna installed above collar beams

Antenna installed above collar beams


One thing to note is that the correct cable must be connected to the splitter’s input connector – the one that carries the antenna signal. I had to switch the connectors around so that the antenna lead-in is connected to the attic splitter’s “in” connector, and the attic feed is connected to the other splitter’s input in the basement (where normally your cable feed is hooked up).

A 4-way antenna splitter

A 4-way antenna splitter


Once the converter boxes were connected and configured, I was blown away by the picture quality and the number of channels that I am now able to receive. Here is the lineup of all channels that I am receiving today:

For a convenient overview of what’s on, I go to tvguide.com.

Some of these channels broadcast in Standard Definition (SD), some in High Definition (HD). Note that with Digital TV there are up to 4 sub-channels for each primary channel. All channels have on-screen programming information.

Digital TV over the air is free, there are more channels than with conventional over-the-air TV, and the picture quality is the same as with cable service – full HD (1080). If you are happy with basic channel line-up, there is no longer a need to pay for cable while still enjoying top-quality picture quality.

The only drawback: If the signal falls below a threshold, there will be dropouts in the audiostream and artefacts in the picture that make it impossible to watch that channel. It is not longer possible to watch channels with poor reception.

One more word of advice: There is no such thing as a digital TV antenna, or even a ‘digital-ready’ antenna. Digital broadcasts use the same transmission technology as analog and are all in the UHF band. Convential TV antennas work perfectly fine, and everybody who claims otherwise is either misinformed or attempting to profit from spreading misinformation.

Subdivision plan as submitted on 4/23

The Planning Board approved the 10-lot subdivision in last night’s meeting. The approval is contingent on several conditions, all of which were discussed in prior meetings. They include easements for the emergency cut-through and the trails with the buffer zones shown on the plan. No further connections to other subdivisions will be allowed, and one lot (11H) containing a retention basin will become town property.

I somehow missed the article when it first appeared on 2/18. Luckily, it is still available online.

MEDFIELD

Street could go one of two ways

Safety officials, neighbors at odds

By Charlie Russo, Globe Correspondent (February 18, 2007)

Is it better to be connected? That’s the question being asked in Medfield after a developer proposed two layouts for a new development.

Scott Colwell has presented proposals to the town’s Planning Board that would allow him to build more homes on Quarry Road. In one, he would simply build an extra-long cul-de-sac at the end of the road; in the other, he would connect the road with Morse Drive, linking the Woodcliff Estates and Pine Needle Park neighborhoods.

Colwell said he prefers the cul-de-sac plan, but he has submitted the “cut-through” plan as an alternative, which he said is a requirement in requests for road extensions.

Town Administrator Michael Sullivan said he and most department heads, including the police and fire chiefs and the head of the Department of Public Works, favor the cut-through plan, mainly because it would provide emergency vehicles with alternative routes to reach people in the two neighborhoods.

Residents are worried, however, that shortcut-seekers would drive through Pine Needle Park and Woodcliff Estates, which are north and east of the town center, respectively, to bypass the center and its stoplights.

“Most people think this would be a very attractive cut-through. . . . I’m very concerned that we would see a lot of traffic,” said Christian Donner, a Pine Needle Park resident.

Planning Board members also indicated through an unofficial poll taken at a recent public hearing that they unanimously oppose the cut-through plan. The Board of Health must review the developer’s proposals before the Planning Board renders its final decision. The next Planning Board meeting is Feb. 26.

“I feel that creating a through street does give the potential for a safety hazard,” said Planning Board member George Lester. “These are small residential streets; they weren’t designed to be a through way.”

But a second group of residents, whose streets are already used as shortcuts to bypass the town center, support the idea of a cut-through as a way to spread the traffic burden.

Maureen Hufnagle, a Brook Street resident, said opening up the road would be “in the best interest of the community. . . . We’ve just seen a huge increase in traffic in the 15 years we’ve lived here.”

Roads that would have linked the two neighborhoods have been proposed before and rejected. Past agreements between Colwell, who has built dozens of homes in the area, and the town specifically banned him from building a road that would link Quarry Road to Erik Road, which is also in Pine Needle Park.

Colwell recently purchased a home on Morse Drive that would allow a connection to an extended Quarry Road. Some, like Donner, are hoping that the earlier bans set a precedent that could be enforced now.

As a result of the earlier bans, neighborhood roads were engineered to handle only the cars of nearby residents, not for the additional traffic that a cut-through would attract, Lester said.

“The town had the opportunity twice in the past to proceed on a plan that would have connected Woodcliff Estates and Pine Needle Park but chose not to for reasons of public safety, since these were residential streets,” Lester said.

Colwell, who has built 79 homes in the Woodcliff Estates neighborhood over the last two decades, said he wants to build the cul-de-sac to honor a promise he made to residents that he would not build a cut-through.

The cul-de-sac plan would allow Colwell to build 10 new homes, while the cut-through would allow him to build 13.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

The hearing for the Quarry Road development will not be held on March 12 as previously announced. The Board of Health decision is still outstanding and the next Planning Board hearing in this matter is now scheduled for 4/9.

The Board of Health did not meet on Feb 14 due to the snow storm.
Therefore, because the next steps depend on the results from the Board of Health review, the Quarry Road subdivision is not on the agenda for the 2/26 Planning Board meeting. Instead, the discussion will
continue on March 12 at 8:15, again at the Town House.

The question has come up at several occasions whether prior decisions of the Planning Board prohibit a road connection from Woodcliff Hills to Pine Needle Park. Here is the original Certificate of Vote from 1995 so that you can decide for yourself.

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