Believe it or not, there are some people who actually watch C-SPAN.

A few of us at USDemocrazy are included, so there were mixed emotions when we heard they missed an opportunity to make their coverage just a little bit more exciting.

Since the mid 1990s, the network has been trying to gain approval to use their own cameras in a new place on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives does not allow C-SPAN to record its gatherings.  Last week, Rep. John Boehner became the latest Speaker of the House to deny C-SPAN’s request:

I believe the American people — and the dignity and decorum of the United States House of Representatives — are best served by the current system of televised proceedings provided by the House Recording Studio

The video broadcast currently shown by C-SPAN comes from cameras operated by Congress itself.  This setup only allows certain angles and avoids showing the reactions of Representatives when their colleagues are speaking.  In the past, members of Congress have disagreed over the use of the cameras.

Every Speaker since Newt Gingrich has banned C-SPAN from using their own equipment in the chamber.  There was a clear sense of frustration in the network’s statement on the most recent rejection:

We’re disappointed to learn that despite 32 years of experience with televising its sessions and in an age of ubiquitous cameras in political life, the House of Representatives has chosen not to allow C-SPAN’s cameras into its chamber to cover its sessions

Where do you stand on cameras in Congress?

BONUS: Chad Pergram of Fox News writes nose picking is among the real reasons C-SPAN’s cameras aren’t allowed.

The UMBC Linux Users’ Group (LUG) will hold it's Spring Installfest on Friday February 18th from 10:30am to 5:00pm on the Commons Main Street. If you've ever wanted to try Linux but didn't know where to start, bring your computer and LUG members can help you install Linus and ensure that your hardware, including wireless, fingerprint reader, and webcam, is working.

At the Spring 2011 installfest, they will be installing Ubuntu version 10.10. If you would like assistance installing a different release or distribution, bring install media.

The installfest is open to anyone ans people with all skill levels, from complete novice to expert, are welcome. It's a great opportunity to meet people in the local Linux community.

Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Solitons, Self-Induced Transparency,
and Modelocking in Quantum Cascade Lasers

href="http://www.cs.umbc.edu/people/faculty/sergei-nirenburg/">Professor Curtis Menyuk
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

1:00-2:15pm Friday, 18 March 2011, ITE 227, UMBC

Standard semiconductor lasers operate in a limited wavelength range, below about 4 microns. Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) that operate in the mid-IR and far-IR have important applications to medicine, environmental sensing, and national security. While short pulse lasers (~100 fs) are available for standard semiconductor lasers, that is not the case for QCLs. Standard passive modelocking is hard to do in QCLs because of their long coherence times and short gain recovery times. We propose a fundamentally different approach, based on the self-induced-transparency (SIT) effect, that turns these weaknesses into strengths. Solitons, modelocking, and SIT are all reviewed at the beginning of the talk.

Curtis R. Menyuk was born March 26, 1954. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT in 1976 and the Ph.D. from UCLA in 1981. He has worked as a research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park and at Science Applications International Corporation in McLean, VA. In 1986 he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and he was the founding member of this department. In 1993, he was promoted to Professor. He was on partial leave from UMBC from Fall, 1996 until Fall, 2002. From 1996 – 2001, he worked part-time for the Department of Defense, co-directing the Optical Networking program at the DoD Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences in Adelphi, MD from 1999 – 2001. In 2001 – 2002, he was Chief Scientist at PhotonEx Corporation. For the last 20 years, his primary research area has been theoretical and computational studies of lasers, nonlinear optics, and fiber optic communications. He has authored or co-authored more than 220 archival journal publications as well as numerous other publications and presentations. He has also edited three books. The equations and algorithms that he and his research group at UMBC have developed to model optical fiber systems are used extensively in the telecommunications and photonics industry. He is a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, and the IEEE. He is a former UMBC Presidential Research Professor.

super nintendo sega genesis, the new album by the rebel opt is finally here. it is also now available as a .zip file so you can bring the magic of i eat things into your very own home

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super nintendo sega genesis is also still available for streaming via the i eat things soundcloud

Charles Croom, of Lockheed Martin will talk about "The State of Cyber Security 2011" at the UMBC Visionaries in IT Forum at 8:00am on Wednesday, February 23rd at the BWI Airport Marriott. The event is free but registration requested.

Croom joined Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions as Vice President of Cyber Security Solutions in October of 2008. In this capacity, he shapes the corporation’s cyber security strategy with insight from his 35 years of distinguished service, leadership, and technology experience from the U.S. Air Force. He co-chaired a National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee Task Force on “Strengthening Government and Private Sector Collaboration” which issued a May 2009 report recommending that the President direct the establishment of a Joint Coordinating Center. He currently serves on the Boards of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Internet Security Alliance (ISA).

Croom retired as a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General, Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and the Commander of the Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations in September 2008. While at DISA, he led a worldwide organization of more than 6,600 military and civilian personnel to serve the information technology and telecommunications needs of the President, Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, and other Department of Defense stakeholders.