My wife brought home a little present from me: An old Apple IIGS that isn't being used anymore. I'd hinted that I could help the school dispose of them since it has converted entirely to the Windows world.
I need to get some software for it... I've got drives but no media. But I should be able to get something copied over using an old Mac - Apple hasn't totally abandoned the platform since they've left the last system disks available in their support site. You just need a Macintosh to put it all together. :-)
Anyway, I've spent some time showing Harry that if he types PRINT 123 + 456 he will see the result. I guess that's the first programming he's done. Yaaay!
He's also been enjoying the "I've been thinking of a number between 1 and 100" game. (High and Low?) I wrote a quick game for him so he could play it on the IIGS. He actually played it for quite a while.
I've been an Apple II nut since I bought one in high school and I don't think it ever really ends.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Friday, April 29, 2005
MediaMVP & MythTV
I've been running a MythTV prototype for a number of months now. I've purchased a server to sit in the basement and act as the master backend (Myth terminology) and basically be a great big disk drive. It has one capture card in it and can handle somewhere close to 200 hours of video.
MythTV itself isn't that hard to setup. There are a few quirks, but the mail lists either have the answers (as others have come across it) or can get answers pretty quickly. It has a web interface that can be used for scheduling and can play recorded shows, DVDs, music, show the weather, view news stories, play video games, be a video phone, as well as other things. Great ideas, great software, wonderful community, and is a lot of fun.
The difficulty lies in getting the Linux video capture and TV-out hardware configured correctly. The development teams are very active, but due to the fact that they didn't design the hardware, probably don't have the exact hardware specifications, and don't know every revision of the hardware available until it is discovered, it can be dicey when you're new to the process. My first install took... at least a week, if not two. The second install was mostly done before the first day was over. (None of these are dedicated time, of course, but it is time spent daily putzing and asking questions and gathering information.)
Anyway, I've been interested in alternate Myth frontends - with hardware today, the machine doesn't need a lot of raw horsepower. The MediaMVP is one of these, and from New Egg it cost me less than $90 (including shipping). It's a tiny computer, really, and it runs Linux. There is a project called MediaMVP Media Center to have it act as a MythTV front-end too. That's why I'm interested in this.
It took me just an hour or two to get it hooked up in my den, to get the server configured, and to test it and play with it. I came home early on Friday and spent an hour or so pulling a wire into the bedroom so I could hookup the device. Works like a charm and is easy to use. It doesn't do commercial skip (yet), but it does have fast forward!
MythTV itself isn't that hard to setup. There are a few quirks, but the mail lists either have the answers (as others have come across it) or can get answers pretty quickly. It has a web interface that can be used for scheduling and can play recorded shows, DVDs, music, show the weather, view news stories, play video games, be a video phone, as well as other things. Great ideas, great software, wonderful community, and is a lot of fun.
The difficulty lies in getting the Linux video capture and TV-out hardware configured correctly. The development teams are very active, but due to the fact that they didn't design the hardware, probably don't have the exact hardware specifications, and don't know every revision of the hardware available until it is discovered, it can be dicey when you're new to the process. My first install took... at least a week, if not two. The second install was mostly done before the first day was over. (None of these are dedicated time, of course, but it is time spent daily putzing and asking questions and gathering information.)
Anyway, I've been interested in alternate Myth frontends - with hardware today, the machine doesn't need a lot of raw horsepower. The MediaMVP is one of these, and from New Egg it cost me less than $90 (including shipping). It's a tiny computer, really, and it runs Linux. There is a project called MediaMVP Media Center to have it act as a MythTV front-end too. That's why I'm interested in this.
It took me just an hour or two to get it hooked up in my den, to get the server configured, and to test it and play with it. I came home early on Friday and spent an hour or so pulling a wire into the bedroom so I could hookup the device. Works like a charm and is easy to use. It doesn't do commercial skip (yet), but it does have fast forward!
Monday, April 25, 2005
Third time's a charm?
Well, this is harddrive number three for me. This year. Started the year on number one, replaced bad harddrive mid-February with number two, and mid-April I got to replace another bad harddrive with number three. Reinstalling all that software sucks - as well as getting the licenses straightened out.
At least HP has been pretty good through it all. If this one goes too, I'm going to try swapping laptops.
Lessons learned? Backup backup backup. And make sure your backups are in a place where they won't get lost! (One of mine was in the /tmp folder of my server - and I found out that is does get cleaned up - the hard way.)
At least HP has been pretty good through it all. If this one goes too, I'm going to try swapping laptops.
Lessons learned? Backup backup backup. And make sure your backups are in a place where they won't get lost! (One of mine was in the /tmp folder of my server - and I found out that is does get cleaned up - the hard way.)
Friday, April 15, 2005
Don't know her, but I'm proud of her
Good to see that people stand up for themselves against bigotry.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4449161.stm
It's digusting that someone who is obviously a great coach gets thrown out due to no fault of her own. Note that there are no accusations of improper behavior. It's just that she's lesbian. That's bigotry plain and simple.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4449161.stm
It's digusting that someone who is obviously a great coach gets thrown out due to no fault of her own. Note that there are no accusations of improper behavior. It's just that she's lesbian. That's bigotry plain and simple.
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