Of media PCs, old remotes and Linux

This post will probably be horribly boring for the non-geeks in the audience (which might be everybody...), so I'll apologize to everybody in advance...

It has been a desire of mine for a bit to build up a media/entertainment PC and integrate that into our entertainment center. Partly because I get TIVO-like functionality, partly to allow playing the music that we've downloaded (and isn't on CD), partly to watch all of the home video that we have (which is only on PC - we can watch by hooking the camera to the TV, but it doesn't put out good resolution, what we get is basically the camera display blown up about 200000000 times, so its a little pointilistic...), and mostly because I just want to do something cool and drool over new PC components...

I've managed to pull together a system which should perform adequately - it has higher performance than my current desktop PC, which is able to do OK at recording and playing back video (though using Windows Media Center it can't keep up with a HD broadcast, and drops frames often). For about $400 I get a good motherboad with optical audio out, 500GB hard drive, 4GB of memory, a dual-layer DVD writer and a video card which can feed HD into my TV. I have a WiFi card around, and have a spare license for Windows XP. Should be nice, the parts should be here Jan 6... :(

Of course, having a PC doesn't help much without a remote - I've been spending too much time trying to get a remote that came with a Sony PC to work - finding that it uses a completely proprietary configuration, nobody else in the world has made it work, and it generally causes some interesting problems with the rest of the system... I think that I have enough information to make the remote work under Linux now, but will need to modify some drivers to get things to behave.

I've been trying out different software packages under Windows and Linux on my current PC, trying to see what is able to do the things that we want (play DVDs, play stored videos and music, view and record live TV), and will probably setup the PC with GBPVR under Windows XP, also booting and running MythTV under Linux (Ubunto 8.10, to be exact...). Both give access to everything we need - MythTV is also able to get at videos on the web, so we would be able to watch all of the high-def shows that CBS, ABC, etc. are putting up. Eventually, I'll add in a Blueray drive, and maybe another tuner (or two)... Then we just need to do some work with importing old VHS tapes, cassette tapes, albums, etc, and everything will be available at the touch of a button....

Enough of me showing my geeky side... I'm sure there are some people who are interested in this, I promise that the next post will have cute kids and stuff like that - though those cute kids might be helping me assemble the PC. :)

How many calories?

Last night our church had a potluck dinner to celebrate Christmas. After all the eating was done (way too much by yours truly) all the tables and chairs were cleared from the sanctuary, and kids started running in circles in the big open spaces.
After running for a few minutes, Kyle came up to me, puffing and hot from all the running and asked how many calories he had burned off. My answer "more than 10" didn't satisfy him - he wanted to know the actual number... So, I had to say "I don't know - you don't have a calorie counter on your forehead." Some of the other parents near by though that was immensely funny...

I don't like Las Vegas

I finished up a week of meetings in Las Vegas, as part of some software standards activity that is part of my job. Mostly, these meetings involve spending a long day in a conference room, so I don't get to see much of whatever city we're in - except for the evenings which are usually open. Usually these are place I haven't been, so there is some exploring to do. I've been to Las Vegas before, though, so not as much to do that's new - not to mention the various other problems with the current marketing of the city. A few reasons that I especially don't like travel to Vegas:

1) The city is focused on separating you from your money, in lots of unbiblical ways. Gambling is everywhere. You have to walk through a casino to get from the hotel entrance to the elevators. I'm sitting in the airport right now, and there is a huge bank of slot machines 20 feet away. Shows are incredibly expensive - at least $50, for bad seats in a show with a 'nobody' - want to see Better Midler in good seats? Get ready to cough up $400 per person...

2) After gambling, sex seems to be the primary business. You can't walk down the street (at least 'The Strip" - Las Vegas Boulevard) without having a huge number of cards for 'girls' pushed at you. About half of the shows involve dancing girls, with or without all the normal clothing. Billboards and advertising trucks are everywhere hyping strip clubs. I'm not intereseting in this stuff, but would rather not have to see it constantly.

3) There are earthquakes here. Last night, about 8:18 there was an earthquake in Lowell California, which was felt in Vegas. I noticed it mostly from feeling the building swaying back and forth, about 4 inches or so based on seeing the curtains swinging. It felt generally like I was really dizzy. Not dangerous, but a little disturbing and I try to avoid earthquakes.

4) I'm away from my awesom family, and not in a place where I can have as much seeing new things...

That's enough of my rant. I'm on my way home, they've announced that the plane will be boarding in a few minutes, so I'm getting free of Sin City.