Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 01:26 -0400, Thomas Charron wrote: If only that applied to Sat TV such as DirecTV. *pout* I have never had Sat TV, but it seems to me that if you could get the timing information of when the programs were going to be shown, then you could record those programs even if you were just recording the analog signal going to the TV for playback later (i.e. put it back into an encoder to put out on the disk). The IR could be programmed to switch to the channel required off the satellite box. After all, a lot of people have gotten a lot of pleasure out of watching analog TV for many years. Am I missing something? md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On 3/25/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 01:26 -0400, Thomas Charron wrote: If only that applied to Sat TV such as DirecTV. *pout* I have never had Sat TV, but it seems to me that if you could get the timing information of when the programs were going to be shown, then you could record those programs even if you were just recording the analog signal going to the TV for playback later (i.e. put it back into an encoder to put out on the disk). The IR could be programmed to switch to the channel required off the satellite box. After all, a lot of people have gotten a lot of pleasure out of watching analog TV for many years. Am I missing something? Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. Many years ago I told a friend of mine at IBM that Microsoft has no partners other than Microsoft. He told me that I was just imagining things, that Microsoft was a good partner of IBM's. Then Microsoft started producing Microsoft mice and keyboards, and when I pointed out that Microsoft was no longer just a software company, he just laughed (but it was a nervous laugh). Then a couple of years ago there was the Xbox, then Microsoft wireless networking components, and (most recently) the Microsoft home server (or whatever they call it). Each time I called him up to tell him about the new hardware that IBM's partner was producing and selling under Microsoft's world-famous brand. After all, what better piece of hardware to buy than one that was purposefully designed to run the software you got from Microsoft? (Apple pundits take a big breath here). Now my friend at IBM refuses to even talk to me. I think you should start saving to buy your Microsoft TV. If you put aside $10. per week for this, in five years you will thank me for the warning. Warmest regards, md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On 3/25/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. Many years ago I told a friend of mine at IBM that Microsoft has no partners other than Microsoft. He told me that I was just imagining things, that Microsoft was a good partner of IBM's. Not arguing in the slightest your points. But unfortionatly, because of the wonders of HDMI, the companies get to control what people do. Hopefully, when they release the CableCard for DirecTV, people will be able to come up with non Microsoft solutions. Unfortionatly, I have a feeling that much of the stream decryption will happen in Windows. This would be unfortunatly, and I really wished DirecTV would have stuck with Tivo. Again, unfortunately, one of the reasons that they did NOT stick with Tivo is the fact that Tivo's can and are hacked, and their precious protected content exposed. Then Microsoft started producing Microsoft mice and keyboards, and when I pointed out that Microsoft was no longer just a software company, he just laughed (but it was a nervous laugh). Again, not saying your wrong. But sometimes, the facts of life suck. And DirecTV is in the service of providing content, and unfortunately, they just wont let people in. And thanks to HDMI, the door was slammed shut for people who may have other ways to do things. The day there is an HDMI input card for a PC, I'll be there to buy it. But they won't, because that would bypass the content encryption used over HDMI. The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't right'. But this isn't going to happen, because when we want to do something with content, we're pirates. :-D -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
I have a feeling that much of the stream decryption will happen in Windows. A, Winmodems, I almost forgot about them! Then Microsoft started producing Microsoft mice and keyboards, and when I pointed out that Microsoft was no longer just a software company, he just laughed (but it was a nervous laugh). The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't right'. But this isn't going to happen, because when we want to do something with content, we're pirates. :-D Oy Matey! I am a privateer, and I think that you are looking in the wrong direction when you say pirates. I think the pirates are are in Silicon Valley, and Washington (both of them). md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On 3/25/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a feeling that much of the stream decryption will happen in Windows. A, Winmodems, I almost forgot about them! Some nightmares we can just never erase from our minds. Then Microsoft started producing Microsoft mice and keyboards, and when I pointed out that Microsoft was no longer just a software company, he just laughed (but it was a nervous laugh). The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't right'. But this isn't going to happen, because when we want to do something with content, we're pirates. :-D Oy Matey! I am a privateer, and I think that you are looking in the wrong direction when you say pirates. I think the pirates are are in Silicon Valley, and Washington (both of them). Here here! Agreed! :-) QQ I just thought of something. Are there any HD video capture cards which can take composite inputs? -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: New Login in a nested Window and a month of aggravation...
Distro, Xorg release, video HW on this box? If ATI or NVidia, stock or proprietary X drivers? If the latter, what happens with the former? I'm running Debian Sid x86_64 with X.org 7.1.1 I am currently running with the nVidia drivers 1.0-8776 on a GeForce 7600 GS. After seeing your note, I flipped back to the stock nv driver, and had identical results (restored my original xorg.conf file) GDM is version 2.16.4 ** New further finding... it does appear to be a problem with motion tracking. After forcing my way into a full session, it appears that by holding the mouse-button and moving it a touch, I get it to recognize where it is... if this happens to be on a launcher in gnome, i get several running gnome-terminals... on an additional note, the versions here match the versions on my laptop except that the lt is 32bit and a nVidia Go448 chip... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 11:33 -0400, Thomas Charron wrote: HD video capture cards which can take composite inputs? Google knows all, and there seems to be a whole series of solutions, although they all seem to be pretty high-priced. There seemed to be a few cards that did the whole thing, and then there were compositors that took it from input to SDI (whatever that is) then cards that took SDI the rest of the way. From what I saw of a quick Google, the prices are in the range of $1400. to $2500., but I did not spend a lot of time. Right now the number of devices that produce HD video out which could be fed back into HD composite in (and the number of people that want to do that) is probably small, and the technology to do that in real time seems to be expensive. It is just a huge amount of data. As more people want to do this, I will assume there will be more companies and devices that will show up, and the prices will drop. On the other hand, you could be the first on your block. Perhaps others know of some less expensive solutions. md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
It is just a huge amount of data. As I re-read my answer, it occurred to me that the concept of this being a huge amount of data flies in the face of my normal rants about real computing. I should re-state this to say that for the average homeowner or desktop PC it is a huge amount of data coming at the system in a relatively short period of time. It does not compare to what Fermilab generates when they run their cyclotron full tilt. md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: New Login in a nested Window and a month of aggravation...
After much of the playing I've done today, and discovering that it really ~is~ mouse movement and not the clicks that aren't registering... it appears to be a documents and not yet fixed issue (at least in my distro) http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=412486 Thanks for the tips!! ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. I continue to thank the gods that TV has nothing worth watching which also benefits from HD. Of course, they'll eventually stop broadcasting NTSC format video at all, and then I'll be screwed. Bill ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Mar 25, 2007, at 10:53, Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: After all, what better piece of hardware to buy than one that was purposefully designed to run the software you got from Microsoft A few weeks ago I decided to play with the meme, what if Microsoft really *isn't* incompetent and this came out: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/articles/2007/03/06/xbox-360-pretty- dang-secure -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Problem build initrd file
On Mar 23, 2007, at 16:57, Don Leslie wrote: I tried kernel /vmlinux-2.4.21-27-mpt_scsi ro root=LABEL=/dev/sda1 hda=ide- scsi kernel /vmlinux-2.4.21-27-mpt_scsi ro root=LABEL=/dev/hda1 hda=ide- scsi I get the same error . You can have anything in an ext2 filesystem label, but odds are high they're not labeled with device names (e.g. /dev/sda1) So, in the above examples, kernel /vmlinux-2.4.21-27-mpt_scsi ro root=/dev/sda1 hda=ide-scsi is more likely to be right than the LABEL= variant. Using labels for meaningful tags is useful, like root=LABEL=rootdisk. I'd probably go so far as to say labeling a filesystem with a LABEL that is device name is confusing and harmful. see 'man e2label' for more on filesystem labeling. Just a small point on your more complex problem... -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Warning: Explicative language involved
Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: MythTV... Asterisk... You ought to take a look at Linuxmce: http://www.linuxmce.com - Jim Van Zandt ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Why we can't record our TV shows (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On 3/25/07, Thomas Charron [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't right'. This hearkens back to the wireless phone carrier subthread I accidentally started. As long as people continue to subscribe to the service as it is now, DirectTV Inc has no incentive to change their ways. If people refused to pay for service they couldn't record themselves, I can guarantee this problem would disappear. Alas, getting that to happen appears to be very difficult. Part of it is because most people just don't understand the technology. Part of it is because closed software is so common that most people don't even know there is another way. But mostly, it's because most people are sheep, and do what they are told. The media cartel says they're not allowed to do what they want, so the sheep say Okay, here's my money anyway. Of course, I note that the parent poster is still a subscriber. I'm sure his reasoning is that he alone cannot make a difference, and he'd rather take what he can get. I've used the same reasoning myself in other matters. It may even be true. But none of that changes the fact that it ultimately guarantees we lose... -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Capturing component video (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On 3/25/07, Thomas Charron [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I just thought of something. Are there any HD video capture cards which can take composite inputs? You mean component video input (three cables, typically colored red, green, blue; carrying Y, Pr, Pb signals). Composite video (single cable, typically colored yellow) is not capable of high definition. Composite video carries a minimally encoded analog signal. So it's coming at you in real time, and without any MPEG compression. I can't find any convenient web reference, but I believe to capture it, you need to be able to encode something like 4 gigabits per second. Such stuff is currently rather expensive -- I've heard estimates ranging from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the media cartels don't like composite video, because it's not copy restricted. So you can bet they will do everything in their power to discourage it in favor of HDMI, which supports copy restrictions (HDCP). -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: a question about GREP
O 23 Mar 2007 22:20:24 -0400, Kevin D. Clark [EMAIL PROTECTED] Holy crap! Where's Perl's oft-decried extreme conciseness? ;-) My solution comes from my experience, and I was going for correctness, portability, and clarity, in that order. I can't resist pointing out that Perl isn't a guaranteed on Unix systems, either. ;-) By the way, did you forget to add --binary-files=without-match to your solution? The original poster asked for text files only. Yes. As Bill Freeman pointed out, I also left out the search pattern! (I was cut-and-pasting from an xterm where I was actually testing things, so I'm not sure how I managed to do that, but I guess I found a way.) They need to build a script interpreter into email. ;-) Oh wait, Microsoft already did, it was called Outlook 2000 and we know how that turned out.. -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mon, 2007-03-12 at 21:33 -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote: On Mar 12, 2007, at 16:28, Ben Scott wrote: There are some LinkSys bitty boxes which supposedly have crypto accelerators in them, and some of them are listed on the OpenWRT pages, but I don't know if the crypto hardware is supported. I looked into boxes w/IPSec crypto acceleration maybe six months ago. At the time, none of them ran OpenWRT and none of them were particularly inexpensive, so I just moved vpn duties onto a substantially more powerful system. If something runs OpenWRT, can do hardware crypto, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, that'd be slick... Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be replaced with a crypto card. Since my firewall is in the basement I had already planned to use other WRT54GL's as dedicated wifi access points upstairs. -dl ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
maddog flossing
listen, you can hear him ... http://www.twit.tv/floss -- To be uncertain is uncomfortable, but to be certain is ridiculous. - Chinese proverb ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:16:12 -0400 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Freeman) wrote: Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. I continue to thank the gods that TV has nothing worth watching which also benefits from HD. Of course, they'll eventually stop broadcasting NTSC format video at all, and then I'll be screwed. Eventually? Try February 2009: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television_in_the_United_States#Analog_shutoff_process Interestingly enough, AFAICT nothing about this law actually requires that the cable companies stop offering an analog tier on their systems (one that would still work with legacy NTSC-only sets and without a converter box), they would just have to convert the digital broadcast signal to analog on their own, before putting it on the wire (or get it directly from the broadcasters in some non-OTA manner, I suppose). It only ensures that OTA stations will no longer be permitted to broadcast such a signal themselves for direct reception by such legacy TV sets. -- Bill Mullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] MA, USA RLU #270075 MDV2007.0/MDK9.0 You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into. -- Mark Twain ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Why we can't record our TV shows (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 14:35 -0400, Ben Scott wrote: On 3/25/07, Thomas Charron [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The problem is, someone needs to stand up and say 'this ain't right'. This hearkens back to the wireless phone carrier subthread I accidentally started. As long as people continue to subscribe to the service as it is now, DirectTV Inc has no incentive to change their ways. If people refused to pay for service they couldn't record themselves, I can guarantee this problem would disappear. Ben, I agree, but I think that another part of the problem is the fact that there are monopolies. Sure, in some places there is competition to DirectTV, but in other places there is not. No cable, no OTA. And to say no to DirectTV means that you not only can't tape the show, you can't see it either. And even if DirectTV is not a monopoly in the area, the fact that the broadcasting industry as a whole is, and the media industry as a whole is a monopoly (and the government lets them do that) makes the whole thing an either/or. Then kids cry and wives (or husbands) beat you up. It takes a village (or at least a house) to understand and feel this way. Now if a rogue media outlet started making good media (movies, songs, etc.) available at reasonable prices, playable on any device and also did not block you from recording them for personal use, that might give some competition. On the other hand they probably could not deliver them over any of the standard delivery vehicles, since those were already sabotaged by the monopolies, and we would probably as a society have to develop a whole new way of financing the creation of the new movies and songs. Hmmm...isn't there that thing called the Internet? md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
The end of NTSC analog TV (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On 3/25/07, Bill Mullen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Of course, they'll eventually stop broadcasting NTSC format video at all, and then I'll be screwed. Eventually? Try February 2009 ... ... nothing about this law actually requires that the cable companies stop offering an analog tier on their systems ... I believe you are correct. I don't know what the cable companies plan on doing. Long term, I would expect it to die out, as it would be more equipment and cost. Short term, they can see them marketing it as a feature: Cable still works with your old TV set. Some other interesting bits: * ATSC != High Definition. Digital != High Definition. It is perfectly possible, and not uncommon, to transmit a Standard Definition picture using digital (be it ATSC, digital cable, or something else). * OTA ATSC is not encrypted or otherwise encumbered. You can capture it using any Linux PC with the right hardware (a $100 tuner card). * Many (but not all) cable systems re-transmit local OTA programming down the wire in the clear, without encryption. Same Linux situation. * Many (if not most) cable systems transmit all non-local-OTA High Definition programming encrypted. Even Basic Cable. Even when the same Basic Cable programming is not scrambled on the analog side. So if the cable companies stop sending an analog signal, I won't be able to record MythBusters on my Linux box. -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 14:55 -0500, Bill Mullen wrote: On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:16:12 -0400 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Freeman) wrote: Analog is the word there. :-) I was referring to HD TV via DirecTV. And unfortionatly, the only solution which is coming out for this is lead by Microsoft in a Microsoft/DirecTV partnership. Well, actually there are plenty of cheap cards that will take Composite video (single cable, typically colored yellow) standard definition and convert it into Digital for storage, so even if it was scrambled you could capture it as it was to go into your TV and record it for later. But over time, as ATSC SD becomes passe, and the price of HDTV sets continue to fall, more and more channels will probably fall to being scrambled because they are premium, HD channels. I continue to thank the gods that TV has nothing worth watching which also benefits from HD. Of course, they'll eventually stop broadcasting NTSC format video at all, and then I'll be screwed. I could see National Geographic, the History Channel, SCIFI and lots of others eventually going that route. Then after a while you will find that you have to pay per view for all of them, unless you really like watching just the Three Stooges (and don't ask me which ones they are) all your life. Ben, should we sing in unison now? md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
mythtvfest
Which distro will be used as the base for the installfest? What makes it better for the install? ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On 3/25/07, David A. Long [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be replaced with a crypto card. Interesting idea. I like it. One problem: I think LinkSys long ago stopped using modular radio hardware with the WRT54G series. It's all soldered on to the PCB now. Even on the L sub-series models. You'd have to find one of the old WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 16:23 -0400, Bruce Labitt wrote: Which distro will be used as the base for the installfest? At this point we are recommending Fedora. What makes it better for the install? The fact that we have used it before and it works. We have not tested MythTV with Puppy Linux, Slackware, Yggdrasil Familiarity of the installers and coaches with the distribution. The fact that if everyone is stepping through the same install you can just tell them Hit Enter (I almost said Carriage Return) and they all do the same thing at the same time. The fact that this is an appliance and for most people they don't care what the base distribution is. Those that do can probably install MythTV by themselves. md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
PySIG notes, 22-March-2007: Project Night
An even dozen people showed up for the Python Special Interest Groups March meeting, held as usual at the Amoskeag Business Incubator in Manchester, NH. Bill Sconce called us to order promptly at 7 PM and we proceeded through the printed agenda. It was duly noted the Ben Scott deserved heckling despite his absence. We ran through announcements of a couple of upcoming meetings, plugging the MythTV installfest beta and pointing out Jarod's book. We mentioned meetings upcoming for the LUGs, including ZFS at DLSLUG, LVM at CentraLUG and the new Ruby group. Kent's Korner: Kent S. Johnson presented his month talk, this month on list comprehensions. Kent had a great handout [1], and has collected his past couple of handouts in one place [2]. Starting with simple examples and building in complexity, Kent lead us through what can be an intimidating topic in a way most couple follow. Some great discussions, on-topic and off-, regarding assignment and Python idioms, always make this a fun part of the meeting. There was some discussion of Python 3000 and its expected schedule. Bill Sconce had a video of Guido practicing his Py3K presentation in front of an audience at Google [4] which he went on to present at PyCon [3]. For the Gotcha of the month, Bill Freeman offered up an Un-Gotcha: a=b=4 works, but not for the reason you might think. Assignments of this style in C have a different underlying meaning, and perhaps in some circumstances, different side effects. A key to understanding the single = assignment in Python is to understand that it is a STATEMENT. There is no value associated with the statement and chained assignments in Python like the above are specially-coded as an exception case. This lead to yet another great discussion. Ric Werme showed off the web pages that result from his Python software that collects and forwards weather data from his weather station. His current conditions page, http://home.comcast.net/~ewerme/wx/current.html has links to everything else. Ric bought the weather station in part to have an excuse to write more Python code, and his current code runs the gamut from implementing the weather station protocol through pyserial.py and the serial port to CGI scripts that take data requests, fetches the data from MySQL, creates gnuplot data files that create .gif files, and returns a HTML page to display the results. His description of the software is at http://werme.8m.net/wx/vantage_software.html . Ric also demonstrated a Python cgi script for collecting data for a weather observers group that Todd Gross created while he was WHDH. It's customizable, so people can create a form preloaded with their location that offer just the data they collect, and the submission code adds it to a MySQL database and recreates a web page of members reports over the previous day. Shawn O'Shea showed off Python running in the Win32 and COM environments. Shawn does a lot of work administering and automating Windows configurations, and the COM set of interfaces can allow a lot of internal manipulation of the major applications, a big step up from the VBScripts supplied by Microsoft with some of the tools. Shawn demonstrated the canonical Hello, World with Microsoft Word, but then dug into a couple more concrete and practical examples with querying the Registry and spelunking in the IIS metabase. Lots of interesting stuff coming up at future meetings: Martin Ledoux offered to show something on the work he's done with amateur book-binding with pytut/pyref books. Kent has promised an update soon on his real-life experiences with Django. Ray Côté may be able to show off the new web site he used as an excuse to miss the meeting. And I'll bet Bill will wheedle some more cookies from Janet. Thanks to Bill Sconce for organizing, Alex Hewitt for getting the networking working, the Amoskeag Business Incubator for providing the great facilities, Janet for the awesome cookies, Kent for his great Korner, Bill Freeman for the csv module and those strange blinking white blocks, Ric Werme for demoing his weather projects, Shawn for the Win32-COM-Automation and everyone for attending and participating. P.S. Anyone got python running on a WRT54G? P.P.S. Tom Mosco mentioned to me that the Chicago Python group had a very long presentation on Django by the creators and also a Ruby on Rails presentation by its author. Videos can be found at [5] and [6] [1] http://personalpages.tds.net/~kent37/kk/3.html [2] http://personalpages.tds.net/~kent37/kk/index.html [3] http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=197203 [4] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1189446823303316785 [5] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3548805983075267875 [6] http://www.djangoproject.com/snakesandrubies/ -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org
Re: mythtvfest
On 3/25/07, Jon 'maddog' Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 16:23 -0400, Bruce Labitt wrote: Which distro will be used as the base for the installfest? At this point we are recommending Fedora. What makes it better for the install? The fact that we have used it before and it works. We have not tested MythTV with Puppy Linux, Slackware, Yggdrasil Why not Debian or Ubuntu? For sheer upgradability, Debian systems tend to be more bullet proof. And Linux Media is built using Ubuntu. :) The fact that this is an appliance and for most people they don't care what the base distribution is. Those that do can probably install MythTV by themselves. True enough. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
On 3/25/07, Seth Cohn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The fact that we have used it before and it works. We have not tested MythTV with Puppy Linux, Slackware, Yggdrasil Why not Debian or Ubuntu? My distro's better than your distro! For sheer upgradability, Debian systems tend to be more bullet proof. Nuh-uh! Clearly, Skeletor could take Mumra in a fight. Oh, wait, sorry, wrong nerdwar... Fedora worked when we tried it. The volunteers were familiar with it. That's about the grand total of the down-select process. I don't recall any volunteers were overly familiar with Debian. Maybe Debian users should spend less time telling everyone their distro is better and more time actually contributing. :-P -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
Why not Debian or Ubuntu? For sheer upgradability, Debian systems tend to be more bullet proof. We had a pilot of this, and we chose a couple of distributions. We realized that was a mistake, as it did not allow us to lockstep through. Remember, we were anticipating 30 or forty people, not just five. So we went with one distro. Jarod works for Red Hat, is familiar with Fedora, uses that at home. It was as good as any. And Linux Media is built using Ubuntu. :) When we had the pilot Linux Media was not announced yet. The fact that this is an appliance and for most people they don't care what the base distribution is. Those that do can probably install MythTV by themselves. True enough. Again, in the future we may allow more distributions as things roll out, but right now we want one swell foop. md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
For sheer upgradability, Debian systems tend to be more bullet proof. For more on this thread, see the semi-recent ESR thread where he ranted about Fedora and 'left' for Ubuntu. (No I have no intention of raising said thread from the dead, discussing ESR, etc...) Fedora worked when we tried it. The volunteers were familiar with it. That's about the grand total of the down-select process. I understood that. That's a very valid reason. However, doing installs for newbies who might need to do future upgrades themselves is one of the most likely scenarios. That was my raised issue. I don't recall any volunteers were overly familiar with Debian. Maybe Debian users should spend less time telling everyone their distro is better and more time actually contributing. :-P Yeah, those Debian Ubuntu Knoppix guys never do anything with mythtv. http://www.google.com/search?q=mythtv+debian http://www.google.com/search?q=mythtv+knoppix http://www.google.com/search?q=mythtv+ubuntu Oh wait, yes they do. Never mind. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
On 3/25/07, Seth Cohn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: For sheer upgradability, Debian systems tend to be more bullet proof. For more on this thread, see the semi-recent ESR thread where he ranted about Fedora and 'left' for Ubuntu. (No I have no intention of raising said thread from the dead, discussing ESR, etc...) Yet you just did. However, doing installs for newbies who might need to do future upgrades themselves is one of the most likely scenarios. That was my raised issue. Yah, if you really want to get into the nerdwar, I've had far more problems with apt-get upgrade on Debian than I have with yum upgrade on Fedora. Clearly my personal anecdotal experience trumps your personal anecdotal experience. Neener, neener. I don't recall any volunteers were overly familiar with Debian. Maybe Debian users should spend less time telling everyone their distro is better and more time actually contributing. :-P Yeah, those Debian Ubuntu Knoppix guys never do anything with mythtv. Whoop-dee-do. They weren't at NHTI. What happens elsewhere doesn't help us at all. Put your money where you mouth is and get involved, or sit back and be quiet. I'm really freaking tired of all the Debian zealots who never miss an opportunity to tell us how great Debian is, but are silent when it comes to actually contributing. Put up or shut up. /flame -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
Ben, calm down. For more on this thread, see the semi-recent ESR thread where he ranted about Fedora and 'left' for Ubuntu. (No I have no intention of raising said thread from the dead, discussing ESR, etc...) Yet you just did. No, I pointed people to it, because we've been there, done that. Whoop-dee-do. They weren't at NHTI. Agreed. I wasn't there, nor was anyone else who advocated for Debian(ish). The group decision was made, and I'm not saying change it, change it!. I'm really freaking tired of all the Debian zealots who never miss an opportunity to tell us how great Debian is, but are silent when it comes to actually contributing. Put up or shut up. I'm giving a talk on April 12 about Drupal (which you can run on Debian, Fedora, and even Windows based servers), and again in June. (It was going to be in May, but thank you for switching dates with me, Ben (and Ted)!) ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Why we can't record our TV shows (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: Now if a rogue media outlet started making good media (movies, songs, etc.) available at reasonable prices, playable on any device and also did not block you from recording them for personal use, that might give some competition. On the other hand they probably could not deliver them over any of the standard delivery vehicles, since those were already sabotaged by the monopolies, and we would probably as a society have to develop a whole new way of financing the creation of the new movies and songs. Hmmm...isn't there that thing called the Internet? Tried that. The oligopolies conspired with the government to kill it. It was Internet Radio: Internet Radio has been sentenced to death. -- Doc Searls http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000196 -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
On Mar 25, 2007, at 16:25, Ben Scott wrote: You'd have to find one of the old WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. There are other brands that run the *WRT line. One that comes to mind is Asus's WL-500g, which has a Mini-PCI radio: http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx? modelmenu=2model=1121l1=12l2=43l3=0 Most of the distro projects have a hardware support list. -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Mar 24, 2007, at 19:02, Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: Make sure you watch the video, it is a scream. I try not to be too impulsive, but this video makes me want to wipe my work-in-progress MythBox and start over. Anybody here try it yet? -Bill - Bill McGonigle, Owner Work: 603.448.4440 BFC Computing, LLC Home: 603.448.1668 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cell: 603.252.2606 http://www.bfccomputing.com/Page: 603.442.1833 New Blog: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/ VCard: http://bfccomputing.com/vcard/bill.vcf ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: mythtvfest
On 3/25/07, Seth Cohn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Ben, calm down. Calm? I'm calm! I'm wicked calm!! LOOK AT ME, I'M CALM!!! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'M NOT CALM??!one Rather than continue the nerdwar, let me just say one thing: I'm giving a talk on April 12 about Drupal ... Thank you. -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 20:42 -0400, Bill McGonigle wrote: On Mar 24, 2007, at 19:02, Jon 'maddog' Hall wrote: Make sure you watch the video, it is a scream. I try not to be too impulsive, but this video makes me want to wipe my work-in-progress MythBox and start over. Anybody here try it yet? I just pulled down the CD today, since their servers were overwhelmed before, and they just came back online today. I have not had time to look at it, since I am doing real work today. I think that LMC, in order to be most effective, might take a bit of study and planning before you start in to install. The good news is that you will probably be able to re-use all the MythTV hardware (and buy lots more) if you do decide to go that way. md P.S. Besides, you have to *finish* installing something sometime, and I heard that next week they are coming out with: LinuxWorldDomination (www.linuxwd.com) ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Capturing component video (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On 3/25/07, Ben Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 3/25/07, Thomas Charron [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I just thought of something. Are there any HD video capture cards which can take composite inputs? You mean component video input (three cables, typically colored red, green, blue; carrying Y, Pr, Pb signals). Composite video (single cable, typically colored yellow) is not capable of high definition. Correct, my bad. :-) I always get the two mixed up in conversations. Composite video carries a minimally encoded analog signal. So it's coming at you in real time, and without any MPEG compression. I can't find any convenient web reference, but I believe to capture it, you need to be able to encode something like 4 gigabits per second. Such stuff is currently rather expensive -- I've heard estimates ranging from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, the media cartels don't like composite video, because it's not copy restricted. So you can bet they will do everything in their power to discourage it in favor of HDMI, which supports copy restrictions (HDCP). True, however, I looked it up this morning. Our HD receiver is capable of 1080p out the component outputs. But your right, I looked today. I'll just have to wait for DirecTV Home Media Center, and hope to be able to play with it. :-D -- -- Thomas ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
TWiki performance (was: Simply Amazing and Head Slappers)
On 3/23/07, Drew Van Zandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I saw not-so-great TWiki performance on a decent box, even... liberty.gnhlug.org has two 1 GHz Pentium III CPUs, 1 GB main RAM, and SCSI hard disks, and TWiki's performance still sucks mud through a kinked straw. Sometimes, actions in TWiki just take forever, for no apparent reasons. I haven't done much investigation, but what I saw included near-zero CPU load, no other running processes, and plenty of free RAM. The Perl interpreters running the TWiki calls are always just Sleeping. I have a hypothesis that TWiki's anti-spam implementation (BlackListPlugin) might be causing some of the grief. TWiki is a set of CGI scripts; there is no daemon or anything to do updates in the background. It follows that any spam counter-measures have to take place in response to HTTP requests. So if, for example, it takes a long time to retrieve an update to a blacklist, TWiki's interactive performance will suffer. Ultimately, I want to switch wiki.gnhlug.org from TWiki to MediaWiki -- for a number of reasons, performance being just one of them. Alas, that requires tuits I don't have. -- One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / And the next it's rolling over me -- Rush, Far Cry ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: a question about GREP
Ben Scott writes: They need to build a script interpreter into email. ;-) Oh wait, Microsoft already did, it was called Outlook 2000 and we know how that turned out.. Ho ho ho...true enough. (-: --kevin -- GnuPG ID: B280F24E Never could stand that dog. alumni.unh.edu!kdc -- Tom Waits ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: LinkSys WRT54G and OpenWRT
Ben Scott writes: On 3/25/07, David A. Long wrote: Has anyone looked into mini PCI (type III) crypto cards, or otherwise made modifications to the WRT54GL hardware? The radio hardware in the box is on its own removable mini PCI card and presumably could be replaced with a crypto card. Interesting idea. I like it. One problem: I think LinkSys long ago stopped using modular radio hardware with the WRT54G series. It's all soldered on to the PCB now. Even on the L sub-series models. You'd have to find one of the old WRT54G v1 units to get a mPCI slot. I think. If it helps, a Soekris box has a free mini-PCI slot... Regards, --kevin -- GnuPG ID: B280F24E Never could stand that dog. alumni.unh.edu!kdc -- Tom Waits ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Why we can't record our TV shows (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
Internet Radio has been sentenced to death. -- Doc Searls The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. --- Princess Leia Organa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Leia_Organa ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Why we can't record our TV shows (was: In case you have not seen it.....Linux Media Center)
On Sun, 2007-03-25 at 22:49 -0500, Nigel Stewart wrote: Internet Radio has been sentenced to death. -- Doc Searls The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. --- Princess Leia Organa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Leia_Organa The difference is that Princess Leia and Tarkin are fiction, and the fact they are trying to kill Internet Radio is real life. md ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
