Rhymes with Toaster

I just installed an HTDV Wonder tuner card into my ubuntu MythTV box. So while I watch a bit of a very pretty PBS program, I wanted to throw a couple of notes here to remember what the heck I just did.

My myth box is running ubuntu fiesty fawn. I debated whether or not to update to the latest version, gutsy gibbon, before I installed the card, but it had taken a while to get the Video-out working just right and I didn't want to rock the boat too much. Then I found the following page, which helped tremendously:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATI_HDTV_Wonder

Luckily, it had instructions for Fiesty Fawn, so I decided to go for it.

I shutdown, opened the card and physically installed the card in my last free PCI slot. I followed the directions at the link above for manually setting up a perl script to grab the firmware for the card (I had to sudo most of the commands to get them to work, though). The firmware worked correctly and the drivers loaded on the first try. So the card was recognized and loaded by the operating system, that left configuring mythtv to actually tune something in on the card, which is where I ran into problems.

I followed the directions for setting up the card in mythtv, but I couldn't tune any channels. There are two inputs on the HDTV Wonder: "DTV" and "CATV". I wasn't sure which one to plug in my analog cable connection. I believe the directions were for using an antenna, not for tuning non-encrypted HD channels on the Cable connection. After a lot of trial and error, I found a setting that actually tuned in some channels. I saved the settings, went into myth, and I can now watch FOX HD, NBC HD, ABC HD, CBS HD, and PBS HD for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE on my comcast "basic cable" subscription, not to mention some other local digital channels.

Here's the changes from the above instructions I had to find to tune HD channels on my basic analog cable, plugging into the "DTV" port on the card:


4. Input Connections
New Input
Select "DVB : 0"
Display Name: ATI-HDTV
Video Source: CABLE-HDTV
DVB Options:
Unencrypted channels only - checked!
Radio Channels - checked!
Use Dish Long-term EIT Data - unchecked
Scan for Channels
Scan Type: Full Scan
Frequencey Table: Cable
ATSC Modulation: Cable (QAM-64)
Channel Separator: (5.1) Period
Existing Channel Treatment: Minimal Updates
Next <--- The scanning process will take a long time!
Verify the output, checking for "Locked" channels.
Exit mythtvsetup with the Esc key


The hard part was the channel scan.

Now I just need to get the guide data set!

Found via TUAW:

I just found this cool new screen saver called PolarClock. It's a cool visualization of the current time. It's available for Mac and Windows, so go get it.

PolarClock 3.0 is now available as a screen saver for Mac and Windows, and also as a dashboard widget for OSX Tiger.

This release is a total rebuild from scratch using Flash CS3, Flex Builder and ActionScript 3.0. There has been a staggering amount of feedback over the past few months, all of which was very useful. There are more things to add, but there are only so many hours in the day!

I received an iPod (30 GB w/video) for Christmas this year and I'm having a lot of fun learning about and playing with it. One of the dilemmas facing a new iPod owner is how to actually carry the thing around. You want to be able to access most of the functionality, like skipping songs, changing the volume, or pausing the playback for a conversation, but it's also nice to be discrete and not have to perform acrobatics just to control the thing. While I considered the options, I just started throwing my iPod in my pocket or my bag and pulling it out whenever I wanted to do anything with it. Not great, but it worked.

Some time later I remembered reading a post about using the "sleeve" that comes with the iPod, and that the scroll wheel was functional through that fabric. I wondered if it would work through the fabric of my Levi's. I put the iPod in my front right pocket, front facing out, and tried making some circles on my pant leg. It took a couple of tries, but I was able to get the scroll to work. It wasn't precise, but for volume control it was fine; just keep drawing until the change was complete. It didn't matter if I was lined up perfectly, as long as I drew a clockwise circle when I wanted to increase the volume, and counterclockwise to decrease the volume. I also easily learned the positions of the Play/Pause button at the bottom of the iPod and the Previous and Skip buttons on the sides. Now I could start a playlist, a podcast, or whatever, pop the iPod in my pocket and have full start/stop, skip and volume control all by just reaching down to my right leg. This also allows me to run the headphone cord under my coat for almost invisible usage, which is great for walking around in public or riding the bus. This also works well for me when I'm working out. I can listen to my iPod without feeling pretentious with one of those armbands.

So, if you want a case that's portable, discrete, functional, and best of all, FREE, just throw your iPod in your front pocket and try out the scroll wheel. It might just be the perfect case for you.

I confess, I confess. It's true. I have sunk into the depths of all that is ugly, cheap, and downright evil. That wretched hive of scum and villainy; I have created a MySpace page. But fear not, I am not about to sink into the depths of black backgrounds, glittery animated gifs, and autoloading emo music. (I'd link to some examples, but considering 99.99% of MySpace pages are perfect examples of this, I'll let the reader explore for themselves.)

I have always been a little weary of MySpace-- every time I had stumbled into it I was immediately put off by the sheer ugliness of it. It was like I had stepped into a time warp back to 1996. Blinking text, animated images, black backgrounds, COMIC SANS MS... But you have to admit they must be doing something right to have millions of members. The pure volume of people in a social network like that is worth tapping into. My employer agrees, and as an outreach project, the AADL is in the process of creating a MySpace page. When asked, I happily joined up to help with some of the technical details.

The first order of business was to find a decent layout. There are tons of third-party sites devoted to crappy cut and paste layouts for your MySpace, with some diamonds in the rough. But still they didn't look very clean or professional. Then, by luck or fate, I found Mike Davidson's blog post, Hacking A More Tasteful MySpace. This is what I was looking for! Mike had carefully and painstakingly dissected the mishmash of HTML elements on a MySpace profile page and was able to constuct CSS rules to tame them. Thank goodness. In order to try them out, and because of the social networking aspect of it, I created my own MySpace page and tested out Mike's brilliant work. It still needs a little tweaking, but I think it's safe to say it's already looking better than most.

I filled out some info and did a quick search and found a good friend of mine who used to live next door to me. We lost touch after high school and it's great to touch base with him. I've already found some other folks from my past that I need to contact. Plus, it's another place to let people find my flickr stream and this blog. MySpace is not all bad so far.

In contrast, on the same day that I created my MySpace account, I was serendipitously invited by John to join LinkedIn a social networking site for professionals. I had read about it a little from Ed Vielmetti. You create a profile with your professional experience, and you can make connections to the profiles of former and existing coworkers, friends, and family. They have millions of users at this point (though not quite the numbers that MySpace has). The key is the chaining of connections from 2 and 3 degrees away from your own. They make it easy to get your connections to introduce you to their connections, who then you can add to your connections, building your professional network online. Oh, and the site is has a clean, useful design, and everybody's profile looks exactly as good as everyone else's. It's a cool idea, and I think it'll be tons more beneficial than MySpace in the long run.

View My MySpace

View My LinkedIn Profile

I was going to write a quick blurb about Perceptive Pixel's new Multi-touch Computer Demonstration (which you should still totally check out), but I just have to write about the awesomeness that's sitting in front of me. The AADL catalog has just been opened up to the public.

Basically, it allows users to add and share information about any item in our catalog using tagging (tag cloud), reviews (example review), and even comments on reviews.

John's got all the details and a screencast video to watch right here.

Awesome stuff.