The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

Fedora Core 1 (x86_64) Multimedia Support Yesterday I finally got full multimedia support configured for FC1. I'm successfully running MPlayer 1.0pre4-3.3.2 and K3b 11.9 built from source and optimized for the AMD 64-bit CPU! I've been able to play every DVDs from my personal library without any issues. Thanks to Mauriat Miranda's MPlayer - Fedora Guide set up and installation was a snap! I really like the proton skin. Other skins (including the default Blue) can be downloaded from here . GOTCHA : When I rebooted kudzu attached my DVD/CD Writer combo to /dev/scd1 instead of /dev/cdrom. Therefore my symlink from /dev/cdrom to /dev/dvd was worthless and prevented me from watching DVDs. You can use dmesg after a reboot to figure out what devices the CDROM/DVD Drives are attached to!

Helpul Fedora Core Multimedia resources ESR's Fedora Multimedia Installation HOWTO (ESR's books and other HOWTOs are entertaining and worth reading!) nVidia display drivers for Linux K3b 0.11.9 CD and DVD burning application for Linux rpmBone locate and resolve source and rpm dependencies rpmSeek Fedora Forum Fedora Chat

Fedora Core 1 / WinXP Dual Boot I've configured my new Shuttle AMD64 XPC to dual boot between Fedora Core 1 (FC1) x86_64 and the Windows XP 64 Bit beta . I'm actually trib-booting my sytem with grub . Unfortunately WinXP-64 was virtually worthless since I couldn't install any of my Win32 programs (installation fails seaching for files sush as windows/system/wsock32.dll). Here is a copy of my /etc/grub.conf: # grub.conf generated by anaconda # # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file # NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg. # root (hd0,1) # kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2 # initrd /boot/initrd-version.img #boot=/dev/hda default=0 timeout=10 splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz title Fedora Core (2.4.22-1.2188.nptl) root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-1.2188.nptl r...

Useful Quotes : "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." (Hunter S. Thompson) "The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it." (Laurence J. Peter) "Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one's death. (Rollo May) "The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds." (John Maynard Keynes) "Life Shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." (Anais Nin) "Logic, like whiskey, loses its beneficial effect when taken in too large quantities." (Lord Dunsany) "Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thi...

Hardware Configuration Updated 5/7/04 : Be sure to use a passively cooled video card if you want to minimize system noise. I replaced the PNY nVidia card with one from XForce (XFX) which is built on the same nVidia GeForce FX chipset. The XFX is passively cooled and uses DDR333 (vs DDR400) SDRAM. Otherwise the XFX is identical to the PNY model. The fan on the actively cooled PNY video card doubled the noise from the Shuttle XPC! Luckily, Tiger Direct agreed to RMA the card with no restocking fee and even paid for the return shipping. What started out as a PC upgrade has become a full scale replacement. Here are the specs for the system components that I have on order from Newegg and TigerDirect . All items are being shipped either UPS or FedX and should be delivered by Sunday! Shuttle XPC SN85G4 Barebones kit AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor XFX nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, TV-Out, 8X AGP (Updated!) Corsair ValueSelect 184 ...

Thinking About Data Retention on CD/DVD Medias The question of data retention becomes more important as I burn more "stuff" to CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-Rs, DVD+R, DVD-RW etc. I found the following articles helpful: CD/DVD 'Longevity' Update Under The CD Covers A Dye To Die For -- Data Preservation Thoughts Understanding CD-R and CD-RW Quick Reference Guide for Care and Handling Guide to Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs (Very informative, excellent diagrams and extensive glossary!)

DVD and Video Support for Linux is quickly evolving. I wouldn't suggest anyone use the VCD/SVCD formats unless disk space is an issue, and disk space if finally getting reasonable. I just picked up a 200GB Seagate drive for $99, after the in-store special and mail-in-rebate. Follow these links if you are looking for more references: DVD Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) DVDRHelp YoLinux Tutorial: Video, DVD, TV and Multimedia VideoLAN LVE- Linux Video Editor Kino

PVR UPDATE I received the Hauppauge WinTv-PVR 250 from NewEgg - $139 for the retail edition, which includes the remote control, bundled software and free shipping! I installed it on my son's 2.6GHz eMachine running WinXP on Friday night. Everything worked nicely out of the box. I was able to use the bundled software to edit the MPEG capture files and compare recordings from LiveTV as well as the home videos from my Sony Camcorder (which connects to the card's composite Video-Input). The Hauppauge bundle includes Ulead DVD MovieFactory (a $99 value if you need to order it directly from Ulead). MovieFactory has the ability to create custom menus with individual titles, chapters, etc, select film clips for each title, edit the menu soundtrack, back ground, etc. This is a nice piece of software in that it allows you to burn directly the mpeg files directoy to the DVD writer, to create a DVD-ISO image, or to save the raw IFO and VOB files directly into the standard Audio_...

The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock TS Eliot was one of my college favorites.

Homebrew PVR - Intermediate Progress With the birth of my daughter Ava last week time is running short... so I've taken the dreaded Windows shortcut till I can get the remaining parts ordered. I purchased a V-Stream USB2800 Xpert DVD Maker video capture card from newegg for $50. It was cheap enough and supported MPEG 2 video with stereo audio encoding (44.1 or 48Khz). I didn't think it would work on Linux (it didn't) but I figured it would be ok on WinXP for capturing some VCDs (320x240) of Ava for the grand parents (it did). Even though the USB2800 technically supports 720x480 mpeg capture, the encoding is done all in software and the USB 2.0 interface significantly restricts the video capture bandwidth (6-8 mb/s variable bitrate (VBR) is required for DVD quality captures). I believe a hardware encoder simliar to the ones used in the Haupguage WinTV 250 PVR cards would produce better quality videos. After several test runs I've determined I'm better ...

DVD-V Resources : DVD Authoring HowTO VCDimager article describes how authoring DVD-V may be realized with GNU/Linux and other unices (brief and a bit dated). MJPEG Tools The mjpeg programs are a set of tools that can do recording of videos and playback, simple cut-and-paste editing and the MPEG compression of audio and video under Linux. MJPEG HOWTO - An introduction to the MJPEG-tools MJPEG capture/editting/replay and MPEG encoding toolset description. For those who REALLY want to start at the beginning... DVD Author (Great links to other projects, some of which I've linked to directly below) DVDRTOOLS Q-DVD-Author Qt front end for DVD Author DVD-Styler DVDStyler is a crossplatform GUI frontend to the dvd authoring and recording programs dvdauthor and dvdrecord. Polidori Gnome front end- no releases yet! DVD-Create (looks like this project is not active)

Thinking Small: Small Form Factor (SSF) Mini PC Resources Small Form Factor Pentium 4 PC Roundup - March 2003 Top 5 Small Form Factor PC Barebone Kits - January 2004 Shuttle Biostar CPU Parts International CappuccinoPC iMicros Ebay Store NewEgg The HTPC Store

DVD-Recording Status I successfully installed the new NEC DVD±RW from newegg and burned a sample VCD using 300mb worth of Star Trek Enterprise episode teasers from Mr. Video Productions . I used K3b 0.11 witht the VCDImager v0.7.14. Although the vcd didn't work in my old RCA DVD player, I was able to enjoy the teasers on my son's e-machine running WinXP. I had to compile and install k3b and vcdimager from the source since there were runtime issues with the latest versions of vdcimager. Note: The vcdimager website was down for several days. Keep trying if the link doesn't work. Also, I had to upgrade to College Linux 2.5 because vcdxbuild kept dying under CL 2.3. I wanted to add a second disk and upgrade sound support to ALSA anywat. Unfortunately ALSA didn't work out of the box (configuration at install time caused a kernel panic). aRTs didn't work either for some reason. Guess I'll have to become a Linux Sound support expert to fix this....

MPEG RECORDING SAMPLES I stumbled across the Library of Congress' American Memory digital library collection while searching for usable MPEG video recording samples to test various video formats for my PVR project. I was happily distracted for an hour while I downloaded and watched silent films from over 100 years ago! Of special interest is the collection on the Theodore Roosevelt .

Homebrew Project: Linux PVR Today its time to put my money on the table and go all in. I ordered an NEC 2500A DVD±RW burner today! YEAH! cdfreaks gave it their "best value" award. Unfutunately I forgot to followup on the Hauppauge WinTV card I was planning to buy this morning. It's just as well because I can't tell for sure that it supports stereo audio encoding (verify the part number TBS) and the seller never responded to my query. Oh well, there are hundreds more to be had for the same great price! But Patience, Daniel Sun. Make sure the card has a well supported Video for Linux driver! Other Resources: MySetTopBox (KnoppMyth- a Knoppix based Linux Distro customized for MythTV) DVD FAQ The State of Home-Brew PVRs on Linux DVD-Recording Home

Is there Anyboby Out there? I just received by first Harvested DVD - I'm really enjoying the Roger Waters video anthology. Thanks!

The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K. LeGuin, 1971) "Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven." - Chuang Tse: XXIII Original Dustcover Artwork The Lathe of Heaven (Synopsis + Analysis) Academic Analysis Sci-Fi Channel Review A&E Site with cool downloads and links to Movie Trailer TLOH on PBS 'Jor Jor, please forgive warranted interruption. You are human capable of iahklu as previously noted. This troubles self... We also have been variously disturbed. Concepts cross in mist. Perception is difficult. Volcanoes emit fire. Help is offered : refusably. Snakebite serum is not prescribed for all. Before following directions leading in wrong directions, auxiliary forces may be summoned, in immediately foll...

Imaginary Exponents and Euler's Equation

2003 Harrington Elementary Science Fair has come and gone, but alas, after much effort and significant improvement over last year, my son was still only able to place 3rd. He was greatly disappointed, especially after he looked at the projects that one first and second places! Next year we'll we'll try to place 1st by evaluating our project against a science fair " rubric " such as this one published by the Los Angles County Department of Education .

From the Meredith Willson Music Man Album: " Seventy-Six Trombones . Now THIS is music for a celebratory occasion!