I’m thinking I might write up a guide with the steps I took to get this thing going. Every guide I’ve found assumes you know the basics of Linux. Statements like “Oh just download this patch and compile it with the application”. Ok good, what the fuck does that mean? I’ll get there, and I think I’ll go and get very very drunk when I do.

So this is a continuation of my last post in the last few hours I decided to use my desktop PC as my MythTV box, since it was slower than the currently non working hardware I bought today. I thought I’d build my MythTV box, RMA my motherboard and setup my desktop when it comes back. So I grabbed my desktop and brought it into the lounge to pull apart. My desktop case has a detachable chassis, so to start I just pulled out the chassis and plugged in the 250gb hard drive I had and the PCI devices. So it’s setup, and I turned it on, all is good, of course it is it’s worked perfectly fine for the last 3 years barring the odd overheat on a hot day or when direct sunlight got into my case during the day, something I should have taken note of I guess. I get halfway through the installation and I get the overheat/faulty CPU beeps that I’ve gotten once or twice before, rather strange considering it’s a pretty cold night. I put my hands on the CPU heatsink to check how hot it was, farkenel, I burnt my finger pretty good, it was blazing. From what I can figure out, normally the case is on it’s side, allowing the heat to escape out the top side of the heatsink, so it normally didn’t get too hot. In this instance, the Chassis was lieing flat on the ground, so the excess heat was trying to escape out of the CPU fan, which was being blown back into itself, causing it to seriously overheat. Normally this wouldn’t make much difference but if you saw the caked on dust sitting below the CPU fan, you’d agree. So usually when my CPU overheats it turns off, and I can just turn the thing back on again. Not so this time, I guess It baked it’s last transistor.

So in the Space of just over 2 days, 3 computers have died on me, one P4 1.8Ghz, one AMD Athlon X2 3600+ (MSI Motherboard), and my 3 year old pride and joy, an Athlon 3000+. This is without a doubt the most bullshit luck I have had with computers since I’ve been working with them.

I award me no points, and may god have mercy on my soul.

So I’m a fair newbie when it comes to Linux OSes, having a Mac over the past 6 months or so has helped quite a bit with most of the basic commands, but when I get a real issue pop up, I’m done for. So working with MythTV has been a slow process for me, I’ve probably reformatted and reinstalled the OS about 10 times over the past week, switching between KnoppMyth and Ubuntu, I keep thinking I’ve found the method to get KnoppMyth running, but I’m always bitterly disappointed and I go straight back to Ubuntu again. After looking at guide after guide, I’ve managed to put a functioning setup together, and I’m almost ready to buy my new case and remote (Thermaltake Bach setup). The only thing I need to take care of is the episode program guide, the one I’m looking at is called shepherd, it aggrigates program guides from multiple sources, it also gets program information from IMDB, I’ve heard nothing but good things, other than the fact that I can’t get it to work, more than likely to do with my dopeyness, so I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. I also need to get the DVD player and ripper working, which is causing me a bit of grief, but I haven’t even started looking into it yet. In regards to the TV guide situation, TV stations can actually send out their TV guides through the digital TV signal, ABC do it for all of their digital channels, yet the commercial stations, for some reason, only send out the next 2 or 3 shows at best.

So it’s almost there, and I think I’ll be buying the case in the next week or so. and I’ll need to get a nice big ass hard drive and I should be there. I also need to install a BitTorrent client so I can get my shows downloaded directly to the MythBox, one with a web interface would be perfect (Is there a uTorrent build for Linux?).

My last post about this very topic got a massive response, almost 700 comments on digg. So here’s a compiled list of a few more things that the non-tech savvy get up to that just make you grind your teeth, clench your fist and force that little bead of sweat to appear on your forehead.

1. A Folder is a File is a Folder is a File.

This may be a slight design fault of the fathers of the first GUIs out there, some people do call a physical batch of papers in one of those beige folders a file, but I’m sorry, it’s been over 20 years of GUI goodness people, you need to have it tattooed in your brain. A folder is something you put files in. That beige or blue thing you see, is a folder, not a damn file.

You :”Where are those photos of your 21st”
Them: “Oh I put them in a file called 21st”
You: “You mean a folder”
Them:”Yeah, a file”
You: “*shudder*”

2: You’re on Your Laptop, Get Back to Work!

This is one for the network admins out there and pointed out by a “mrassman” on digg.com. There are times when you have to spend a significant amount of your day working on a particular network’s server or 2, so you have two choices, sit in a smelly dark server room pressing the KVM switch over and over to switch between servers, or just sit in a nice office on your laptop, using remote desktop software . You may spend a few hours doing this, and you notice as people walk past, you get a strange stare, a cold vibe, from people thinking you’re doing bugger all.

3: For the Love of Jebus, Tab Key is Your Friend

This one, over a space of a few years must amount to a colossal waste of productivity. When someone logs in to something, they grab their mouse or touchpad, slowly move it up to the username field, click it once….backspace, backspace, backspace backspace, then they type in their username, then they go back to their mouse, click on the password field, type in their password, back to the trusty mouse, hit ok. My god people, tab, tab, enter, it couldn’t be more basic. Sometimes I wish the mouse was never invented.

4: LCD/Plasma TV, Crappy Analog Signal

This is related to my Aspect Ratio irrits of my first list. There are countless bars/pubs/clubs out there, with this fashionable, fancy, Hi Def LCD or Plasma screens, but they are still putting the same crappy, noisy analog TV signal through it. I partly blame the manufacturers, for not having a digital tuner in built in the first place, but surely, if you’re sprucing up your place of business with these fancy TVs, you can afford to splash a few hundred bucks on a digital tuner.

5: How Do I Plug in My DVD Player / Computer.

Most computers these days have all their ports colour coded, most RCA and Component cables have a standard colour scheme, it’s easier than counting. So why do people have such trouble with it? My response to the question is usually “Did you ever play with on of those toys where you put the shape through the right hole? Well it’s like that” That seems to hit it home.

6: Technology on TV News.

One thing that makes you want to yell at the TV is when an IT product is being showcased on some variety/news show, like a breakfast news show. They usually have some tech wizz guy called “Gary the Geek” or something lame like that, wearing some horrible Hawaiian shirt, showing off a product that’s been around for 6 months or is just so inferior you wouldn’t recommend it to your mother in-law. They also seem to explain it in a completely ridiculous way, which doesn’t in any way explain what the product does. On top of that the host asks stupid questions that a 5 year old wouldn’t ask.

7: Stuff Up, Ask the Geek, Oh I fixed it.

People in the office that are use to having a technician at their immediate call, will always call you for the most trivial of problems, so trivial in fact that by the time you walk to their location they have fixed it by their selves. This can happen more than a few times a day, wasting your day a little bit at a time. If they only spent 5 minutes retracing their steps, looking at help or using general common sense, you could go about your day taking care of actual issues.

8: Afraid of Change.

This relates slightly to number 3. You may spend significant amount of time developing teaching a certain skill, configuring a small workaround, or even developing an application that will save your client/friend/relative a significant amount of time. You showcase your efforts, you get a smile and a nod saying how much better your new method is, only to find out a week later they are back to their old, painfully slow methods. Sometimes you wonder why you bother.

9: At Least Know What Your Operating System is Called.

“Ok What Operating System Are You Running?”
“Microsoft Word”
“Uhh, Ok”
Once again people, it’s been over 20 years, you really should know what OS you use, and you should most definitely know the difference between Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows. If someone is talking to you about their home computer it’s really something you need to know, in most cases you can simply ask how old the computer is and gauge what version their OS is from that, but if they don’t know how old it is, and tell you they have Microsoft Office as their OS, you’ve got a struggle on their hands. The only time I don’t encounter this is if the person in question is a Mac user, but this is only because most Mac users have that smug “I own a Mac” thing about them, kinda like Toyota Prius owners. And before you give me the evil eye Mac users out there, I own a Mac myself, and I know what we’re like, and you know it too.

10: The Monitor is Not the Computer, The Computer is Not the Hard Drive.

This one popped up probably the most in the digg comments of my last list, and it’s incredibly common. I guess we could probably blame the Macintosh’s and other all-in-one PCs over time, but come on, if it’s the god damn hard drive, why the hell can you put a CD in it? It’s common sense ferchrissakes. There’s not much else you can say about this one, it is how it is and will forever be.

Once again non-tech-savvy people reading this, we don’t hate you, you can keep going about your ways, you give us jobs a plenty. But you have to let us vent, put yourselves in our position.

So I turned on my Wii today to find that the new version of its Internet browser has been released. So I’ve downloaded it and I’m bloody impressed. Everything that people have asked for has been remedied, including the toolbar auto hiding for full screen action. which is awesome flash games and videos. I watched some you tube vids and a bit of a diggnation and on a standard resolution tv the vids look great. I’ll definitely be using it more often from now on. In fact I’m making this post from my Wii right now.