New Linux Projects

[pmp6nl]

Well I have two side linux projects I am working on.

1. Setting up the new ubuntu install on my laptop so I can emulate windows inside it (sometimes you just need windows), I would also like to figure out how to run outlook and active sync in linux (or emulated windows) so I can sync my phone.

2. The much larger/time consuming project is building a media server.  I just installed mythdora and I am having problems getting it to recognize my Hauppauge wintv pvr usb2. Once that is fixed it should be pretty sweet.  The current system has one 500 gig harddrive but I want to add another, probably 1 terabyte.  The problem is is that the mother board does not support SATA.. which is the most common for hard drives now.  So I will either upgrade the motherboard, look for a 1TB pata hard drive, leave it at 500 gigs for now, or go external SATA (though the PCI slots are also old school and only support 133 MB/s so I wont see the max speed of SATA ).

I will also be using the system to backup files and media.  I would also like to setup some other services such as downloads from Hulu or some sort of Miro integration.

We will see, all hopes and dreams!  It will all be pretty easy, minus the tv tuner

[Sal Atticum]

You can get a tv tuner on a usb stick now for pretty cheap, can't you?

[Meest]

pmp6nl. for Emulating windows get the non open source version of Virtual box. It works great on my laptop. The main thing is the open source one does not support USB. the free one that isn't open source will. and its simple to install with 8.04 ubuntu.

I had my phone, external sound card, USB Serial interface and mouse all working no problem in it. It was great.

[pmp6nl]

You can get a tv tuner on a usb stick now for pretty cheap, can't you?

Yeah, if I cant get the current one to work I will try that.

pmp6nl. for Emulating windows get the non open source version of Virtual box. It works great on my laptop. The main thing is the open source one does not support USB. the free one that isn't open source will. and its simple to install with 8.04 ubuntu.

I had my phone, external sound card, USB Serial interface and mouse all working no problem in it. It was great.

Cool, I will try that.  Thanks for the suggestion

[Sal Atticum]

It looks like one of my June projects is going to be a media server.  I'd like to make it as easy-to-use as possible, for people who potentially don't do computers and don't want to monkey with stuff.  If I don't want to screw with DVR or anything, I should be able to setup a box with a video out card that uses the TV as a monitor, right?  So to run things you can switch the TV input, mouse to the file you want, and play it fullscreen.

A more advanced question, is there a linux package that would emulate the way you can use a remote on the new Macs to scroll through the media on the computer?  I know the remote part would mean some hardware fun, but it would be really cool to have a simple interface for everything (something so simple even drunk people can't screw it up).  Ideas?

If not, I wish I could code better...

[Meest]

I've been trying to set up Boxee on my extra ubuntu box... But for the life of me can not get my wireless card I have laying around working with the ndiswrapper... its a stupid D-link one... ARG!

in other news, does anyone know how to make facebook and Myspace NOT lag like crazy when scrolling through the pages? these are literally the only sites that do this... That and I can't get Flash to behave (No surprise there)

PS Sal, I have an old ATI Remote wonder that works almost perfectly with my ubuntu box. Just have to change some button mapping a little bit... Haven't dove into it to far but it works for the most part. Pretty cool. I think they have a new remote that should work better I'd think.

[Sal Atticum]

I've been having interesting problems with huuuuge javascript lags lately.  I can't imagine that the source of our problems is the same, but I think that certain sites are coding on high-end computers, so they don't notice that their code sucks (and slows everything down for people without the newest stuff).

Boxee looks really interesting.  It looks more web-intense than I had been looking for, but it certainly seems to do what I want.

[pmp6nl]

If you dont want a DVR and just want to display videos and stuff like Hulu on your TV a video card with some sort of output would be fine.  You could even just use something standard like VGA or something if your TV has the inputs or if you buy an adapter.  Of you could buy a TV tuner and set something up pretty easily.  Hauppauge has some nice ones.

For your advanced question I would google that or just use a tv remote.

Meest I responded to your other post about wireless

Facebook is just a piece these days.  It even lags on my laptop at times and I am running dual core 2.10GHz with 4 gigs of ram... I think its just the sites themselves are being bogged down with traffic and apps.