Santa Monica
I'm currently waiting as part of boarding group A for my South West flight to Santa Monica. I should be there by lunch. So, any last minute suggestions for things to do in Santa Monica apart from drink a lot?
MythIPTV Beta 2
Just announced. It was either do the washing, or this: Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:11:09 -0800 From: Michael Still To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: MythIPTV Beta 2 Hi again. There's a new version of MythIPTV now at http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythiptv/source/beta-2/ This version adds the following: - subscription management: you can add RSS URLs to watch, list them, update them (download new versions of the XML and import the shows), and remove them - ad hoc video management: add a remote URL to the TODO list, download a remote URL and import it now, import a local file - transcoding: it's quite probable that you'll encounter a video format which isn't know. Please report it if you do - statistics: how many programs do I have? how many are waiting to download? how much data have I downloaded so far? - reporting: what shows would be downloaded next? what does the internal log say about the state of MythIPTV? Once again, this is a beta, so good backups are needed. I would love more feedback. Oh, and you _really_ need mplayer and mencoder installed now. Really. Cheers, Mikal
MythIPTV Beta 2
Just announced. It was either do the washing, or this: Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:11:09 -0800 From: Michael Still To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: MythIPTV Beta 2 Hi again. There's a new version of MythIPTV now at http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythiptv/source/beta-2/ This version adds the following: - subscription management: you can add RSS URLs to watch, list them, update them (download new versions of the XML and import the shows), and remove them - ad hoc video management: add a remote URL to the TODO list, download a remote URL and import it now, import a local file - transcoding: it's quite probable that you'll encounter a video format which isn't know. Please report it if you do - statistics: how many programs do I have? how many are waiting to download? how much data have I downloaded so far? - reporting: what shows would be downloaded next? what does the internal log say about the state of MythIPTV? Once again, this is a beta, so good backups are needed. I would love more feedback. Oh, and you _really_ need mplayer and mencoder installed now. Really. Cheers, Mikal
MythIpTV Beta 1
Some folk at LCA expressed interest in my video blog aggregator for MythTV. I've cleaned it up, and just sent out the first release: Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:38:04 -0800 From: Michael Still To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: MythIpTv Beta 1 Hi. I've been recently wanting a video blog aggregator which integrates with MythTV. Specifically, I wanted the videos to appear as recordings. I've had a horrible script for that for a few months, but ended up cleaning it up when it occurred to me that Akimbo (http://www.akimbo.com) is just a per user RSS feed, and something a lot like MythTV. So, I wrote MythIpTv. It takes RSS feeds, imports the entries in the feed and builds a TODO list. It then downloads shows and imports them into the MythTV recordings menu. The code has only been tested by me, so if you're interested in giving it a try, please take good backups. You can find the code here: http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythiptv/source/beta-1/mythiptv Before use, you need to make a temporary data directory in your current working directory: mkdir data You use mythiptv like this: ./mythiptv --url <url to RSS feed> <show title> or ./mythiptv --file <RSS file on local disk> <show…
MythIpTV Beta 1
Some folk at LCA expressed interest in my video blog aggregator for MythTV. I've cleaned it up, and just sent out the first release: Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 09:38:04 -0800 From: Michael Still To: Discussion about mythtv Subject: MythIpTv Beta 1 Hi. I've been recently wanting a video blog aggregator which integrates with MythTV. Specifically, I wanted the videos to appear as recordings. I've had a horrible script for that for a few months, but ended up cleaning it up when it occurred to me that Akimbo (http://www.akimbo.com) is just a per user RSS feed, and something a lot like MythTV. So, I wrote MythIpTv. It takes RSS feeds, imports the entries in the feed and builds a TODO list. It then downloads shows and imports them into the MythTV recordings menu. The code has only been tested by me, so if you're interested in giving it a try, please take good backups. You can find the code here: http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythiptv/source/beta-1/mythiptv Before use, you need to make a temporary data directory in your current working directory: mkdir data You use mythiptv like this: ./mythiptv --url <url to RSS feed> <show title> or ./mythiptv --file <RSS file on local disk> <show…
More bomb shelters!
People who visit here (of which I assume there are none) will know that I occasionally rant about how cool bomb shelters are. Dad put me onto this excellent article about the Swiss: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6347519.stm Under Swiss law, local governments are required to provide shelter spaces for everyone, and in the early 1970s Lucerne was short by several thousand. The new Sonnenberg motorway tunnel, just being built, seemed a neat solution: kit it out as a nuclear shelter as well and it could hold 20,000 people. ... The monstrous Sonnenberg shelter though, is being gradually dismantled. But not because it has finally been deemed unnecessary: no, no, the real problem is those 350 tonne blast doors. When they were tested, they would not shut. Yet another stop on my eventual bomb shelter tour of the world.
Akimbo
I was at Fry's today with the kids, and while wandering around I came across the Akimbo. It's an interesting device -- a hardware player that downloads content over your Internet connection, and then plays those videos for you when you ask nicely. You can select what you want to download form their website, and they have a (smallish it seems to me) collection of commercial content. They seem to be aiming at being the next iTunes store -- you can get them to host your video blog, and they will make it available to their devices. You can even charge for people to watch your recorded rantings. I see a couple of problems though: The device is expensive ($200 US is recommended retail, you can get them for $99 at the moment) This functionality would be trivial to implement in MythTV for free (in fact, I have been sitting on a python script that does this for MythTV since LCA -- it just needs some cleanup before release) They use DRM Even worse, they use MS Windows DRM I wonder if anyone has asked them if they'd be willing to allow a MythTV client? [btags:]
Time for a status update?
It's been a while since I've commented on the MythTV book project, so it's worth a quick status update. We're basically into the home straight now -- we've decided what to cover in the book (which of course involves missing out on a few things which could be in there if we had infinite space and time), written the chapters (which are all now done), and are now working through technical review and copy edits. I'll keep you posted as we get closer to final production.
Big TVs are evil, Ok?
The NFL apparently nastygrammed a church for planning to host a Super Bowl party. The original complaint was first that the church was charging people, but also that they used the term "Super Bowl" (as if people would somehow believe that the church was associated with the NFL?). After the church agreed to let people in for free and not use the term, the NFL continued to complain, saying that showing the Super Bowl on a screen larger than 55 inches represents copyright infringement. http://techdirt.com/articles/20070201/140812.shtml
Planes at 600 meters!
On Friday, an aircraft hired by Google will be doing a series of low-level swoops over parts of Sydney, photographing the ground and waters below. The three-seater plane, decked out in Google livery, will have special permission to fly at an altitude of 600m. Providing the photographs turn out to be good enough quality, the images will be integrated into Google Maps, the free online mapping service used by millions of people around the world. Via SMH, links to Google site about the flyover.