Noisy neighbours at Central Park in Mountain View

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Its 5am my time, and I've been awake since 3am. Not from choice though -- its the downstairs neighbours waking us up yet again. They're shift workers you see, and must either sleep with construction hearing protection on, or be deaf. Either way, they seem to think its ok to stand outside our apartment at shout at each other at 2am, or slam doors at all hours, or listen to music so loud it vibrates stuff in our apartment basically all night. We've asked them nicely to turn it down (we used to get on quite well with them at first). We've asked the complex to please do something. We even rung the complex security folk when its happening, and asked for some peace. Its really done nothing to help -- they perhaps turn the music down for 30 minutes until security leaves, and then turn it right back on again. So, we've run out of ideas, apart from ending the lease early (which will cost an unknown amount of money), and moving somewhere else. We're so serious about doing that that I have started looking around Craigslist already. Perhaps the floor between apartments is too thin, because the bathroom…

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Schedules direct is live!

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Ok, for those of us in the US, we'll be glad to know that Schedules Direct is now live with two weeks to spare. It seems that the easiest way to perform the upgrade is to upgrade to 0.20.2, and then change the configuration to use SD instead of Zap2IT. Note that I haven't done it myself yet, but that there are instructions on the MythTV wiki.

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Guide data update

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Its been a while since I have commented on the state of US guide data for MythTV here. That's mainly been because I have been waiting for the situation to become more clear. At this stage there are some interesting things to report: zap2it shutdown is still slated for September 1, 2007 MythTV developers, and others, have teamed together to form Schedules Direct as a replacement There are forums for Schedules Direct discussion Schedules Direct will be charging around $5 US a month, at least initially The first 100 beta testers have been added, and bugs found Code has been added to the development version of MythTV to start handling Schedules Direct (although you are not forced to upgrade to use the new guide data source)

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Zap2IT shutdown update

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I've been silent on the Zap2IT shutdown issue for a week or so now, mainly because of travel, and also because I was waiting for something useful to happen. I've ready literally hundreds of emails of the users mailing list -- many proposing architectures for distribution of data, or placing various demands about how much someone would be willing to pay for the data. I am yet to see someone actually sit down and write some code though. So hence this update. There isn't any useful news yet, except for a general reassurance that the developers promise that they are still working on a solution. So, keep on waiting is the plan for now...

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…and then there was a pause…

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I guess we're at a different phase of the Zap2IT guide data thing now. The story has broken, there's been tons of email on the mythtv-users mailing list (remember, don't panic!), and now things have quietened down. I think that's probably a good thing, because it almost certainly means people are now no longer distracted from actually sitting down and working on the problem. I imagine that journalists would make up some sensational thing to say to keep the story rolling during this quiet news cycle. I can't think of any such thing to say, and it wouldn't be ethical anyway. I must say that I think coverage like this isn't always helpful.

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Some quick further thoughts on the Zap2IT shutdown

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The Zap2IT forums has a thread about the shutdown (you need to have a Zap2IT login to get to the forum). One of the posts on the thread about the shutdown expands on the reasons for the free guide data shutting down: - Continued use of the service to support commercial products, in violation of the agreement. - Commercial products continued to grow despite previous appeals that this activity stop. - There are significant changes to the supporting data structure forthcoming and we could not devote resources to the continued upkeep and enhancements of the service. - Maintenance of the service is impacting our resource pool for other projects. - We sought alternative options but were unable to find a solution. - We recognize the hardship this creates for the user community. We are open to alternative solutions and would consider proposals that met the needs of the user community and our company. - We looked into options to turn this into a paid service however we do not have the infrastructure at this time. So it seems that the folks selling MythTV based solutions which used the guide data, as well as possible other commercial uses (the was no…

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An initial analysis of the removal of Zap2IT guide data in the US

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(I had some spare time while waiting for the kids to finish their breakfast, so this is posted earlier than I planned). As mentioned briefly earlier today MythTVnews.com is reporting that Tribune Media Services (TMS) is turning off their free guide data service for MythTV on 1 September 2007. This is mainly because of claims of abuse -- the theory on the MythTV users mailing list is that this abuse is vendors selling pre-configured MythTV systems for profit, which use the not-for-commercial-use guide data service from Zap2IT. The announcement from TMS reads: IMPORTANT MESSAGE: For several years we have offered a free TV listings service to hobbyists for their own personal, noncommercial use. In October of 2004 we posted here an open letter saying the future of Zap2it Labs was at risk because of certain growing misuses of the Zap2it Labs data. Unfortunately this misuse has continued and grown. These misuses, combined with other business factors have led to the decision to discontinue Zap2it Labs effective September 1, 2007. We thank those users who have honoured the terms of the agreement, and we suggest you consider the many TV listings options offered by the commercial licensees of TMS TV listings…

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How do you spot the Australian kids in an American playground?

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They're the ones wearing hats. Despite it being noon, the various American kids at the playground all lacked sun protection. In fact, they pretty much all lacked practical clothing, it was all way too dressy. Americans don't seem to have figured out skin cancer at all in fact, every weekend there are bikini clad young ladies sunning themselves around the pool, the schools don't require kids to wear sun protection, and it's pretty common to see outside workers not wearing any sun protection either. How odd.

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Dentist

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I went to the dentist for the first time in the US last night. It was a pretty odd experience. 19 xrays (apparently that's standard here), a TV set on the wall where they showed me the tooth which needs a filling, and then showed me the filling after it was done, photos of my teeth with a digital camera so they can show me before and after in a few years. Heck, they rubbed lotion on my lips for me so that I wouldn't have to suffer at all by keeping my mouth open for more than 30 seconds. The best bit? They came up with a written estimate before they did the filling, and made sure I was ok with the whole thing before they did any work. I think I like the dentist here.

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I am sometimes amazed by the childlike political discourse in the US

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It amazes me that the best political argument Ann Coulter can come up with is that John Edwards is a faggot. While it is true that Ann specialises in a particularly vile form of hate politics, I guess she's sufficiently lame that she can't even think of good insults any more. It's a bit like the Anna Nicole Smith burial thing... Isn't the best way to fix these problems just to turn off the media coverage of these morons?

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