zen.org Communal Weblog

Haven’t been able to work on the TV pvr-box much for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully this coming weekend I’ll be able to attack it with furvor. I want to fix sound, and get all of the channels going. A friend sent me their MythTV channels list, in the great form of SQL commands. That means I’ll just have to do a bit of editing, and I can recreate the appropriate databasese in MySQL to let it have everything it should need.

My friend Declan and I messed with it a bit last week and I was able to make a single channel show up properly. Well, that’s not exactly right. The picture is skipping frames a lot. I got an AMD Sempron 2600+ 1.833 GHz CPU for this, which I thought would be plenty for what it’ll be doing. But I’m suddenly suspicious that in my efforts to be frugal, I undercut the ability to make the box work properly.

The rest of the hardware in this is:

• Shuttle SN45GV2 Barebone PC box (I love this thing now and want more of them 🙂 )
• 512Mb of Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM memory
• nVidia-based GeForce2 GTS video card with 64Mb of video RAM
• Maxtor 250GB Internal Hard Drive, 7200 RPM
• Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350 Personal Video Recorder PCI card
• external Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge, version2 (whatever that means)
• random CD-ROM I had lying around in our attic (you don’t want to know the volume of junk up in that attic…

Cross your fingers that nothing will eat up the time on Saturday or Sunday.

The carvery lunch offered in many Irish pubs is a real treat for residents and tourists alike. The choices start at roast beef and continue on to include lasagne, roast lamb, fried cod, paninis & sandwiches, you name it. A simple order of the roast beef is met with the question, “All potato and veg with that?” The meat’s already magically appearing as if you’ve transported yourself to the main hall at Hogwarts, and behind you will be Harry Potter and Hermione waiting to get their chance to order.

A simple “Yes” to the question makes an unbelievable amount of food accumulate. Aside from enough meat for three people, mounds of vegetables appear: vast portions of mashed potato, roasted potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and roasted onions.

He looks up expectantly and asks, “Gravy?” How could he possibly add . . .

Nevermind. It fit, all four huge spoonfuls of it. By the time the serving is complete, you can’t see the surface of your large plate. The food rises up as if on top of a mound of soil for a freshly-dug basement.

Twenty minutes later, anyone walking by your table would see an empty plate but an obviously full tummy sitting across from it. Shaking their head as they make their way to the bar, they can only marvel at the capacity of the human appetite.

Couple your meal with a pint of Guinness and you’re ready for whatever the day may give you.

If you are a registered voter in the United States, make sure you vote tomorrow. I know who I’m going to vote for. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote!