June 15th, 2009
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We have quite a good Freeview box which does scheduled recordings including series-record but it could be better because it is missing a HD output, DVD playback and Video streaming.
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We decided to build our own HTPC in order to take control of our viewing options once and for all.
Hardware List:
- Case: Lian Li PC-C37B Muse HTPC Chassis – Black. This case didn’t come with a PSU so we bought a Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK).
- Motherboard: ASUS P5N7A-VM – micro ATX – GF 9300 / nForce 730i – LGA775 Socket – UDMA133, Serial ATA-300 (RAID), eSATA – Gigabit Ethernet – video – High Definition Audio (8-channel)
- CPU: Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo Processor – 3.00 GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Socket LGA775, 45 nm
- RAM: 2GB (2 x 1GB) CORSAIR PC2-6400 PC RAM Memory
- Hard Disk: Samsung SpinPoint HD103UJ F1 Series – 1 TB – 32 MB – SATA
- DVD burner: Samsung SH-S223QBEBN 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black)
- TV-Tuner card: Hauppauge Nova-T 500 twin TV-tuner card.
This list was based on the suggestions from page 56 of issue 117 of Linux Format Magazine. One thing to note is that the Nova-T 500 comes with a full-height backing plate so it wouldn’t fit into the case until Hauppauge, apon request, mailed us a half-height backing plate. The case fits in our Ikea Besta Burs TV Bench (albeit with a little jigsaw butchery to the thin plywood back panel). The case is missing a IR port but the TV-Card comes with a external IR receiver which is perhaps more useful because it means the PC can be out of site with only the little IR receiver poking out.
Software
Install and configure Arch using “The Beginners Guide”: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide. Then install MythTV using the great Arch wiki: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MythTV_HOWTO
Amazing HDMI video worked out of the box. However, HDMI sound didn’t – To get sound through HDMI to the TV: Upgrade your version of ALSA, then in alsamixer, unmute all IEC958 channels (i.e. IEC958, IEC958-D, IEC958-1). Then:
- For Xine – Go to the audio tab and change the “audio-driver to use” to “alsa” and the “device used for stereo-output” to “pcm.hw:0,3″.
- For Mplayer – Right click->Preferences->Audio. Select alsa from the Available drivers. Then click “Configure driver” and enter “hw=0,3″
- For MythTV – Go to Utilities/Setup->Setup->General->”Next” until you get to the Audio section. In “Audio output device:” enter “ALSA:hw:0,3″. For MythTV DVD playback – Go to “Utilites/Setup”->Setup->”Media Settings”->”Video Settings”->”Player Settings”-> and add “-ao alsa:device=hw=0.3″ to the mplayer options in the the “Default Video Player” field.
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May 27th, 2009
PeoplePerHour.com (and 1s of my head) were on the six o’clock news last night:

Unfortunately, the traffic spike generated from the mention on TV and the associated BBC web page brought our server down – so I’m feeling pretty bad about my abilities as a web developer at the moment
Hopefully, I’ll be ready for it next time around…

PeoplePerHour on the BBC news website
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May 26th, 2009
I’m doing a walk next month with some friends – we want to go up and down the 3 highest mountains in the UK within 24 hours – a serious challenge for someone who’s primary exercise for the last 5 years has been computer programming!
We’re trying to raise £1000 for cancer research in the memory of anyone who’s lost someone to cancer – we’d really appreciate a donation. The link is: http://www.justgiving.com/tri_copaon
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May 4th, 2009

A jackalope?
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I highly recommend the new Ubuntu 9.04 release (Jaunty Jackalope), it has A+ compatibility on a Sony VGN-AR51E. I also recommend upgrading from previous Ubuntu versions. Apart from the pretty new style system notifications the other thing well worth upgrading for is the promise of better boot performance.
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Boot speed: Obviously, when I turn on my laptop I would like it to be ready ASAP but in the last few years each release has seemed to take longer to boot than the last. In order to minimise boot time I installed the 64bit version and partitioned with the new ext4 filesystem. After installing, doing an update and rebooting, I installed bootchart (sudo apt-get install bootchart) and rebooted again. The chart generated in /var/log/bootchart says boot time was 23 seconds. Pretty good.
Jaunty Goods:
- Better boot time.
- Pretty system notifications.
- The new login screen is nice (not that I often see it because I have auto-login enabled).
- My Laptop Webcam now works out of the box (sudo apt-get install cheese)
- UK English dictionary available in firefox without need to download an extension.
- Setting up my printer (HP Photosmart-3200) was the easiest it’s ever been. It was auto-discovered and literally done in 3 clicks.
Jaunty Bads:
- The new wallpaper isn’t as nice as Intrepid (where’s the abstract jackalope?)
- The automatic updates aren’t as good as Intrepid because they now seem to nag you.
- I suffered from a complete system freeze related to the nvidia drivers. I couldn’t even boot the machine – took an hour to recover. Only happened the once though.
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April 1st, 2009
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The best April Fools jokes are the subtle ones right?
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We have pretended to add a dating service to our website. Check it out at peopleperhour.com. We’ve added cheesy dating profiles and fake FAQs such as the following:
Will the dating site affect my rating on PPH?
No you will have a separate score on the Dating site however both scores will be visible in the dating site: a high professional score is most often a source of attraction and as such will be displayed.
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