Building a MythTV Box
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. 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 [...]
PeoplePerHour on prime time news
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 [...]
Plea for donations
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 [...]
Nova-TD-500 Tuning issues
I wanted to watch freeview on my PC so I bought a brand new Hauppauge Nova-TD-500 card. Unfortunately I found the picture quality to be exceptionally low – There were significant image artefacts and glitches where everything is fine if I plug the same cable into a normal TV. I tried a whole load of [...]
Ant Problems
We get attacked by ants every year but this year we have an extra problem because ants seem to like cat food. Kix put the cat bowl into another bowl and half filled the outer bowl with a moat of water so ants can’t get to it. Anyone know a better solution?
Ubuntu 9.04 on a Sony VGN-AR51E
A jackalope? 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. Boot speed: Obviously, when I [...]
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert A. Heinlein)
Sci-Fi, 8/10 – April 2009 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (New English Library Science Fiction) Price: £2.49 (33 customer reviews) 8 used & new available from £2.49 The story follows the revolution of a Lunar penal colony against earth for political freedom. The people of the moon don’t have any conventional weapons but it [...]
April Fools
The best April Fools jokes are the subtle ones right? 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 beginnings of a Home Theatre PC
Kix gave me a myth for my birthday (a Myth Box without the box). More specifically she gave me a motherboard, a ASUS P5N7A-VM which is special because it has a HDMI port for nice connectivity to a TV. Full Motherboard details: ASUS P5N7A-VM – micro ATX – GF 9300 / nForce 730i – LGA775 [...]
Feverous Tea
Check out Feverous Tea:
Halo Wars Demo
XBox360,RTS,4/10 – February 2009 It has been proved, RTS on a console just isn’t possible. You can put as much effort and talent into making it as possible but a mouse is a fundamental requirement of a RTS. Playing this demo made me doubt whether releasing a demo is always financially advantageous for the game [...]
The Pillars of The Earth (Ken Follett)
Fiction, 6/10 – February 2009 The Pillars of the Earth Price: £4.76 (405 customer reviews) 125 used & new available from £0.01 1000 pages set in 12th century Britain based largely around the building of cathedrals – sound interesting? No, but it comes highly recommended (33rd in the BBC’s 2003 big read) and in an [...]
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (UK)
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (UK) Price: £29.99 (194 customer reviews) 48 used & new available from £19.99 I looked around for quite a while to try to buy something non-Microsoft branded because I didn’t want to “feed the hand that bites us” but at the end of the day one has to be a [...]
Rich Chocolate mousse cake
Source: Weightwatchers “Cook!” (p180), Takes: 20 mins to prepare and 45 mins to cook, Rating: 9/10 Looks like a cake but doesn’t have the texture of a cake – it’s really smooth and melt-in-the-mouth. Usually recipes don’t look like the picture right? Well, this is an exception: Mousse cake Not mouse cake
Piri Piri Stir-Fry Veg Beef
Source: Weightwatchers “Spicy and speedy” (p5), Takes: 15 mins, Rating: 6/10 This is quick to make because you use a ready prepared stir-fry veg pack and quorn pieces are quicker to cook that real beef. The chilli is the important ingredient, without them it would be really bland. I prefer it with noodles rather than [...]
