State of the den.

Technogeekery ahead -- largely home theater oriented.

The situation as it is:

Sound. Sound is good. NAD T750 receiver, PSB Century 800 mains, PSB Alpha
rears, Optimus LX7 center, PSB subwoofer good down to 34 Hz. No complaints.

Image sources: Comcast cable (I hate Comcast. I also hate all the
alternatives.) Two cable/OTA ATSC tuners in an HDHomeRun. An SVHS VCR, DVD
player. MythTV. TiVo Series 1.

Image sinks: MythTV hard disks. MythTV DVD recording. Standalone DVD
recorder, SVHS recorder. TiVo. JVC NTSC television.

Issues: I run Djinn, the Myth box, from an IR keyboard. I bought an IR
remote, but it's gone missing. I'd like to either find it or replace it. The
problem with the otherwise-great universal remote control (wedding present
from Metahacker, still in use 6 years later!) is that it's not actually
completely programmable, and that it lacks any tactile feedback from the LCD
screen.

Sound output from Djinn is good, but 2 channel. I should get a sound card
with 5.1 discrete output. Video quality is excellent, but there's a ground
loop causing 60Hz interference rolling up the screen. And plugging/unplugging
the SVideo cable is aggravating. (The TV only has one SVideo input.) I could
solve both of those by buying an LCD HDTV. I am reluctant to do so because
the prices are still dropping, and I hate buying electronics and realizing a
month later that I spent 15% of the price on having it for a month. Still,
this [ http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11219653&whse=BC ] is very tempting.

Djinn duplicates lots of other functionality. I ought to be able to replace
the standalone DVD recorder and the standalone DVD player with it. The
interface is almost at that point -- it would be more so if I had a remote
for it other than a keyboard.

Comcast encrypts HDTV signals other than what can be found OTA already.
That's highly aggravating, because there are a bunch of channels that we pay
for but can't pipe through Djinn except as standard-def, using the Comcast
STB as a tuner.

State of the den.

Technogeekery ahead -- largely home theater oriented.

The situation as it is:

Sound. Sound is good. NAD T750 receiver, PSB Century 800 mains, PSB Alpha
rears, Optimus LX7 center, PSB subwoofer good down to 34 Hz. No complaints.

Image sources: Comcast cable (I hate Comcast. I also hate all the
alternatives.) Two cable/OTA ATSC tuners in an HDHomeRun. An SVHS VCR, DVD
player. MythTV. TiVo Series 1.

Image sinks: MythTV hard disks. MythTV DVD recording. Standalone DVD
recorder, SVHS recorder. TiVo. JVC NTSC television.

Issues: I run Djinn, the Myth box, from an IR keyboard. I bought an IR
remote, but it's gone missing. I'd like to either find it or replace it. The
problem with the otherwise-great universal remote control (wedding present
from Metahacker, still in use 6 years later!) is that it's not actually
completely programmable, and that it lacks any tactile feedback from the LCD
screen.

Sound output from Djinn is good, but 2 channel. I should get a sound card
with 5.1 discrete output. Video quality is excellent, but there's a ground
loop causing 60Hz interference rolling up the screen. And plugging/unplugging
the SVideo cable is aggravating. (The TV only has one SVideo input.) I could
solve both of those by buying an LCD HDTV. I am reluctant to do so because
the prices are still dropping, and I hate buying electronics and realizing a
month later that I spent 15% of the price on having it for a month. Still,
this [ http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11219653&whse=BC ] is very tempting.

Djinn duplicates lots of other functionality. I ought to be able to replace
the standalone DVD recorder and the standalone DVD player with it. The
interface is almost at that point -- it would be more so if I had a remote
for it other than a keyboard.

Comcast encrypts HDTV signals other than what can be found OTA already.
That's highly aggravating, because there are a bunch of channels that we pay
for but can't pipe through Djinn except as standard-def, using the Comcast
STB as a tuner.

Chelonian Rescue

We had just finished eating dinner and I was sitting back in my chair, enjoying the fresh breeze and the setting sun. I saw movement crossing the street in front of the neighbor's house -- slow movement. At first I assumed it was a cat or dog, or possibly something wild, and in any case injured -- it was agonizingly slow. A car swerved to avoid it.

Then I recognized the silhouette as the long neck craned out - a turtle. Not a normal denizen of our busy suburban street, so there was a bit of a panic as I rushed out to get it.

( I approached the turtle openly, walking in along the side of the road, and made my assault. )

Chelonian Rescue

We had just finished eating dinner and I was sitting back in my chair, enjoying the fresh breeze and the setting sun. I saw movement crossing the street in front of the neighbor's house -- slow movement. At first I assumed it was a cat or dog, or possibly something wild, and in any case injured -- it was agonizingly slow. A car swerved to avoid it.

Then I recognized the silhouette as the long neck craned out - a turtle. Not a normal denizen of our busy suburban street, so there was a bit of a panic as I rushed out to get it.

( I approached the turtle openly, walking in along the side of the road, and made my assault. )