Just another useless personal blog
I just received the replacement drive from the RMA of the dying one, and they kindly sent me a 750GB drive instead of the same 500GB model. Thanks, Seagate!
Too bad it’ll be part of a RAID-1 array and limited by the smaller drive’s size… I can probably take the extra space and ‘join’ it to the scratch drive for even more MythTV recording space, though. I’ll just have to read up on all this fancy new LVM stuff…
Y’know, considering that I almost always get a refund, you’d think I’d be mailing my taxes in early on and not on the last possible day…
Maybe things aren’t so bleak after all…
I went ahead and upgraded to Kubuntu 7 (Feisty), and it seems the new version of the X server no longer hangs with the version of the nVidia module I need for working TV-out support. And the crash when MythTV stopped playing was related to the GLX module not working. The GLX and Composite extensions can’t both be enabled at the same time, and Composite is enabled by default with the latest servers. But the Composite extension doesn’t work with this ‘legacy’ nVidia driver anyway, so disabling it allowed GLX to be enabled again, and then MythTV could use OpenGL properly and no longer crashes.
Next up was the sound card ordering problem. I have two sound cards in the system, an SBLive for regular system sounds, and the built-in motherboard audio, used to drive the TV. Kubuntu was detecting them in random order though, so sometimes the SBLive would be considered card 0 and the motherboard card 1, and sometimes vice versa. Every time I rebooted and started MythTV, I wasn’t sure whether the show’s audio was going to come out of the TV or the computer speakers, and if it was the wrong one, I’d have to go back into the config screens and reassign the audio device.
Fortunately, I found a page which describes how to permanently assign the sound card order, among other sound problems. Now the SBLive is always /dev/dsp and the motherboard is always /dev/dsp1.
And with that, all of the major remaining migration problems are now solved. Now I can get around to catching up on the seven weeks of recorded Lost episodes I still haven’t watched yet…
Update: Nope, the X server continued to freeze on me, it just took a little longer this time. It looks like disabling AGP entirely works, but then X takes up a lot more CPU time. Oh well, as long as it works…
Okay, maybe swapping to the nVidia card isn’t going to make things any easier…
I had a working configuration with it on the old Slackware box, but that was with a specific version of the nVidia driver. The ‘official’ packaged driver for Kubuntu is a newer one, and TV-out doesn’t work at all with the newer drivers for some reason. I can uninstall the packaged drivers and then manually install the old drivers and TV-out starts working again, but then the X server hangs on a regular basis. And even when it works for a while, MythTV itself crashes after you finish viewing a show on the TV-out screen, but not on the monitor. I can either have a working TV-out, or stability, but not both.
I could try upgrading to the just-released Ubuntu 7 and see if that fixes the X server hangs, but major version upgrades can be tricky and I just got everything configured the way I need.
I used to love fiddling with Linux as a hobbyist, with the fun being in the learning as I went along, but sometimes you just want something to just work with as little fuss as possible. Maybe I’ll just get a Mac Mini and use it as a dedicated MythTV frontend…
The Great Hardware Upgrade Of 2007 is still underway, but the end is getting closer. The new gaming box is fully set up and works wonderfully and…has been sitting in the corner, completely disconnected, for a few days now. Network, KVM connections, and desk space are limited and currently all in use, but I’ve pretty much finished moving data from the old Linux server to the new one, so I should be able to pull the old one out and move the new gaming box back in tonight.
I’ll still be waiting for a replacement for the broken drive for a week or two, but it was the second drive in the RAID-1 array in the new Linux server, so it can make do with one drive until the replacement arrives. The web and email services moved over easily enough, and MythTV was a lot easier to set up since there are prebuilt packages available for Kubuntu.
The major problem right now is that the TV-out doesn’t work so well on the new server. ATI cards just aren’t very well supported under Linux, and it took quite a while just to get it set up and working properly. The default configuration would crash the system until I disabled the GLX driver; the TV-out wouldn’t work at all with the default drivers; using the official drivers got TV-out working, but wouldn’t let me set it up as a separate screen at a different resolution; manually mucking with the configuration finally solved that, but then there were errors about DRI and Xv not being available; and I had to reinstall the drivers with special instructions to finally solve that.
Except that the TV-out is rather blurry, and doesn’t seem to scale properly when playing video via Xv. I’ll probably wind up just swapping video cards with the old system as well, since the old card has a much sharper TV-out picture, and the nVidia drivers are much more stable and I have a known working configuration for them.
I’ve been managing to lose weight fairly steadily since the beginning of the year, but it’s starting to plateau a bit and I can’t get in as much walking as I used to, so I need to try something different. I’m going to spend more time with my PlayStation 2.
Not with DDR, the primary cliche of geek exercise, though. Instead, I found a title called yourself!fitness, that’s supposed to analyze your current fitness, set up a workout program depending on what you want to focus on (weight loss, upper body strength, flexibility, etc.), coach you through the exercises, and track your progress. I have it set for weight loss for now, but the other goals will come in useful as well, lest I wind up thin-but-wimpy… You can also tell it if you have any extra equipment like hand weights or an exercise ball, and it will incorporate additional exercises using those. There are also different difficulty levels, so that you can bump it down to something easier if you’re having trouble keeping up, or ramp it up if you’re not exerting yourself enough (for example, at lower levels you do bent-knee push-ups instead of proper full-body ones).
I originally set it up for half-hour sessions every day, but hesitated and set it to 15 minutes for the first day, just to test. The workout went well enough, but upon waking up this morning I was still too sore to do a morning workout as I had planned, so I’m definitely way out of shape and can forget those 30-minute sessions for now.
The only problems so far are that it assumes that you have a lot more free space around you than I have in my living room, and it takes a while to familiarize yourself with the different exercises. Each workout goes through a number of different stages and exercises, and by the time I’d figured out how to match my movements to hers, that part would be half-over. And, of course, you look like an idiot while doing most of these, so make sure the blinds are closed…
There’s a meal planner as well, for sticking to a certain calorie limit. I’m a horrible cook and lazy though, so screw that. I’ve got better things to do than track down huge lists of exotic ingredients every day. :P
Now if only they had a 360 version so I could earn gamerscore points…
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED! Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
So much for one of the new drives… I was suspicious of it from the start since it made really odd squealing noises while seeking, but that clinches it.
Oh well, my MythTV box will have to soldier on as-is for a little bit longer.
Edit: And upon going to the manufacturer’s site to see about RMA procedures, I’m greeted with an “Internal Server Error”. Yeah, that’s instilling a lot of confidence…
Most of my parts are here now, but of course, things never go as smoothly as you’d like…
Continue reading “Murphy Be With You”
I’ll probably pick up the 360 version of Guitar Hero II eventually, but concern is already rising over one of the things that’s supposed to be a feature of the 360 version: downloadable songs.
It’s great that you can add more songs to it, of course, but the current pricing scheme seems a bit…excessive. The songs released so far are only available in packs of three, at $6.25 USD per pack, and are songs imported over from the original Guitar Hero, not new ones. Over $2 USD per song seems a bit much when their relative value was more like $1 each when you bought the original game. And the bundling scheme encourages them to put one good song in with two crummy songs, so you may wind up paying $6 for just the one song you really want.
I still like the 360 and Live service overall, but this is the kind of nickel-and-diming people were worried about finally coming to fruition… Hopefully they’re just testing the waters, response will be poor, and they’ll start doing more reasonable bundles and prices.
The rest of my parts should be here soon, so what all do I need to do when they arrive…
That takes care of the new system, but there’s still the old ones…
Plus recabling of the network and audio connections as needed. That should keep me busy for a while.
I’ll probably throw Win98 on D and keep it around as a ‘retro’ gaming box for the handful of games that don’t run properly on modern systems. If I can find the room for it…
Earth Defense Force 2017 (X360) – The graphics are a bit underwhelming for a next-gen title, the animations are awkward, the frame rate gets choppy at times, and it’s a bit repetitive. It’s still a ton of fun though, just because of all the frantic mayhem of fighting off huge swarms of alien ants, giant robots, and sky-blotting UFOs with a large variety of heavy weaponry.
Worms (X360) – The same old classic 2D Worms gameplay, really. Unfortunately there aren’t as many terrain and voice sets as the PC versions, due to size limits, and they got rid of a lot of the weirder and more powerful weapons. More terrain and voice sets will be available later on though, and it’s easier to find people to play against on Xbox Live than it was with the now-ancient PC games.
Puzzle Quest: Challenge Of The Warlords (DS) – This is probably the oddest RPG I’ve ever played. It has all of the standard RPG tropes — character classes and stats, spells, equipment, towns with inns and vendors, quests to go on, etc., but combat is resolved by taking turns on a Bejeweled-alike grid where lining up different colours or symbols has different effects (gaining mana for spells, gaining gold, doing damage to the enemy, etc.). It’s challenging too, as you have to think ahead a few turns and try to avoid leaving the grid in an advantageous state for your opponent at the end of your turn.
Crackdown (X360) – Another GTA-like game, except this one puts you on the side of law enforcement. It’s a bit shallow in that there’s not a wide variety of missions and most weapons aren’t too useful (you soon run across an optimal combination that you can pretty much stick with for the rest of the game), but the firefights can get pretty intense. A lot of the fun is in just how exaggerated things can get — level up your skills a bit and before long you’re jumping up the sides of skyscrapers, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, picking up cars and throwing them halfway down the block, and setting off huge chains of explosions.
Trackmania United (PC) – It’s the same old Trackmania gameplay (essentially a faster-paced, modernized version of Stunts), but this version combines all of the terrain types and vehicles from the previous three releases, adds some new block types to the editor, and greatly expands the online community support. Your times on official tracks can now be registered on the global ladder rankings, you can organize into groups to compare times against each other, you can create tracks and publish them as an official track so that others can set times against it, and download others’ tracks and replays, all from within the game itself.
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night (X360) – I’d played the various GBA and DS versions of Castlevania, but not this PS1 version, which was essentially the genesis of the current form of the series with its leveling, non-linear exploration, and variable equipment. This XBLA version is a perfect emulation of it though, and it’s pretty good. The voice acting is horrible and it gets a bit too easy after getting certain weapons, but it controls well and keeps things varied and interesting throughout the entire map.
Unfortunately, in one of the bonus modes where you can play as a character from the previous game in the series, the flaws of the 360 controller become a huge hindrance. You can pull off Street Fighter-ish moves with the characters, and although they’re completely unnecessary for the main game, they’re crucial to winning with this bonus character, as they’re the only way he can reach certain areas. They’re difficult to pull off reliably with the analog stick though, and the d-pad on the 360 controller is just horrible. Half the time you’ll accidentally hit a diagonal, ruining the precision of your current jump, preventing you from chaining moves, and making you land in the wrong place.
Space Rangers 2 (PC) – It’s hard to categorize this game, since it has a little bit of everything in it. It’s primarily a space trading/combat game like the Escape Velocity series, but missions and random events often take you off to something else entirely. Help defend an outpost and you’ll play a simple little RTS map. Get caught smuggling, and it becomes a text adventure as you try to endure or break out of prison. There’s even a Galactic Pizza Cook-Off competition. Most of the fun is in the core space sim though, establishing trade routes, upgrading your ship, fighting off the Dominator enemies and pirates (or becoming a pirate yourself), and maintaining relationships with the various factions.
Final Fantasy XII (PS2) – The story isn’t all that thrilling so far (though I have a long ways to go), but it’s one of the best-looking PS2 games and the gameplay mechanics are pretty good. It cribs a bit from MMORPGs, with real-time (though pausable) combat integrated into the zone maps. Party members are handled by letting the player set up ‘gambits’, which are sets of rules that control how they behave (e.g., if the target is weak to fire, cast a Firaga spell; if a party member is at less than 40% health, cast a heal, etc.).
Since I’ll be shuffling around my hardware soon, my MythTV box will be more powerful and might be capable of handling HD recordings. So, would it be worthwhile for me to jump on the HDTV bandwagon?
Not really, it turns out. In order to record HD broadcasts, I’d need an HD tuner card. There are plenty available and supported in Linux, but they have restrictions: they can only record over-the-air and unencrypted cable signals.
Problem 1: There are no over-the-air HD signals in the Calgary area. Maybe the local stations will eventually get around to it, but for now there just aren’t any at all.
Problem 2: Almost all of the digital cable channels are encrypted. These can’t be recorded because, well, that’s what the encryption is there to prevent. There’s no solution for this on the horizon either, as Canadian cable companies aren’t adopting the CableCard standard.
So for now, in order to record HD shows, the only option is to go with one of the cable company’s hideously-expensive DVRs, which are widely criticized for having a poor interface and limited capacity, and I wouldn’t be able to get at the raw recordings for long-term archival.
Oh well, I probably watch too much TV anyways…
Woo, I just received my order of an nVidia 8800 GTS video card, the second-fastest card you can get right now (the 8800 GTX is faster, but it’s a hell of a lot more expensive). New cards are due out soon, but nVidia’s new ones will mostly be cheaper mid-range ones that won’t be as fast, and ATI’s is delayed and reportedly quite hot and power-hungry.
Now I just need a system to put it in…