So I built a TiVo...

Most people have a general idea about what a TiVo does...it grabs programming information off the WWW and uses it to record the TV shows you specify. Not really a very complicated thing...so I built one instead of buying one. Generically, this type of product is called a DVR or PVR (digital/personal video recorder).

Why in the world would I build instead of buy? Well, TiVo is EXPENSIVE. Add to the cost of the little box the fact that you have to pay a monthly subscription, and adds up very quickly. The boxes start around $99 and go to $599 depending on what you want. Monthly subscription will run you $9 to $13 per month, or $108 to $156 per year. Most cable or satellite companies have a similar product with similar prices. In most cases, cable or satellite companies will simply rent you the box.

My problem with both scenarios - I really can't stand the idea of paying a subscription fee month after month. For anything, especially TV (I already have to pay once for TV, a second time seems more like an addiction). Even worse, the quality of the video recorded for TiVo or the cable/satellite junk is usually rather low, and the amount of hours that can be recorded is usually WAY too limited as well.

HEY HEY HEY!!!! Lots of you are probably clocking out right now....that's cool, it's a pretty nerdy post. If you want to just see the final deal, CLICK HERE to wrap it up (not sure if that works in Facebook...if not, just scroll for a couple of days, you'll see it).

Anyway...opportunity presented itself when I won a teeny-tiny barebones computer at some trade show thing last fall. I thought "what am I going to do with this thing?" It would require building out with my own parts and software to make the thing usable as any kind of computer, and it would be too small for most of the work I would throw at it. Ah, but it occurred to me that the machine was small enough to fit in with my DVD player in the living room, so the idea came about to make a DVR. But how?

Did all of like 5 minutes of reading on line and determined that the main thing you need to figure out is HOW you are going to get the cable line into the computer...most people don't have that little screw-on coaxial plug on their computer, so you need to buy a part for that (it's called a "tuner card"), and there are a few choices out there for that. I already had a few spare parts (memory, CD drive, hard drive, video card) hanging around from old machines that are no longer with us, so I could re-purpose those without and cash expenditure. Then I also had a Windows XP license that I've never used (it's legal...thanks Mike) so I saved $$ there, too. All I needed was a processor and a TV tuner card.

Fast forward a couple of months later, I got the tuner card for Christmas and then I won the college football pick 'em for 2007 season and had cash-on-hand to finish building this thing out (I won it for football so Hilary green-lit my project...I think she was just amazed that I'd made money from football). A few hiccups and a couple of underestimations later, I figured it all out and got the dang thing up and running. Been testing it out with a trial software (program guide) for the last week and I gotta say...it is great. We only have about 30-40 TV channels, but there is plenty on those channels that I would like to record for viewing at one time or another. Even better, for shows that have conflicting time slots, I can record one and watch the other.

AND I found out...it's connected with YouTube and Google Videos (plus some other online movies and sources like NBC and CBS for their TV shows). Not that I can't go in the other room to enjoy the latest junk on those sites, but there's something cool about parking it on the couch and doing that in full screen.

It also does a 10 day detailed weather report. Guess they thought that was the missing piece to make this thing worthwhile....? People love weather.

For the geeks, here's a rundown of the parts and how much you might expect to pay for similar parts if you build your own:

• Shuttle XPC barebones - $200 (this is the thing I won)
• Intel E2160 processor - $68
• OCZ 512MB (x2) 533MHz RAM - $45 (mine was leftover parts from old computer)
• Western Digital 250 GB SATA hard drive - $60 (spare parts again)
• CD writer drive - $15 (spare part, but will probably get a DVD drive soon for $25)
• nVidia GeForce 6600GT 128MB video card with TV output - $60 (spare part)
• Hauppage HVR-1600 TV tuner card with remote control - $85
• Windows XP Professional OS - $100 (just happened to have it around)
  
• SageTV media center software - $70 (running a 21 day trial right now)

All told, I spent less than $200 of my own money ($140?). If you want to build this system, it would come in around $700. THAT is a lot of money, but here's where you can compare it to a typical TiVo system...assuming you only keep the thing for 3 years, this system would have an annual cost of around $230. A typical TiVo system would run you at least $210. However, to get one that compares to the system I built, your annual cost would be more like $300.

Even still, my system is better in every area but one when compared to a TiVo-style box...my system was built by me, so if it breaks or something, I've got to fix it myself. I'll assume for the sake of argument that if your cable company DVR or TiVo box breaks, they will fix it for you free of charge (optimistic, I suppose?).

To summarize (welcome back!)...my junk, when compared to the best TiVo system, is better because:

• it can record many many more hours of TV shows (important when you tell it to automatically record every episode of every show you like to watch...adds up quickly)
• it doesn't require a subscription to keep it working month after month
• the video quality is better, and can be customized. I can allow low quality for things like reality shows, high quality for stuff like movies on TV...this means I can fit even more content on the thing.
• I can still use my box to surf the web from my couch, watch YouTube videos on the thing in full screen, and do anything else that any other computer can do - TiVo is just TV recording, nothing more
• it can be cheaper (mine was/is/will be), depending upon how long you keep it and which TiVo you would want to have
• Um....I made it. That's like 5 bonus points right there.

I'll totally build one for you if you want, it wasn't so hard. You can pay for the parts, I'll build it. My fee is like...a beer (or a bear, which is what I typed when trying to type "beer"), a steak and we'll call it even.

Maybe not the bear....then you'd still owe me, except I'd probably be dead. And that's why you'd owe me. Because of the bear.

Sly is back! Again!

So we get a Rocky movie and Rambo movie in back to back years?

Sylvester Stallone gets credit for one thing...he knows what he can do (be Rocky, or Rambo), and he knows what he CAN'T do (be someone besides Rocky, or Rambo).

Bruce Willis knows this well...Die Hard, Die Harder, Die Hard Until You're Dead, Die Harderer. All of them = AWESOME. What's not to love?

Actually, I'm being rough on ol' Bruce. He's been in plenty of movies that weren't Die Hard. Of course, most of the characters were developed for him so he just had to be McLane again. Seriously though...The 5th Element, good. Whole 9 Yards, good. 6th Sense, good. Even Sin City, and hey, I'll go out on a limb here and say Unbreakable was good, too. Don't you love when you get what you want? You're going to a Bruce Willis movie, he gives you Bruce Willis.

There was this sort of running joke that we were going to name our son Bruce Willis, then change our last name from Jolly to Willis. It probably won't happen, but at least we can still do the Die Hard theme in the nursery. Growin' up Bruce, y'all.

I could have done without the Mac guy in the last Die Hard movie. And yeah, I find it hard to believe you were using your Mac computer to hack all that crap (he was actually using a Mac in the film...he's probably got some stipulation built in that says he can't be seen using a PC or else he loses the money gig with Apple). All told however, Mac guy did a respectable job, but he had a lot of help from whoever was writing his lines. He was also exactly what I was expecting....jittery, counter-culture geek.

It's refreshing to get what you're expecting.

You were probably expecting me to say a little more about Sly and Rambo. Sorry about that.

Blizzard Hits Georgia...No Survivors

I love when it snows in Georgia. It's unique, only happening once a year or every other year. However, you can see the news coverage and witness dozens of people in an area lightly dusted with snow running out to get space heaters, generators, heated blankets, milk, bread, whatever. Seriously, even if the "storm" lasted more than a day or two, you quite likely have enough food and water for a worst-case-scenario, and the space heater you bought two years ago when it snowed probably still works. I mean, I know it's still in the box, so it hasn't been tested yet, but it probably works.

When these people are interviewed, they are often VERY concerned, saying "well, you never know what could happen" or "it don't look like much, but believe you me, if it gets worse, y'all are gonna be callin' me for my heaters." I mean....okay, look, I get it. I was in Boy Scouts (motto: "Be prepared). But really? Really?

In spite of the ridiculous news coverage, I think everyone is gonna be okay. Looking outside here, there's a little ice on the road, but rain has been falling since 3am and even the snow is melting on the lawn.

Perhaps in the northernmost counties of the state, it's a little worse. Hilary headed up there for work this morning, and she called and told me that it's basically just a little wet, some ice, but everyone's out and about.

Nonetheless, after dinner last night, I took Jingles and we wandered around the neighborhood in the snow. We timed it just right, too...the snow started coming full force at that point. When we left, the sidewalk and driveway in front of the house were lightly dusted (melting on contact mostly). By the time we got back, it was covered with snow, and the streets were getting a pretty white covering as well. LOTS of snow.

Went in for a few minutes to warm up (quite windy out), but then Jingles and I went back out for a little while longer until it got too windy. Snow was blasting out my eyeballs (stings the nostrils....). Jingles went absolutely berserko. She L-O-V-E-D the snow. Of course, I got ZERO in the way of photographs of this whole ordeal, but I was just enjoying it - not documenting it.

By the time I went to bed, it was mainly sleet/rain, and then this morning it's just rain. A whole lot of fun, but not a whole lot of snow. As is typical with Georgia weather, I'm absolutely expecting to be wearing shorts and flip flops in the 80 degree heat that is to follow next week. Okay, I'm being a little bit sarcastic (no people, I'm not predicting the weather, and no, I've heard no predictions of 80 degree temps for next week). Point being - we gots us some craaazzy weather here in this state.

Baby class tonight...earlier concerns that class might be canceled have given way to reality. It's gonna be a little wet, but nothing will stop us from our quest to learn more about the miracle of pushing a watermelon through a Life Saver. Last week's class was interesting. This week - another video, more "techniques" and even a tour of the facilities. I hope it's an audio tour...I'll bring my own headphones just in case. Maybe we'll even get dumped out into a little gift shop with souvenirs at the end!

Open [Source] Season

I've found myself using a LOT of open source software recently. If you aren't familiar with the term, go Google it and you'll get a pretty good understanding. Basically (see, you didn't Google it because you knew I'd more or less explain it for you in the next sentence), open source means that the code used to execute a given application is made available to everyone with the idea that the more developers you have play around with something, the better the product gets. So... that's a very loose idea for you to take home.

Anyway, point being...I've been finding all kinds of neat stuff, and it's all free of charge and really useful stuff. I myself am not a developer, so while I can take advantage of the efforts of the open source community, I will likely add little more than the occasional feature suggestion or bug report.

NOTE - open source does not always mean free, and likewise, free software (freeware) is not always open source. There are pay versions of open source products out there, with the difference usually being things like customer support, product guarantees and typically useless things (when was the last time you actually got good help from customer support, or were able to jump through the right loopholes on a product warranty?).

Most people know about Mozilla's Firefox browser by now - if not, see www.firefox.com. In addition, those same folks at Mozilla offer a mail client (think Outlook, or Outlook Express) called Thunderbird. Both are free, and both are quite good. Thunderbird isn't a full-blown Outlook replacement, but compared to Outlook Express, it's a world of difference (read: much much better).

So I've been using both of those apps for quite some time, but recently I've come across a bunch more stuff. A biggie for me is Open Office (www.openoffice.org). It's got a couple of different components to match the Microsoft Office packages - there's a word processor (MS Word), a spreadsheet app (MS Excel), a presentation app (MS PowerPoint) and a couple of other goodies in there. It compares well to the Microsoft product offering, with a couple of major differences:

1. Open Office is free. Microsoft charges 100's of dollars for their stuff
2. Open Office is fast...it doesn't eat up all your computer's resources and slow you down like MS Office does
3. Open Office lets you build PDF compatible forms (good for business people like me)
4. Open Office lets you export PDF compatible documents from any of the applications. Microsoft doesn't have any such capability without 3rd party support (and $$$)
5. Did I mention it's free?

Okay, enough on the Open Office, moving along...the next cool thingy is a suite of products that can run on your USB flash drive. Pretty much means that instead of you installing applications on your computer and leaving them there when you hit the road, you drop the programs on your USB drive and then make any computer you're using "your" computer. There are a couple of groups offering this, but the one I'm using right now is called PortableApps (www.portableapps.com). I'm not going to go into too much detail, because you can go to that website and see the stuff right away. Suffice it to say that I've set up my USB drive with the following:

• browser (complete with bookmarks/favorites and such)
• e-mail client (Thunderbird, with all my e-mail addresses and username/password stuff)
• my office applications (Open Office, complete with templates for invoices, faxes and all that jazz)
• virus scanner (hey, those public computers can be loaded)
• username+password manager (keeps the websites, usernames, passwords and other info right there, fully encrypted)

I'm running all those applications - including all the data stored for them - on a single 512MB USB drive...so yeah, it's very small and runs fast. Really cool stuff.

Obviously, I'm a certifiable dork, and this isn't really super-exciting ground-breaking information, but hey, it's made my life easier and doesn't cost anything, so I figured I'd share my findings with anyone who might likewise need less hassle from their computer-driven existence.

Time to make the doughnuts

A little birdie tells me it's time for a new post, so here it is.

Christmas was a good time, saw all the people I wanted to see (if you didn't see me, just read between the lines there). Only kidding!!! Really, it was a great family-time event leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Day. Quite honestly, I would rather have more time with people than have a single Christmas gift with my name on it. See, now everyone knows exactly what to give me next year, how cool is that?

FINALLY got the TradeWind Productions website up!! Very excited about that. Go check it out at www.TradeWindProductions.com and let me know what you think! Seriously, if you think it's awesome/awful, let me know!

I'm going to be getting the new mailing list together this month, so hey, if you want to be on the list, just shoot me an e-mail at info@tradewindproductions.com. I'll be sending out monthly newsletters about specials, new services and such.

The baby is coming soon...sooner than I probably realize. I'm not particularly concerned about anything, but I know there are going to be some surprises (inevitable) so I'm just "bracing "myself now. The registry is at Babies R Us if you want to see some of the crazy stuff we're going to be toting around soon. Babies require almost as much gear as I take on a day shoot. There is a lot of stuff.

Caleb was kicking pretty hard in church, Hilary got my attention and I could see him punching/kicking around. It's kind of funny...the lady who was singing a song during the service at that time was pretty bad...and it wasn't really a great song either. I think Caleb was protesting...he must have a pretty keen musical sense.

LinkedIn...heard about it, seen it, don't know if it's for me. Anyone currently on there want to tell me a little more?

LSU is finally on top of Ohio State in the NC game. Woo!! Isn't it lame that I have to root for the SEC? I guess I'm kind of rooting against Ohio State, since I think they shouldn't have made the NC game. I'm not even sure LSU should be there. But hey...geaux tigers! Go SEC!

Georgia beat the crap out of Hawaii a week ago in the Sugar Bowl. Awesome. My brother, his wife and my mom made the trip (I couldn't go, work was interfering with fun-time yet again). I'll make it to the national championship game next year though...when UGA is in it.

Speaking of football...I won the college football pick 'em I was doing this year! Apparently I'm really good at guessing football games...well, at least better than I thought. I threw my money in thinking it'd just be a fun thing to do this season, nothing more. Then I ended up tied for 1st place at the end of the regular season, so I had to pull it out in a tiebreaker during the BCS bowl games. I picked the first three right - Rose, Sugar, Fiesta - against 1 pick on the other side, so I clinched in 3 games. I picked the Fiesta wrong, but hey - didn't matter. I picked LSU in the NC game, too, and it looks like I might have gone 4 for 5 in the bowls. Not bad.

The secret to my success? I picked UGA in every single game all year, no matter who we played and no matter the spread. Only wrong 3 times out of 12 for them (2 losses when favored, 1 loss against the spread). So there's my secret! Shhh!!!

Now I'm spending the winnings on building something...cool. More about that in another post, just the teaser for now.

That's all for now. Abby, you can sleep soundly.