This is a pretty amazing video … The guy did all the tracks himself, and put them all together… all the sounds you hear were made on his Cello.
That’s talent.
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So work finally upgraded my desktop to a dual core system with more memory and hard drive space. Plus I got a 3rd monitor (we still have to install another video card to run it.. we’ll see how that goes). Triple-head glory hear I come!
We initially tried to run Windows Vista as my desktop, but that was a big mistake (actually, we tried to first run Vista 64, then went back to 32 bit). Driver issues, software compatibility (Visual studio 2003/2005), issues with group policy, admin privileges, etc. A huge hassle and 2 days lost.
Now I’m running more or less smoothly on XP Pro. Well, sort of, waiting for the Visual Studio Service Packs to finish installing…
Lesson learned: Vista is okay for home, not necessarily the office.
Speaking of home, I am tinkering further with setting up my HTPC as a Linux Box running MythTV. I like Vista Media Center, but it can be a pain in the ass. You have issues with running 3rd party codecs (Divx, XVid, MKV, etc), where it doesn’t seem to like me to allow it to fast forward/rewind in the media center consol. It works fine under Linux. As well there are HDCP issues in vista I’d rather not deal with. We’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking of trying to run Gentoo with KDE/MythTV on top. I tried Ubuntu, but it does not like my TV (Neither my new Sharp Aquos, or the old Viewsonic).
Anyway, Visual Studio Patches are done.. back to work 
So I figured I’d put a little update on my HTPC experience.
For one, I updated the original post and added pictures to the bottom of it showing the case, inside the case and some pictures of the Vista MCE interface (taken with a camera, too lazy to screencap & copy to my main PC which is where I’m posting from (nicer keyboard)).
You may want to read my initial post on my HTPC building experience if you haven’t, just so you are up to speed.
The Good
- I love Vista MCE. The interface for the most part is superior to MCE 2005, and IMO, far superior to Myth (some might argue, but they’d be wrong). Yes, Myth can do more, but it’s interface is just not up to par, Microsoft spent a good amount of time on those ”little touches”, like the navigation in the MCE start menu, or the nice graphical look & feel. It just looks better.
- “OMFG, ZOOMG!!!1!” The picture quality is amazing. This is in no small part, I believe, due to a combination of the Hauppage TV Tuner and the nVidia 8600GT video card. But it really does look better than the picture on my DIGITAL cable did. the digital cable was pixilated at times, especially if there was a lot of text on the screen like the weather channel or CTV NewsNet. Even DVDs look better. By far better than played through my 360 (which everyone knows blows as a DVD player) and my PS2 (which is better than the 360, but not by much).
- I love gaming on a PC from my couch. Granted, it may suck with an FPS, trying to use that bloody trackball.. sec going to take a picture for you…
The picture shows the Keyboard & my remote. Anyway, yeah gaming is awesome, and the 8600GT has no problem handling pretty much anything I throw at it. I’ve been playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights 2 with everything turned up to max. Looks beautiful, and runs like butter. - I love browsing the web from my couch ;) Google Reader is awesome on my HDTV.
The Bad
- Vista Issue: Microsoft decided that the ability to extend one drive with another (turning two 500 gigabyte drives into one big terabyte drive) should cost you an extra $150-$200 so they show you that you have the option to do it, but don’t enable it unless you have an Ultimate/Business license. WTF? It was enabled in MCE 2005 & in XP Pro… Petty MS, very petty. You can however “mount” a partition as a folder (you can’t extend the folder, it has to be a new empty folder). Unfortunately, you can’t directly copy anything into that folder unless you also create a drive letter for that folder and copy to the drive. Every time i try to copy directly to the “mounted” folder I get an error message saying that i don’t have the rights to do that. I’m a frakin admin! Stupid.
- Vista MCE Issue: When browsing video files (not movies in the “TV & Movies” section, vista seems to like to tile the movies out showing a captured from from each video & no text to tell you what each “tile” is. If you have a tile currently selected, the title appears at the bottom… see the image blow, again sorry, its taken with a Rhonda’s fancy new digital SLR, and I haven’t messed with the settings in it to take good pictures of TV images. Screen captures seem not to work in MCE… go figure).
As you can see, the tiles are there for each movie.. you tell me what each is.. (minus “Beerfest”, it’s selected… btw: I’ve yet to watch it, I just downloaded it because it was there). This is a very irritating interface. They NEED to offer a “list” view or something with the text title! - The wireless keyboard (pictured a ways above) is great for simple searching and small messaging email, but is uncomfortable as a main input device, especially for my endlessly rambling blog posts… The trackball is sufficient for games like Neverwinter Nights 2, Eve-Online, etc, but would be unacceptable in an FPS. However, it is small, lightweight and gets the job done very well. I definitely recommend it as an HTPC keyboard. (see my main HTPC building post for details on parts)
The Ugly
- Hardware Issue: My Biostar TF7050 motherboard doesn’t detect my Western Digital WD5000AAKS SATAII hard drives unless I disable the Quick Power-On Self-Test. Still fighting with Biostar & Western Digital over who’s problem it is. Biostar at least gives me the time of day. western Digital seems happy with sending me form-letter reply after form-letter reply, ignoring my actual issue. They have by far the worst customer service I’ve ever dealt with.
- Hardware/Driver Issue: Unable to use HDMI. For video or Audio. I can’t use it with video, as the nVidia drivers seem to think my TV should always be on unless the computer has put the video card to sleep. This is not an issue with the TV (or at least, ATI cards work right with the TV). Audio, on the other hand is choppy and horrible. This is also from what I understand a driver issue, and apparently Vista’s fault. Should be fixed in the next few months (both issues).
Conclusion (for now…)
Overall, I’m VERY happy with my setup. I just added a second 500gb drive I had unused in my Main PC so it (the HTPC) has a whopping 1 terabyte of space for me to fill with movies & music! and games… I’ll add updates over time to update on how things are going and what other irritating things i run into & hate’s been resolved.
So today is my sweetie’s birthday! I won’t say how old she is because that would be “rude”, but she’s a year older!
I was up late last night making a yummy Lindt Dark Chocolate Cheese Cake. It looks really good & seems to have set properly. I think I screwed up slightly when I added the chocolate, but we’ll see.
This morning I go tup bright & early & made her breakfast before I went to work. And I gave her the gift I got her, a shiny new Nikon D40x. She loves photography, and I bought her a Canon Rebel Film SLR a couple years back, but I think the cost of buying film & developing fees was holding her back.
We also plan of having our first child within the next year, and if the number of pictures we have of our cat is any indication, developing fees for a child might bankrupt us 
Tonight we are having her parents over for BBQ & Cake, later next week, we’ll be going out to dinner with some friends.
Recently, an honors student in Clements High School in Texas was removed from his school & put in an “alternative” education school because his school labeled him a terrorist.
Why? Well, he re-created his school as a mod for Counter-strike. Not to practice killing his fellow students, not out of some hate-filled anger. But likely because thought it would be fun to play the game in a familiar environment. However, in the wake of the VT Massacre, two parents saw this little Asian boy created a map of the school in a FPS, and decided he must be planning to kill everyone. They went to the school board & the boy was immediately removed from the school, the police showed up at his house & confiscated a hammer in his room as a potential weapon. A fucking hammer, are you serious? Man, screw gun control, we have to get stronger hammer control, no?
The boy has been forbidden from attending his graduation and at some point may be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, terrorism, etc.
Meanwhile the board members are having a political cluster-fuck jockeying for sides int eh battle over what to do with the boy.
According to all accounts I can find he is well adjusted, has friends, writes not “scary” literature, is an honors student, and has never been in any trouble before.
IS this a harsh over-reaction to a simply innocent situation? Has the board and these two parent gone off the deep-end? Is the US living in so much fear that they cannot act in a calm and efficient manner?
How I may have handled the situation is thus:
- Contact the boy’s parents & talk with them.
- Check his history & speak with his teachers. Does he have a history of anti-social behavior?
- Check out the map & ask the boy why he made it?
- If necessary, check his house for weapons (they found a hammer & 5 swords (for show, not sharp, collectors items).
- Ask him to destroy the map if there is a fear that it could be used for malicious reasons.
- If he complies, leave it at that. Explain to him that in today’s day and age, people get the wrong ideas about such things.
Done.
No need to cause a press frenzy over it, no need to move him to an “alternative school” which by the sounds of it, is where they send all the delinquents, great place for a honors student. I’m sure he won’t be picked on or harassed by them.
They way they have handled it has likely cause the boy, the school, his friends, the community much pain and suffering.
FYI: His friends, family & members of the Asian community have rallied to his support, but seem to have been ignored for the most part in the school board members’ jockeying for votes in an upcoming election.
Back in the day, my friends and I created a similar map of our school in Quake, we had a great time. No one had an issue with it at all. Oh how times have changed
Linkie: Joystiq.com: Student arrested for making a map of his school