Hacking Wiimote

Here's a nice presentation from Johnny Lee. You might have seen his previous video about head tracking in YouTube. I really like this type of 3D technique and look forward in trying it myself. I don't have Wii remote but I do have a cheap hacked IR webcam which can be used instead. I think this might be the only 3D technique that could hit big in the games market.

"SVN is the most pointless project ever started"

I just watched this interesting video. Linus Torvalds talks about Git. I've heard about Git before but never used it nor read about it in detail. Git is a version control system like CVS and SVN. Although I guess I shouldn't mention those two in same sentence as Git since Linus hates CVS with a passion. Currently I'm using SVN to handle versions and I've been happy with it so far. But Git did sound interesting so I'll have to try it out.

Git - Fast Version Control System
http://git.or.cz/

Switching to Linux based HTPC

What would I do without my HTPC. I have had a computer hooked to my TV for the past 10 years. At first, I mainly used it as a DVD player. Now it's the only source of video. Last year the analog TV signal stopped here in Finland. Ever since then, the HTPC has been the only way I can watch TV since I don't have a set-top box nor a TV that can receive digital signal. Because I'm really addicted to TV, starting a project like this wasn't something I was looking forward as it meant I couldn't get my daily dosage.

Anyway, last weekend I made the decision to try Linux as a base for HTPC. I'm not that experienced with Linux so there was lot to learn. At the moment I'm using Ubuntu but might switch to Debian later. First thing I did was to install SSH server and Synergy. That way I could use my work system to work with Linux.

I have Hauppauge HRV-1100  DVB-T card and it worked right out of the box in Ubuntu (7.10). My motherboard has Nvidia's SoundStorm in it which I got to work by following these instructions. I tried MythTV at first but quickly moved to VDR. I think it's really the only choice if you are looking for a serious DVR solution. It handles transponders properly which means one can watch and record many channels (from a transponder) at the same time with one card. Setting VDR up can be little tricky but once you get to know with it, it's pretty simple. At first I was using packages from e-tobi by following these directions. But since I had some troubles with few plugins, I now compile everything myself.

All was looking good and things were moving along nicely... until!

After days of tweaking I was getting nice and solid picture. However, there was some still unknown issue that made VDR (vdr-sxfe to be precise) respond slowly when used in TV. In monitor it worked fine. I tried pretty much all different combination of settings to make it work. No luck. I also tried different graphics cards which ended in disaster. Being stupid and careless I didn't shutdown the power supply when I removed one card. I've never had any problems when doing so but this time I had to turn the card in an angle which short circuited few pins and that fried the motherboard.

So, now I'm waiting for a replacement motherboard. In the meanwhile I'm using an old board with Duron 800MHz processor. On a brighter note, this gave me the opportunity to clean the case. It was filled with dust and cat hair.