So I managed to get MythTV all up and running. With remote and everything. This is largely an experimental system, proof of concept if you will. It only has a 60Gb drive in it and it is sharing hardware with my main workstation which has been out of comission for about a week while I work this project.
So I’m thinking I need my workstation back at some point and should decide if I’m going to do anything with the MythTV. So the fantasy is to pick up a XGA projector with a DVI interface, pick up some hardware (anything newer than an AMD 2000 or so should do) and put in a 10ft screen down in the basement. It would be a proper home theatre. I think I can pick up a refurbished projector with the capabilities I need for about $1000. The computer with a 200GB drive should be availible for under $500. Not sure what a proper screen will cost but we used to watch movies on white sheets at the Fool if they end up being ridiculous.
I haven’t really done much thought about this so I’ll need to do some research on practical considerations.
Tech
On Tuesday I went out to CompUSA and picked up a 200Gb disk (I really don’t need that much disk space but it was like five bucks more than the 100Gb drive) and a new UPS. Used knoppix to boot the dead machine and started poking around the drive. It was in pretty good shape all things considered, I lost /etc, /usr and parts of /var. I lost my databases in /var, but website was unharmed and most importantly /home was fine. Getting /etc just right again will take a while, but no real harm. The copying took forever, somewhere on the order of 4 or 5 hours. I went to sleep before it finished. I’m not sure what took so long there was only about 15Gb of data, really shouldn’t have taken that long.
This time time I really am going to use cron and rsync to mirror data on both machines so I don’t have this problem again. No, really I am. Really.
Anyway woke up Wednesday all early and installed Debian before work. Something got messed up and the installer and later apt-get refused to install perl. A linux distribution without perl isn’t really much of a linux distribution, very few things actually work. Went off to work, considered calling in sick computer, but didn’t. Got home in the evening and wiped the disk and tried again, worked this time. Obviously the omens weren’t quite properly aligned last time. Diddled with it most of last night (minus a few hours for City of Heroes) and finally got postfix, imap and squirrelmail working. Yay, I’m no longer rejecting email.
The current Debian comes with apache2 (I was on 1.3) and my config file doesn’t quite work right so I deactivated the website until I can be relatively confident I’m not accidentally giving people access to things I don’t want them to see. Besides since MySql isn’t up yet, half the site is broken anyway.
So tonight todo is website and MySql. Once that gets done I’ll be back on the Internet.
Tech
One of my UPSs demonstrated that it wasn’t up to the task anymore. I’m pretty sure it was only supporting one machine. Anyway a power fluxuation hit and the machine reboot, however when it never really came back up. Hard drive fried. Of course this is the server so I’ve for all intents and purposes fallen off the Internet. No email, no webpage. This may be my only presence on the Intenet right now.
I have backups that are a few months old which isn’t too bad, but until proven otherwise I’ve lost address book updates, party mailing list updates, version 2 of the Nephilim’s Song source book (I have a hard copy though), a few months of email, and a couple of 1-2 page things I’ve written. Nothing horrendous, but if I have to redo Neph Song I’m going to be sad.
So tonight I’ll have to get another UPS and harddrive, build a Debian system and see if I can read any of the drive. Hopefully I’ll be able to read the /home partion and grab the important stuff. /var, extracting the contents of a MySql db would be nice as well.
I really need to set up a rsync or mirrored drive to protect against this stuff.
Hopefully I should be able to get back online soon as I have outstanding email conversations.
Tech
I found some scraps of paper clearly written while drunk. The first part looks like a prototype/first draft version of an invite I sent out many years ago.
It starts beneath the skin and stone…
You can feel it… it starts with
warmth, but it is really about
fire. You can feel it in your
heart and soul. They seek to
rise and [Denarinate] you.
What it is really about is the
fire of passion. It is the spiritual
truth. The seeking to be as one.
Far too much of current life is
spent in the state of aloneness
but every once in a while
I send out a call.
It is time to create a
conflagration of mythic
proportions
each of us must reach deep.
into ourselves and bring out
the fire. Each flame pales to
the global fire that burns
inside the community
And so you passionate center
is summoned to a commemoration
of spiritual truth. This truth
is to beheld ……
[ed. A change of thought seems to have happened]
Some people complain that
there is a woman to blame.
For each, she has name, for each
her she has hurt, for each she
has brought meaning. She has
endured such pain being that
most important person.
For every time she has felt pain
she has felt it acutely. She
felt as many tears as she has
caused. Just knowing her
you want to love her and
be loved by her. But ultimately
it is about both more and less.
It is the [defany] of youth.
It is Love and Less.
[There is another page which is just a list that doesn't make much sense, even to me. They are cultural/mythic elements that I apparently thought should be included in Nephilim's Song. Thought I can't make sense of them now.]
Susano needs a Noah/Ark story
Rare Branch.
Rare Bend
The valley to
Celebration of the Naming Ceremony
Hungry heart.
Life
I need to figure out which decorations my car needs. Last car that was decorated was done courtesy of evolvefish.com. It had the ‘Freedom is the disance between church and state’ bumper sticker. The new car is a ‘05 Prius which has an oddly shaped back. I’m thinking of getting a static cling evolve fish for one side, but really would like a bumper sticker for the other. Just not sure which one to get yet.
I’m thinking of getting ‘Has anyone seen my Constitutional Rights?’ That seems to have a nice general theme.
‘There’s no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people’
‘Those who cast the votes decide nothing, Those who count the votes decide everything. –Stalin’
‘Last time we mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake’
‘My mind isn’t for sale or rent to any god or government’
‘Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. –Jefferson’
Holding off until I decide… I suppose I could just get them all and figure it out when they arrive.
Anyway I’m off to the Brickskeller tonight for a fine night of sampling Beer. Mmmmm.
Politics
Not sure if this will work. In theory it should.
Philosophy/Religion, Politics
License fees:
This is not free software, it is licensed per site. In order to use this software, you are required to pay one cent per site. For the purposes of this license, a site is defined as a planet with people on it.
– by jridley (9305) on Wednesday June 08, @08:59PM (#12764090),
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=152088&threshold=5&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change
Quote
To whatever degree atheists are fighting against Frist and DeLay and Bush and Joe Schoolboard in Podunk, Kentucky trying to make everyone live by their narrow religious views, i am an ally of atheists. To whatever degree atheists crusade against all religious beliefs in general and seek to demean people of faith, i am not their ally.
–Bonhoeffer, http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=22425567
Philosophy/Religion, Politics, Quote