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Haven't posted anything of substance this month. I actually haven't had a lot to say. The PVR thing is still coming along, and is taking much, Much, MUCH longer than I had hoped because I keep finding when I go to do step 7 that the docs tell me I should have done something different in step 2. I've now recompiled all of Gentoo at least three times. This all comes from having relied on autoinstallers for Linux in the past and not having actually known what relies on what or how various strange pieces of hardware are detected and drivers located for them. Quite often the answer seems to be to compile 200 drivers, try them in succession to see which ones work, choose whichever seems to have the most features, and delete the rest. Repeat for each unusual device on your system. But, in the end, progress is still being made and more and more of the system is actually starting to work. Lets hear it for the Gentoo documentation which seems heads-and-shoulders above anything else I've encountered in Linux so far.
In other news I went out and bought a set of headphones for skype so that I can join a tele-RPG that a friend is hosting, but I've yet to get either the headphones or Skype to work properly on this system. I gather that the first can be solved by obtaining a thorough understanding of ALSA and then going and tweaking the necessary settings. Do I have to point out, once again, that under Windows one just plugs in headphones and they work, without having to spend days learning the intricacies of the internal mixing software? As for getting skype working, I'm told its possible on a 64-bit system, but not necessarily easy. We'll see.
And then there's Anticipation. Where to start? I've been getting more and more back into helping out on the website, and there is a huge amount to do between now and the WorldCon this fall. Also, there's a steady (and ever increasing) stream of minutia that I have to take care of with regards to people's accounts and email and mailing lists and so on. I've started taking steps to offload this stuff because I find it very hard to keep switching tasks every few minutes. I'll never get anything accomplished that way.
On the intellectual front, ( Oops. Extreme CS / Mathematical Geekery. Forgive the buzzwords, but I didn't know what most of this was called when I started working it out, and now that I do know I don't want to forget. )
Hmm. For someone with 'nothing much' going on in his life, this turned out to be a pretty big post!
In other news I went out and bought a set of headphones for skype so that I can join a tele-RPG that a friend is hosting, but I've yet to get either the headphones or Skype to work properly on this system. I gather that the first can be solved by obtaining a thorough understanding of ALSA and then going and tweaking the necessary settings. Do I have to point out, once again, that under Windows one just plugs in headphones and they work, without having to spend days learning the intricacies of the internal mixing software? As for getting skype working, I'm told its possible on a 64-bit system, but not necessarily easy. We'll see.
And then there's Anticipation. Where to start? I've been getting more and more back into helping out on the website, and there is a huge amount to do between now and the WorldCon this fall. Also, there's a steady (and ever increasing) stream of minutia that I have to take care of with regards to people's accounts and email and mailing lists and so on. I've started taking steps to offload this stuff because I find it very hard to keep switching tasks every few minutes. I'll never get anything accomplished that way.
On the intellectual front, ( Oops. Extreme CS / Mathematical Geekery. Forgive the buzzwords, but I didn't know what most of this was called when I started working it out, and now that I do know I don't want to forget. )
Hmm. For someone with 'nothing much' going on in his life, this turned out to be a pretty big post!
