So I wanted to install Mythbuntu on my old Dell C640, I downloaded the CD and started the PC. Things went cool until the installation reached 25%. At that point ubiquity decided that the CD was corrupt and the installation could not continue.

So I tested the CD on both the old computer and a newer one. The newer computer didn’t find any error, but the C640 said the cd was completely broken (19 broken files, but one of them was the squashfs image).

Now what? Boot from USB? Didn’t seem to be an option, since there is no option in the boot menu. After a lot of time I found the following working solution:

• Boot the laptop from the CD (remember only the installation failed)
• Have a copy of the CD on an USB Disk
• Mount the USB Disk (mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/usb)
• Mount the squashfs filesystem image that is located on the USB Disk (mount -o loop /tmp/usb/casper/filesystem.squashfs /tmp/squashfs)
• And now the big trick: bind the new location (/tmp/squashfs) on the location that is created by the installation CD (/rofs). The command to do that is: mount –bind /tmp/squashfs /rofs.
• Start ubiquity.

Oberwelt e.V., a German artists collective presents a nice device which can protect you from all the infrared security cameras installed on public roads. It sends out an invisible infrared light that will make your face show up as a white bulb.

I-R.A.S.C is a device giving every citizen a reliable protection from governmental security measures. I-R.A.S.C. is security against security and therefore a response to the dissymmetry of the forces between state and individual.

Instead of showing and interaction among human-beings, or between man and machine, I-R.A.S.C. demonstrates an interaction among machines. This is part of an absurd situation - while the time and effort invested into protection measures aims at the alleged safety of the citizens, the individual looses importance in this safety concept.

I-R.A.S.C is an infra-red device working as a protection shield from infra-red surveillance cameras. Everybody can rebuild this device without special technical skills.

Link via Boing Boing

OK, I though I was never going to do this…

I have been skipping advertisement everywhere I can… Installed ad-blocking stuff for my pc (adzapper and mozilla,) and even built a mythtv box to get rid of commercials on tv. However if advertisement makers can guarantee me that everything they make will be as nice as this one, I will remove it all from my home.

In august 2005 I decided to get myself a home theater PC (HTPC). Before starting the whole event, I wrote down a couple of small requirements for the machine:

• It should ‘look’ nice
• The size must fit the stereo
• The machine must be very, very quiet
• The sound quality should be as good as possible
• The machine should be able to have all ‘HTPC’ functionality without using Microsoft Media Edition

The hardware
As you can see in the list above, most of the requirements (looks, size and noise level), are dictated by the choice of case. Since the machine is going to be located in the living room noise turned out to be the main reason for choosing the case.

Based on the above I ended up buying the following components:

• An HFX classic case in black. If installed correctly (with all the heatpipes, etc.) this case can live without any active cooling. This means it is as silent as a case can be. I got it with the default power adapter (ST30NF 300W) and the iMON VFD-IR. Info.
• An Abit AV8 Mainboard. Info.
• An AMD Athlong 64 Processor 3000+ with Venice core. Although at the time of buying there were faster processors on the market, I chose this one because of the power consumption. Link.
• A gigabyte of RAM.
• The old ATI card that I had laying around, which I figured should be up to the job. It is an ATI Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro
• A Hauppauge MCE 500. This TV card basically features two Hauppauge 150 cards in one. So it is possible to record from two channels at the same time. I opted for a version without a remote control. Info.
• A Terratec Aureon Space 7.1. I digitized all my CDs so the sound output of the HTPC is one of the key requirements. After a log of reading on different forums I learned the following two things:
  1. Stay away from Creative as they seem to do funky stuff with their bitrates.
  2. ENVY Chips have the best consumer sound available.

  I chose the Terratec because of the overall positive reviews it had and I must say, it sounds like a beauty. Link.

• A Seagate 250 Gb SATA Hard disc. A little googling showed that for Seagate has an excellent name when it comes down to crating quiet hard discs. Link.
• A BENQ DVD DD DW1640, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive. Because it operates very silently. Link.
• Since I could not have cables in the living room I needed to go with a WIFI card. Finding a wifi card that would work with 64 bit linux proved to be a very hard undertaking. I think I tested about four cards, before I finally bough a Linksys WUSB54GP v4.0 802.11g Adapter. The card has performed very well during the last 11 Months. And with the release of kernel 2.6.17 it’s driver is finally included. Oh, and it looks pretty funky standing up on its feet. Link.

The software

To make sure that everything created on the machine is transportable and free, I chose to install Mythtv on my HTPC. Mythtv features all the PVR functions one needs and it also comes with modules for listening to music and looking at photos. As stated before music is one of the key features of my HTPC and since I completely moved to digital Photos the ability to present slideshows in my HTPC application comes as very handy.
Initially I chose gentoo linux. This worked very well, but took an enormous amount of time to stay up to date. So after 8 Months I turned to Kubuntu Edgy Eft. More on that later.

As it turned out, a lot of the components (both hardware and software) I chose made a lot of problems… So building everything took way more time than planned.

Read more: the hardware arrives.

Norway has decided to put a lot of TV and Radio (public channels) online. This could have been a great project, but the government of Norway decided to put all the content through Microsoft DRM. Thus giving Microsoft control over who can play the content, where and on what devices.

Boingboing’s Cory did a nice analysis on the topic, which got flamed by a Microsoft employee. It makes for a very good read. The best arguments against DRM can be found in the reaction by the Microsoft employee.

Link (via boingboing).

Marginal Revolution has a nice analysis of what is wrong in Hollywood. They state the following 6 reasons (and yes I know 5 is listed twice, but a quote is a quote):

1. Hollywood cannot control its marketing costs or star salaries. The growing importance of DVDs increases the “needle in the haystack” problem for any single film and thus locks studios into more marketing, creating a vicious spiral.
2. TV is now so much better, and offers artists greater creative freedom. Why watch movies?
3. The Internet is outcompeting cinema, whether at the multiplex or on DVD.
4. Big TV screens are keeping people at home, which lowers box office receipts. This also hurts the long-term prospects of many DVDs.
5. The demand for DVDs has fallen because movie lovers have completed their core collections, just as the demands for classical CDs have fallen.
5. The demand for DVDs was due to fall in any case. Forget the collectors, you buy DVDs to have a stock on hand so you don’t have to run out to the video store on short notice. Now everyone has a stock. Stocks must be replenished every now and then, but there is no longer a large new cohort simultaneously building up a stock from scratch.

Link.