I found it quite difficult to find information on how to convert basic cable (plain old cable) into composite.  This is for the folks who have cable, but don’t want to pay for extended services and cable boxes.  There are two verbiages that you will find on your web searches:

1)  Just use an old VCR!
2)  Just use an old computer!

End of thread…  End of post… That is where the story ends and it leaves a lot to be desired.  I have problems with both of these solutions.

1)  The VCR is archaic
2)  I don’t want to leave a computer running in a room that will be used sparingly
3)  I don’t want to wait for a computer to boot up

This can be negated if you have a cable box that already does that.  But there are still people out there without cable boxes.  Or don’t want a cable box in every room or on every device; I’m sure the cable companies want you to.  I can’t seem to justify the extra $30 + fees for the box to move away from basic cable.  Renting a cable box seems like a dirty tactic to me; in the long run they have to make a killing.

I have NetFlix so if I want to watch a movie I can just get it off of there.  Also, there is NetFlix streaming which is awesome.  I do not want to give the cable companies more money – it’s already highway robbery.

The problem with this is that projectors do not have a TV tuner.  It doesn’t know what to do with the coax connection.  Projectors cannot tune (most of them that are out there anyway).  But I believe there is a happy medium… a product by Ambery.com -> Super Video to WXGA Converter.  This device works much like a cable box expect that you can buy it and use it how you like.

It takes a coax connection (Clear QAM), it won’t decrypt any of the pay channels like a real cable box, and converts it to composite, VGA, or S-Video.  Composite will most likely be your best choice for a projector.  I believe they also have one with component connections.  If you are looking for HDMI I’m not sure what will be needed – I’m guessing an upconverter of some sort.

Clear QAM is important.  If the device is not Clear QAM then it will not be able to tune to the cable frequencies.  If you have been looking at the Analog-to-Digital most of the ones that I have found do not have clear QAM meaning they will not work with cable; you will need an antenna to retrieve the signals.

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PCMag.com announces the year(s) of the Linux desktop is finally here and I actually agree with them.

Have you used Vista? It is like a foreign alien or something and the stupid pop-up, “Windows needs your permission”. What is pretty funny, is yes, the Mac commercial with the security guy is an accurate depiction. Yes, Windows, I would like to install flipping Adobe Reader please leave me alone, that’s why I double-clicked on the damn file! Granted, using Linux to do system wide changes you’re going to get a similar pop-up asking for your root password; like going into synaptic. Basically Linux isn’t so needy, Windows you need to calm down.

“To mess up a Linux box, you need to work at it; to mess up your Windows box, you just have to work on it.” ~ Professor from Washington University.

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From arstechnica.com

According to the government’s best estimates, energy usage at data centers has doubled between 2000 and 2006, and it’s poised to double again by 2011.

That means our wonderful data centers will cost twice as much to run as they do today, which is a bad thing. I can definitely see our government leading us to greener pastures. Hopefully, Solid State Disks (SSD) will become more aggressively created and better power saving devices will come about.

Software will also play a crucial role in the deployment of future systems. Windows is a power hog in the essence that it needs beefier hardware requirements. And as just about everyone knows our nice friend Linux can run on much lower system requirements and give you the same or better performance.

Are we entering the age of solar powered server farms? I don’t think so, but that would be pretty sweet.

I have been way busy that past 15 or so days! Unbelievable. Believe it. At work we are doing a MPLS network rollover so that has been enjoyable. Also we are opening another branch, so I have been busy running network cables and such. Good times.

In the little free time I have gotten I’ve been listening to twit and diggnation; my favorite podcasts netcasts; I am definitely for changing podcast to netcast. I digress. Twit is really cool. I would really like to do a netcast one day with my views on technology and the world around us.

So here are some links on how to make your own PODCAST/NETCAST

A nice beginner tutorial
Cnet Guide In-depth
Podcast Alley podcasters
Little overview of podcasting

Audacity seems to be the program of choice for podcasting/netcasting in the Windows/Linux world. I have used this program before to record music off a PA system and it works really well. Open source is great. I will look into this more. Again I think a podcast/netcast would be a very fun thing to do.

Accessing your computer remotely is critical now-a-days. When I’m at work I find myself needing files, documents, and other things from my home computer. When I was running Windows XP I used logmein.com to remotely access my computer. The reason logmein worked so well was because it used port 80; most other ports are blocked at work, so other programs wouldn’t work. Since my home computer is now Ubuntu Feisty Fawn I have to try a different route.

Fortunately, Ubuntu comes with a built-in VNC support. It’s easy to implement:

System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop

Under sharing select:

• Allow other users to view your desktop
• Allow other users to control your desktop

Under security select:

• Require users to enter this password:
• Password: PICK A DIFFICULT PASSWORD

This is not the most secure method of having remote desktop on your linux box, but this is the easiest way. Since ubuntu is utilizing VNC it will use ports 5900 – 590x depending on how you have it setup. 5900 will be the port you want.

To access my linux box remotely from an XP box I use a free web-based VNC viewer from s-code.com, which I believe is open sourced.  It is much like logmein.com, except logmein.com also supports java, but not linux.

http://www.s-code.com/products/viewerx/webvnc.aspx

This lovely little site will allow you to access your VNC at home on whatever port via http port 80. Firewalls control what ports you can access, but as long as a port is open you can get to anything.