Comcast cable television boxes run Redhat Linux 9.0 as an OS. Interesting.

So that is what Comcast are running on their cable television boxes. Of course they would run a stable and reliable operating system like Linux to make sure that the boxes work as expected, but kernel 2.4.24 in 2013? Still, the 2.4 kernels are still being maintained so they are still a worthy kernel to … Read more

How to watch Redbox and Netflix television shows and movies on Ubuntu with Wine.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/01/how-to-watch-lovefilm-redbox-instant-or-netflix-on-ubuntu. This posting on the OMG Ubuntu website explains in detail how to watch Netflix, Lovefilm and Redbox films and television shows with the Ubuntu 12.10 Linux distribution. This involves using a version of Wine to run the necessary software. You would think that this process would be easy on an Ubuntu distribution right now; … Read more

Xbox Kinect technology to control computers?

The Xbox Kinect technology is being released for use on Windows. I do not see how this technology will be useful on a PC, waving your arms in front of a computer screen to control your computer would get tiring very quickly. This technology is not exclusive to the Xbox, other companies before Microsoft have … Read more

Recording television with mplayer.

Record television with mplayer, with this simple script. This is very useful indeed. #!/bin/sh   mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:input=1:norm=pal:width=720:height=576: \ device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:audiorate=32000:alsa:adevice=hw.0 buffersize=64 -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1300:keyint=30 -oac mp3lame -lameopts \ br=96:cbr:mode=3 -ffourcc divx -endpos 04:00:00 -o ~/Videos/tv-`date +%y%m%d_%H%M`-m.avi > /dev/null#!/bin/sh mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:input=1:norm=pal:width=720:height=576: \ device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:audiorate=32000:alsa:adevice=hw.0 buffersize=64 -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1300:keyint=30 -oac mp3lame … Read more