Posted by Aaron Springer on May 16, 2008 under General | 
In 2006, I participated in Nanowrimo, the national novel writing competition. I was able to pass the 50k mark five days early, leaving me with a raw mess of a novel which I am still editing.
However, in 2007, I didn’t even get to the first 10k. Life was much more complex, and I was much more weary.
To make up for this, starting today, I will be spending two hours a night working on my next novel. I have put aside By the Bay for now, but will return to it soon. I hope to write 1,200 words a day from now until September, and hope to have a publishable novel by then. I also hope it spurs me on to writing short stories as well.
Wish me luck. I will post weekly updates on Sunday, which will be my Day of Editing, with word count and maybe tidbits from the novel. Wish me luck!
Posted by Aaron Springer on May 2, 2008 under General |
Some of you may remember my failed attempt to build a PVR last fall. The issue was that the software I wanted to use (Mythbuntu) did not like the motherboard I was using, even though it was a great motherboard, in theory.
That machine will soon be rebuilt for my daughter to play games on. Such is life.
However, thanks to the wonders of the economic stimulus (All jokes about being stimulated by Bush aside), I have a nice $420 that I was not expecting. Where does it go? To the Great PhiliMyth project!
Some years ago, back before the debate between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD even began, I bought a DVD player from my boss for $25. This was a bargain, considering DVD players were usually $180 or more at the time, and this particular model was a commercial level high end player. There were a few issues with it, however. Not the least of these issues was that there was no remote, and the only way to control the durn thing was with a serial mouse.
“Wait,” you say, incredulous, “a mouse?“
I smile, and point to my solution: a serial trackpad.
“Is that from another dimension?” you ask, even more confused and scared than before.
And, at the moment you are just about to loose control of some essential function or another, I let the other shoe drop.
No, serial trackpads did indeed exist in this universe. They were very rare, and quite clumsy. But, this one did the job without having to run a mouse all over the top of this puppy. However, the player in question is merely the opening act. In fact, it has been collecting dust in my storage unit for quite some time now.
My plan is simple: Take a 1ghz computer, jam it into the body of this DVD player, and wave my wand to create an amazing multimedia center, perfect for family get-togethers and social events, as well as television viewing pleasure.
You look at me dumbly for a second, look over at my main computer (huge), my server (all but the 1U huge, and the 1u still takes up a lot of horizontal space), and me (huge) and then ask, “How do you plan to cram a 1ghz computer into that case?”
Well, let’s talk about Mini-ITX for a moment.
Mini-ITX is a form factor that was pioneered by Via. Via used to be a second rate video and chipset manufacturer, but they found their groove in producing small form factor motherboards. Like the iPod and the Pet Rock, people latched on to this new idea in computing like Dali on Surrealism. So far, I have seen hundreds of case mods using the Mini-ITX form factor. I have seen then stuffed into humidors, trash cans, Leela from Futurama, even the classic Atari 2600!
Other than my daughter’s Lego Castle PC, I hadn’t done much real modding. This project will give me the chance to drill steel, put my micrometer to good use, and, hopefully, not destroy the $300 of equipment I just bought to go in the puppy. List of parts after the jump!
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Image via Wikipedia
