Slashdot Mirror
Vista Media Center Plus CableCard Equals No TV
notthatwillsmith writes "ATI's internal CableCard readers are finally available, and Maximum PC got hands-on time with a couple of Vista-powered systems built using the FCC-mandated technology. The short version? It doesn't work. From the article: 'The tech told me he'd receive training direct from Microsoft, but none of it covered internal tuners. We both agreed that the process should be the same, since the only difference is that the slots are inside the case, versus in an external box. The tech then proceeds to install the CableCards, connect the tuners to coax line, fire up the PC, and begin the software configuration. This step involves activating the TV Wonder with a product-activation code, and calling the Comcast office to exchange some information. We should have had a picture at this point, but we didn't.'"
Try using Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mepis, hey any Debian-derived Linux, which has a package system and installer that properly handles dependencies.
That's great... unless you're running a version that's a couple of years old, and don't particularly want to do a "forced upgrade" of everything on your system. Most stuff in Windows will just drop on anything Win2K or later (if not Win/95...). Of course, there are exceptions (esp games), but as a general rule, things just drop on with minimum fuss.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
- apt.conf (as well as directory apt.conf.d) to change default configuration items
- preferences to pin your package preferences
- sources.list to list where to get your packages from (CD, files, HTTP, FTP, etc.)
You can look these up with the man command: man apt.conf; man apt_preferences; man sources.list.I use the standard program aptitude and adjust it with these lines in apt.conf (the first lets me see which release packages are in): I pin the distros to use (and avoid the problems you mention) with this in preferences. You can adjust the priority of package sources; aptitude will allow you to install a later version (e.g. unstable when the highest priority is testing) and will offer new unstable versions as updates: And I use these package sources in sources.list (lines are commented out to reduce the number of packages and work around a limit in testings version of aptitude):