Road Apple on the Convergence Highway:
Three months with Windows Media Center
(This is partial text of an article, for the full version with the pictures, email me
Duke Weber
dleinweber@gmail.com
I'm with Stupid
Gadget Jones comin' down. I had to have something with a plug, at least a battery compartment. Primal cravings make people do strange and stupid things. They made me build a Windows Media Center PC.
This has been going on since I was 12. Mom would drag me to Radio Shack to buy diodes. Diodes, a gateway gadget, lead to stronger stuff. Pretty soon you're soldering everything in sight. Then stereos with speakers as big as refrigerators, wires made from single crystals of silver. Zones of audio, zones of video. DVI and HDMI and panels and plugs that no one else in the house understands, except maybe the 15 year-old girl with the 16:9 rectangular eyes.
Computers everywhere. Windows and Macs and Linux. Ethernet Cat 1,2,3,4,5 and 6. Routers, hubs and switches blinking under tables and in closets. Eventually the computer stuff gets lucky with the hi-fi and video heap and that is what magazines like this call "Convergence". Digital devices, music and video converging in a whole new pile of stuff with plugs that we can all go out and buy RIGHT NOW.
I'd already plucked the low-hanging convergence fruit. Hang a bunch of beater laptops on network, plug 'em into stereos with he-man external sound boxes. Run iTunes all around and pat yourself on the back 'cause you are CONVERGED, and you didn't have to pay the price of a Buick for some gadget with an 80 gig drive and a blue light to do it.
But when the Gadget Jones is down, you need more wire. A few months ago, I made the mistake of cruising websites that traffic in this convergence porn. The news, behold, is that Microsoft, after a few tries, now has a product that doesn't suck - Media Center Edition 2005. Mister Softee, we all know, has become the behemoth it is by selling software that sucks. It doesn't suck quite enough for you to toss it out and get a pencil and a typewriter, but it AWAYS sucks enough that you're willing to bite for the next version, which might suck a little less.
If you read it on the Internet, it must be true
I was ready to bite when "Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows" (www.supersite.com) told me that, unlike Media Center Editions 2002 and 2004, the new one didn't suck. This could be a two-channel HDTV TIVO, an archive for all those VHS tapes, and a DVD recording factory,
I was ready to bite harder when "Build It, Tweak It, Know It" (www.extremetech.com) told me the secrets of turning the heap of computer innards in the closet into an uber-converged monster machine that would have the lesser nerds drooling on the socks in their Teva sandals.
The first secret is that you need to scam your way into getting a copy of Windows XP Media Edition 2005, which is only sold to OEMs. Usually, OEMs are companies like Dell and HP. You too can be an OEM by buying some OEM computer parts to use with the OEM software. Most of 'em want you to buy a carload of cases and power supplies and motherboards to qualify as an OEM. WWW.directron.com wants to sell you a mouse. I buy the mouse and snare a shrink wrap Windows MCE 2005, plus the snazzy Microsoft remote control. $125 for the OS, $35 for the remote, $2.99 for the mouse.
In the great tradition of "gadgets beget gadgets" the mouse comes with an IR receiver on a long USB wire so you can hide the humming beast in a closet.
Gadgets beget lots of gadgets. I wasn't going to build some girlie man Media PC, so I scoped out Microsoft's list of deluxe pre-made Media PCs (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/ev aluation/products.mspx)
I made sure that I had the best of any of them. More disks, faster AMD Athlon 64 CPU, Zalman Cooler, Gigs of memory, DVD readers & writers, video in, DVI out. The pile of packages alone was a nerd badge of courage.
I can follow instructions as well as the
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry about the loss of any formatting in that. How about some HTML guys?
Road Apple on the Convergence Highway: Three months with Windows Media Center (This is partial text of an article, for the full version with the pictures, email me Duke Weber dleinweber@gmail.com I'm with Stupid Gadget Jones comin' down. I had to have something with a plug, at least a battery compartment. Primal cravings make people do strange and stupid things. They made me build a Windows Media Center PC. This has been going on since I was 12. Mom would drag me to Radio Shack to buy diodes. Diodes, a gateway gadget, lead to stronger stuff. Pretty soon you're soldering everything in sight. Then stereos with speakers as big as refrigerators, wires made from single crystals of silver. Zones of audio, zones of video. DVI and HDMI and panels and plugs that no one else in the house understands, except maybe the 15 year-old girl with the 16:9 rectangular eyes. Computers everywhere. Windows and Macs and Linux. Ethernet Cat 1,2,3,4,5 and 6. Routers, hubs and switches blinking under tables and in closets. Eventually the computer stuff gets lucky with the hi-fi and video heap and that is what magazines like this call "Convergence". Digital devices, music and video converging in a whole new pile of stuff with plugs that we can all go out and buy RIGHT NOW. I'd already plucked the low-hanging convergence fruit. Hang a bunch of beater laptops on network, plug 'em into stereos with he-man external sound boxes. Run iTunes all around and pat yourself on the back 'cause you are CONVERGED, and you didn't have to pay the price of a Buick for some gadget with an 80 gig drive and a blue light to do it. But when the Gadget Jones is down, you need more wire. A few months ago, I made the mistake of cruising websites that traffic in this convergence porn. The news, behold, is that Microsoft, after a few tries, now has a product that doesn't suck - Media Center Edition 2005. Mister Softee, we all know, has become the behemoth it is by selling software that sucks. It doesn't suck quite enough for you to toss it out and get a pencil and a typewriter, but it AWAYS sucks enough that you're willing to bite for the next version, which might suck a little less. If you read it on the Internet, it must be true I was ready to bite when "Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows" (www.supersite.com) told me that, unlike Media Center Editions 2002 and 2004, the new one didn't suck. This could be a two-channel HDTV TIVO, an archive for all those VHS tapes, and a DVD recording factory, I was ready to bite harder when "Build It, Tweak It, Know It" (www.extremetech.com) told me the secrets of turning the heap of computer innards in the closet into an uber-converged monster machine that would have the lesser nerds drooling on the socks in their Teva sandals. The first secret is that you need to scam your way into getting a copy of Windows XP Media Edition 2005, which is only sold to OEMs. Usually, OEMs are companies like Dell and HP. You too can be an OEM by buying some OEM computer parts to use with the OEM software. Most of 'em want you to buy a carload of cases and power supplies and motherboards to qualify as an OEM. WWW.directron.com wants to sell you a mouse. I buy the mouse and snare a shrink wrap Windows MCE 2005, plus the snazzy Microsoft remote control. $125 for the OS, $35 for the remote, $2.99 for the mouse. In the great tradition of "gadgets beget gadgets" the mouse comes with an IR receiver on a long USB wire so you can hide the humming beast in a closet. Gadgets beget lots of gadgets. I wasn't going to build some girlie man Media PC, so I scoped out Microsoft's list of deluxe pre-made Media PCs (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/ev aluation/products.mspx) I made sure that I had the best of any of them. More disks, faster AMD Athlon 64 CPU, Zalman Cooler, Gigs of memory, DVD readers & writers, video in, DVI out. The pile of packages alone was a nerd badge of courage. I can follow instructions as well as the