TiVo

Tivo Desktop
Running on Windows. Grabs the shows to a local VM disk. It won't save to a mapped drive. Lame.

VideoReDo
Converts the .TiVo to an mpg that the TiVo can view. Also strips commercials. Costs about $30. Windows.

TVAP
Watches the local VM disk for new shows. It then runs VideoReDo on the shows and saves them to the file server. It creates a text file with the show metadata in it. Windows.

pyTiVo
Publishes the shows on the file server for the TiVo to view again.

Runs on the file server (Solaris) but could be anything that can run python and ffmpeg (mplayer?). Unix, MacOSX, Windows. Uses the show metadata from TVAP.

Apparently pyTivo doesn't like "-" in the name of a share. Anything I tried to transfer from such a share would pause after 10 seconds and eventually kill the transfer. Removing the "-" from the sharename fixes it.

pyTivo has a version that will create a share for every subfolder you have. It works well.



Encoding and Ripping

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters

Organizing blogs

I've been reading a number of blogs about organizing, GTD (Getting Things Done) and dealing with clutter. Here's a list of links:

Unclutterer - and dealing with paper clutter
Declutter an area from Good housekeeping

43 Folders deals with GTD and is a source of the hipster PDA (paper based)
Lifehacker has tips on GTD and changing your life habits
Zen Habit's simplification of GTD Nice graphic of flow

Resources for Decluttering your home from http://zenhabits.net

WWLD? No. 2: Keeping Connected | 43 Folders
WWLD? No. 3: Organizing your environment | 43 Folders
WWLD? No. 4: Living Your Life | 43 Folders

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Sysadmin

Brendan Gregg has a ton of Solaris tools and stuff that works elsewhere. Portping can substitute where pings are not returned but another service is.


Clonezilla is a ghost clone

How to Make a Network Cable

Podcasting links

A friend of my wife is interested in starting podcasting so I googled some links.
She has a Macintosh so I'm focusing on Mac tools

O'Reilly Digital Media Article - a good site for all digital media
Audacity is a good audio editor. It's cross platform and open source too. Free.
Engadget has a HOWTO that mentions free tools for receiving and creating
A Linux setup for Recording Video - many of the tools are available for MacOSX
From about.com - more info
iLounge is a cool iPod site with a Beginner's Guide

Most of these articles mention Free/Open Source software. You don't need to buy software to podcast. You can get by with a microphone, a computer, free software and maybe a webcam. Better microphones and a digital camcorder are obvious upgrades.

There might be Legal issues. This is the Creative Commons take on it. It's based on EFF's Guide. The EFF is all about protecting your legal rights in digital media. Since you're publishing, you care about Intellectual Property (IP) and Copyright. Lawrence Lessig is worth paying attention to.

I'd focus on creating the content, the audio MP3. I'd leave distribution to one of the podcasting sites. The about.com link has some sites.