I’m sure I’m missing a few things, so feel free to reply.

Here is part 1. Click the person’s other videos to see the rest. It almost makes me sad that McCain is my best choice. I’d rather vote for Stossel.

I just hit 100,000 words on my novel, and that’s a HUGE hurdle. It’s so big that Word can’t even handle the extra place value in the bottom status bar! As a general rule most people consider 100k words the length of a marketable novel. It can be shorter, but that makes it a little harder to publish. To give you an idea, from what I can find on google Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was 107,000 words. I think my total word count will end up somewhere around 110-115k.

I’ve got six chapters left and they’re special because I have to use them to say “goodbye” to the characters. I’m writing the book through the POV of six or so characters, and each chapter bounces to a new character as the story unfolds. These last six chapters are the final chapters for each characters POV, so not only are they closing out the book, but they need to bring about some sort of closure for each character’s journey. Exciting huh?

You probably won’t see another post until I’m done with the book and begin to edit. I hope everyone is leaving a space open in their summer reading schedule.

Hardware

For the most part I built the machine from the ground up. Here are the different pieces I put into the machine:

Intel Dual-Core E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 Processor
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve “NINJA MINI” CPU Cooler
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Snapstream Firefly PC Remote
Vbox Cat’s Eye 150 ATSC Tuner

A quick word on the components and why I chose them. The dual core intels are amazing overclockers. My 1.8 is running at 3.0 right now with zero effort (guide at Tom’s). It can probably go higher, but I don’t have any reason to try. The motherboard is a quality build (solid state transistors!) and it has digital audio out. The video card is a Radeon 2600XT, which will decode just about any video (a word on this later). It runs HDMI and will output audio, but unfortunately it has to convert everything to AC3 first, and then output it. In other words, there is no pass-through. I went with a fanless version which runs hot, but I also bought some very quiet Scythe fans for the case. A big 120mm for the front intake, and two 90mm for the back exhaust.

Software
I know the Microsoft haters will harp on this choice, but I’ve decided to use Media Center 2007 which is only found on Vista. For people that automatically think Vista sucks, it might as a desktop (or at the least be an uneeded upgrade from XP) but there is no other way to access the awesome frontend that is MCE 2007.

Media Center 2007 is a cool program that does everything that I mentioned above. It records and playsback TV just like a tivo, it will play videos, mp3s, and images. Not to mention the entire interface is super slick. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and it’s very nice. The nice thing about MCE is that it’s very wife friendly. I leave the application open at all times, and you never even see the windows desktop. Eventually you start to forget it’s a computer at all.

If you’ve never tried MCE 2007, don’t knock it until you have.

Setup
I don’t think the following is specific to MCE 2007, but setting up a HTPC to playback everything you want is a big challenge. There are tons of codecs out there and getting your computer to play them back is a huge challenge. The following are several tweaks and codecs I’ve used to create a versatile HTPC setup.

Codecs
This box is replacing a Snazio Net Cinema 1350 media streaming unit, so the first thing I tackled was getting the HTPC to playback every codec I had.

First I installed an app called Haali Media Splitter. This will let us play .mkv files. I installed this application, and told it to play everything except .ts files (more on this later). This will allow Media Player (and MCE) to playback .mkv files, but that is merely a container. To playback specific codecs contained inside .mkv files (usually x264 material) we need more than just Haali.

For AVC/264 content I’ve used both FFDShow Tryouts, and CoreAVC with very similar results. With a 3ghz dual core processor, it doesn’t matter much. FFDShow is free though. Upon installing FFDShow I told it to handle every codec except for mpeg2, and turn off it’s audio capabilities completely (we’ll come back to audio). Now when MCE opens an xvid/divx file FFDShow will play it, or when Haali has MCE open an .mkv containing 264 content, FFDShow (or CoreAVC) will play it.

Surprisingly mpeg2 was the most difficult to setup because of bloody interlaced television. A strong selling point of the Radeon HD 2600XT is that it can decode mpeg2 and 264 content and take a load off the CPU. The problem is that decoders like FFDShow and CoreAVC are software decoders that don’t know how to harness the GPU in the video card. But because of my CPU, this has been a mute point, until now.

Watching 1080i television using the default Microsoft mpeg decoder or FFDShow, the handling of the deinterlacing was terrible. On horizontal pans the screen would jump and flicker and give me a headache. The built-in deinterlacing capabilities of the Radeon however are great, but we have to get MCE to use that. We need two different programs to get MCE to use the videocard. This is also why we told Haali not to handle .ts files. While .ts is also a container, often times .ts files contain mpeg2 content. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think using Haali to handle .ts files will make it impossible to use the onboard AVIVO decoder on mpeg2 content. I’m not sure on this, but I don’t use Haali on .ts files, and the mpeg2 content inside my .ts files is GPU decoded, so I don’t care.

First we need to download the avivo codec pack from ATI. Scroll to the botton and download the AVIVO pack. Then we need to tell Vista to make it the default mpeg2 decoder. After installing the codec pack, now we download DECCHECK.EXE from Microsoft. If you register you can download a copy of it here. When we run that program, AVIVO should show up. It might say it’s not MCE compatible, but we don’t care. Set it as the default. Then we run a program called VMCD.EXE, and from there we tell it to use the ATI Mpeg Decoder as our default decoder. Now when we watch recorded 1080i content we will have beautifully smooth deinterlacing. To double check that your gpu is being used, open the catalyst control center and scroll down to ati overdrive. Run an mpeg2 video from media center in windowed mode, and if your gpu is being utilized, it should read somewhere close to 40% for me. If it says 0%, you’re decoding solely via cpu.

For audio I would install AC3 Filter. When you set it up go to the fourth tab for SPDIF. Here you can tell it to passthrough AC3 and DTS straight to your receiver (assuming you have one). It’s a great program and should be able to decode almost any audio format you run across. The only audio I’ve seen that it won’t play is AAC which is found in .mp4 files. Download CoreAAC if you play any of these.

So now MCE will playback almost every type of video file we throw at it. The only problem is MCE doesn’t recognize .mkv and .mp4 files by default. Visit this site and go all the way to the bottom. Download and run mkv.reg and mp4.reg and now MCE will see those file types.

The final piece of software I installed is called Nero Drivespeed (a tool included with the Nero Suite). A problem I had was watching an .mkv burned to a DVD. It’s important that the HTPC is quiet, but the bloody thing would spin that dvd-drive up as fast as it could, and it sounded like a plane was taking off during the entire movie. The solution is to force the dvd-drive to only operate at 1x using Nero Drivespeed. Now I can watch a video archived onto a dvd and I never hear the drive. Only the versions distributed with the newer Nero 7 and 8 packages will work in Vista.

TV Playback
I also own a Sony DHG-250 to record and playback high definition OTA television, but this computer will soon be replacing it. The sony box has only one tuner, so if it’s recording, you HAVE to watch what is being recorded. Right now I have two tuners in the htpc, and this opens so many doors. I can watch a different program while I record another. I can record two shows at once. If a tuner is free, MCE will record a buffer before and after a show in case they start early or run late. I plan on upgrading to at least 3 tuners (there is a max of 4) for certain situations. For example, if I’m recording two shows from 8-9pm that both want to record an extra minute to 9:01, but I have something scheduled at 9, one of them will have to stop precisely at 9pm to record the third program. If I had a third tuner, that tuner would be free to start recording the third program early, and the two 8-9pm programs would be free to record past 9. I run two Vbox Cat’s Eye 150. They’re pci cards and they work awesome. Installed the drivers in Vista, and MCE found and configured them perfectly.

Remote
An important factor in the wife-friendly setup was a remote. I want the HTPC to be accessible solely by a remote, and my remote of choice was the Snapstream Firefly. It’s an RF remote designed to work with their tv recording app (beyond tv), but it works perfect with Vista MCE. Install the software which runs in the background, tell it you’re using Media Center, and BAM, all the buttons work for exactly what you want it to. You can skip ahead and back during live tv, change channels, and even the menu/info/exit buttons work precisely like they should.

That was much more in-depth than I planned, but hopefully it will help anyone out there struggling to get their HTPC setup exactly how they want.

Update 4.23.08 – In case you’ve found this post via a google search, here’s some updates I’ve made since I started this 5 months ago. I’m now using Haali to do all my splitting for ts/mkv/mp4. I’m now only using CoreAVC for 264 content, and I installed Xvid. That covers about 99% of the videos out there, and I no longer use FFDshow for anything.

Since then I’ve upgraded to three vbox dta 150s and it works great.

Update 7.29.08 – Made a serious effort today to finally get subtitles working properly, and it was much easier than I anticipated. I installed DirectVOBSub. It worked almost out of the box. Only problem I had was Media Center wouldn’t load it. All you do is open an .mkv or something with subtitles in regular old Media Player, and then when the DirectVOBSub icon loads in the tray, double click it. On the general tab you want to select “Always Load.” I had to restart Media Center for it to take effect. You can make sure it’s loading by running Media Center in a window, load a video, and the DirectVOBSub icon should appear. I’ve only tried this on one movie so far, so we’ll see how it works!

Yesterday I overdosed on caffeine. haha, no, not really, but I was so tired I went to bed at 7:30 pm. I feel like I’ve constantly been tired, so I’m back off the caffeine. We’ll see if it sticks this time, but the caffeine withdrawl headaches I’ve had all day are finally gone.

I built a HTPC, or “Home Theatre PC.” The idea is you hook up a computer to your television and do super cool nifty things with it. I’m still in the process of setting it up, so we’ll see how that goes.

Here’s a really good way to waste your time. Google made a game out of naming images on the internets. Proceed to waste time here.

I’m turning down “extra” jobs at work by giving the excuse that I’m having a baby and writing a book, so I better stop typing on this thing and work on the book.

Here are the number of posts over the last 30 days, so keep in mind, the minute I post this it will become old data. The nice thing is it gathers all the info on it’s own, so no extra work for me!

IGN Wii comes in first, but that’s not really fair. Comments on Andrew’s website come in second, haha. That’s because he has an awesome wordpress plugin and people are always asking questions about it. I come in third, but I’ve been helped by my almost daily roadtrip posts.

So take a look and see where you rank. Kind of fun, no?

1) Understanding Terminology Used in the Illegal Immigration Debate

Before I start babbling about crime and the economy, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the terms used in the debate (especially when the media loves to spin them to death).

An illegal immigrant is someone who either entered this country without permission, or has overstayed a temporary permit (a visa)¹. Any person who is in this country, in violation of the laws of this country, is an illegal immigrant. There are different terms used to refer to people here illegally. Illegal aliens is my favorite. Liberals enjoy using "undocumented workers."

Whatever your term for people who are in the country illegally, the word "immigrant" is not sufficient. The rally over the weekend was not about "immigrants" rights, it was about "illegal immigrants" rights. The laws being debated in congress in no way affect legal immigrants. This is the primary error that so many of the protestors and students walking out of class fail to realize.

It’s not about Mexicans, Chinese people, and it’s not about legal immigrants. This debate is about illegal immigrants.

Citations: ¹Wikipedia – Illegal Immigration

2) A Foreword on Immigration

Before I get into the nitty gritty, here are some of my personal views on immigration, just so you know what my "biases" are. I believe that the United States is a great country, and something that makes it great is that we are governed by laws. As a nation we have rules and the right to enforce those rules. The United States allows immigration into our country, and people have been coming to live here for hundreds of years. I have no beef with immigrants, as my great-great-grandfather was an immigrant (I think). Many immigrants come here because they want a better life and an opportunity to have the American dream.

The debate before us now is that there are certain individuals who do not believe in the rule of law. It is within the power of the United States to create and enforce the laws. It is illegal to overstay a visa or cross the border without permission. I don’t care who the person is and no matter their circumstance, no one has a right to be in this country besides the citizens of this country. That’s correct, the USA is an exclusive club, and if you want in, you need permission. If you decide to break the laws of our country, you are a criminal.

I’m sure this will sound "mean" to people that think with their emotions. It is not racist nor predjudiced for a country to control it’s own destiny, and who we let in plays a major part in that. A quick look at France and the recent Muslim protests is an example². Just as we have decided to not let terrorists into our country, we reserve the right to say no to extremists, the uneducated, and illegal immigrants. If a person has the desire to come and enjoy the freedom of this country and the economic opportunities, I believe they should also be willing to adopt the values and language of this country. If a person is unwilling to do that, then they should not be here.

Citations: ²France – The Cost of Multicultralism

3) It’s Friday and I’m Tired.

I’m tired and don’t feel like devoting several hours of my life creating a pseudo scholarly post, so I will now be succinct.

4) The Economy and Illegals: We Don’t Need Them

All the nonsense about illegals working jobs that no one else will is total horse doo-doo. Americans will clean bathrooms, pick lettuce, and build houses, but when employers have cheap labor to exploit of course they’ll pay the lower wages. We have thousands if not millions of uneducated people that would be great at scrubbing toilets. Just go to myspace and look up all the people that graduated with you and still have no life. Illegal immigrants also love to send money back to Mexico instead of investing it back into our economy.

5) Welfare: If You Hand It Out, They Will Take It

When an illegal comes over the border they get so much handed to them. Public education, emergency medicine, roads and highways, medicare, social security, and welfare. An illegal immigrant does not deserve any of that, because they’ve done basically nothing to pay for any of it. Illegal immigrants are having babies by the thousands at our hospitals and not contributing a dime to pay for it. ONE BILLION DOLLARS. I think I’m turning into a Libertarian when it comes to economics. The solution to all of this is to make people pay for everything. Charge people $4000 to send their kid to public school, pay per miles used on the highways. In turn the goverment could get rid of property taxes or income taxes. Ultimately there should not be anything handed to illegal immigrants by the goverment reaching into the pockets of law-abiding and tax-paying citizens.

6) Illegal Immigrants Commit a lot of Crime

Crime 1: 29% of criminals filling jails are illegals, costing 1.6 billion dollars a year (they only make up around 3% of the entire population).

Crime 2: 60% of the 20,000 strong 18th street gang are illegals.

Crime 3: 95% of outstanding homicide warrants in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

Crime 4: A whole lot of document forgery going on!

There are tons of illegal immigrants and crime links, just search google.

7) Conclusion

That’s all the energy I have. Doesn’t seem like the politicians in Washington D.C. have the guts to really do anything, so I don’t see this problem being solved anytime soon.

I did a simple experiment. I measured how long it took for the counter to increase .0001 megabytes, which was 26 seconds. I then found the number of seconds required for 1 megabyte: 260,000. Translated into hours, that is 72.2 hours. Into days that is almost 3 exactly. That’s right, storage is increasing at the startling rate of 1 mb per 3 days. That seems super wimpy. I then found the percent increase over an entire year and it came out to a 5% increase, which is a little more respectable sounding.

I’m a nerdy math teacher now, so I do dorky math problems for fun! Any problems with my experiment Denise? I’m making the assumption that the rate of increase is perfectly constant, which it may not be. The number of subscribers also must factor into Google’s equation at some point. I do think it’s interesting that it comes out to a 5% per year increase…sounds like a company policy. Maybe that boils down to Joe Blow installing a new terabyte blah blah blah server every month. I’ll let Angelo tackle that one.

"It is, after all, Muslims who are overwhelmingly at the receiving end of Western violence." – Of course, gotta watch out for those US and Israeli suicide bombers. I’m sure people will point at the Iraq war, but the burden of proof was on Saddam, not us. Also, don’t forget the money he paid suicide bombers.

"…the controversy reveals a dangerous and virulent anti-Muslim racism that will almost certainly return to haunt us." – If by haunt us you mean "Muslims are going to continue suicide bombing," then you are correct.

"The debate on the cartoons tells us less about fanatic Muslims than about how Europe is choosing to deal with its ‘Muslim question.’" – Europe prints a cartoon, Muslims burn down embassies. Which tells you more?

"The hysterical tone of some free speech defenders comparing official apologies for the cartoons to a dangerous form of appeasement thus betrays a fantastic sense of delusion." – When people respond to something they don’t like with violence and demand an apology, I think the granting of that apology would in fact constitute appeasement. What the heck a "fantastic sense of delusion" is I have no idea.

You can read the article for yourself, but it amazes me how easily he brushes aside the violent acts being commited by Muslims both now in response to the cartoons, and also in the last 5-10 years.