Navfree GPS

This application is pretty good, considering its free, and seems to be actively improved upon as we speak.

Presently you may need a data-connection to search for addresses, however the map data is offline, stored on the phone.  For different countries/regions search facilities while offline are cropping up with updates to the app.

Google Market: Navfree GPS

So far, initial impressions are that the GPS on the phone is not that stable so the map jumps around a lot, especially when stationary.  In comparison to say the Garmin Nuvi 250 or 320, the maps are similar but the routing and stability of position is not as consistent.

Visually, the maps look great and there is a nice feature where you can fix map errors.  This feeds into the openstreet foundation map data-set.

ZBOX HD ID33 with bluray

ZBOX HD ID33 with bluray

http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-hd-id33-blu-ray.html

Twice the price of previous Zbox unit I have, but this came with 250Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM and a bluray/DVD drive.  (Not having a drive on the Zbox is problematic when trying to install Ubuntu).

Successfully installed Ubuntu 12.04, MythTV and XBMC on this unit.
HDMI sound worked out of the box with MythTV.
Not been as lucky with XBMC... so far had to resort to using the stereo analogue connection.

I've not spent much time tweaking the video, Next Gen ION seems to be configured well enough to only suffer minor tearing and jitters.  I have yet to tweak the X11 config to turn off Composite to see if the tearing disappears... as with the other system, this is the typical solution.

Very useful command to remove all unwanted kernels

dpkg -l linux-* | awk '/^ii/{ print $2}' | grep -v -e `uname -r | cut -f1,2 -d"-"` | grep -e [0-9] | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge

mythtv

In pursuit of the perfect working mythtv frontend HDTV experience...

(Updated Apr 2012 - migration to MythTV0.25 on U11.04)

Summary

This blog entry is supposed to document useful information and the not-so-obvious trials and tribulations of trying to get MythTV to work with Ubuntu 10.10 on Zotac Zbox.  Since time has passed, I found myself intrigued by newer editions of XBMC and MythTV both of which were eventually unsupported on U10.10.  So I took the plunge and migrated to U11.04.  (U12.04 is freshly out but I didn't want to push my luck, specifically around NVIDIA chipset/driver support... it turned out I was lucky this time and everything upgraded fairly seamlessly.)

So, these notes are in part written down in case I have to repeat the exercise and in part to offer some help/insight into the process.

Myth 0.24+fixes circa Feb2011 - due to hardware and software limitations on Zotac/NVIDIA chipset I found myself downloading and manually compiling/installing MythTV 0.24 on a 2.6.36 kernel.  More information here.

Myth 0.25 circa April 2012 - I took the plunge and upgraded using the Ubuntu Upgrade Manager.  Usually this is an utter disaster.  However, from U10.10 to U11.04 things were 'fairly' smooth. I chose to upgrade a perfectly working system as other frontend laptops/netbooks were running newer Ubuntu releases for hardware support and by default ran MythTV 0.25 frontends.

Currently Working Frontend System using MythTV 0.25

• Ubuntu 11.04 with 2.6.38-14 kernel
• NVIDIA 260.41.06
• MythTV 0.25 ppa installed via Ubuntu apt-get
• Zotac System ZBOX HD-ND02 Atom 330 (IONv1) with single 2Gb DDR3 RAM. (Two 1Gbs DIMMs are actually recommended for performance using this chipset.)
• HDMI connected to a Panasonic TYFB8HM Adapter for TH-50PH9UK 50" plasma screen at resolution 1360x768 (aka 768p or 1080i) for "best" picture quality instead of full HD resolution.
• No LIRC remote control, using smart-phone apps and/or keyboard

Other frontend systems include:

•  Android 4.0 Nexus Phone using MythFrontend, 
• Lenovo T420 laptop U12.04.
• Zbox HD-ID33 Bluray (ION2) and U12.04

Backend System

• Dual-core 4200 AMD based desktop in an Antec case with 3Tb of disk space
• Hauppauge HVR 1800 capture card
• Channel Master CM 7778 Titan2 VHF/UHF Preamplifier with Power Supply (CM7778) ~$90
• Channel Master CM 4221HD 4-bay HDTV/UHF Antenna (CM4221HD) ~$80.
• DLINK gigabit hub connected to the main frontend system.  Typically ~2.6MB/s for a single HDTV channel.
• Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato for wireless clients utilising ~2MB/s per channel with occasional drops to 1.5MB/s.

It is easy to make your own bow-tie antennas.  I originally made a bow-tie and a hoverman in testing but decided that it was cheaper/easier/better-built to buy a double-bow-tie with reflector.  It also had all the mounting accessories.

The CM7778 amplifier is reportedly better than the CM7777 when there is a range of signal strengths for different channels and one is very strong. They are also very well built.

What is there to Watch?
tvfool.com has a utility that can show you the nearest transmitter directions and channel line-ups with suggestion antenna types/placements.

As of Sept 1st 2011 when in Canada the analogue transmitters were switched to digital there are about eight channels now available.  On my system, about four are watchable due to signal strength and only two actually interesting. ;o) EIT has gone for about 4 out of 8 of them including CBOT again and CBC replied to me saying they have had a lot of problems and do not plan to support EIT on the CBOT channel.


Ubuntu upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04

I leave the Myth 0.24 notes up here as some were related to compiling and installing MythTV while other notes are related to NVIDIA, VDPAU and MythTV which I did not seem to have to do when migrating to U11.04 and MythTV 0.25.

The Ubuntu upgrade did require me to:

• Reset the MythTV Playback profile to VDPAU Normal (I have not needed to tweak Temporal/Advanced etc) but I am still running the system in 720p over HDMI and suspect the same video/playback issues remain if I were to try 1080p.  (See original installation notes)
• On the first few logins I found I had no Desktop menu bars.  I found (online) a suggestion to create a launcher for terminal, then issue sudo killall Xorg.  This dumps you back out at the login where you can select "Ubuntu Classic".  As usually  in a Ubuntu upgrade the Unity crap fails to install properly.  Now I am back to the non-Unity (classic) desktop environment.

All MythTV settings were intact and I could watch tv with no problem.

I did notice the NVIDIA driver migrated from 260.19.06 to 260.41.06.  I have no idea what the difference is but very surprised it successfully upgraded with no loss of desktop.

Original installation notes can be found in this post.

Samba sharing across LANs using an SSH Tunnel

I've tried this on a Home-Edition WinXP computer tunnelling to an Ubuntu machine with a Samba share. It works pretty well using a Microsoft Loopback Adapter and PuTTY.  Instructions given here are very easy to follow:

http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/238/ssh-reverse-tunneling/

Gerber Prodigy

This is a great full tang knife.  It is just long enough to comfortably hold in one hand.  The size overall makes it fairly compact.  The Gerber LMF 2 is probably the better choice if the knife is in constant use but this one is a good compromise, solid knife.

The metal tip at the base of the knife maybe useful for certain tasks but I find it catches on my arm when knife is worn around a waist belt.  It is also not comfortable if you want to exert pressure using your palm to push the blade through a surface.

The sheath is pretty standard nylon with plastic bracket.  It is functional and does the job.

Teksavvy, Bell, Rogers ISP

If you have a choice and choice is important...


Rogers
Rogers connection/ISP quality of service was great.  Reliable, up all the time.  However, the bandwidth cap at 60Gb for $50/month was not attractive.

After repeatedly asking them to simply match the bw cap of Teksavvy (300Gb) for the same price I was currently paying Rogers) I got no where and moved to Teksavvy.

Rogers technical support also completely SUCKED.


Teksavvy
 
Then, how about switching to Teksavvy.  Same line-speed and service, cheaper, no contract, better bandwidth for the 21st Century... and you can buy a modem instead of renting one.  This put me out $99 plus $35 connection fee.

• Teksavvy Customer Service is good, when you can get ahold of someone.
• Teksavvy's ability to resolve connection issues is awful as they are at the mercy of Rogers.

My experience... in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario...

Seamless transition may take up to 2 weeks and while TekSavvy customer service is polite they are nearly impossible to reach and cannot do anything but wait for Rogers to fix the problem.

• Problem 1 (July 2011): 10 day outage after seamless switchover because Rogers disconnected the line.  Rogers eventually re-connected the cable connection and my billing date was moved back to adjust for loss of service.
• Problem 2 (August 2011): 7 day outage with POI loop misrouting traffic. Roughly 24-48hrs  to reach tech support who have done nothing and waiting on Rogers to fix the issue.  (Coincided with back-to-school signups and Ajax Area outage).  Resolution: One week, refunded 7 days.
• Problem 3 (Feb 2012) price hike by $10
• Problem 4 (Apr 2012) Connection drop out every 5mins for 5mins for 9 days.  Not able to raise a ticket, cancelled service based on customer service.

Whole days without service: 31



Bell Fibe 25/7

Gave up on Teksavvy after Problem 4 had no ticket raised after 7 days.

Switched to Bell Fibe 25 and it was hooked up the next day... faster and cheaper than Teksavvy.  

• $37/month with a cap of 100Gb
• you can buy another 120Gb for $15/month and max of $80 overage fees.

 Also...

• Bell Fibe is actually wire to the home, fibre to the CO.
• However, in my neighbourhood it has been upgraded from 800kbps to 25Mbps.  
• Engineering tests showed the line is capable of 50Mbps and IPTV ready.