TheDot: “Noatun was started on August 26, 2000, well, that was the first commit. I’d been thinking about it already in March of that
year, I decided that there needed to be a media player that could play everything, and one that didn’t have silly skins.”

MSNBC: “Despite the national tragedy, the company did churn out at least one
new beta, or test version, of the upgrade last week. And testers privately
indicate that this recent test version is solid.”

O’Reilly.net: “Learn about the two major Linux packaging systems, the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and the Debian GNU/Linux Package Manager, in this complete chapter excerpt from “Linux in a Nutshell.”

Kelly McNeill writes: “Sun Microsystems and Philips Digital Networks are putting their chips on MPEG-4 in the battle to determine the streaming media standard of the future. The companies have agreed to expand their year-long relationship to promote and develop MPEG-4 technology for broadband and wireless markets. The companies have partnered on marketing and have agreed to share technologies. In the most recent deal, Philips licensed Sun’s StorEdge Media Central server technology. Philips said it will include the technology in a WebCine Server MPEG-4 system it is developing to run on Sun’s Solaris Operating Environment and Sun Cobalt servers.”

aicra writes “How I digitized DMITRY SKLYAROV’s AUGUST 29, 2001 speech on a free box using free software for less than 700 dollars.

(mpg link is on dmcasucks.org)

by aicra

Hardware:

sharp hi 8 camcorder VLE600
Audio/video output jack in the back already.

wintv card (not firewire or USB)- Used drivers for the main chip which supports many cards – GPL’d
BT848 driver supports a lot of cards

wintv card comes with s-vhs to composite converter
For better audio, ensonic pci audio using the es1371 driver which is also GPL’d.

Since the camcorder is mono, and the sound card doesn’t have rca jacks got two converters – one y adapter to monoaudio from camera and an rca to 1/8 inch phono for stereo input to have identical channels.from radio shack.

Debian unstable -sid kernel 2.4.9
AMD Duron 750, 128 MB ram which is probably more than the minimum you need.

Case + mboard = $149
Duron = $59.99
Ram = $24.00
TV card (NOT usb nor firewire)= $99
Sound card = $39.99
20 gig drive = $49.99

Camcorder = $239
Radio Shack adapters = $6

So if you have nothing at all, you can do it for about $700 dollars.

These are more than the minimum requirements for getting the job done, so you could probably do it for less.

Software:
compiled ffmpeg – standard compilation
3 steps (standard) ./configure
make
make install

Used xawtv (GPL)for the settings…controlling the tv card
changed television to composite 1
CLOSE xawtv before running ffmpeg

open an xterm and type the settings for ffmpeg to capture directly to mpeg.

i.e. ffmpeg -r 12 -b 1024 -ar 44100 -ab 192 -s 384×288 out.mpg

12 = frames per second
1024 = quality of frames
44100 = samples per second
192 = quality of samples
384×288 = size
out.mpg = filename”

Kelly McNeill writes “Play armchair CEO for a moment and imagine that you are president of a high profile publicly traded technology company that despite creating an incredible product, can never seem to get ahead. Your company is on the verge of filing bankruptcy, but manages to save face by finding a purchaser of your assets. Although now relieved in the knowledge that your company is finally saved, you suddenly learn that the buyout may go sour due to potential investor disapproval of the fact that your stock slipped below the minimum $1 per share Nasdaq requirement. You’re thinking that you are leading the charge at Be, Inc., right? Okay right, now what do you do?”

PC World examines a number of different stores and methods of purchasing retail computers, detailing and explaining their findings.

ZDNet reports on the disposable cell phones expected to come to the American market this October, and what the security risks with them may be.

Kelly McNeill writes “A controversial law was recently drafted, although not yet introduced, by U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina), chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), titled “The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act” (SSSCA). If made into law, the proposed bill would make it illegal to “manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in” digital devices that do not use “certified security technologies.” The SSSCA, if enacted, will have serious negative affects on free software, most specifically to open-source operating systems such as Linux.”

ZDNet reports that US Attorney General John Ashcroft is calling for US laws to change to make it easier for spy agencies to tap individuals’ communications.