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| Messages - roystonlodge | |
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1
Hardware / New Geek Project: Operation PVR-6500
July 24, 2009, 22:04 |
The small TV in my bedroom is dying. Actually, it's an old Commodore 64 monitor with an old VCR functioning as the tv tuner. That monitor has served me EXTREMELY well since it was first purchased way back in the late 80's. But, it's finally starting to die on me. Actually, I think it's just a loose connection in the front video-in port, but regardless I'm going to replace it. But buy a new tv? That's madness. Madness, I tell you! I have a Powermac 6500/275 Creative Studio Edition in my storage locker. It has the AppleTV video capture card and AvidCinema. I'm going to put it in the bedroom, pop in a way bigger hard drive, and install an Ethernet card. Then, I'll connect the old VCR and the old DVD player that I never use anymore. The plan is to network it with the rest of the computers in my apartment and figure out some way to use it as a PVR. Any suggestions for 7.6.1-compatible software that would help me in my quest? The bits of the puzzle that I haven't even started to figure out yet: - How to get 7.6.1 to network with 10.4.11 (or Windows XP for that matter); - How to get 7.6.1 to record shows on a timer; - How to access 7.6.1 remotely to tell it to record a show; and, - How to browse tv listings automatically online, using 7.6.1. My deepest fear is that much of this is impossible without doing some scripting/coding myself, and I know NOTHING about scripting/coding for 7.6.1. My scripting experience is pretty much limited to BASH, HTML, Javascript, and a wee bit of PERL. That's right, I never learned Applescript. I feel shame. Part of me says, "why not just get a cheapass video capture card for your PC?" But that would mean the Powermac stays locked away in the storage locker. I want to free it from its prison and put it to productive use! Plus, I have a perverse desire to have a computer in every room, serving an actual purpose. (I have a Newton eMate which will one day serve in the kitchen as a recipe server / wireless email client. I'm still working on a purpose for a computer in the bathroom. Is it possible to program a gumstix PC to email me when it's time to change the 2000 Flushes puck?) So, regardless, I would enjoy any input y'all can provide on making the Powermac 6500 more useful. I don't want this to just be an exercise in nostalgia. |
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2
Hardware / WTB: Ethernet for Powermac 6500
November 21, 2008, 19:59 |
Hi there, I've got a Powermac 6500/275 Creative Studio Edition that I'd like to put to use with its built-in tv and radio tuner and AvidCinema video editing. The one thing I don't have in order to get it connected to my home network is an Ethernet card. I know Farallon made one (Part#YPN998L). Are there other cards that would work with it? Can anybody advise me where the best place to find this part would be? I've tried eBay but with no luck. |
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3
Off Topic Discussion / Get "Macintosh Basics" running in OSX?
July 22, 2008, 23:57 |
Good afternoon folks, I remember WAY back in the early days that there were really good basic tutorial programs that game with your new macintosh to teach you the basics. If my memory is correct, I THINK my favourite was the earliest one, "Mouse Basics". All I remember is that, as a kid, the first tutorial I had on a Mac was this silly little fun game to teach how to use a mouse, how to click, how to drag, etc. I vaguely remember a fishbowl was involved somehow, and there was another part where you dragged a piece of paper from a desk into a garbage can. Heck, I think there may have been one for the pre-Mac Apples that was also really good, and there were also "Guided tour of your new mac" disks that came with the 128k, the 512k, the SE, and the SE/30. Today, I have two uses for these programs, and I want to figure out how to get them to work on modern hardware. 1) My dad, believing the hype about OSX being the "easiest computer in the world to use" went and bought himself a really expensive iMac, thinking it would do EVERYTHING for him. Remember the scene from Star Trek IV where Scotty sits in front of the Mac Plus and says, "computer," into the mouse. That's pretty much the mindspace where my dad's coming from. Plus, my mom's even worse, and is having a really hard time grasping the concept of using a mouse. They want me get Skype working on their computer, but when I tried to help them out I discovered just how much they need to learn before they get CLOSE to the point where they can use Skype comfortably. But, because all this stuff is so automatic for me, because I've been using computers since around 1986 when I got my first C=64, I cannot figure out how to verbalize these concepts into words in a way they can understand. Trying to explain to them the concept of the "desktop" as a metaphor is really hard. To them, a computer is a machine that does something FOR you, like a toaster. To me a computer is a virtual "space" that I "enter" in order to do things for myself. For example, they might ask something like, "how do I get the computer to do x?" And I would answer, "this is how YOU do x." Or, to put it another way, they might unconsciously think to themselves, "I want the computer to give me the information I ask for," while I would unconsciously think ,"I want to go into the file system and find the information that's stored there." That's why it's called the "Finder" after all, right? It's a philosophical paradigm shift they just can't seem to make. So, they don't want me to teach them how to use Skype. They want me to teach Skype how to work for them! Somehow I cannot explain to them that an iMac is not a HAL 9000... So, I want to use these very old basic tutorial programs on OSX as a way to get my parents some practice on the very very very basic skills needed to use a computer. How to click. How to drag. The concept of the "desktop". Etc. Anybody have any simple tricks I can try? I suppose I could download QEMU for OSX and then install System 7 on their iMac, but it seems to me that there MUST be a simpler solution. 2) I'm trying to develop a remastered Damn Small Linux livecd for my very young nieces and nephews to help introduce them to computers. The idea is to prevent my silly siblings from wasting their money on those stupid pink plastic "laptops" you can buy at Toys R Us. Instead, they'd simply take their old laptop that they don't use anymore and just boot it up with the DSL livecd. On the cd will be all sorts of age-appropriate games, educational software, and a kid-oriented internet browser (I'm trying to get zacbrowser to run under WINE, so far without any luck.) There would be two users built-in to the livecd. If you boot it without using a password you get "kid mode" with a really friendly desktop with large cartoony icons with all the programs for the kid. If you boot it with the preconfigured password you'd get "parent mode" allowing access to preferences, utilities, and the myDSL package installation system. Along with giving new life to my brother-in-laws' old laptops, they could also take the livecd with them when they're visiting other folk. Instead of dumping the kids in front of the tv, they can just pop the livecd in the family's computer and the kids can plug away without the ability to touch anything stored on the harddrive. Think of it as SugarOS for really old hardware. As you've probably guessed by now, I want to include these old Mac tutorials with the CD, and again I'm trying to figure out the best way to get them to run under Linux. Again, I could try running System 7 under QEMU, but I'd really like to find a better way. Is there such a thing as "WINE for classic macs"? In the unlikely event that anybody has a way to modify these old programs to run natively under OSX or Linux, that would be AWESOME!!! Or, if there's a modern alternative to the old Mac Basics tutorials, that would also be cool - but not NEARLY as cool as finding a way to run the original classics. I just really liked the way those programs did the job. Thanks in advance! |
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4
New Member Welcome / Just launched: AvidCinema.org
April 11, 2008, 22:39 |
I have a PowerMac 6500 Creative Studio Edition runninig System 7.6.1, gathering dust in my closet that I've never had the nerve to get rid of because I love the Avid Cinema software/hardware that's installed, and that I've never seen working (at least, not well) on any other computer or OS version. Looking around the net for community support information on Avid Cinema turned up zilch. Avid's corporate website doesn't even have any information on it, Wikipedia has no entry for it, and www.avidcinema.com is just a placeholder. So, I went ahead and created www.avidcinema.org. Right now, all that's there is a forum for Avid Cinema users to share advice and information. Unfortunately, there's only one post, from me. So, if there are any Avid Cinema users out there, please visit www.avidcinema.org and register for the forums. |
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5
Off Topic Discussion / Ready to give up on vintage computing?
March 24, 2008, 21:39 |
So, you've done all you can to squeeze every moment of usability out of your vintage computer, but you've reached the end of your rope. It kills you to do it, but you're finally buying something new (or at least newer). Or, like me, you're a technology packrat who refuses to throw out a perfectly usable computer, but don't know anyone curious enough to give your old hardware to so they can tinker with it. ZDNet.com has a story today about a company that will take virually any electronic hardware off your hands and even pay for the shipping. Not just computers, but cell phones and MP3 players and PDAs, etc. In return, you get a gift card for a major retailer like BestBuy or WalMart. The company then sells the equipment on places like eBay to hobbyists, either whole or broken down into component parts. Think there's enough of a market out there for revenue from the sold equipment to be greater than the cost of shipping and the cost of the gift cards, not to mention the salaries of all the people required to process the equipment? The article: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6235339.html?tag=nl.e550 The company: http://www.econewonline.com/ |
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6
Hardware / Avid Cinema on PowerMac 6500
March 24, 2008, 21:16 |
Even though it's not plugged in and it's just sitting in a box in my closet, I've never gotten rid of my old Powermac 6500/275 Creative Studio Edition running 7.6.1 because I love the Avid Cinema hardware and software. So much so that I've registed www.avidcinema.org and will put a community site together as soon as I find the time. As much as I love my old 6500, I simply don't have the space in my home office for yet another computer, especially if I'm only using it for ONE specific application. So, any ideas on how I can: a) Tweak the 6500 so I can use it for more than just the Avid Cinema app? Like, if I used the 6500 as a web server instead of bringing in the 4400, what impact would that have on the performance of Avid Cinema? My 6500 has one PCI slot available, so I could install a USB port OR an Ethernet port, but not both. Plus, the web server would have to run off 7.6.1 if I also want to use the computer to run Avid Cinema. or b) Take the Apple TV video-in/tv tuner card and the Avid Cinema PCI video-out card out of the 6500 and get them to work on another computer, like maybe a PC. or c) Install Linux on the 6500 and somehow get another video-editing app to recognize and use the Avid Cinema card and the Apple TV video-in/TV tuner card. If none of these ideas are feasible, I have another possible secondary use for the 6500, and maybe y'all could help me make it a reality. I have a widescreen LCD tv with a VGA-in port which resides in the living room. I have my mac mini functioning as the centrepiece of our home entertainment centre so we can use the widescreen tv to play games, surf the internet, and watch videos we're downloaded off the internet. I'd also like to turn the Mini into a PVR, but I'm a cheap-ass and don't want to spend the necessary money to get a USB tv tuner that's good enough to do the job. Is there a way I could have the 6500 with 7.6.1 in another room serving as the TV tuner, access it using the Mac Mini over my wireless network (my wireless router is a cheap WF719-CAPR), and have open-source PVR software running on the Mini? Or maybe there's actually PVR software that'll run natively on 7.6.1? So, the 6500 would record the tv shows I want and save them on the big external hard drive that's connected to the Mini via a firewire cable. That way, the Mini wouldn't actually have to control the processes on the 6500, it would just act as the 6500's file server. Think it's possible? If so, think it's possible for a dumb, cheap-ass monkey such as myself? If the router's not up to the task, I suppose I'd be willing to invest A LITTLE BIT of cash to get a better one. If wireless networking isn't possible with the 6500, I can run a wire from the home office to the living room. The holes are already there for the cable tv. |
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