Messages

1

Users / Re: Letter to the Community: LinuxMCE 0810 - The Cold Honest Reality

« on: July 21, 2009, 08:16:33 pm »

This is great news now if someone was responsible for placing the Doxygen docs on a developer section of the web, this would at least serve as some form of Developer documentation. The easier you make it for developers the more likely you will be able to attract quality helpers.

Dave.

2

Users / Re: Letter to the Community: LinuxMCE 0810 - The Cold Honest Reality

« on: July 21, 2009, 04:11:33 am »

Firstly, for documentation, I would strongly suggest looking a semi open wiki. A small linux distro SME Server http://wiki.contribs.org/ does a very good job of using a semi open wiki.

They manage this in a very smart way by having a defined Documentation team that reviews approves members to the docs group and constantly reviews (and improves wiki edits).

When a person is accepted into the docs group they are given guidelines on what to do, while any doc group member can edit anything (including the home page) nobody does they contribute where they are useful.

On a couple of occasions the site has suffered some defacement but by the very nature of wiki it was so simple to roll back it was only a problem for a couple of hours.

Secondly, For programming reference it should be possible to use doxygen docs++ or similar and embed the programmers reference directly in the code. It is a well know fact that programmers and hackers especially hate writing documentation but if it is right there in the code there is at least a chance it will get done.

Dave.

3

Developers / WebDT webpad graphics driver

« on: May 02, 2009, 05:55:41 pm »

I guess this is more an open question to Thom.

Why did you use the fbdev driver in xorg rather than the nsc (geode) driver. Pro's and Con's? I do notice you have both in the gamma 1 image.

Thanks,

Dave.

4

Developers / Re: Discussion on true Multi-room Solution (continued)

« on: April 29, 2009, 01:21:15 am »

OK I have been lurking for a while,

I understand that DigiLinX cracked this problem in their Netstreams line. (http://www.netstreams.com/residential.aspx)

They can not only keep audio synced between zones but also between video playing through a ViewLinX and surround sound through SpeakerLinX.

I think they archive this by:

1) Minimize latency in all playback devices devices
2) Pass only uncompressed data over the wire (including video) using Multicasts
3) Rely on a high bandwidth gigabit switch

I think they may also time stamp all packets and use a local ntp style time sync between all devices on the net.

I'm not sure this is something LinuxMCE could or would want to offer but I thought I would at least point it out as food for thought.

Dave.

Ps. Passing uncompressed data only is the reason they are limited to 1080i at the moment. 1080p 60fps  requires more badwidth than gigabit. http://www.netstreams.com/commothertech.aspx?ID=3

 

5

Installation issues / Re: Installing with no Floppy drive

« on: March 28, 2009, 06:27:22 am »

You may also have a bad cd image, cd's often boot by using a small emulated floppy section at the begining that contains the boot loader.

Dave.

6

Installation issues / Re: Reinitialize Alpha Install

« on: March 28, 2009, 12:47:20 am »

I doubted there would be anything simple, but if someone can you point me in the direction of what runs on first boot, perhaps with this, the post install script and some sql I can manually back things out.

Thanks Again,

Dave.

7

Installation issues / Reinitialize Alpha Install

« on: March 27, 2009, 06:57:27 pm »

I have looked on the forums but cant find an answer to this hopefully simple question.

How do I reinitialize an install of 8.10 alpha? I have downloaded the whole install and have things up but want to run through the process again from after post-install.sh (to save downloading it all again). That is I want to start from the first reboot after and install by choosing your audio device and on.

Anyone have any ideas what I need to do.

Thanks in advance

D.

8

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: feature request - Skype integration

« on: March 26, 2009, 01:23:41 am »

H.323 would provide open support for video calls and interface to most video systems that use this open standard such as: Ekiga (formally gnome meeting http://www.gnomemeeting.org), netmeeting and dedicated conference systems from dlink DVC-1000 (http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DVC-1000) up to systems from Polycom and Tandberg.

One big problem is that H.323 is not firewall friendly (opens lots of ports in a large range) so either the core would need to expose an interface to the internet (not good) or you need a gateway such as GNUGK.

Skype users can even call in to a H.323 endpoint with this cheap add on. (http://www.rsdevs.com/psgw.shtml)

Dave.