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Messages - tridum

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1
Oh boy Don can we talk....!

Although the house we are currently in is already constructed, and the wiring I did was on my own with a help of a friend, i understand completely, as that is my side business from a Developers end.  I've developed about 8 homes in the past, and yes as a general rule, a sub will deviate from plan as often as he can.  We live in Arizona, which basically means that we are slave to many building codes that dont quite apply anywhere else in the country.  We have no natural structure altering forces (save 110 degree heat) so plan deviation is quite common here.

As stated earlier, im very interested in this project not only for myself, but for my latest project which is a multi-home dwelling in the Louisiana.  Down there, up until a year or so after Hurricane Katrina, in most Parishes, there was no requirement to seek a building permit to construct a single family home.  So a sub could do pretty much as he wanted.  This has led over the years to some very shoddy, and dangerous construction.

The competitive advantage that my partner and I have over most developers in the area, is that we tend to be on the cutting edge in interior amenities, with keeping a eye on uniformity of exterior design.  We've tended to stick with subs we know, and for this project (our biggest so far), and due to the economy slow down we've had to slow down the pace in which we move the project along.

Life there is a bit slower.  But what I've found, is that kids tend to move technology due to their need to participate with other kids.  What truly interests me about Linuxmce, is the possibility of being able to offer a family that we are selling too, an opportunity to have system that works and encompasses exactly what Linuxmce offers; media, security, phone. 

I've already been digitally "spanked" about believing this to be to theortical, and i realize fully that it wont be for everyone.  But I really do look at it and say "...well...gee...when constructing for homeowners now, we offer toilets that range from 150 dollars to 900 dollars...so why not this?"  Im a pretty positive guy, and believe that ultimately most things technical have a solution.

So, im kinda experimenting on myself.

2
alas, didn't do it for the wiring, as i figured that was a bit too mundane, but will be doing it as i place all the MD's as well as the core...i saw the video's on Utube of tom and that's kinda my objective; to archive what happens as i go through this install...

3
that's a wonderful idea, in fact I am going to try it...like that and save my 3k...as i would like to see exactly what it does if it lags like that...

4
Now we are talking Thom....your so suave!  Educate my ignorance out of me!

When reading the overall understanding of how the system works, my interpretation is that the core ends up doing most of the processing. And from what your saying, (at least regarding the video component of this) it's the MD's which are doing it.  And by the way,  the 3k is theoretical on a "if i had to..." as it seems through all the various individuals who have listed what they are using, there is no consensus on what core to build/buy.

My other question, is yes, it seems at a minimum you can run a Atom, for the main component of Linuxmce, but my real question is, what about the other components of the system which I want to implement? (security, phone, audio, gaming...etc)

And yes you've already chastised me on over reaching my expectations, but im not refrencing right now that all components work without flaw...on first boot, im talking say in the future as the system becomes more refined.  My point being is i'd like to spend on the core what's needed to support all functions that  the system is capable of handling.  And that is the recommendation im after....

5
hahaha..Thom your a hoot...gotta love it...you win the Ego pop...(what ya dont know is you had "won" already cause your system works and im trying to learn to make mine now)....my point in saying my long time tenure is that i expect problems...i really do, i also expect to work through them and reach the objective.  Stable, functional, affordable system. 

And btw, you REALLY  were better than me, cause "ownership" to me, was limited to how man hours i was willing to sweep the floor and restock miss labled resistors in the little wire bins at the local shack...then i could play to my hearts content on space invaders!....

SO NOW!....hhhaha...what about my core...okay, lets up the ante...if ya had 3k to spend on a core, what would you get..to run all functions of the system? 

6
so im wired, if nothing else...and wonderfully happy with result...all in all it wasn't that bad, the difficulty was in transferring all my connections from 1st floor to 2nd floor...was pretty easy just tedious.  I purchased one of my proposed MD's over the weekend, a Acer small form factor, and im chomping at the bit to truly get this going...but now, the hard part comes in deciding on a Core.  There haven't been to many direct recommendations....so im going to stick with the basics i've been able to read about here in the forums.

7
Well Thom...

I really appreciate your comments, instruction, and tips much more than you know.  And yes, i've been attempting to monitor every issue discussed in the Forum.  And maybe I haven't been quite clear in my approach, or at least not communicating it well.  I can be very guilty of that...just ask my wife!  Hahah.

My objective, although i may have not been saying this, has been to take WHAT WORKS, by majority opinion, or at least by veterans like yourself, and apply that to my situation, based off of the parameters of my budget and objective.  I do have a ulterior motive here; but more on that later.

My objecitve here, is to learn, and apply a STABLE, AFFORDABLE, SYSTEM that is able to be scaled up or down as needs and or budgets permit.  Mostly, because from what this particular situation allows is a way to experiment...mostly ...where it only affects me and my family.  And if nothing else, we are first adopters.  So, as ignorant as I am of this wonderful system, im not coming into it with blinders on. I expect there to be wonderful challenges, that will require many silly questions from me, on how to resolve them.  Let me put it to you like this, the first computer I owned had a casette tape as a hard drive and said TRS-80 on it....and it was a wonderful discovery to be talking to people on something called bulletin board services...!!!

So...after all that..hahaha...my other motive, as mentioned earlier, is that I own a 3 phase housing development right outside of New Orleans, that I've been working on for several years.  It's small in comparison to many around it, but we have yet to build homes.  Within in 3 years though we will have completed construction on about 75% of the homes (110 homes). Well at least we hope so, if the economy steadily improves....  I have only one partner in this, and so we are truly very flexible in what we do, and how we do it.....

So in my head, i'd love to experience linuxmce's growing pains...as i'd love to get it to the point to deploy it in every home we plan to build as a add.

When i first started this thread, i asked general questions, after reading he linuxmce site.  And in this thread, I've asked the same types of questions; mostly general in nature.  So why you may, as other's probably feel, that my questions or even my objectives are juvenille or the scale to big, or my expectations of the system to mainstream, let me assure you, when you lived life as i have and seen 6k of storage be a 1000 dollar investment to what we have today, I truly do not. 

All have responded have taught me something.  And i really appreciate your time and input.  I hope you continue to share what you know with me.

P.S. every home we build will be compliant with cat 6e....hahah....



Now, that being said...

8
Im really trying to wait on recommendations, if any regarding the core...and I've been wondering as well on the music component.  Hadn't really considered it.  I guess it would be a good thing to hear from anyone who's actually got an entire system running on what can be expected.  As far as tuner cards, still unsure.  This weekend im finishing off my wiring, so should be very interesting as I will get started with the actual components next weekend.

9
Part of the reason I decided to go with a NAS setup is that i read in Forums that this would decrease processing server load overall, and since im trying to run all facets of the system, it seemed logical to start off right and devote as much of that processing power to managing the various systems it will be running.  That was the primary reason, and yes your right it's getting rather expensive fairly quickly.  But this is going to be a permanent addition to the house, with the youngest member of the house being 4 years old.  So my thinking is that i will be adding media for years, and i'd rather be able to drop down to my local electronics store, and pick up a terabyte or two to expand the library, but simply adding a device than having to add hard disk space to the core.  There are individuals i know who will copy the movies they have so that i can add media fairly quickly and get the library up much faster, and that was primary consideration as well

10
Okay so the wiring went okay...not perfect, but relatively easy due to the crawl space....some minor details, and some crimps im going to do over this weekend, now going to do the downstairs.  And not to break subject, but im back at what type of core to build, or buy, as that will be coming first...I've looked at a few pre-packaged boxes, but there always seems to be something lacking.  The core will be housed in a closet in the middle of the house, and truly just be a dedicated slave box to serve the MD's., so im not so prone to buy the best video card for it, im more concerned with it's ability to serve all the functions of LinuxMCE at this point.  And im taking the advice and looking to setup NAS for media storage and keep this out of the Core completely.  I know there is a push at this point to make a clean core install and i've been taking notes from the forum on what to watch out with the first installation, and for my purposes, it seems like once I get to that point that the DVD install will work fine, as there will be nothing on the harddrive.  My question is, based off of just these parameters, are there any suggestions for a "off the shelf" box that i can use as a core?  Everything i see that has a i-7 chip, seems to over the top in other areas (graphics card, sound...etc.)?

11
well, as i said, not quite sure how to deal with the latency there...but luckily my wife and kids give me access to a lot of really smart people...gotta love college students...hahah...so im going to see if they can come up with some way around the latency issue...i have no clue at this point...today we are wiring the cat 6 in the upstairs of the house

12
my thought process is, that for my kids to play networked games ...i would assume the same thing for a Wii at this point....and in a way, that might be a solution, as much of what they do is gaming and movie watching anyway...I guess where im going with this is that their ACTUAL use, at this point is limited to watching movies, and gaming, and if they were going to be able to simply pull up a list of available movies that were prerecorded, it would make sense.  I bought 1000 feet of Cat6, along with term plates, connectors, test kit...scheduled tomorrow to do the upstairs wiring....this is fun...in a way...i really want it to work, as im very interested in how it will all come together....i will make decision on the media directors this coming weekend...My next big question will be regarding a functional audio receiver for my man family room.  I have a 82 inch mitsubishi tv, that shows great, but I want to increase the surround sound there in the room.  Nothing to expensive, but everything i see in the stores nowadays that has a rs232 connection seems to 700 or above, are there any suggestions?

13
okay..so just came back from my local electronics store, and i have a really big question, can i utilize a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 as Media Director...instead of the computer?

14
I guess i'd like to see it even delay, as to me that's a transfer issue....in other words, if the commands are at least recognized, albeit slowly....as to me, it sounds as if that is the challenge, in finding something that will transfer the commands from the remotes fast enough to be effective to the games...maybe im wrong in this

15
Well this weekend is my week, and Im making my initial purchases to run Cat 6E...will take pictures....

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