The Next America

Building a Media PC

I'm 95% done with my new Media PC.

I previously had used a Hauppauge MediaMVP with the custom SageTV firmware (pretty much reprograms it as a Sage terminal). Nice piece of hardware for $100 or so. Did the job. One problem was that it couldn't show streaming content for fairly obvious reasons. But great on downloaded or archived TV shows. The other problem was that the interface was a bit sluggish and strange things would happen like not being able to rewind. Technologically, its amazing it works at all. But just not a premium experience. The other problem is that the TV card in the Sage "host" computer is fairly low quality and the computer itself is not reliable enough for an always-on appliance. So it didn't replace the Tivo.

I built the Media PC from scratch. Shuttle case (very elegant and incredibly dense fit). Core Duo 4300. 1TB of HD.

Picture quality is great though I'm not thrilled by the resolution. Have to switch between "Zoom" aspect for watching TV and "Full" aspect for using the computer. The onboard card doesn't support custom resolutions. Probably off to buy a cheap card. Accidentally, didn't get the SPDIF interface for long-term sound (on order).

I was surprised that Vista doesn't support drive mirroring at the OS level. I was surprised how quickly it installed. I was surprised how quickly it reinstalled after I hit the "disappearing control panel" problem, rendering my system useless, within 5 hours. Apparently, there's a nasty interaction between some drivers and Vista that makes the control panel inaccessible. I'm not sure whether it was updated Hauppauge WinTVPVR drivers or Powerstrip, but I'm not touching either again.

I'm surprised that Media Center doesn't allow and automatically consolidate multiple data locations (since without mirroring, I now have 950GB of media space). You can have media in multiple locations, but you can only record to a single location. Doesn't seem like a hard problem. The Media Center interface isn't as good as the Tivo being replaced (hopefully), but its good enough. They were definitely too cute on their interface design.

The biggest surprise was that my new $30 DVD writer was much, much better than my 4-year-old $30 DVD reader at ripping CDs. Several "unrippable" CDs had clean reads. And it rips fast.

Spring Boarding at Vail

Out to Colorado on business this week. Got there early for a day of boarding at Vail. I haven't seen a lot of blog entries to give people a sense of what the conditions are really like on April 8 for skiing/boarding. Unlike some ski areas (most of the East Coast), Vail does not have an almost fraudulently cheerful daily assessment of conditions during early and late season. Instead, they provide just the facts -- which doesn't tell a lot.

1) Not crowded in the slightest. #30 in the gondola line arriving 5 mins before it opened. Guy scalping lift ticket vouchers within sight of the cashier. Plentiful parking but still expensive ($17/day). However -- Northwoods Express (the only real way to get back right on the mountain) was crowded. Not unbelievably, horribly, as it is during even non-peak times. But still a real line.

2) The bottom of the mountain was in pretty bad shape. Luckily, the bottom of Vail isn't that great to begin with so you're not missing much other than an unpleasant ending to the day. The signs posted recommending downloading on the Gondola are the right idea. Unfortunately, their very nice intermediate terrain park is below the Lionshead gondola making cycling through it pretty unpleasant. The intermediate halfpipe is excellent -- tall enough to practice proper technique, but short enough to be safe. In contrast, the main pipe at Steamboat is ridiculous and the beginner pipe there is useless (far too short). The main pipe at some places on the East Coast is equivalent to the intermediate pipe at Vail.

3) Back bowls/Blue Sky Basin were nice but slushy. The warm weather had actually made much of the ungroomed areas better than it normally would be several days after snow as it had reduced mogul size, probably through melting. Many wooded areas were unboardable due to severe trenching. People focused on the groomed portions of the back area, completely missing out on the best area -- Mongolia Bowl. It had been closed for the past few days, but people assumed it had been skiied off and didn't check it out. Instead, I got run after run on untouched (and a bit slushy) snow, each time with less than 5 people in the entire bowl. A top 5 lifetime day.

4) Wait for the snow to soften later in the morning or stay on the groomed areas (and don't fall down -- rock hard at the beginning of the day).

When Vail is good it is unbelievable. When it is bad (extortionate concessions/lodging/everything, crowding, inconvenience) it is pretty annoying. Will definitely go back at this time of year -- better than a normal day during peak season, though not a powder day :)