Last weekend, I finally got my MythTV box up and running, thanks to the MythDora distribution. It works like a charm, but I was dismayed by the idea of having to sit near the computer to use the keyboard and not enthused by the idea of setting up drivers for a wireless keyboard. After a bit of research on the compatible remotes out there, I decided to build my own to run on my iPhone. Here it is in action:
After trying out a few options I settled on an HTML web front end with a little bit of AJAX, which makes calls to a python CGI script. These pieces are hosted on the MythTV server, and I access them through the iPhone's web browser over my local network via WiFi. The icons are from the Nuvola set. I have plans in the future to replace them with icons that are more consistent with the iPhone GUI.
Here are screenshots of how it turned out:
Buttons in screenshot one (left to right) are: main menu, live TV, video gallery, play DVD, play music. The second row (Navigation) buttons allow movement through the menus. Third row: escape, switch to keypad view, enter. On the keypad screen, the menu icon toggles back to the menu view.
And if you're interested, I've put up an online version of the remote that I haven't tested in anything other than my iPhone, so please don't hate me if it shows up broken in IE.
Finally, for those of you who want to give this a shot for yourself, I've
made a tarball with all of the the various pieces that went into making this work, along with some instructions that may or may not work for you. Good luck.
A few weeks back I made a post about how a "fact" from Gullible.info made it into an article in the Guardian UK, via Wikipedia. Basically what happened is some reporter probably didn't want to be bothered with earning their paycheck, so they just lifted material from the Wikipedia page on Timothy Leary. It was shoddy journalism for a reporter to include unverified information from a Wikipedia page in what is supposed to be a credible news source.
And now, nearly three weeks after I emailed them and told them their article contained completely fabricated information, it hasn't been corrected. The lede still reads:
He exhorted America to "turn on, tune in and drop out" and claimed to have discovered a new primary colour - which he called gendale. Now Timothy Leary, the eccentric spokesman of the 1960s counter-culture, is to become the subject of a Hollywood movie.
I received one reply to my email about this error:
Your link to the article doesn't connect and I can't find such an article in our archive. Do you have some more information to help me find it?
Best wishes,
Murray Armstrong
Apparently because the URL had a line break in it (between the http:// and the domain) it didn't get parsed into a link, and it seems as if copying and pasting is out of the question. I emailed back a link that wouldn't break, but I still haven't heard anything.
Of course, no one is keeping score when it comes to the accuracy of Wikipedia, but for the record, I was able to make the correction to the Wikipedia page myself.
(Note: Gullible.info is also hosting a discussion about the "color," if you're interested.)
Update: The mistake has been corrected, the fabricated info is now gone. Huzzah!
Submitted by kyle on July 13, 2006 - 11:48am.Internet | Stupid
Irony can really make my day sometimes.
Turns out I wasn't the only person who thought the article that Reuters ran about Wikipedia responding to Kenneth Lay's death was a petty pile of garbage. (jasonunger.com and Wikipedia blog.) But the story just took a turn for wonderful.
Apparently getting accurate information is difficult for Reuters, too. They have since issued a correction to the article, after misidentifying the source of their information.
Wikipedia is a community edited encyclopedia. Not a news source. People don't check it for breaking news, and they shouldn't check it as a endpoint for authoritative information. If it takes a few minutes for new information to be incorporated into a Wikipedia article, that is understandable, even expected. Reuters, on the other hand, fits into a different niche. They should be a source of reliable, authoritative, and unbiased information, exactly what their original article isn't.
On a related note... Question of the day: how long will it be before the Encyclopedia Britannica article on Kenneth Lay reflects his death?
I'm pretty excited. Gullible.info is getting the kind of sustained traffic to warrant the move from shared hosting, to dedicated hosting. So we ponied up and now as soon as it gets configured we'll have the new box up and running. Hopefully by the end of the month, we'll have the site fully migrated, and then we'll be able to add on some pretty rockin features. Stay tuned.
ESPN has this thing called B.A.S.S. I don't have an account. Someone try this out and tell me what it's like. I imagine that fantasy fishing is incredible.
RIAA sues woman that has no computer
Afterdawn.com - 12 hours ago
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has found yet another strange case amongst the thousands of copyright infringement suits it has launched ...
Between rock and a hard place
Globe and Mail, Canada - 8 hours ago
... According to Nettwerk and the family's lawyers, the RIAA is demanding that the family pay a legal settlement of $9,000 (US), or half that if paid within a ...
Addonics announces new iPod to PC conversion kit
Geek.com - 1 hour ago
... It also means it’sa good solution for the RIAA to subpoena iPods to search them for illegal copyright material, thus extending its reach outside of just the ..
DRM News From All Over
Stereophile Magazine, NY - 15 hours ago
... Nettwerk vs the RIAA: How's this for a heart-warming scenario? A recording artist, MC Lars, gets an
RIAA Watch Speaking in Tongues
CounterPunch, CA - Feb 4, 2006
... Even if those words perpetuate the RIAA propaganda that bootleggers are sub-human creatures, void of morals, who have direct links to terrorism. ...
RIAA defendant 'has never used a computer'
IT Week, UK - Feb 3, 2006
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has issued another 750 writs against people it believes are pirates, including a carer in New York who ...
RIAA claims computerless woman was a pirate
Inquirer, UK - Feb 3, 2006
THE RIAA seems to have adopted a "sue everyone policy " in its cunning plan to stop file sharers. Not ... cent. So the RIAA sued her. ...
Ex-RIAA chief opens antipiracy consultancy
ZDNet - Feb 2, 2006
... The firm will work with economist Barry Massarsky, who has previously worked with the RIAA and music composers, to help companies and venture capitalists ...
Admittedly, these are all online sources, so they're probably at least a little biased. But still, the RIAA is really doing a bang-up job staying on top of its public image.
