I’ve taken my wife’s old computer (2.4ghz, 512MB ram) and turned it into a personal video recorder. It only has a 30gb hard drive so I took another old 30gb hard drive and added that in.

I’ve installed a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 tv tuner card to plug in our cable line.
I am using the free GB-PVR software to function like a media center, complete with tv recording like a VCR, tv guide downloading, music and video libraries.

Because the cable is split, we only get the basic cable channels, but this is the way we had our VCR set up anyway.

I control the computer using UltraVNC, a free remote desktop control software, so that I can add in things to record from my laptop.

For good quality recording, each hour of video takes about 2gb of hard drive space. Right now, we only record a few shows a week, so the 30gb hard drive should be ok for now. 15 hours is still better than the 6 you get on a VCR tape.

I have a streamzap remote control for the PC that I want to hook up to it as well one of these days but with ultravnc, it is not imperative.

It isn’t the perfect setup since I can’t record things off HBO and other digital and HD channels, but it is much better than having to set up the VCR, fast foward and rewind tapes and then key in all the things you want to tape. A few clicks now and we’re all set.

I’ve recently started learning foreign languages through podcasts on my drive to work.

Coffee Break Spanish is run by a Spanish teacher from Scotland who does a great job building up useful vocabulary. This is a great resource if you are planning to visit Spain or Latin America.

The (mostly) weekly podcasts are generally 15 to 20 minutes in length and each one has enough to keep you involved but not overwhelmed. Repeating the vocabulary and phrases is the key to remembering it so you may need to listen to some multiple times, especially if you are not used to some Spanish pronunciations.

They have also set up My Daily Phrase Italian and My Daily Phrase German if you want to branch out into other languages as well.

Gracias y hasta pronto!

Another neat, innovative way to listen to music via the internet, Musicovery allows you to choose your music based on your mood. Do you want energetic or calm music? Do you want positive or dark music? You can also choose the beat based on a dance matrix. Once you click on a spot in music matrix, it will bring up a a tree of music with all the songs that fit the genres you have selected.
You can also narrow down your field by removing genres or choosing a decade. Only want to hear music from the 60s? Only want to hear hit songs? The choices are great and if you see a related song you like you can just click on it to play. You don’t have to hope the random function finds it.

I still like Pandora but Musicovery may be taking the lead for new music discovery in my browser.

Check out Musicovery : interactive webRadio

Funny video featuring Bill Gates and Napoleon Dynamite. It was made for the last Comdex I believe. As you’ll see, it was never meant to leak out but someone used a home video camera to tape it. The quality isn’t bad though.

Check it out at YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YktZkyx4wtM