This is just a quick overview of how I setup my current HTPC. The computer is an older M2A-VM motherboard with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+. The onboard Radeon 1250 video wasn't quite good enough so I added a GT210 video card that I got at Fry's for $35. The GT210 uses HDMI to connect to the TV at 1080p and also carries audio. The TV has an optical out which relays all the audio from the computer to my receiver.  The computer is running Windows 7 so that I can have Netflix with a 10 foot...

Broken clip Last week when I was climbing into a car my phone caught the seatbelt buckle and broke the Contour Showcase iPhone case. It had caused the clip to twist enough that it broke the piece that holds the spring and axle in place. The little plastic piece that broke off got lost so there was no way I was going to glue it back together. Plus I don't think glue would have held very long anyway. I considered using epoxy and making a big blob and then sanding it down and drilling a...

If you've ever had a problem getting the tg3 driver to work, you've probably encountered something like this: [ 2.093513] tg3 0000:03:00.0: No PHY devices [ 2.093531] tg3 0000:03:00.0: Problem fetching invariants of chip, aborting After googling you found that you need to load the broadcom module before the tg3 module loads. That's great, but having to do it manually every time sucks. Since I'm building my own kernel and initramfs, a lot of the "fixes" are specific...

I needed to get a keystone coax connector after running a new network drop into an old box. I went to Lowes and they had a single connector for $3 or a 5 pack for $10. I only need one, but $3 is a little much. I was considering getting the 5 pack but even $2 each seems a little much. I also didn't like the way the connector was recessed into the keystone plate. I looked around a little more and what did I find? Blank keystones and the coax couplers sold separately which combined would be...

This has been sitting in my closet for some time. Several years ago a friend of mine built a low power silent computer with an Epia M10000 board to use as his email server. It ran great for several years, but suddenly crapped out when he was away. When he returned he brought it over and I showed him that it was toast because of the counterfeit capacitors that had all swollen and burst. What was amazing was even though the computer was several years old he was able to go over to Fry's and...