For the past year or so I have been trying (and failing) to figure out a reasonable solution for bringing my large media library to my living room. All of my media lives on an Ubuntu server that sits on my network. It’s been very reliable and it’s fast enough for streaming purposes. My content is exposed via SMB. It’s the living room side where I keep running into problems. I am currently using Windows 7 and XBMC, but the case is too big and noisy, I don’t particularly care for Windows, and the whole thing just seems overkill. What I want is a device that can present a decent UI that the non-Slashdot crowd would be able to use, but that is still powerful enough to stream full-fidelity 1080p. I dream of a small box that can transcode video over a network, but that’s probably a pipe dream. The new Apple TV would be great if it could connect to network shares. What say you, Slashdot? Is what I’m looking for possible, or should I just give in to the iTunes/Amazon/whatever juggernauts?

Indeed with so many choices and trade-offs, it’s no wonder I still havn’t gotten around to solving this.

Observations of our changing TV viewing habits with MythTV:

• With high-definition free-to-air, the more disk space the better.  500GB is not enough.
• Little interest in paying for Cable TV.
• Rarely watch live TV anymore.
• Radio station streaming is a must-have in every room.
• Noisy computer in the lounge room is undesirable.
• Skipping past all the DVD junk is a must-have.  No previews, no FBI warnings, no ads.  Life is too short.
• Configuring and maintaining MythTV can be a time consuming prospect.
• Still want NetFlix for MythTV

Agaves are beautiful and formidable plants, typically sporting sharp spikes at the tips.  They are nearly always VERY low water use plants that need almost no water to survive.

Indeed I think I water mine too much, just to watch them grow!

M51 "Whirlpool" Galaxy

I stand stock still, the fear in the dark recesses, A great animal of prey. I dare not look down but am transfixed by the clear, blue sky so vast and beautiful. …

HOW odd. Cardinal Pell tells us that praying will cure cancer but not that it will cure poverty and hunger.

J. Cosmo Newbery, Burwood

AS THE father of three home-born children, now healthy adults, I take issue with Dr Pieter Mourik’s slights against home-birthing (Letters, 26/12). His letter has a distinct whiff of vested interest. My children were born between 25 and 30 years ago in the country, outside Canberra.The support provided by the Canberra Home Birth Group was excellent. Expectant couples were initially counselled by a midwife and doctor, and those unsuited for health or psychological reasons for home birth were advised to have a conventional birth.

A close relationship was built with the midwife and doctor, as well as members of the home birth group. The births themselves went smoothly, in familiar surroundings, and not in the cold sterility of a hospital operating room.

As Dr Mourik should know, most births are normal, and do not require the intervention of an obstetrician. Unfortunately, too many members of the medical industry treat pregnancy as a pathological condition, requiring excessive servicing. One wonders why.

Mike Puleston, Brunswick

Obstetricians left holding the baby

I AM not sure the majority of Victorian taxpayers will agree that $400,000 of their money is allocated for midwife-led home births is “fantastic” or “thrilling” (The Age, 23/12); the majority would consider this a misuse of public money.

This pilot is pandering to a vocal minority of midwives who want to do home births and the two or three women per thousand who are foolish enough to consider a home birth without immediate medical support.

For the Government to force this pilot on to a regional health service (as yet undecided) would be insensitive, particularly when no obstetrician I know in regional Victoria supports home birth.

Home birth in Australia is known to have increased risks for both the mother and her baby, particularly when delays in ambulance transport may be the difference between success and disaster. The obstetrician will always be the person who has to receive these disasters, not the Government.

Dr Pieter Mourik, Wodonga

Filtering the claims

I HAVE been a member of the Australian Computer Society for nearly 15 years. But the announcement of an honorary membership for Senator Conroy has made me terminate my membership. The plan for internet censorship shows a stunning lack of understanding of the relevant issues.

I have read the report on the trial of the filter system. The most important part is all of the things that the report does not say, like the size of the samples and the sites that were used in testing, which means that it is impossible to make any inference about load and scalability. Or that the reason that data traffic appeared in some cases to improve with the filter was because the comparison was between a filter with a ”cache” (local copies of material) versus an unfiltered system with no caching. This is an unfair comparison. The list goes on.

I’m retaining my membership in the System Administrators Guild, SAGE-AU. It, at least, understands the realities of the senator’s plans.

Don Gingrich, Ringwood