Summer project list

I’m forever writing these damn things, and never actually doing much (or anything) about making them happen, but it’s a useful record of what I could have been doing if I hadn’t spent so much time asleep/lounging on the sofa/playing insert game here for hours at a time. Here we go:

0. Bike to work. And home again. Every day. ‘Nuff said.

1. Make the tempMythBox work – think this can be achieved once the DSL line is installed. Will need to make use of my spare KVM I suspect as I’ll be using the 360 for DVD playback via the VGA connection until I either get an upscaling player, or get the tempMythBox sorted for DVD playback too.

The picture quality from the 360’s DVD player over VGA is superb – beautifully (imo) upscaled to 1360×768. It’s waaay better than my DVD player via SCART (yuck – no progressive scan) and from a quick test, better than the 360 via component. Via component, the 360 outputs 576p for some reason rather than upscaling to 720p, which is a shame. And, again from a quick test, it would seem that good though it is, the TV’s scaler isn’t a patch on the 360’s

2. Build a new desktop PC. Yes, I know I’ve just spent ££££ on a telly, but I do, at the end of the day, need a new PC. Not the monstrosity I *would* have bought, but a new one just the same. Probably based on one of Intel’s new Core 2 Duo chips, but the way AMD are slashing prices might swing me back that way. But no monster SLI or Crossfire graphics setup, only 2Gb of RAM and sticking with the aging Antec P180 case should make it achieveable. I hope. Well, it’s going to have to be 😉 – let’s hope Santa’s good to me!

3. With said new PC (to be purchased within the next 6 weeks – now there’s a deadline I’ll probably manage), I need to update my programming skills. I have the tools to hand, so that just involves sitting down with some work.

4. If 2) happens, then I’ll have some spare bits. So with a new, quiet case, a non-tempMythBox can be made.