USB TV Tuner

What a great idea, I just bought a usb tv tuner for my wife's computer and it works great. If you are thinking about buying one, check out one my new websites, the links is above. Have a great day!!!

Bench top Drill Press Stand

Nu Flow

One thing that separates you from many artist in the hip hop and electronic world is your ability to do something truly memorable live — you use your midi controller as an instrument, improvising a unique set each night. While it is something we are starting to see a bit more of, it is still a relatively new and exciting direction in music. What was your early inspiration for this type of approach?
What inspired me to do live shows was actually going to this venue The Smell, in downtown LA. I started going there when I was in high school and saw a lot of DIY acts - lots of noise and punk artist, just doing their thing. I remember seeing this one artist that would do a whole set with a variety of pedals. I thought it was really cool that he could express himself like that, and do such a cool show with just one man.

Computer and music technology was also just booming with all the midi controllers and stuff at this time, and growing up this was just more affordable. So I started experimenting and getting into it — I just started doing it.

I understand that some of your early shows actually took place at The Smell. That is really interesting to me — while a lot of amazing artist got there start at the venue, it has never struck me as a super electronic or hip hop friendly place. How did the crowd react to your early performances there?
Every time I would go there it was just a random lineup - I’d play between a noise artist and a folk artist.

But I think my sound was a bit different then. Of course the backbone was hip hop, but it would be more melodic, and some of the songs also had some noise elements as well. I think people kind of got that.

These days you are affiliated with Low End Theory, a weekly party that LA Weekly described as The Smell's “beat-oriented little brother.” Do you see any room for this traditionally hip hop oriented event to put together these type of eclectic bills?
Definitely, and I know it has been done before. They have had a few bands there — School of Seven Bells and Health played, and a few other bands. But yeah, I would like to see more of that.

From start to finish, Drift is a distinctly solo affair. Have you thought at all about bringing in collaborators the next time around?
I have done some production work for a couple of LA based MCs, like Bus Driver and Nocando, and definitely want to get a few vocalist for the next record.

It is actually kind of funny. When I first started working with production software, my dream was pretty much do hip hop beats, like Timbaland or Neptunes — that’s what I grew up with. But the more I got into music, the more I started thinking –“how am I even going to get this music to these ?” So I just kind of went my own way, and started creating more songs. And that made me feel better than making something for someone else.

Is there anything that you are working on right now that we can look forward to hearing in the near future?
Well I am working on a record - it is probably going to come out early next year. I also have a remix EP on the way — so far it is Daedelus, this dubstep group from UK called 16Bit, Lorn, and hopefully some others. And I am working on a remix for Fever Ray — the song is called Keep the Streets Empty.

Sounds like you are keeping busy! There has also been a bit of buzz surrounding a synced visual show that you have been working on lately. Can you tell us a little bit about how that came about, and if we can expect to see it in SF anytime soon?

I got really inspired to do a visual show after I saw Cornelius play. At the time, my girlfriend had just graduated from the Art Center College of Design and was taking an internship to Seattle. We live in a two bedroom apartment, so to save on cost we needed someone to take over this room we had for a bit. Her classmate Adam moved in, and it turned out we were into a lot of the same music. So I just told him that I thought it would be cool if I could do something like this [visual show], and it turned out he was really into the concept as well — he was even exploring basing his thesis on the idea. So along with my girlfriend Julia, we just started throwing out ideas together — just brainstorming and experimenting and trying things out.

Julia and Adam actually both come with me when we do the live visual show. We are all controlling these visuals with three separate midi controllers, routed through this special software. I would say it is in the beta phase though. We probably have done it three times, and every time we did it we just learned so much from it. I think we only did it successfully once, which was the last time we did it. But yea definitely want to tour it, but it is just logistical issues — you know?

What does the future of board games look like? Ten years from now, will we still be playing with silly cardboard hexagons and wooden meeples? Or will it look more like something out of science fiction?

Science Daily reported last week about an experiment predicting the future of board games by associate professor Roel Vertegaal, from Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab. Currently the system uses white cardboard hexes and a camera and projector system which calls to mind the Surfacescapes Dungeons & Dragons demo. The video demonstration shows them joining hexes to send an army to attack,  “pouring” a ship from one hex to another and bringing up contextual menus based on the relative positions of the hexes.

The idea is that when thin-film OLED screens become more practical, you’ll be able to play this sort of game without the elaborate camera setup. Instead, the hexes themselves will be screens and computers, able to respond to movement and position and taps. What really caught my attention, though, was Vertegaal’s comment: “This is no doubt the future of board games.” Also adding to the hype is the sweeping statement that this “groundbreaking technology … may make traditional board games a thing of the past.”

Really?

Part of the joy of board games is the cardboard tiles, the colorful wooden pieces, shuffling the cards. It’s moving little miniatures around, akin to playing with toy soldiers, I suppose. I can’t help but think that the old ways are never going to completely die out. Sure, this technology looks awesome and will make new types of games possible, but is it going to replace traditional board games? That’s like saying that high-quality electronic keyboards will eventually completely replace pianos, or that nobody will bother drawing on paper with messy pencils and paints because of Photoshop. Why would you ever play Scrabble manually when you could play online and have it add up your scores instantly? Until the singularity arrives and we really are living in a digital construct, the analog world will always have its appeal: paper books, cardboard-and-paper-and-wood games, LEGO.

I think Vertegaal and team are thinking too small, and it reminds me again of that Dungeons & Dragons demo: you’ve got this amazing table with some very cool interactive abilities, but you’re simulating rolling dice. The reason we use dice in games because it’s a good analog method for randomness; but there’s a reason videogames don’t usually include them: it’s a different environment, with different rules.

If Vertegaal thinks some fancy screens and moving images will make board games obsolete, he’s probably playing the wrong games.

Related Links:

The Human Media Lab’s original press release (for some reason, in all lowercase)

For the Love of the (Board) Game

SurfaceScapes Revisited: Maps and Dice and Orcs (Oh, My!)

Electronic Drawing Pads

French Press Coffee Pot

Bodum has been making travel coffee presses similar to this one for years now, but the $15-20 price point of this particular model is notably lower than usual. This cheaper price is primarily due to plastic being used in the construction instead of glass. This does give you the advantage of a slightly lower packing weight, but there's a host of disadvantages to offset this.

The Bodum French press received an American Culinary Institute Award for the best French press coffee maker back in 2004. What you'll notice is that back then, they were still being made with glass, and they were still being made in house in Bodum's native Denmark whereas they are now farmed out to China for manufacture. Clearly, in the attempt to go lower budget with the product, the quality has dropped significantly.

The French press is basically a large narrow beaker with a plunger equipped with mesh to act as a filter for coffee grounds and tea leaves. The coffee grounds or tea leaves are added simultaneously with hot water, and brew by mixing together. The plunger then is used to press the grounds or leaves down to the bottom so that you can pour the coffee or tea out, hopefully without detritus floating in it.

The major problem with this particular unit is that the plunger filter does not function very well. Tea leaves and even coffee grounds seem to regularly find their way through into your beverage.

Tea is the most serious problem. Only the biggest leaves seem to get compressed and held successfully to the bottom on a consistent basis, while smaller leaves work their way through the filter with regularity. Aside from having the sediment to deal with, this can also ruin teas that are not meant to be steeped for too long, like green tea. Coffee will also go bad fairly quickly if you leave it in contact with the grounds, usually becoming unpleasantly bitter within twenty to thirty minutes of beginning to brew it. Finely ground coffee is almost impossible to successfully compress with this unit, so if you usually have coffee intended for paper or mesh filters at home, you'll likely have to get a separate supply that is ground as coarsely as possible just to use with this press.

One other large problem is that the manufacturers claim that the thick plastic both protects your hands and retains heat, but it really does a pretty poor job of both. Getting the coffee or tea poured in a timely manner can be a challenge as, like the Ghostbusters, it's too hot to handle, then once you finally get it out it's too cold to hold. Or drink, as the case may be.

Bodum has some great products, but this really isn't one of them. I guess you can make it work well enough to function for camping, but unless you can snag one for less than $10 somehow, I'd just look for a better French press.

I'm assuming the people reading this are not people that have done this before, so this article will be to the point and less focused on the technical terms that you may not heard about. So please take this guide as a short reference guide but not your “bible” on how to install mobos (motherboards, for short). Also, the guide is assuming you are getting a current motherboard, not one that is 5-6 years old.

Tools

phillips screw driver (preferably automatic and cordless)

portable flash light (for reading those dark, shady areas of the motherboard)

Preparation

The first thing you should do before doing this new personal computer upgrade by yourself is…back up your data first! Changing your own motherboard is a risky operation. Unexpected situations like static, power surges, liquid accidents, etc an ruin you from the start so please back up your data to cd, dvd, or an external hard drive just in case.

True, you are not changing your hard drive, but keep in mind changing your motherboard usually involves re-installing your operating system! It's been my experience where I have had successful mobo installations, but 9 times out of 10, once your hard drive is connected to the new motherboard, windows will either not start, or bsod messages appear (BSOD = Blue Screen of Death error messages) which force you to re-install your os! (os = operating system) So back up your data, especially if you are running Windows XP. When re-installing Windows XP, it always formats your drive, which loses all your data.

The second thing you should do is research your new motherboard. Make sure it's the one you really want. Keep in mind there are mobos designed for the intel processor and mobos designed for the amd processor. There are no mobos that can work with both.

Also, decide how many ram memory slots you want to have. Most of the cheap mobos you get from stores that sell “combo deals” with the cpu processor and mobo tend to give you the cheaper priced motherboards and give you only 2 ram slots. Normal motherboards have 4 ram slots so you have more room for expansion later on.

You may not know that most of today's motherboards have many features built-in to save you money. I've seen all of them have built-in sound, lan and some even have built-in video! Please note even if you pick a mobo with built-in video, you are not stuck with only using that video option. You can always disable it in the bios setup screen when booting up your computer. Many times the mobo is smart enough to disable this for you when you install a separate video card of your choice.

Installation

The first part to installing a new motherboard is removing the old motherboard and other computer parts. Remove the cpu fan and processor (carefully!), the ram modules, the power supply cables, the computer case wires, the video card, any other pci cards (soundblaster card, tv tuner card, usb cards, etc) and put them in a safe place for later use.

Once those parts are removed, you can remove the old motherboard by unscrewing all the screws. Now, you can prepare to put in the new motherboard.

Your motherboard manual is a must read. Read through it carefully and study the schematics thoroughly before proceeding. The manual may surprise you unexpectedly on things you might have to get or do later. For example, the mobo might not be compatible with your old ram memory modules or it may not have as many USB ports you want. The biggest surprise for newbies is the video card slot. Nowadays, many of today's mobos support the new video card standard, pci-e or PCI-Express. If you are expecting to put in your old video card, which is probably an AGP card, then you are out of luck and need to get a new PCI-e video card before you can proceed further. There are still vendors that sell new mobos that have the AGP slot, but they are fast becoming obsolete.

There will be a new motherboard aluminum template that needs to replace the one you had on your case. Switch this out since the positioning of the motherboard will be different . Align the copper screw holders with the holes on your motherboard, put the new mobo on top to see the positioning and begin fastening the screws to the mobo and case firmly.

Refer to your motherboard manual again and leave it on the page showing the information on how to attach the pc case wiring. Sometimes the mobo will clearly indicate in English where to put the wiring, but other times you have to look at the manual to know the correct position. You will need to do this when installing the front USB wiring later.

All done!

I will have another article on how to put the other parts on after you install your motherboard. I hope this guide proves helpful to you.

USB TV Tuner

What a great idea, I just bought a usb tv tuner for my wife's computer and it works great. If you are thinking about buying one, check out one my new websites, the links is above. Have a great day!!!

1)the ship is under it's own power, notice the smoke from the funnel
2)the winch in the foreground is moving much too slowly to be part of this operation
3) the superstructure on the right is a partially dismantled vessel originally operated by YASA (http://tinyurl.com/yhaje66)
4) as the camera sweeps around we see scrap metal & sandy ground
5) but the Mauritius flag is an interesting angle, the country is known as the operating base for companies involved in the shady world of old ship trading but I don't believe they beach there.

It's almost certainly Alang, where ships and workers go to die. Find this slice of hell here - http://tinyurl.com/y8ehw4t

The other possible is Chittagong where incredibly the pay is lower & the conditions harsher!

http://tinyurl.com/y8pu65u

Tonight’s the night, people! Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains kicks off with a two-hour premiere on CBS at 8pm. But why wait until then to check out some of the action? We’ve got some juicy tidbits for you right here and right now! We’ve got Jeff Probst caught in a sandstorm. We’ve got a topless Sugar flipping off the entire Villains tribe. We’ve got lots of hardcore wrestling and take-downs. We’ve got a sneak peak at some of the challenges you’ll be seeing throughout the season. And we’ve got the hilarity of watching Courtney Yates trying to lift and drag a heavy object. We brought a camera all the way to Samoa to bring you some fun and fascinating behind-the-scenes clips, so get your fix with the three-part video below. And that’s not all! Make sure to also check out Jeff Probst’s Tribal Council tour as well as Jeff’s discussion on players who DIDN’T make the cut for Heroes vs. Villains, and the Survivors themselves talking about who is overrated and doesn’t deserve to be there.) And we have some other special video goodies ready for you tomorrow, so make sure to check my recap and Jeff Probst’s blog on Friday for those. Also, for Survivor scoop sent right to your virtual doorstep, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @EWDaltonRoss. Now, enjoy watching Jeff Probst slapping me silly…

Captain Mike @
Boat Props

Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day

We've got quite a pile of deals in today's Dealhacker roundup. Discounted HDTVs, mountains of laptops and netbooks, and more than a few cameras and peripherals. If you're saving your pennies, you can still score some free tunes and games.

Computer Gear!

• 15.6″ Dell Studio 15 Core i7 Laptop for $899 + $6 shipping (Regular Price: $999)
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• Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 for $39.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $52.23).
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• Logitech diNovo Wireless Keyboard Mac Edition for $39.99 (Regular Price: $68.27)
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Home Entertainment Gear!

• 50″ Samsung PN50B450 720p Plasma HDTV for $699.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $797)
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• Yamaha RX-V365 5.1-Ch. Home Theater Receiver for $159.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $195)
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• 32″
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  (Regular Price: $424)
• 52″ Sony BRAVIA KDL-52W5100 120Hz, 1080p LCD HDTV + Free Wall Mount for $1,408 with free shipping (Regular Price: $1,589 - use coupon code LOGICBUY20)
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• 42″ Zenith Z42PQ20 720p 600Hz Plasma HDTV for $449.99 with $65 shipping or free pickup (Regular Price: $569.99)
• 40″ Toshiba 40XV645U 1080p, 120Hz LCD HDTV for $649.96 with free shipping (Regular Price: $699 - use coupon code 24HRSALE23F)
• 32″ Toshiba 32RV525R LCD HDTV (1080p) for $399.99 (Regular Price: $599)
• Logitech Harmony 1100 Universal Touchscreen Remote for $291 with free shipping (Regular Price: $350)
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Portable Gear!

• TomTom XL 340S Live 4.3-inch Internet GPS for $196 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $238)
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• Apple iPod touch 32 GB 2nd Gen for $239.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $272.06)
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• Axion AXN-8701 7-Inch Widescreen Handheld LCD TV with Built-In Tuner for $79.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $109.41)
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• Lexar 16GB Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Card - Class 2 for $25 shipped (Regular Price: $60)
• Alpine Blackbird PND-K3 4.3″ Portable Navigation System for $92 w/ free shipping (Regular Price: $160 - use coupon code:BONUSBUY)
• TomTom ONE 130 GPS Navigation for $80 w/ free shipping (Regular Price: $160 - use coupon code:BONUSBUY)
• Viewsonic HD MovieBook VPD400 Portable Video Player for $80 w/ free shipping (Regular Price: $140)
• Altec Lansing IM207 Orbit Ultra-Portable Speaker for $9.99 (Regular Price: $15.38)
• Samsung WEP460 Bluetooth Headset for $1.99 with free shipping (Regular Price: $16.94 - use this form)

Free Stuff!

• “Surviving Sid” (free Ice Age short, Amazon VOD) for $0 (use this form)
• Long John Silver's Crispy Breaded Fish Piece for $0 (use this form)
• Rockstar Classics: GTA, GTA 2, Wild Metal (PC) for $0
• Mass Effect: Redemption issue 1 of 4 (iPhone) for $0
• eMusic.com 35 MP3 songs for $0
• Drop Those Legs by The Recital (MP3) for $0 (download here)
• MP3 of Heroes by Ne-Yo for $0 (use this form)
• Rooster by Alice in Chains MP3 for $0 (use this form)
• In Between The Spaces You Don't Think About by …soihadto…(MP3) for $0 (download here).
• Twistum (iPhone/iPod Touch) for $0 (Regular Price: $.99).
• Subscription to Surfer Magazine for $0 (use this form)
• Coldplay Download for $0 (use this form)
• Paragon Hard Disk Manager for $0 (use this form)
• Subscription to Maxim for $0 (use this form)

Thanks Dealzon, TechDealDigger, Slickdeals, Fatwallet, TechBargains, CheapStingyBargains, CheapCollegeGamers, and GamerHotline!

Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.

Working from home today? Yeah, so are we.

Today's “Son of Snowpocalypse” has forced The Hotline to make the (very) rare decision to work from home. Which got us wondering: how are other DC media orgs responding to the latest downpour?

Here's a quick rundown - in no particular order. (If your media org is missing, let us know what you're up to):

CNN: “All non-air critical and non-newsgathering personnel are not required to appear at work today. For all others, which is the vast majority of the DC personnel, work continues. In conditions of extreme weather, arrangements for travel and accommodations will be provided.”

NBC News: “Had snow drivers pick up the important people, but let everyone else work from home.”

NYT: DC bureau chief Dean Baquet “sent out a memo telling staffers to work from home; but he went in.”

WaPo: “Most of our editing staff, and I am guessing most of our reporting staff, will be working from home or otherwise taking care of storm-related matters. For those who have made it into the office, Marcia Davis will be the editor on duty running the day for us. Most of our other editors … are available today online.”

CBS News: “Business as usual.”

PBS' NewsHour: “Since we're in south Arlington, with many staffers living miles away - in DC or MD - we had 20 or so “essential staff” spend last night at a nearby hotel. For the rest of the staff, it's liberal leave policy. We told folks if they felt it was unsafe or really dicey to travel, they should stay home. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff stayed at the hotel last night, and will be anchoring today.”

NewsHour Update: “This has been changed to an official snow day for us. Anyone who works today, gets a comp day, etc.”

Roll Call: “Yes, office is closed so people didn't have to make a dangerous commute. However, thanks to the miracle of the Internet and telephones our reporters are still covering the news and our Web site will be updated throughout the day.”

The Hill: “Our office is open but all the staff are allowed to work from home today, and most of them are doing so.”

ABC News: “No official policy. We have put a lot of people up at the Mayflower hotel, and we have plenty of people to cover the story. Beyond that, we are being flexible and accommodating because of the concern for people's safety and their individual family situations.”

Bloomberg: “Every person for selves; Seriously, if they can get in fine, if not work from home. A bunch of people are here, including Mike Tackett, White House reporters Julianna Goldman and Hans Nichols, Al Hunt and TV people.”

Politico: “Most folks are working from home. A small crew who lives near the office or can get there by below-ground Metro will be present in the newsroom.”

Politico update: They plan to publish tomorrow, per a staff memo this a.m. from eds John Harris and Jim VandeHei: “The logic to proceed is rooted in newspaper tradition. If newspapers are on schedule to publish, I believe they should do it, no matter the obstacles. We made an exception to that for Wednesday's paper but we were quite reluctant to do so again. The business side of POLITICO has commitments to advertisers. The news side of POLITICO has commitments to readers.”

C-SPAN: “On days like today our offices are closed but essential personnel are here to operate the networks. The essential personnel include most of our producers, production assistants, hosts and technical staff. Those employees who request it are put up in nearby hotels. Some have been there since last week. We also provide food for those who are working.”

More C-SPAN: “We are Code Yellow. Which means only essential personnel. Essentially CSPAN is closed. Every event we were going to cover has been cancelled. For the 2nd time in three days we are closed. (We were closed mon as well).”

Al-Jazeera: “We're operating on essential staff only. Admin and support staff are mainly staying home. Essential staff were put up in hotels and/or offered car service with 4-wheel drive.”

Laptop TV Tuner

I'm sorry for the following rant but anything that does not get you premium HD content is a half-a$$ed device. unless of course your idea of HD is watching your local news team? Eyetv's entire lineup falls short of providing a path for accessing full HD TV.
s-video?! component?! are you kidding me? is this a tech blog or stay at home moms learning to browse the internets?
EyeTV is garbage, and you should be ashamed for using it for HD tv viewing. Although, their devices are excusable if you are encoding vhs or other media I suppose. I tried the eyetv 250 hdplus super duper blah blah and it was had a significant delay and was choppy at times in display the few hd cable channels it could carry. For anyone who is used to real hd content, this is a joke. I'll stick to fancast, hulu, netflix etc.
Additionally I think its ridiculous that I cannot play other sources on the imac- no real hd tv options (especially if your talking about HBO or NFLhd etc), you cannot hook up an xbox/ps3 to it. does apple really think I am going to go to the itunes store if they just lock out other sources?
as a pc user who wanted a new toy the 27iMac is beautiful but I feel handcuffed.

Elgato has untroduced the EyeTV One to the US market, its lowest-priced TV tuner for DTV antennas for Mac solution for $119.95 (or $101 at Amazon).

EyeTV One delivers digital TV and HDTV channels straight to a Mac or PC, enabling users to watch and record the huge variety of TV shows that are broadcast over-the-air for free - it’s an HDVR for the Mac (or PC).

The product ships with Elgato’s EyeTV 3, which enables users to watch, pause, and rewind live TV on a Mac, as well as record shows, subscribe to a favorite TV series, and create Smart Playlists. EyeTV 3 has a built-in editor to remove unwanted content and can automatically send recordings to iTunes to sync with an iPhone, iPod, or Apple TV. Recordings can be shared over a local network with other Macs. Elgato also offers optional apps to stream live TV and manage recording schedules on an iPhone while away from home.

Users who have a Windows PC as well as a Mac can use EyeTV One with either computer. EyeTV One is compatible with Windows 7 and works with Windows Media Center.

Pc TV Tuner

It wasn't very long ago when the only way to watch TV was with your television set. The content that you got to view was homogenized programming that followed a recipe designed to appeal to the “average viewer.” If this describes your situation, then it is time for you to discover some of the pleasant perks of 21st-century technology. Read on about the four different methods of watching television on your computer.

1) Did you know that there is a huge amount of old TV shows, movie classics and documentaries free for your viewing in the public domain? The public domain has content with expired copyrights and can be viewed or even sold by anyone. Try looking for this material on a search engine using phrases containing “public domain” plus “film” or “video”, etc. If you give the search a fair amount of effort, it shouldn't take too long to find lots of these “golden oldies”.

2) If you wish to watch the TV programming of your television set on your PC, it can be done with very little fuss with a USB TV tuner. This device is external to your laptop or PC and can be readily connected to your computer and TV set. This external arrangement is very different from that of the TV tuner card which must be installed inside your PC. Signals from your TV's output ports are transferred to the USB TV tuner input ports. The modified signals are then transmitted to your laptop or PC via its USB port. A feature common to most USB TV tuners are that TV shows can be paused, fast forwarded, rewound, and saved to your PC hard drive. Many USB TV tuners can also burn TV shows to DVD. Prices: $50 to $200.

3) Want to know a guaranteed way of getting a DVD quality image when viewing a movie on your computer? Answer: insert a DVD into your CD-ROM drive! To do this, you must download the appropriate media player with this capability. You can get one for free at Realplayer.com. Look for and click the “Get it free” button. Follow the directions after this. When you have finished with the download and installation, insert a DVD. Then start the player, open the “play” menu and click “Play CD or DVD”.

4) A popular approach to watching TV on the computer is using BitTorrent networking to download a video or movie onto your computer for free. BitTorrent networking is a sort of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system and is a common way to download movies and music. A movie that is downloaded is first broken up into several parts and distributed to the people in the network who want the movie. Everyone then supplies each other with the parts of the movie that the other doesn't have. The process has to start with a complete file to begin with. The person who supplied that complete file is said to have 'seeded' the download.

In order to download movies in this way, you need to install something called bitTorrent client software. Although there are a lot of client software available, my preference is BitComet which has been around for a few years and is free. The next step is to search for a movie using a torrent search engine such as torrentz.com. Enter a search phrase that is related to your movie such as its title. You will arrive at a page of search results. Click on the most relevant link. You should then see the movie title as well as a 'Download Torrent' link or button. Click on the link or button to start the movie download.

When finished, you should allow others to share your file by becoming the 'seed' that initiates yet another download session for other people. This is done by allowing your client software to continue running for a couple of hours.

Please note that this description is rather minimal since a thorough description is beyond the scope of this article. Also bear in mind that downloading copyrighted movies is illegal. People using peer-to-peer networks for illegal downloads have been prosecuted.

Hopefully this article has given you some idea of what is possible with a computer and a fast Internet connection. The amount of content out there is enormous. I'm speculating here, but I would imagine that it would take years of continuous viewing to consume all that is freely available. Be warned that it can get very addictive and can have a devastating effect on your personal productivity.

Gadget and Gear Deals of the Day

Discounted laptops, HDTVs, and a pile of peripherals await inside today's Dealhacker roundup. If busting out the credit card isn't an option today, you'll still find free games, music, and samples.

Computer Gear!

• 17.3″ Toshiba Satellite L555D Laptop for $549.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $650)
• 15.6″ Compaq Presario CQ61 Laptop for $414.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $445)
• 15.6″ Acer Aspire 5517 Laptop for $369.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $470)
• 15.4″ Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 for $549 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $844)
• 21.5″ Dell E2210H 1080p LCD Monitor for $149 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $199.00 - use coupon code ?FZR1V7ZXFBLBS)
• 23″ Lenovo IdeaCentre B500 2.7GHz All-in-One Desktop for $719 with free shipping (Regular Price: $869 - use coupon code USP0114B500).
• HP Pavilion s5380t Core2 Quad Desktop for $599.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $880).
• Dell OptiPlex 380 2.93GHz Desktop + 20″ Dell LCD Monitor for $539 with $35 shipping (Regular Price: $856).
• 18.4″ Toshiba Satellite P500-ST6822 2.2GHz Laptop for $679.20 with free shipping (Regular Price: $849).
• 16.4″ Sony VAIO F1190X Core i7 Laptop for $989 with free shipping (Regular Price: $999).
• 16″ Toshiba Satellite A505-S6989 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo for $540 with free shipping (Regular Price: $756).
• 15.6″ Dell Inspiron 1564 Core i5 Laptop for $769 with $12.95 shipping (Regular Price: $874).
• 15.6″ Acer Aspire AS5532 Laptop for $349.99 plus $14.99 shipping (Regular Price: $408).
• 15.5″ Sony VAIO NW Laptop for $549.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $679).
• 14″ ASUS X83 Laptop for $764.82 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $850 - use this form).
• 14″ Dell Inspiron 14 Laptop with Core 2 Duo Processor 2.2GHz for $649 plus shipping (Regular Price: $853)
• 14″ HP dv4-2170us Core i5 Laptop for $649.98 with free shipping (Regular Price: $809.98)
• 13.3″ Lenovo ThinkPad X301 1.4GHz Laptop for $959.40 with free shipping (Regular Price: $1,599 - use coupon code MSStore-PC-40%).
• 11.6″ Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Laptop for $449 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $584).
• 10″ Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook w/ TV Tuner for $336.54 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $449).
• 10″ Sony VAIO W VPCW121AX Netbook (Pink) for $299 with free shipping (Regular Price: $484.99 - use coupon code MSStore-PC-40%).
• Lenovo P550 Headset for $11 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $20 - use coupon code USPCJ22065).
• 10.1″ MSI Wind U100 Intel Atom N270 Netbook (1GB/160GB/3-Cell Battery) for $259.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $329 - use coupon code: SHINE1130).
• 10.1″ Toshiba Mini NB205-N312/BL Royal Blue Netbook for $327.98 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $372.94).
• 22″ Asus VW224U WideScreen LCD Monitor for $134.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $162.99 - use coupon code LAUGH0315 and this rebate form).
• LaCie Little Disk 320GB USB External Hard Drive for $68.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $88).
• Intel Core i3-530 2.93GHz Processor + ECS H55H-M (rev. 1.0) Motherboard for $166.98 (Regular Price: $199 - use this form).
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (OEM) for $92.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $129 - use coupon code: WINTER10).
• Canon PIXMA iP4700 Premium Inkjet Photo Printer for $59.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $79.99).
• OCZ 1GB DDR3 Laptop Memory for $2 with free shipping (Regular Price: $27 - this form).
• Lexmark Interact S605 Wireless 3-in-1 Color Inkjet Printer for $117 with free shipping (Regular Price: $150).

Home Entertainment Gear!

• 55″ LG 55LH85 1080p Wireless LCD HDTV for $1,599.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $2,130)
• 47″ LG 47LG90 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $1,399.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $1,500)
• 42″ Toshiba REGZA 42ZV650U 1080p LED LCD HDTV for $749.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $790)
• Dell Vostro 220 Dual Core Desktop with 24″ Samsung LCD Monitor for $499 (Regular Price: $830)
• 15.6″ Acer Aspire AS5732Z-4280 Intel Dual Core Laptop for $399.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $459.99)
• 14.1″ Lenovo T400 14.1″ Laptop with Intel T8700 Processor, 4GB RAM for $811.20 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $1430 - use coupon code USPSAVE20)
• 25″ I-inc iH-252HPB Widescreen LCD Monitor for $189.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $253)
• Logitech diNovo Mac Edition Wireless Keyboard for $39.99 (Regular Price: $70)
• 55″ Samsung LN55B650 1080p 120Hz LCD TV for $1,479.00 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $1640 - use coupon code LN55B650).
• 47″ Viore LC47VXF60PB 1080p LCD HDTV for $800 shipped (Regular Price: $1020).
• 46″ Sony BRAVIA KDL-46S5100 1080p LCD HDTV for $779 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $850).
• 32″ Sony BRAVIA KDL-32L504 720P LCD TV for $360 with free shipping (Regular Price: $400).
• 32″ Sylvania LC320SLX 720p LCD HDTV for $299.99 (Regular Price: $359.99).
• 23″ VIZIO VM230XVT 1080p LED HDTV for $331.66 with free shipping (Regular Price: $349.99).
• Yamaha RX-V665 7.2ch AV Receiver + Klipsch KSW-10 10in Subwoofer for $499.00 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $599 - use coupon code: FREEGFT1118A).
• Pinnacle MB10000 Home Theater System for $548.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $2500).
• Opteka OPT15 15-Inch Digital Picture Frame with 1GB Built-In Memory for $142.77 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $179.95).
• Free Samsung 2.1-channel soundbar speaker system With the purchase of select Samsung LED-LCD HDTVs (Regular Price: $299.99).

Portable Gear!

• Hoya 77mm DMC PRO1 Digital Circular Polarizer Glass Filter for $129.99 (Regular Price $325)
• Zune HD 32GB Video MP3 Player for $259.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $280 - use coupon code EMCYZNZ45)
• Sennheiser RS 140 Wireless Balanced Headphones for $99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $119)
• DeLonghi HHP1500 Safeheat Mica Panel Radiator Heater for $69.95 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $88)
• AT&T Wireless Unlimited Calling Plan for $69.99 shipping (Regular Price: $100)
• 5dot Connect Laptop Sleeve for $7 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $22.99)
• Creative Labs Vado HD 8 GB Pocket Video Camcorder, 2nd Generation for $114.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $199.99).
• Nikon Coolpix S620 12.2MP Digital Camera for $229.95 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $269.65).
• Sony Cybershot DSC-TX1 Digital Camera for $299 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $314).
• Skullcandy INK'D Earbuds for $10.17 (Regular Price: $17.95).
• Sony MDRRF970RK 900 MHz Analog RF Wireless Headphone for $58.77 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $64.23).
• Flip Mino F360B Video Pocket Camcorder for $96.99 with free shipping (Regular Price: $119.99).
• Kodak EASYSHARE Z1485 14 Megapixel Digital Camera for $120 with free shipping (Regular Price: $180).
• Canon VIXIA HF20 HD Dual Flash Camcorder for $599 with free shipping (Regular Price: $699).
• Nikon Coolpix P90 12.1MP Digital Camera w/ Tilt LCD for $322.98 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $349).
• Invisio G5 Bluetooth Headset for $29.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $79.95).
• HP Photosmart E327 5MP Digital Camera for $29.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $115).
• Fujifilm Finepix Z37 10MP Digital Camera for $99.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $122.22).
• SteelSeries 5H v2 USB Headset with Soundcard for $89.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $120).
• JBuds J3M Micro Atomic In-Ear Earphones with Microphone Compatible with iPhone for $29.95 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $39.99).
• Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones for $198.89 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $365.49).
• Creative Labs Vado 2GB Pocket Video Camcorder for $39.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $94).
• Nokia E63 Cell Phone (Unlocked, Quad-Band GSM, 3G) for $149.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $199 - use coupon code: $NC714XVMPS9FM).
• Kodak EasyShare Z1485 14MP Digital Camera for $119.99 + Free Shipping (Regular Price: $170).

Free Stuff!

• Sunbelt Granola Bars box, BOGO Coupon for $0 (print this PDF)
• All The Pretty Girls by fun (MP3) for $0 (download here).
• Alien Glyphs (iPhone/iPod Touch) for $0 (Regular Price: $1.99).
• Samples of Prilosec for $0 (use this form)
• Free Selena Gomez “Naturally” Music Download for $0 (use this form)
• Reign of Swords (iPhone) for $0 (Regular Price: $2.99).
• Stamps.com 4-week trial with $25 worth of postage, digital scale, supplies for $0
• We've Got A Long Way To Go by Joe Perry (MP3) for $0 (download here).
• 50 Digital Photos Printed by CVS for $0 (Regular Price: $9, use this form).

Thanks Dealzon, TechDealDigger, Slickdeals, Fatwallet, TechBargains, CheapStingyBargains, CheapCollegeGamers, and GamerHotline!

Send an email to Jason Fitzpatrick, the author of this post, at jason@lifehacker.com.

These days, buying a decent plasma is often a lot more expensive than building your own media center. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, a media center is basically a PC that’s focused solely on media playback. Check out our PDF guide on how to set up your own media center, written by Stefan Neagu.

For the past year or so, I’ve been using Windows 7 on my media center. It’s quick, smooth, and the new Windows Media Center makes it an incredible improvement over Vista. It also supports most PCI TV tuners. Lately, I came to realize the stupidity of all it. Television shows haven’t been accounting to much lately, and the Windows 7 price tag isn’t worth it if you’re only using it for music and movies.

Enna

Although Boxee seemed the more obvious choice, it loses the high ground if you lack a decent internet connection. Just when I was about to give up hope, I heard about Enna – an incredible open source Linux media center, developed by the GeeXboX team, and ready for its first public release.

Enna can be installed on top of your Linux distro (e.g. Ubuntu) as a standalone app. But if you don’t want to make “the switch”, you can just use the GeeXboX live CD. You can boot Enna straight from the disk, without installing any alternative operating systems. If you want, you can even keep your default Windows installation running underneath.

Movies and Music

Keep in mind that the Enna Linux media center is a very standard app. It packs the very basic features in a most enticing and graphical user interface. If you’re looking for a surplus of widgets and online connectivity, you’re probably looking for Boxee.

That said, if you’re a standard media freak, Enna should sate your initial hunger, especially for a first public release.

Enna is great for browsing media files on your hard disk – both video and audio. You can also use Enna to pop an old-fashioned DVD. Sadly, this first release does not yet support audio CDs. This feature is promised to be included in one of the other upcoming releases, together with podcast support and VDB TV tuner functionality.

Photographs and Books

Apart from video and music, you can also use the Enna Linux media center software for photo slideshows. Next time your mother-in-law celebrates another wrinkle, surprise her and the rest of the family with a stunning slideshow. I’m not much of a picture-person myself, but I love to use slideshows to decorate a room, and create a pleasant ambience.

This last feature came as a surprise to me. In the bookstore, you can grab your favorite books and comics from the web, and read them from the couch. Enna currently supports GoComics and OneManga for content synchronisation.

Obviously, you want be able to read Shakespeare on your media center, but you can flick through a few (web)comics when you’re bored. As the names suggest, you can access both western comic panels and Japanese manga. Download Enna Media Center here.

What do you think of Enna? Or do you prefer another media center? Tell us which and why in the comments section below!

Pc TV Tuner

People are giving up cable TV. It's a growing trend. Often it is to save money and some say it's a sacrifice because it's not as comfortable and it's harder for two or more people to watch together. This misses two points, in my experience. 1) It isn't just about saving money but also the experience. 2) It can be just as comfortable as watching from your couch if you use a TV as a monitor.

So, why give up cable or satellite TV?

Money is a big reason for many people, especially in our present economy. Really basic cable runs around $15 a month, but that includes little more than local channels. To see even basic cable channels like the Discovery Channel and Comedy Central, you'll likely pay at least $40. Do you want a DVR box so you can record your favorite shows and even pause live TV? That will cost a bit more each month. If you bundle your high speed internet and internet phone (saves money over regular phone, if bundled), you could be looking at nearly $140/month, even without premium movie channels.

Cable TV cost: Approx $70/month for 12 months= $840/year

But there's more than that. How has your cable service been? Do your channels come in clearly and reliably? Does your DVR record your shows? Does it reboot itself at random? Does it tell you that an HD channel isn't available when it should be since you're paying for HD? Do you have to rewind two commercials back to catch the part after the commercials that you really wanted to see? Have you called customer service and tech support over and over? Have you been told it might be your signal only to have an on-site technician tell you your signal is fine? Have you complained until you're blue in the face?

That was my experience with my cable company. Is that worth $840 a year?

What is available online?

All the major networks are online. You can watch full episodes at NBC, CBS, and ABC, etc. Many of the basic cable channels host free shows, too. You can go to Comedy Central or Discovery, for example. If you want movies, Netflix can allow you to watch DVDs or stream movies right to your computer. Just Google your favorite show and see what you can find.

How do you watch internet TV on your TV?

You have to use your TV as a monitor. Obviously, this will require specialized hardware.

Hardware:

Computer (buy a new one or use your existing one)

Powerful video card (optional: with HD capabilities and output if you have an HD TV)

Memory, and lots of it if you want your video to flow well.

Cable or Satellite modem: Why? Because you want high-speed internet. Don't kick the cable company to the curb completely.

Optional Hardware:

Digital Antenna (if you want to watch live local shows)

TV Tuner card (if you want to have PVR features with your digital antenna)

DVD drive (or perhaps BluRay!)

Really big hard drive (for all those shows you want to download or record).

Monitor (Why is this optional? You may need to configure your PC to display on the TV.)

Cables to hook your video card straight to your TV

TV, with lots of inputs, preferably HD.

Software:

OS (Operating System): Windows can do great things, but has risks due to malware, viruses and hackers. Linux is a bit more complicated and has a definite learning curve, but it also has a lot less risks. Mac OS is stable and has less risk, but I am not experienced with it to offer much advice.

Web browser with the proper plug ins (like Flash and others).

Optional Software:

BitTorrent client (to download shows. Keep it legal, just do TV shows)

Media players (to play those files you downloaded)

The following is my setup, for use as an example.

1) New computer to be devoted to being a TV (approx $550)
Dual Core Processor
2GB memory
320 GB Hard Drive
Monitor
Mouse & Keyboard
Linux 8.04 LTS (OS)

2) New HD ATI Radeon video card w/ DVI output (approx $70)

3) 4 GB more memory (approx. $30)

4) HDMI to DVI adaptor

5) Amplified Digital TV antenna (approx $50)

6) Existing 6' HDMI cable

7) Existing RCA cable with standard speaker plug on other end.

Existing LCD HD TV with HDMI inputs

9) Existing 12' RCA Composite cord

10) Existing DVD Home Theater System

11) Wireless pointing device ($99 with $99 rebate)

Approx one-time cost: $700

Software: all sorts of free software for Linux, including Firefox web browser.

Our family decided a $700 one-time cost to save $840 every year thereafter was better than sticking with the annoying service of our cable provider. While I already had 2-3 computers that potentially had the power, only one had the outputs to connect to the TV, and, being a laptop, it was not meant to be tethered to our TV. And the other desktop computer that has the power, does lot of stuff that isn't TV and would still need to. I use it for everything from word processing and web hosting to working from home. It cannot be a full-time TV.

We bought our computer preconfigured with Linux from Dell, about the only company that will do that. We had some issues with Dell, so don't take that as an endorsement. I'm a competent technical support person, so even though I was new to Linux, I still have some transferrable skills. We fixed every problem ourselves, in the end.

Linux takes a bit more technical skill if you're a Windows or Mac user, so keep that in mind. On the plus side, it takes less power than Windows so it will leave the power to the video playing we need. It also doesn't get viruses because people are busy writing those for Windows.

Windows Vista has its own issues. It is flashy, yes, but it hogs resources and does annoying things, like resizes the window when you're just trying to scroll down. I've heard good things about Windows 7, so that might be an option this fall. But keep in mind, it's Microsoft, and it's new. That usually does not make a good combination.

Mac's have a good reputation of being easy to use and are generally great with multimedia. They don't generally get those viruses either.

I installed the extra memory and video card. We had some trouble but finally got the Linux drivers for the card to work. We ordered the HDMI to DVI adaptor and it arrived a day after the computer. So we plugged it into the card's DVI port and plugged our HDMI cable into the adaptor. We plugged the other end into the TV and it worked. We did have to lower the resolution on the computer, but it works fine. We used a cable to connect the speaker jack of the computer to the TV's Audio In ports. And then we used an RCA cable to connect the audio output of the TV (which means the computer, too) into the DVD home stereo system for surround sound.

We now watch TV shows on the computer or local through the antenna, and DVDs on the home theater system or the computer. We can even sit on the couch and use our wireless pointer to press Play or Pause, etc, on the computer (anything a mouse can do, really). We also use remote control software, so we can control this computer from our laptops. (VNC is an option there. Windows has Remote Desktop Connection, but it does lock the host computer.) In fact, I can even use remote control software on my T-Mobile G1 cell phone to control the “TV.”

We bookmarked the video websites for every channel we liked that had episodes to watch. And we also found other aggregate sites.

Hulu.com: Some trouble playing through Linux but it sometimes works for us.

Casttv.com: Found video from Hulu here and it played when it wouldn't through Hulu

Sharetv.org: Same deal. Played even with Casttv wouldn't. So there's always somewhere.

Freetube: more free TV

TV.com: Episode listings and full episode videos for some shows.

There are very likely others.

There's also MythTV. That's a software program that also involves MySQL. Personally, we mainly watch at Hulu. They have a subscription service to collect the shows we want to watch. If we can watch a show on Hulu.com we will. We will only got to other websites when Hulu doesn't have it.

How it's working.

We can get live local shows from our digital antenna, though we can't yet record them, unless we want to hook up a VCR and find a blank video tape. We can always look up those same major network shows, usually by the next day, online if we want to watch again. For instance, we caught up with Glee after missing the first two episodes.

We watched several episodes of Ace of Cakes on www.foodnetwork.com. It was nice because they just kept playing until we decided to stop. We subscribe to the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Ghost Hunters, Warehouse 13, etc. It's great. Yes, there are some shows we can't watch online that I do miss, but there are plenty of others to keep me occupied.

And as a bonus, we can play computer games, check e-mail, set a family calendar, IM, record with a web cam—everything a computer can do . . . on our TV.

Which channels aren't available?

I can't tell you every channel that isn't out there for watching full episodes. I can tell you the sites I tried:

Discovery Channel. At least Deadliest Catch wasn't available to view full episodes.

TruTV. Good shows about true crime and such. But you can't watch full episodes online from what I've seen. It does have clips though.

Biography. Some might show but not the ones I wanted.

Premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and the Movie Channel: If they don't let you watch for free on cable, they're not going to let you watch for free online.

Anything else?

There is one other downside, though technology may help there too. Only the living room has the antenna and computer for TV. Unless we use a laptop to provide the shows, we can't watch any TV in our bedroom. But then, that is where we put the Wii, so I doubt that will be too much of a problem.