Slow Open/Save Dialogs in GTK

I've been running Jaunty (beta and RC's) for several weeks. A couple of weeks ago the open and save dialogs began loading VERY slowly. I've been researching this particular issue and have come across some interesting issues related to the 'tracker' package and corrupted tracker databases. To remedy, I have uninstalled tracker via

sudo apt-get remove tracker --purge

and whacked my local tracker database via

rm -rf ~/.local/share/tracker

This seems to have helped some. It'd be nice if part of the install scripts of this package would remove and rebuild the tracker cache so this crap doesn't happen.

Read More

Home-built DVR

On Friday, the cable guys were out to install our cable service. This is part of our on-going effort to cut costs around the house. The numbers are pretty clear: spend $175 to buy a tuner card, remote and cable modem while cutting the $9/mo for DVR service, $30/mo. extra that Dish cost, and the $5/mo. charge for "renting" a cable modem... Basically a four to five month ROI, with a first year savings of about $310. That's pretty impressive. To accomplish this I used my IBM ThinkCenter S50, a Hauppauge PVR-150, Anywhere GP-IR02BK MCE remote, new 160gb hard disk, and Yahoo! Go TV. This setup is SLICK. The hardware is solid (as near as my limited experience can tell) and the software is easy enough my Mom could use it!!! The best part is, is going to save me big dollars over the next two years.

Read More