How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
My first generation Tivo:
[ul]
[li]Downloads weather maps and forecasts every 15 minutes, accessible with remote keypresses[/li][li]Gets it’s guide data over my broadband connection, thus eliminating the need for a phone line.[/li][li]Saves movies on my computer to burn to DVD.[/li][li]Has it’s own website that allows me to search/record/undelete/etc/etc/etc/ from work or my couch without interrupting my viewing pleasures.[/li][li]Can do much, much more if you explore the above links (Think sports scores, interest rates, emails, etc with a few keypresses of the remote).[/li][/ul]
My XBOX:
[ul]
[li]Acts as fully functional media center, playing all my music, videos, DVDs, photo slideshows, etc that I have on file, both locally via CD/DVD/harddrive, or over my home network.[/li][li]Has some of the most beautiful visualizations for music I have seen on any platform.[/li][li]Has a Nintendo and a Sega Genesis emulator so I can still play my old favorites which I bought on cartridges when I was a kid and are either in a landfill or still up in the attic somewhere.[/li][li]Can do much more but here we stick to the legal stuff, as I do I in real life. No links for that reason.[/li][/ul]
My Dorm Fridge (in my house with my wife FTR):
[ul]
[li]Has three beer taps coming out the top (after I added another tap in the middle), with kegs inside holding 5, 5, and 3 gallons of beer, respectively. (the extra tap necessitated a 3 gallon keg to fit onto the compressor shelf. I bought 2)[/li][li]Has an adjacent cabinet housing both CO2 and beergas, a mixture of nitrogen and CO2 (for creamy stouts like Guinness), with hidden gas lines.[/li][li]Smooths homebrew related expenses and time with said wife because she really really enjoys a good homebrew ready on tap when she gets home from work as well.[/li][/ul]
My old wireless access point runs linux but that was basically just a proof of concept for me, hence never really used but fun to get working.
I dabbled in satellite tv hacking, but my wife quickly put a stop to that on legal/moral grounds. When I was a kid I knew how to put a pin in the bottom of the old converter boxes and descramble the nudie channels.
I’d really like to keep this thread open with more fun stuff, so please keep it to legal and/or vague references to past deeds… no links to bad stuff, ok?
I don’t think this thread has yet crossed the line in any legal or liable way, but if I have, or if the powers that be feel it has, please accept my apologies.
This stuff is just fun.
You’re already on the Tivo bandwagon, but if you’re not too tied to it, you may want to check out MythTV. It’s a build-it-yourself Tivo on Linux, but with many other possibilities, including all of your current addins.
I forgot to mention, and I’m sure Bill H. is right, that open source has finally caught up to Tivo. And I’m sure MythTV can do it…
But my favorite Tivo hack is onscreen Caller ID. It can be done in at least threedifferentways.
I’m currently using the latter.
And for the record, I’m not necessarily on the “Tivo Bandwagon”, it’s just that my tivo has served me well and changed my life.
I bought it last millenium.
It has done so much for so long with so little, it is now qualified to do anything with nothing.
LED! As in leaded. “Led by the unknowing”. Not “let”.
And Bill H. while I appreciate all input and I’m sure MythTV is great, I’m really looking for “hacks” to off-the-shelf consumer products, moreso than the build-it-youself-from-scratch kinda stuff…
I do love it, and I want to build a few… espcially this one , given that I already have the micro racer on hand, and pretty much everything else, besides the $6 airplane.
