This weekend has been entirely too short. I mean, I know it seems that way after most weekends, but especially this one. Especially.

[Bitscape ponders whether to do an itemized rundown of each of the weekend "plans" ala last years resolution checkups.]

Nah. I think I'll just ramble through it in paragraph form. More natural that way.

Well, today I spent far more time than I had originally planned to in a futile attempt to get DVD movies playing on Argo. I downloaded the Xine player as I had previously indicated. Grabbed the deb that they were nice enough to package, and it installed without a hitch. Tried running a Farscape episode in fullscreen mode, which worked beautifully. Totally smooth. And sharp.

"That was easy."

Since that worked so effortlessly, I decided to try going the next step: See how it would handle one of my DVD's. Went to the mailing list archives, and found a link to the CSS-enabled modules which were unsanctioned by the official team, who take no part in such potentially illegal activities (wink, wink). That was where my good luck ended.

Inserted one disc after another. Nothing would play. It kept spitting out the same annoying errors, which I won't bore readers with. From there, I delved deeper. Learned how to actually use css-auth. (I've had the source on my hard drive since long before I had a dvd drive, but up until now, never bothered to try to really learn how to use it.) Tried other players which reportedly don't have as great a performance, to no avail.

Any attempt to access the .vob files resulted in io errors. Searched google. Read more mailing list archives, HOWTOs, etc, in the hopes that maybe I'd whatever step it was I was missing. No avail.

I was able to get the disc key using tstdvd, no problem. But whenever I attempted to use it to try and retrieve a title key, the operation failed. Tried the process over and over with different discs. No help.

I now realize that I really should have attempted this back when I first purchased the unit. If I had, then I would at least have the option of returning the defective hardware. That's pretty much the only conclusion I can draw, since I did EVERYTHING that I could find as a necessary step on mailing lists. (Yeah, since I got it through the mail, returning it would be a pain in the ass.)

And yes, it has occurred to me that since it was one of the more recent models, there may have been additional intentinal monkeying on the part of the manufacturer (Pioneer, who I will be unlikely to purchase anything from again in the near future) to keep people from accessing their own legally purchased discs. If that is the case, then they deserve any bad will they get.

But anyway, there's not a whole lot I can do about it now. I s'ppose I could try hassling their tech support. Act like a dumb redneck. "Say, why id it dat everytime I try ta watch dis here mooovee I bott on dis here drive, da kernel gives me dis inpuute outpuute errorr tingee? It look ta me like ya'll might be tryan ta hoodwink us country folk into takin on deeeefective merchundise. Id dat so?"

Moral of the story: Buyer beware.

(And yes, it could also be said that I am getting a little bit of poetic justice for breaking a moral boycott in exchange for some candy and convenience.)

But anyway, the Xine player is truly a cool thing. If nothing else, I have a much slicker way to watch my Farscape episodes now.

(And does anyone else also find it ironic that watching illegally copied material on my PC turns out to be 10x easier and more convenient than viewing discs I paid for? From a purely pragmatic perspective, it's almost enough to make me say, "Screw buying these things. I'll just download the slightly lower quality pirated versions, and rid myself of the extra hassle and annoyance.")

If it weren't for the fact that I have dedicated hardware which can play region 1 discs without trouble, that argument would probably work. And a little more than the current DSL bandwidth. Hmmm....

So anyway, after I had fought with that until I was mentally exhausted, I took a nap.

Woke up, and was tempted to try some more, but I wanted to get something else done during the day. Satellite map code.

I decided that despite the Image Magick perl module's shortcomings, I would work around and do with it what I could. (Maybe the original Image Magick stuff is better. I actually have used some of the command line programs, and have found them to be quite useful.)

By the time the X Files began, I had put together and debugged almost all the pieces of code required to achieve the grand satellite map. I think there were even a few lines left of Jaeger's original code still in there. Somewhere. ;)

You might notice that the new feature is not yet on the collective, nor has a new version of the code been released. I did say almost all implemented. There's still another piece. While it doesn't strictly have to be there in order for the map to function, I think having it is going to make for a LOT less swearing at the screen when people are trying use the thing. I would estimate that it would take a couple more hours to code. Then there's the other aesthetic polishes, which would come last.

So as of the end of this weekend, the satellite code still isn't quite ready. Maybe tomorrow night. Maybe next weekend. I'll upload it when it's done enough to be usable.

Let's see... looking back at the other weekend plans I had charted...

Well, I did do one load of laundry yesterday. I was going to do another one today, but it would seem I wasn't the only person in this family with the same idea. Ugggh. btbnthsrthaoeuoaeu

Not line noise. The release of tension through the finger muscles. :)

The lair has about the same amount of clutter as it did on Friday night. Which is to say it isn't too bad. Not that great either. Oh well.

Um... I had said I planned to read a chapter from a spiritual book. I didn't read anything. Just didn't get around to it.

I did see a movie. Or two. (One I had rented, and one I already own.) I think the partial movielog entry is still sitting on one of my virtual desktops somewhere. lol.

I did look at the xine movie player. Spent far more time than was healthy attempting to get my dvd's to work with it. At least I learned something.

Also, I suppose I could note that I did use the word "plan" instead of "goal" this time around. My distinction between the two is that the word "plan" simply means something I think will happen. It's not like I'm expending effort in an attempt to reach a certain point. It's just the likely expected result of the course that is being taken.

I take the word "goal" to mean something that I'm going to expend effort in reaching. It's not just something that I think will occur. It's a conscious effort to make a specific end into reality.

Babble babble. If that makes sense. So much for the motivational speaker talk.

So why did I state these plans? Maybe it was an attempt to see just how right or wrong I was in approximating my own future, and in doing so, better hone my senses. I'll often go into a weekend, a week, a day, or any other unit of time having rough thoughts about what I think could occur. Then time will pass, and I'll forget or the mind will get fuzzy about it. Then, much later I'll think, "You know, I thought I was going to do that last summer, and I never did. It never happened at all."

If I make a conscious effort and take the time to record where I think I'm going, I can measure it before, during, and after the specified period, instead of having the original ideas and the time just disappear into the ether. Maybe I can be a little more realistic in the future. That's the hope, anyway.

[Bitscape sighs.]

Busy day at work ahead tomorrow. I need my rest. I'm going to bed.