Used to be you could use a free subdomain from dyndns. No need to buy anything. Your router will probably manage the DNS for you.

Exactly, but if he is really serious, he needs to plan on at least $200K to get something usable up. With that expectation, then he needs to work the necessary sales to determine whether it will be profitable or not.

I usually wait until I get to the airport in-country, then use an ATM. That usually saves the 3% currency transaction fees that "exchange services" charge. [www.xe.com] When I look at the last 5 years, I don't see any pattern. OTOH, I haven't been back to JP since it was 120:1. It was expensive then, so I can't…

I assumed nobody was trying to hack me.

The channel mapping has to be transferred from the HDHR software into 7MC. [www.silicondust.com] explains it.

Whether you are paying or not, telcos in the USA will forward 911 calls appropriately. It is the only call a non-paid line can make, however.

"Actually, I forgot the passphrase a few months ago - can you guys help me get into that file/drive? I could really use the help from experts like you. I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have ever encrypted this damn thing. I thought up the great random, long passphrase on Friday afternoon and came back on Monday ..."

I've attempted Mythtv 3 times last time was 13 months ago and failed every time. Ended up running Win7 media center inside a VM.

I get "limited basic" by paying $23/month. It is all the clearQAM and analog channels Comcast provides. About 10 useful in my metro area. If it works, that's all you should expect - channels under 30 - though I do not get TVguide channel 27.

Start with this 8U box [www.sansdigital.com] and you're ready for a little expansion.

Chances are that the rabbit ear antenna on your TV does better.

Nope. Boxee only has tuner drivers for this specific device, not all tuners in general.

I coughed when you said, simply adding a MythTV box .... like that's ever gonna happen. Myth has a long way to go to become "simple."

WD TV Live HD Plus ($80) and similar models. It has Yellow RCA, HDMI, S-video and RGB-component TV connectors.

That device looks just like the common Hauppauge 950Q. The chips are used in many other products and usually run about $30 (Mygica U6012 Hybrid USB HDTV Tuner for example). Of course, the real 950Q is more expensive now that is isn't black Friday.

How do you keep your Debian/Ubunt/Mint Linux PCs running smoothly? I'm curious.

a) Give the hostOS the optimal amount of RAM.

I was actually thinking about Fulltime Killer: [www.imdb.com]

Very nice.

I have to ask - contract killer?