I have XMLTV!

Something that is very hard for Australians to get their hands on is a good XMLTV stream. Using the alevtd teletext webserver, Channel Seven‘s AUSTEXT service and some Python, I’ve got XMLTV feeds for ABC, Seven, and Network Ten. It’s still needs some bugfixing before I release it, and some better support for SBS (which has the TV listings in two columns for parts). There’s no Channel 9 stream as Channel 7 doesn’t carry a TV guide feed for it.

The idea is make a nice daily cron job to switch your TV card to Channel 7 at about 7:00am, start alevtd, wait a couple of minutes, and run the script... you get nice XMLTV data. I’m not going to be publishing the generated stream, just the program to make it. (Copyright issues) You’ll need a good Channel 7 signal to use this program.

Definitely worth the good overnight hack that created it, and far better than the existing tv_grab_au with a feed only for SBS that’s quite off in places.

The Need, for Rice

Got sick of unstable Ubuntu. They really need to create a testing repos, with the latest software, but none of the unstable beta stuff... a nice fine balance. So I am a ricer again. Should tire me over until Gnome 2.10 in out and Ubuntu Hoary is more stable. Don’t want to live in Warty, it’s out of date.

So, over the last 48 hours my desktop computer is being rebuilt.

No TAFE is making me get a bit bored, though I should find something interesting to do real soon. Like learning C++ and use of OGRE. And panicing about how to deal with next semester more effectively than last. I’m really disappointed in my time management during that time, and my dead laptop.

Sitting watching late night TV is depressing... all the phone, SMS and internet dating ads that come on. Do they honestly think that everyone up late to watch Star Trek is all lonely? Oh wait...

Christmas was the normal. Overcrowded shops, and rushing around. I felt really tired by the end. Then to find how I will get to Sydney in the middle of Janurary to Koderfest.

Yay, the madness ensues.