You could stick it to the top of your G5. Be easier to plug things in and out there.

I have this Belkin hub. It's quite small and has worked fine.

Any advice?

Last night I turned off my computer but left the monitor on (as I have been doing recently). When I turned the computer on this morning, the monitor started making a harsh rattling sound and nothing appeared on the screen.

I tried to turn the computer off with Ctrl-Alt-Del, which changed the monitor sound to a whine. I then turned the computer off manually, and the monitor sound continued. Pressing the monitor power button had no effect -- only turning off the powerbar made the monitor be quiet. I also checked the connection between the monitor and the computer and made sure the monitor power cord was plugged all the way in.

I tried turning the computer on again, and got the same results (no rattling -- whine only). I have not had any problems with the monitor before.

So is my monitor dead, or does this sound like a problem with my computer (video card or other)?

If the monitor is making a harsh rattling sound, then I tend to believe the monitor is the problem. Do you have a neighbor you can borrow a monitor from, to test?

I'll see if I can arrange that -- it would certainly clarify the problem. Thanks!

Build your own DVR with SageTV.

MIT Fraternity Accused Of Robot Hazing: [link]

Cute in theory, annoying in practice?

The size of the device changes depending on the amount of data it holds.

When the device is about to blow up you will see the familiar error message on your screen: "There is not enough free space".

When swithched off the flashbag remains pumped up, so you can estimate with the naked eye how much more pics, books and music albums can be transferred into it.

I guess it would depend on how big the inflated version is.

TiVo and DirecTV not over just yet.

So what are folks' opinions about Tivo vs. MythTV/EyeTV/homebrew? My plan was to get DirecTV here once I had housemates and get a Tivo then. But if they're killing the lifetime subs...well, that's not so good. I'm afraid I might not be enough of a tech wonder to troubleshoot the issues that might come up with MythTV. I could probably handle ElGato's EyeTV although I suspect it's a much more expensive solution. What do folks think?

Well, lifetime subs were never an option with Directv's version of Tivo anyway. And at this point, even with the extension of the relationship (which is good! Don't get me wrong, tivo gods!) the Directivo is partially crippled. It has hardware that won't ever get activated, like the networking capability which is pretty important to me.

But, on the other side of it, because the Directv version of Tivo isn't an encoder (the satellite signal is already digital) there are some benefits to the way it functions, such as having two functional tuners (so you can record two stations and watch a third already recorded program simultaneously). The Tivo brand is a leader for a reason, and I do like having all the Tivo functionality; the guides, the way season passes work, etc. I haven't tried the homebrew versions, so I can't really compare.

But on the whole, I really like what I have.