How can I help?

[spitfires]

Might be an idea to collect info on skills people have which are relevant to our project.

(Don't post your whole CV or even your "day job" necessarily, just what is useful to this project?)

I'll start:
professional computer programmer (incl. Linux, Tcl, but not Perl yet... give me a weekend )

Geoff

[healeydave]

Good idea Geoff, I suspect your skills will come in handy.

I'm a general tinkerer, started our in IT administration when Microsoft launched MSDOS

Been involved with Tivo's since starting tivoland circa 2003.

I suspect the way ahead for this emulate what OZTivo, NLTivo and SATivo have done.

1. We need to find a suitable EPG data source to populate the slices.

2. We need to build a backend server to build, host and distribute the EPG slices.

3. We need to create a modified version of the Installer.iso CD to automate the building of new 2.5.5 disks with the appropriate hacks to point to the backend server.


I realise there will be many sub-steps to those and summarising it to 3 steps initially is probably very naive

[spitfires]

Oh yes, add "server management" to my list (I run servers in the UK and US).

[Kitschcamppalace]

I run several Linux servers for websites I operate.

I'm used to dealing with the tools used for manual slices, and have a good idea of how to massage the listings to get them working.

I've two dedicated servers available with space, one in the UK and one in Germany.

I also have some php skills and Real Basic skills that sometimes come in handy.

Oh, and some experience of VMWare that may come in handy.

[Countryman]

I can offer some testing. I did use to write code (assembler Z80..remember those?) but that was a long long time ago. Also I live close to Dave as I am in Malvern.

[healeydave]

I emailed Stuart (TCM2007) who originally wrote endpad to see if he might be tempted to pitch in.

He was a prominent figure in Tivo hacking 4+ years ago and I remember when Tivo first pulled out of the UK and everyone was fretting about the loss of EPG then that he said it wouldn't take too much to replicate what the Australians were doing.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure he is interested since he stopped using Tivo himself a while back, but I did ask him to look deep inside and ask himself why he still frequents the forums so avidly after all this time

Anyway, whether Stuart decide to grace us with his skills or not, he did point out to me that the other countries had other hurdles to cross like NTSC/PAL patches, Headend Channel Lists and unsupported IR data control of STB's etc that shouldn't be a problem to us since we did already have a working service!

[mikerr]

Just checking in
- seems odd registering and posting on a competitors forum !
but its all for the greater good of TiVo isn't it ?

General skills are TCL and C , with of course plenty of tivo hacking under my belt.

[Inner Zone]

I'm sure if this takes off there will be plenty of business for both of you in preconfigured drives and maybe also for certain Citrus fruit. Any one seen or heard of him recently?

[healeydave]

Just checking in
- seems odd registering and posting on a competitors forum !
but its all for the greater good of TiVo isn't it ?

General skills are TCL and C , with of course plenty of tivo hacking under my belt.

Hi Mike,
I know your one of the lucky ones in a virgin area, but I'm sure you will want to help those less fortunate and your skills will come in useful

[healeydave]

I'm used to dealing with the tools used for manual slices, and have a good idea of how to massage the listings to get them working.

Have you looked into what the other countries are doing on the backend server side of things?

Also, did you retrofit your uk 2.5.5 image with the mods or did you use one of their images?

Cheers
Dave.

[Kitschcamppalace]

I just modified my UK image for Sweden which was fairly trivial. I looked at the pre-built images but there was far more to undo to make it work standalone.

The guys running the Dutch one were more than happy to offer the software they use if there was enough interest. I didn't drum up enough to make it worthwhile. But the offer I presume still stands. I'll chase it up.

[Richard Loxley]

I'm available to help out. My relevant skills:

20 years of UNIX/Linux (including sys admin)
30 years programming (including C, shell script + about 20 other languages)
Tivo hacking (shell scripting + C cross-compiling)
Web programming (if we need a public server)

I currently only have one Tivo (network enabled), so not so good for testing guide data upload, unless I swap out the hard drive for testing.

[spitfires]

Just checking in - seems odd registering and posting on a competitors forum !

When I worked in marketing for a well known mobile phone company we used to do it all the time - find out what the "opposition" were up to and how they treated their customers

[healeydave]

I'm available to help out. My relevant skills:

20 years of UNIX/Linux (including sys admin)
30 years programming (including C, shell script + about 20 other languages)
Tivo hacking (shell scripting + C cross-compiling)
Web programming (if we need a public server)

I currently only have one Tivo (network enabled), so not so good for testing guide data upload, unless I swap out the hard drive for testing.

Thanks Richard,

Seems like there is a good team of skill's arriving here to help out.

I'm sure between Mikerr and myself, we will be able to help out a number of involved users perhaps where spare hardware for testing is required.

[spitfires]

I just modified my UK image for Sweden which was fairly trivial. I looked at the pre-built images but there was far more to undo to make it work standalone.

*nods*
I've been reading around and it seems we shouldn't need to do a great deal since we already have a working service!


I'm guessing we might end up with 2 (or perhaps 3) approaches:
1) Download this, do that, etc - for techies
2) Here's a pre-done disc just install it
3) Here's an image-on-cd for you to install (a la Hooch?)

In other words, just like what we have now