[mythtv-users] Let's get our heads straight here on listings solutions

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 09:16:08AM -0400, Joe Borne wrote:
> Well, the problem we face here is neither strategic, nor tactical
> (another bizarre fallicy voiced by my logic challenged detractor), but
> motivational. None of the ideas voiced here have provided enough
> motivation for the station owners to perform this task for us. In
> addition , it would require tremendous effort to gather, organize and
> control this data. Our erstwhile brothers overseas have tried this
> with a meager 13 stations and have found it a daunting task.

We have not yet *built* a business case; we're still making sure we
have a *product* that will fulfill the needs of the end-users... who
are the parimary audience.

That doesn't mean that we don't realize that we *need* to build a
business case for that secondary audience -- the data providers --
though the phrasing of your arguments seems to imply that you think we
don't see that need.

> I am all for ambitious ideas and for the creation of something better
> than the Direct Data solution. However, we have a patient with a fatal
> wound. Before Vietnam, doctors used to treat critically injured people
> by patiently going about repairing every single problem. Quite often
> the result was a perfectly repaired corpse as the body simply could
> not endure the trauma. During Vietnam doctors started treating the
> most life threatening issues first. They gave the patient time to
> recover and then addressed the remaining issues in descending order
> over several surgeries. This improved survival rates dramatically.
> 
> We have a similar situation here. Unless we fix this in the next 60
> days, our guides will go dark. There are those who would argue, but in
> essence the PVR abilities of MythTV would die. This cannot be allowed
> to happen.

Again: triage is not within our scope.  There are *three* projects
going on right now to deal with this issue (at least):

	1) Some of the senior developers are reportedly in talks to
	create some sort of organization which can act as a retail
	intermediary between TMS and Myth users (at least); buying
	TMS's commercial DD feed, and simulating the old DD retail port
	for users.

	2) Other people are looking into updating the mostly disused
	XMLTV_NA scraping code, to see how practically *that* can be
	used.

	3) Then, there's us.  We *know* we're not working on a 60 day
	solution, Joe, and you'd know that too, if you'd been reading
	everything we've been writing.  

> So my goal with the original post was to try to pull us out of the
> folly of envisioning a perfect solution, and get us focused on fixing
> the life threatening injury. Since even the most cursory analysis
> shows that perpetuating Data Direct, or inserting a new commercial
> provider is the most viable solution, we should focus our efforts
> there.

That may have been what *you* think your goal was, but it's based on an
incorrect apprehension of the problem space, and what we think our part
in it is.

> Once we are past September, and we are all still scheduling our
> favorite shows for time-shifted viewing, we can look to the future.

Why wait?  There are more than enough good minds involved to run all
three tracks in parallel.  And the community at large has been
*explicitly* asked (first by me, and then more explicitly by Chris
Peterson) not to joggle the devs elbows as they attempt to implement
solution 1, above.

> Then I will be more than happy to see any and all ideas, no matter how
> far-fetched, be entertained. The beauty of open source is it's mimicry
> of the evolutionary process. The best ideas will thrive and the others
> will die off naturally.

We're way ahead of you, Joe.

But I'm sorry to hear that you're not happy to see our efforts.

I don't much *care*, mind you, but I'm sorry.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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