[mythtv-users] Upgrade old or cut my losses and buy new?

[Brian Wood]

On Mar 5, 2007, at 6:57 PM, Dennis Lou wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Brian Wood <beww at beww.org>
>> You don't keep a notebook of everything you
>> do with each machine ?  Shame on you.
>> I find that system usually fail just after you forget
>> how you set them up.
>
> Notebook?  How quaint.  tar, mysqldump and vi serve me
> quite well.

Perhaps, it *would* solve the problem of the wet clay tablet drying  
out and setting before I'm done with making impressions with my  
cuneiform wedge.

But I've found a small (3x5) spiral notebook, or even a file card or  
two tucked in the bottom of the case with info on the H/W and some  
basic config notes can really help with systems in general, not just  
Myth boxes. Dates of installation, major mods, jumper settings,  
vendor contact info for special cards etc. Also power draw  
measurements and temps so you have a baseline.

Those habits come from commercial installations though, where the  
person trying to figure things out might be 10 years in the future  
and unknown to you. Probably not totally practical for home machines,  
but a subset of the idea certainly is.