Hi!

I'm hoping some of the techier CBR'ers can help me!

PC(s)
I'm old and out of touch with technology. I'm typing on my home brewed XP Celeron 2 gh with 2g ddr ram with 1tb of hdd space. I have another similarly built pc collecting dust I scavenged from work to guinea pig Xubuntu on (neat!). Wanted to try networking on it too but haven't gotten that far yet. Both seem to be getting outdated rather quick as of late. I also have a p4 laptop my bro didn't want anymore too; I have barely turned it on, don't know what's in it but I think I remember it having only 512 ram.

Environment
I live in a small house. Main floor has TV room, kitchen, dining room and pc room. My TV is a 10 year old tube TV that doesn't even have s-video. It's hooked up to a 20 year old Kenwood component system. I do have an iPod touch but no wireless network/modem so I can only use the free wi-fi when I am able to mooch signal from unsuspecting neighbors. In the basement I have a workshop I use to work on motorbikes, drink beer, smoke herb, hide from the wife, etc. Very ****ty shelftop down there now only capable of playing cassettes of which I have 4. Access to tunes down there is a must. My bikes would be in much better shape mechanically if I had access to my tunes library down there.

Want
I love music. We listen to music all the time. All of our music is now in digital format and is played through the PC's 5.1 Altec Lansing speakers so if we are in the kitchen cooking, the pc is blasting the tunes. I want to be able to listen to music comfortably at home. Outside washing cars in the driveway would be a bonus too. I do d/l the occasional TV series (Lost season 1 right now) but have to watch it on the pc so it kinda sucks. Would like to be able to watch .avi's, etc on TV in TV room eventually. I definitely want to address my music needs first. Might look at the new tv's as a family Christmas present this year though. I've read about iPod apps that act as network remotes that can control various media on various systems. I basically wanna be like doubleohmutha****inseven.

How you help me
Where do I start? What should I buy and in what order? Can I set up a wireless network and a use my older pc's as "remotes" to stream .mp3s from the mother pc? I'm not in a huge rush to get this done and will need to do this in incremental purchases so the wife does not get too mad at me.

Any and all help appreciated!

 

An FM Modulator will connect to just about anything that has a headphone Jack

Then you have your own little Radio Station all around your house

If you want to go Hi Tech ...............

Windows 7 Ultimate on a machine that has enough ***** to run it good
Also that machine should should have a really good Vid/ TV tuner card and Digital
Audio card as well

Win 7 Ultimate has all the media stuff for PVR, audio etc and extending and
sharing all your music photo's and video on a network..........if you have one
Ultimate in basically a revved up version of the Former Windows XP & Vista
Media Center Edition

Quad Core + 2 gigs ram 1.5 sata drive, Blueray Reader Burner

oooouuu forgot win 7 ain't released yet..........sorry I 'm a developer
and we get the stuff before everyone else...........wait for it though
it's worth it ............and I'm an Apple MAC Guy !!

There you are the easy approach and the kickass Tech approach

 

We just bought a laptop yesterday with a Windows 7 upgrade.
I'm interested to see what 7 has when it gets here....

I think an FM modulator wouldn't be a bad idea, sprock.

Speaking of houses wired up to speakers.... I had a buddy who's parents were fricken' nuts. They lived in a really old farmhouse, and they had speakers hidden in every room. They were all hard-wired to a reciever in a kitchen cupboard. 24/7, it played the freakiest music I've ever heard. They also had a huge Rottweiler chained to the baseboard in the living room. They chained him up because he ate half of the couch (no joke).
I spent the night there one night, and I slept on this half couch, with a Rotty staring at me... growling... and some freaky chit music playing all night long.
It felt like being in a horror movie. LOL..

 

I think that Adams Family Music is what was doing the Rotty's head in Dylan............
maybe yours too ............only kidding as usual

Windows 7.........is solid and runs like a bastard.....but still has Vista Aero
front end ..............so don't expect ..... like whooaaaa or anything graphically
...........some nice additional nuggets with it though.
But under the hood they fixed the motor and it runs really good and fast (as reliable as XP )..............
When you get or plan to Upgrade, PM me .........

I took a new Sony VAIO notebook last week fromatted the drive and kept none
of those whacky Sony Drivers ...........Windows 7 fresh loaded itself
and all drivers worked after .......... I was like .............WOW that's a
first

DA DAAAAAAAAAAA 1300

 

Very true. The mother was deaf, and the dad had put strobe lights in every room to alert her to the phone ringing (and whatever else). First time that chit went off, I hit the deck like we were being attacked.
They also had a mentally retarded guy living there who used to sit on the half -couch for hours and read gardening magazines upside-down.

As far as Windows 7, I'll let you know. It's supposed to get sent here automatically, but you know how that chit goes...
I had Windows XP Pro on my old college laptop and I really liked it. I almost put it on this comp, but figured I'd give Vista a try for a while, just because I was curious.
I still may "updowngrade" back to XP Pro at some point.