I got my system memory usage down to 46mb on startup; but hoping to get it lower after learning more about services, etc. On my windows partition it starts with about 160mb, which is horrible on my old machine. Yet, I can still play WoW at 8-10 fps.

Second coolest thing I ever did in linux was learn how to smash the stack

The coolest thing ever is what I did today; I picked one of my favorite movies which I had as an AVI. I ripped the audio to mp3 using:

sudo apt-get install avidemux

the avidemux package in Kubuntu. I dropped the mp3 track into Amarok, synced it to my ipod, and started the movie in VLC. I muted the movie, fullscreened it, rolled my ipod track to match the second count in the VLC Player, and proceeded to clean my house wearing my noise-cancelling Bose headphones. I did laundry, vacuumed, washed dishes, and WENT TO THE STORE for milk while listening to my fave movie (and glancing at it while cleaning) as it played. Came back, and my movie and ipod were still perfectly synced! No worries about blasting my sound too loud in my tiny apartment; I had AWESOME stereo sound in my headphones, and didn't have to worry about remote headphones and distance from the radio emitter by the computer.

How awesome is that??? I'm just saying, a certain scary comic book villain and his caped opponent, ex-Dracula as a police lieutenant/commissioner, and a dude with half a face sounded GREAT in my head!! Vacuuming has never been so KEWL.

I was able to do live streaming using all open source software.

DV Camera (firewire) -> Fedora -> Live stream over the Internet.

dvgrab | ffmpeg2theora | oggfwd icecast_server_ip

Clients can then connect to your icecast server.


A variation of the above was that I was able to stream my cable TV online, and change channels remotely.

ffmpeg | ffmpeg2theora | oggfwd icecast_server_ip

The fact that you can use icecast server means that you have 'relay' capabilities. In other words, you can stream live video to unlimited number of clients concurrently. Powerful stuff!

I made an HTPC running Mint Daryna using second-hand, rescued-from-the-trash parts. It has a 120GB LVM logical volume made from only 40GB HDDs, one of which is from a laptop and is connected with an ATAPI to USB adapter. All of the parts (besides the adapter, which I just had lying around) came from the local community college after they were deemed "broken". I combined several computers with various problems (bad PSU, crashed filesystem, just plain old). It connects directly to the TV with S-Video and I control it remotely with synergy. I use it to watch ripped videos and as a PulseAudio sound server.

1.8 Ghz Celeron
768 MB RAM
60GB for /, 120GB for /media/wootdisk (I call it wootdisk)
ATI Radeon 7500 (would like a faster one, the video sometimes stutters)
Dell Optiplex (GX250) case

Total price: $0

made a partial map of the planet Mercury from the current MESSENGER space craft images a 1024x512 pixel preview of the 4096x2048.png map
http://www.imagebam.com/image/b5274a11569774
a map of Saturn's moon Hyperion for celestia
http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalo...?addon_id=1180
a 1024x512 pixel preview
http://www.imagebam.com/image/8fd22b13724449

I could go on but...

for me its google chrome thru wine and oh yes my fav conky ...

What's the coolest thing I've done??? Simple. -> http://openice.org

Billy,

I see you also live in Houston, would you like to give a presentation on OpenICE at one of our Sat. HLUG meetings?

Edit:
Taking this off-line -- I've sent you an e-mail.
Anyone interested in attending feel free to e-mail me.

I'd love to, but my setup is not complete on the hardware side. As soon as it is (eta Jan '09) then I'd be more than happy to show it off.

Installing Ubuntu on my Laptop is the Coolest thing I've done on Linux so far.


Debian Kernel

To install multiple operating system (linux) on my system.

To boot a livecd and show it to friends & family members...and say, can Windoze do dat!!!

When I show my both nix machines to my friends, and say its diff than f*king Windoze, I find it coool!

installing ubuntu and then installing and making windows run through Virtualbox and then finally seamless integration of both was just awesome...really coool!!! i really love it ...