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LinuxMCE development team decided to pass version 0804 and release 0810 to synchronize with Kubuntu releases. A few days ago was announced a 0810-alpha0. It can be installed on the Kubuntu 8.10 using installation script. That approach is good if you already setup Kubuntu Intrepid and fast Internet connection.

The brief instructions show to install 0810-alpha0 can be found in the wiki. You can ask help or post bug-report on that topic on the LinuxMCE forum.

I already installed LinuxMCE 0810-alpha0 on the VMWare to play a bit. The installation passed fine from the first try. I didn’t have a time to play with it. Will do it tomorrow.

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I decided to build a new LinuxMCE hybrid core for my home installation. I spent a lot of time to find a right hardware for it. The most difficult thing was a case. It isn’t so easy to find something nice looking, not so big, with reasonable price and possibility to ship on Cyprus.

Finally I found Nmedia HTPC 500 BA for €149.95. I like its design, size, price. Everything. But I couldn’t see any information about shipping to Cyprus (bad luck). The rest parts are following:
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If you’re tired to watch ad in the your MythTV recordings you may follow by this howto which explain the way to remove it from your favourite shows. As result you won’t be interrupted during playback and the size of the the storage will be reduce.

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The new Z-Wave interface for LinuxMCE is developed hardly now. Currently there is a test version of the interface for i386. Source can be found here.

Following features are already implemented:

• Light control (binary, dimmable)
• Floorplan feedback from local operations and from ALL ON/OFF commands
• Lighting wizard integration
• Busy handling for newer chips
• PIR support in alarm and sensor mode
• Binary sensor support
• Basic wake-up handling (queue is still missing)

and those are coming soon:

• Download configuration
• Multi command handling
• RA-plus-w setback schedule thermostat support
• Merten Dongle support
• Multilevel sensor support

To buy Z-Wave stuff in Europe you can use some shop listed in that wiki page.

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A new fresh version of Nokia770/N800/N810 Orbiter for LinuxMCE is available. The list of changes is not so big but the fixes are very important:

• fixed issue with wrong colors of floorplan icons (including active media directors);
• fixed issue with displaying of titles for media files in case of existing covers;
• fixed issue with initiating phone call from the Orbiter;
• disabled screen saver.

The new Orbiter for OS2007 and OS2008 (including Diablo) can be downloaded from the Maemo garage or installed/upgraded from the repository.

The next step is to fix issue with button colors and add Hildon compatibility for switching between Orbiter’s window and other applications without crash.

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