That was an interesting article.  It brings a few things
to mind regarding the virtues of the Linux operating system.
Most forms of UNIX, including Linux, have a couple of powerful
schedulers built right in called cron and at.  They are like the
timer functions on a VCR in that cron schedules periodic
functions while at schedules one-time events up to a year in
advance.

        I have one cron job that runs every New Year's Eve, for
instance that archives all the useful email and much of the
useless email I got for that year.

        Cron and at can run any program that your user ID allows
you to run including wav recorders and playback programs.  If you
have the hard drive space, you can use your Linux system as a
timed audio recorder and there is no reason why one couldn't run
a video capture program under X windows, though I don't know the
names of any such program.

        The main thing is that cron and at are standard
applications that come with UNIX systems and what you do with
them is up to your imagination plus, of course, the physical
limitations of your system.

        If you wanted to record a certain radio station at 2:00
in the morning, you would need to connect the sound card inputs
to a working radio tuned to that station so that when the
computer started recording, that's what you would get.

        If a good command-line interface to a TV or radio tuner
card exists or comes about, then one will really be able to
emulate a VCR or timed audio recorder.

Just some food for thought.

Martin McCormick