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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Merope Gaunt

Overview
Merope Gaunt is the mother of Tom Marvolo Riddle, the sister of Morfin Gaunt, and the daughter of Marvolo Gaunt. She is not a pretty woman at all: 'Her hair was lank and dull and she had a plain, pale, rather heavy face. Her eyes stared in opposite directions.' She wears ragged clothing and is always abused by her father, because of the relative weakness of her magical powers.

Half-Blood Prince
We see Merope only through the recorded memories of various wizards, and the ensuing discussions with Professor Dumbledore. When we first see her, she is eighteen years old, and keeping house (more or less adequately) for her father and brother. She was in love with the Muggle Tom Riddle. Shortly afterwards, her father and brother are sent to Azkaban for attacking the wizards who were to bring Morfin to the Ministry for a hearing concerning his attacking a Muggle with magic. Merope, left to her own devices, managed to give Tom Riddle Senior a love potion, which made him fall in love with her. They eventually got married. Merope then becomes pregnant with Voldemort. She decides to stop giving Tom the love potion because she thought since they had been together so long, he might actually like her. If not that, he would at least stay for the baby (the main reason being she did not want to enslave the love of her life anymore.) But she was wrong about this and Tom abandoned her. Merope was so heartbroken that she never used magic again for the rest of her life. Riddle returned to Little Hangleton, and when he got there, he told the town that he had been hoodwinked and taken in. Merope never tried to improve her life after being abandoned by him, living on in London, on her own and in poverty. Shortly before giving birth, she sold her only possession, a priceless locket which was one of the family heirlooms, and which could be traced back to Salazar Slytherin. Merope becomes ill and goes to an orphanage where she gives birth to her child and dies an hour later. Her final request was that the baby was named Tom Marvolo Riddle (after Tom Riddle Senior and Marvolo, Merope's father).

Strengths
Although Merope is largely lacking in physical strength or magical ability, she still has sufficient strength of character to stand up to her father and brother in the matter of the Muggle Tom Riddle. She does, eventually, use a Love Potion to convince Tom Riddle to marry her, so she has the magical knowledge to be able to create one, at the very least.

There is a possibility that Merope is quite a powerful witch, since both Marvolo and Morfin show signs of being skilled with offensive magic. The abuse she receives at home may be a contributing factor to her perceived lack of skill, and with the rest of her family arrested, she may have begun to blossom magically during that time.

Merope is by far the cleanest of the Gaunts and acts as the house's cook and cleaner - even her clothes are orderly. Without her help, both Marvolo and Morfin live in abject squalor. She is more of a boon to the family than either of them ever knew.

Weaknesses
Merope's character was severely weakened by the abuse of her father and brother. She often had trouble with magic growing up, being terrorized by her father, and living in harsh impoverished conditions making her vulnerable to negative feelings about her magic abilities. It is likely that her apparent magical weakness was in part because she was not trained. It is unlikely that Marvolo, with his distrust of the Wizarding hierarchy, would have allowed either of his children to attend school.

As a result of this, Merope's self esteem was quite low; she apparently believed that the only way she could be loved was through a love potion. As noted, she was quite unattractive; it is possible that this assessment of her romantic chances was accurate.

Relationships with Other Characters
Most villages in England will have a manor house, and the resident will be the local important person; often referred to as "the lord of the manor" though not necessarily nobility. Tom is the son and heir of the local lord, and Merope is hopelessly in love with him. Her brother and father abuse her quite harshly for daring to fall in love with a Muggle. This abuse from her family has left her feeling unsure of herself.

Analysis
It is clear to the reader that Merope was faced with a wretched home situation. In even the short time we see the entire family together, we note that Marvolo and Morfin both treat Merope brutally. We also see that Tom Riddle treats the girl he's riding out with much more gently than anything Merope has ever known. It is not surprising, then, that Merope should fall in love with Tom, if only because he was possibly the only Muggle who had ever dared to go near the ugly, scary Gaunt shack while she was living there. The abuse she receives at home predisposes her to escape, and any passing man could be her ticket out; it is unfortunate that the Gaunts had isolated themselves from the Wizarding community, because that resulted in the only available man being a Muggle, an impossible match in the eyes of her father and brother.

Though Merope did fall in love with, and (it is implied) eventually marry, Tom Riddle, the child she had with him seems to have developed into someone who hated Muggles as much as Merope's father and brother. We can't, of course, know if her selection of Tom was love, or a combination of infatuation, woolly romantic thinking, and rebellion. We do know that, as Merope died shortly after giving birth, Tom Marvolo Riddle's eventual character would not be influenced by Merope's feelings about Muggles.

Merope Gaunt is here depicted in such a way as to make explicit one of the major problems with the "blood purity" argument: limiting the gene pool causes reinforcement of unhealthy genetic traits. The episode in the shack, where Merope's physical failings are noted in somewhat gruesome detail, her magical weakness is put on display, and her relative lack of intelligence is implied, all add up to a warning against the sort of inbreeding required to keep Wizarding blood pure. We note that her eventual husband. Tom Riddle, was a muggle, and suggest that Tom Marvolo Riddle's magical power might well be due to the process called hybrid vigour.

Dumbledore comments that he believes Merope had used a love potion to snare Tom, and did not speculate on why it was discontinued; we suspect that she was under the misconception that, as she was bearing his child, Riddle would really love her without the use of potion. It is also possible that the pregnancy weakened her magical abilities, leaving her unable to replenish her supply. Once freed of the effect of the potion, however, Riddle realized what had happened and promptly departed. If Merope believed that Tom's child would be enough to hold him to her, this would explain her utter devastation when he returned alone to his home in Little Hangleton. Merope's choosing to discontinue the potion for that reason is consistent with her displayed lower intelligence and muddled thinking. That the depiction of Merope suggests mental deficiency rather than withdrawal from an intolerable situation is interesting; the student should examine the passages concerning Merope, and to a lesser extent her brother Morfin and father Marvolo, to see how the depiction is slanted.

We do not believe that Merope's particular mental issues were visited upon her son Tom, as Merope is extremely romantic in outlook, and Tom clearly is not. It is possible that Tom Marvolo Riddle's lack of empathy is a genetic failing that had in fact come from his grandfather, possibly skipping the intervening generation, possibly being gender-linked and so present but not expressed in Merope. Morfin, Merope's sibling, certainly seems to exhibit Tom's lack of empathy.

Questions

 * 1) What might Merope's life had been like if she had attended school?
 * 2) What might Merope's opinions be regarding "blood purity" and Muggle/Wizard relations? Does she hold opposite views to the rest of her family or make an exception for Tom?
 * 3) Why did Merope stop giving Tom a Love Potion when pregnant with Voldemort?
 * 4) If Merope had survived and raised Tom Jr. herself, would he ever have become Lord Voldemort?

Greater Picture
Merope is a sad case, having endured verbal and physical abuse for years, and quite likely her whole life. We see no sign of a mother, and even if there was one at some point, she is clearly no longer around. From her brief appearance in the Pensieve, we see her failing to use magic effectively, being laughed at (and later near-strangled) by her father Marvolo. We are clearly meant to feel sorry for Merope, and from what we can see here, the author demonstrates why.

There is an interesting character development in Merope, from victim to survivor to victorious to sacrificial lamb. Her abilities - both magical and character-based - appear to be directly proportional to the amount of affection she was getting from those around her. We can assume that when she was in a loving relationship with Tom she was at the height of her magical powers (at least able to provide him with Love Potion).

Her death, by contrast, seems almost voluntary, staggering into an orphanage to give birth to her baby and then dying an hour later (as opposed to, say, going to St Mungo's). It is possible to assume that she felt that, without Tom, her life was over at that point, and the last thing she could do would be to give birth to her child.

Ironically, despite the wishes of her father, Merope eventually brings an end to the Gaunt family herself - without her help, Marvolo dies, and Morfin lives in poverty until his wrongful arrest and death in Azkaban. Her son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, does not use the name "Gaunt", neither does he identify himself to his uncle Morfin. He is, of course, eventually killed by his own Killing Curse, bringing the House of Gaunt to a definitive end. Had she taken a different path, the family may have continued for a while longer.


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User:Zachjones4

Hi my name is Zach Jones, and this is my userpage!

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My favorite book: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut My favorite band: The Roots

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text:
Proteomics/Introduction to Proteomics

What is proteomics?
The focus of proteomics is a biological group called the proteome. The proteome is dynamic, defined as the set of proteins expressed in a specific cell, given a particular set of conditions. Within a given human proteome, the number of proteins can be as large as 2 million.

Proteins themselves are macromolecules: long chains of amino acids. This amino acid chain is constructed when the cellular machinery of the ribosome translates RNA transcripts from DNA in the cell's nucleus. The transfer of information within cells commonly follows this path, from DNA to RNA to protein.

Proteins can be organized in four structural levels:
 * Primary (1°): The amino acid sequence, containing members of a (usually) twenty-unit alphabet
 * Secondary (2°): Local folding of the amino acid sequence into α helices and β sheets
 * Tertiary (3°): 3D conformation of the entire amino acid sequence
 * Quaternary (4°): Interaction between multiple small peptides or protein subunits to create a large unit

Each level of protein structure is essential to the finished molecule's function. The primary sequence of the amino acid chain determines where secondary structures will form, as well as the overall shape of the final 3D conformation. The 3D conformation of each small peptide or subunit determines the final structure and function of a protein conglomerate.

There are many different subdivisions of proteomics, including:
 * Structural proteomics -- in-depth analysis of protein structure
 * Expression proteomics -- analysis of expression and differential expression of proteins
 * Interaction proteomics -- analysis of interactions between proteins to characterize complexes and determine function.

Proteomics has both a physical laboratory component and a computational component. These two parts are often linked together; at times data derived from laboratory work can be fed directly into sequence and structure prediction algorithms. Mass spectrometry of multiple types is used most frequently for this purpose.

The importance of proteomics
Proteomics is a relatively recent field; the term was coined in 1994, and the science itself had its origins in electrophoretic separation techniques of the 1970's and 1980's. The study of proteins, however, has been a scientific focus for a much longer time. Studying proteins generates insight on how proteins affect cell processes. Conversely, this study also investigates how proteins themselves are affected by cell processes or the external environment.

Proteins provide intricate control of cellular machinery, and are in many cases components of that same machinery. They serve a variety of functions within the cell, and there are thousands of distinct proteins and peptides in almost every organism. This great variety comes from a phenomenon known as alternative splicing, in which a particular gene in a cell's DNA can create multiple protein types, based on the demands of the cell at a given time.

The goal of proteomics is to analyze the varying proteomes of an organism at different times, in order to highlight differences between them. Put more simply, proteomics analyzes the structure and function of biological systems. For example, the protein content of a cancerous cell is often different from that of a healthy cell. Certain proteins in the cancerous cell may not be present in the healthy cell, making these unique proteins good targets for anti-cancer drugs. The realization of this goal is difficult; both purification and identification of proteins in any organism can be hindered by a multitude of biological and environmental factors.

Proteomics Workflows
The first step of proteomics is sample preparation. In this step, we are trying to extract protein from cells. In the second step, we use methods such as 2D electrophoresis to separate different proteins. Then we try to cut proteins into peptides since peptides are easier to detect. In the forth step, we use mass spectrometry to detect peptides and peptides fragments. Finally, we can then determine the sequence of the protein by interpreting all the data obtained.

Broad-Based Proteomics
Because Proteomics is growing at a very rapid pace, there is a shift in the field away from a specialized/focused way of conducting studies and towards a more global perspective. Broad-based proteomics presents a unique perspective on the field of proteomics because it allows for one to take on this general perspective by setting out to understand the proteome as a whole. A critical aspect to this strategy is planning ahead; and in doing so, the most appropriate plans and technologies can be implemented in the most efficient manner. By developing a strategy tailored to understanding a particular proteome, problems and setbacks can be avoided during the study.

The first step when utilizing broad-based proteomics is to develop a hypothesis specific to the proteome being studied. It is best to choose organisms that already have a great deal of genomic information available, since the genome is always a useful supplement to proteomic information. Once the a hypothesis and organism are established, the proper technologies should be chosen; and these technologies should be compatible with whatever biological factors are present (i.e. sample type). Some important and relevant proteomic methods include HPLC, Mass Spectrometry, SDS-PAGE, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and perhaps in silico protein modeling.

Since there are multitudes of sample type, sample preparation, and analytical technology combinations possible, it is obvious why careful planning from a broad-based proteomic perspective is critical. By planning upfront, an efficient proteomic study can be conducted. And when the efforts of many broad-based proteomic studies are taken together, understanding the proteome in its entirety becomes a realistic possibility.

Advances in Proteomic Workflows for Systems Biology
[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2048812&blobtype=pdf Johan Malmstrom, Hookeun Lee, and Ruedi Aebersold. Curr Opin Biotechnol 18(4):378-384 (2007)]

Main Focus

The article summarizes recent improvements as well as some principal limitations of shortgun tandem mass spectrometry based proteomics. Furthermore, it also briefly introduces steps of targeted driven quantitative proteomics.

Summary

In recent years, great improvements have been made in all the parts of non targeted mass spectrometry based proteomics including sample preparation, data acquisition, data processing and analysis. In the sample preparation process, with the introduction of IEF separation method, resolution obtained from classical two dimensional chromatography peptide separation is greatly improved. Improvements are also made in the field of data quality which is increased by the development of highly reproducible capillary chromatography methods and quantitative analysis by stable isotope labeling method. High mass resolution and accuracy could be achieved now by different types of mass spectrometry such as TOF-TOF,Q-TOF in the data acquisition process. Furthermore, different types of mass analyzers and ion sources have been combined to increase the proteome coverage. With the development of database search tools, the quality of proteomics data could be more accurately assessed and estimated in the data processing and analysis process.

Despite all these improvements achieved, limitations exist in shotgun approaches. For example, shotgun MS datasets are extremely redundant which greatly affect the identification of peptides present in proteomic samples. The existence of semi-tryptic or non-tryptic peptides in samples made the sample more complex. Saturation effect greatly reduces the discovery rate of new proteins. Many peptides that detected by Mass Spectrometry could not be identified, making it difficult to compare sample to sample.

The limitations of shotgun approaches made the development of targeted driven quantitative proteomics necessary. The first step of targeted driven quantitative proteomics is protein and peptide selection. This step could be finished both experimentally and computationally. For the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and data analysis step, multiple reaction monitoring was applied to proteomics data analysis. Relevance to the course: this source is a brief overview of recent improvements in targeted mass spectrometry (one method of proteomics) based proteomics as well as some limitations. It also introduced another field of proteomics: targeted driven quantitative proteomics.

New Terms

 * Electrospray ionization:A technique used in mass spectrometry to produce ions.It is especially useful in producing ions from macromolecules because it overcomes the propensity of these molecules to fragment when ionized (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrospray_ionization)
 * Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI):A soft ionization technique used in mass spectrometry, allowing the analysis of biomolecules (biopolymers such as proteins,peptides and sugars) and large organic molecules (such as polymers, dendrimers and other macromolecules), which tend to be fragile and fragment when ionized by more conventional ionization methods(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MALDI-TOF)
 * PeptideAtlas:A multi-organism, publicly accessible compendium of peptides identified in a large set of tandem mass spectrometry proteomics experiments(http://www.peptideatlas.org/)
 * Multiple reaction monitoring:MRM experiments, using a triple quadrupole instrument, are designed for obtaining the maximum sensitivity for detection of target compounds. This type of mass spectrometric experiment is widely used in detecting and quantifying drug and drug metabolites in the pharmaceutical industry(http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2291721)
 * FT-ICR mass spectrometry:Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, also known as Fourier transform mass spectrometry, is a type of mass analyzer (or mass spectrometer) for determining the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) of ions based on the cyclotron frequency of the ions in a fixed magnetic field(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform_ion_cyclotron_resonance)

Course Relevance

 * This source is about non targeted mass spectrometry and targeted approaches which are important methods in the identification of proteins(an important step in proteomics).

Broad-Based Proteomic Strategies: A Practical Guide to Proteomics and Functional Screening
[http://jp.physoc.org/cgi/content/full/563/1/1 Graham David, Elliot Steven, Van Eyk Jennifer. "Journal of Physiology" 563: 1-9 (2005)]

Main Focus

This article summarizes what broad-based proteomics is and how one can design a study using this global-view strategy. It first briefly looks at the current technology in proteomics and then discusses how these technologies can be incorporated into a study.

Summary

Proteomics as a field is becoming a very daunting one to enter because many studies are getting lost in the complicated focused details. To help assist with this challenge, a researcher can employ broad-based proteomics. Broad-based proteomics is a strategy where careful planning is employed upfront to answer a question about a proteome (for instance, comparisons between a tissue in a diseased state and a normal state) using the most appropriate and applicable technologies available. By developing a strategy at the beginning of a proteomics study, possible setbacks during the study are avoided.

The first step is to develop a general hypothesis that is specific to the problem or issue that is being studied. Since proteomics mirrors genomics, a proteomic study is increasingly difficult when the genome of the model organism isn't known. For this reason, organisms where the majority of the genome is known (80% or greater) should be chosen. Once a proper organism has been chosen for study, the next factors to consider are the type of data that will be generated and also the sample source. Some proteomic methods yield qualitative data, while others yield quantitative; so the type of data needed should be determined before a method is chosen. At the same time, the source of the sample is important in determining the extraction and purification methods. Typical sample types include: urine, blood (plasma/serum) and mucosal secretions. Protein concentration within the sample is important, and one should expect reasonable extraction if the protein can be visualized on a coomassie blue stained gel (> 300 ng). The separation technique chosen should reflect the characteristics of the protein(s) of choice (hydrophobic vs hydrophilic, molecular mass, etc).

Another major factor in the planning process is estimating the difficulty in the preparation of the fractioned sample for mass spectrometry identification. Each mass spectrometry technique requires varying degrees of preparation, and some are much more complicated than others (2DE with MS/MS analysis requires greater preparation than HPLC with MS, for instance). Since mass spectrometry is often the step where a lot of proteomic studies encounter difficulty (both in preparation and in interpretation of the results), it is very important to choose a method that is appropriate for the protein sample.

With the advent of proteomic databases in recent years, bioinformatics has had an increasing presence in proteomic studies. For this reason, almost all proteomic studies should incorporate bioinformatics; and consequently it's important for the research team to have some bioinformatics knowledge. And depending on how much data will be received at the end of the study (depending on the analysis methods chosen), the research team can determine how much bioinformatic analysis should be needed.

A final factor to consider is whether to bring in outside assistance or to attempt the study in a more self-contained way. Keeping it self-contained allows for the research team to keep its data integrated and also keeps miscommunication to a minimum. Bringing in outside help, on the other hand, could allow a researcher to tackle problems that would be large and normally not solvable with a smaller team. While bringing in outside assistance seems promising, it's important to not lose control over the data and to make sure that the team is not spread out trying to accomplish more than it can handle.

Since there are many ways to study a cell's proteome, careful planning should be implemented at all stages of a proteomics study. Through broad-based proteomics, a researcher can define a test plan before any actual study is performed. And when used appropriately, this strategy can lead to productive and efficient projects that will bring science one step closer to understanding the proteome as a whole.

New Terms

 * Isoforms: A set of different proteins that form because of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the genomic sequence. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoform )
 * Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP): a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide in the genome differs between members of a species. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_nucleotide_polymorphism )
 * Post-translational modification (PTM): the chemical modification of a protein after it has been translated. It is usualy one of the last steps in protein biosynthesis for most proteins. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttranslational_modification )
 * Subproteome: a subfractioned subset of the proteome. Often these are linked to area of the cell (organelle for instance) or by chemical properties.
 * Peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF): an analytical technique for protein identification. The unknown protein of interest is first cleaved into smaller peptides and after mass is determined using mass spectrometry, their masses are compared to either a database containing known protein sequences or a genome. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_mass_fingerprinting )

Course Relevance

 * This article is relevant because a global view of proteomics is becoming more important. As the wealth of information about proteins expands, understanding the proteome from a broad viewpoint is becoming more and more useful.

The Association of Bimolecular Resource Facilities: Proteomics Research Group (PRG)
Website committee: Pamela Scott Adams, Michelle Detwiler, David Mohr James Ee, Dr. Xiaolog Yang, Dr. Len Packman, Dr. Anthony Yeung, http://www.abrf.org/index.cfm/group.show/Proteomics.34.htm#R_3 (3/25/09)

Main Focus

This web page is about how the Association of Bimolecular Resource Facilities relates to proteomics. Of particular importance is the Proteomics Research Group within the ABRF.

Summary

The Association of Bimolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF) is an international association of research facilities and laboratories that is focused on core research in Biotechnology. The association encourages the sharing of information through conferences, a quarterly journal, and group studies. The ABRF has a heavy influence on the field of proteomics, and there are five main research groups (RG) that deal with proteomics in some way: Protein Expression (PERG), Protein Sequencing (PSRG), Protein Informatics (iPRG), Proteomics (PRG), and Proteomics Standards (sPRG).

Of particular importance, the Proteomics Research Group allows for researchers throughout the world in the field of proteomics to share their protein analysis information freely. Obviously, since understanding the proteome is about bringing together information on many different proteins (which is information that requires a great amount of effort/time/money to achieve), the sharing of protein/subproteomic information is imperative to beginning to understand a proteome in its entirety. This website has numerous links to studies performed by research groups throughout the world.

New Terms

 * De Novo Peptide Sequencing: Peptide sequencing that is performed without any prior knowledge of the amino acid sequence. (http://www.ionsource.com/tutorial/DeNovo/DeNovoTOC.htm)
 * Quantitative Proteomics: Has the goal of obtaining quantitative information about all the proteins in a particular sample. This is useful because it allows for one to see the differences in protein samples. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_proteomics)

Course Relevance

 * This is an overview of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRG) and how it relates to proteomics. There is a great deal of relevant information on this website that those in proteomics will find useful.

Introduction to Proteomics
Writer/Producer: Rick Groleau,Subject Matter Expert: Hanno Steen, PhD,Designer: Peggy Recinos,Developer: Jeffrey Testa, http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site602/mainpageS602P0.html (28 March 2009)

Main Focus

This web page is about the importance and challenges in proteomics. It also introduces major steps of proteomics briefly.

Summary

Proteomics is important for us to understand biological processes since all the functions are accomplished by proteins in cell.But as the number of proteins are so large and amino acids(which are units of protein) are so small, the study is quite challenging.There are five steps to analyze protein sequences: sample preparation,separation,ionization,mass spectrometry and informatics.First of all, we obtain cells and extract proteins from the cells.Then we use methods such as 2D electrophoresis to separate proteins. Next, we use protease to cut proteins into peptides.Mass spectrometry allows us to identify individual peptides as well as peptides fragments.Finally, by interpreting the data, we are able to determine the sequence of proteins.

New Terms

 * Biopsy: A biopsy is a medical test involving the removal of cells or tissues for examination. It is the removal of tissue from a living subject to determine the presence or extent of a disease(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsy)
 * TOF: The time of flight (TOF) describes the method used to measure the time that it takes for a particle, object or stream to reach a detector while traveling over a known distance(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-flight)
 * Quadrupole mass spectrometry: The quadrupole mass analyzer is one type of mass analyzer used in mass spectrometry.It consists of 4 circular rods, set perfectly parallel to each other.In a quadrupole mass spectrometer the quadrupole mass analyzer is the component of the instrument responsible for filtering sample ions, based on their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z).Ions are separated in a quadrupole based on the stability of their trajectories in the oscillating electric fields that are applied to the rods(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrupole_mass_analyzer)
 * Electronspray ionization: Electrospray ionization (ESI) is a technique used in mass spectrometry to produce ions.It is especially useful in producing ions from macromolecules because it overcomes the propensity of these molecules to fragment when ionized(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrospray_ionization)
 * Dalton: Dalton is the unit of measurement for atomic mass. One Dalton is equal to 1/12th the mass of one atom of carbon12(http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site602/mainpageS602P1.html)

Course Relevance

 * This is an overview of proteomics. It summarizes the procedures and importance of proteomics very briefly.

Introduction to Proteomics
Institute of Biology and Medical Genetics of the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and the General Teaching Hospital,http://biol.lf1.cuni.cz/ucebnice/en/proteomics.htm (6 April 2009)

Main Focus

This website discusses the aims and definitions of proteomics. It also introduces two important methods in proteomcis studies - 2D protein electrophoresis and mass spectrometry as well as proteomics in medicine

Summary

Proteomics is a broad field which includes expression proteomics, protein distribution in subcellular compartments of the organelles,post-translational modifications of the proteins,structural proteomics and functional proteomics, clinical proteomics and so on. Even though analysis of the expression on transcripts level is possible with the introduction of RNA/cDNA microarray, proteomics is still important since not all mRNA will be translated and the processes such as RNA splicing, posttranslational protein modifications exist.

Two-dimensional (2D) protein electrophoresis is commonly used to separate proteins based on their PI and mass. Mass spectrometry is an important method in proteomics since it cannot only be used for protein identification but can also be used for protein posttranslational modification analysis.

One of the major application of proteomics in medicine is the identification of markers in all the steps to treat diseases. Other applications include drug discovery and pharmacoproteomics.

New Terms

 * Human Proteome Organization(HUPO): The Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) is an international scientific organization representing and promoting proteomics through international cooperation and collaborations by fostering the development of new technologies, techniques and training(http://www.hupo.org/)
 * structural proteomics: Structural proteomics is an international collaboration project for solving 3D protein structures at a proteome scale(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_proteomics)
 * Swedish Human Protein Atlas: The Swedish Human Protein Atlas program (HPA), funded by the (non-profit) Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, invites submission of antibodies from both academic and commercial sources to be included in the human protein atlas (http://www.proteinatlas.org)
 * Posttranslational modification (PTM): Posttranslational modification (PTM) is the chemical modification of a protein after its translation. It is one of the later steps in protein biosynthesis for many proteins(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttranslational_modification)
 * Isoelectric point: Isoelectric point is such a pH value, where the overall protein charge equals to zero(http://biol.lf1.cuni.cz/ucebnice/en/proteomics.htm)

Course Relevance
 * This website gives brief definition and aims of proteomics.It also introduces principles of 2D-electrophoresis and mass spectrometry which are important methods in proteomics.

Contact: jxr0084@rit.edu, sfl9376@rit.edu

title: Proteomics/Introduction to Proteomics


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional

MCITP: Database Administrator

 * Exam 70-431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 — Implementation and Maintenance
 * Exam 70-443: PRO: Designing a Database Server Infrastructure by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 * Exam 70-444: PRO: Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administration Solution by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 * Exam 70-450: PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

MCITP: Database Developer

 * Exam 70-431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 — Implementation and Maintenance
 * Exam 70-441: PRO: Designing Database Solutions by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 * Exam 70-442: PRO: Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 * Exam 70-451: PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer

 * Exam 70-431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 — Implementation and Maintenance
 * Exam 70-445: PRO: Designing Business Intelligence Solutions by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (available late 2006)
 * Exam 70-446: PRO: PRO: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (available late 2006)
 * Exam 70-452: PRO: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

title: Microsoft Certified IT Professional


text:
Italian/Layout

Wikibook Layout
There are 3 main parts to the organization of this Wikibook. These are the lessons, chapters and levels.

Levels are the largest and broadest category. These cover large amounts of information and contain several chapters. There are 3 levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

Chapters come after and are smaller than levels, but larger than lessons. Each chapter contains three or four lessons.

Lessons are the final and smallest section, but the most important. Lessons contain the information the student will use to speak, read, write and live the Italian language.

Lesson Layout
Each lesson should include:

 * A short summary of what the student will learn

 * One or two conversation pieces

 * Vocabulary

 * Exercises and challenges

 * A final Lesson Review

Italià/Traçat Italiano/Diseño

title: Italian/Layout


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444

Optimizing the Performance of Database Servers and Databases  Troubleshoot physical server performance. Troubleshoot instance performance. Troubleshoot database performance. Troubleshoot and maintain query performance. Identify poorly performing queries. Analyze a query plan to detect inefficiencies in query logic. Maintain and optimize indexes. Enforce appropriate stored procedure logging and output. Troubleshoot concurrency issues

Optimizing and Implementing a Data Recovery Plan for a Database  Diagnose causes of failures. Failure types include database failures, physical server failures, and SQL Server service failures. Plan for fault-tolerance.
Recover from a failure of SQL Server 2005.
Recover from a database disaster.

Plan a strategy.
Restore a database.
Configure logins.
Recover lost data.
Maintain server and database scripts for recoverability.
Salvage good data from a damaged database by using restoration techniques.

Designing a Strategy to Monitor and Maintain a Database Solution

Define and implement monitoring standards for a physical server.

Establish the thresholds for performance.
Establish the baselines for performance.
Define which types of information to monitor on the physical server.
Define traces.
Set alerts.
Set notifications.

Choose the appropriate information to monitor.
Create and implement a maintenance strategy for database servers.

Create a job dependency diagram.
Manage the maintenance of database servers.

Design a database maintenance plan.
Design a strategy to manage Reporting Services.

Designing a Database Data Management Strategy

Design and manage SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages.

Construct complex SSIS packages.
Design security for accessing packages.
Restart failed packages.
Troubleshoot or debug packages.
Deploy and move packages.
Schedule package execution.
Move packages to different servers.

Enforce data quality according to business requirements.

Establish the business requirements for quality.
Create queries to inspect the data.
Use checksum.
Clean the data.

Design data integrity.

Reconcile data conflicts.
Make implicit constraints explicit.
Assign data types to control characteristics of data stored in a column.

Design a strategy to manage data across linked servers.

Set up and manage linked servers.

Design a strategy to manage replication.

Design alerts.
Design a maintenance plan to monitor health, latency, and failures.
Verify replication.
Design a plan to resolve replication conflicts.
Design a plan to modify agent profiles.
Tune replication configuration.

Optimize a database control strategy to meet business requirements.

Verify that database change control procedures are being followed.
Identify all database objects related to a particular deployment.

Designing a Strategy to Manage and Maintain Database Security

Perform a security audit of the existing security infrastructure based on the security plan.

Analyze the physical server security.
Compare the existing security infrastructure to business and regulatory requirements.
Identify variations from the security design.

Maintain a server-level security strategy.

Design a strategy to audit Windows account permissions.
Design a strategy to audit SQL Server service access.
Maintain a strategy to assign the appropriate minimum level of privileges.
Maintain an encryption strategy that meets business requirements.
Design a strategy to apply service packs and security updates.
Configure the surface area.

Maintain a user-level security strategy.

Verify the existence and enforcement of account policies.
Verify SQL Server login authentication.
Verify permissions on SQL Server roles and accounts.

Prepare for respond to threats and attacks.

Prepare for and respond to SQL Server injection attacks.
Prepare for and respond to denial-of-service attacks that are specific to SQL Server.
Prepare for and respond to virus and worm attacks that are specific to SQL Server.
Prepare for and respond to internal attacks that are specific to SQL Server.

References

Preparation Guide for Exam 70-444


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444/Optimizing the Performance of Database Servers and Databases

Optimizing the Performance of Database Servers and Databases  Troubleshoot physical server performance. Troubleshoot instance performance. Troubleshoot database performance. Troubleshoot and maintain query performance. Identify poorly performing queries. Analyze a query plan to detect inefficiencies in query logic. Maintain and optimize indexes. Enforce appropriate stored procedure logging and output. Troubleshoot concurrency issues


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444/Optimizing and Implementing a Data Recovery Plan for a Database

Optimizing and Implementing a Data Recovery Plan for a Database  Diagnose causes of failures. Failure types include database failures, physical server failures, and SQL Server service failures. Plan for fault-tolerance. Recover from a failure of SQL Server 2005. Recover from a database disaster. Plan a strategy. Restore a database. Configure logins. Recover lost data. Maintain server and database scripts for recoverability. Salvage good data from a damaged database by using restoration techniques.


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444/Designing a Strategy to Manage and Maintain Database Security

Designing a Strategy to Manage and Maintain Database Security  Perform a security audit of the existing security infrastructure based on the security plan.  Analyze the physical server security. Compare the existing security infrastructure to business and regulatory requirements. Identify variations from the security design.  Maintain a server-level security strategy.  Design a strategy to audit Windows account permissions. Design a strategy to audit SQL Server service access. Maintain a strategy to assign the appropriate minimum level of privileges. Maintain an encryption strategy that meets business requirements. Design a strategy to apply service packs and security updates. Configure the surface area.
Maintain a user-level security strategy.

Verify the existence and enforcement of account policies.
Verify SQL Server login authentication.
Verify permissions on SQL Server roles and accounts.

Prepare for respond to threats and attacks.

Prepare for and respond to SQL Server injection attacks.
Prepare for and respond to denial-of-service attacks that are specific to SQL Server.
Prepare for and respond to virus and worm attacks that are specific to SQL Server.
Prepare for and respond to internal attacks that are specific to SQL Server.


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Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444/Designing a Database Data Management Strategy

Designing a Database Data Management Strategy  Design and manage SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages.  Construct complex SSIS packages. Design security for accessing packages. Restart failed packages. Troubleshoot or debug packages. Deploy and move packages. Schedule package execution. Move packages to different servers.  Enforce data quality according to business requirements.  Establish the business requirements for quality. Create queries to inspect the data. Use checksum.
Clean the data.

Design data integrity.

Reconcile data conflicts.
Make implicit constraints explicit.
Assign data types to control characteristics of data stored in a column.

Design a strategy to manage data across linked servers.

Set up and manage linked servers.

Design a strategy to manage replication.

Design alerts.
Design a maintenance plan to monitor health, latency, and failures.
Verify replication.
Design a plan to resolve replication conflicts.
Design a plan to modify agent profiles.
Tune replication configuration.

Optimize a database control strategy to meet business requirements.

Verify that database change control procedures are being followed.
Identify all database objects related to a particular deployment.


text:
Microsoft Certified IT Professional/Exam 70-444/Designing a Strategy to Monitor and Maintain a Database Solution

Designing a Strategy to Monitor and Maintain a Database Solution  Define and implement monitoring standards for a physical server.  Establish the thresholds for performance. Establish the baselines for performance. Define which types of information to monitor on the physical server. Define traces. Set alerts. Set notifications.  Choose the appropriate information to monitor. Create and implement a maintenance strategy for database servers.  Create a job dependency diagram. Manage the maintenance of database servers.
Design a database maintenance plan.
Design a strategy to manage Reporting Services.


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Speech-Language Pathology/Stuttering/Core Behaviors

How Fluent Speech Is Produced
Speech begins with breathing, also called respiration. Your lungs fill with air, more air than you would inhale if you weren't talking. You expand your upper chest and your diaphragm (belly) to get all this air in. Your lung pressure and respiration muscle tension increase.

Next, you release air through your throat, past your vocal folds (also called vocal cords). Your vocal folds are a pair of small muscles in your larynx. If you tense these muscles slightly, and release a little air, your vocal folds vibrate. This is called phonation. It's also called the fundamental frequency of your voice. If you place your fingers across the front of your throat, then hum or talk, you can feel your vocal folds vibrating.

Adult men vibrate their vocal folds about 125 Hz (125 times per second). Women vibrate their vocal folds about 200 Hz. Children's voices are even higher. This is too fast for your brain to control. Vocal fold vibration is the only muscle activity that your brain doesn't directly control. Instead, phonation results from the coordination of respiration muscles with slight tensing of your vocal fold muscles.

The key word in that last sentence was coordination. Stuttering is largely a disorder of poorly coordinated speech production muscles.

If you tense your vocal folds too much, you block off your throat and stop air from escaping your lungs. This is good when lifting heavy weights. By blocking your larynx muscles, you increase lung pressure, which strengthens your chest and you can lift more weight. Similarly, tires inflated to high pressure can carry a heavier car. But that's what stutterers do when they talk, and it's not a good idea.

The space in your throat above your larynx is called the pharynx. Above your pharynx are your oral and nasal cavities. These spaces create vocal resonation. This is like the echoing of a cathedral or tunnel. The unique shape of these spaces makes each of our voices sound unique.

Your jaws and lips, collectively called the articulation muscles, modify your voice into intelligible speech.

Vowels and voiced consonants (such as /b/ and /d/) are produced by your vocal folds, and modified by your articulation muscles (jaw, lips, tongue).

Other consonants are voiceless, such as /p/ and /t/, produced by your articulation muscles modifying airflow, without your vocal folds vibrating. When you whisper, you don't vibrate your vocal folds. You just modify airflow with your articulation muscles.

Speech requires coordination of over 100 muscles. The average person speaks about 150 words per minute. Each word requires a different configuration of most of those muscles. Speech is our most complex, balanced neuromuscular activity.

Core Stuttering Behaviors
Core stuttering behaviors include:

 Disordered breathing, including antagonism between abdominal (belly) and thoracic (upper chest) respiratory muscles; complete cessation of breathing, and interrupting exhalation with inhalation. Disordered vocal folds, including high levels of muscle activity or muscle tension; poor laryngeal too late or holding tension too long; and poor coordination of laryngeal muscles, e.g., incompatible contractions of opposing muscles. Disordered articulation, including dysfunctions of the lips, jaw, and tongue in stuttering. In general, stutterers place their articulators in the right positions (in contrast to other speech disorders such as lisping, in which individuals form incorrect sounds), but time the movements wrong. Low-frequency tremors in the neck, jaw, and lip muscles of adult stutterers. These are found to a lesser extent in older children, and not found in young children who stutter.

Secondary Behaviors
Secondary stuttering behaviors are unrelated to speech production:

 Physical movements such as eye-blinking, forehead wrinkling, sudden exhaustion of breath, frowning, or nostril quivering. Gross (large) muscle movements such as head jerks or slapping one's thigh in an attempt to release a vocal fold block or other overtense speech-production muscle. Avoidance of feared words, such as substitution of another word.

Postponement of a feared word, with pauses or filler words.

Interjected "starter" sounds and words, such as "um," "ah," "you know," or "in other words."

Repeating a sentence or phrase "to get a running start."

Vocal abnormalities to prevent stuttering, such as speaking in a rapid monotone, affecting an accent, or using odd inflections.

Looking away from the listener, not maintaining eye contact.

Articulating an unrelated sound, e.g., forming a /t/ sound when trying to say /s/.

Secondary behaviors may help you get around stuttering at first, but then lose their effectiveness. The secondary behavior is then retained out of habit.

Definitions of Stuttering
Fluent speech can be defined in four parameters:

 * Smoothness, or lack of interruptions.
 * Speaking rate.
 * Prosody, or emotional intonation.
 * Mental effort.

Stuttering can be defined as:

 * I. (a) disruption in the fluency of verbal expression, which is (b) characterized by involuntary, audible, or silent repetitions or prolongations in the utterance of short speech elements, namely: sounds, syllables, and words of one syllable. These disruptions (c) usually occur frequently or are marked in character and (d) are not readily controllable.
 * II. Sometimes the disruptions are (e) accompanied by accessory activities involving the speech apparatus, related or unrelated body structures, or stereotyped speech utterances. These activities give the appearance of being speech-related struggle.
 * III. Also, there not infrequently are (f) indications or reports of the presence of an emotional state, ranging from a general condition of "excitement" or "tension" to more specific emotions of a negative nature such as fear, embarrassment, irritation, or the like. (g) The immediate source of stuttering is some incoordination expressed in the peripheral speech mechanism; the ultimate cause is presently unknown and may be complex or compound.

An essential difference between speech and language disorders is that persons with speech disorders (e.g., stuttering) know what they want to say, but can't say it.

Stammering is the British word for stuttering.


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Talk:X86 Assembly/Other Instructions

Function to check for CPUID
the shift [shr] to position 2^0 is 1 to short, 0x15 [21] works just fine [tested on x86-64]. 62.216.215.59 (discuss) 23:17, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Untitled
what does "cdq" do? I can't find it 137.148.5.13 23:59, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

cdq is "Convert Doubleword to Quadword". Essentially, it sign-extends eax into edx. See http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-5477/6mkuavhri?a=view.

sysenter mention of protected system mode
This is also known as kernel mode or supervisor mode. Protected mode is the term used for the state the processor is in when 32 bit is enabled. The use of "protected system mode" may be confusing. I am going to add that the mode referring to is supervisor mode for clarification.

Good info on RDTSC, but not enough background on code snippet
The listing demonstrating a use of the RDTSC would assemble per the instructions, but would not link. I'm guessing the author's development environment has something set up that I don't. There appears to be enough information there for the topic at hand, but I'm going to have to do substantial digging to make use of it.
 * It could be that you are running on a 64bit system, I edited the instructions to be more portable, hopefully the modified instructions work for you.

Syaghmour (discuss • contribs) 02:22, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I don't think that's the problem. I was running CygWin, getting a linker error "undefined reference to '_WinMain@16' ". I'm hoping to get Ubuntu running on my target system later today, and I will try it there. Meanwhile, I think I have enough information to make use of the RDTSC instruction for my purpose, which differs a bit from the example. What I need to do is output a 1 on an I/O line, and return it to a zero after a precise interval (from 1 to 25 us, depending on which test I'm running).
 * I was able to figure out how to get it working on cygwin, or at least a way to get it working. The code requires the following modifications:

 main has to be renamed to _WinMain@16 #printf needs to be changed to _printf The interrupt to call exit(3) needs to be replaced with a ret 16

The full but reduced code is as follows:

To build you will need to do as follows:

The following article has good set of Linux and Windows assembly language programs and how to build across both platforms:x86 Assembly Language Programming

That material should eventually be incorporated under the Syntaxes and Assemblers section.

I don't follow your other comments on your intended use of RDTSC but if you look under the resources section there is a good pdf with more details on RDTSC that I put up a little while ago.

Syaghmour (discuss • contribs) 01:24, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:X86 Assembly/Other Instructions


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MythTV/Introduction

MythTV is a "do it yourself" (homebrew) personal video recorder (PVR), which is a device that lets you record and watch television shows. In fact, it is more than just a PVR, it is a home entertainment personal computer (HTPC), also called a Media PC. Yet MythTV is more than a mere HTPC, it is a powerful and functional server computer that can provide users with a wide range of entertainment services. With a functional MythTV, you can:
 * Pause and rewind live TV
 * Schedule programs to be recorded, and watch them at your leisure
 * When viewing recorded programs, you can quickly fast-forward, rewind, automatically skip commercials, and much more
 * Play DVDs, VCDs, music CDs, and downloaded audio/video
 * Use your TV as a computer (to browse the web, or anything else)
 * Play video games on your TV
 * Use your TV to play music
 * Get automatic regionalized weather reports
 * and much more!

MythTV is, essentially, a piece of open-source (and free) software that, once running properly, captures your television signal, records it on your hard drive, and allows you to watch those recordings off of the hard drive at a later time. The functionality of MythTV can be accessed with an on-screen menu system, with a web interface (via the MythWeb plug-in), or via a remote terminal (telnet or SSH). It is open source and highly configurable and customizable.

MythTV, and its related open-source components, are being developed by enthusiastic programmers. Everything is provided in a free and open format so as to encourage others to use the software, and hopefully expand upon it. The good news is that MythTV is free, powerful, customizable, fun to tinker with, and fun to use. It can run on any standard PC, so it doesn’t take much to get started with it!

What's the downside?

 * MythTV is still developmental, and as such is not a finished or ‘polished’ product yet. Getting it to run properly can be difficult.
 * The fact that MythTV runs on Linux is what makes it so powerful, but to those who don’t have any experience with Linux, this can be a major issue.
 * Once MythTV is running, it is very much like a commercial PVR, in that it has an on-screen menu-interface to control all its features. However, MythTV will occasionally require some tweaking and re-working, meaning bypassing the interface and getting to the 'guts' of the system (i.e.: the Linux Operating System you have running behind the scenes).
 * You need a spare PC of some sort (although this same PC can be used as a file server, web server, etc.).
 * You need a capture card (which can cost $30 to $300, depending what you’re interested in).

Should I build a MythTV?
First, you should only consider building a MythTV if you look upon it as a hobby, and you enjoy tinkering with computers. Don’t build a MythTV simply because you don’t want to spend money on a commercial equivalent (you will just end up being frustrated). If, however, you are interested in a fun do-it-yourself project (that culminates in a highly useful product that your whole family will enjoy), then MythTV may be for you.

Another good point to consider is how much spare computer hardware you have lying around. If you have a lot of spare computer components at your disposal (in your home or through friends), then you can build the hardware for MythTV with very little money. Starting from scratch is also possible, but will end up costing more than a commercial equivalent (of course, your final product may be quite a bit more powerful and feature-rich). Many people who build a MythTV find that they only need to buy a few components (the capture card and maybe a bigger hard drive). If you’re only missing a few components, they can also be purchased second hand (eBay for instance) at a reasonable price. Since the hardware requirements for linux and even MythTV are fairly modest, it doesn’t cost much to get up and running.

Ultimately, the decision to build a MythTV is up to you. If you’re excited about the idea, then no one will be able to stop you.

Alternatives to MythTV
Instead of building a MythTV, you may want to consider alternatives. You can purchase commercial PVRs from a number of companies. Your local cable provider may offer a PVR. The advantage here is that they will likely guarantee compatibility with their listing services, making the transition seamless. The disadvantages are the price tag, and the inability to truly control and customize your system. Other companies build more independent PVRs. The most well known are TiVo and ReplayTV. TiVo is, by all accounts, a well-designed product and service. However, it is expensive (one has to buy the TiVo PVR, and then pay approximately $15/month for continued service), and many question the long-term viability of the company.

If you’re interested in transforming a computer into a HTPC, you can purchase Windows XP Media Center Edition, SageTV, Snap Stream’s Beyond TV, or ShowShifter. These software programs will enable you to use a PC to record television, while still having numerous other PC functionalities available. They are probably easier to setup than MythTV, but are not nearly as powerful. There is also a Mac OS X alternative, purchasing an EyeTV product and using an Apple Macintosh as an HTPC. While the Macintosh option does not have all of the features of MythTV, it does offer the UNIX stability of Linux with a better interface and generally superior hardware to all but the best PCs.

Freevo is another open source software suite that runs on linux and enables HTPC functionality. MediaPortal is an open source media center that runs on Windows XP, and GB-PVR is a free but closed source PVR client for Windows.

Lastly, you may be interested to know that MagicITX is offering pre-built MythTV boxes (no international shipping).

MagicITX no longer exists.

Another solution would be Cosmo Engineering and their MythTV offering

title: MythTV/Introduction


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MythTV/Getting Started

Linux
Installing and configuring MythTV requires basic knowledge of Linux, a powerful, free, open-source operating system suitable for running servers and multi-user desktops. If you’ve never used Linux, the instructions here will seem very mysterious. You should certainly get acquainted with Linux before attempting this how-to. That having been said, getting MythTV up and running can be a fun way to learn Linux. The first thing you should do, in such a case, is to play with Linux for a while, read some tutorials on the subject, and obtain a basic familiarity with the Linux command-line interface (CLI), also known as the shell, terminal or console.

In this document, Linux shell commands entered as a normal user (implicitly the user ‘mythtv’) will be denoted by a $ prompt, whereas commands meant to be entered by the superuser (‘root’) will be preceded by a #.

Other sources of help
If you’re interested in getting a MythTV setup working, this "how-to" guide will hopefully help you. Every installation is different, especially depending on what version of Linux you are using. Thus, there are many different how-to documents you may want to refer to for suggestions when getting things working. You will undoubtedly encounter many unique (and annoying) errors throughout your installation, but usually a search on the internet will provide you with an answer.

Some how-to guides worth reading:
 * The official MythTV install guide
 * For Mandrake 10.1, there's maiku's guide
 * For Fedora Core, there's Jarod's guide
 * Wiki how-to for Gentoo
 * The PVR Guide gives helpful how-to guides and a forum
 * Install MythTv using Gentoo

(It's also worth noting that the instructions presented here are heavily inspired by Maiku's excellent guide.) The unofficial MythTV wiki has a list of how-to guides for different Linux or Unix distributions (Debian, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Slackware, Suse, etc.).

Getting your hardware together
MythTV can run on any modern PC that can run Linux. A 'minimum' configuration might be a Pentium-III 500 MHz machine. If attempting to use such a configuration, however, you should consider investing in a capture card that does MPEG-1/2 encoding and decoding on-board, so that the CPU is not overloaded with those tasks. If you have a more powerful computer, you can purchase a less expensive capture card, and let the CPU do the work of MPEG decoding and rendering video.

You will want a healthy amount of RAM/memory (around 1 Gbyte), and will certainly want a big hard drive, so that you can store lots of video (most users get 130 Gbyte drives or bigger). MythTV compresses video using the same compression scheme as a DVD: MPEG-2. This means that one hour of video will use up about 2 Gbytes of space, so you should plan your hard drive needs accordingly.

You will also probably want to get a CD/DVD drive, and may also want to get a DVD writer, so that you can make backups of data, shows, and movies you own. Your computer must also have a sound card (obviously), although it needn't be anything fancy. Having RCA output jacks on the card is helpful, but not required (you can easily purchase an adapter to connect a normal sound card to a TV). Your video card will need to have a TV-out capability (unless you're using a capture card that also has TV-out).

It is also worth thinking about where you will put your MythTV. If your intention is to have it sitting in your living room, directly connected to your TV, then you may want to think about getting quiet hardware. This means finding a hard drive and a power supply fan that don't make too much noise, as well as thinking about what kind of processor (and associated cooling solution) would work best.

Most importantly, you need a capture card. The most widely used capture cards for MythTV are the Hauppauge cards (150, 250, 350, 500). These cards are quite high-performance, many come with a remote control, and most importantly, open-source Linux drivers have been written for these cards.

If you have a set-top box (digital cable box, satellite receiver, etc.) then you will probably want to pick up an "IR blaster." This is a device that can be used to send arbitrary IR pulses. This can be used to allow MythTV to control your set-top box. Essentially, when MythTV wants to change a channel, it will send the appropriate IR signal, through the blaster, which emulates the normal remote control for that set-top box. The My Blaster produced by My.TV is compatible with MythTV and Linux, or you may consider USB-UIRT or buying this, or you can even build your own quite easily (you can find wiring diagrams on the LIRC homepage, or elsewhere).

The most important thing with all the hardware is to make sure that it is Linux compatible (that there is a Linux driver available somewhere). Most modern Linux distributions have compatibility for mainstream hardware built-in, but you should certainly check before buying anything.

Lastly, for those who want a real challenge, in principle you could run MythTV on a PowerPC (PPC) architecture. That is, you could install MythTV on a "Apple/Macintosh" computer that has been converted to run a PPC version of Linux. This will require some extra work, such as downloading the MythTV source code and compiling it yourself for your PPC processor, and probably some fiddling to get the capture card drivers working. Some users have reported success in running the MythTV frontend on Mac OS X (with the backend running on another PC). You can find help for that on the MythOnMacOsx page. You could obviously use a PC as the backend and as the frontend for the TV, and then use a PowerBook as an additional frontend, for editing videos while watching TV, or for portability. If you're interested in this, you can also run the MythTV frontend on a modified Xbox (running Xbox-linux), or even on a diskless Via EPIA M system. For help with running MythTV on an Xbox, read the how-to and download files here. To run a network-booting MythTV frontend, use MiniMyth.

Selecting a Linux distribution
In principle, any Linux distribution should work with MythTV. Of course, your selection of distribution will be affected by many other things. If you are familiar with a particular distro, then your first impulse may be to use that one. However, you should of course check if there are any compatibility issues with the hardware you're planning on using.

KnoppMyth is a variant of the Knoppix distribution that has been specifically customized to make MythTV as easy to install as possible. It includes the MythTV suite and many required drivers. In principle, it would be the easiest distro to use for someone who wants an easy install, and since it only installs what is needed for MythTV, it should run smoothly. In practice, other factors may make KnoppMyth a non-ideal choice. If you want your machine to be used for other tasks, then another distribution might be more flexible and powerful. The minimalist design of KnoppMyth may also make it harder to troubleshoot problems that arise. KnoppMyth is certainly worth a try. When starting out, you could download KnoppMyth, burn it to a CD, install it, and see what happens. If everything works, then great! If you find KnoppMyth isn't working out for you, you can just try a different distro. You can find help for KnoppMyth by visiting the forum.

Many people decide to use Fedora because it is a well-supported and popular distro, and because of the highly detailed how-to guide available for MythTV on Fedora.

Many users of MythTV have reported successful installations when using Mandrake Linux (now known as Mandriva linux). Advantages of Mandrake are a healthy user base, the ability to obtain additional help online with Mandriva (for a small fee), and a fairly user-friendly interface (Mandrake includes many GUI-based configuration tools). The availability of MythTV tutorials aimed at the Mandrake distribution make this a nice choice.

Ultimately the choice of distribution is up to you. Probably the most important thing is to pick a distro that others have had success with, that has lots of support documentation online, and that has an easy method for automated packaging and installing of software over the internet. This will make your experience much smoother!

Software prerequisites
MythTV depends on many other software packages being installed on your system. If you are performing a MythTV installation using a package manager, then probably all these other requirements will be automatically downloaded, installed, and configured properly during your MythTV package installation. However, for those of you attempting a manual install (and for your knowledge), these are the packages that MythTV needs to have installed:
 * kernel source and drivers: You need the source code for the kernel to properly compile the capture card driver. Obviously you need all the drivers required for your hardware to be installed and configured properly.
 * X: You need some sort of window managing system. At a minimum, X must be running, although most people will add a desktop environment (such as Gnome or KDE) on top of that.
 * QT: a multi-platform, Graphical User Interfaces toolkit for C++ programming.
 * Freetype fonts
 * MySQL: A powerful open-source database system. The MythTV backend manages video recordings using MySQL entries. (The recordings themselves are simply stored as normal files.)
 * LAME: Open-source mp3 encoder.
 * LIRC: Linux Infrared Remote Control.

Other information
You probably have lots of questions about how you'll end up configuring your MythTV and about what it'll eventually be able to do. Here's some additional information about MythTV (just to give you a preview of what you'll be installing).

Backend and frontend
Like most Linux software, MythTV uses a client/server architecture. What this means is that one program (mythbackend) deals with capturing video and managing the database, while another program (mythfrontend) deals with showing the user video and providing the on-screen interface. Why split it into two programs? There are many advantages. For one, if mythfrontend freezes or crashes, the backend will continue recording and managing properly. This makes the system rather robust. Secondly, this architecture means that you can have one computer run the backend, and use a different computer as the frontend. The frontend computer will log into the backend to get the video data. This gives you quite a bit of flexibility. You can even have multiple computers attached to different televisions, each running a separate instance of the frontend, but all getting their video from the same backend. This gives you even more flexibility. The frontend computers could have less hardware and be quieter. Some users have a laptop that also runs the frontend, so they can watch TV in bed, or even edit recordings while watching something else on TV. You can even copy recordings to your laptop and take them on vacation with you. There are many possibilities.

With regard to configuring MythTV, remember that the frontend and backend are separate. Even if you exit the frontend, the backend is probably still running. During the configuration phase, you may need to exit the backend and restart it for changes to take effect. In principle you can do this without even shutting down the frontend.

Remote controls
Will you be able to control your MythTV with a remote control? Yes, it's possible. A program called LIRC allows Linux to interface with remote controls. Some capture cards come with remote controls. LIRC can be configured to receive data from these. A number of IR detectors can also be interfaced via LIRC, enabling you to use other remotes. LIRC in principle can be configured to interface with multiple remotes and IR blasters.

TV listings
Will you be able to have an on-screen program guide? How will you get your listings? In many places, you can sign up for a DataDirect account with Zap2It. By answering a simple survey, you'll receive a subscription that allows you to download program listings. MythTV has built-in functionality to connect to that service. If you need a "certificate code" for zap2it, you can use ZIYN-DQZO-SBUT (this lets zap2it know that you're using MythTV). The code TGYM-ZKOC-BUTV may also work.

Set-top box
Will you be able to control your satellite or cable provider box (set-top box)? What you can do is use a device called an IR Blaster. This device can be programmed to send IR pulses that mimic the signals from your remote control for your set-top box. Essentially, whenever MythTV needs to change a channel, it will send a signal to your set-top box to change channels as required. This introduce an additional delay in switching channels, which can be annoying if you're trying to "channel surf" on live TV. However, most users of MythTV change viewing habits, and rarely watch live TV anymore.

Many set-top boxes have input connections (serial, USB, etc.). In principle, a direct connection between your MythTV and the box should be possible. In practice, few cable providers or set-top box companies will give out the required details in order to make your box work. It is much simpler to use an IR blaster.

LIRC Config is a free tool by the makers of the USB transceiver CommandIR that generates configuration files for remotes and set-top-boxes online.

Capture card
In order to use a capture card, you of course need a Linux driver. The ivtv driver is an open-source driver written for Linux to enable interfacing with capture cards. This driver is geared towards the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 and 350 cards, although other cards are also supported. The people at Hauppauge have provided the people at ivtv with some useful information, which has enabled a highly functional driver to be written.

Plugins
MythTV's functionality has been greatly extended by a large number of plugins. In most modern MythTV packages, all of these plugins are wrapped together into a "MythPlugin" package. Thus, they do not need to be installed individually. Available plugins include:
 * MythBrowser: allows web browsing on your MythTV
 * MythDVD: DVD library features
 * MythGallery: image gallery/slideshow plugin
 * MythGame: lets you play video games on your MythTV using xmame frontend
 * MythMusic: play music (with visualizations) through MythTV
 * MythNews: RSS feed reader
 * MythPhone: video conferencing plugin
 * MythVideo: play any video file in MythTV
 * MythWeather: get localized weather forecasts
 * MythWeb: lets you control your MythTV from anywhere, using a web browser

title: MythTV/Getting Started