How-To: Build A Cheap Media Player In 20 Minutes
Like it or not, being a gadget geek implies certain responsibilities. Removing adware from your relatives' PCs, hooking your friends up with wireless access, creating robot life - you never seem to get a break. So when a buddy calls and invites you over for an impromptu bar-b-q, the thought of a Saturday afternoon doing nothing but eating free food and discussing the intricacies of the nice weather cannot be dismissed. "Oh, I forgot to ask," your friend says. You begin to register that, yes, tasty burger happiness is going to come at a cost. "Is there a way we can watch the new Doctor Who over here?" You are compelled to respond, "sure thing, I'll figure something out," because deep down you know that yesterday you leeched the first two episodes off of your friend Jake, the file trading addict, torrent-master, hell's angel, network administrator. The fact that he is a dirty biker does not diminish your 'pay-it-forward' debt. Huddling around a 15-inch laptop screen is definitely going to be a bummer, so you need to get these AVIs to display on a TV. What you need is a media player, and fast. You've got 20 minutes, an empty wallet, and nothing in your stomach. What do you do?
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