Win7 + 360 + Media Browser + NAS

So, the Media Center interface in Windows 7 is pretty snazzy, but as far as I knew, the XBox 360 "extender" functionality was limited by shoddy codec support. I guess I was wrong.

After spotting a few posts about Media Browser for MCE, I checked into it a bit more and found that the DVD Rips I do using Handbrake actually play on the 360 through MCE.

A 20 man hour day or research later, I have somewhat cleared up the other hurdles. Following instructions found here I was able to get my 360 to see data stored on my NAS through MCE. Also, because no software is perfect and MediaBrowser seemed to have a tough time cleaning up data about Movies and TV Shows, I turned to Media Center Master which (again) is not perfect, but is a FANTASTIC interface for managing all this data. If you do not want to use the Media Browser interface, this software also can build the necessary xml file data structure to allow you to use the "Movies" section that is built in to the Win7 MCE. It is also pretty slick, but it is not going to be as frequently updated/tweaked as the Media Browser code.

So far so good. I have cataloged all of my Movies and TV Shows, have them directly streaming from my NAS which frees up space on my main machine and I can watch everything from the MCE interface on my main machine if I want, thus marking things "watched" properly in both places. Pretty slick. There is still more I want to do, but this is a mighty fine start!!!

Low Ringer Volume

Recently I noticed that my Droid's ringer was almost inaudible even though I had it set to the highest volume setting. I played around a little and found that playing music was also extremely low (volume wise). I thought that maybe my speaker was damaged, but turned on the in-call speakerphone and bam, loud as hell! So, I did some quick searching and found plenty of people complaining of the same issue.

It looks like a lot of people are pointing to using headphone with the Droid as the culprit, but not everyone. I think it is probably a little more flakey then that, but fortunately, the rumored Dec. 11 OTA firmware update seems to have some fixes mentioned for "volume issues". Kudos to Verizon for getting this out in the first place and huge props if this fixes the problem.

As for a fix now, just pop out the battery and reboot.

The Droid Catches Fire!

Obviously, the release of an Android based phone on the Verizon network has sparked developers into porting popular iPhone apps in a way that never seemed to happen with the Blackberry.

Since my last post, just over a week ago, two of the apps on my wishlist have made their way to Android. NFL Superfan (from Direct TV) and TripIt. Gotta love it!

The Apps I Want

As you can see, I have a lot of love for this phone already, but I am definitely missing some apps that I use either on my iPod Touch or my BlackBerry Storm.

NFL Superfan
An essential app for any lover of football. Last weekend, I was in the DC airport watching the Saints game until they closed the doors to the plane and forced me to shut off my phone. As soon as we hit the ground, I fired it up again and caught the entire 3rd quarter between taxiing to the gate and the cab ride home. Amazing. This weekend, I will be on a train for most of the game against the Rams and I wish I had an app I could use!

MLB.tv
Same idea, but the season is over. Maybe they'll have one by the time spring training rolls around. Go Braves!

Google Reader
I have no idea how this is not already a native app. I use Google Reader religiously to keep up with probably over 1000 posts a day from tons of different sites. The mobile website is good, but a native app that would let you cache stuff for offline reads (like on an airplane!) would just rock so, so hard.

Tripit
The iPod Touch app is great. I have most of this info shared and synced with my calendar, but having the app just makes all this info better organized which is essential on any sort of trip, especially POAs! For now, the mobile website is OK.

NetFlix
The mobile website is actually pretty good, but a native app would be really, really nice for quickly adding things to your queue, looking up info, etc...

Daily Burn
Again, the mobile website is decent, but there is already an iPod app that is great. When you are in the gym and cannot remember how much weight you need to use in your next exercise, it'd be nice to have it right there. I have a 15 minute walk home from the gym too, so I could log it all instead of having to remember to do it later. Don't judge me. If I don't go to the gym I get fat, plain and simple. Logging all this crap keeps me motivated.

What's There to Love?

So, I have written all about the bad and ugly of the Droid, but what about the good? Here are some of the biggest highlights for me! The first few are about the Google Integration as I use Google email, contacts and calendar for my personal and work life and keep it all pretty well separated. Android v2.0 lets me pull all the information from where I want, how I want.

Google Integration - Contacts
I keep separate Contact lists for work and personal accounts in GMail which has always been a pain. Now, I can sync the contacts from both accounts with my phone and it handles add/update/deletes for me without any trouble.

Google Integration - Calendar
I only use one account for my calendar, but with tons of sub calendars to organize things. Not only do they all get synced, but I can easily show/hide calendars to see only what is important (maybe an afternoon agenda without the Liverpool, Georgia Tech Football and Braves games).

Google Integration - Mail
Holy crap, the mail app is fantastic. You can see everything in conversation view, all of your labels, search, etc... Pretty much as close to everything you can do via the website. Amazing. Also, my biggest pet peeve on the BlackBerry was that if I read a message on my computer (which I do 99% of the time) it did not get marked as read on my device. All of that is seamless now (with Google accounts, not sure about the Exchange stuff).

The Browser
A great, great, great browser experience. The screen makes it visually amazing. The bookmarks are great (although you really need to be able to selectively sync them with XMarks or something like that). You can open multiple "windows" like tabs to easily swap back and forth (can you say between gamecast and fantasy stats?). Inputting info to a form is really slick and it remembers passwords for you. And finally, you can create shortcuts to bookmarks right on your home screen.

Home Screen Widgets
Somewhat limited right now, but very powerful and cool. Have your calendar, weather, scoreboard, FaceBook or whatever on your Home Screen for quick access. I only use the Music Player widget right now, but 3rd party apps can create these widgets, so there is definitely more awesome to come!

Market
The Market is awesome. Just as good as the Apple AppStore in my opinion. Application management is fast an easy too.

Gallery
This is where you see pictures and such. The setup is pretty great in that you can very, very easily "Share" a picture or whatever via gmail, FaceBook, Picasa, etc... Very nicely done (even though I cannot get Picasa to work right now).

FaceBook
It is a good version of the mobile app, but has its quirks. I don't really use it except to sync up profile pics with my address book. I have uploaded a picture to my Profile and that was easy and super fast. Overall, very good.

Contact Favorites
This was missing on the BlackBerry big time. Speed dial sucks, but clicking contacts to see your quick list with all of the info you need to call, email, text, etc... that is fantastic.

Maps
This probably goes without saying, but the maps are ridiculously good.

Notifications
This is just done so well. All of your apps seems to use this space at the top of the screen to show you when you have a new SMS, email, what music is playing, background apps are running, etc... Just pull the menu in this area down and you can see it all. Really well done.

Droid Wallpaper

Thinking about making wallpaper for the Droid? Nothing tough about it. Just make an image that is 960x854, but make sure that the main focus of the image is no wider then 480. This will let you see everything on the main screen and it will scroll and scale nicely. You probably have to see the implementation to understand what I mean, but it works, trust me!

I've attached a simple New Orleans Saints wallpaper I created. I like the solid colors so you can see the background and you can arrange your icons to make the logo visible. Like everything else, you need to play around a bit to make it work for you, but at least this will show you a starting point!



Reebok used the above logo on Katrina Relief gear that it sold after the hurricane. I believe all the profits went to help the city of New Orleans. I am putting this here so I don't get hit with a copyright violation or something like that. I just love the logo!

What Apps Am I Using?

Man, I have gone through a ton of apps already. Here is a list of the highlights!

YouMail
There are a few Droid related bugs that I mentioned in another post, but all in all, this is an amazing Visual Voicemail app.

Google Listen
Being able to get podcasts without syncing with the computer is amazing.

Google Scoreboard
Again, a bug with NCAA Basketball, but overall very nice. I love that you can select your favorites and get notifications while games are in progress. The in-game action seems a little lacking, so I am going to keep my eye out for something else.

Pandora
The app is amazing I just don't think I will use it too much as it is a battery killer!

Qik
I don't do a lot of video, but when I do, this app is incredible. It will display a delayed stream as it uploads your video in real-time. It will also allow you to post the video to FaceBook immediately. Amazing.

Video Player
It will let me watch videos encoded for the iPod Touch. Definitely not as slick as the iPod, but very functional.

OpenTable
Works great, especially in a pinch.

Disspelling Droid Myths

So, in every review I read about the Droid, I heard a lot of negatives, all of which were valid, but were incomplete. I am going to address them here.

The battery sucks.
I have been using it hard as hell since I got it and yes, the battery life is nothing to write home about, but I think that for normal daily use, it will be fine. Of course, you need to charge it every night, but that goes without saying these days. The swappable battery definitely helps for travel!

The keyboard is terrible.
Compared to what? It is more then usable in my opinion. It isn't perfect, but it is so, so, so much better then not having a keyboard at all.

The music player is awful.
I don't get this at all. The music player is just fine. The fact that your running music can be a home screen widget or up in the notification area so you can get to it very quickly is amazing. I think what most people are complaining about is that it does not integrate with iTunes, which it never, ever will, but just copy music over to the phone and listen to it and it all works great.

Most apps are not Android v2.0 ready.
Developers seem to be busting their butts to get new apps out. I have only had the phone two days and at least a half dozen of the apps I installed right away have been updated specifically with bug fixes for the Droid. Give it 3 months and there will be an explosion of apps!

The Droid

I just picked up a Motorola Droid on Verizon. It runs Android v2.0 and so far I love it. It is far more polished then I expected, the "Android Market" is just as good as the AppStore on the iPhone and since I use Google accounts for mail, calendar, contacts, etc.. the integration is pretty seamless and amazing.

I could go on and on about all the great things I am doing with this phone (and I will in other posts), but for now I want to list the things that should work, but don't (at least not for me). Here is where I am having issues so far...

Multiple FaceBook profiles listed for some contacts.
I assume a bug that will be fixed in a future update. Very strange.

FaceBook profile picture not imported for all contacts.
I think this is just something buggy and will probably be fixed in some sort of update in the future.

Some FaceBook Friends just do not show up at all.
I have no idea why, maybe becuase of privacy settings for those particular people?

Picasa uploading errors out with a "failed to retrieve account information" message.
I can't find anything about this problem. I wonder if I configured something wrong?

Google Scoreboard cannot figure out NCAA Basketball info.
People have already complained about this in the Market, so I am assuming Google is working on a fix. Otherwise, awesome, but it is the only Sports Scoreboard app I have tried so far, so I wonder if there are better ones.

YouMail cannot figure out how to play through the handset speaker instead of the speakerphone.
This is a known issue with the Droid and it looks like the developers are working on it. Overall, amazing app! A much better implementation then on the BlackBerry.

YouMail is not pulling the contact picture from my addressbook.
From what I can tell, this may be only for ones that are linked to Facebook (which is pretty much all of them). Not sure. I cannot find any info about this.

SMS Character Limits
The SMS app does not show you how many characters you've typed. That actually sucks because if you go over your allotted 160, it just crops the message instead of sending more then one. There are 3rd party apps that try to resolve this, but they are not quite ready for v2.0 yet.

Storm OS v5.0

First thing yesterday morning I downloaded and installed the official Verizon release of the Storm OS v5.0. The install went without a hitch and after spending a good hour reconfiguring all the little things that get messed up during an upgrade, I was ready to go. I spent the whole day using it, trying to figure out what changed, etc.. and I have to say, there are no real cons other then the hassle involved in upgrading. Here are my thoughts.

Everything is faster
The accelerometer, the camera, responsiveness in opening apps, etc... It is not mind blowing, but it is noticeable. The worst part of the Storm for me has been when my fingers are just hitting icons too fast and the screen cannot catch up therefore throwing me into the world of some slow loading app that I do not need to use. While I am positive that will still happen, it should be far less often.

Everything is slicker
Tough to explain without a visual, but all the little things are just a little more polished. Opening and closing apps is done with a sort of fade/collapse visual. Touching icons has a glow. The boot screen has a progress bar that actually seems to work and a logo that lets you know that the phone is not dead. Scrolling has variable speeds and a little bounce (like the iPhone). Not a big deal at all, but it makes the phone seem more put together and professional.

Better word suggestions
While typing, you will see a list at the top of the screen of suggestions. You can click one to select it, but if you do not it lets you type whatever non-standard word you want. Before, it would auto select the suggested word which I hated.

Add/Remove Apps
The Applications list is way, way, way more user friendly and easier to work with. It also splits the apps up into 3rd party, add-on and core so you don't accidentally delete something you really, really need, like the Phone app!

Homescreen clickables
On the home screen, you can click the antenna and it will bring up the "Manage Connections" dialog. Clicking the clock will bring up the big clock app. Not sure if this was in the last version, but I don't remember it and I like it!

Bubbled and threaded SMS
Just a nice interface change. If you don't like it you can go back to the old way, but it keeps the thread together a little better in my opinion. Also, from what I have read, you can call directly from SMS screen while typing a message. I have not tested that yet, but it is something I have wanted to be able to do in the past.

In call switch button between keypad and main buttons
I am constantly on conference calls and never could figure out how to get back to the main screen where you can easily mute/unmute, go to speaker, etc... from the number pad (which I always had to enter to dial the call in code). Now, there is a button on the number pad screen that will take you back to the main screen. Nice addition.

Ring + Vibrate built in
I used a 3rd party app to do this, but now it's built in (finally). Saves just a little bit of application memory now that I can delete it.

Better Browser
Browser seems faster and more responsive, but it is hard to tell.

Volume Meter
When listening to music there is now a visual volume meter if you use the hard buttons on the side. That's a nice tough. Also, I think the control is slightly finer. I think there were probably only 4 different "steps" before and now there are probably a dozen.

All my apps work
I use a few key applications (listed below) and they all seem to work as good or better in OS 5 which is always nice.

• Facebook
• Google Sync
• GMail
• Google Maps
• Weather Eye
• YouMail
• ScoreMobile
• Pandora
• PatternLock
• Superfan
• Poynt

All in all, I think this is a very worth while upgrade. I usually lose 1XEV connectivity after about two days of use and I am not sure if that is because of memory consumption or what. A reboot always fixes it, but it is frustrating. I want to see if this problem goes away or at least takes longer happen. I will keep you updated!

XBMC PC

I just ran across a new dual core Atom machine (similar to the Asus). The Acer AspireRevo R3610-U9012. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. I will buy something sometime after the official Window 7 release in a few weeks.

XBMC Workflow

I originally posted about how I needed XBMC to have a shared backed. While this would be ideal, I think I have found a "workflow" that will work for me.

Initially, I thought that the XBMC database would be located on my main machine and it would be referenced using mklink from the PC hooked to the TV. This was because I assumed that I would be watching videos from my main PC using the XBMC interface. Now I realize that this does not have to be the case.

I modified the AdvancedSettings in XBMC, setting the "cleanonupdate" property to true. This will remove Library entries when performing an update when the files do not exist. This is perfect for me because I can keep watching videos from my main machine and just delete them when I am finished (which is what I do now) and XBMC will reflect this change at the next update.

Now I just need to get the libraries set up to back up to my NAS in a sensible way.

GlideTV

Is this the ultimate HTPC remote? Since I am going to be in the market soon, I will have to keep an eye on it!

XBMC Pros/Cons

Here is a pretty simplistic list of the pros and cons for XBMC. There are lots of pros, so I will keep it very simple. The cons are pretty damn specific and I will try to keep this listed updated as I find more nit picky things.

Pros

• TV Show Parsing
  I download shows via uTorrent and the RSS Downloader. The file names are not as my OCD would like them, so the fact that they automatically get parsed and pushed into the Library database is amazing to me.
• Movie Info Parsing
  Same thing with movies. The parsing is great because it is automated and it allows me to see info about the movie. When just looking at the name of a file, you sometimes forget what the hell the movie was about!
• Mark as Watched/Unwatched
  I love this for a million reasons, both with TV and Movies. There is a problem when two people share the system which I have listed in the Cons.
• Recently Added
  I love that there is a quick link that will show all of the recently added Movies or TV Shows. If you've been away for a while, it really helps.

Cons:

• The Daily Show
  Cannot parse TV Show names that are done by date, like The Daily Show. I know that this is being worked on right now and might even be in a nightly build, but I am not quite to the point of testing with non-stable releases yet.
• HD TV Shows
  Does not have any visual way for the user to tell between HD and non HD TV Shows. With a new skin (like AEON) this might be working already, but again, I am not working with nightly builds just yet.
• Shared backend
  Cannot officially share a database. I have hacked something together that works, but I cannot have more then one system running at the same time which will be a problem at some point. Not sure if this will ever happen.
• Mark as Watched/Unwatched without Profiles
  I know the theory behind Profiles and that it will allow different people to mark media differently, but it just does not work as seemlessly as I would like. Ideally, you could mark a movie or TV show as watched as a specific user without having to logout and back in.
• XBMC Remote for iPod Touch
  I love this remote. The only problem I am finding is that if I start a show or movie using it, stop it, then move to another location to start watching again, it does not remember where I was.
• Library does not Auto Update
  It seems to me that you have to manually run "Update Library" or restart the XBMC software to perform a update (as opposed to having an update run periodically or when it detects new files). This is not ideal and there seem to be some hacked together solutions (like xbUpdate), but it not perfect by any means.

XBMC Setup

I have been hooking my laptop up to the TV a lot lately. It started in the spring when I got my MLB.TV subscription going so I could watch Braves game and now I use it to watch the Saints via the NFL Superfan app from DirecTV.

Because of this, I have been thinking about getting a small, quiet PC that I can just leave by the TV. There seem to be a lot of contenders out there right now, but I need to find a balance between size, power consumption, power, features, etc... I think I have settled on the Asus EeeBox PC EB1012, but there is no price or release date just yet, so we'll see.

Since I pretty much know that at some point in the not so distant future I will be getting a PC to leave connected to the TV, I have been playing around with some different media center apps. Specifically, Boxee and XBMC. So far, XBMC has won me over, but I still have a long way to go before I make a final decision.

In this post, I want to talk about the tweaks I have had to make so far to get XBMC working correctly for me.

First and foremost, I need to be able to access one XBMC database from all of my machines in the house. I can do this by storing the "userdata" on one computer and pointing all other installations to it. I found out how to do all that here. Nothing too complex, just using mklink in Windows 7, but I do have to turn off all UAC to make life eaiser (don't really care about that).

Also, in all of my testing, I was in dire need of keyboard shortcuts since I don't have a remote setup just yet. Here is where I found that info.

As for the remote, I have a nice Logitech Harmony, specifically for the XBox 360 and I just got an IR receiver that I am hoping I can get to work nicely. I will post the details if/when I get it all figured out. Otherwise, I have already dropped the $2.99 on the XBMC Remote software for the iPod Touch. That works like a charm and is pretty amazing. I am also thinking about getting a Logitech DiNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard rig. It is pricey, but the thumb keyboard plus touchpad might be perfect for doing things outside of the XBMC interface.

The shortcomings I see so far are that there is no integration between XBMC and the other things I use like Superfan, MLB.TV and HULU, etc... I think there is plugin for Justin.TV which I need to check out (since that would let me watch live ESPN and some other sports). I know Boxee can do MLB.TV (or will be able to soon), but I think it may be lacking in a few other areas. For now, I will have to just load up HULU Desktop and see if I can get it working woth the Harmony remote setup.

That's enough for now. I just wanted to get some of this info posted while it is fresh in my head.

Blackberry Storm Unofficial OS

Well, Verizon is just taking too long to get out an official firmware update and RIM has been pretty free with the "leaks" so I decided to take the plunge.

I ran across this article today and the reviews were good, so I just finished the upgrade to v4.7.0.103.

So far so good. Overall the phone seems faster. The lock/unlock process is quicker, which is great. Cannot tell much of a difference otherwise. VyMail is not working at 100% and that sucks, but it does appear to still function. Most of what I want to see is improvement when making/receiving calls. I'll report back after using it for a few days!

Is it OK to talk about Coffee Machine on a Tech blog?

I'm not sure, but if there has ever been a coffee maker worth talking about, this is it!

So, the short story is that I have been working from home for years and drink a pot of coffee every morning. I had a coffee maker that I loved, but it made sub par coffee to say the least. I thought it was the best I could do at home and it just made me enjoy my bi-weekly splurge for a large, black coffee at Starbucks.

A few months back, I read an article talking about all the crazy myths related to what makes great coffee and basically it all came down to the heat of the water as it goes through the beans. That is why Starbucks is so good and strong without being bitter, the water temp! Anyway, it ends up that there are only two consumer grade coffee machines that achieve this temperature as approved by the "coffee machine association of the universe" (I have no idea what group approves this crap). One of them is the Technivorm KBT-741, which rang in at a whopping $265. Seeing that my 8 year old coffee maker was going strong (not to mention that is cost $50), I filed that article away in the back of my mind.

Well, two weeks ago, that old girl died on me and I took the leap. I figure if it can knock out my bi-weekly Starbucks trip, I will have paid for it within a year. Lemme tell you, this thing is AMAZING!!! Very strong, hot coffee with none of the bitterness that you are used to from brewing at home. Very, very close to a hot cup of joe from Starbucks (maybe even better in a lot of ways). If I would have known I could have had a cup of coffee like this at home, I would have dropped the money in a second.

The moral of the story? If you work from home and you love coffee, this is the machine for you. I couldn't be happier!

HDMI Green Sceen

So, I have a JVC HD-52G786 television that I love. It is a low profile, rear projection, HD-ILA, 52" beast that I bought for myself for the Superbowl two years ago.

When I got it, HDMI wasn't really mainstream yet, so I never had a chance to use the HDMI input that it has. About a year later, I finally got HDMI output on my cable box, but could not get it to work (I just got a green screen). After talking to the Comcast tech and scouring the Internet, I figured that it was a problem with the HDMI output on the cable box being bad. Oh well. So, a little bit later, I got a new laptop which also had an HDMI output on it. Excited to use the HDMI input on my TV, I plugged it in and yep, you guessed it, GREEN SCREEN! Ouch. At this point, I figured my HDMI board on the TV was dead and there was no way I would pay for JVC to fix it seeing as it was out of warranty. That appeared to be the end of HDMI for this TV, which was too bad to say the least.

Now, because I love technology so much, and I believe I was bored at the time... a couple of weeks ago I started searching to see if the green screen issue was common place. It was. Then, I started to search on if it was common in JVC TVs. It was. Wow! I started looking up JVC TVs in my series and good god, I found some great info.

Apparently, because HDMI was so new when this TV came out and had so many bugs (remember USB 1.0?), JVC built in a secret way to reset it. Genius! Of course, JVC won't tell you how to do it, says you need a special maintenance remote, etc... Just trying to get you to pay for service. But, people being as smart as they are, someone (Cesar Maciel as far as I can tell) found a way to do it yourself. I just did it and everything is working perfectly! I have outlined the steps below, mostly so that I will know where to look the next time I need to do it. Woo Hoo!!!!

1. Turn on TV
2. Make sure the remote toggle switches are set to "TV" and "VCR" respectively
3. Press the "Sleep" button
4. Simultaneously press "Display" and "Video Status"
5. Press "2" (Self Check)
6. Turn off the TV
7. Wait for fan to turn off (30 seconds or so)
8. Unplug TV
9. Wait for 30 seconds
10. Turn TV back on

It should be obvious, but you need to be using the JVC remote for the TV to do this...

There is no one place where I found all of this info, but most of it came from this page and the links found within.

Do You Have a Floppy?

I know I don't, but I tend to click it accidentally in Windows Explorer sometimes and it takes a few seconds to respond (which irritates me every time I do it!). So, as always, with a little digging, I found this tidbit that should hide it forever!

1) Open the registry editor by typing regedit in the Run Window.

2) Goto the following key. If it doesn’t exist, create it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3) Create (or modify) a 32-bit DWORD key named NoDrives & assign it a value of 1.

That's it!

Open Source Software

I am a big fan of software in the Open Source community. I have contributed to projects (albeit minimally) in the past and have a few projects out there that I would love to one day make "official" and public for the world. Aside from the obvious (free!), I find that most Open Source projects are far more agile and forward thinking then their commercial entities. I could discuss this for hours... and seeing that my personal livelihood rests upon the sale of the commercial software that I design/write/implement/support, I can certainly understand the many arguments against it. There is a fine balance. That said, here is a list of some of the applications I use on a daily basis that I believe have a wonderful place in the world of technology.

FireFox
Internet Explorer alternative
Web Browser. Far more "standards" compliant then IE (which is a plus for a any web developer) and utilizes an amazing plug-in architecture that allows anyone to create new functionality very quickly.

OpenOffice
Microsoft Office alternative
Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation editor(s). I cannot express in words my hatred for MS Office (mostly Outlook). This one is a no brainer for me and you can even open/save documents in MS Office format for all those professional users out there who have no choice!

VLC
Windows Media Player alternative
Media player that can handle almost anything you throw at it without the need of annoying "codec packs".

Handbrake
Video conversion utility. I use it mostly to convert DVDs and TV shows to iPod compatible format so I can catch up while I travel.

GIMP
Adobe Photoshop alternative
Image editing software. Not as feature rich as Photoshop, but if you are like me, you use about 0.001% of the functionality of Photoshop anyway.

uTorrent
Torrent Management. By far the most feature rich torrent software I have found. Right now I use it mostly to download TV shows that I miss. Hopefully, someday, more commercial entities will use the torrent idea in practice (Windows 7 Beta?).

mRemote
Remote Desktop Connection alternative
Remote control viewer that puts all open windows in a tabbed interface and saves the connection information. It does far more, like connect using different protocols (Citrix, VNC, etc...), but mostly I just want the tabs. This software may be going commercial very soon, I am not sure. It's a shame.

Digsby
MSN Messenger, AOL, ICQ, etc... alternative
A multi-protocol IM client. If you are like me, you have accounts with all the big guys (ICQ, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, GTalk, etc...). This allows you to communicate with all of them in one tidy window. Also connects to Facebook, MySpace, etc... Really a great piece of software.

Filezilla
FTP client software that allows you to save connections, establish secure FTP connections, resume interupted downloads, etc, etc, etc... The gold standard in FTP clients these days.

** I am just going to throw out there that a lot of the applications I discuss above are "donationware" meaning that they are free, but accept donations to help with the high cost of writing and maintaining software. If you can afford to give anything at all to the creators of Open Source software that you love, anything will help. Please support these developers!

Blackberry Time?

I just noticed that the time on my Storm was off by about 4 minutes. I dug around and found that in Options -> Date/Time you can set the time source to be either "Blackberry" or "Network". I want to sync with the towers, but I know that the blackberry (as with most PDAs) cannot sync timezones, so I went digging for more info.

I ran across this. Interesting.

Vista + WMP11 + NAS + Xbox 360

Holy shit! I don't want to be overly optimistic here, but I believe I have found a working solution to this problem. It is working right now, but I am fearful that it will somehow break spontaneously. Pray for me children...

What's going on? Well, I have a XBox 360 that I connect to my main machine via the WMP11 sharing services so I can watch videos. Works great and plays MP4, DIVX, etc... unlike the Windows Media Extender functionality. It is clean. I love it. So, I have a LOT of video since I have started encoding my DVD collection. Because of this, I am running out of drive space and want to keep stuff like that off my main machine anyway. So, I have a NAS device (D-Link DNS-323) running in a RAID 1 (mirroring) configuration. No problem, just map it as a drive in Vista, add it to the WMP11 "library" and bingo, watch everything from there on my Xbox 360. Wrong! I have fought with this forever, but today, I may have found the answer.

So, there are two things that I had to do to make this happen.

First, I had to change the Logon of the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service to use an account that has access to the NAS. Makes sense. But that alone did not do the trick.

Next, In the key HLKM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/MediaPlayer/Preferences/HME, I had to add a DWORD called EnableRemoteContentSharing and set the value to 1.

I restarted the service, turned on the XBox and BAM, I saw the Video folder I had shared from my NAS. While holding my breath, I started up Kung Fu Panda (better then you would expect) and it played! Yay!!!! Hopefully this problem is now resolved. If so, I will be getting a couple of HUGE drives for that NAS asap. If not, I will scream and yell and report back to you all via this blog. Damn, I hope it works!

I search high and low for this answer, but to give credit where it is due, I found the final pieces that put it all together for me in this article.

---

UPDATE 1: As of this morning, it is still working, but I have noticed that WMP's library (which the XBox 360 uses to generate its list of available videos) did not update automatically. I had to refresh it from my PC. I am not sure if this was a one time thing, or will be an ongoing problem. I will keep a close eye on it.

Keeping Up!

I am a big fan of reading news via RSS feeds. Have been for a long time. Because of that and also because I move around a lot and therefore like to manage a lot of things online, I am a huge advocate of Google Reader. If you read a lot of feeds, you should check it out.

I find that I constantly add more feeds to the list that I watch. One day it will get out of control. I thought I would share with you the things that I follow on a daily basis. It ranges from world news to technology to programming, sports and even cooking. A little bit of everything!

Simply Recipes Food and Cooking Blog
.NET Tip of The Day
Ars Technica
ASP.NET Daily Articles
ATI Catalyst
Atlanta Braves
BlackBerry Cool
digg
DotNetKicks.com
Engadget
Engadget Mobile
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets News
Gizmodo
Hacking NetFlix
HandBrake
Jungle Disk
Lifehacker
Maximum PC all RSS Feed
MoDaCo
msmobiles
Official Gmail Blog
Qusers
Ramblinwreck
RIMarkable
Rob Conery
SaintsReport
Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen
ScottGu's Blog
Slashdot
TechCrunch
White House.gov
xkcd.com

Embedding iTunes Artwork into MP3s

I have a HUGE library of music that I manage with iTunes right now. This goes back to my college days at Georgia Tech when a buddy came back from working one summer in 1997 and showed us that we could rip our CDs to something more portable then that god awful Real format. Anyway, since then, I have collected, tweaked, manicured and loved my music collection and that is a process that will probably never end.

I am an iPod user and iTunes just works, even though it can be a little slow with that xml backend (can anyone say SqLite?). One problem I have is that after my hours, days, hell months, of painstaking work to make sure that every single file in my library has album art, I would really like to have all that art embedded into the actual MP3 files. I really don't care that it will take up extra storage space, I just want to have that artwork show up on whatever device or in whatever application I am using!

Because I already have it all put together perfectly within iTunes, I obviously have been trying to find something that will pull that artwork and embed it automatically. While I still have not found the perfect way to do this, I did run across a piece of open source software called iTSfv. It seems to work, but in a manual sort of way. It also has about a million more features then I would ever need, but it does succesfully take the "folder.jpg" that iTunes references and embeds it in each and every MP3 file selected. Better then nothing, but the search continues!

Vista Sidebar

I am actually a big fan of the sidebar. I loved the Yahoo Widget Engine in XP (formerly Konfobulator), but the simplicity of the sidebar in a little 200px window on your screen is wonderful to me.

Here is a list of the gadgets that I use:

ProWeather
I want to see the current weather and stuff and this thing tells you EVERYTHING!

Analog Clock (built in)

Calendar (built in)

All CPU Meter
This one measures multiple cores which is nice to see.

Hard Drive Monitor
It's nice to see what kind of space you get left!

iTunes Controller
Because I usually have iTunes minimized and am writing code when I get a phone call. It is easier to just hit pause from this gadget which is always visible then to dig around for the iTunes window, bring it up, hit pause, etc...

MP4 and Xbox 360

For a while now I have been wanting to digitize some of my DVD library to 1) make it more portable and 2) so I can stream it to my XBox 360. After much trial and error I have found that the best way to accomplish both of these task is to use Handbrake on the XBox 360 preset to create an MP4.

The reason for this post is not really to talk about the encoding process, but to discuss the solution to a minor inconvenience I have been struggling with for a while. Namely, the fact that the XBox 360 cannot recognize files with the .mp4 file extension. Previously, I had to rename the file to .avi for the XBox 360 to see it, even though it was fully compatible. A minor inconvenience, but annoying nonetheless.

Last night, I ran across this article which describes the process necessary to make WMP11 and in turn the XBox 360 recognize the .mp4 file extension. I tested it out and after a reboot, it has worked like a charm!

Blackberry Storm

In late November, I upgraded my "Zak Morris"-esque Blackberry 7130e to the new Blackberry Storm. Personally, I think the only thing not to like about this phone is the touchscreen keyboard (which is far superior to the iPhone keyboard if you ask me). At this point, I have learned how to use it pretty well and love everything else about the phone. The upgraded Blackberry OS is amazing!

Here are some key features that make this phone pretty amazing.

Application Store
Well, there is nothing great about it now, but Apple led the way, so if RIM can make their store 1/10th of what Apple's is, it will be a huge hit.

GPS
I do not pay for the Verizon VZNavigator stuff, but Verizon has unlocked the GPS for use with other applications on the phone. As of right now, it works with the included Blackberry Maps and also with the camera (geotagging photos is pretty hot stuff if you ask me). It does not yet work with Google Maps, but I am sure it will in the future. Google is too good to let that pass.

Camera
3.2MP, motion stabilization, intelligent flash, auto-focus and did I mention geotagging? I am in no way a photographer, but for snapping a couple of photos to commemorate a stop at the "Howling Cactus" during a random road trip through rural New Mexico... it is a masterpiece. You can also upload the photos to Flickr or Facebook with just a few clicks.

VyMail
I'd be happy to pay the $3/month to Verizon for Visual Voicemail if there was not already a much better, free alternative. I already used YouMail for all of my voicemail because it sent MP3s to my email that I could archive, forward, etc... It was just somewhat inconvenient to listen to it on the phone. Well, thanks to Joe Krill for putting together this amazing app.

WeatherBug
Not only is this a great app to give you weather information right on your phone... it also gives you the current temperature and weather as a part of the icon on the home screen. On top of that, it uses the built in GPS and changes the city accordingly if you are traveling. Pretty amazing, especially for free software!

Or course this phone is not without its problems.
The accelerometer is just too slow, period. Verizon has already released one firmware update that has helped, but it is still a problem. Also, there is an unofficial firmware available that is supposed to help even more, but I have no given it a shot just yet. I have faith that Verizon will fix this.

The image associated with a contact is just too small when shown on incoming calls.

And finally, answering a call can be just a little flakey.

I am very hopeful that all of this will get fixed, in short order too, but at this point I definitely think the pros far outweigh the cons for me.

Building a New Computer

Over the past year I have been pouring over tech magazine, podcasts and blogs to come up with the best possible computer specs to fit my needs. Luckily, I stalled long enough for the release of Intel's Core i7 processor. I have just finished the build and could not be happier. Here is a quick rundown of the specs...

CPU
  Intel Core i7 920, 2.66GHz

Motherboard
  Asus P6T Deluxe

Memory
  6GB (3x2GB) Corsair DDR3

Graphics
  Visiontek Radeon 4850, 512MB

Enclosure
  NZXT Tempest

Power
  PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W

Optical
I recycled what I already had. A nice (superfast) Lite-on 52x, IDE DVD-ROM drive and a pretty standard 16x, IDE DVD+/-RW drive. I had used IDE/SATA adapters for the optical drives and everything seems to be working fine so far.

Storage
I also recycled my storage (Two 120GB, 7200RPM, SATA hard drives), but have plans for an upgrade in the next couple of months. I use a D-Link DNS-323 with two 500GB, 7200RPM, SATA hard drives in it as my main storage right now. I am planning on one of two scenarios for the storage upgrade.

1. If Seagate can get the kinks worked out of their 1.5TB, 7200RPM, SATA, $130 drives (or a suitable alternative pops up), I would consider grabbing two of them and throwing them into the NAS device. That would free up the two 500GB drives to either stripe or mirror in my main computer.
2. Wait for the release of Western Digital's 2TB, 7200RPM, SATA, "green" drives and just throw them in my main computer mirrored. This would allow me to get rid of the NAS device all together.

I am not sure what I am going to do just yet, but it will probably one of those two options.

Operating System
Once the machine was built, I immediately threw Windows Vista Ultimate x64 on there (64-bit to take advantage of the extra RAM). After I get it up and running and assured myself that the hardware configuration was stable, I went straight to Windows 7 Beta! I will admit that I was impressed with a lot of the changes in Windows 7 and look forward to its release (hopefully in 2009), but the Beta was not ready to be my full time OS, so I am back to Vista.