sometimes i'm a bit wasteful
so last night i get home from programming late - for all of you keeping up with my wonderful blog, u probably read this below. what did i do? well, i attempted to install a media center front end on my laptop. my server (downstairs) sort of died (sort of - possible hard drive integrity issue, or it might just be a ide cable problem, i dont really know and dont have time to find out right now) so i'm going to use my new remote on my laptop for now.
For those of you who dont know what i'm talking about when I say HTPC (home theater PC), in my case i'm simply talking about a nice, simple, remote controlable interface to play music, movies, or pictures on. here are some screen shots from MediaPortal (which is an open source project - pretty nice actually, though i'm having problems with it):
This is just the main menu - nice large buttons, sex-e layout. its made so you can easily control the computer with a remote, from your chair, bed, living room couch, etc.
this particular application can automatically interface with IMDB.com provide movie reviews/ratings from withint hte media center. a nice little feature :).
Here is an example of the picture function - you can have the program automatically scroll through pictures and play random songs, etc. sort of a nice ambiance thing.
Of course there are a lot more features, but 1. i doubt anybody reading this really cares and 2. if you care, you can check out www.mediaportal.com (or www.meedio.com). Anyway, I think because of some driver problems i'm having trouble with the user interface with mediaportal (its unusably slow). I'm going to try and install new drivers and see if that fixes my problems. If not, i'm left with 2 real options:
1. use meedio - i hate this program, terrible UI, terrible customization, and no "out of the box" support for my remote (more on this later).
2. install a new operating systems, reformat, etc, etc - Windows Media Center Edition. This option is looking more and more like its going to happen - the problem is, that I currently own a 100% legit version of windows XP pro which is nice to have - it makes getting updates from microsoft very easy. If I install Media Center Edition I'll have to install my copy from jaurez, mexico - which means dealing with getting updates, etc, etc. Still, Media Center Edition (MCE) has a very nice UI (user interface) and it works very well in general. Plus there are a TON of great plugins/extra features you can install, that actually work.
Onto my remote: I purchased this thing on ebay for around 30 bucks. It was my "big purchase" for the month... I think it was a good investment. It makes watching TV shows/Movies from a couch/tv/etc very easy. Here is the remote:
You'll notice there are about 1000 buttons on the remote - i personally dont like this fact, because although it gives you lots of options, its somewhat difficult to control the remote from under the covers/pitch black (the buttons are not backlit). Still, its a nice remote - you can control the mouse with the little nub (the round button near the top) and the control has left/right/middle mouse buttons. pretty handy in case you need to click something at anytime.
Although most people will find this boring, the reciever (picture left) is the primary reason i bought this remote (besides the fact that it was relativly cheap ;)) - it is RF based (radio frequency) as aposed to IR (infra red) which means you dont need direct line of sight to use the remote. In other words I can be under my covers in my bed with the remote and still change channels - i can even be down the hall or in the bathroom and pause/play/turn up/down the music playing on my computer. It even works from downstairs. which I think is pretty sweet, and deffinetly a nice feature. No more having to "aim" the controller at anything.
Ok, so thats that. I ended up watching 2 episodes of MacGyver last night, which mean I didnt get as much sleep as I could/should have. I've been studying most of today (besides right now when writing this) and plan on going back to studying now.
OH! one last thing (ok, 2). First, i've given up writing in all lowercase. although i enjoy how it looks, its to much of a pain - so i'll just capitalize some stuff, leave other stuff lower case. like this. Or this. Etc. The other thing:
http://shoelessblog.com is now forwarded to this blog, along with http://oktocry.com . if anybody plans on keeping up/checking the blog regularly, it might be easier to remember then kevinam.blogspot.com - certainly a hell of a lot easier to type. The idea behind oktocry has not worked out yet, so i'll just use it for my blog :) (it is giong to be a place for people to send pictures of themselves crying (basically) along with a description of what it was making them sad. Might sound stupid, but it would/will be great - just have to find people who desire to share a personal side of them with the public. something like www.postsecret.com. in order to keep things a bit "secret" and a bit "private", i'd only include pictures of the eyes, not the entire fair/hair/etc. Just the eyes.). I've actually gotten a few random people who have sent me pictures/a paragraph already - if you ever feel like contributing, send a photo/headshot + short paragraph to submit@oktocry.com - once i have a decent number of participants, i'll put up the actual webpage - if you feel more comfortable, you can crop the picture however you want it so you cant tell who you are, and send it from an annonomous email address - i'll never post any names, email addresses, etc.
email me at kevin@shoelessblog.com
For those of you who dont know what i'm talking about when I say HTPC (home theater PC), in my case i'm simply talking about a nice, simple, remote controlable interface to play music, movies, or pictures on. here are some screen shots from MediaPortal (which is an open source project - pretty nice actually, though i'm having problems with it):
This is just the main menu - nice large buttons, sex-e layout. its made so you can easily control the computer with a remote, from your chair, bed, living room couch, etc.
this particular application can automatically interface with IMDB.com provide movie reviews/ratings from withint hte media center. a nice little feature :).
Here is an example of the picture function - you can have the program automatically scroll through pictures and play random songs, etc. sort of a nice ambiance thing.
Of course there are a lot more features, but 1. i doubt anybody reading this really cares and 2. if you care, you can check out www.mediaportal.com (or www.meedio.com). Anyway, I think because of some driver problems i'm having trouble with the user interface with mediaportal (its unusably slow). I'm going to try and install new drivers and see if that fixes my problems. If not, i'm left with 2 real options:
1. use meedio - i hate this program, terrible UI, terrible customization, and no "out of the box" support for my remote (more on this later).
2. install a new operating systems, reformat, etc, etc - Windows Media Center Edition. This option is looking more and more like its going to happen - the problem is, that I currently own a 100% legit version of windows XP pro which is nice to have - it makes getting updates from microsoft very easy. If I install Media Center Edition I'll have to install my copy from jaurez, mexico - which means dealing with getting updates, etc, etc. Still, Media Center Edition (MCE) has a very nice UI (user interface) and it works very well in general. Plus there are a TON of great plugins/extra features you can install, that actually work.
Onto my remote: I purchased this thing on ebay for around 30 bucks. It was my "big purchase" for the month... I think it was a good investment. It makes watching TV shows/Movies from a couch/tv/etc very easy. Here is the remote:
You'll notice there are about 1000 buttons on the remote - i personally dont like this fact, because although it gives you lots of options, its somewhat difficult to control the remote from under the covers/pitch black (the buttons are not backlit). Still, its a nice remote - you can control the mouse with the little nub (the round button near the top) and the control has left/right/middle mouse buttons. pretty handy in case you need to click something at anytime.
Although most people will find this boring, the reciever (picture left) is the primary reason i bought this remote (besides the fact that it was relativly cheap ;)) - it is RF based (radio frequency) as aposed to IR (infra red) which means you dont need direct line of sight to use the remote. In other words I can be under my covers in my bed with the remote and still change channels - i can even be down the hall or in the bathroom and pause/play/turn up/down the music playing on my computer. It even works from downstairs. which I think is pretty sweet, and deffinetly a nice feature. No more having to "aim" the controller at anything.
Ok, so thats that. I ended up watching 2 episodes of MacGyver last night, which mean I didnt get as much sleep as I could/should have. I've been studying most of today (besides right now when writing this) and plan on going back to studying now.
OH! one last thing (ok, 2). First, i've given up writing in all lowercase. although i enjoy how it looks, its to much of a pain - so i'll just capitalize some stuff, leave other stuff lower case. like this. Or this. Etc. The other thing:
http://shoelessblog.com is now forwarded to this blog, along with http://oktocry.com . if anybody plans on keeping up/checking the blog regularly, it might be easier to remember then kevinam.blogspot.com - certainly a hell of a lot easier to type. The idea behind oktocry has not worked out yet, so i'll just use it for my blog :) (it is giong to be a place for people to send pictures of themselves crying (basically) along with a description of what it was making them sad. Might sound stupid, but it would/will be great - just have to find people who desire to share a personal side of them with the public. something like www.postsecret.com. in order to keep things a bit "secret" and a bit "private", i'd only include pictures of the eyes, not the entire fair/hair/etc. Just the eyes.). I've actually gotten a few random people who have sent me pictures/a paragraph already - if you ever feel like contributing, send a photo/headshot + short paragraph to submit@oktocry.com - once i have a decent number of participants, i'll put up the actual webpage - if you feel more comfortable, you can crop the picture however you want it so you cant tell who you are, and send it from an annonomous email address - i'll never post any names, email addresses, etc.
email me at kevin@shoelessblog.com
posted by Kevin at 3:35 PM
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