Teasers for Upcoming Previews

On Vacation

Come Together - The Beatles - Pomplamoose

Really these are different people?

Kim Webster

Jessica Chastain

Leslie Mann

design, modern architecture, geek, memes and the occasional cute animal

[SOLVED] Windows 7 x64 Network Shares (Video and Music) Drop Out Intermittently (WMC7 and Sonos)

So we started noticing that videos streamed from the New Rig to the Living Room PC and music streamed to the Sonos were cutting out after about 5 mins.

Everything was working fine until last week when some security updates from Microsoft were installed.  Why would this be?

1. Hardware - checked all network connections/cables, and optimised the Wifis channel (using inSSIDer 4). Then updated firmware for router and the network adapter.
2. Software - checked to see that all network settings were what they were supposed to be (using Homegroup, media streaming on) and ensured Services were set to optimise sharing.  Then did a system restore (which can only do successfully after uninstalling AVG!).  Finally, the problem appears fixed after following these steps to ensure UPnP device host, Windows Media Player Network Sharing services are restarted and set to 'Automatic' and then going into WMP12 Libraries and ensuring that Streaming is turned on.

Why, Microsoft?

Further Info:
New Rig
Software for New Rig
And Now (Hardware)...

The History and Future of Everything -- Time

The Importance of Definitions

Image credit: Unknown but appears here

Who said...

"Puny god."

"It's not an S."

"This drink... I like it!"
"I know, it's great right?"
"ANOTHER!"

"This isn't a car."

"I can do this all day."

"Yeah, I was. But after five days of agonizing pain, the cobra died."

"I hate working here — they are so weird!"

"No! They expect one of us in the wreckage, brother."

"I have to make sure these people never bother us again in our lives."
"What are you going to do?"
"What I do best."

"You asked me to come say goodbye. Sayonara!"

"There's uh...water in the tap."

"The rest of him was too fat for my horse." (You will NEVER get this).

"Sir, a helmet can interfere with my psychic abilities"
"Think a bullet in the head might interfere with them more."

"Okay, Robin wishes he was me."

"It was considered a very sexy name at the time."
"It sounds like an STD."

"You haven’t killed anybody in months!"
"That’s a positive thing!"

"Maybe I went and did the worst crime of all: I got civilized."

Previously on "Who said..."
December 2012
October 2010
June 2010
January 2010
December 2009
August 2009
January 2009
May 2008

Roswell Processor

Edit: turns out this was a marketing play by NVidia to drum up interest in their new Tegra K1 processor!

New Media

From

To

Really would like this tech to work

XDModo solar charger sticks to the inside of a window to soak up the sun

Helm's Deep ≡ Death Star

Think about it

A A RON

NEW RIG

• Streacom FC5WS Evo fanless chassis & 160W pico PSU
• Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H LGA1150 Micro ATX Motherboard
• Intel Haswell Core i7 4770T 2.5GHz 45W HD4600 8M Quad Core CPU
• Corsair 32GB (4x8GB) XMS3 DDR3 Memory
• Samsung SSD 840 PRO 2.5-inch SATA 128GB MZ-7PD128BW
• WD 3TB 3.5" WD30EZRX Caviar Green HDD
• 2xWD 2TB 2.5" WD20NPVT Green Power HDD

Further Info:
Mobo for New Rig
Software for New Rig
And Now (Software)
And Now (Hardware)
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

Mobo for New Rig

GA-Z87MX-D3H

Further Info:
Software for New Rig
And Now (Software)
And Now (Hardware)
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

Dumb Ways to Die

+Zombies

The Age's 'OddSpot' Monday April 15, 2013

A US perfumer has launched two new fragrances for zombies. Zombie for Him is a mixture of dried leaves, mushrooms, mildew, moss and earth and Zombie for Her is similar with a touch of dregs from the bottom of the wine barrel for a feminine touch.

Why Teens Are Tiring Of Facebook

Software for New Rig

• Windows 7 (64 bit)
• AVG Anti-Virus
• Google Chrome
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Media Center Studio
• Sonos Controller for the Play 3s
• Shark Windows 7 Codecs
• inSSIDer 3
• 7-Zip
• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 
• VirtualCloneDrive
• Duplicate Photo Finder
• Exact Audio Copy
• VLC Media Player
• GOM Player
• MKVtoolnix
• Mp3tag
• Microsoft Office
• Dropbox
• CDisplayEx
• Skype
• iTunes :(

Further Info:
And Now (Software)
And Now (Hardware)
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

I Can Haz Productivity?

I Can Haz Productivity? Why You Should Look at Cute Animals at Work

Who said...

"Hand me the keys you c*cksucker!"

"I didn't kill my wife!"

"What happens to us in the future? Do we become as*holes or something?"

"Gimme da f*ckin' keys you f*ckin' c*cksucker motherf*fucker, lalalalalala!"

"Give me my f*ckin phone call!"

"Hey Malkovich, Think fast!"

"Some motherf*ckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill."

"Hand me the keys you f*cking c*cksucker! What the f*ck?"

"That's it, man. Game over, man. What are we gonna do now?"

"Hand me the keys you c*cksucker!"

"Have you ever tried shawarma?"

"Ray, if someone asks you if you're a god, you say 'YES'!"

"Hand me the keys you f*cking c*cksucker!"

"All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain."

"And now, a word on nutrition..."
"Jeez, he's f*cked up!"

"You're going to need a bigger boat."

"The Good, the Bad and the Eww of Earwax Removal" by Melinda Beck, WSJ , 16 October 2012

The Tool Above Is An Essential Household Item

Yes

No

Ummm...

Create your own poll

Best. Dystopian Future. Ever. (It's all a deep end).

Pet Project

SainSmart SS808/MK808 Android 4.1 Mini PC TV Box 

Check out these specs - you can see why I had to buy this.

CPU RAM ROM Display Wifi I/O Power Supply	Rockchip RK 3066, CORTEX-A9, Dual Core 1.2-1.6GHz 1GB DDR3 8GB Nand Flash Mini HDMI RK 901 (support 802.11b/g/n) Micro SD (support 32GB) 1x USB2.0 Host 1x mini USB (support OTG/HOST) 1x mini USB (for charging) DC5V 2A
OS Dimensions Weight			Android 4.1 Jelly Bean 88mm x 31.5mm x 15.8mm 50g

Further Info:

And Now (Hardware)...

Retribution

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro's Telenoid Android

SAY 'TWEET' AGAIN.

Headline Shirts

Reblog: Owl In Flight

TYWKIWDBI

Now For A Holiday

And Now (Software)...

Now the new project is up and running, it's time to install some software with WAF. This 'puter is to replace the AOpen MP45-BDR in the living room connected to the TV.

Later I will look to add some storage in the living room for back-up and then upgrade the inside of the HTPC.

Software installed under Windows 7 (64 bit):

• AVG Anti-Virus
• Google Chrome
• Adobe Flash
• Adobe Reader
• Media Center Studio
• Gmote
• Sonos Controller for the Play 3
• Shark Windows 7 Codecs

Further Info:

And Now (Hardware)...

And Now (Hardware)...

Streacom FC08 fanless chassis with CIR &150W pico PSU
Intel DH67CFB3 mini ITX motherboard
Intel Core i5-2390T processor
8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM
120GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III SSD
Sony BC-5600S blu-ray drive

Further Info:
Getting Closer to Next Project
Next Project
Windows 7 Starter Kit
2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)
Baby News
RKHTPC

Windows Media Player Sucks

I finally got around to ripping those old CD's I've had lying around.

WMP12 and WMC7 are our WAF-approved applications for the management and playback of music (although Ezzy does have iTunes for her phone).

Now I have to find all those album covers and WMP12 absolutely sucks at finding them automatically. Then when it does find them it takes FOREVER to load them. Then once it's loaded them, you go back to your directory and WHOA it's moved and/or created copies of files all over the place, picked up wrong album covers for songs you already had fixed and sometimes not even done anything at all.

But when it's done... ahhhh.

Further Info:
"Find and Embed Album Art in Your MP3 Collection" by Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker, 27 June 2008

Solitude is the Air We Breathe

Getting Closer to the Next Project

Just working out costs and benefits for a new fanless desktop. Inside the case we don't need that much so will go for a low power Intel Core i5 processor and as much storage as possible.


The case choices so far are:

Streacom's FC05 OD (untested)

A-Tech Fabrications NAS4x (but can't handle full i5 processor)

HDPlex's H5.S Series (but product currently unavailable)

So still a bit of thinking to do. In the meantime, let's upgrade the Lorne media centre yay!


Further Info:

Windows 7 Starter Kit

I Yawned. Solid.

Sound-Style-Power-Connectivity-Value

Ezzy has been listening to more music at home via the TV, so we thought we would look into something a little more portable and less energy-intensive. Here are some of the options:

Lifetrons Drumbass IIIe

UFi UCube USB-Digital Speakers

Philips Fidelio Prime DS9000

Sonos Play 3

Yamaha TSX80

Yamaha TSX140

Interested in Conflict?

[Solved] Front LED Too Bright

One of the issues we have with the MP45-BDR (which otherwise is an awesome little HTPC for the living room) is that the blue LED on the front is VERY BRIGHT. It also blinks when the little one goes to sleep, almost as if a pulsar is approaching.


I looked into tweaking the voltage to the LED but the risk/reward pay-off wasn't there.


Instead I have opted for a small piece of transparent plastic which I shaded in with a Sharpie.

Further Info:

Windows 7 Starter Kit

Windows XP Starter Kit

2nd Baby Arrived (father doing well)

Baby News

RKHTPC

[Solved] Wi-Fi Extender

I, Dino

[Solved] To NAS or Not to NAS

After the stupid Inspiron 5150 died, we got the Asus Ezy PC. Then we relocated the HTPC to the study and started using Ethernet over Powerline to stream from the HTPC to the MP45-BDR.  This set-up works ok and even has WAF.


BUT
Somehow we filled up the 2x1TB drives on the HTPC, so the question becomes, is the Next Project a NAS or is it a new media PC (Sandy Bridge?) to replace the one at Lorne?  In particular, I am intrigued by the promise of WiDi 2.0, which might solve the problem of the bad connection infrastructure at Lorne.


SOLUTION?
In the end I went with upgrading the HTPC HDDs to 2x2TB HDDs.  I used WD Caviar Greens (combination of low power consumption and "brand name" reliability) so now we have 4TB of storage capacity (plus the old 1TB drives can be used in the Next Project).


Switching over the drives was fairly standard but, partly for fun, I installed a new USB3.0 card, and then used a cheap HDD dock to transfer the files (max speed observed was about 49MB/s - not earth-shattering but much faster than the USB2.0 speeds I was looking at, plus now I can use USB3.0 devices).


Now to copy those archived files onto the new HDDs and fill them up too.

eBay Results

Netcomm NP204 Powerline Adapters $102.50

Cotton Hammock $5.00 (donated to charity)

USB Multi-Display Adapter $20

DVico FusionHDTV DVT-T Nano $11.83

Intel 2.4GHz 4MB Core 2 Duo T7700 $60

Bose 301 Series IV Direct/Reflecting Speakers $208.50

Aiwa HV-MX100u VCR $25

 Alan Pinkus Ladies Gold & Silver open toe heels size 9 $1.25

Bose Lifestyle 5 Series II $415