Category Archives: Technology

Software, Technology

DreamVo

Leave a comment

Last week, I filled you in on my DVR history and my newfound obsession with building my own. For all the technical stuff, you should check out Adam’s article at lifehacker. Yes, it’s over a year old but the concepts are the same. He goes over the finer points of choosing a capture card and setting things up so I’ll leave that to him. I want to talk about the possibilities…

What really got me reeling about all this was the idea of building a computer for a brand new environment — my living room. What typically lives next to the television? Cable or satellite box, DVD player/recorder, DVR, audio receiver/stereo, game console(s). So why can’t we build all of that into one box and customize it to our own exact specifications? I think we can.

This is what I want on mine (I’m calling it DreamVo):

mythTV
mythtv_mainThere are lots of options out there for software and most of it is Linux-based. This was a little intimidating to me at first as I have never used Linux but I’m coming around… the idea of an OS I can make my own is pretty shiny. mythTV is available as a free download and it’s packed with tons of features and options, making it my choice on the software front. I may also check out SageTV or BeyondTV but both of those have to be purchased so I’m sticking with the free stuff for now. mythTV gives me many of the bells and whistles that are on my wish list such as:

Video editing
edit_commercialsCut out those commercials to save disc space and clean up files before archiving. This is something my current DVR won’t do and I wish for it every day. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to burn your favorite shows to DVD commercial free?

Electronic program guide
epguideNo subscription fees. Ever. Escape the drag of monthly subscription fees from services like TiVO by having your own interactive program guide at your fingertips. Change channels, select programs to record and view program descriptions. Did I mention it’s free?

Remote scheduling
web_programAh… one of my favorite things about the old ReplayTV was the ability to login to my account on their website and view the contents of my hard drive as well as set programs to record. So on those rare occasions where I left for work without setting the recorder for that night, I could quickly login and make sure I didn’t miss Party of Five or ER.

MP3 player/manager
musicRip, categorize, play, and visualize MP3/Ogg/FLAC/CD Audio files. (FLAC, Vorbis, and MP3 encoding). Create complex playlists (and playlists containing playlists) through a simple UI.

Console game emulator
emulatorAnother project I’ve been dying to tackle lately is to setup an emulator to play old school console games on my PC. Playing them on my TV instead? Even better. mythTV comes with an emulator for NES and SNES. I’m thinking I could acquire the skills to add Colecovision as well.

Weather
weatherGet current conditions, an extended forecast and radar at the click of a button. Forget sitting through the morning news or waiting for your area’s report on The Weather Channel. We’re talking instant gratification, baby!

DVD player/ripper
dvdBackup your DVD collection or use the ripper to cut file sizes down by going to a lower quality file. And of course, watch DVDs.

RSS news reader
news

Stay up-to-date without staying in front of the PC. Quick access to newsfeeds with this RSS reader.

What’s missing?

Web browser
firefox_linuxMozilla Firefox is available for Linux so it stands to reason that it could be integrated and be functional in a HTPC box. Imagine this: You’re watching a movie on DVD and having one of those inevitable “What else was she in?” discussions with your friends. You pause the movie, pull up IMDB in Firefox and have the answer!

Satellite TV on your computer
sattvtopcWebsites like satellitetvtopc.com claim to offer software that allows you to legally watch thousands of satellite tv channels on your pc. I haven’t tried this yet either, but it’s on my list. The site lists major networks on its channel list so I’m thinking free TV is definitely worth looking into. You pay a one-time fee for the software and supposedly the channels are free for the taking… but if /when it works I’ll have to figure out how to get the DVR to record off it!

Wireless keyboard/mouse
keyboard_mouseThis wireless keyboard/mouse combo available from DigitalConnection makes the perfect finishing touch to my DVR/HTPC setup. It has a small footprint, gets great customer reviews for connectivity and the built-in trackball/mouse it hard to beat! Once I get the web browser working, I’ll need to be able to reply to posts on my favorite forums or…

Instant messenger
Okay so I have a keyboard and mouse… I may as well be able to IM my friends right? I’m going to put Pidgin IM on my list. Again, it’s Linux-based so I’m thinking I can make it work.

I know this was a long list and most of the features are qualified with statements like “if I can figure out how to…” but that’s half the fun right? It is to me. I’ll keep you updated as I research and further develop the plans for my DreamVo.

Software, Technology

Digital Recorder Recap

Leave a comment

Ever since I bought my first DVR back in 1999 (Panasonic ReplayTV), I have wanted to do as others have done and hack into it. Off-the-shelf DVR’s traditionally ship with 80GB-ish hard drives and of course, it was only a matter of time before people realized how easy it was to crack open the case and put in a bigger drive. More hard drive space = more hours of recording time = win!

I was never brave enough to try my hand at upgrading my DVR. I just loved it way too much and was afraid my ignorance about computer hardware would lead to some type of critical mistake, leaving me DVR-less. Not to mention I paid a hefty price for being an early adopter ($600 plus) and that was just too much of an investment to take chances with.

But oh how the times change. The DVR died last year, not long before Christmas. I assume the hard drive went bad… I used the poor thing to the point of abuse and am surprised it lasted as long as it did. And let me tell you, just like everything else, they don’t make them like that anymore. I got seven years of service out of that machine and it worked great until the day it just stopped working.

So I found myself shopping for a new quickly. But much to my disappointment, the market is heavily dominated by TiVO. Back in the day, I bought the ReplayTV over the TiVO for one reason — they offered a lifetime subscription to their service for $199 compared to TiVO’s perpetual $5ish per month subscription fee. I finally found a combo DVR/DVD-RW machine with an 80GB hard drive and bought it last December.

About a month ago, the DVR started acting up (couldn’t get any video out to the TV in spit of the on-unit display working fine) so I started searching the web for a possible solution. That’s when I found this article at lifehacker.com and I was off. These units are commonly referred to now as PCHT (PC Home Theatre) units. Custom-sized cases that fit nicely in your home entertainment center are even being sold so you no longer have to find a way to fit a bulky tower somewhere near the TV.

I’ve gotten long-winded so next time I’ll fill you all in on the cool Linux-based GUI’s for homemade DVR’s and other exceptionally cool stuff.

Technology

Programs I can’t live without

Leave a comment

phpdesignerphpDesigner – If you do any kind of coding and are still plugging away in Microsoft Frontpage or Notepad, it’s time to think about getting yourself a real tool to work in. I found phpDesigner pro through one of the Joomla forums and fell in love with it immediately.

Now, I am not a coder. Ask me to write something from scratch and you can pretty much forget it unless it’s HTML (or a poem). But I am fairly skilled in the art of reverse-engineering. Meaning, I can take someone else’s code, figure out how it works, and modify it to suit my specific needs. But to do this, I need a clean work environment, an intuitive interface and a stable program.

phpDesigner gives me all that and more. With “intelligent syntax highlighting” it’s super fast to scan through the code to find the section I’m looking for and super difficult to leave a section of incomplete code in the file. It even sports a code completion option for n00bs like me! Throw in a syntax checker and the ability to remotely edit files via ftp and you have everything you could ask for in an editor.

The folks at MPSoftware even have a completely free personal edition available for download as long as you’re only using it to tinker on your own sites and not for commercial purposes.

smart_ftpSmartFTP – Pretty much everyone needs a good FTP program. SmartFTP has been my favorite for years. The interface is extremely easy to use and it offers multiple panes to include a multiple local and remote browsers, a transfer queue and many other utilities. You can even preview files right inside the program window. I use this program at least twice a day every day I touch my computer. It’s a must-have on all my PC’s.

Software, Technology, World of Warcraft

Programs I can’t live without, take 2

Leave a comment

trillianTrillian – So many friends, so many instant messengers… Multi-messengers are more plentiful today than they were a couple of years ago. You know the kind I mean — one program that will let you chat with your buddies on AIM, your co-workers on MSN, your Ultima Online pals on ICQ and your boyfriend on Yahoo! instant messenger. As far back as I can remember, Trillian has been around to make chatting simpler. It’s the Yoda of cross-platform instant messengers.

Plus, for geeks like me who have a need to customize EVERYTHING, there are skins in abundance to change the look and feel of the application. The privacy settings are highly customizable as well so if you’re not speaking to your boyfriend today, it takes about two seconds to set yourself invisible to him and no one else. Trillian also has SMS and IRC support.

firefoxFirefox – Mozilla’s browser won my heart and screen real estate over two years ago on the idea of tabbed browsing alone. Little did I know I’d fall further in love with goodies in the form of extensions. The user-driven development community is as huge as the hate is for Microsoft these days. I could spend all day browsing through page after page of extensions for the browser ranging from development tools, to communication and blogging tools, to toys and games.

Reading that old post makes me laugh… part of me can’t believe it’s been two years since I wrote that and part of me can’t believe I ever browsed the web any other way. I want to mention two of my favorite extensions here as well. The View Formatted Source extension is displays formatted and color-coded source information for the page you’re viewing and, optionally, CSS info. It’s a must-have for tweaking site layout or editing a theme someone else has designed to suit your own needs. When I went to create custom design for my World of Warcraft guild’s website, I used this extension, ahem… extensively. Coupled with ColorZilla and able only to modify the header graphics and CSS due to the hosting service we use, I transformed the site from a standard out-of-the-box template that about 50 other guilds were using to a truly custom design complete with tabard-matching colors and artwork. Colorpicker creates an eyedropper tool you can use on any part of your screen to get the hexadecimal color code for that pixel. It’s a real time-saver for hacks like me.

Technology

Give XP a facelift

Leave a comment

I’m not sure where I get this from but I like all my computer to be special. I don’t like to be like everyone else. It would drive me nuts if I had to look at the desktop background that shipped with my computer.

I need custom desktop wallpapers, themed browsers, to design my own websites… you get the idea. And I like things to be quick and simplified. I want shortcuts to my most used folders at my fingertips and tiny little background apps that will give me information at a glance without eating up all my RAM.

objectdockEnter wincustomize.com’s ObjectDock. ObjectDock is a program that enables windows users to organize their shortcuts, programs and running tasks in a cool animated taskbar replacement. There are lots and lots of skins (and you can even make your own) and docklets (plugins) to even further customize this cool tool. It took me a little time to figure out how to manage the icons and themes (either I’m overlooking it or documentation isn’t plentiful) but once I did I was hooked.

If you have the RAM to handle it, I strongly suggest checking out all the goodies at wincustomize.com. There are tons of apps to customize the way your PC looks and functions.

Life or something like it, Technology

Perpetual student

Leave a comment

I really love to learn new things. Not much compares to the feeling I get when I’m absorbed in something I am really interested in and I’m flooding myself with information. I’ve thought about going back to school many times but I can never settle on what I want to study. It’s hard for me to narrow it down to just one thing. Continuing education classes are probably better suited to my needs… a class here and there on random subjects.

Not to imply that I don’t value my education or that I’m completely convinced I’m in the wrong field. I just get bored so quickly that I bounce around to different things and wonder if maybe I did choose the wrong path. Lately, I think I should have majored in something computer-related. I’m old enough that most of my college work was done on an electronic word processor and not a computer (that thing was pretty nifty actually… had a small LCD screen and I could save to floppies).

I took a basic (not BASIC) programming class in high school but outside of that, everything I know I taught myself. And honestly, I know a pretty good bit for someone who has never had any formal training. But that’s just how I operate. I wanted to build myself a simple website the summer after I graduated from college so I bought “HTML for Dummies” and learned how. HTML became dated so I learned what I know about PHP and MySQL from installing and customizing web applications like phpBB, Joomla and OsCommerce. And then there’s hardware… I’m still mostly a novice when it comes to actually building machines, but it’s something I want to know more about.

The internet was created for people like me. It still amazes me that there’s rarely a question that can’t be answered by doing a Google search. I wrote a paper my last year of college (my actual major was in Communication Arts) about an all-in-one box that would combine computer, tv and phone and every new development gets us closer to that reality.

Maybe I didn’t choose the wrong field. Maybe I’m just an intense hobbyist. Or maybe I’m just a geek.

Life or something like it, Technology

Longing for Anonymity

Leave a comment

Every time I start a blog/online journal for the purpose of having some place to actually express my TRUE feelings, eventually the anonymity goes away and I find myself searching yet again…

Too many “real life” people know of this blog now and I can’t post with the freedom I once had.

Relationships, Technology

Book Deal

Leave a comment

I’d never read Breakup Babe’s site until today. But Blogger had this to say about her on the Dashboard page:

Having your heart repeatdly broken, evidently, can be rewarding. Congratulations to our very own Breakup Babe. She just got a book deal with Random House based on her blog. The book will be called Breaking Up, Blogging On. Well done!

The last book I read by a fellow blogger was Why Girls Are Weird by Pamie. It was such a fun story that I stayed up all night reading so I look forward to my next bit of Blogger lit.

Technology

Feedback Anyone?

3 Comments

I figured out why I was having such a hard time trying to design my own website. I kept trying to make it all busy and flashy with bright colors, dancing cats, etc. Which was just stupid. That’s not my style when it comes to design work. I’m more of the clean, sharp lines and lots of white space kind of girl. So I went simple. And I’m digging it. I’m still getting all the content plugged in but most of my portfolio is on there (minus the print stuff which is going to take forever to get online) as well as the contact info. If you guys have time, I’d love it if you’d drop by and let me know if you find any dead links, missing pics, etc. Remember though, it’s a work in progress so everything’s not there yet.

Kim’s Lilypad

Technology

Nothing Is What I Got

4 Comments

Why is it that when working on websites for other people’s businesses it’s all fairly easy for me? The design usually comes quick, followed by some coding and the the inevitable tweaking. But I’ve been trying to design my own site for about a month yet and I just can’t commit to anything. I think I’m putting too much pressure on myself to make it uber and therefore, nothing I’ve done so far looks good enough. I’m about to revert to simple design that will showcase my portfolio and give my rates and contact info and let that be it.

Technology

Take Back The Web

1 Comment

You guys may have noticed the new button I’ve added to my site (right). But I also wanted to take a minute to encourage you all not only to look at the button, but to click it. And then download the Firefox browser! If you need reasons, here they are:

  • Tabbed Browsing – If you haven’t browsed the web this way, you’re missing out. When I sign on in the afternoon to see what all my blogging buddies are up to, I go to my bookmarks folder, select “Open In Tabs” and Firefox loads them all up for me. It’s AWESOME!
  • Uber-fast Download – This baby literally took seconds to download and setup. It automatically imported my home page, favorites, and preferences from IE. There is no learning curve here.
  • Ad Block – Pop up ads are the bane of the internet and Firefox manages to completely eliminate them.
  • Speed – Before Firefox, I was of the mind that once I was on a broadband connection there was really no further way to speed up my web browsing. Boy, was I wrong. Windows SP2 had IE down to a snail’s pace (some BS “security” crap, I’m sure) but with Firefox, I’m zooming from one site to the next in record time.

There are at least a dozen other reasons, but you guys get the point. Follow the link. Read it all for yourself. And download it. Set it as your default browser and let IE go to that big Recycle Bin in the sky.

And before you ask — No, I’m not on their payroll. Firefox is a community-built application. There is no payroll. How cool is that?

Technology

Never done that before

Leave a comment

Tonight I learned how to remove components from the innards of a pc tower. I’m talking about unhooking things from the power supply and from the motherboard and pulling it right out of there! This was a completely new experience for me as I have never actually cracked open a computer before. It actually was kind of cool, except for having to hold that teensie little screwdriver with my carpal tunnel-ed hands. Regardless, I feel much smarter and even more a geek than ever before which, in my eyes is a good thing.

This blogging thing is really getting out of hand, btw. I am feeding my OCD with it by searching out the coolest and most clever blogs and sharing them here. Plus, I now feel I must have the niftiest of the nifty goodies such as the comment/trackback system from HaloScan and I’m working on the whole Blogrolling thing.

The screenplay has come to a screeching halt this week as Monica and I have both been swamped with work. But Monday should bring another work-session and hopefully bring us closer to having it completed. The first one will always be dear to my heart, but objectively, I think this one is far superior. On a related note, the film festival is next week and I can hardly wait. I am longing for the shorts (teehee) as Mon and I judged the features this year and I feel I’ve missed out. No hints from me about winners and non-winners but I can say that I did get to see Lightning Bug which was shot right here in the great state of Alabama!

Okay, enough mish-mash. I’m out.