Archive for 2009

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HTPC Update! (Bye bye ATV)

Monday, November 9th, 2009

I thought i’d break the apparent silence i’ve had on this blog (aside from Twitter updates) to post a quick update on my Home Theatre setup!

I’m quite (nerdly) excited about it – having finally moved from an AppleTv as my primary source for video, to a MacMini that I won from an Ebay Auction last week – which incidentally was a local sale, so I was able to pick it up, and not pay shipping charges. Nice.

Obviously, my media software of choice is Boxee, and was the first piece of software that I installed on it. Right now, here’s what my setup looks like (i’ll illustrate it a little better in a coming post):

32″ Toshiba LCD – wall mounted (mounted on the wall makes me feel fancy)
Dlink DNS323 – as my primary harddrive (networked)
Dlink DIR-615 – as our router in the house (its a cheap router, but has wireless N, which is nice)
PS3 – Gaming system, though, i’m wondering if I even need it anymore
Apple MacMini – An older 1.83 GHz Core2Duo machine, w/1gb Ram & 80Gb HD
Various Cables, power bar, etc etc.

I’m going to be picking up a Logitech DiNovo Mini as a keyboard/mouse controller, but for the time being, i’m just using my iPhone connected to the network, using Air Mouse. Thus far, its been fine.

I’m also considering picking up a Sony HT-CT100 3.1 Soundbar Surround system – perhaps when my next paycheck comes in!

I’ll post some photos of the setup in a day or so.

Posted in Apple, Boxee, Playstation 3, Talk & Rantings, Technology | 4 Comments »

Toronto Cyclists

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

I was going to keep my mouth shut about this, but I decided that its been a couple days since it happened, and I’m still kind of annoyed about it, so here I am posting about it.

On Sunday afternoon I had just gotten off the bus at Queen and Carlaw. I had waited for the light to change so that I would have the proper signal to walk, and cross the street safely. The bus I just got off was waiting there at the corner as well.

(more…)

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Posted in Politics, Talk & Rantings | 4 Comments »

Latest Boxee Build: Jump in the right direction

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

You can read about it here but I just wanted to throw out madd props to the Boxee Dev team for all their hard work on their latest release that coincided with a meetup in San Francisco. This latest version includes many enhancements, bug fixes, and just all around good stuff that lets us know that the development of this (currently) free piece of awesome software is very much alive in development.

Back a few months ago when I bought an Apple TV to be able to play with this little app that needed to be hacked onto the Apple TV, I didn’t even know that I would enjoy it so much. Since then, its cut my TV watching in half, and well, we don’t even subscribe to Cable services anymore. If this is a glimpse at what is coming in the future for the television industry, I like it.

If I were to give any advice to the big TV networks – i’d say that they should jump on the bandwagon and find a way to work with these people, because THIS is where television is going. I’d hate to make this parallel, but I’ve got a feeling that this whole TV On demand thing could potentially be the next Napster/Mp3 revolution. Lets learn from past mistakes, and take the right steps.

Thanks again to the Boxee team!!

Posted in Apple, Boxee, Talk & Rantings | No Comments »

Beejive + Push = A Happy Mikey

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

So, after a long while, and trying out a bunch of different IM clients for the iPhone, I finally settled on the BeeJive software (only during a special price promotion they were offering). It was a long time coming, and I was being relatively stubborn about putting out the extra money for this type of program, hoping that one of the free ones would be able to cover all the features I wanted.

One feature that NONE of them covered was Push – until last night – when BeeJive’s most recent iPhone app update was released. It was music to my ears when I saw on Twitter my friend Cristina posted that the update was available.

I updated almost instantaneously – and have not been disappointed. This app is fantastic and I highly suggest you purchase it if you’re looking for a solid IM app for the iPhone, that has push support.

Click here to buy.

Posted in iPhone, Talk & Rantings, Technology | No Comments »

NXNE Hasn’t Even Started, and i’m already exhausted

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

NXNE hasn’t even officially started (I know the opening party was last night but as you’ll read in this post, I didn’t get to go) and i’m already exhausted… Something about music festivals tires me out. When I went down to SXSW all it was every day was drink drink drink. NXNE is proving to be different this year.

I’ve agreed to help out my drummers other band (The Hots) with their show on Saturday night, since their regular guitar player will be out of town the night of the gig. This means learning  7 new songs with minimal rehearsals, and a pretty tight timeline (I only learned the 7th song last night). Last night I spent 2hrs rehearsing with the Birds of Wales, and then another 2hrs and a bit rehearsing with The Hots in the singer’s living room.

I don’t have a problem with rehearsing a lot, its just really freekin’ tiring focusing for that long (mind you, I only ate a bag of chips, and a bag of pretzels for dinner- so i’m sure that didn’t help).

Either way, i’m already exhausted, and have another 3 days of music to be playing – tonight is the first show, at the Kool Haus in Toronto. I’ll try and get some photo’s of the event – should be a good one!

Posted in Band/Music, Music, Talk & Rantings | No Comments »

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