tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2179416561348915162011-11-27T19:13:21.032-05:00interesting thoughts about having a mac media center.Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.comBlogger1251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-68067834867387627022010-08-25T10:55:00.002-04:002010-08-25T10:56:54.675-04:00

So about a week ago i ditched VUZE (no link because i ditched it) and made the switch to Transmission to make my torrent'ing lighter and easier.I had worried for a year or 2 that vuze's extra feature and plug-in's were useful and helpful. NOPETransmission has just enough control and automation and it's light (uses less ram and CPU) on the computer and it has a much better web interface.Thank you

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-10069464261383764442010-08-20T16:28:00.000-04:002010-08-20T16:28:31.147-04:00

It's a bit above and beyond for me but LifeHacker just posted this article about how to make your torrenting anonymous. I don't do it and only think it's neccessary if you are download alot of "scene realease" movies that just came out, which i don't tend to do. I can explain if any one wants to know but basically i don't mind waiting for a DVDrip, i don't want the copyright police after me (

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-19476670425021400052010-08-20T16:19:00.000-04:002010-08-20T16:19:58.321-04:00

So in starting torrent'ing I suggested The Pirate Bay as a great place to start searches. For movies, i suggest DVDrip files. These are smallish (700 mb usually) files but look pretty darn good. AXXO, and FXG are 2 "groups" that consistently do very nice DVDrips. I don't think AXXO is still doing rips, but still good to know that AXXO usually means good quality.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-89840524307134989032010-08-20T15:33:00.002-04:002010-08-20T15:35:12.081-04:00

I don't mention music much in these posts, but obviously it's key. I have a nice little trick.go to your user. Then to Music, Then to "Itunes media" (user/music/Itunes media) there will be a folder labeled "Automatically Add to iTunes". Make an alias of that folder and put it somewhere useful like the desktop, or your dropbox, or drag it to the sidebar. Or I actually made an alias on my laptop so

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-3916670857986879822010-08-20T14:09:00.006-04:002010-08-20T14:22:33.863-04:00

make your life easier in Transmission go to preferencesand turn off add a window (unless like me you want to keep it only when adding manually, but you probably don't even want that) also turn off some off the prompt user stuff...it will just hassle you, and you don't want to be hassled

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-5654313182802310532010-08-20T14:09:00.001-04:002010-08-20T14:09:48.278-04:00

so you read my simple how to torrent post and you have downloaded something, now you want to watch it.Let's start (and maybe end) with Front Row. It comes with the mac, works well, and is SIMPLE.The easiest way to keep things organized is to go to your mac's "movies" folder and drop your movie in there. Hit menu on the remote control (or command & escape), browse to movies, then movies folder and

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-10705979619751183582010-08-20T10:53:00.001-04:002010-08-20T10:55:01.488-04:00

I will go into automating everything later but this article actually is a pretty good overview (with pictures) and is very similar to how i do tv auto downloading.(oh and for the rssfeed i use http://ezrss.it/feed/)

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-8224598037515923692010-08-20T10:22:00.000-04:002010-08-20T10:22:13.777-04:00

This is super basic, but torrenting is super easy First download Transmission, and install it. then go to a site like The Pirate Bay. Do a search for something you want. Click the download icon (looks like a little green arrow pointing down i think) and a file will download that probably ends in .torrent. Double click it. You're done 2 extras: if you click the little magnet instead of the

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-15458125345021523662010-08-19T16:45:00.000-04:002010-08-19T16:45:26.527-04:00

Perian is a must have download. Free and useful

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-77444372293812913512010-08-19T16:23:00.001-04:002010-08-19T16:26:03.688-04:00

3 things that i don't really mind, but there is no getting around the fact that there are drawbacks as well1) no tv news (or not really)2) no live sports (yet)3) it's a pain to explain to peopleoh and4) it sucks alot more if your internet is down

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-73245166259981532222010-08-19T16:21:00.002-04:002010-08-19T16:28:27.760-04:00

Step one in setting up a media center is figuring out what you want.Do you want:Super High Quality Movies, or Medium, or Only DVD's?What TV shows do you want?How do you want to listen to music and how do you want to control it (i hate turning on the tv to play music, so i have options - If you have an Iphone or Itouch or Ipad, the Free Remote app is your friend)Do you want Hassle-less Media

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-82511786354314814432010-08-19T16:09:00.003-04:002010-08-19T16:15:58.035-04:00

Tricklesaver PC is awesome.Basically when my computer goes off (on a timer during the day) so does the hard drive that holds my media. The power for the speakers and TV as well (and our blackberry chargers too). when the computer powers on, then my tv and speakers and hard drive get juice too.The amount of phantom power now being turned off makes me feel good, makes my house slightly cooler,

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-47418067269618736932010-08-19T16:07:00.005-04:002010-08-19T16:43:40.827-04:00

Hello friend,I sent you this link because alot of the current posts are for you. and i am using this as a way to remember things, other wise i will forget to tell you.So you were thinking of HuluPlus - don't do it yet. You mentioned quality, and i bet a torrent from EZTV will look better than hulu anyday of the week.Also no adsI agree with this post, I think it is silly to have to pay once for a

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-58337007939337432072010-08-19T16:03:00.000-04:002010-08-19T16:03:03.222-04:00

So, Here's the basics of my setup, just to refresh HARDWARE: Basically it is a older Mac Mini (intel) with a DVI-HDMI Adapter. The Mac sees our TV as if it were a computer monitor, except once you are in Front Row (OS X's default media center app) it looks like a media center. I have external computer speakers as well (i ditched the receiver). We only use the mac remote, having ditched the

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-8435846951751225542010-08-19T15:40:00.000-04:002010-08-19T15:40:19.300-04:00

Hey so i created my Mac Media center 3 or more years ago and ditched cable. So what is my verdict 3 some years out. Love it. Sure initial expenses were high, but i knew I would pay off the cost of my mac with the savings from not having 100 bucks a month on cable. Math gets trickier when you add in Hard Drives, New Ram, or that Internet Access tends to go up when not bundled. However I

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-60947281119198221642010-08-19T15:28:00.000-04:002010-08-19T15:28:17.658-04:00

Hey, so it's been a while and i haven't really added any thing, and honestly not a ton has changed. however a friend of mine or 2 recently has asked about the whole torrenting thing, and honestly i've changed some of the way i've done stuff, so i'll see what i get the energy to write, and maybe it will be interesting/informative or something.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-46574123530276220782009-07-24T21:30:00.003-04:002009-07-24T21:34:46.219-04:00

EZtv has been down and hopefully will return soon. luckily there is a twitter link for all my program needs, but this has caused showrss to be super flaky.I've found though i don't really mind checking the twitter feed and just downloading a show. I check it in the morning or maybe at night and just download the programs i want. actually it's not to much of a pain.I do miss the automation that

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-21363885295249233562009-07-24T21:29:00.002-04:002009-07-24T21:29:48.298-04:00

This is a great post about having a mac media center I love tuaw

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-88812782162938769422009-07-21T20:19:00.001-04:002009-07-21T20:19:22.679-04:00

but i can't justify paying 229 because i really just want it as a remote control...but now that the rumour mills say it will include a microphone, its gets more tempting

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-8719302845798906432009-07-20T00:28:00.000-04:002009-07-20T00:28:30.411-04:00

this is a rant of sorts: i used to collect music. i figured i wanted to have it in case i wanted to listen to anything. i also sometimes use music as temporary guide tracks when editing video so i figured the more the better. i also know people who have hundreds of dvds. i think this is the interesting thing about streaming movies and music. i am currently in the process of removing music from

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-34029896896680356872009-07-20T00:20:00.000-04:002009-07-20T00:20:09.399-04:00

I have been playing with Understudy and i love it. it's a little too simple sometimes but that's it's beauty. it is great to watch youtube and hulu and Netflix... simple, legal, and did i mention simple. it doesn't have all of boxee's features but maybe that's not a bad thing. it installs into front row seemlessly and just rocks. i will test if i can make a daily show feed one day soon but i

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-66903251955827654792009-07-15T08:09:00.003-04:002009-07-15T08:16:10.552-04:00

hello,i am writing this to let you know more posts are coming. i think there haven't been drastic changes but lots of little things including the death of TVrss and EZtv being down.along with some other thoughts including my dream of an SSD (solid state drive) instead of SATA (not happenin anytime soon but i can dream), thoughts about a new mac mini, about netflix and hulu. and so on.life's been

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-55025261976272865732009-06-19T20:33:00.001-04:002009-06-19T20:34:50.431-04:00

What a pain in the butt it has been with TVrss gone away and tvshows app not working. i tried the rss plug in for vuze...horrible experience... but at this link someone posted a great way to download tv automatically from the post: showRSS (http://showrss.karmorra.info) is a website that allows you to create a custom RSS feed of your own TV shows. Automatic (http://codingcurious.com/automatic

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-27335209466857274062009-06-03T22:19:00.003-04:002009-06-03T22:26:46.228-04:00

this unclutterer link is great just for the line "Has peeling potatoes got you down?"has peeling potatoes ever gotten you down?

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-7162353415281640032009-06-02T07:06:00.000-04:002009-06-02T07:06:36.171-04:00

so TVrss is down for what looks like ever. so my tvshows app is broke. feedmytorrents.com is down.. so currently the best part of my system, the automation is gone.. will work on it and figure out what works best...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-84716523056335254762009-05-28T20:12:00.000-04:002009-05-28T20:12:00.376-04:00

Hulu has created it's own app... no wonder they dissabled apps like boxee from acces tuaw reviewed it here i actually think this is a good thing...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-87285453698627979232009-05-21T20:02:00.000-04:002009-05-21T20:02:09.045-04:00

so i've avoided this because, well really i've just been lazy, but i've wondered for a while. how do you listen to music at home? do you run all your music through an ipod, if so through a stereo or a dock type speaker? do you keep all of it on a mac/pc, and if so do you use computer speakers? a stereo. anyone still using cd's? I have ALL my music on a hard drive hooked up to my mac mini. I

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-23402149119063821392009-05-08T18:06:00.002-04:002009-05-08T18:06:47.735-04:00

macosxhints has this great hint for automating your tv shows downloading if you don't want to use the tvshows app or an rss feed inside vuze or something

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-49918919493061730292009-04-22T10:37:00.000-04:002009-04-22T10:38:13.196-04:00

so one of the things that's annoying my recently about my whole setup is that i plug my ipod in to sync and then to have the podcasts updated and deleted if i've heard them it's a 3 step process.  Plug in ipod - refresh podcasts - resync ipod - eject.which mean i have to go to another computer to do. yuk. i created an automator action/applescript that was supposed to do this but it only wokrs

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-22179405338911597082009-04-16T12:53:00.002-04:002009-04-16T12:57:16.430-04:00

Hey this is becuase of a conversation i had yesterday. here are bittorrent basic from life hacker, instead of writing all the stuff over again i think LH does it betterhere's the basicsthen read the intermediate stepand finish up finish up with some tips, i don't find them as useful, but you may.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-88460561947819243202009-04-16T10:29:00.000-04:002009-04-16T10:29:03.048-04:00

hey so in thinking about all this torrent stuff i realize a flaw/lie or something in all this media center stuff. I have it all automated - shows automatically download, go to their proper folder, and i don't need to do a thing. but i do, i tend to check it often, I futz with it all the time. I don't need to, but i do. It's a little bit of a hobby now. Now it doesn't need to be, if i let it

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-51174401560693634872009-04-08T21:48:00.001-04:002009-04-08T21:48:32.295-04:00

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2006/11/how_bittorrent_.html

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-49676747478573556012009-04-07T12:25:00.002-04:002009-04-09T23:05:51.786-04:00

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/coming-next-using-your-pc-as-a-cable-box/ btw the most illuminating part "Why should you care? Because ultimately this is what's needed to move from a broadcast world—where you have a choice of a few hundred available channels—to one where your cable system will let you watch any program you want when you want to watch it. (Sort of like the Internet, huh?)

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-87270589012469469992009-04-02T15:00:00.001-04:002009-04-02T15:00:46.429-04:00

So i want to go see the Watchmen, and i am looking for a specific theater. It's not on fandango, not on moviefone. so i googled it. Google shows all the movie theaters in town and is such a nicer cleaner interface. gotta love Google

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-15180577800280935072009-04-02T08:55:00.004-04:002009-04-02T08:59:16.523-04:00

so I find that recently "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" torrents on tv.rss haven't been uploaded particularly quick (the torrent files not the seeding speed), so if you need your fix quicker go to The PirateBay or Demonoid and search for elokb (bloke backwards) - who ever he (she?) is the post really quickly with good quality.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-62827040657496773672009-04-02T08:52:00.001-04:002009-04-02T08:58:46.096-04:00

i'm not the biggest sports fan, but i know many are so i love that one of my favorite sites EZtv - (just?) opened a sports site ezsports.tv.i found out about it as part of their april fools joke, but it seems real.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-2575516546755245882009-04-01T12:26:00.000-04:002009-04-01T12:27:41.647-04:00

here's an old but great tip to watch cspan on your mac

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-13713440777602398362009-03-30T20:16:00.004-04:002009-03-30T20:21:10.083-04:00

i think it's fun to notice what free swag gets handed out - like at conferences and suchat one point it was ipod shuffles, before that it was those cd business cards that never worked in my slot loading cd drive.Thumb drive are always a big easy one,but now the big give away item seems to be collapsable bags and big canvas bags to, you know, save the earth and use less plastic.interesting (at

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-49889977560487309792009-03-28T10:21:00.002-04:002009-03-28T10:22:01.873-04:00

here's a link:http://torrentfreak.com/bartor-enters-bittorrent-barcode-scanning-market-090325/cool article about being able to scan a barcode - search for a torrent based on that bar code and viola

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-74125804225426760172009-03-28T09:36:00.000-04:002009-03-28T09:36:02.225-04:00

the day after i wrote my morals post, my wife was complaining about those annoying newish pop up ads that webpages have started to use. you know that one that covers content and is usually a pain to close. just an interesting case where ads are implemented badly - i can see many bad ad implementations in tv to come....

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-11487806510689125102009-03-26T14:28:00.001-04:002009-03-26T14:29:10.327-04:00

so i've been thinking a little (only a little though)Here's the thing - lets say i watch The Daily Show. "i watch the Daily Show"I have 5 possible ways to watch it:CableOn a Computer through a browserBuy it on itunesThrough something like BoxeeSteal it with BitTorrentI don't watch through cable, i dumped it. I find watching through a computer no good for me. i don't buy it through itunes.So Boxee

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-8692731808156234712009-03-25T09:39:00.002-04:002009-03-25T09:42:57.400-04:00

last.fm - (a pretty cool service) is changing it's policy - outside of the us, uk and some other places it is going to start to charge. I am sure this has to do not with them but with the people who provide them their content (aka record labels) and i gotta say, i think it's amazing how hard this balance is:i don't think we should all get something for nothing - but i feel older media (record

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-23615365588922138962009-03-25T09:31:00.001-04:002009-03-25T09:33:01.611-04:00

life hacker has this post about a new hulu like site for academic lectures...cool(sorry i've been so link heavy - i'll try to be less so)

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-89592312806700089522009-03-25T09:27:00.002-04:002009-03-25T09:28:12.215-04:00

hey - i'm not going to go into all the new boxee features - lifehacker.com, tuaw.com, and the boxee blog (feed://blog.boxee.tv/) do that well. but PBS - YAY!i got to find something i had worked on - it was easy to find and that was kinda cool. (it looked so-so) but having PBS on boxee is great...pandora is kinda cool - but the fact that they are opening up there API means people will

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-71573772028111348622009-03-22T17:04:00.002-04:002009-03-22T17:05:19.207-04:00

bt another vuze love post -web interface - it's clunky as hell but vuze has a couple of plug-ins for remote web control. so with no other software and a simple ip address, i can control it from any computer on the Internets... i can add torrents remotely and stop and start torrents. So useful as a time wasting thing to say "hmm, i wonder what i've downloaded or am downloading:useful, sure why

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-66500988246647961832009-03-21T20:22:00.001-04:002009-03-21T20:23:42.462-04:00

lifehacker has this post on using dropbox and bittorrent together, i've been doing this for months now. dropbox is a great way to manage torrent files. i actually now have my "Tvshows" program download into dropbox. that way if i am away I can look at the web interface and see what torrents have been added.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-68266184082499264032009-03-21T09:56:00.002-04:002009-03-22T17:02:51.088-04:00

this is just a link, but torrentfreak is reportting that south by southwest is basically giving away tons of music by there musicians to promote there music.http://torrentfreak.com/sxsw-2009-on-bittorrent-6-gb-of-free-music-090312/ i'm not sure i'll download this much, but i do think it's great because alot of people will discover new music

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-30258213278061194772009-03-08T18:06:00.002-04:002009-03-08T18:12:42.650-04:00

so i though i would write a little quick thing on Vuze or what used to be called azureus.i don't use transmission, or utorrent, or bits on wheels as my bit torrent client - i use Vuze. Why?the plug ins-i have mine set up with speed scheduler - so i have a more complicated schedule of fast and slow than transmission allowsauto category - i have my episode of the daily show go to a folder called (

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-78187806054099170012009-03-08T13:45:00.002-04:002009-03-08T13:47:27.998-04:00

Man I really like the new Mac Mini. Nothing that much nicer than the old ones, but faster, more memory, and FW800. I am trying to resist blowing 600 bucks on one

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-43904235812178323582009-03-08T13:45:00.000-04:002009-03-08T13:45:12.614-04:00

this is an interesting older post that i find interesting about the music industry and whether File Sharing is killing it.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-76947645642226573712009-03-08T11:39:00.000-04:002009-03-08T11:39:22.523-04:00

so, there's new boxee and hulu news... but really my confession is this - i am pretty much not using boxee. i love it and the concept, but i pretty much am using front row. and torrent'ng my tv shows and movies (and doing DVD rips with mac-the-ripper from netflix) what is great about front row and the mac in general is how simple it is. so i have the option if i ever want it, but really simple

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-4125930832446375912009-02-27T22:14:00.002-05:002010-04-02T11:40:00.778-04:00

I've previously raved about dropbox, but now they are doing the referral thing - aka if i refer you we each get 250 mb more space- so for the 1.5 of you reading this here's a link btw i use dropbox daily. great for freelancers who don't neccesary have an office. you can upload through the web and it's darn handy. also good for multiple computers... UPDATE: Dropbox has increased how much space

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com69tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-9198035256084149252009-02-25T11:50:00.000-05:002009-02-25T11:50:53.897-05:00

hey, based on a bar conversation i thought I'd write this up - I'm at work so it will be quick and dirty Youtube is great but sometimes you want that media (whether to edit or on an iphone type thing) the easiest way to download it is to use kickyoutube.com. you search for your clip in youtube then type kick in front of youtube like this: http://kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=3MVtE7C-YVc it will

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-35940673919800055722009-02-21T12:48:00.002-05:002009-02-21T12:50:52.688-05:00

this free google code app is an easy way to setup netflix in front row...it's simple and pretty much works...there is a conflict between this and some other plugs in my mediacenter, but i tried it on a laptop and workshulu is also an option but doesnt work as of friday...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-85788790238375322032009-02-21T12:21:00.000-05:002009-02-21T12:21:52.248-05:00

i haven't tried this yet but this article talks about how to enable hulu and boxee...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-12479643638455029032009-02-19T22:21:00.002-05:002009-02-19T22:23:59.311-05:00

this article from lifehacker say it all, instead of watching hulu's ad's people will steal again.that's revenue lost for no reason.idiots

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-81689395066753448762009-02-19T22:20:00.000-05:002009-02-19T22:21:43.924-05:00

So this may or may not be interesting:I was working on a job where we needed a clip from a movie (just for scratch, if we use it we will pay or give credit where credit is due). Instead of renting it and ripping a DVD and all that I downloaded a torrent and just sent it to my home computer to download. By the time i got home, it was downloaded and i just brought it in the next day - geeky but

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-16175472198790143232009-02-19T07:29:00.000-05:002009-02-19T07:29:00.536-05:00

so all over tech blogs is the bad news - hulu is somehow making it so you wont be able to watch it on boxee or xbmc, or anything as of friday. bad move. i see no reason to do this, the same ads show in the briwser version as in boxee, in fact many a comment on tech blogs were "guess i'm bck to torrrent'ing. Here's boxee's reax. i think it's because they are afraid of people switching to media

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-55633034689427159592009-02-06T14:02:00.045-05:002009-02-06T17:21:57.934-05:00

So this whole time I've been kinda selling the whole "get a computer to go into your tv and create a new cable box" but that is flawed. Part of the beauty of all this is how flexible it is. For instance my friend who travels alot and is away from home weeks in a month and just has his laptop. What is he to do: well this post is for him First of all you can always just stream video from the

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-8595577676166064342009-01-24T20:50:00.002-05:002009-01-24T21:03:32.343-05:00

So i wrote a bunch of post in december about Mediacenter apps and actually forced myself to play with them a bit, after a month here's what i use and for what:Front Row is still my main app. It's Simple and Works well. I have a folder inside the movies folder for TV and one for movies. I listen to music and podcasts. I sometimes view pictures with it, but really not much. anyone who visits can

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-9827057833515946952009-01-24T20:38:00.005-05:002009-01-24T20:48:31.748-05:00

Hey - so i am kinda losing focus, this was supposed to be a blog that made things clear for my friends about how to do the whole MMC (mac media center) thang and although i like to ramble i might try and focus a little more about the 2-3 technical things 1) the media center itself and how i use it 2) what sites are good to download what content3) how to get started (maybe)first up will be a

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-20036137222845018152009-01-24T20:35:00.001-05:002009-01-24T20:37:16.025-05:00

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-32462588402863143592009-01-19T12:04:00.004-05:002009-01-19T12:09:32.785-05:00

btw there are lots of public domain movies you can torrent and it's totally legitPublic Domain torrents is one that allows you to torrent a lot and stream some.You torrent will search a bunch of sites for free legit torrents so you can download old chaplin movies and not feel guilty...I think Vuze also has some stuff, but mostly high def trailers and what not...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-44117763535208868222009-01-18T10:24:00.003-05:002009-01-18T10:30:05.044-05:00

So the other day i was streaming Our Man Flint on netflix via boxee and i thought it was awesome...but then i watched a dvd the next day and remembered how much smoother and better it was. also even torrent'ed files are bigger and better and i gotta say i think it will be a little while longer before internet can get that video that good. it actually suggests hope for all the industries that

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-30172008056710432112009-01-18T10:21:00.000-05:002009-01-18T10:23:44.336-05:00

the NY times has this article about boxee go boxee, i really like how they run there company. they really respond to feedback too...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-78765295223615932642009-01-16T19:48:00.002-05:002009-01-16T19:49:54.465-05:00

Fileshare Freak Has this nice list of DVDscreeners (so their quality is not up to true DVDs) for the oscars

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-67411592544533571112009-01-16T16:58:00.003-05:002009-01-16T17:06:54.529-05:00

what is stealing? when is it ok? why do libraries exist to borrow books for free, but video rental costs money?the lines are arbitrary but i do think most people skirt them one way or another - whether watching a movie on youtube vs torrent'ing them (you know who i'm talking about :-)) or full on stealing. My line depends on the size of the company/artist. For music for example, i don't usually

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-46263925865608181492009-01-16T11:26:00.004-05:002009-01-16T11:28:18.142-05:00

i think i wrote about feed my torrents before but this link is an easy way to just get High Def rss feeds of tv.useful for those of you who want to watch a show (like BG) in only high def...

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-49178550426935638542009-01-16T09:10:00.004-05:002009-01-16T11:26:09.832-05:00

someone rightly commented on one of my long post about media center options (sorry it was so lengthy, i will probably add an update too - kinda of what am i am finding works for me most days) and commented that i totally forgot to mention alot of the best features in some of the internet steaming stuff is USA (or in the case of BBC Iplayer, UK) specific.When I blather about the music industry

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-35833302929481415812009-01-16T08:29:00.002-05:002009-01-16T08:35:24.775-05:00

One of the biggest flaw with all this media center things if you go full force is the lack of live TV. There are only 3 times that i think that really matters: Event TV, News, and sports. I'll write about sports and event TV anothertime, but new is an interesting problem. CNN and MSNBC both have some impressive online stuff, but unless it's a big event like the election or a debate, they don't

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-49530777809861066632009-01-15T13:31:00.007-05:002009-01-15T14:57:33.985-05:00

Sure the youtube has music video's but i gotta say MTV has a good video site and the compression is not bad, the videos looked nice. I was playing this for my baby girl...Beyoncé - New Music - More Music VideosAnd it's a channel on boxee now and it looks and works pretty well. and no commercials unless you embed it. also lifehacker has a nice post on something called casttv it's one of those

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-67051972078492147562009-01-14T20:46:00.003-05:002009-01-14T20:51:16.814-05:00

So i had one of those annoying tech experience with NAS drives in December - i complained about ithere, then here, then here.so just to follow up the sales manager from OWC talked to his tech guys and wrote me this "The Nas will work for what you are using it for but adding data or ripping data from it will be at the reduced speeds and that is were FW will trounce a Gigabit connection."so he

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-46463732545987287072009-01-14T20:36:00.006-05:002009-04-15T18:32:17.412-04:00

This is totally unrelated to media centers, but if you have more than one computer or need to access some files from work and home, you should signup for dropbox. basically this works like an idisk only better. once you install it you have a folder and anything you drop into it sync up in the internets/clouds/ or magic genie box in the sky. and then it does a bunch of cool things 1) if you have

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-67236709025910078832009-01-14T20:29:00.004-05:002009-01-14T20:36:03.934-05:00

torrentfreak has this article on a 200 buck box that plug into your tv and can access youtube, play videos from a attached usb drive and bit torent for you..i think more and more of these boxes will come to be - many ethernet (NAS) disks have some flavor of bit torent in them too...imagine buying a wireless router that has bittorent internal to it, downloads for you and connect to your tv via

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-24701543305663424412009-01-14T16:00:00.006-05:002009-01-14T16:25:02.807-05:00

Alot wiser than i have tackled this subject but i figured it was important and i might have a thing or to to add. So what about the fact that stealing (by downloading torrents) destroys jobs (and artists)?  Lets look at music because it is much further along the path then tv and video. I think mostly because music is smaller and easier to download, but it also might be that TV is "free" while it

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-37615198259779944892009-01-14T15:45:00.000-05:002009-01-14T15:45:00.673-05:00

Here's a short little thing i've been pondering: how much choice is too much?There was a lot of new science research in the last two years that summed up really sloppily came to the conclusion that all these choices we have don't really make us any happier, and can make us less so. I've heard the magic number put at 3,4, and 7 choices are the maximum. funny how there used to be 3 major networks

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-58386542081842076342009-01-14T15:23:00.003-05:002009-01-14T15:30:30.170-05:00

Hey, so i've haven't been so inspired to write anything new because i've got a couple big issues to tackle - stealing, how does all this effect the industry, how much is too much choice, but after having dinner with Axuve  Axuve i feel slightly inspired to write something and will try and get my act together and write something...Happy New Year

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-38099373810134159122008-12-31T09:40:00.000-05:002008-12-31T09:47:52.704-05:00

with all the holiday swag my daughter received from her grandparents, i've been thinking about clutter - ALOT . I don't think i mentioned that that is probably reason number 1 why i love having a little computer that holds music, movies and such. In my apartment you'll be hard pressed to see a cd or dvd. we don't have the space and although covers are pretty, i've never bought a cd for the

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-12844811624947113412008-12-30T23:22:00.003-05:002008-12-30T23:27:55.609-05:00

I was just playing around with some of the new pretty amazing Boxee plugins that gives you access to a ton of movies, and i realized something about myself.I would rather download something and watch it a day from now rather then wait for that same movie to buffer if i am playing it via the internet. If it tells me 2 minutes to buffer i don't mind, but watching a spinning cursor with now idea how

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-77598020524145372272008-12-30T20:26:00.002-05:002008-12-30T20:27:23.253-05:00

unrelated? yes, but a must see for everyonei saw this via here:http://whywhywhywhywhy.com/2008/06/diy-project-bed-pocket/

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-65948695907880392722008-12-28T18:30:00.004-05:002008-12-28T18:34:38.641-05:00

I don't want to make this just a blog of links, but i am tired and at the same time realized i don't think i ever mentioned Perian. Perian is called the swiss army nice of video codecs. basically download and install it and most video formats will play on your mac. add Flip4mac and that shoud be all you will ever need.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-31622247894530444482008-12-26T12:58:00.000-05:002008-12-26T13:02:40.853-05:00

LifeHacker had this post about a tivo like mediacenter and i have 2 opposing thoughts 1) how cool, they should make a mac version 2) how unneccessary, part of the beauty of a modern media thingy is how little you need cable. the only big exception i can see is sports...i am not a big watcher of any and i could see wanted cable then....i went looking for live sports streaming sites and was

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-59196442903943033452008-12-22T22:13:00.001-05:002008-12-22T22:17:45.245-05:00

I have never been great at Rss feeds and torrents, that why i use tvshows, but this website Feedmytorrents may be a solution. it gives instructions and seems great. If you don't know: if you set up an RSS feed of, lets say 30rock: everytime a new episode comes out in the torrent world, your bittorrent program will know and automatically download it. With out this (or some version of) it is too

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-42060491167594037122008-12-19T09:21:00.000-05:002008-12-19T09:22:44.664-05:00

lifehacker has this post on how to build your own media center computer for under 200 bucks probably too much work for me, but for those computer builders out there

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-23316207905785847372008-12-17T14:30:00.000-05:002008-12-17T14:32:17.057-05:00

This is from Lifehacker i think, but if you want to keep a youtube video and download go to the video in youtube and just type in kick before youtube.com. aka kickyoutube.com/blah..... it will give you options to download - it's pretty cool and simple

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-11111875430179541802008-12-16T16:31:00.001-05:002008-12-16T16:31:46.476-05:00

unrelated but cool

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-47507469893924068592008-12-15T20:24:00.002-05:002008-12-15T20:30:58.397-05:00

So i wrote the posts about Mediacenter apps mostly to work through it in my head, and to give a very basic background and here's what i am doing:Front Row is my main app. It's Simple and works well with music and with DVDpedia and the Boxee Plug-in i can play with boxee's internet features if i want and browse for movies by genre with DVDpediait took about 1-2 hours to input all my info ito

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-56921605139677876212008-12-15T10:25:00.005-05:002008-12-15T20:24:24.123-05:00

Ok, almost done with this topic, for now. I'm sick of it, i can't imagine anyone else is reading it, but i like to finish what i started....There are 2 main plugins that i have found for front row (this is opposed to an amazing number created for an appletv): Sapphire and DVDpediaBasically they appear in your front row menu and help you organize your media. (i will try and add on screenshots

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-47506043214166789332008-12-14T23:05:00.007-05:002008-12-15T01:00:34.855-05:00

This is awesome (you gotta check out the views on the top right corner the tilt-viewer is hypnotic)These are my movies exported from DVDpedia (part of my next post about front row plug-ins) using this plugin. to see the piclens view you need to download cooliris, but it's just kinda cool

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-42184771885767726962008-12-14T14:03:00.001-05:002008-12-14T14:04:52.621-05:00

Check this out their tag line:The cable/satellite monopoly is over.

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-5028844446077542622008-12-13T11:54:00.003-05:002008-12-13T12:21:35.894-05:00

continuing my Mediacenter Posts this is part 2. right now there are 3 main alternative for FrontRow. They are all based one way or another on Xbmc. They are literally alternatives for front row. you can easily set that your remote opens the app and also controls them (or actually they do it by default often). But they all have some advantages and dissadvantages. I will do an overview of pro's and

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-47251004752631195062008-12-12T12:11:00.003-05:002008-12-12T12:14:14.340-05:00

I figure i'm a little media center heavy and forgetting the torrent stuff, so here is a nice older link but still pretty useful10 tips to help you torrent fast and betterhttp://torrentfreak.com/top-10-bittorrent-and-rss-tips-081130/

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-79537642119334440202008-12-11T11:39:00.003-05:002008-12-11T11:40:52.874-05:00

Is your Itunes library a mess? does it drive you crazy? Try TuneUp. i've tried other apps but this one seems like one of the best..it also will tell you about concerts of the musicians you like....

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-54926338731690134932008-12-11T09:46:00.006-05:002008-12-11T10:02:12.896-05:00

I am going to try to keep this as concise as I can, but it's actually a pretty tech laden post, so sorry, but i hope is is informative.....I will do it parts to make it less painful Mac has a great interface in FrontRow: their mac media center app - you click menu on your remote (or command-esc) and up comes movies/tv/music etc). if you don't use itunes movies, you can just add a folder or alias

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-70890857053713595122008-12-11T09:12:00.005-05:002008-12-11T17:09:42.197-05:00

So this is for Blue turtle, who i was having a conversation with the other day and we were talking about money and i said, "well you can always just get rid of cable and save about a hundred dollars a month" and they acted like they had never thought of this. Well, Damn. i would say that I clearly am not writing the blog i would hope i was writing.....anyways BT then responded well i'ld have to

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-72884312847695866562008-12-08T12:19:00.004-05:002008-12-08T15:57:52.841-05:00

what's actually really cool about this blog is it's forcing me to learn things quick...stuff i dabbled in but now am really trying, funny since the people reading this won't care or try it, but hey it's motivation and who doesn't need thatI am in the process of writing a rather long and hopefully interesting post on mediacenter apps. FrontRow was mine of choose but i think it's about to go on the

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-69722604082187694162008-12-08T11:48:00.002-05:002008-12-08T11:51:08.626-05:00

not to beat the netflix thing to death, but here's an interesting thought i had...what's to stop me from sharing my netflix account with all my friends? provided i tell them they can't mess with my dvd queue or billing.will people start sharing netflix accounts?

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-7622757027651222472008-12-08T11:01:00.005-05:002008-12-08T11:47:36.767-05:00

So the internets is all abuzz today about the fact that netflix now works on Tivo, (along with everything else that you hook up to a monitor, except an apple tv). I think this is great, but seriously if you have a Tivo it's super-duper, but if you don't.....wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy their little box for 100 bucks or just by a xbox and use that (then yu can play halo), it doesn't do as

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-67917612498644439492008-12-07T14:39:00.003-05:002008-12-07T15:32:46.817-05:00

So i wrote that remote control your mac thing a little drunk (or maybe not a little - i've had a nice weekend) and forgot one of my favorite "new" apps iTRC.less of a media center app, its a great way to control itunes on a networked computer. Most apps let you just share your music and play it on the computer you are typing on, but if you have a computer with good speakers and are on a different

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217941656134891516.post-88645931028566018332008-12-06T00:12:00.005-05:002008-12-06T10:14:30.380-05:00

File this in the tech section, but hopefully it wont make your eyes glaze over:I get asked alot "so what you have a keyboard attached? I dont think i want to have a computer...." then i interrupt them (i do that alot anyways) and reply "no, no keyboard"so how do i control a mac without a keyboard?glad you asked, i have a couple of ways1) I kinda don't need to. Front Row and most Media Center Apps

Invisible Mannoreply@blogger.com1