I have been playing with a media center with various Media Center Software and Operating Systems. I have finally settled on Media Center again. Unfortunately my machine is not a beast so I opted for the XP version MCE2005.
I started running Media Portal with great success until version 1.0. Follow this distribution my HTPC ground to a halt. I found it far too feature filled for the average user at the detriment of performance. I do however still find myself looking for some features which are found in this great piece of open-source software. This led me to MCE. I tried an install without success and after tinkering for a few weeks, I moved onto Ubuntu running MythTV which was unbelievably quick and gave great support for video. Not being a Linux geek I found it a challenge to install any peripherals especially my Hauppauge TV card.
Finally I took the plunge and made an attempt at installing MCE2005 again. After some trouble installing (the SP2 disc it asks for is actually the first install disc) I was on my way. One of the main reasons I opted for MCE is because of the support with XBOX. This was very appealing as I could now have media center functionality in multiple rooms of the house without adding any new hardware to my network. I then realized that the XBOX 360 was unable to stream video content in AVI or DIVX format. In fact Microsoft limited formats to: WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and a few other MS standards. You can view the full list here. Damn, I now found myself with a great media center with no ability to stream to my XBOX….deal breaker. I was wary to move onto TVersity so I began the research again.
Enter Transcode360. I was trawling the web trying to find a solution and I came across a single lonely forum post (unable to reference as I never bookmarked it. Apologies to the author) that referenced Transcode360. I downloaded it without much confidence in its ability to fix this problem. I got home installed the MCE addon and that was it! Right click in the MCE interface on XBOX got to “more..” , then “transcode” and within a second the video is streaming across the network. Flawless and integrated. You can view the developers website here. The download link unfortunately isn’t working but you can download it from softpedia.
I hope this article helps someone.
By: bossmanthe | Friday, April 3, 2009 at 11:19:00 AM | |
A North London Derby always produces something a little extra from both teams, sometimes its aggression sometimes nerves and sometimes sheer brilliance.
First Half
Spurs seemed to be spurred on by the re-arrival of their new captain Robbie Keane and were chasing every 50-50 ball with a sense of purpose from early on in the game. In the first 20 minutes neither team seemed able to stamp their authority on the game and the heat maps showed a game spread wide and deep across the pitch.
Spurs started to gain some stride and the edge in possession as the half progressed Woodgate finding space in their air on a few occasions and Modric finding support in Keane and Palacios seemed to step his game up a level.
The pivotal moment of the second half came out of the frustration of Eboue who having been carded earlier on for talking back to the referee received his second yellow and marching orders after a retaliatory kick after a Modric foul.
Spurs tried to step the game up a gear but rather than slowing the pace and looking for holes they opted to continue the high paced push forward perhaps running on energy more than strategy and while they had a few opportunities Arsenal survived to regroup at half time.
Second Half
As expected Spurs were dominant in the second half in terms of possession and position, holding the ball comfortably in the midfield and up the flanks. However with Arsenal dug in in defence they struggled to find a way through and create meaningful chances. Modric had two of the closest attempts in the second half both of which come from a rare counter attack.
Arsenal in the guise of Van Persie were able to trouble the home side on occasion but the opportunities on both sides were rare in the second half. Spurs surprisingly found more space upfront in the first half against a full Arsenal Side than they were able to find in the second against 10 men.
All credit to the Arsenal defence and Alumnia for holding on for the draw. No doubt both teams left White Hart Lane a little disappointed Arsenal will have wanted 3 points to stay in the chase for Europe and Spurs fans will be bitterly disappointed to not have capitalized against Arsenal.
A draw but in somes ways both teams will have felt they lost.
About Heat Maps:
Heat Maps allow you to see at a glance where the action has been taking place. The field is colour coded according to where the each team has had possession. The scale begins at Blue and the most travelled areas are indicated by Red hotspots. In each half the action of each team is relevant to the other teams’ possession so that you get an overall view of the game in context.
See how these two teams compared in the first clash in September. Stats, heat maps and full on-ball playback. Awesome details I didn't see when watching the game before.
Oi Oi bad. V bad! (for most decent computer users).
However, what was potentially interesting, was the way they showed the son with billy boy using some "new" software. (Shh dont tell anyone).
Sorry Jerry, the dry comedy and slow action is hurting. However the slow pace might make you more susceptable to the message at the end.
Yet I am still trying to work out how they are carrying their vision.
Here is my take on the campaign. I am expecting to be wrong on these.
1. M$ are working on the "togetherness" feeling and might later show how their software make everything "together". (eg family, new friends, devices and toys, cars, appliances etc) 2. They gonna talk lots about the future rather than the problems now. 3. Jerry is going to "hand over" to more techie ppl as the "series" unfolds.
Four mins of bull-crap and bore and like 10 seconds of product talk. The customer is king, I dont want to hear about your cars and flying houses and status in life, ok, I wanna know about solving my problems and sorting my stuff out.
As you are probably aware the Large Hadron Collier was completed and tested last week. (home page here)
To celebrate their 20 odd years of blood sweat and tear in building the worlds largest particle accelerator, I am publishing some physics jokes.
Enjoy!
1: A neutron walks into a bar; he asks the bartender, 'How much for a beer?' The bartender looks at him, and says 'For you, no charge.'
2: Q: Why are quantum physicists so poor at sex? A: Because when they find the position, they can't find the momentum, and when they have the momentum, they can't find the position.
3: Q: Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip? A: To get to the same side.
4: A proton walks into a bar and says "I left my wallet here". The bartender says "Are you sure?" "I'm positive."
5: A bar walks into a man. Opps. wrong frame of reference
6: Q: What did one quantum physicist say when he wanted to fight another quantum physicist? A: Let me atom.
7: A physics professor, who was teaching a graduate course on superstring theory, decided to add an essay question to this year's final exam. The instructions read, "Describe the universe in 400 words or less and give three examples."
8: Q: What did Donald Duck say in his graduate physics class? A: Quark, quark, quark!
9: Physics quote of the day: Anything that doesn't matter has no mass.
10: Q: Why should followers of special theory of relativity not be taken seriously? A: They fail to see the gravity of the situation.
11: Ten little known facts about relativity: (1) Nothing in the known universe travels faster than a bad check. (2) Energy equals milk chocolate square (attributed to Albert E. Hersey) (3) Delivery of Christmas gifts by Santa to the children of the world is now accomplished by riding Rudolf the red-shift reindeer. (4) The general relativity theory of gravitation is responsible for people falling in love. (5) The speed of an IRS tax refund is constant. (6) Anger is neither created nor conserved but only changed from one form to another. (7) The speed of time is one second per second, which is also called the fundamental unity. (8) Death and taxes are the same for all constantly moving observers. (9) Moving midgets are shortened. (10) Divorce and alimony are equivalent but the latter is multiplied by an enormous factor.
pMost people are aware that Jerry Seinfeld has been hired by Microsoft (for $10 Million) to help them in their campaign to take on Apple and to revive the tarnished reputation of Windows Vista in the market. The idea is to portray "real life people" using Windows Vista and how it changed their computing life (or ways of doing things). Jerry and Bill Gates are the only celebs featured in the campaign. The rest of the people will be ordinary people like musicians or photographers. (MAC user demographics being targeted here).
I have listed my top 10 reasons why Jerry Seinfeld should not be used for the campaign. What are yours?
10. He is not the IT manager / IT Director of any company, and his business IT motivation means jack to me.
9. Feeling nostalgic about some 90's sitcom wont make me think twice about implementing some cocked up operating system.
8. He has the worst voice in the world. I think that would put me off any advertising campaign!
7. He is an actor, comedian and an avid automobile collector not a serious computer user or a person who would be exposed to some of the "shakier" areas of Vista. What can Microsoft possibly expect a user like that to do on their system. And what about the rest of us who run software drivers and older hardware?
6. The campaign is badly positioned. Jerry is 54 years old. He is basically only representing 7% of the global computer users.
Stats indicate the following percentages of computer and internet users by age group. 18-24: 56% 25-34: 39% 35-54: 33% 55 or older: 7%
5. Come on, he was the voice for Barry Bee Benson in the most horrible kiddies movie of all time, Bee Movie.
4. Official stats show that 35% of all Vista computers are downgraded to XP. Is Jerry going to help us find / write drivers for all the nice hardware we are having trouble with.
3. The campaign's slogan is "Windows not Walls". It will focus on the need to "break down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting". I think windows is full of holes and some witty play on words and a $300 million campaign will not change my perspective. A $300 million rewrite of the software certainly will!
2. Making me laugh at witty quips is not going to sway any business decision I make, regarding the future direction of my IT department for the next 3-5 years. Also his jokes and good humor will not cover the ever escalating license costs from Microsoft.
1. In the episodes of Seinfeld you plainly see exclusively MAC computers being used (or at least around)!!! He is not a Windows user nor a fan of Microsoft.
This article is a bit tongue in cheek as Jerry is a super funny guy and I really respect how he has built himself up as a brand over the years. However he knows jack squat about IT.
