Squeezebox Boom
A while ago, I wrote about how I would love a Squeezebox that is integrated with speakers. This would make it a perfect solution for our kids rooms.
Squeezebox/Logitech just announced the Squeezbox Boom, which is exactly what I want. With this, we don’t have to deal with playing cds that skip because the kids have scratched them. I am definitely ordering one of these.
links for August 27, 2008
- DeltaCopy – Rsync for Windows
- Linux.com :: Making secure remote backups with Rsync
- cwrsync – Rsync for Windows | ITeF!x
Windows Media Center
I am thinking about installing Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center on our Mac mini, espcially since our Xbox 360 is doing everything that the Mac mini used to do. I am planning on keeping the Mac mini in the closet, near our Windows Home Server, and then I would view this content on the Xbox 360 through Windows Media Extender.
There are several things that I would be able to do with this setup:
- Install TVTonic to have access to “Internet TV” and video podcasts (The 2008 Olympics is available this way)
- Play ripped DVDs that are hosted on the Windows Home Server (1, 2)
links for August 21, 2008
AAC, SqueezeCenter and Windows Home Server
On my Windows Home Server, I have installed SqueezeCenter. This allows our SqueezeBox to play out music, and we don’t need to leave a separate computer on. I noticed that aac files were not playing, but the SqueezeBox was just skipping over them.
When I looked at the configuration of SqueezeCenter aac files are transcoded with mov123. This program is essentially just a wrapper for QuickTime. The problem is that Windows Home Server doesn’t come with QuickTime installed.
I didint want to install QuickTime, as this install brings of other stuff that I didn’t want. (i.e. Apple’s Software Update) I found this thread that describes mplayer and faad as alternatives to mov123.
After spending several hours to get either mplayer or faad to work, I decided to just install QuickTime. I had to search on Apple’s support site for a link to a version of QuickTime that would install on the home server. (The latest version of QuickTime requires XP or Vista, and the home server is running a deritive of Windows Server 2003
Posting daily activity
A while ago, I configured del.icio.us to post the list of bookmarks from that day on my blocg. For some reason this stopped working for me. I like these type of automatic posts, as it makes it easy to share various pages.
I decided to write a plugin for LifeType that will import a rss feed, and then “summarize” the rss items and create a post with this text. I probably could have gotten the del.icio.us blog posting to work, but If I created the plugin, this woud allow me to include Google Reader shared items, or Twitter tweets in the post.
links for August 20, 2008
links for August 18, 2008
links for August 17, 2008
- T.E.D. : Electricity Monitor, Energy Monitor, Power Monitor
- GCALDaemon – Access Gmail contacts from Mozilla Thunderbird
- BBC News Online | Health | Bird flu hopes from 1918 victims
- Pipes: RSS Filter By Date
WHS Download Manager
Our Windows Home Server is running all of the time, so I would love to use this machine as a way to download large files, especially when I am not at home. I thought that WHS Download Manager would do exactly that I want. This Add-In allows you to specify urls to be downloaded and where to download the files to. Unfortunately, the only way to access this is trough the Windows Home Server Console. So, if I wanted to start a download when I am not at home, I need to vpn into my network, and then rdp into my server.
I am thinking that uTorrent and the Windows Home Server Add-In would be a better solution, at least for torrent files. At least with this solution would allow me to use a web browser to start the downloads.
