Amahi Home Server

Amahi is a project that looks like it could be a good home server solution for me. Amahi is a set of packages that installs on Red Hat Linux, and a service that allows cloud configuration of your server.

Many of the features that are available make Amahi a great solution for a home server:

• Firefly media sever for streaming to iTunes


• Built-in VPN server


• File server


• Folder replication with greyhole


• Backup, both full disk (with PBA) and incremental backups (with client software)


• Ability to install other applications.  I am interested in this for:
  
  
  
  • UPnP server, for streaming to Xbox
  
  
  • Squeezebox Server for playing audio to our Squeezeboxes
  
  
  
  

PlayOn on Roku

I have mentioned PlayOn before, as the way that we are getting a lot of our television content.  We use PlayOn to view content from Hulu and SyFy channel. Since PlayOn is a UPnP server , we are able to play this content on our Xbox or on our Media Center PC.

It looks like Roku is getting access to PlayOn content.  The addition of the content that Roku already had, the addition of  PlayOn, makes Roku a credible solution for cancelling cable or satellite service.

I am not sure if once you set the Roku up to access PlayOn content, if you need to leave the PC running to access the content.

Xbox 360 "slim"

My wife and kids bought me  a new Xbox 360 "slim" for Father's Day.  So far, I like the hardware, especially how much quieter it is when compared to my older Xbox 360.

The setup/transfer went pretty easy, especially since the software to transfer data from the old hard drive is included on the new Xbox.  (You do need to purchase the Xbox 360 transfer cable.)  All content was transferred, except for the games that had been installed on the hard drive.  Even though the content was transferred, it was still licensed to my old Xbox.  (The DRM on the Xbox licenses content to the Xbox where the content was purchased, and the Xbox Live account.)

Since I want the content to be playable when my Xbox Live account is not logged in, I needed to transfer the licenses to the new Xbox.  Microsoft has a tool where you can transfer the licenses for your content to a different Xbox.  Unfortunately, after you transfer the licenses, you need to redownload the content.  The download manager on the Xbox only allows 30 items to be added to the queue.  So I re-downloaded the games, but haven't redownloaded the Rock Band tracks that I had purchased.

I do like the hardware on the new Xbox, for reasons other than how silent it runs.  Since HDMI and toslink optical are on board, I can now use HDMI and digital audio.  (There wasn't room with the placement of the ports to use both before.)

Recordings on Comcast DVR

We havent looked at the recording on one of our Comcast DVRs for several months.  Last week, I decided to watch one of the shows on the dvr, but there were no recording in the recording list.  Also, the list of scheduled recordings was empty.  For some reason, the DVR decided to erase all of its settings.

I am annoyed, especially since we are paying Comcast for this box.  Since our Series3 works downstairs, maybe I will look in to replacing the Comcast DVR with a SlingBox/SlingCatcher or a Media Center/Extender combination

links for 2008-01-29

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  Skyfire browser for Windows Mobile is game changing, does Flash - Engadget
  
  
  (tags: browser cell internet mobile windows windowsmobile skyfire flash flashlite)
  
  

TV Wall Mount accessories

Today, I saw these two posts (1, 2)that mention two helpful items when wall mounting a TV.

The PowerBridge is a kit that makes it easy to add a recessed outlet behind a wall mounted TV.  The kit includes all of the items needed, except for the romex wire.

APC offers a wall mounted power filter. This offers surge protection and noise filtering for tvs. The cool thing about is that it is hidden by the TV.

INSTEON SwitchLinc Relay Countdown Timer

We are trying to conserve electricity where ever we can.  We have switched all of our light bulbs, that aren't contolled by dimmer, to compact florescent bulbs.  We also turn off all unnecessary lights.

The lights that have been usually left on, are the one down to and in the garage.  Since we normally keep the garage door closed, I tend to not notice that the light is on, so the light gets left on.  The other problem is that when we are rushing out in the morning, the lights get left on

I wanted to find a solution that would automatically turn off these lights, but I also wanted the light switch to look like a regular light switch.  Unfortunatelly, the motion sensing light switch that we used in our previous house wouldn't work with florescent light bulbs.  Also, many of the timer light switches aren't as easy to use as regular switches.

links for 2007-07-11

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  Commonality - Rethrowing Exceptions in C#
  
  
  (tags: c# programming exceptions)
  
  

links for 2007-06-22

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  The Little Known C# ?? Operator - SuperJason's Personal Blog
  
  
  (tags: C# programming operator tip null)
  
  


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  Notifications: Wake up to a YouTube video with ALARMD - Lifehacker
  
  
  (tags: alarm clock YouTube)
  
  

links for 2007-05-29

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  California’s “Solo-Carpool” Hybrid Exemption is a Really Dumb Idea | The Truth About Cars
  
  
  (tags: Hybrid Carpool california)
  
  

Linksys firmware upgrades with tftp

I have been having problems upgrading our Linksys BEFSX41 to the latest version of the firmware.  While in the process of flashing the new version of the software, the web page refreshes to a missing page.  Once that happens, the web interface of the router doesn't respond.  This happens with Firefox and Safari on the Mac, and with Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows

The instructions on this page worked perfectly.  The command line tftp tool on Mac OS X upgraded the router seamlessly.  I used the instructions were the password is specified on the command line.  (There is a space between the end of the file name and "octet".)

iBoot

Today my server became unresponsive.  It looks like apache was eating all of the memory on my computer, as I saw before.  Luckily, my wife was home so she was able to reboot the computer.

I wanted to find an easier way to reboot the computer remotely.  I found the Dataprobe iBoot is a device that can cut power to any device that is connected to the electrical outlet.  It also looks like you can configure it so that a it will cut power and restore it if this devices doesn't receive any network pings.

It looks like this will be available at the end of August for around $250.

Technorati Tags: apache, Dataprobe iBoot, Software

Slingbox questions

It looks like Sling Media is shipping their Slingbox device.  This looks like a very cool way to be able to watch all of you video content outside of your house.  In fact, I think that this could replaces some of the uses of BitTorrent for video content.  (I think that BitTorrent is used when people already have access to the content at home, but they want to watch it somewhere else.)

I wonder a couple of things about the Slingbox

• How does the setup software get the list of possible remote codes?  It doesn't look like there is a way to learn remote codes from the Slingbox itself.  Maybe they have a database that is similar to the one used by Harmony Remotes.


• Would it be possible to learn IR codes from multiple devices?  For example, plug a AV switcher into the Slingbox, and use remote codes for the AV switcher to change video source, and then send commands for that device.

Technorati Tags: Electronics, gadgets, Slingbox

Raid in single drive bay

Engadget has a post on a interesting Raid1 solution. IO Data Device has a hardware raid that fits 2 2.5 inch hard drives and a Raid controller into a standard 3.5" drive bay. Since this is a hardware based solution, it should work on any hardware and OS that supports IDE drives.

They are pretty expensive: 40, 60, and 80GB models are around $800 USD, $1000 USD, and $1300 USD respectively. Maybe this makes sense for a computer case that has only one drive bay.

Ethernet Jack Wireless Points

Wi-Fi Network News has a post about new access points that plug directly into ethernet jacks. These Aruba access points are powered over with Power over Ethernet and connect to a Aruba switch (I assume that the switch has built in Power over Ethernet.)

Also Aruba worked out a deal with Ortronics to make 802.11 access
points that are built into the ethernet jacks. This seems like a
great product to use when wiring a house. I would have loved to
use it when I wired our house. This would solve all of the
wireless dead spots in our house, since there would be more consistent
coverage

Hush ATX

/. mentions the Hush ATX which is a Silent PC, made by Hush Technologies. The whole case is made from a bunch of aluminum heat sinks, and it is fitted with heatpipes. Here is a review from TrustedReviews.

Logic Supply has them for sale for $1675, for a 2Ghz Celeron model. It looks like they are out of stock now.

Netgear Access point

Engadget has an post on the Netgear WGT634U. It is a 802.11g Access Point that has an USB 2.0 port that will let you share a hard drive across a network. I am not sure what protocols it uses to share the hard drive, but I am assuming that has implemented samba.

This would be a good solution for someone who needs an 802.11 access point, but also wants to share files around the network.

20Gb Hard drive

Gizmodo posted about this nice little drive. It is a USB 20 Gb hard drive. It requires no power, as it gets the power from the USB port. The only downsides are that it is based on a 4,200 rpm drive so it is not that fast. Also the case does not have a firewire port. But for $189, it is pretty cheap.

Shuttle's cube computers

Engadget has a post about Shuttle's new cube computers. These look pretty nice. It looks like there is room for two 3.5" drives and one 5.25" drive.

Since Shuttle isn't sellling them, I wonder what the prices will be. Also I wonder how loud the internal fan is. I just wish that Shuttle would come out with a convection cooled computer. I would definitely buy one of those.

Network Storage Device

A while ago, I seriously looked into buying a Network Attached Storage device. I was having problems getting DSL to my house, so I was thinking about moving the server offsite. The only problem with doing this is that currently all of our music is stored on it.

When I looked at the NAS out there they were too expensive. Here is a 80 Gb NAS and print server, for $500. I didn't think that it was worth it, since you can get a computer for that price.

Today I just saw this interesting product. Linksys has their Network Storage Link. The really cool thing about this device is that it is only $80. Here is a review of it. With this, you can attach one or two USB 1 or USB 2 hard drives and put them on your network. It looks like that it uses samba to make the the drives available on the network. Also there is web based administration for the user and permissions. Also, It looks like there is read only access to the files, from the web server.

I wonder if it would be possible to use this device for some of those home mp3 players that get the files from samba shares. I assume that those devices will just use a certain named mount point.