…as Poirot would say? Or just little ear treasures? What is it about Q-Tips that makes you look at them after removal to see what little treasures might be bestowed upon you? Perhaps something grew in there as you slept.
I always think about the scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where little creatures are inserted into Chekov and some other dude through their ear canals. I keep hoping if I dig hard enough I might find one.
I got up about an hour ago and have been sipping coffee and reading a bit. Nice quiet time. I am certainly not motivated today. All I want to do is go back to sleep. I guess it’s because I know I have such a short time left where I am at. My bosses bosses boss did extend it though. Now I am staying in this store until the 24th or 25. I open the new store the 26th. In the meantime I have to get it clean, stock the restaurant, put up and check equipment, hire the rest of the staff and get them trained. WTF?
On a brighter note, I fired another person yesterday. The fourth since I took this store three weeks ago, not including two that I just ran off. Twice the number of folks that I shit-canned in the three and a half years I was at my last store. The manager that is taking over from me in two weeks is extremely happy (she really is, no facetiousness here) as I promised her that I would try and fix the damn place during the month I was there.
My little brother and his kids are driving down from North Carolina next weekend for my daughter’s birthday party, and my parents are coming as well, last I heard. I am really looking forward to that, it may be the last time for a few months. For a few years we had Christmas dinner here at the house, but last year we couldn’t as it is just too far for my grandmother and great-aunt. It will probably be in Atlanta again this year, which means that I will miss it for sure. With the new store there is very little chance that I will have ANY free time during the holidays.
It’s all about the bra.
How not true. Even the right bra can’t disguise those really nasty titties.
If you were wondering, this is one of the 50 or so junk mails that I just deleted. I am easily entertained.
The wife decided to watch her shows in the bedroom last night, so I decided to lie down on the couch and sleep till she woke me up. Damn, she just did. I haven’t had that much sleep in a while, and I am still ready to go back to bed. I suppose this last week at work has just kicked my ass. I worked seven days this past week, and then a half day yesterday, so that was my only time off.
The only bad part about couch sleeping is that it kills my back. I would probably be better off lying on the floor.
This week doesn’t look to be any better. With having to get the new store ready I won’t have an opportunity to take any more time off until the 21st. I will just have to make sure and take advantage of the manager trainee for drawer changes and get out of the door as early as possible in the afternoon.
Damn, just found out the Word 2007 supports the metaweblog crap. I doubt if I will quit using zoundry, as I like what it offers, but this is kind of cool.
I think Shoe said it best, “uh, what’s an Htpc?”
That pretty much sums it up for the great majority of computer users. I answered her, at least a bit. It is like Tivo on steroids. Live TV, recorded TV, DVD library, music, pictures, gaming. All on a computer hooked to my television. I also run my home automation software on the same box, and some of it is tied in to my HTPC setup.
My current HTPC is running on a home brew PC. Athlon 64 3200+, Abit UL8, don’t remember how much memory it has. Although I love tweaking my PCs and the software that they contain, I have learned to leave this one alone, and just let it do it’s job. I use Windows XP as my operating system. I have tried Linux, but the HA software designed for it sucks compared to what I use, and the hardware is just not designed for it. Too much damn tweaking. The HTPC software programs that I tested under Linux just don’t do everything that I want it. No extra programs running, no anti-virus, no firewall (other than my external routers). I don’t need them since I don’t read email on this machine, or browse the web.
I have four TV tuners in the machine, a Hauppauge PVR250 (roslyn), a Hauppauge PVR150MCE, a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 2 USB external tuner, and a generic bullshit tuner I bought at a computer show a few years back. The PVR250 is hooked into my Motorola cable box via component video, and I have a serial cable run to the box as well, for channel changes. The bullshit card has a feed from my Sony VCR, and regular cable, as do the other two tuners.
Video is run from my Nvidia Geforce 6600 LE via DVI/component to my TV. Just a generic Sharp flatscreen. Nothing special, but but my eyesight isn’t particularly sharp lately anyhow.
I run sound from the MB’s onboard connectors to a Sony audio receiver, and out to about 10 mini speakers around the living room.
If you do a search around the web, you will find that mine is a pretty generic, low-price setup. I’ve seen some sweet setups that would run $10k+ that just make me weep when I think about them. I like mine though. For the most part, it does what I want. This is the second machine I have built for this purpose over the last five years. Not bad considering it gets constant 24 hour usage, and they were both built with parts from previous PCs.
My software setup is a bit more complicated. I have been interested in HTPCs for about ten years or so. I got my first TV tuner in 1995 or so, but was never able to really get a nice setup that worked, or that I could hook to my TV and my family could use. That’s one of the key factors. If my kids can use it, it works.
I started getting interested in X10 and home automation about six years ago. I picked up a basic kit, and hated the free software that came with it. After looking around for awhile, I found Homeseer and loved it. I still use it. I would like to move away from X10 into some higher end stuff, but that shit is expensive, and with my current extra spending money of $2/week 🙂 it will just be awhile. I have about 13 X10 controlled light switches, several lamp modules, and several appliance modules. I have 10 or 12 RF motion sensors that communicate with Homeseer and tell it when anyone is in proximity, as well as whether it is light or dark. I have about 10 temperature sensors around the house inside/out and a humidity sensor. Homeseer also controls my audio/video appliances via IR as well. All of it is accessed via remote control, switches, voice, as well as through a web browser in other parts of the house. I also use a couple of programs that interface with Homeseer as well as iTunes and WMP, so I can feasibly turn on the tunes from the shitter.
Anyway, about the HTPC software. I run several pieces of software. On the back end, as I said before, I sometimes use itunes and WMP through my HA software. I also access my music through a front-end, BeyondMedia. It’s OK, but not the greatest program I have used. I used to use one called Meedio, but it is now defunct, and there is no more meaningful development going on. BM is not at the top of Snapstream’s development list, but I am sure that they will get back on the bandwagon, or integrate it into their PVR product. It works for what it is supposed to though. Videos, DVD library (using a plugin), games (also using a plugin), photos, as well as access to some online stuff, although I don’t use anything other than the weather. I also access itunes on the TV screen for a few shows that I have downloaded, although the legibility sucks since it was made to be looked at on a PC screen.
The part that gets used the most is the PVR software, BeyondTV. BTV kicks ass. This post actually started out as a review of the software that someone asked me to do, but I will do that later, perhaps on my day off when I have a few extra minutes. Although there will probably always be stuff that it doesn’t do to my satisfaction, it is by far the best PVR software out there. It is easy to use, both for me and my family, right out of the box. Watch live TV, pause, rewind, record four shows at once to watch later (which is what I mostly use it for), as well as tune to FM radio. I can do this with the IR control from my HA software to my receiver, but using BTV is MUCH easier.
My favorite part, and what makes it so easy for the rest of the family, is the remote control. I have a couple of remotes that I can use. I use two different IR receivers, and both can transmit as well, but I much prefer the RF Firefly over the rest. It is easy to use, easy to set up to work with multiple programs, and fits right in my hand, so it’s not too bulky. It ties all the rest of it together. I only wish that it were a combination of RF and Infrared so that I could program it it to control my components as well.
I have tried several other programs out there, including MCE, MythTV, Sage, Meedio, Yahoo Go, and a few others, and none of them are as good as what I am currently using.
I hate public speaking. I don’t dislike it, I fucking hate it. That’s one of the reasons that I don’t believe in regular employee meetings. When I do have them they very rarely last longer than 10 minutes.
The presentation that I had to give tonight was two minutes long. Someone was keeping time, and was SCORED by the nine division managers present. You were given a score of 0 (not on topic), 5, 10, or 15. Then they critiqued our presentations. All of this adds up to make it as uncomfortable as humanly possible. I did end up getting the highest score out of the 20 or so presentations, so I got a gift certificate to Smoky Bones. Free food is always nice.
I immediately needed a smoke after I gave my speech, but had to wait another 40 minutes or so. Damn.
I had planned on going in to work late today and cook until about 9pm or so in order to let the manager trainee run the store this morning. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.
My DM called me up on Friday to let me know that I was “invited” to attend the leadership dinner (meeting) tonight, and that I have to give a two minute presentation. No big deal. I figured I would get it together this afternoon and go give a short talk on some work-related stuff.
They called me this morning and now I still have to give my presentation, only it has to be more detailed, as well as turning in my copy of my 100 days goals, and my calendar for the next three months. Crap. The calendar I keep up in Outlook anyway, so I had to add a bit to it, now I am working on this other crap. I hate paperwork.
I am getting ready to upgrade to Vista Release Candidate 2, so if I don’t post for a couple of days it’s because I have hosed my computer. That and the fact that it’s beer thirty.
Update – Apparently it worked with no problems, as I am back online. I will try and post some of my experiences with Vista later this week. I also have a review of BeyondTV as well.
Back in April I talked a little bit about Yahoo! Go for TV here and here. None of this will have any interest for you unless you are into HTPCs so you can just ignore this post, or read it anyway until you realize what a waste of your time this was.
Here is the body of my initial review from April. Not much has changed:
Yahoo! Go for TV was released in the last 24 hours, so I went ahead and downloaded it to check it out. It is definitely Meedio in disguise, with a bunch of missing stuff.
I am fairly biased toward my review, as I paid for Meedio, and then paid for the “pro” version later, with the hopes that the TV portion would
eventually be improved to where I could replace BTV with it. No such luck. BeyondTV always kicked Meedio’s ass as far as PVR capabilities, and supported hardware. Yahoo! Go is free, so that is a bonus, but as a paying user of Meedio, it ticks me off. Not that I regret it. I got what I paid for, a fully functional front-end that my family could use with a single remote. It is great for watching movies, viewing pictures, and listening to music.
Anyway, on to Yahoo! Go.
It was a fairly small download compared to some others I have checked out at 9MB. Quick and easy install, then runs the setup wizard. You enter your yahoo username if you have one. I don’t know what happens if you don’t, so can’t say much there, as I do. It prompts you the locations of your pictures, music, and videos. Since I don’t have any TV tuners in my test system (my desktop), there was nothing for me to set up there.
Once the install was finished, I eagerly started the app. It comes up with a nice clean theme, purple in color. Nice, my favorite. There are seven menu options. I will go through each in turn.
First there is movies. Once you have selected a menu option, the right hand side brings up several more. Under movies, there are Top Box Office, Today’s Features, My Theaters, Local Theaters, and DVD Player. Top Box Office is a detailed listing of what is currently out in the theaters with synopsis, trailers, and cast listings. This is kind of a nice feature. Today’s features looks to be a listing of upcoming theater releases, with the same kind of stuff as Top Box Office. My theaters probably gives you a list of your favorite theaters IF you have set them up on your yahoo account. Since I use Fandango anyway, this was pretty much useless to me. Local theaters predictably gives a listing of…Local Theaters!!. Damn. It also gives you a list of movies that are currently playing there, and you can get to the same Detailed listing that is in Top Box Office. DVD player takes you into what I guess is the stock Meedio internal DVD player. Since I use an external program for this (Theatertek), this option was pretty useless. All in all, the entire movies menu section was pretty useless to me. No way to set up my DVD software, no way to add in my own movies (I have about 250 ripped to my hard drive, or recorded from BeyondTV).
The next option is Music. OK, here are the guts to my HTPC system. If it weren’t for music (I have about 9000 mp3s) I would just run BeyondTV and be done with it. In the music menu, we have several options. First is LAUNCHkast. This is an extremely well done module. I have used shoutcast with Meedio, and set up internet radio through it, but this kicks ass. Next is Music Videos. Just the crap that is online at Yahoo though. No way to set it up for local music videos that I may have downloaded from itunes, or from bands websites. If I want to see crappy music videos, I can tune to MTV or VH1. Next is “On your PC”. This gives an explorer-like view of your music directory. I have all of my music arranged in ArtistAlbum directories, so it makes it easy to traverse. Once you select “On your PC”, it brings up the artist listing, and there is a menu option to “play all”. It does not work. You actually have to drill down into the Album directory so that the actual music files show up on the screen in order to select tracks, at which point you are thrown into the Now Playing screen (also a default Meedio behavior). The music player is OK, but there are no options to play protected itunes music, I was not able to find any way to add multiple albums or artists to my playlist, and I hate the way that you have to traverse it. If I want to fool around with explorer, I will open explorer and increase the fucking font size. The next two options are CD player (pretty obvious what this does) and Now Playing. No options in now playing to launch any kind of eye candy, or to look at lyrics.
Next is Photos. There are four options in this menu. First is My Yahoo! Photos. Fine if you have your stuff uploaded to Yahoo Photos. I don’t. I use flickr, or my own web site. Next is Shared Yahoo Photos. It prompts you to enter the Yahoo ID of a friend, then you get to see the photos. Next is pretty cool. Flickr. The last things I want to look at is 500,000 flickr photos. No way to search for a particular flickr account, or even set up my own (which oh, by the way, yahoo DOES own, and my yahoo account is LINKED to). Good idea, shitty result. Last option is “On my PC”. Decent photo viewer to show off your My Pictures stuff to company. From past experience, just make sure that you only keep your final edited pics here. Keep the crap somewhere else, otherwise you end up showing off your upside-down sideways, shitty pictures of body parts that you don’t want your mom to see. Oh, wait, that was a different day.
Next is the TV option. Since I don’t have a TV tuner in my box, this shouldn’t even show up in the fucking menu. Since it does, I checked it out. Each screen under this menu just tells you that TV is not currently configured. No shit. If I wanted to see this, I would have configured it.
Next is Videos (as opposed to movies?). Why not just keep this under the movies menu, or combine the two of them. First option is Featured videos. Short trailers and clips of TV shows. Watch the damn commercial instead. Next is Top Web Searches (The Most Sought after Videos). Need I say that this is crap. Actually it’s not all that bad. User uploaded videos to yahoo. Next is Search. Search for videos on Yahoo. OK, pretty self-explanatory. Last is On My PC. During setup, you are given the option to specify the default video directory. Since I have over a TB in about eight different drives and directories across my network, this just pissed me off. It played the wmvs fine, but since half of my stuff is ripped DVDs that have been compressed, it wouldn’t do anything at all with these. Damn, that sucked.
Next option is settings. No way to change ANY of the settings in Yahoo! Go TV.
Bottom of the list is Exit, which I did, right after going through everything.
Pretty much what I expected from a beta version. It’s nicely put together, with most of the work leaning heavily toward the online experience, which I expected considering that it is yahoo. It shows a lot of promise. Enough that I will keep it on here, and upgrade to the next beta. Since I have a running version of Meedio on here too, I was able to hack it somewhat, and try out the yahoo modules in it. No go with that. There is also no weather module, which sucks. The stuff that is good really rocks, but for the most part, I found it pretty much useless. On one hand, it is free, which is nice, AND it may prompt Snapstream to fix the problems that it has with the crappy Beyond Media so that it doesn’t lose any customers. Yahoo has enough pull, and money, to make this a pretty decent software if it wants to.
If you are not into HA and HTPCs and have actually made it this far and still don’t know what the fuck I am talking about, don’t worry about it. Mainly I am just blowing off steam, and getting a post in 🙂
They released a new beta version recently. I just downloaded it and installed it on my personal machine, since the HTPC in my bedroom is non-functional, and I won’t put any more crappy beta software on the living room PC. I an also running Windows Vista RC1 on this machine, so I figured it might make for an interesting combination.
Right off the bat I noticed a few things.
1. Still no way to change any kind of meaningful settings or change the menus without modifying files.
2. I couldn’t get into anything that uses my Yahoo account until I brought up my web browser and manually logged OUT first. This is a pain in the ass and a deal breaker. It means that I can’t use my account on two separate PCs.
3. I have my movies and ripped DVDs spread over the network in three or four different directories. I can only set it to access one directory and since I went ahead and picked the default settings, it uses “My Videos” as the directory. That’s fine for movies and videos I created, but doesn’t help me access the other 197 movies that I currently have online.
4. Still stuck with the default DVD player and not able to use your own. This doesn’t seem like it should be a deal breaker, but anyone into media centers and HTPCs usually uses either Zoom Player, or Theatertek and loves them. I personally use Theatertek and am not going to start using something else.
5. I also use BTV for my PVR. I consider it the best PVR software out there, it kicks everything Else’s ass, but there is no way to configure external players. You also cannot access the TV guide unless you configure the TV tuners first.
6. The music library is still folder based rather than library based. This actually is not a huge issue, if Yahoo could find a way to support iTunes protected music, or perhaps interface with itunes, I would be happy with it. I hear that TVedia supports itunes protected music. I don’t know about movies and videos, but I may try it out next.
Overall, without having read any of the release documentation yet but just setting it up and using it, I would have to say that this is more of a bugfix release. No changes or additions yet. I am going to download TVedia and see how it does next and will review it here as well.