Posts by Bananimal

Microsoft discontinues Media Center with Windows 10

Emby + TVHeadend or similar

Emby + TVHeadend or any one of a number of other USB tuner supporting services that are available as plugins for Emby. Emby server aggregates your stored media, and there are Emby clients for Roku, Android, LG, Samsung etc etc as well as a web client, or you can use Kodi plus the Emby Kodi plugin.

You can run it on Windows, MacOS, Linux natively (more or less) and they have Docker instances to get you up and running very quickly. I have setups using variations of this running on pretty low powered Intel NUC styles devices with a couple of TB storage for a number of family members. Anything with over 2GB or RAM and a 5th gen or later processor is more than beefy enough for direct play. It can also serve media to remote devices (including live TV) as long as transcoding isn't required (on low powered hosts).

Set up requires a little knowledge so isn't the quickest but, more importantly, use once set up is easy enough for a 5 year old, or an older relative with little to no instruction.

There's an Emby fork called JellyFin that happened recently due to a disagreement with the lead dev on Emby re open source but it's too early to see if it will have legs. At any rate Emby itself is mature and stable. Plex is an analogous service, however at the time I switched it did not support USB tuners, age restricted profiles and a number of other things it has subsequently caught up on, and Emby for me has more consistently responded to the community with improvements and fixes.

Causes of software development woes

What's to stop you using a UX professional to research, wireframe, prototype and test before you build it? You get early feedback from the users, you have better defined requirements before you start building.

The excuse that you need to build it first, or that you need real data is rarely true in software development where there is an interface exposed to the user. It can be faked for early feedback, issues can be ironed out at low cost prior to build.

Rogue One: This is the Star Wars back story you've been looking for

So much this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/11/sci_fi_poll/

Tesco Bank limits online transactions after fraud hits thousands

Except all the examples used in that article are from Tesco, including the tweet, not Tesco Bank which uses a completely different security model. Pretty basic oversight by the author.

And Tesco Bank have never used email as a channel for online banking security either. Another basic oversight.

There is another tweet where a customer claims the bank emailed him his password, turns out in that instance the customer used their password as their security word for Bank communications I.e. the word that will be included in electronic correspondence to identify it is from the bank. Although I believe they only do that on the credit card side if things.

No, completely different security. Has Username, Password and PIN, and also requires a one time access code to be sent via SMS if on a computer they don't recognise (javascript cookie).

BMW complies with GPL by handing over i3 car code

Re: CS agents

To be fair...

many CS agents are educated to degree level these days (in particular if not in the UK, but also in the UK depending on location and industry). Unfortunately the average customer these days expects an instantaneous resolution to their query, no matter the query.

So where the company has satisfied both (a) and (b), a call like this would be likely to throw the agent as it's a one in a million call. It is very difficult to make all of the information that an agent might require available to them immediately and easily.

In this instance, it would appear from the correspondence that the CS agent consulted with someone that should have known better, and responded to that effect.

THOUSANDS of Tesco.com logins and passwords leaked online

Banking security

At least Tesco Bank have 2 factor security. Maybe people will stop complaining about 2 factor being a hassle now (doubt it).

Apple marks '1984' anniversary with iPhone-produced un-commercial

Pish

Haven't watched. Wouldn't even know about it if it wasn't for sycophantic drivel like this article.

I hope this was paid for.

BT tweaks WORDING of sex-ed web block after complaints

Re: Sex education

2nd largest religion paints a distorted picture. To paraphrase Bill Hicks, 'after the top one, there's a big fucking drop off.'

There were over 10 times as many Christians in the 2011 census. There were over 5 times as many atheists. Also don't think this particular cynical vote grab was targetted at that general sector, was running headlines in the wrong papers. Otherwise, I take your point.

Google Chromecast: Here's why it's the most important smart TV tech ever

Dumb screens

Needs the other half, the remote control if you will, to deliver something of the quality of Yatse for XBMC.

If it can finally convince the TV manufacturers that they haven't a hope in hell of being our preferred content aggregator through their crappy smart TV interfaces, then this could be a big win. While they're at it if they could offload the entire bloody TV menu on to our remote devices that would be nice.

I want a high quality dumb screen I can push (local and web) content to, and this is a step in the right direction. Unless Samsung do something interesting with Boxee*, I can't see anyone linking it all up until Apple get into the game. And then people will start claiming they fucking invented TV and other outrageous bollocks as usual, and we don't want that to happen again surely.

* What's the point, it was better when it was a XBMC fork. They could have given me the money and I could have made a little Boxee doll and buried it at the bottom of the garden. I'd have held a little funeral and filmed it and everything+.

+ To make sure they got their money's worth.

Apple TV demand may drive Samsung-sapping sales

Pointless vapourware is pointless

Why the long thread.

Why do Smart TV UIs suck?

Embed XBMC

Manufacturers can skin it how they like, and as long as they don't hide the feature for me to skin it I can end up with an interface I want to use.

There are a number of app remotes available like Yatse that would do the job, someone might even feel the need to update the official XBMC app. The manufacturers could always build their own remote app to access some of their own unique features.

We might even see some development being fed back into XBMC for the greater good.

Ballmer aims chair at Apple after Windows package miss

Re: If MS go the Apple route

But if Microsoft want to control the hardware their software is deployed on to a greater extent, it will restrict the freedom they have historically given to OEM's. A more compelling reason then presents itself for OEM's to move to *nix based solutions.

Could prompt the first significant landgrab for *nix in the consumer/SME space. If people got used to using popular *nix based productivity tools in the office, who knows what could happen next.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

My top 3

Sucker Punch

Battlefield Earth

The Avengers

Sucker Punch in particular is unutterably stupid. As a fan of stylish films with no substance I should have enjoyed it and yet it plumbed new depths of banality with every frame.

I tried really hard to get into Battlefield Earth. I took a 3 hour break to get wasted and started the movie again and it still couldn't deliver.

I couldn't make it through The Avengers, and I watched all of Switch starring Ellen Barkin.

Powerful, wallet-sized Raspberry Pi computer sells out in SECONDS

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)

I'm not going to spend any time composing a detailed rebuttal highlighting the multitude of reasons that you are not correct as you are an arse.

The Raspberry Pi is an excellent piece of kit for the money and I'm sure it will become a valuable educational tool.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Probing analyst (PS)

Still wrong.

Even assuming a monitor or TV needs to be purchased new, you're vastly overestimating cost.

Your assumption on what a family might allow on the family TV is your problem, not a problem everyone else has. I'd be happy for my kids to make use of the TV for something like this.

Most schools already have a bank of PC's and associated peripherals like monitors, you appear to be assuming they are going to bin all the old kit.

Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

Love it

Use of Weapons was my introduction to the Culture and I think its a great starting point and could make a great film, Excession also has great film potential. I didn't really like Consider Phlebas, can't remember why.

So, what's the best sci-fi film never made?

So many to choose from...

And so many could be awful in the wrong hands.

Vurt - Jeff Noon

Only Forward - Michael Marshall Smith. Spares almost got made by Spielberg with Cruise but instead we got Minority Report

Excession - Ian M Banks

Use of Weapons - Ian M Banks

Anything by Neal Stephenson, particularly Anathem. A huge budget serial of the baroque cycle culminating in a 3 parter of Cryptonomicon would also be nice.

HBGary 'puppets' FAIL to convince

Drashek

Whatever happened to Drashek?

Was the bot/lunatic question ever answered?

D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380 media streamer

Missed some features.

The reviewer has missed some key features, not least the media indexing feature which makes this such a good media device for people that keep all of their media in a digital format. I can't be bothered writing descriptions for every film I've stored and making sure there is an image associated so my wife can easily pick a film, and with this I don't have to. It scrapes IMDb and displays posters and descriptions for her. I don't know of any other media player that does this at all, never mind does it well.

I agree it has a way to go on the online media front, particularly in the UK, however for allowing easy navigation and playback of stored media my wife hasn't used better, and she's a normal consumer rather than a geek.

Sony Ericsson admits 'PlayStation phone' woes

O2

You need to set a static arp entry on some routers to get it working over the internet rather than through your local network, like with WakeonLAN.

O2 appear to have worked with Sony Ericsson to provide a fix for their customers http://www.sonyericsson.com/remoteplay/o2_uk/

3 to offer iPhone next year

Don't get the 3 hating.

Yeah their customer service isn't great but neither are the other networks if you have an actual problem (thats one that exists outside of your own head).

If you were on O2 then you'd have a genuine coverage complaint. I used to be able to maintain a reasonable 3G signal on 3 all the way home on the train, an extremely busy commuter route, O2 can barely manage a consistent signal never mind a 3G one and then there's still the issue with the quality of service.

N73?That would be the one with a million software updates and bugs that was released 3 years ago.

Apple eyes new-age iPhone answering machine

Doesn't this already exist

Haven't 3 offered a video mail service on their network for a fair few years now? Its been a few years since I had a 3 contract but I distinctly remember pointless rambling videomail messages from my dad from when he'd videocalled me by mistake.

Is this just another example of Apple trying to patent something that already exists.

Universal thaws out The Thing

Remake...

...Dune.

Don't laugh, I'm serious. We either get the best science fiction film ever made or it will bankrupt the studio that makes it.

Its win win for us.

O2: We didn't know we were capping 3G data speeds

HSDPA

<quote>The O2 network is fully HSDPA-enabled and we will be further increasing the maximum speeds available on HSDPA throughout the year, up to 7.2 MBps.</quote>

Really?! Last time Ofcom checked they weren't even fully 3g enabled. The only time I've connected to HSDPA on O2 was in the Arlington business centre in Leeds (where a large chunk of their customer services is based). Certainly don't get any in Glasgow in any of the areas that I can on the same handset with a 3 sim card. I can't even maintain a 3g connection on the short train journey home (3's network copes admirably on the same journey).