Posts by AOD

Iomega TV with Boxee

XBMC ++

The comments for the Revo et al are valid (I have an R6310 sporting Win 7 which I also run a variant of XBMC on called OpenELEC booting off an SD card) but a potentially cheaper (albeit less flexible) option is to get hold of an Apple TV 2, jailbreak it and install XBMC on it. This will handle just about any format you can throw at it (http://xbmc.org).

I'm running two of these streaming media from our QNAP NAS (wired, not wireless before anyone leaps in) and they work like a charm. You do need some basic command line abilities for the initial setup but the process is well documented step by step on various sites.

The bit I like about the ATV2s is that they're relatively cheap (£99 or $99 across the pond), small and have no fans. The fact that they can also stream Netflix as well (recently available in the UK but make sure you have the 4.4.4 software onboard otherwise don't bother) is a bonus. They are limited to 720p and won't output full hi def but as neither of my plasmas are full HD, it doesn't really bother me.

Complexity killed the IT quality of service ...

Can't manage what you don't measure...

I agree that the user experience is important and should be monitored. If possible, you should consider whether it's possible to "bake in" the capturing of suitable performance information from the outset.

One reconciliation system I worked with a few years ago, had the inbuilt ability to record the details of what the user was doing (eg what options they had selected when performing a particular task) along with the time it took to perform and how much information it resulted in). This could then be recorded in a separate database for review/analysis.

All too often the "lone user" performance issue is difficult to quantify "it seems slower than yesterday" with nothing to actually back it up.

Having the details of what the user was doing "Hi Fred, I can see you ran the same report yesterday and it took only 2 seconds longer today..." can be a powerful tool. Once you have that raw data you can start doing more useful things with it (eg is the average time to run a given process creeping up and up over a period and if so, what are you going to do about it).

The view that support folk would like to deal with a significant meltdown in their systems in my experience couldn't be further from the truth. Whilst a frontline L1 helpdesk call handler may not have the time/knowledge/incentive to proactively suggest improvements, if the systems are that complex, they'll be backed up by the relevant L2 application support groups who will have a vested interest in ensuring that improvements are introduced proactively.

At a basic level, it is human nature, if you can do something to reduce the "noise" generated by avoidable support requests then you'll do it. The beneficial side effect is that hopefully the user experience is also improved :-)

Thinkflood RedEye remote for iOS

Serious home cinema buffs will look elsewhere...

Have to say I'd agree with the sentiments expressed around the UI, but for me that's not the major issue.

A serious home cinema buff will probably have their equipment tucked away in a cabinet (locked if you have sprogs around) or in some cases even in a different room to the actual viewing location.

In situations like these, the ability to have some sort of wireless "extender" that can slave from the main unit and broadcast your IR signals (typically with a collection of IR emitters to stick over the different bits of kit) is an absolute must.

This can do the wireless bit (over WiFi) but no discrete emitters for different bits of kit coupled with a lack of slave capabilities means that this gets a "meh".

Intel confirms HDCP copy-protection crack

RE: Huzzah

Umm, you've been able to buy HDMI to Ethernet adaptors/baluns for some time. A quick google for "HDMI over Ethernet" will give you the lowdown.

Don't think there's any decrypting going on though but as long as it works, who cares?

Die-hard bug bytes Linux kernel for second time

RE: General purpose, inherent safety

There have been some more general purpose examples of "Harvard architecture" machines, one example was the souped up StrongARM cpu released for the Acorn RiscPC.

I remember at the time a number of apps/utilities falling over as their self-modifying code tricks would no longer work (one legit use was executables that would self decompress and run back when hard drive space was a lot pricier).

I don't know if any of the subsequent ARM designs continued to make use of this or not.

2009's Top Nas boxes

RE: Wot no drobo

Drobo out of the box isn´t an NAS, you have to add the Droboshare sled for it to be available over a network.

Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! all hit by webmail phishing scam

@ AC: 08:45

Actually, no, if your master password was somehow sniffed via a keylogger or something similar (remember it's only entered once per browsing session into the FF extension), this wouldn't divulge what options you'd configured regarding password length, whether to use l33t type mangling etc. Not forgetting that you can customise these on a per site basis.

Aside from that, if you have a keylogger or similar running then you have other security issues that you should be attending to.

Password Generators

One option are Password Generators such as PasswordMaker for FireFox.

Given a master password as a salt, they'll generate a hash against the site name and give you a different password for each site. You can choose the length, what range of characters to use and best of all the password itself for the site isn't permanently stored anywhere (on your machine anyway). Instead, the browser recreates it on the fly when you visit the site in question.

iPhone 3.0 - born on schedule...

OTA 10MB limit still in place?

I've tried pulling down podcasts via 3g (this is on O2 in the UK) to be met with the familar message stating that anything over 10MB has to go via Wi-Fi.

Is anybody else seeing this as well?