Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 04, 2012 by CyberNet.

In XBMC one of the things that is probably the most important is to get the software hooked up to your personal media. This includes media from all of your various collections like videos, pictures, and music. If you’re new to XBMC you’ll probably be better off adding your first source or two through the XBMC interface, but after that you can make the changes a little more quickly by directly updating the appropriate configuration file. So we will show you both ways.

We will even take things a step further and explain how you can have all your XBMC instances share the same configuration file. With that in place anytime you add a new source to the configuration file that same source will be added to any XBMC instance using that file.

Note that our tutorials below are going to focus on videos, but a similar process can also be applied to music and pictures.

Adding Sources in XBMC

Here are the steps you need to follow if you want to add your media to XBMC through the built-in interface.

1. Go to Videos -> Files -> Add Videos
2. XBMC will let you add sources in one of two ways:
   1. Click the Browse button and browse for your media based on the type of source:
      
   2. If you know the path to your media source you can just enter it in manually:
      Highlight the None option and press Enter:
      
      Enter in the path and select Done:
      
3. Enter a name for your media source at the bottom of the window and press Enter:
   
4. Select the type of media the folder contains so that it can scrape information from the Internet for each of the files contained within the folder:
   

Adding Sources in the Config File

If you have a ton of folders that you want added to XBMC then using the interface above may not be the most efficient and practical method. You can speed things up a bit by editing the configuration file directly. For starters go ahead and close out of XBMC, and then navigate to your profile folder:

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/
• Windows: %appdata%\XBMC\userdata\

Once in your profile directory find and open up the sources.xml file. If the file doesn’t already exist I recommend adding a source in the XBMC interface first so that you can see what the structure of the file looks like. When it comes to videos you’ll be adding nodes in the <video> section of the file that look like this:

<source>
<name>Movies</name>
<path pathversion="1">smb://192.168.1.10/XBMC/Movies/</path>
</source>

In my particular case this will create a source pointing to a shared SMB/Samba/CIFS folder for movies that I had set up. You can also use paths to local folders or any of the supported source types.

There is one caveat that I should mention about adding media directly through the sources XML file. While any changes you make to the file should be reflected in XBMC once you restart the app you’ll still need to go in and update the type of videos contained in the source. Here’s what you need to do:

1. In XBMC go the Videos -> Files
   
2. Highlight the source you just added, and then open the context menu by pressing “C” on the keyboard. Then select the Change Content option:
   
3. Now you can choose the type of media contained in the source (TV shows, movies, music videos):
   

Sharing One Config File

How about we take a look at sharing the XML file now that you have already familiarized yourself with the file itself. The process is pretty simple, and for a more detailed explanation I will refer you to our guide on sharing configuration files in XBMC.

For more experienced users I will point out that all you need to do is add the following lines to your advancedsettings.xml file:

<substitute>
<from>special://masterprofile/sources.xml</from>
<to>smb://192.168.1.10/XBMC/Settings/sources.xml</to>
</substitute>

Just update the path with the shared location of the sources.xml file. Repeat this process for every instance of XBMC you have running in your house and they should all pick up any sources that you add or remove.

After doing all of this may need to run through the steps mentioned above for setting the content type on each of the sources since that’s not configurable through the sources.xml file, but that’s just a minor step.

CyberNet’s XBMC Guides:

• XBMC: Introduction to Our Upcoming Guides
  Our introduction provides some of the deciding factors for switching from Windows Media Center to XBMC.
• XBMC: Build Your Own HTPC
  Our extensive guide on the hardware we chose for our home theater PCs (HTPCs), the cost, and some tips on choosing the hardware for your own HTPC.
• XBMC: Prepare and Optimize Windows 7
  A helpful list of tips to optimize the performance of Windows 7 so that the system is able to offer as many resources to XBMC as it can.
• XBMC: IR Receiver and Remote (Harmony, Xbox 360, and More)
  If you want your HTPC to operate like a set-top box you’ll definitely want to get a remote control configured, and for me this was a critical step so that I wouldn’t have to be concerned about less tech-savvy users trying to use my TV.
• XBMC: Share and Sync Media/Settings Between Multiple XBMC Installs
  Configuring XBMC to share settings between multiple instances means you’ll be able to stop a show in one room, and seamlessly pick up where you left off in another room.
• XBMC: Fit the Picture to Your TV with Overscan
  If XBMC doesn’t fit your TV screen perfectly there are a couple of steps you can take to get it just right.
• XBMC: Installing Skins
  How to tweak the appearance of XBMC so that it looks the way you want it to.
• XBMC: Custom Home Screen Menu Backgrounds
  Make the backgrounds of your chosen skin/theme a little more interesting by having it flip through artwork from your favorite TV shows and movies.
• XBMC: Dynamic Weather Backgrounds
  If you’re using the Aeon MQ 3 theme you can have it use dynamic wallpapers that change based on the time of day and current weather conditions.
• XBMC: SMB on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
  I use a Mac to serve up files to my XBMC instances running on Windows, and so my preferred protocol for sharing files is SMB. This guide explains how you can get a XBMC-compatible version of SMB running on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
• XBMC: Adding Media Sources
  Learn how to add your media to XBMC and turn on the appropriate content scrapers.
• XBMC: Troubleshoot Buffering Issues
  Trying to troubleshoot buffer issues in XBMC can be quite a pain, and so I lay out some of the most common culprits.
• XBMC: Test Your HTPC with High Bitrate Sample Videos
  Want to see how well your HTPC performs? Throw some of these high bitrate 1080p sample videos at it.
• XBMC: More Advanced Settings
  Configure some of the settings that you won’t find anywhere in the GUI.
• XBMC: Stream Hulu, Food Network, and More
  Thanks to add-ons you can stream videos from some of your favorite sources including Hulu, Food Network, HGTV, TWiT, and more.
• XBMC: AirPlay on Windows
  Send videos from your iOS device to any XBMC instance with very little configuration.
• XBMC: Web Interface and Chrome Extension
  As long as you are on the same network as your XBMC box you can control it from any browser using the built-in web interface, or you can install a Chrome extension to make it even easier.
• XBMC: iPhone and iPad Remote
  If you own an iPhone or iPad you can enjoy one of the best XBMC remote control experiences I’ve seen, and it will only cost you a few bucks.
• XBMC: A List of Our Guides, Plus Helpful Wiki and Forum Posts
  A recap of all the guides we’ve written as well as useful wiki and forum post from the official XBMC.org site.
• XBMC: Free and Official iOS Remote for XBMC Released
  This is the free and official XBMC remote control iOS app (optimized for both the iPhone and iPad). It will let you easily control all of the XBMC instances in your house as long as they are all on the same network.
• XBMC: Running XBMC on Startup in Windows 8
  Learn how you can make XBMC start automatically when Windows 8 boots.
• XBMC: Send YouTube Videos From Chrome to XBMC
  Send YouTube videos from your PC to any XBMC instance in a single click.
• XBMC: Aeon MQ 4 Skin
  If you’re looking for one of the best and most popular XBMC skins the Aeon MQ 4 is a great choice.
• XBMC: Android Widget Remote Control
  Control multiple instances of XBMC without ever having to open an app on your Android device!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on January 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’m sure at some point or another you’ve wanted to password protect a photo that you were sending to someone else. Maybe it was a confidential image that you didn’t want to end up in the wrong hands, or a personal photo that you wanted to keep secret.

A handy tool called LockImage is here to save the day. It’s a free (and open source) program that will let you create an executable file containing a single image. You can then password protect that file so that so that the contents are kept confidential.

LockImage consists of a single file that is just 32KB after it’s uncompressed… and no installation is needed. It took me a minute to understand just how you create the executable file, but it’s actually rather simple:

1. Download the LockImage binary (currently labeled LockImage-0.1-bin.zip). Extract the contents of the download, and then run the executable contained inside.
2. Go to File -> Open, and browse for the image you want to password protect. The image will open up in the viewer.
3. Go to File -> Save As, choose a file name, and type in the password you want to use to protect the image.

After completing those steps a new executable file will be created. Upon launching the executable you’ll be prompted for the password before being able to see the image:

This is a really new project, and I could see it becoming a great tool for sharing photos with family and friends. One thing that I hope the developer will work on is a way to include multiple images in a single file so that you can send if off as a gallery.

Note: Many email services and file sharing sites don’t allow executable files to be shared.

Thanks to Aziz for the tip!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 27, 2009 by CyberNet.

UPDATE: As some commenters have pointed out certain antivirus applications are flagging this application as containing a trojan. My antivirus, NOD32, did not find any virus though. So it’s up to you whether you want to proceed.

We’ve seen all kinds of Aero glass emulators for XP cross our path. The problem is that the moment they start to show any potential the developers fall off the map and updates are pretty much non-existent. A few weeks ago when I saw one called Border Skin over at Lifehacker I put off trying it because, frankly, I was sick of being disappointed.

Man, I have to say that I’m sorry I didn’t try this sooner. First off, it’s portable so there’s no installation involved. Just download, extract, and run. The settings are self-contained in the directory you run it from so there’s not a bunch of random files you need to worry about finding should you decide to delete it.

Second, it looks remarkable. You can turn the blur effect on or off, there are about 15 different colored themes you can choose from (the one pictured above is the Windows 7 style), and overall it just feels like it’s part of the operating system. Over the last few days I’ve been using this full-time on one of my XP machines, and there have been very few times that it even crossed my mind that this wasn’t an integrated part of the operating system. It’s that fluid.

Lastly, performance. This thing performed so well on my XP laptop that it got me wondering what it would be like on a low-end piece of hardware. I don’t have any old computers lying around, but then I realized that throwing it in a virtual machine would be a really good test considering that Aero glass on Vista or Windows 7 isn’t available in any virtual environment due to graphics restrictions. So I put it on an XP virtual machine with 512MB of RAM, enabled all the effects including blurring, and then took the screenshot you see above. It all worked amazingly well even on a virtual machine with limited resources. The only issues I saw was some slight jumping if I’d drag the windows around really fast, and when closing a window the border would remain visible for about a half a second after the app closed. Definitely not a deal breaker, and these results were much less noticeable on my dedicated machine.

It also got me wondering what it does with “borderless” windows such as Google Chrome. Good news… it does nothing! I was worried that it may add a border around those applications regardless of whether they need one or not, but it doesn’t. This is because it has an “exclude list” file that can be used to specify windows that shouldn’t be skinned. Common apps like Chrome and Windows Live Messenger are already in this list for you.

So a big thanks to the developer for coming up with an awesome solution, and I can’t wait to see what else will be added in future versions! This is already the most complete Aero glass emulator for Windows XP that I’ve used, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Border Skin Homepage (Windows only; 32-bit only; freeware)

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on June 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

Mozilla has released Firefox 3 RC2 today which is right on schedule, and that means we might still be on for a June launch of Firefox 3! It’s even possible that this could be the last Release Candidate before Mozilla shoots for their world record.

This time around there’s probably nothing that you’ll notice as being different from Release Candidate 1, which is a good thing. At this point they are focusing only on bugs that could keep the user from having a great experience with the browser, and if all looks well in this release it could be signed-off on to be the final version. *cue marching band*

Mozilla hasn’t officially made the Firefox 3 RC2 announcement yet, but it will be coming in the next day or so. That also means the automatic update to RC2 won’t be available until then, but they have posted the files up on their FTP. Just like with previous releases I’ve put together a downloader for those that want to give the new version a whirl right now. And don’t worry, it balances the load between all of the mirrors unlike some of the sites that post direct links to the FTP:

For those of you waiting for your favorite add-ons to get upgraded… hopefully you won’t have to wait too much longer! I do have to say that the add-on developers are much more attentive to the release of Firefox 3 compared to that of Firefox 2.

And once you get Firefox 3 RC2 up and running I highly recommend that you checkout the AwesomeSearch extension. It’s quickly become a must-have for me.

Thanks to Cody for the tip!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on February 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

This morning when I woke up I noticed that I had more than 20 tabs open in Firefox that I still needed to sort through and read. Most of them were articles that I found the previous day, but never got around to reading. Despite having a 24” monitor I still find that having 20 tabs open takes up a lot of room, and what I really needed was a folder-like structure for my tabs.

Some of you might be thinking that I should just bookmark the items into a temporary folder to read later on. That’s not a bad idea, but I’ve tried that before and I typically forget about reading them. So I did what every Firefox user does…went and searched Mozilla’s Firefox Extension page for something that would fulfill my needs.

I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t find anything. I then turned to Google trying to see if I could find something that would do what I was looking for. After about 30–minutes I came across an extension called Tab Groups that was just released three weeks ago. My initial thought was “why didn’t I see this on the Firefox Extension page?” which I later found out was because the developer has not yet submitted this to Mozilla.

It sounded like exactly what I needed so I went ahead and installed it. As you can see in the screenshot above it creates a new toolbar that essentially adds tabs to your tabs. Here are features it currently offers:

• Tab Groups: Grouping of tabs into groups with a tab bar to manage groups, only the browser tabs in the currently selected group are shown.
• New tabs are opened in current group
• Drag And Drop of tabs between groups
• Renaming of groups
• Support for Session Store (Firefox 2 built in session storage) and undo-close tab (again only the one built into FF2). In other words tab groups will be restored along with tabs with restored tabs being placed in the correct group.

This extension is only for Firefox 2 users which makes sense since it uses the built-in session restore to remember tab groupings. There are some known bugs that you should also consider before getting cozy with the extension, such as a lack of “group overflow” management. That means if you have too many groupings they will extend beyond the edge of your Firefox window and simply run off of the screen without allowing you to scroll and see them.

I also began thinking about some features that would be pretty cool to see in this extension, such as bookmarking a whole group of tabs. Then I noticed the Planned Features section for the extension which says that particular feature should be in version 0.05 which is currently three releases away (it’s currently at 0.02). Looking at the Planned Features page will make you realize that the developer has a lot of things he/she would like to do with the extension, and I can’t wait.

I’m currently using this on a Firefox 3 nightly and it is running great, except for a small gap between the grouping tabs and the Tabbar (pictured above), but that is something I can live with. I’m actually not sure if that problem is with Firefox 3 or if it is the visual properties of Vista that’s causing the problem…either way it doesn’t detract from the value that the extension adds.

Tab Groups Homepage
Here is a mirror of Tab Groups 0.2 (I recommend downloading from the homepage since it will probably be frequently updated).

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com