Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 18, 2012 by CyberNet.

So after weeks of XBMC-focused posts we are wrapping it all up with a summary of all the guides we wrote, along with some helpful posts from the official wiki and forums pages. The community that surrounds XBMC is incredible, and that’s something you’ll realize once you start digging deeper into the software. If you’re just starting out with XBMC, the page we’ve assembled here should be a great place to kick-off your learning.

Helpful XBMC Wiki Posts:

• UserData Folder
  An explanation of what all the various files and folders are used for in your UserData folder.
• AdvancedSettings.xml
  A list of all the advanced configuration values that are available.
• File Sharing Protocols by OS
  This page covers the various file sharing protocols that are available for each of the different operating systems.
• Special Paths
  You can use the “special://” protocol to reference XBMC-specific resources, which is useful with path substitution.
• Naming TV and Movie files
  In order for XBMC to correctly detect the TV show or movie that corresponds to a video file you’ll need to make sure you understand how the files will need to be named.
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  A long list of all the various keyboard shortcuts available in XBMC.
• Remote Control Reviews
  Wondering whether your remote will work with XBMC? This wiki page covers many of the different kinds of remotes that are compatible.
• Debug Log
  The debug log can be infinitely useful when trying to troubleshoot an issue, and so it’s important to understand exactly how it works.
• Keyboard.xml
  This configuration file will let you customize/override the default behavior for keyboard shortcuts.
• Dirty Regions
  Dirty regions are a new way that XBMC tries to reduce the load on your CPU and GPU by optimizing how things are rendered on the screen, but it isn’t turned on by default yet. If you want to give it a try, this page will help you along.

Helpful XBMC Forum Pages/Posts:

• Photos of Extensive XBMC Setups
  It will take some time to flip through the 75+ pages of posts here, but there are quite a few great images showing off some of the home theater setups people have in their homes.
• XBMC Skins
  This is a nice directory of skins that are available in the official XBMC repository as well as third-party repositories.
• Video Add-ons
  This is the forum dedicated solely to video add-ons, and there is an ever-growing list of them. It’s a good place to start if you’re wondering whether your favorite online streaming service has a plugin available.
• Tips for Building Your Own HTPC
  This is a general guide on the various hardware components that make up an HTPC.
• Hardware Recommendations
  This is a long list of hardware recommendations along with pricing for anyone building an HTPC from scratch.

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 © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

You might not be able to write for a living for one reason or another, even if you wanted to, but that doesn’t mean you should stop writing. Let off some steam, talk about your dreams, share funny anecdotes – there are so many things you can do with words.

They don’t have to be extremely long. In fact, there’s an app that lets you write short blurbs and share them with friends and random people when you’re done with them. That app is called Spine.

It’s a neat little app that lets aspiring writers publish five-sentence stories. You can basically consider Spine as a social network for micro-stories where authors and readers can connect and share stories with one another.

Users can post and browse stories in nine different categories, which includes literary staples like action, horror, sci-fi, and mystery.

Users can rate stories and share the ones they love to others on their networks. In short, it’s a community of writers and readers doing something they love: reading and writing.

Spine is available free for iOS devices and can be downloaded here.

[via Laughing Squid]

This article was written on September 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Walt Mossberg is a very well respected technology journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and he was recently known for being the one to head up the Steve Jobs & Bill Gates interview. His articles typically revolve around either Windows or Macs, but his readers had been asking him to jump into the Linux side of things.

Mossberg was able to get his hands on a Dell 1420N laptop preloaded with Ubuntu. Right there you know he should have a great out-of-box experience since there shouldn’t be any hardware complications (such as getting the wireless card to work). That was partly true, and here’s a quick overview I put together of the good and bad things he discovered while using Ubuntu:

The Good:

• It’s free and open source
• Looks a lot like Windows or Mac OS X so it is easy to get used to
• Runs on the least-expensive popular hardware configurations
• Essentially free of viruses and spyware
• Built and constantly improved by a world-wide network of developers

The Bad:

• No control panel for adjusting the way the touch pad works
• Every time the computer awoke from sleep, the volume control software crashed and had to be reloaded
• Codecs had to be downloaded to play audio and video files, and the  user is warned that some of the codecs might be "bad" or "ugly"
• Several computer reboots were needed to recognize a Kodak camera and Apple iPod, and the iPod had problems synchronizing
• No built-in software for playing DVD’s
• Nobody is ultimately responsible for the quality of the product, and open-source developers often have an imperfect feel for how average people use software

Are all of these things the fault of Ubuntu? Not at all. In fact many of the problems could be reconciled if the hardware developers would create proper drivers for the Linux operating system. Instead Linux distributions are often left on their own to make sure the different hardware configurations are supported.

Mossberg isn’t saying that all of these things are show stoppers, instead he’s just trying to get the point across that Linux isn’t quite ready for the mass market. He even quoted Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu’s founder, as saying "it would be reasonable to say that this is not ready for the mass market."

Here’s a 5-minute video that Mossberg put together to explain the details:

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on February 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Mozilla has announced that they will be relaunching the Firefox Add-ons site on Monday with only a handful of the extensions that are currently available. In fact, they are said to be trimming down the list of available add-ons to just several hundred, which means they could be cutting 80% to 90% of the ones listed on the site. To see just how many there were I did a quick search for the letter “a” which pulled up 2359 results. That number seems to be accurate since searching for “e” comes up with the same answer.

I am really glad to see Mozilla stepping up and trying to make the Add-ons site even better. When doing my Firefox 200 Extension Test I installed many of the top extensions that can be found on Mozilla’s site. To my surprise a lot of the ones I came across were junk and the download numbers are probably being faked by spammers. This could definitely hinder the experience that new Firefox users receive so I see a change as being a great thing.

Mozilla also said that they wanted to remove extensions that were not being updated anymore, which is completely understandable. They want users to have a great experience and that is often found with well-updated extensions. Using the advanced search feature I was able to find out how often the extensions have been getting updated:

• 26 extensions have been updated today
• 90 extensions have been updated this week
• 306 extensions have been updated this month
• 1938 extensions have been updated this year

Now all of the numbers I have mentioned here are for all of the Mozilla add-ons and not for just Firefox, which does have more than 92% of the 2359 listed. I thought more of the extensions would actually be outdated, but a huge majority have been updated at least once this year.

The extensions that get pulled will be put in a “sandbox” for users to vote on. That means the add-ons will have to earn their way to the public site in what appears to be a Digg-like fashion. I’m not sure how that whole process will work but I have fears that it may not be much better off than their current system…if spammers want their extension to make the public site they will surely find a way.

This will definitely be a way for Mozilla to analyze the quality of submitted extensions and sounds like it is a scalable solution (meaning as their products grow the system will still be able to manage itself). Just to be on the safe side though, you might want to save some of your favorite extensions to your hard drive especially if they haven’t been updated in awhile. I would assume that they will make it easy to download the extensions which have been removed from the site, but you know what happens when you assume something. 😉

Mozilla Add-ons Site

Source: ComputerWorld [via CyberNet Forum]

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on January 23, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Last week I wrote an article on freeware applications that let you arrange your windows in a more organized, and productive fashion. Then in the comments Everton mentioned an application that he found that lets you minimize windows to the System Tray. The only problem was that the link he posted vanished, and he didn’t mention what the name of the program was.

I’ve done a post before about minimizing applications to the System Tray and the popular one was 4t Tray Minimizer. There is both a paid and free version of that application. I also brought up other alternatives like Opera’s built-in Ctrl+H shortcut to minimize the browser to Tray…and you don’t have to install a thing to do that.

Then there is TrayDevil (download mirror): a freeware application that does more than just minimize windows to the System Tray. I’m not sure if this is the application that Everton was talking about in his comment, but when a friend of mine told me about it I couldn’t pass it up. Now that I have had some time to explore the program I thought I would share all of the things that it can do.

–Minimizing Windows–

The primary purpose of TrayDevil is to let you minimize applications to the System Tray that normally couldn’t be. There are all kinds of applications I find this useful for, like Web browsers and file explorers, but if you completely understand how TrayDevil works it will become an amazing tool.

To minimize a window you can do one of two things:

• While holding Ctrl, Shift, or Alt just left-click on the titlebar of the window you want to minimize.
• My favorite way is to simultaneously left-click and right-click on the titlebar which is a one-handed way of minimizing a window.

I would say the most unique thing happens when you have a window minimized to the System Tray. Unlike other tray applications that I have used, TrayDevil will keep the application’s icon in the System Tray even after clicking to maximize it. Of course, that’s only if you single-click because if you double-click it will remove the icon.

If you right-click on a minimized window you will receive the following options:

The Min, Max, and Close button options will disable those buttons on a given window. I haven’t really found this to be too useful quite yet, but I guess it could be if you wanted to make sure you didn’t accidentally close a window.

Then there is the Restore button ( ) which is equivalent to double-clicking on the icon…it restores the window and removes the icon from the tray.

The bottom option that has the up arrow ( ) is equivalent to single-clicking on an icon…it restores the window but leaves the icon in the tray. After a window has been restored the right-click menu option changes to a down arrow ( ) which will minimize the window back to the System Tray. 

–Shutdown, Restart, and More–

So what happens when you right-click on the TrayDevil icon? It provides you with all sorts of options like turning your monitor off or restarting your computer. It isn’t the end of the world if you accidentally click on one of those options while you were on your way to the settings…TrayDevil gives you 10-seconds (or more/less if you customize it) to cancel any of the operations.

–Customization and Settings–

Options, options, options…TrayDevil has them! There are all sorts of things you can finetune with my favorite being the application’s tray icon. Instead of adding another worthless icon to the System Tray (I currently have 16), it lets you completely turn it off or display what day of the month it is. Thank goodness that there are some developers in the world who think outside the box. 😀

There are several other options that can be customized, so I thought I would take screenshots of all the things you can configure (many of which pertain to hotkeys):

–Overview–

As you can see this is one powerful freeware application that offers a wealth of customizability. It handles so smoothly that it is now one of my favorite programs, where I previously used 4t Tray Minimizer (free). The program is very light weight so you don’t have to worry about it taking up resources…go on now, it’s calling your name:

Download TrayDevil from their homepage
Download TrayDevil from our mirror

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com