Tag Archives: quattro

Great Windows Media Center videos

February 24, 2005
Smart Home
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Check out these great Channel9 videos on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). If you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss over MCE is watch John Canning and Charlie Owen expose it all. Media Center exposed, Part I Media Center exposed, Part II There’s about an hour of video here, but if you really want to understand this amazing product it’s worthwhile to watch it all.

Blobservations: Windows Server, Home Edition

January 24, 2005
Smart Home
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Rick Hallihan presents a really nice vision of what a Windows based home server would look like in Blobservations: Windows Server, Home Edition. At my house I use Windows Server 2003 to manage all of my client PCs. For example I can easily change all machine’s IE security settings (and prevent my kids from changing them back) centrally via Group Policy. Today there are some problems with this in the home, namely some really cool …Continue reading →

Bluetooth GPS, Smartphone, Channel9, Oh My!

December 13, 2004
Coding, Smart Home
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Channel9 has posted a wicked-cool video of Alex Kipman demoning using Visual Studio to write slick SmartPhone app that talks to both the GPS and MapPoint via a web-service. Who says Microsoft can’t innovate? What other platform provides anywhere near the richness and integration across devices?!?! I purchased my Pharos GPS reciever as part of buying Microsoft Streets & Trips 2005. I bought it at the Microsoft Company Store for a silly low price (you …Continue reading →

My team

November 20, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Chris Gray on my team is playing with IIS at home. He’s got a little moblog app that automatically takes pics from his PocketPC phone and uploads them. This pic was taken right before we had an executive review for our project. Charlie, Chris, Sergey, Todd, Lee…  

Crazy expensive home server

November 18, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Sheesh. I thought Linux devices were supposed to be cheaper… Engadget writes about the Niveus A/V Storage Server which is basically just a Linux based NAS box with 1TB of RAID 5 storage in it. I can’t even tell if it actually supports SMB or not. Sure it’s pretty and fanless but why does it cost $3K? If you think this box sounds cool to you, I suggest you instead consider what you could do …Continue reading →

Killer home server deal

November 18, 2004
Smart Home
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Slickdeals.com is showing that you can now get a DELL PowerEdge SC420 P4-2.8GHz, 80GB system for $289+tax w/free shipping. These SC series machines from DELL make great home servers. They are plenty powerful, expandable, and amazingly very quiet.

A File Server…in Your Living Room?

November 15, 2004
Smart Home
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Via BusinessWeek a good article on home servers: That’s right, with most homes nowadays having multiple computers and lots of files to share, these new low-cost devices can do wonders Want to watch movies, control your stereo’s music, and back up your computer files from any PC in the house? A cheap server computer, a scaled-down version of the pricey machines locked away in corporate data centers, might be the best way to manage your family’s …Continue reading →

New Windows PC Form Factors

November 3, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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It’s going to be very interesting over the next few years as OEMs begin to finally produce truly innovative new PC form factors focused on specific user scenarios. Neowin.net points out that a British OEM, Scan Computers, has launched the “Project PC”, a PC specifically targeted at project managers who make heavy use of Microsoft Project. We’ve already seen great innovation in small form factor (SFF) desktop machines such as those from Shuttle. And great …Continue reading →

In depth MCE 2005 article on AnandTech

October 13, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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AnandTech has a very deep article on Windows Media Center Edition 2005. They didn’t think much of the earlier versions of MCE. Some quotes: “Media Center Edition continues to be the coolest looking highest performance PVR/DVR (with a fast enough system) out there on the market today. The interface continues to be clearly ahead of the competition…”“In the end, MCE continues to be a niche product, but if you have the means, then its definitely one …Continue reading →

Dilbert’s Home Server

October 5, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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According to the press release, “…Dilbert’s Ultimate House”(DUH). DUH is a virtual web-based home that the famous icon of the workplace Dilbert, his fans, tech geeks, the environmentally conscious, and those who just plain love the comfort of a good sofa, will covet.”He’s got a pretty clean looking wiring closet, but what kind of home server is that? And why does he still have all those magnetic tapes (or are they CD’s…not that it matters)? If he …Continue reading →

Time to RAID PVRs, says Silicon Image

October 5, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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In Time to RAID PVRs, says Silicon Image The Register reports that Silicon Image has a new RAID chip that they think they can sell to PVR vendors. Not sure how this differs from their existing SATA/IDE RAID chips. But they seem to agree with me that those hard drives are fragile and redundancy schemes are a Good thing.

Helmet Home Server

October 5, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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news.com reports on a new PC form factor: Helmet PC aims to score with football fans. This thing would make a fantastic home server (see my mini-ITX post)…as long as you used a Seattle Seahawks helmet and not a nasty Raiders helmet.

Windows Server is listening…

October 4, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Billie Jo Murray, who runs the Windows Server Customer Experience Group, is now blogging. If you have feedback about Windows Server’s documentation and customer programs head over to her blog and let her know.

mini-ITX Windows Server 2003 Home Server

October 3, 2004
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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I recently built a really small and quiet home server that ran Windows Server 2003 based on a mini-ITX motherboard. It turns out you can build a great system in a very small package. The only down-side is that the really nice cases are pretty expensive compared to larger cases driving the total cost up. The system I bought was a Casetronic C134 based system from LOGIC SUPPLY. With no OS, a 20gb hard drive and 512MB …Continue reading →

MCE Controller doc ommission

August 10, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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I forgot to mention a key (pun intended) command that MCE Controller supports in the 1.0.3 documentation. The “key:” command allows you to simulate any alphanumeric keyboard key press. For example “key:3” is the same thing as pressing the 3 key on the keyboard. This command is implemented internally in MCE Controller rather than via the MCEControl.commands configuration file; which is why I forgot to document it. I will update the readme file next time …Continue reading →

New MCE Controller sample available

July 29, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Multiple people have asked me for a sample that illustrates how to talk to MCE Controller from Crestron using SIMPL Windows. Ask no more: On the MCE Controller site, I’ve added a SIMPL Windows sample program that illustrates using MCE Controller with a Crestron processor. This sample illustrates using MCE Controller in client mode with a CP2E processor (which is the way that I use it).

Distributed File System (DFS)

April 21, 2004
Smart Home
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If you have a network with lots of storage that includes a Windows 2000 or W2K3 Server the Distributed File System (DFS) is your friend. This very cool technology makes it easy to move around where you store stuff physically while retaining a consistent namespace for your clients. For example, on my network at home I have several servers, each with many hundreds of GB of strorage. As my data needs grow (and they are …Continue reading →

MCE Controller 1.0.3 Released

March 27, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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No code changes. Just added an installer using the very cool NullSoft Scriptable Install System. Wow, that was easy! Download and install from http://www.kindel.com/products/mcecontroller/  

New MCE Controller Version

March 24, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Tonight I posted version 1.0.2 of MCE Controller. Basically one new feature: The ability to shutdown, restart, standby, or hibernate the system. See the V1.0.2 readme at http://www.kindel.com/products/mcecontroller/1.0.2/Readme.htm. The product page is at http://www.kindel.com/products/mcecontroller. Looking for feedback!

MCE Controller v1.0.1 Released!

February 23, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Today I released the first public version of MCE Controller. MCE Controller allows the Media Center application of Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) to be integrated into an advanced AV control system by enabling programmatic control of the user interface via a TCP/IP connection. To put it simply, MCE Controller, allows you to simulate a press of any button on the MCE IR remote control by sending a text command to a TCP/IP port on …Continue reading →