TicTechToe

Hitachi SimpleNet: Share USB Drives over LAN

2009-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

I just got one last evening. So far so good. I have connected & shared two usb keys, and can access them over the wifi on a Mac and Vista machines.

To access the web interface, type http://simplenet.local in your browser. I have setup user access via FTP, and can get to my data from outside easily. The iTunes server works well, but haven't tested it for a lot of music; I only placed 10 songs.

The dongle runs very hot! No ventilation has been provided for the plastic enclosure. I have wrapped aluminum foil to dissipate the heat, but may leave one usb port unused to vent out the trapped heat.

Oh, I've also applied the latest firmware to overcome the 2GB file limit. Hope the design improves and such a device becomes mainstream.

AIA '09 Session

2009-11-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Making the best of the technology you already own.

2009-04-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

So we all are in a non spending mode given the way economy is going. I'm resisting any temptation to buy a new piece of gadget or technology that would make me look bad later, at least, in front of my spouse.

So past weekend, I decided to feed my craving and feel better. I decided to make my media center experience better. My initial setup consisted of my 1080p 42" LCD TV, 5 year old Toshiba laptop with an external 120GB portable drive. The S-video out was just about good enough, though not as good as an HDMI out would. The laptop has a wireless card installed as well. I normally use the setup to play YouTube clips, and my iTunes music collection. To add to the mix, I use my iPhone's Remote app to control iTunes. Once in a while I'll use the Remote Desktop Lite app to control the laptop from across the room, but it never was a wholesome experience.

I wanted to spend as less time on the project and no money at all. I started with hunting for a decent media center application. XBMC won the election based on the following selection criteria: It was free, available for cross platform Mac, Windows and Linux OS. I would have preferred using Boxee, found but they don't support windows as of yet.
Besides, I like the comfort of keeping my XP install on the laptop intact.

So post install, I setup Apple movie trailers script and added it to the video source in XBMC, along the videos stored on my external drive. I added the music stored on the drive to the list of sources. I didn't enter any network shares as yet, but can at any time.

The default UI seemed to provide the best experience, so I stayed with it. The interface was simple enough to use with the keyboard. But hey, the media center experience calls for a couch potato personality. I should not be getting up even if I'm 6 feet away. So then came in the iPhone app (has to be free, remember) called 'Snatchtest' that allows you to use your iPhone like a remote (wireless) touchpad. I also looked at 'remotepad' which offered support for multiple buttons, keyboard, but found Snatchtest to be more responsive.

So, by the end of an hour, I was browsing Apple movie trailers on my HDTV from the comfort of my couch across the room, and watching my photo & home video collection.
Though I do admit, that for listening to audio, the iTunes and Apple's own Remote app make the best combination, offering visualization which is best of the breed.

At the end of the weekend, I was happy to have unlocked the potential of my old hardware and freeing up my digital content, spending zero dollars.

Playing in the Cloud!

2009-03-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

So for past many many months, I've been playing with Virtual Machines, both for fun and for real production work.
I have to largely credit Open Source software movement for the goodies it has created for the techies to play with...

Although, I feel secure doing testing and production work with the web software behind the corporate firewall, but am really concerned about security when it's exposed to the internet, a really scary place!

Cloud computing sounds promising, but hasn't yet won my trust. I've used Yahoo, Hotmail, Google like everybody else, but not physically 'owning' the corporate data is something I can't sell to the employers, until I'm convinced.

Stream your Music privately through the web!

2008-01-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

Love Pandora? Save the 'netvironment' use openpandora instead!
Love Pandora and Macs, try PandoraMan instead!

Love music, but like to be your own DJ?
Then be the Lord of your audio collection by installing Slimserver. Install it on the machine which will serve the music, and you can access it from any other machine on your network, create a playlist and search your own collection. (It can even work with iTunes and stream music from your favorite Shoutcast internet radio station, and also Pandora! Yay!)
And Check this out, you can control the music from multitude of devices.

My setup included controlling the music from a wireless laptop, and playback through speakers hooked up to my wifi pocketpc, hidden away behind the couch, and no cables in sight! Peace!

With the DynDNS service setup per the post below, you can also access your Slimserver music from outside the home. Make sure you setup a secure password to your Slimserver.

How to access your 'Home brewed Website" from outside?

2008-01-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Consider getting a Static IP from your ISP.
Maybe that's too expensive, then try getting a router (most probably you'll have one if you're using more than one PC) which can work with Dynamic IP tracking services like www.dyndns.org

Then get a free account from dynDNS and put the settings in your Router.
Make sure you point the HTTP service to the IP address of your PC (or Virtual PC/ Virtual Machine)

Give it a shot from outside your home...

Depending upon your ISP provided modem or router, you may have to play with the settings a bit. Google around for help on the specific model. Best of luck!

Host a Wiki on your home computer!

2008-01-20T12:41:00.000-08:00

Guess you have wandered on a Wikipedia webpage sometime or the other...The ability to contribute to a community knowledge base is very powerful.

Still more powerful is the idea that you can control the hosting of a wiki website to test it out or save money on hosting it.

Now a days, with the advent of more powerful home computers and a constant on broadband connection, you surely can! :)

New technologies like Virtual Machines can enable you to try out new OS and Web technologies with little overhead.
-------------- Here's How?-----------------
Get the new VM Player from www.VMware.com and install it on your PC. (VM Ware Fusion for MAC)
Then download the VM for Twiki (the best of the breed wiki) from:
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev.TWikiVMDebianStable

Open the VM Player and point to the Folder you extracted after the download...and off you go!