Disconnect Google Reader from Twitter?
My Google Reader feed just started working again (went public) and realized that it may be a bit spammy on twitter. Do you guys want me to disconnect it?
HTPC Upgrade Progress Report
It was decided that last night I would attempt to upgrade our HTPC with some parts we had laying around. This would be a combination of cannibalization from machines that haven’t been touched since we got our Macs, and some parts that had been given to us by friends that were untested.
Here’s how the install went:
- Install motherboard
- Find out that a metal tab from the backing plate was blocking the PS/2 ports
- Remove motherboard
- Install motherboard
- Find out that metal tabs from the backing plate were blocking the Ethernet ports
- Remove motherboard
- Install motherboard
- Install hard drives
- Find out that hard drives blocked the power connector on the motherboard
- Remove hard drives
- Move hard drives to alternate mounting locations
- Find out that alternate hard drive carrier hits video card
- Bend the crap out of the hard drive carrier to make it fit
- Find out that the hard drive carrier now blocks the power connector on the video card
- Bend the crap out of the hard drive carrier the OTHER way
- Cable up all the power and internal cables
- Hit power button
- Power breaker trips
*sigh*
I was having fun with the install, up to a point. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t just go to the Apple store and pick up an Apple TV for $200 and call it a day. Right now I have no HTPC until I get something worked out. Plan B is to take some other known working parts that should work and get it going that way. Plan C is to start throwing stuff.
Once I get everything running, the plan is to get Windows 7 on there to use the Windows Media Center. I’ll post reviews of Windows 7 as a HTPC if/when I get it running!
This weeks pick of the week is iEyeNet. iEyeNet is a widget that allows you to see the network interface utilization on any SNMP-capable device. Why would you want this? Simply put, it allows you to see what your Internet bandwidth utilization is at a glance.
If you have DD-WRT, this will work with with very little effort. All you need to do, is go into the “Services” and enable SNMP. The default settings will work just fine, but you may want to change the community strings to something only you know for a little bit extra security.
Once you have SNMP enabled on your router, install iEyeNet and configure it as seen below. If your router is also your gateway IP address, it should enter that for you. If not, set the Router/Gateway address to the IP of your router. Set the SNMP community string to the string you set (or public by default), and then set the interface to monitor to vlan1, which corresponds to the WAN interface of most DD-WRT installs. It may be slightly different depending on the model you’re using (I’m using a WRT54g). If you can’t figure it out from looking at your router configuration, go ahead and try the each of the interfaces until you find the one that appears to match your Internet traffic usage.
Lastly, if your upload and download lines are reversed, you can just check “Flip Up/Down” to correct it.
That’s it for this week’s Mac App of the Week. Be sure to check back next Saturday for the next pick!
GM, this is why you’re failing
Now that you’re making some decent products, you should consider figuring out your marketing. Even if I wanted to buy a GM vehicle, I’d be confused as to which one I should buy because they’re practically the same with different body panels!
These two Google AdWords ads just showed up exactly like this on a website for me:
I assume I’d buy the Chevy Equinox if I want MPG, and the GMC Terrain if I want IPSI (ideas per square inch).
VMware Server or Compact Firewall?
I’m tired of trying to do a million things with DD-WRT, and feel that 100Mbps on the WAN link may not be fast enough soon with DOCSIS 3.0. So I’ve come up with two options:
- Create a small router/firewall with an embedded board, like a Soekris kit and end up with something like this:
- Create a beastly VMware server using more commodity hardware and virtualize my router (my switch supports VLAN tagging).
What would you do?
Checking out Office 2010 Beta
I’m downloading the Office 2010 Beta right now from MSDN. I’m going to be checking out the 64-bit version in Windows 7 and let you guys know what I think!
Contra - Is this what you saw?
This is exactly what my 8-year-old self thought was on the cover anyways!
I realized a while ago that some people just can’t code, but this illustrates the “why” for me better than people just saying “I don’t get it.”
Garrick over at Media Nightmare came up with this illustration:
DNS Changes = Outage
I’m making some DNS changes, so things may get a little flakey here for a few hours. Give it a bit of time and things should be back to normal (but with a new domain name!)
