blog.cleverswine.net » Gadgets

Free HD With DVR Capability

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:51:01 +0000

I bought a PCTV 800e HD TV tuner card from Woot! some time ago, but never really used it. While watching The Office last night in high definition (using a cheap HD antenna, not a cable or satellite subscription), we were wishing that we could pause the show as we do with our DirecTV service. That's when I remembered my tuner card purchase and decided to get that set up with our media PC today. The plan was to hook it up to the media PC that is connected to our LCD television and then use Windows Media Center as a DVR. It was amazingly simple! I plugged in the USB tuner, installed the driver, started up WMC and ran through the TV setup wizard. We can now DVR HD television, and we get better sound because the media PC has an optical audio connect to our high end receiver. We also get program listings, which we didn't get with just an antenna and TV. Yummy screenshots...

Network Attached Storage

Kevin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:04:09 +0000

I just bought a Netgear RND2175 ReadyNAS Duo 750 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage from Amazon.com. I've been looking at these for a while, and finally decided on this one. The device holds 2 750gb drives which are mirrored for constant data redundancy. In addition, it runs an embedded version of Linux and can do pretty much anything a Linux computer can do. There's an active user and developer community for help with every aspect of the system, including extending it and customizing it. Very exciting stuff!

More Buying News

Kevin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:23:46 +0000

I've put my big buys on hold for now. I can't decide what kind of car I want. I test drove the MINI Cooper and did not like it. It was too small, too noisy, and although the interior was pretty fancy, it felt cheap. As for the BMW and Audi, I can't see spending $40k on a car when I can get one that works just as well for $20k. Needless to say, I have a lot of research left to do before I buy anything. The Honda Fit is now on my list.

Speaking of buying things, I just read about a new Dell mini PC (Dell Studio Hybrid), which would be great as a nice looking media PC connected to a television. It starts at $499, but by the time I added what I deemed to be necessary options, it was $1600. Anyway, I've already got a good media PC, but I'm always prepared to upgrade.

Multitasking Television

Kevin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:59:25 +0000

Now that I've had enough of the Perfect Day (sun is bad), I've migrated to the great indoors. There are at least 4 things I'd like to be doing while indoors: listening to music, looking at photos, browsing the web, and watching baseball. As it turns out, I'm doing all 4 at once! Check it out.

I Dig Vagalume

Kevin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:43:34 +0000

I've been using Vagalume, a last.fm player, on my internet tablet. This might be one of the best and most useful pieces of software that I've ever used. I particularly like the neighborhood radio feature, which plays songs from last.fm users that have similar tastes to mine. It's like having a portable radio that only plays stuff that I like.

PDA Coolness

Kevin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:12:38 +0000

I'm sending this from my Nokia N800 using WordPy. Test.

Seniors Love the WII

Kevin — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:39:41 +0000

I bet Nintendo had no idea that their WII gaming console would make such a splash in nursing homes. Apprently, the WII is all the rage in the elderly world. Some homes have regular tournaments with the sports games. For example, here is an article about a recent bowling tournament.

When asked to comment on the 202 to 182 stunner, the few other residents who were both awake at the time and able to remember the action agreed that the match was surely one for the record books.

Fun with the Nokia n800

Kevin — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:19:36 +0000

The more I use my Nokia n800 internet tablet, the more I like it. I recently upgraded the OS to Nokia's latest release (which was developed for the follow up model, the n810). Today I discovered that I can use the n800's bluetooth to connect to my cell phone and transfer files back and forth. I could also use my cell phone for internet connectivity, but I don't have the network plan from AT&T. That's too bad since Portland's free wifi near downtown, which was all the rage, barely works. Anyway, I use the n800 for browsing the web, reading email, IM chatting, reading RSS feeds, music, video, and more. It's great for when I'm laying in bed wondering what a "dreidel" is - I can just grab my n800 and look it up instantly without leaving the bed. The bad news is that I paid $400 for it and they are now on sale just about everywhere for $200+. Doh!

Nokia n800 Screenshots

Kevin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 04:41:27 +0000

So the new tablet pc comes with a screenshot program that automatically takes a screenshot and uploads it to flickr.com. That is sooo cool! So far this gadget is perfect. Another suprising feature is that it works perfectly with Orb.com, which means I can watch TV and view all of the multimedia stored on my home server.

Nokia n800

Kevin — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:35:19 +0000

I broke down and bought a Nokia n800 internet tablet pc. I haven't received it yet, but I think it will be cool. Features include bluetooth and wifi built in, camera, speakers, sd card slots.

Four Gigabytes

Kevin — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:14:01 +0000

I got a 4gb SD card for my PDA and installed the root filesystem to it. That means I have tons of room for extra software and stuff.

Untapped Power

Kevin — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:28:53 +0000

So, now that I have a super cool, tiny, quiet computer that is always on (because it holds all of my documents and multimedia for the other computers on my network), I feel like it should be doing something. It serves up files for my other computers, but it still sits there idle 99% of the time. I thought about having it download illegal media with bit torrent, but that can lead to headaches (viruses, etc). I could also set it up as a web server, but I can't think of a good reason to do that. I attached a TV tuner to it, but quickly ran out of ideas to make that cool. The picture isn't good enough to use it as a media center, and we have DirecTV which means the tuner can't control channel switching, etc. Anyway... I had nothing else to write about, so there you go.

Zelda and Wiiitis

Kevin — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:41:18 +0000

We have been playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii. It's a one player game, but we each take a controller and work together. We've already put in about 30 hours of play.

In related news, CNN has an article about Wiiitis. One gets Wiiitis from playing the sports games for too long. Read

Ubuntu Linux, enano

Kevin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:19:38 +0000

I removed Windows Vista on my main desktop computer and installed Ubuntu Linux. It's been a while since I've used linux, and I see it has improved a bit. So far everything is working, and I have all the software I could ever need.

Also, I bought a mini computer to hook up to the LCD television. It's by a comany called Enano. The entire computer is about the size of a CD drive. I have Windows Vista installed on it. It's cool to watch streaming media from the internet in full screen mode because it's just like watching T.V. I rejoined Netflix and plan to use their "Watch Now" feature.

Wii Finally Got a Wii

Kevin — Fri, 18 May 2007 18:32:21 +0000

After months of looking and waiting, Bren came across a Nintendo Wii yesterday! I guess Nintendo finally caught up with the demand. The last gaming console that I've owned was an Intellivision II, back in the 80s. I've been waiting for the right system to come along, as I'm not impressed (or good at) the modern genre of games. So far the Wii has not disappointed. We only have Wii Sports, which came bundled, but it will take a while to get tired of that. My favorite game so far is Tennis. The Wii will also help with my diet because it's interactive.