Continue reading »]]> About 18 months ago I built a Windows 7 based home theatre PC to drive my big shiny new plasma TV. I haven’t look back and I love the functionality it provides.

What is a home theatre PC?
My definition is that it’s a computer with the ability to record and playback all types of media and is usually the main driver of content on a TV. For me that record functionality is the critical difference between a media player and a home theatre PC.

The basic hardware is:

• a TV
• a PC with a TV tuner and an infra red receiver
• a universal remote control to drive it
• optionally a wireless keyboard and mouse

That is my setup, I don’t actually have any fancy surround sound speakers or amplifier or any of that audiophile stuff. I have a 127cm (50”) Panasonic plasma TV and the PC that drives it I built from scratch from components I bought on the internet. This was the first PC I’ve built and it was intimidating at first but a good experience to have under my belt.

I run Windows 7 and think that the Media Centre software included with it is tops. I just use the free to air TV guide that is broadcast in the digital TV signal. I use Media Centre that to run everything – it’s the interface to:

• live TV
• recorded TV
• movies – DVDs and Blu Rays that have been transferred to the hard drive
• music
• radio (rarely used admittedly)
• YouTube, TED, other video on demand services
• live weather observations

My main motivation when deciding on the HTPC approach was to replace a Topfield PVR (personal video recorder) that I had been using for about 18 months. It had started to play up – and by play up I mean it would randomly delete ALL recordings. It was also only standard definition capable and like a fool I thought there’d be a wealth of HD content I would want to watch and record on free to air TV in Australia.

The main advantages of a HTPC over a PVR is the additional things I can do with it – I have an extensive movie library on the local hard disk that lets me browse titles via the remote and simply play the movies without having to load the actual DVD or Blu Ray disk.

I have a Wi Fi connection on-board which lets me access the internet (driven by the wireless keyboard and mouse).

Using Windows Media Centre I can easily record TV shows – but not just individual shows, I can record a series of shows. So regardless of the time it is scheduled for, I can browse to ‘Masterchef’ in the TV guide and hit the record button twice and Media Centre keeps track of future scheduled shows and records them.

I can easily entertain my son who is toddler age with all his favourite shows – he’s not going to believe me when I tell him how there was no way to instantly pull up your favourite show when I was his age. You just had to watch whatever was on TV at the time, ridiculous I know!

What about Smart TVs?

Since I’ve adopted this there has been a push from TV manufacturers to ‘Smart TVs’ which are internet enabled. I think this is interesting for your non-technical users, but you’re locked into the content that the TV manufacturer is able to license or partner with in some cases. I’m also not sure how upgradeable the logic in these TVs is – imagine what the internet will look like in 10 years time, is the TV of today still going to be useful for that kind of content and interaction? With the HTPC approach you keep the TV simple – a big screen with speakers, and can then replace the ‘brains’ or upgrade them on a more regular basis if needed.

Is it cost effective?
I’ve probably spent more on this than a PVR that would ‘just work’ as appliances do. But I get more functionality so that makes it worth it to me.

Have there been technical problems?
Of course. It had to be stable enough that it was usable not just for me but my family. My wife reminds me that there are problems from time to time, but to be fair the previous PVR solution also had it’s fair share of problems.

The universal remote I have has two main profiles programmed – ‘Watch TV’ (using the HTPC) and ‘Pure TV’ which is just the TV itself with it’s built-in tuner. This second profile is a fall-back in case the HTPC crashed or had some kind of BSOD. It’s rarely used, but has proven useful when recording two shows and wanting to watch a third. The TV Tuner I have is capable of recording two different channels, but you cannot watch a third while that is happening.

Blu Rays have been a major frustration. I love the improved quality of the video, I don’t notice the audio so much. But getting them to reliably play in a Windows machine can shit you to tears. There’s too much anti-piracy DRM and encryption shenanigans going on there to make it a smooth experience. I’m not sure how people with Blu Ray appliances fare in this regard.

What would I do differently?

I only use the on-board graphics capabilities of an Intel i3 CPU and that copes fine so I wouldn’t change that.

I installed 4GB of RAM when 2GB would have sufficed.

I wish I had a better infra red receiver for the remote. The remote works fine controlling the TV from any angle, but for the HTPC I have to point it right at the I/R receiver and hold my tongue right for it to work.

Recommendations

If you’re inclined to have a go at this kind of setup I recommend it. Just research the components you want to buy. I went for a high quality Hauppauge TV tuner as I had read some bad reviews about cheaper alternatives and their slowness to change channels. I have had no problems with mine and glad I paid a bit extra.  As always, reviews on amazon.com are pretty helpful.

Windows 7 Media Centre is fantastic, but supplement it with the Media Browser add-on if you’re going to store and playback movies or TV shows.

You probably won’t use the internet as much as you might think initially – you’ll quickly find it doesn’t look so good from 2 to 3 metres away in 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080). Over time though as more video on demand services are available this will probably change.

On board graphics are fine.

Continue reading »]]> Back in December 2011 comedian Louis CK released a 62 video special of a stand-up comedy performance titled Live at the Beacon Theater. Rather than release this through normal distribution channels as a physical DVD it was released as a digital download direct from his website for the princely sum of $5.

Recently he has expanded this to include two new titles – both audio only works, one of which is already available on video. Demand for the original title went nuts and Louis made his money back many times over, grossing over $1.1 million. Even though that’s US Dollars, that’s not too bad!

Other comedians such as Jim Gaffigan have also given this model a try, releasing his work Mr. Universe with the same model – $5 to download a high quality video file that is yours to do with as you please.

As a consumer I’m thrilled that these guys are taking this road. For a measly $5 (only just more than a cup of coffee) you get DRM free, high quality content that you are free to do what you want with. I hope more artists try this. There’s a warm glow you get from supporting great artists and legally bypassing the dinosaurs of traditional content distribution – and especially that dastardly iTunes!

The revolution will not be televised; it will be available for download DRM free.

Continue reading »]]> I upgraded my phone to a Samsung Galaxy Nexus about 2 months ago and I’ve been loving it. I previously had a Samsung Galaxy S II which I thought was a brilliant phone, but the Galaxy Nexus just tops it in my opinion.

Highlights

Ice Cream Sandwich of course
Enough said, it’s beautiful, it’s powerful and has some awesome features such as data usage tracking, panoramic camera

Brilliant screen
The 4.65" HD(1280 x 720) Super AMOLED screen is awesome, very vibrant. Pretty similar to the SGS II but a bit bigger.

No hardware buttons
There’s no hardware buttons on the front, only soft-buttons that disappear if they are not needed. This feature maximises screen real estate when watching videos on YouTube. Only occasionally do I hit the home button when typing which is a bit annoying but I’m getting better at not doing that.

Curve of the phone fits my hand
The centre of gravity of the phone is below half way because the top is thinner than the bottom, this combined with a gentle curve on the glass means it just fits nicely in your hand.

Instant camera
This surprised me when I first got the phone and it took some getting used to, but there is minimal lag between when you click the button to take a photo and when it is captured. I’m not sure if this is H/W specific or just ICS relayed. I know the HTC One X is flogging this feature a lot but it has a dedicated chip to handle the camera function. The photos are not brilliant, but acceptable. I’m not a photographer, but being able to grab a photo of my son who moves at a million miles an hour while playing is now a reality with this phone.

Disappointments

Battery life
This is pretty par for the course, it’s not brilliant. I think it’s pretty similar to the Galaxy S II in terms of real life, but I’m a compulsive charger so never really let the battery drain down too much.

External speaker
The external speaker is pretty weak. Sometimes hard to hear calls, or that super quick camera snapping a photo.

Pure Google – Not!
I bought mine from Telstra and it took me a while to realise that the ROM it shipped with was not the latest edition of ICS. After some digging I realised it was configured to get updates from Telstra itself, not Google. While previous flagship Android phones have always gotten updates from Google directly, for some reason Telstra decided that they know better. At least there was no bloatware. In the end I worked around this by downloading the ROM straight from Google and applying it myself. Some more discussion of this misconception is here.

I think this approach by Australian carriers is just bullshit and an attempt by them to interfere because they can. How can iPhones get updates from Apple directly but not these Android phones? Your excuse of ‘we need to test it’ doesn’t stack up.

Recommendation

If you’re in the market for a top of the line Android phone you cannot go too far wrong with this. The HTC One X has probably pipped it with it’s recent release, but it runs HTC Sense we all know how much custom skins suck.

Continue reading »]]> Time for some hate directed towards custom skins that manufacturers apply to Android.

What is a custom skin?
My definition of a custom skin is that it is the UI and behaviour customisations that manufacturers apply to Android handsets. HTC has Sense, Samsung has TouchWiz and Motorola has MOTOBLUR.

Why do they do this?
Manufacturers do this to differentiate themselves from each other – apart from ‘better’ hardware, if a user likes the look and feel of one phone over another it may be due to a manufacturer skin. Historically it’s fair to say that Android was a bit ugly and not polished – in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience manufacturers introduced their own skins to dress it up a bit. With the release of Ice Cream Sandwich I just don’t see this as a valid argument any more.

So why do you think they suck?
My main beefs with these custom skins are that they

• introduce delays in getting new versions of Android onto phones
• consume extra resources (less of an issue with newer hardware)
• it’s usually baked in and not easily turned off
• are no longer necessary
• there’s a special place in hell for people who try to make Android phones look like an iPhone

The delays in updates for phones, and the fact that you usually cannot turn it off are my biggest complaints. Yes you can install a new launcher and remove most of the functionality (I’ve done this in the past with TouchWiz). But the remains are still there in other areas like the notification bar. In the end most of the functionality that they offer can easily be reproduced by third party apps, often with better results.

I get that manufacturers want to make their phones look different, but why not do us all a favour and allow consumers to reset their phone to stock Android if they want to. When a new version of Android comes out, release a ROM for your phones without the skins and then when the updated skin is ready release that. If you think your customisations are so awesome then release them as apps and sell them for a buck.

Let the consumer choose.

Continue reading »]]> Last night (Wednesday 18th April 2012) Cold Chisel put on an excellent gig in Sydney’s Hordern Pavillion to an excited crowd of punters. This concert was to launch their new album No Plans, but what made it different was that it was beamed live into cinemas around the country.

I was one of those punters sitting in a comfy lounge chair, munching on popcorn and enjoying the excellent footage on a huge screen. As Barnesy pointed out it just wasn’t right!

Musically the band were on song and put on a great show. Opening with Standing on the Outside, the set had plenty of new tracks from the No Plans album. The format of the gig seemed similar to the Light the Nitro tour shows. Charlie Drayton has really settled into the seat vacated by the death of Steve Prestwich and kept the whole thing running tight. The rest of the band really seemed to be enjoying themselves and there was plenty of energy on stage.

The quality of the vision was excellent – the screen in my cinema was gigantic. The audio wasn’t quite as good, but still very good. I felt it was a little bit compressed / squashed. Not sure how best to explain it, just not as clear as I expected. Maybe being in a cinema I was expecting it to sound like it had been through a studio when it was a live concert? There were two technical glitches where the feed dropped out for 5-10 seconds, unfortunately during key songs like Khe Sanh and Bow River!

At the cinema I went to there were about 40-50 people, but it was a big cinema and felt quite empty. There’s a reason they don’t normally beam concerts into cinemas – it’s probably expensive, and it’s just not the same atmosphere. A couple of guys were clapping along to songs and one lady was dancing for most of the concert. But being sober, sitting in a large chair and being in a cinema it was just a bit weird. What do you do at the end of a song – clap, cheer? Sure go your hardest but the band can’t hear you and if the rest of the cinema is sitting there in silence you look like a tool.

It was a great experience to be part of, I’m sure the band lost money but they did it to try something different and give punters the opportunity. But judging from the anecdotes on the Facebook fan page most cinemas were pretty empty.

Overall it was a great night of entertainment, I’d have much rather been in the crowd in Sydney but that just wasn’t possible.

Continue reading »]]> I’m amazed that in the year 2012 we still have obvious and glaring bad practises relating to security of information, particularly personal information when it comes to websites and other online systems. No wonder identity theft is such a growing area of concern.

A large Telco I signed up with just sent me my first bill via email. All the details of my account and all the phone calls I had made were included in a PDF attachment to the email. This company has a secure website that allows you to log in and view your bill if you want to; but they undo all of this effort by sending all the details over email anyway.

Email is not a secure medium.

Anyone with access to the email server (or communication equipment between their email server and my email server) could have had access to all of this content.

I do remember providing my email address, and I probably ticked a box to say “Yep, send me an email” but I had mistakenly thought that the email would just be a notification that I had a bill ready and needed to go  to the secure website to view the details.

I also once signed up for a web site and provided a strong password and answered a bunch of questions to allow for password reset if I needed to in the future. At the end of the registration process the website emailed me a copy of the password I had provided!

Are we just getting too familiar with these technologies and forgetting that there are security concerns we should be aware of?

If you’re building a website remember:

• Minimise what personal information you send over email
• If you ever send a password over email (i.e. new registration or password reset) you must force the user to reset this password and provide their own when they log in
• Just because the email includes a binary attachment doesn’t make it secure
• Even if you think that communications between the two email servers is secure, consider your poor n00b user who is using an open Wi-Fi hotspot to download their emails and the potential for someone to listen in.

/rant

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Continue reading »]]> Got BizTalk 2010, SharePoint 2010 and HTTP 401.2 Unauthorized errors?

On a recent project we were having problems configuring the Windows SharePoint Services Adapter onto a SharePoint 2010 farm. This is basically a BizTalk 2010 web service that gets deployed to your SharePoint farm. It allows BizTalk to deposit documents into SharePoint document libraries.

The adapter was deployed and configured without error, but when calling the web service from BizTalk it generated HTTP 401.2 Unauthorized errors. In the Windows System Event log on the BizTalk server the following details were logged:

The adapter “Windows SharePoint Services” raised an error message. Details “The Windows SharePoint Services adapter runtime does not have permissions to invoke the adapter Web service. In order to fix this issue, you have to add the DOMAIN\biztalk_service_account Windows account to the “SharePoint Enabled Hosts” Windows group on the Windows SharePoint Services machine. This operation will allow BizTalk host instances running under DOMAIN\biztalk_service_account Windows account to invoke the adapter Web service in order to send and receive messages to or from SharePoint sites. The group membership will not take effect until you restart the BizTalk host instance.

When you configure the adapter it creates a local security group on the server which is named “SharePoint Enabled Hosts”. The above error indicates that the service account that the BizTalk process is running under needs to be added to this local group. We tried this and tried this and tried this. After several unconfiguration, reconfiguration cycles we were stuck with the same error.

This appears to be a pretty common problem. A lot of people griping about the local security group approach (justifiably!).

Richard recommends modifying the SharePoint web application – we tried that approach and it didn’t work for us.

What solved this in our circumstance was to manually edit the web.config file for the virtual directory that is hosting the BizTalk web service.

The original authorization block looked like this:

<authorization>
<allow roles=”SHAREPOINTWFE\SharePoint Enabled Hosts” verbs=”GET,HEAD,POST”/>
<deny users=”*”/>
</authorization>

Instead of stuffing around with the local group, I changed the allow line to specifically use the BizTalk service account (a domain account), and also removed the deny tag, so it looked like:

<authorization>
<allow verbs=”GET,HEAD,POST” users=”DOMAIN\biztalk_service_account” />
</authorization>

This fixed it for us, no more authorisation problems. It means that the BizTalk service domain account is still the only account that can invoke the web service.

If you have multiple web front end servers in your SharePoint farm, you need to configure the adapter and apply this ‘fix’ on each. Your mileage may vary on this, I’m just sharing what worked in our situation.

Continue reading »]]> Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 comes with out of the box integration with SharePoint 2010 which allows users to store documents associated with CRM records.

This is implemented with the List Component for SharePoint. This is a sandboxed solution that is deployed to the target SharePoint site. When activated it allows CRM 2011 to create documents in SharePoint and also to present those documents to the user in a CRM native UI.

In my experience this component can be tricky to activate on the SharePoint 2010 side. I have seen errors that range from ’401 Not authorized’ to ‘the Sandboxed Code Host Service was too busy to handle the request’

This has usually been caused by the fact that the SharePoint machine does not have direct access to the internet. Durng the activation process SharePoint (well the .NET Framework) is trying to contact the host crl.microsoft.com. Because this cannot be contacted within the allowed timeout period activation fails.

Tbe solution is to ensure that the SharePoint server can contact this site. If that is not possible (security reasons, working on a standalone machine etc) then you can add the
following entry to the HOSTS file on the machine:

127.0.0.1   crl.microsoft.com

This ensures that the address resolves and then the process works. You can then activate the solution.

For more details on this workaround see my earlier blog post.

Continue reading »]]> Problems connecting to your newly installed SQL Server instance? Did you happen to create a named instance (e.g. <servername>\sql01)?

Microsoft SQL Server named instances use dynamic TCP ports and rely on the SQL Browser service to provide the port number to the client in order to establish a connection. In a lot of cases I have seen people trying to connect to their new SQL Server named instance (e.g. \sql01) and assuming that SQL Server was listening on port 1433. They open the Windows Firewall to allow inbound TCP traffic in on port 1433 but still cannot connect. Some even specify the port in the connection string if they can.

There are two options – rely on the SQL Browser service or change the named instance to operate on a fixed port.

Using the SQL Browser service
You need to be able to connect to the SQL Browser service (which is often not running) which operates on UDP port 1434. Even then, if your local Windows Firewall on the server hosting SQL Server does not allow inbound traffic on whatever TCP port is being used, then you won’t be able to connect remotely.

Make sure the SQL Browser service is running also, which you can configure in the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

Configuring SQL Server to listen on a fixed port
On the SQL Server, open up the SQL Server Configuration Manager, and navigate to SQL Server Network Configuration > Protocols for <named instance> and right-click on TCP/IP and select Properties

In that dialog, click on the IP addresses tab. You can scroll to the bottom and clear the value for TCP Dynamic Ports and specify a fixed port of your choice.

Continue reading »]]> It’s been nearly 4 months since I bought my Acer Iconia A500 tablet and blogged about it here. Not much has changed, I still think it’s great.

The only bugbears for me have been the WiFi dropping out in my house. The tablet seems to have the weakest radio of all the other WiFi devices in my house.

The only issue to complain about would be the insane rate of fingerprint collection on the screen. I’ve recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II and my wife has an iPhone, so I have a new appreciation of the benefits of Gorilla glass which seems to resist fingerprints really well.

Apart from that it’s been great. I take it to meetings and take notes, I spend a lot of time browsing, Tweeting and Facebooking via this device. I love the form factor and the ‘always on’ concept – so I hate to admit it, but I’d be happy with an iPad in that regard too.