Add all this to a massive backlog of gadget experiences that I’ve had over the last year and I truly hope to find time for this website again.

I’d tell you to stay tuned, but the last 3 posts have said the same thing…so I guess I’ll just have to actually write something this time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to fix all these broken links…

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.6.1

UI Changes:

• v6 Conflict Resolution (Disable “Conflict Pop-ups” to use)

Bug Fixes:

• Delete Confirmation Popup works again
• Conflict Menu issues resolved
• Channel Change Request Resolved
• A bunch of other stuff I forgot to write down

Get it while it’s hot.

I hope to follow this up with a quick maintenance release in a couple of weeks, so please email me with any issues you find.

As always, please let me know what you think!

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.6.0

Features:

• V6 Video Compression!
• EvilPenguin’s DVD Burning!
• External Drive Support (like standard STV).
• “Browse Media Files” option (like standard STV, go to a import menu, hit ‘options’ button).

UI Changes:

• Added Settings Item to toggle ‘Delete’ in Video Library
• Added “Auto-skip commercials” toggle to “Enhancements” menu
• Un-Archive now available in recordings menu
• Incorperated Default STV End Of File Options

Bug Fixes:

• Weird delete button size issue in Stanger’s Imports menu
• Channel Change deny prompt displays correctly
• Commercial Re-detect popup now readable
• Scroll Bar in main menu now works again.
• Tons of other fixes – I lost track, sorry.
• Various Theme Cleaning -* I’m SURE I broke some things doing this. Please let me know what looks weird. *

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.5.0

Features:

• mlbdude’s External Program List (“Advanced->Configure Menu”)
• Malore’s Custom Guide Menus! (add via Menu Customization)

-All Malore’s menus can be renamed via ‘options’ command while in menu

• Nielm’s RSS NewsReader, w/ internal viewer! (add via Menu Customization)
• Enhanced Disk Space Widget (like v3 hidden feature) (“Advanced->STV Enhancements”)

UI Changes:

• 1st Run Marking in Guide (“Advanced->STV Enhancements”)
• Added “Programs” and “Shortcuts” main menus.
  Shortcuts menu populates with Malore’s Menus automatically
  See install instructions to get programs to show up

Bug Fixes:

• Menu Configuration now reports correct menu being modified
• Fixed all Watch Conflict popups (I think)
• Added FSE Toggle to Settings Menu
• Included Stanger’s fix for Data Import. (fixes production year, and directors)

All users should download the entire package listed on this page. You can find the SageTV forum thread by clicking here.

To all my loyal Tablet PC readers: I promise I’m working on some great new articles and podcasts. They should be ready by next week.

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.4.6

Features:

• Configurable Main Menu Items (“Advanced->Configure Menu”)

UI Changes:

• Main Menu Animates (turn off in “Advanced->STV Enhancements”, won’t be activated if “MVP Enhance” is Enabled)

Bug Fixes:

• 5-Item Menu bug squashed
• Channel Icons and Status Icons in media player display correctly
• Intelligent Indicator appears properly in Recordings Menu

You can find the SageTV forum thread by clicking here. You can download the files from the SageTV section of this site by clicking the “SageTV” link on the title bar of this page, or by clicking here.

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.4.5

Features:

• Added Nielm’s Info Popup

UI Changes:

• Added setup for Data Import (Adcanced->External->Choose Collection.xml file)
• Removed “Smart Folders” legend button to remove confusion. (it never did anything…)
• Added icons to recording menu, option in “settings->advanced->enhancements->icons” – requested by multiple users (Thanks for the icons Iain!)
• Manual/Favorite/Don’t Like indication in media player
• All menus should show current menu title in title bar
• System asks if you want to import metadata for newly imported files automatically (uses DVD Profiler data import)

Bug Fixes:

• Programs to Record – keyboard now has highlights for focus
• Library Import – deleting directory now readable
• Now warns before changing channel while watching live tv
• Now catches channel change requests before canceling favorites recordings
• Setup menu now shows if options exist out of view
• Favorite Options now are fully functional and readable
• Data Import now asks for .xml file if none set
• A couple of other things I forgot about…

You can find the SageTV forum thread by clicking here. The new SageTV section of this site can be reached by clicking the “SageTV” link on the title bar of this page, or by clicking here.

Release Notes:

Meekell 0.4.0

• KJake’s DVD Burning!
• Stanger89’s DVD Profiler Import!
• Added: Auto-XML Export – toggle setting in setup menu->Advanced->External->auto-xml export enable/disabled (Just like Cayars v18)
• Added: ‘Record’ to show details for airings in the future.
  This actually makes ‘additional airings’ useful!
• Added: New ‘advanced’ setup menu – Work In Progress
• Added: Utilities Menu on Main menu
• Lots of new options in the ‘Advanced’ Settings Menu!
• Plus countless other UI enhancements

You can find the SageTV forum thread by clicking here. The new SageTV section of this site can be reached by clicking the “SageTV” link on the title bar of this page, or by clicking here.

With that out of the way, I thought I’d post an update about my X41 Tablet PC order – it’s back-ordered, and currently showing a July 19th ship date. This is getting dangerously close to my wedding date of August 6th, so unless I get it about a week before I leave for Tahiti, odds are I won’t be able to play with it until the end of August – which would be torture.

I’m also working on some posts about Orb.com and using it to stream your TV recordings to anywhere in the world, using Meedio and DVD Profiler to setup a cool database for your DVD collection, and compressing your recordings for consumption on your Palm OS device using MMPlayer. The first of these should be finished in a couple of days, so keep an eye out.

Here’s what I’ve learned about powersupplies on their death bed: You’ll never think it’s the powersupply until you’ve done everything else. Because seriously, who has extra powersupplies laying around? I either repurpose or recycle all my old cases, so I never have those kind of parts laying around. Luckily, this time I did. A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a powersupply for a mod I wanted to do that involves the case from my old stereo reciever that I was/am going to turn into an external drive case to match my HTPC. That amplifier fried, so it wasn’t technically a powersupply, but close enough. I use surge protectors, and UPSs, and it has happened at different houses, so don’t yell at me for bad power management. I just have bad luck.

Anyways, simple solution right? Wrong. I have an Antec Overture case, and apparently not all powersupplies will work with this because it manages it’s airflow in a very specific way that doesn’t happen to match my new powersupply (which also happens to be antec).

Here’s the current state of the afflicted HTPC. Sad isn’t it?

I didn’t want to disconnect it because I didn’t want to miss any shows, so it has been sitting there like that for about a week now, waiting patiently for me to sew it back up. It’s alright little one, I’m here to help.

The tools:

• Variable Speed Dremmel
• 2 fiberglass re-enforced cutting disks.

Kids, don’t try this at home. (I’ve always wanted to say that.) I obviously had to remove everything from the case, because those metal filings would probably be bad if they got all over the motherboard. I also didn’t want to inadvertantly carve a hole in my drives. My understanding is holes are NOT considered a good way to cool down hard drives. I might have heard wrong though…

The cutting line:

At least that’s the plan, we’ll see how this turns out – dremmel cutting discs aren’t exactly known for their smooth curves. It’s kind of like trying to cut a smooth circle with one of those one-armed paper cutters – straight cuts.

Half-way through:

I went through both cutting disks pretty quickly, so this is as close as I could get to a perfect circle:

The finger-slicing edges were smoothed with a grinding stone attachment:

See, you can barely see the blood stains.

Stupid Antec:

Their unique powersupply location also threw me this curveball. The internal cable was too short to reach, and that metal panel was in the way. Due to the way it will sit in my entertainment center I don’t really care about this. I unscrewed the extension cable from the case, and pulled it to reach, then plugged a normal powercable to the extension, and pulled it through the normal hole. It isn’t perfect, but again, no one is ever going to see this:

I am actually pretty pissed about the strange setup in this case. In an effort to create a case that will fit in HT racks, they really messed things up if anything needs to be replaced. I couldn’t re-orient the powersupply without some major modding, which I’m not in the mood for right now. I have movies to watch.

Complete:

That was fun…kinda. If I had not had to do this, could have lived the rest of my life and been completely happy, so whatever. This mod also helped me out with cooling. This case happens to be notoriously hot, and a lot of owners have opened thier powersupplies and flipped the fans in an effort to increase airflow. This takes it a step further by removing the powersupply’s heat from the equation entirely. The air is pulled from underneath (the rubber case feet give it clearence) and it’s pushed out the side. My ambient case temps have decreased 4deg C and my CPU reduced 2deg. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Sorry, no pics of the insides when put back together. I’m actually pretty embarassed about how messy it is in there. It works, that’s all that matters.

Now should I watch “Sky Captain, and the World of Tomorrow”, or “The Village”? Decisions, decisions.

For the last year and a half I have been drawn into the world of HTPCs. I got bit by the bug hard and after only about 2 weeks of planning (which you’ll find is not very much time for me) I built my dedicated HTPC around a program called SageTV. SageTV is an amazing fit for my living room, rock-solid operation, and a huge WAF – Wife Acceptance Factor. If any of you are considering bringing a HTPC into your house, and you have a significant other, you have to take the WAF into account. If you don’t, the HTPC will never graduate from a side-hobby that lives in your office to a fixture in your living-room.

Admittedly, I’ve always been a gadget-freak, but I won’t buy a gadget unless it’s exactly what I need. The last time I was looking for a cell-phone, I put it off for 6 months waiting for the Treo 600, and used an old flip phone with a broken screen because I decided that a keyboard was an essential feature in a smartphone and the Samsung SPH-i500 didn’t cut it (I’m a sprintPCS subscriber BTW), and I’m so glad I did.

The Treo 600 has been my primary computing device since I got it in November of ‘03, and it is amazing. Do I wish I had a 650? Of course! But to me, the 650 would be an incremental upgade. I’m waiting to see if PalmOne can put one of those 4gb hard drives in there and add EV-DO – Then I’ll be tossing the 600. In the mean time, I’ve found some amazing things that are possible with the 600: I can control my HTPC from anywhere using PalmVNC, get all my email with SnapperMail, watch re-encoded TV shows I’ve recorded with MMPlayer, go online with the built-in browser, and even get my RSS fix with QuickNews.

My most recent interest is in TabletPCs. I’m a film and television editor and a large part of my job is taking notes from producers, directors, executives or whoever and working them into a show. My current system involves my chicken-scratch handwriting in a spiral notebook and highlighters. I highlight the notes as I address them, when the page is day-glow, I move on. This works to a certain extent, but it becomes overwhelming very quickly when dealing with notes about notes and who made them, when they were addressed, what I actually changed to ‘fix’ it, the list goes on and on.

I originally thought I could use my Treo for this purpose, but I found that it is much less acceptable to be punching away on a tiny keyboard than it is to write in a notebook. The same goes for typing into a laptop – they just look at you wierd and say, “Can’t you just write it down?”. They believe it’s overkill, even though I don’t.

So anyways, the object of my gadget-lust is the semi-leaked IBM X41 TabletPC. My current primary computer is a Dell Latitude LS – ancient, I know (There’s a story behind why I’m stuck working on a 400mhz Pentium III, but I won’t bore you with it) but it “works” for me, or at least it has been working for me. It’s time for an upgrade, and I believe that TabletPCs have matured enough for them to handle all I can throw at them.

As for what to expect from my blog, I hope to write about the ways I make my technology work for me, and not against me. I believe that technology should mold to the way we work, and not the other way around, which is why the TabletPC seems like such a great thing to me – at least in theory. There will be commentaries on what I think should be changed, major news postings and what implications I think they might have, my ideas about the future, tips for those who are interested in any of the technology I use, and a light sprinkling of my ‘real-life’ just for good measure. This site will also be filled out with some of the software projects I’m starting work on, some of which I can’t talk about yet, so keep an eye out as I have big things planned for both my favorite HTPC programs.

So I think that’ll do it for now. I went a little longer than I planned, so if you made it through – Thanks for sticking with me.

Vince