XBMC: Turn Your Laptop into a Media Center

So now that you have tablets to play around with, is your old laptop feeling neglected?  If it has an HDMI port^* then it has the makings of a great media center PC to work with your home theater setup.

The general idea is to install software on the laptop that will organize your media files, stream internet content and play all this on your big screen TV with the best sound possible.

You will need one additional piece of hardware: a long HDMI cable.  Don’t spend a lot for one, wait for a sale.  I’ve seen 50-foot cables sell for under $20 on sale.

As for software you can go with Plex Media Server, or my preference would be XBMC Media Center. For now, let’s go with XBMC.

Download and install XBMC on your laptop.  Since you are going to want the best audio possible you need to set up HDMI audio in Windows.  This requires an active HDMI connection so plug in your HDMI cable connecting your laptop to an input on your AV Receiver.   Turn on your Home Theater setup and select the HDMI connection you just made.  You should see your laptop display on the TV.

Open Windows Control Panel >> Sound>>Playback and select your HDMI output as the default device by selecting it and clicking the “Set default” button. Click “OK” to close Control Panel.

Note: Don’t worry, it will only be the default device when it’s “active”.  When no HDMI device is active you’ll default to your normal laptop sound.

Start XBMC and go to Settings. 

System>> Audio Output>>
-Audio Output	HDMI
-Speaker Configuration	5.1 (what your Home Theater uses)
-Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver	(selected)
-Multi-channel LPCM capable receiver	(selected)
-(DTS, True HD, only if your receiver can)
Audio Output device	DirectSound:HDMI…
Pass-through output device	DirectSound:HDMI…
System>>Input Devices>>
Enable mouse and touchscreen support	(selected)

There are other settings you should make, but they are matters of personal preference.

The final step is to go back to the XBMC main menu, select each media category and choose “Add Source” to point to your media files on the laptop or on your home network.  You can find some useful help and new XBMC skins on the XBMC home page.

A final note.  With the settings you made in Control Panel anything you can watch or play on your laptop can be viewed on your TV with sound even without using XBMC.

* ^{If you have a UPnP device as part of your Home Theater system, future versions of XBMC will be capable of “pushing” media wirelessly to that device.  So, no HDMI cable will be needed.}

Steampunk Rainmeter Layout

I am a big fan of Rainmeter desktop customization.  I just finished putting together another Rainmeter desktop layout for my laptop computer. 

This one is based on steampunk themed (think lots of gears and brass) skins created by Customize.org member, Mordasius.  The majority of my layout is from the Big, Bold & Brassy collection of Rainmeter skins available for download from customize.org.  My laptop has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 and you can see in the screenshot that this makes for a tight fit. 

I added a different analog clock from another Mordasius skin (available here), which features animated gears with a piston that appears to vent steam every minute. 

I found the background “wallpaper & wainscoting” by searching for “steampunk backgrounds” with Bing.  And finally, I adapted my own stock market skin (lower right corner) to fit the theme.  You can read all about the features (e.g., WiFi, network, music player, RSS reader, etc. skins) at the customize.org link above.

Read EPUB Books on Kindle Fire Without Conversion

Yes, it is possible but will require “side-loading” the necessary app (Aldiko Book Reader Application).  Once loaded, the Aldiko app works perfectly on the Kindle Fire (HD).

Step 1 Change a system setting on the Kindle Fire

On your Kindle Fire use the pull-down settings menu, choose “More” then “Device” then turn on the “Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources” option.

Step 2 Download the APK file

Download the application “apk” installation file.  The apk file can be downloaded directly from the source at the originators web site to your Kindle Fire.  Open the web browser on your Fire and type in “Aldiko”.  From the search results go to their Home page.  Go to “Support” from the green  menu bar.

On the Support page follow the first topic link (“Download the Latest…”).

On the Download page click the apk file link (“Aldiko Book Reader Free 2.2.3.apk” at the bottom  of the page.

Download the file to a folder on your Kindle Fire.

Step 3 Install the APK package

Open a file manager app on your Kindle Fire, like ES File Explorer or Browser for SkyDrive (discussed in a previous posting and available from the Amazon App Store) and navigate to the folder where you put the apk file (usually “Downloads” by default).  Touch the file name to launch the installation of the app.

Step 4 Get Books

Aldiko has a built-in Store for buying epub books, or get books from any source and copy them to your Kindle Fire by WiFi or USB cable.  To add books to your Aldiko library use the “Files” widget on the main screen to specify epub files on your Kindle Fire.  It is also capable of aquiring  school and library books from the library’s “overdive” system without having to install a separate overdrive app.  Enjoy!

Two Great Apps for Kindle Fire HD

If, like me, you have files spread across your home network and in the cloud, you are going to want to have theses two file handling apps for your Kindle Fire HD:  ES File Explorer and Browser for SkyDrive.  If you are going to side-load android apps you will need a file manager app like one of these.

ES File Explorer by ES Mobile

This is a free app at the Amazon Apps for Android Store.  And is packed with useful features. You can perform the usual cut/copy/paste/delete of files and folders as well as create new folders and use multi-select for files or folders.  It includes a player which can play music and video files when you tap their file names.  It’s most outstanding function allows you to specify storage locations local to the Kindle Fire, on your LAN (access wireless drives like NAS storage), via FTP, Bluetooth and on the Net ( non-Amazon cloud drives like MS SkyDrive).  These are organized in tabbed groups.  Navigation to folders is done in a single pane which “side-scrolls” amongst tab groups.  Most used locations can be set as favorites for quicker access.

As for customization you can choose from 5 themes or set your own picture as a background.   You can hide tab groups that you never use (like FTP and Bluetooth in my case). A manager function (from the main settings bar) lets you make settings for security, apps, backup of apps, view tasks and manage bookmarks.

Browser for SkyDrive by Bolero

While I can access my SkyDrive files using ES File Explorer, the interface in this app is more convenient.  It also has a dual pane mode where you can select files on one side (say local photos) and transfer them to the other side pane (maybe your SkyDrive Public Photos folder) just by touching an arrow icon.  You can also view the transfer status of files, and always login automatically when the app starts.  It’s not quite as customizable as ES File Explorer, but it is specifically tailored to work with your SkyDrive and your local files on the Kindle.

Two very useful Kindle Fire HD apps and both are free at the Amazon App Store.

Cakewalk SONAR X2 Backgrounds w/Shortcuts

I’ve taken the information from Cakewalks’ SONAR X2 Quick Start Guide and incorporated it into a custom background image.  When loaded into SONAR X2 (Preferences>> Display>> Colors>> click “Custom” under Background) the keyboard shortcuts and some other useful information will be displayed as background in SONAR.  I’ve made two sizes (1920×1080 and 1600×900) which work fine if the main SONAR window is set for full-screen.

The background files must be bitmaps (.bmp) files which can be downloaded from here.

New, Cool Music Tech

I just upgraded my workhorse music software to Cakewalk SONAR X2 and came across an iPad app that works with one of my favorite sites (IMSLP, International Music Score Library Project) to show musical scores.

Cakewalk SONAR X2. 

The latest version of Cakewalk’s digital audio workstation software for Windows has many great new features, most of which were based on user suggestions.  According to Cakewalk:

SONAR X2 is undoubtedly the best version of SONAR to date. Not only does it introduce exciting new features, but much time and care went into refining almost every aspect of the program. With an ear to our customers and a keen eye on what today’s musicians need, we improved performance, workflow, aesthetics, and stability. Our goal? To craft a program that excels at every stage of music production and enables musicians to sound their very best.

Some of the more anticipated changes include: take lanes, automation lanes and smart tools that work the same in any type of lane/track context.  From my brief use of SONAR X2 Producer I’d say I’ve noticed better stability and much improved workflow with iron-clad audio performance.

piaScore iPad App.

This is some Japanese tech which shows musical scores (PDF files) on an iPad and lets you change pages by gesturing over your iPhone ( or, I think it can use the front-facing camera on the iPad to detect head-tilting to trigger a page turn.).  One of the cooler features is a link to get free scores from the IMSLP online library of over 200,000 scores.  You can also add your own annotations to your score using up to 3 different colored pens. It’s a free app as is the remote-control for the iPhone.  Since I have neither an iPhone or an iPad I haven’t tried it, but I like the concept of making the free IMSLP library more available.

How to Read Kindle Notes on Your Computer

The Kindle allows you to make notes in your books by typing any text while you are reading.  You may also highlight any text by moving the cursor to the start, clicking to select, moving the cursor to the end and clicking again to complete the selection.  These two types of user text (notes and highlights) are stored on the Kindle in a file called ‘My Clippings.txt’.  Here is how you can get to the text on your computer.

Hook up your Kindle to your computer with the USB cable.

On your computer, look for the Kindle to show up as a new ‘Drive’.

Click on the Kindle drive and open the ‘documents’ folder.

Find and copy the file ‘My Clippings.txt’ to your computer.

Open the ‘My Clippings.txt’ file with your word processor application.

Below is a picture of an example file.  If you have many notes in the file, use the ‘Find’ feature of your word processor application to look up what you want.  You can also manage your notes by periodically renaming the “My Clippings.txt’ file to some other .txt file on the Kindle, or just copy it then delete it and the Kindle will start with a fresh one next time.

UPDATE (for Calibre users):

As of Calibre version 06.44 you can use the “Fetch Annotations” feature to transfer your notes and annotations into the Calibre database (for Kindles only).  They will then be merged with the “Comments” shown under each book in the “Book Description” pane in Calibre.  From the mobileread forums:

• Connect a Kindle via USB and wait until the Reader icon is displayed next to the Library icon.
• Click the small down arrow to the right of the Send to device icon, then select Fetch annotations.
• The Jobs icon spins while Calibre is retrieving annotations from the Kindle.
• A progress dialog is displayed while the annotations are merged into the database comments.

Do it Yourself–Do Not Track (DIY-DNT) for Firefox and Internet Explorer

It used to be that you only needed browser add ins to block annoying advertisements that slowed down viewing of web pages or irritated you by flashing in your face while you were trying to read.  Now, it’s equally (or maybe more) important that you deal with how information about you could end up in the wrong hands just by browsing the Inter-webs. 

With the recent changes by some online companies (I’m looking at you, Google!) your online privacy is now a matter that you have to take into your own hands.  I’ll give you some tips about tracking protection for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, that won’t involve opting in or out or reading any small print privacy statements.

Firefox (v.12.0)

• First, be sure to get the latest version of Firefox. 
• From the Firefox menu bar choose Tools>Options>Privacy and select the checkbox “Tell web sites I do not want to be tracked” (Web site compliance is voluntary, but it may help some).
• Go to Tools>Add-ons> and use the “search all addons” text box to find Adblock Plus.  Install it with the default settings.
• Next, search for and install the DoNotTrackPlus addon.  Again, the default settings will work fine.

Internet Explorer (v.9)

• From the “gear-like” icon on the toolbar select Safety>Tracking Protection…. Click the “Get a Tracking Protection List online” link.  From the site choose as many lists as you like, but I recommend subscribing to: Abine TPL, EasyList+ and Stop Google Tracking TPL.

The tracking lists and blocked ads are subscriptions that are updated automatically (if you stuck to the default settings).  Advanced settings allow you to turn off blocking on selected sites that you trust or add specific sites that you want to block and these settings will be remembered. 

It’s interesting (to me at least) that when it comes to user-controlled tracking protection,  FF and IE follow different philosophies.  First, neither does it by default, requiring the user to initiate blocking on their own.  But FF requires third-party addons that must add at least a little to the programming overhead, while IE has the coding built in and only needs the data to implement this function.  I can say that browsing the web with these browser modifications is much more enjoyable and responsive.

Recommended Free Science Fiction Novels at ManyBooks.Net

You can download 29,000 free ebooks in 25 different formats for compatibility with your ereader (including some audiobooks) at ManyBooks.net. Here are some of their science fiction novels that I can recommend.

A Princess of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

This is the first book in the ten-book Barsoom series written by the creator of Tarzan. All of the books in this series are also available as audiobooks.
John Carter, a Civil War soldier, falls asleep in a cave and wakes up on a war-torn Mars. He must learn the local cultures and languages and choose a side in the battle between native races to control Mars. (All ten books in the series are available).

The Ware Tetralogy

by Rudy Rucker (1982-2000)
Four novels: Software, Wetware, Freeware and Realware. The series of novels features: robots, artificial intelligence, viral intelligent fungi, bio-augmentation and super evolution. I know of nothing comparable to this series as far as way-out extrapolation is concerned.

The Mysterious Island

by Jules Verne (1874)
A sequel to Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also available as an audiobook.
Soldiers escape a Civil War prison camp by stealing a balloon, which is carried by storm to a remote volcanic island. Surviving on the island is complicated by giant plants and animals as well as blood-thirsty pirates and a dangerous volcano.

Star Maker

by Olaf Stapledon (1937)

The book describes the past and future of human life over a vast 2 billion year span and across the universe. Breaking away from contemporary thinking, it hosts many imaginative and philosophical ideas of the far future.

The First Men in the Moon

by H.G. Wells (1901)

Two men, one an eccentric scientist, construct a space vessel and use it to travel to the Moon. Unlike popular Lunar fantasies, Wells gives his best scientific picture of the journey to and exploration of the Moon.
(The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds are also available)

Metrophage

by Richard Kadrey (1988)
One of the few post-1930 selections available. A cyberpunk novel in a future Los Angeles plagued by hunger and disease.

Is Your Kindle Ready for TEOCAWKI?

That’s right, The End Of Civilization As We Know It! Maybe you and your trusty Kindle will survive the disaster.  It would probably be handy to have some useful information on the Kindle, besides that copy of Robinson Crusoe.  I’ll get you started with a reformatted survival guide book.  This is from the US Army and was written for soldiers in need of wilderness survival tips.  It’s a large, comprehensive guide with illustrations that I found in an old MS Word doc format.

I’ve resized and reformatted it into an Adobe PDF file that fits my Kindle 3 display perfectly without any need for conversion to another format.  You can download the file here (Wilderness Survival Guide (+TOC).pdf).  So snatch up this guide before it’s too late, and you will be the most knowledgeable survivor in your neighborhood (until your Kindle battery runs down).