Posts filed under “Tech”

In search of a media center PC

I’m looking into building or buying a small PC intended to run Boxee and be the core of my entertainment center. I’d love to get a proper Boxee Box but really need something that can play physical discs. There are too many DVDs and Blu-rays in my collection to dismiss, and I make good use of my Netflix subscription (both shipped and streaming).

Aki (@gesa) pointed out this machine on NewEgg but alas, it has no HDMI or even component video ports. That makes it somewhat useless for a media center.

The machine I’m looking for must have:

  • At least one HDMI port
  • A Blu-ray drive (or an internal bay to add one)
  • At least two USB ports
  • The ability to handle HD video playback seamlessly without freaking out
  • An ethernet port (though this is kind of like asking to make sure your car has a steering wheel)

I’d like it to have a remote control port if possible. I’m not sure how the remote control functionality works if you’re building your own Boxee. There’s no need for this machine to have a TV tuner; I canceled my cable TV service last year and don’t care enough even to connect the basic coax cable.

It also needs to be:

  • Slim, unobtrusive
  • Absolutely quiet – the fan/heatsink can’t sound like a jet taking off
  • Preferably black to match the other electronics it’ll be joining
  • Under $400 total cost

I don’t particularly want to build a PC from scratch. I’m okay with adding or swapping a couple components but that’s about the extent of my hardware knowledge. Some people have suggested buying an XBox360 or PlayStation 3, but a video game console that happens to play media isn’t really what I’m looking for.

Really I just want a Boxee with a Blu-ray drive, but that doesn’t seem to be happening ever. If I could find a decent standalone Blu-ray player that would also connect to Netflix, Pandora, and an external hard drive to reliably play my ripped media (.avi, .mkv, maybe even .iso images), that would be amazing.

So, internet, can you help me?

I’m not fixing your old tech.

People ask me for help with their computers all the time. I’m used to it; it comes with the territory when you’re a geek. This behavior isn’t even specific to geeks and computers. Mechanics no doubt constantly get asked “could you just take a quick look at my car?”

The difference is that mechanics usually get paid for their services. “Computer people” often are expected to fix people’s devices for free because “you like doing this stuff anyway!”

Well, actually that part may be true. We do like doing it, mostly. But I’m instituting a new tech support policy.

I’m not fixing obsolete tech.

“Can you fix my computer? It’s running slowly.” Never mind that it’s a Gateway desktop from 2001, running Windows Me on 128MB of RAM and straining under the load of 18 toolbars in IE6. Inevitably, when asked, the owner “didn’t do anything” to make it run slowly.

People willingly accept that a vehicle worth thousands of dollars will break down over time, but hang on to the budget computer they bought a decade ago.

Why? No one is surprised when a car breaks down after being driven for years with no regular maintenance. They grudgingly accept it and go shopping for a new one. When it’s a computer they’ve been abusing for years, they call their friend or family member who’s “good with computers” and are shocked when the verdict is “can’t be fixed, you need a new one.”

So the new policy is: no old tech. If it looks like it’ll take more than five minutes to fix your problem (have you tried turning it off and on again?) and the problem is clearly related to obsolete hardware or software, prepare to be upgraded or sent to the store.

Redesigned and Responsive-ized

Unless you’re reading this via an RSS reader, you may notice that the site has been redesigned again. After following as much Responsive Web Design news as I could for the last few months, I decided it was time to get with the program and update my own site to be a bit more flexible. The new design is still very much a work in progress and as such is subject to change. Probably drastic change. I welcome your feedback (either in the comments or via Twitter, bug reports, whatever you’ve got. Ideally it should display pretty well across desktop browsers, tablets, mobile browsers, etc, but there will probably be quite a bit of room for additional tweaks.

Highlights and notes

  • I’m deliberately only designing for and checking in the most current versions of the major browsers. (Translation: IE6 and IE7 can go frak themselves. Sorry, but IE6 is over a decade old and even Microsoft is trying to kill it, so I’m not bending over backwards to fix their issues. That said, there are still some fairly serious things I’m working on resolving for these… ahem… geriatric browsers.)
  • This is primarily a mobile-first design. The base styling should work decently on mobile devices, and then media queries take effect to add styling as needed for wider displays.
  • It’s still a very minimal design, in keeping with my own personal taste. That means almost no graphics, relying heavily on text and simple CSS effects like gradients and rounded corners. It’s quite spartan, perhaps too much so, but for now it’ll do.

Round-up: Accessibility References for Non-Tech People

Elizabeth Galle tweeted a request today for accessibility references that a team of not-necessarily tech savvy people would get some use out of. Twitter responded with some great links almost immediately, and I wanted to collect those replies here in one place to serve as a starting point for any others with similar needs.

The tweet that started it off:

@Tawreh makes an excellent point that web accessibility can be likened to a book, and that you should give your readers a sense of “I know where things are” immediately rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and inevitably confusing them (or frustrating them to the point that they just give up).

Others presented links to basic guidelines from the W3C and WebAIM groups, the authoritative sources for web usability and accessibility. (more…)

Facebook and Consumerism

Facebook is a business. People need to expect it to act like a business and not act like it’s supposed to be some benevolent company that keeps your secrets, your dreams and your penchant for anal sex locked up in a box somewhere for safekeeping. Facebook – like any other for-profit company – is going to do what is best for its profit margin, its investors, its owners.

That means they will sell your soul to advertisers. It is up to you – not them – to not put your soul out there if you are not comfortable with that.

– Facebook and Consumerism by @inthefade

QFT