LAN-Party Optimized House - Aurora I live in a LAN-party-optimized house. That is, my house is specifically designed to be ideal for PC gaming parties. It's also designed for living, of course, but all houses have that. Here, let me illustrate: The house has twelve of these fold-out computer stations, six in each of two rooms (ideal for team vs. team games). I also have two big TVs, one 59-inch and one 55-inch, each of which has a selection of game consoles attached. For the 0.001% of you who read my blog before this post: Sorry for the long lack of posts. Hardware The twelve game stations all contain identical hardware: CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 GPU: MSI N560GTX (nVidia GeForce 560) Motherboard: MSI P67A-C43 (Intel P67 chipset) RAM: 8GB (2x4GB DDR3-1333) Monitor: ASUS VE278Q (27" 1080p) At the time I bought the hardware (March 2011), I felt this selection provided the best trade-off between price and performance for gaming machines that need to last at least a few years. Instead, the machines boot off the network. Security
How to Automatically Download TV Shows as Soon as They've Aired (or Turn Your PC into a TiVo) Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service. Is there anyway you can explain further on what to do, this has gotten me intrigued. Flagged Sure. Past this, I'll have to go from memory since I don't have uTorrent here on my work computer, but if you right click on the feed, you can go to the RSS Downloader. Anyway, let's say I want to download How I Met Your Mother, which comes on monday nights. Let me know if you need anything else. [www.ezrss.it] Regardless if you use their RSS, this FAQ is what I used to setup my RSS downloader. Have at least a dozen shows plugged in, usually gets the show about 30-40 minutes after the episode airs . So I was just referring back to this article to set up a new media center at home and I came across this posting of yours. Do you happen to have any invites to your private tracker?
Set Up the Ultimate Home Theater This Weekend Most Popular Linux Downloads and Posts of 2012 We tacked some great Linux subjects this year, from building home servers to finding the perfect Linux distribution and even fixing some Ubuntu annoyances. Here's a look back at our top Linux downloads and posts from 2012 (with a little FreeBSD thrown in for fun). Create a Kickass, Seamless, Play-Everything Media Center: The Complete Guide DVD players are so 1999. Turn an Old Computer into a Networked Backup, Streaming, or Torrenting Machine with Ubuntu You've heard the word "server" thrown around a lot, but usually in the context of web sites or big companies that have a lot of data to store. Five Best Linux Distributions Whether you're a beginner or you've been using Linux systems for years, you probably have an opinion on what the best distribution is. How Can I Build a Quiet, Low-Powered Home File Server? Dear Lifehacker, I like the idea of having a networked backup, streaming, and torrenting machine using FreeNAS or Ubuntu, but I'm not sure what hardware I should use to build it.
Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security How to Build Your Own Cheap, Simple Solar Oven The "Minimum" Solar Box Cooker is a solar oven that you can built quickly from two cardboard boxes. The “Minimum” Solar Box Cooker is a simple box cooker that can be built in a few hours for very little money. When this cooker was designed, it was named it the “Minimum Solar Box Cooker” because, at the time, it represented the simplest design we could devise. What we didn’t communicate with that name was that this is a full-power cooker that works very well, and is in no way minimum as far as its cooking power goes. What You Will Need – Two cardboard boxes. – One sheet of cardboard to make the lid. – One small roll of aluminum foil. – One can of flat-black spray paint (look for the words “non-toxic when dry”) or one small jar of black tempera paint. – At least 8 ounces (250 g) of white glue or wheat paste. – One Reynolds Oven Cooking Bag ®. Building the Base Decide how deep you want your oven to be. Building the Removable Lid Take the large sheet of cardboard and lay it on top of the base.
Adding videos to the library/Naming files/Movies Important: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP TO A SUCCESSFUL LIBRARY SCAN! In order for the media scrapers to pick up the correct information your file names must follow a certain format: 1 Naming conventions In order to be scanned correctly, movie file names should only have the title and the year (optional) followed by the file extension. To improve matching add the year within parenthesis to the end of the file or foldername, depending on your scanning method and folder structure (before the extension, if filename), this naming standard seems to yield the best results. Note: If the wrong movie is picked up even if foldername or filename is correct, the movie can have an earlier original title. \Movies\Pulp Fiction (1994).avi \Movies\Reservoir Dogs (1992).avi \Movies\The Usual Suspects (1995).avi \Movies\Avatar (2009)-cd1.mkv \Movies\Avatar (2009)-cd2.mkv \Movies\Avatar (2009)\somefilename.mkv \Movies\The Usual Suspects (1995)\somefilename.avi 2 File stacking
How to Build Your Own Speakers: Step-by-Step DIY Tech The electronic components inside a loudspeaker are actually quite simple. The drivers and crossovers pictured here are available in a $369 kit. (Photograph by Chris Eckert) It was back in 1924 that a couple of researchers from General Electric, Chester Rice and Edward Kellogg, patented what remains the basic design for virtually all the world's loudspeakers. I should know--I recently built the speakers pictured on these pages, and in the process I learned quite a bit about the art and science of a good speaker. At its core a loudspeaker is a surprisingly simple device. Hardcore speaker hobbyists take delight in figuring all this out for themselves, designing and building the crossovers and enclosures from scratch to see what comes out. But if that's too hit-or-miss, you can buy a speaker kit that comes with all the components, plus either a preconstructed cabinet or drawings to build your own. The Jasper Circle Jig: A lifesaver! Drilling guide holes for the jig's pivot pin. Box assembly.
How to Make the Most Out of Limited Screen Space (and Even Work Better) I have to agree fully, especially for those who are scared of trying - give it a shot, it actually helps. Actively managing your workspace as opposed to just throwing more real estate at it is a terrific way to really find good ways to get things done. Like you, Adam, I was a multi-monitor addict. In fact up until about 6 months ago I had two 24's and a 20 on my desk, but found I was easily distracted by everything. So I switched at work to a single 24, and found my productivity jump. Another tip I found - I do most of my email on my iPad. Great post, Adam. Now with a 1920x1080+ panel it's really hard NOT to actively manage your display.
HOW-TO share folders over SMB using Windows 7 Introduction As has been documented elsewhere, XBMC's scrapers and library work best when full access to video and audio files is provided to them via an SMB share. However, MS is making it more and more difficult to share using SMB in Windows. You have to turn off Homegroup and do all sorts of other messy things. Preparation As a initial step, you should be connected to your network. The Process Step one: Click the "Network Internet Access" icon at the bottom right of your screen, next to your clock, speaker icon, and possibly power icon. Step two: Locate and click "Choose homegroup and sharing options." Step three: You are now presented with a page labeled "Share with other home computers running Windows 7." Step four: You are now at the "Change sharing options for different network profiles" page. Network Discovery: turn on network discovery File and printer sharing: turn on Public folder sharing: Your choice. Media Streaming: By default, this is off. Step five: Click Save changes.