Long time, no post.
Well, things have become significantly more busy and hectic than before. My family has grown by one and things at work were incredibly busy for 2009. However, Christmas 2009 had everything coming together, family, extended family and technology in the home.
This past fall, my parents moved closer to where I live. They ended up moving themselves so it was a long and grueling process with multiple trips over a period of two months. The last part of the move was completed on December 23rd as the last trailer load was delivered to their retirement home. What a relief for my father as he completed his last day on his job on the 24th and drove through the night to be home for Christmas morning.
I'll briefly cover what's changed tech-wise but will save most of the details for separate posts. Over the summer, it was time to upgrade the front-end HTPC machine. Replacing the system was nice, but ultimately missed one of the key reason for the upgrade; fitting within the media cabinet.
My servers at home both suffered hard drive loss; the root partition on *both* systems. After recovering; both systems both run RAID 1 (mirror) root drives.
I delved into the realm of Boxee for frontend media playback. Verdict? It has some quirks, but overall it's very nice; I'm still using Boxee today and eagerly awaiting the transition from alpha to beta!
I've become a big fan of the tvnamer package. While the default naming format isn't to my liking, it's usable and recognizable by Boxee; one of the key features is media discovery which is based on filename.
I've been turned on to Pandora for streaming music. In general I really like the service. The free account does have a few annoyances but none are enough to make me want to look for a different streaming service.
Christmas 2009 was really good for me hardware-wise; a massive upgrade so I'll have reviews of the equipment and setup. 55" Vizio VF550M, Sony HT CT-500 Soundbar/Reciever, PS3 Slim 120G, Sanus LL-11 Wallmount, Powerbridge remote power outlet (in-wall power, cabling). Logitech Bluetooth/IR adapter for the PS3.
Hopefully you had a great 2009 and I hope you have a Happy 2010.
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