cek.log

Geeky rants, raves, and random thoughts from Charlie Kindel...
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Visual Studio Express and Windows Home Server
Dan Fernandez is the lead product manager for Visual Studio Express . He just blogged about developing tools and applications for Windows Home Server using Visual Studio. + As I mentioned in my Channel9 video I'm super excited that WHS is going to enable...
Channel9 video interview on Windows Home Server
My Channel 9 interview video just went live. Please don't tease me about how often I say “um”. http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=270965
MCE Controller v1.1 Released - and now open source
I built MCE Controller as something that would be useful for my own home. I had minor aspirations of making it do more than it does, but the reality is that I don’t really have the time nor the inclination (it works beautifully for me as is). Until...
MCE Controller 1.0.4 Released
I’ve released an update to MCE Controller that fixes a bug where it would prevent Windows logoff and shutdown. Head over to http://www.kindel.com/products/mcecontroller to download it. MCE Controller allows the Media Center application of Windows...
Great Windows Media Center videos
Check out these great Channel9 videos on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) . If you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss over MCE is watch John Canning and Charlie Owen expose it all. Media Center exposed, Part I Media Center exposed, Part II...
Blobservations: Windows Server, Home Edition
Rick Hallihan presents a really nice vision of what a Windows based home server would look like in Blobservations: Windows Server, Home Edition . At my house I use Windows Server 2003 to manage all of my client PCs. For example I can easily change all...
Media Center SDK on MSDN
Via Ethan Zoller, the Media Center 2005 SDK is now on MSDN . http://msdn.microsoft.com/mce . Via this I also discoved Michael Creasy's blog which focuses on MCE. Cool.
When programs just work
I don't get to write much code anymore. When I do I get an amazing amount of joy out of it. Tonight I realized that my MCE Controller , which I hacked up to enable me to control my Windows Media Center machine via Ethernet from my Crestron system has...
Dilbert's Home Server
According to the press release , "...Dilbert's Ultimate House"(DUH). DUH is a virtual web-based home that the famous icon of the workplace Dilbert, his fans, tech geeks, the environmentally conscious, and those who just plain love the comfort of a good...
mini-ITX Windows Server 2003 Home Server
I recently built a really small and quiet home server that ran Windows Server 2003 based on a mini-ITX motherboard. It turns out you can build a great system in a very small package. The only down-side is that the really nice cases are pretty expensive...
MCE Controller doc ommission
I forgot to mention a key (pun intended) command that MCE Controller supports in the 1.0.3 documentation. The "key:" command allows you to simulate any alphanumeric keyboard key press. For example "key:3" is the same thing as pressing the 3 key on the...
New MCE Controller sample available
Multiple people have asked me for a sample that illustrates how to talk to MCE Controller from Crestron using SIMPL Windows. Ask no more: On the MCE Controller site, I've added a SIMPL Windows sample program that illustrates using MCE Controller with...
Posted: Jul 29 2004, 07:58 AM by charlie | with no comments
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Live Security Camera Feeds with Windows Media Services 9
When I built my house a few years ago I installed several video cameras for security monitoring. Until recently I was only capturing still images from these. I archived the still images and published the most recent via a URL on my website allowing me...
Make your own parts
From the this is just plain cool department: eMachineShop allows you to design any physical "part" you want using a CAD program you download and then submit the plans to them. They will machine the part using any number of processes and ship it to you...
Posted: Jul 16 2004, 07:42 PM by charlie | with no comments
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Thin Media Clients and Home Servers
Ravi posted an article on www.hageeks.com on the topic of “thin media clients vs. thick media clients“. He's got the right general idea but fails to talk about the other end of the equation: The thing that is providing the content to these...
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