Mobile security and parental controls.

Jun 15 2011

I was on my way to work this morning thinking about mobile security, and parental controls. Mostly how annoying a lock screen can be, and how inefficient it is. Most of my friends don’t even use the security on their phone because its a pain. What if we could make lock screens, application security, and physical security better?

See with Google getting ready to make a huge push into the NFC market. My concern for mobile security has increase. While I’ve always had a lock screen, I keep it more because of paranoia, but I’d love to remove it because its kind of annoying.

Recently a developer named Daniel Amitay, he created an app called Big Brother, and he anonymously collected pins used in his app, the lock screen looks almost the same. Its a good insight into what people use for their pins. Its also sad news that 1234, was the highest used pin.

I think that the whole idea of mobile security can be increased. The repetitive notion of a lock screen is not very efficient.

First lets talk about lock screens. They are functional, and work, however they are annoying. Personally I don’t need a lock screen for everything. Games, web browser, calculator, etc. What if the system was designed that you could still set a lock screen but it was per application. Let me go in and say what programs I want locked, and how.

The Dialer? Make receiving calls available with no lock, that way when I’m on the phone and I need to pull up Google Maps its there, but if I try to hit say contacts, or another selected secured app, it gives me the lock screen. There are many apps I’d love to protect, some of which don’t offer any sort of protection.

Next we need an API to access said limits. Not access to the pin, only the os should have that. Just access to activating the lock, and requesting the lock screen authentication. For example, allow a game, but authentication for in app purchases.

You’ll also need to make sure its physically secure. Maybe when the usb is plugged in it forces a lock screen check. (I wouldn’t make this optional if you are using any sort of permissions above. Users might think this is something they don’t understand and not enable it. False sense of security is the last thing you want to give them.

You can take it even one step further. Give parents a portal to their account, and have it manage parent controls. Push changes to the device so that its done in a fashion that its transparent to the user.

Types of parental controls;

Per Application limit (usage, and access)
Web site control (access to specific sites only, or some sort of web filter disallowing say .xxx domains)
SMS, MMS, Phone, and data limits.
App purchasing, and in app purchasing
GPS, NFC, etc.

I know its the parents responsibility to protect their children. I hate when parents blame the technology. If only they had the tools to do it then maybe it would be easier.

I can’t imagine its too hard to implement. Especially if its done on the OS, can you can control it per application. You don’t want to have to rely on the app developer to enable some flag, or some updated API.

I’m just saying, why hasn’t anyone done this yet?

-ex

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Google Chrome 13 has landed!

May 12 2011

Thats right folks, Chrome version 13 has landed. While there is no change log yet, nor has it hit the chrome release blog I found a couple cool things

While I’m sure there are a few new things, the biggest I see is multiple profiles.

First you need to enable it via about:flags

Once you’ve done that and restarted… In the upper right hand corner you should see your gmail account ( thats assuming you use the sync built into chrome.

From there you can create a new profile.

Sounds like Chrome OS has had a bit of an influence. Although with my Macs I setup guests accounts with browsers only, and that kind of solved the multiple issue. Still though, its nice to see.

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Why must you suck the life out of me Verizon!

May 07 2011

Let me start this topic with a little background. I’ve been a Verizon customer for a few years now, and had DSL a long time ago. I’m now running FIOS with 35/35 and one crazy networking setup. You see I’m a networking/systems/programming engineer. I understand technology. I also run 3 Data Centers in the Greater LA area. I understand how sometimes things can go wrong.

I’ve worked with trial management for years. They’ve helped me solve some tough problems. This one even they are a little lost.

I have two issues, First lets discuss my Verizon.com profile.

Somehow I have 2 accounts, both of which I can login to, neither of them are complete. Oh lets not forget about that pesky Verizon wireless one that I can never merge. Anyway, the profile I was told to use by Verizon thinks I don’t have TV. Clearly it is mistaken as I’m watching (or rather backgrounding) something as we speak. So now I can’ t use my remote DVR features on a very expensive 19.99 piece of crap.

Thats where the Upgrade comes in.

Oh why don’t you upgrade you ask? Well that brings me to my 2 second problem. If this Verizon.com support team could actually read a ticket without loosing their minds and just dumping the same stupid reply into the ticket over and over again and clearly not read the very descriptive and apparently waste of time details that I provided to maybe help get this issue resolved.

We’ll have the ticket number here soon enough, lets get some better details on whats going on.

You see not only is my Verizon profile completely stupid, I can’t actually order the ONLINE ONLY DVR upgrade. I received an email saying I should go to the website, and sign up to get a new DVR. I’ll then promptly receive another email when its available for me to actually order. I get the email which is actually laid out poorly since not everyone has images load in email, so the giant box that says click on this… is a giant x. Download the images, so I can see what I’m actually clicking on you find this email.

I click next, it asks me to login and then BAM “invalid login”. Hmmm. Ok, lets go to the Verizon site and login. Surly I’m not mistaken. Stop calling me surly, and I’m not. The login works. So once again I click on the picture of the DVR (because face it, who wants to look at an ugly red box, had to download the images.) The site loads, back to the check your eligibility page. Notice at the top it says Welcome, . I’m logged in yay! I click next and sad face, once again. “Invalid login ID”.

So apparently the system won’t let me order the DVR because it doesn’t think I have TV!

Lets go onto the long chain of events that has now led to this very post.

03/08/2011 – I created a trouble ticket 106613. I explained the issue, why it might be happening, how I can reproduce it. I’ve tried different computers, browsers, settings.

03/09/2011 – Auto response, I don’t have the email, but It basically said we’ve opened trouble ticket 106613.

03/17/2011 – Sent Reply,

“Is there an update on this TT? I still can’t order the DVR”

On 3/24/11 11:43 AM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear Verizon Customer,
This message is in response to the web site trouble ticket 106613 that was issue on your account.

We apologize for the difficulty you are experiencing. Our technical team is still addressing the situation. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Kristina
Verizon eCenter”

04/05/2011 – Sent Reply,

“All I want to do is order the new DVR, and no one can seem to help me.

Whats the deal?

Andrew”

(BTW I tried on the phone they said its only available online)

04/06/2011 10:27 AM - Received Reply,

“Dear Verizon Customer,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. I have received your email dated 4/5/11 regarding ordering the new DVR. My name is Deena, and I will be happy
to assist you.

I understand the importance of having this new equipment.

To sign up for a a new DVR, please sign in to your account at:

http://www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral

Once you are signed in, select the ‘My TV’ Tab then select the ‘Set Top Boxes’ sub tab.

On the right side of the resulting screen, select the ‘Learn More’ link under ‘Want More From Your FiOS DVR?’

Simply enter your name and email address and submit your request.

I hope I have resolved your reason for contacting us. If you have additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you in the future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Deena
Verizon eCenter”

04/06/2011 – Sent Reply,

“I already got the email saying I was offered the upgrade, but when I try to go through the upgrade process it fails saying my login is invalid, but it can’t be invalid because I already logged in. I tried different browsers.”

On 4/8/11 7:43 AM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear Verizon Customer,

Thank you for your continued contact with us. You had further questions
regarding upgrading to the new DVR. I sincerely apologize for the
trouble you are experiencing.

According to original trouble ticket that was process our IT Department
was not able to duplicate the issue you are having. You will be required
to sign up again and a new email will be sent for you to upgrade your
DVR.

Verizon recently launched new FiOS TV DVR equipment with increased
storage and memory. These DVR’s cannot be ordered, however you can
request to be contacted when new expanded storage DVR equipment options
become available.

You can sign up through the web on FiOS TV Central. You will be
contacted with options and instructions.

To sign up for a a new DVR, please sign in to your account at:

http://www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral

Once you are signed in, select the ‘My TV’ Tab then select the ‘Set Top
Boxes’ sub tab.

On the right side of the resulting screen, select the ‘Learn More’ link
under ‘Want More From Your FiOS DVR?’

Simply enter your name and email address and submit your request.

If you have additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you
in the future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Carmen
Verizon eCenter”

Some time passed with frustration and I abandoned all hope.

On 4/15/11 10:31 AM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear A. Matthews,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. This email is to follow-up with your
inquiry concerning your online order for Verizon’s Updated DVR. My
name is Jacqueline, and I will be happy to assist you.

We apologize for the delay in our response and regret any inconvenience
to you.

The problem preventing you from ordering the DVR upgrade has been fixed.
It will be necessary that you resubmit your request online at FiOS TV
Central and wait for the email from us. You will then be able to
re-order your DVR upgrade.

Please let us know if you continue to experience any further difficulty
after getting the new email.

If you have additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you
in the future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Jacqueline
Verizon eCenter”

Some hope has come back, I sign up again.

04/20/2011 – Sent Reply,

“It has not been fixed, I just got another email to sign up for the new DVR
and the exact same problem. Is there any way I can order this new DVR?

I’m kind of sick and tired of going around in circles and circles and
nothing gets resolved.

The issue again is…

I click on the email, it says I qualify, I login, and then it goes through
some little retrieving of my records and then I get User Authentication.
Login failed.

I know my login is right because I even try to login first and I see my
name and my account at the top, yet I still get this error.

So now what?”

On 4/21/11 1:45 PM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear A. Matthews,

Thank you for your continued contact with us. You had further questions
regarding ordering the new DVR. It will be my pleasure to assist you.

Manage your FiOS TV on line: View movie trailers, Video On Demand
listings, channel line-up, set preferences, get support, download Media
Manager and more.

To learn more, please visit:

http://www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral

I hope I have resolved your reason for contacting us. If you have
additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you in the
future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Verizon eCenter”

Great, now we are back to just starting all over again. Thanks Verizon for the generic response.

04/21/11 2:05 PM – Sent Reply,

“No, you have not solved my problem, I still can’t order this dvr.”

On 4/23/11 6:07 AM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear A. XXXXXXXX,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. I have received your email dated
4/21/11 regarding placing an order to upgrade your Dvr. My name is
Donna, and I will be happy to assist you.

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble ordering the Dvr upgrade.

The email confirmation will have details on cost. The DVR Upgrade fee
is $39.99. The fee is billed once the new DVR is activated.

This DVR Upgrade fee is a one time fee for the upgrade to a 500GB DVR
and does not increase your monthly service fee.

Verizon recently launched new FiOS TV DVR equipment with increased
storage and memory. These DVR’s cannot be ordered, however you can
request to be contacted when new expanded storage DVR equipment options
become available. You can sign up through the web on FiOS TV Central.
When the new DVR expanded storage options become available, you will be
contacted with options and instructions.

To sign up for a a new DVR, please sign in to your account at:

http://www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral

Once you are signed in, select the ‘My TV’ Tab then select the ‘Set Top
Boxes’ sub tab.

On the right side of the resulting screen, select the ‘Learn More’ link
under ‘Want More From Your FiOS DVR?’

Simply enter your name and email address and submit your request.

You can not receive this link forwarded from you it must be ordered from
the Verizon. site. If you security settings are to high it could
prevent the ordering of the Dvr.

I hope I have resolved your reason for contacting us. If you have
additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you in the
future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Donna
Verizon eCenter”

Oh Yippy, we did start over.

04/23/2011- Sent Reply

“Verizon is the worst support on the planet.

What you don’t understand is I can do that, I did sign up, and I did get
the email saying I qualify, but it doesn’t work after that, I get errors.
Its not my security settings. You all are a bunch of lazy bastards who
apparently refuse to read my email and actually help me.

You might be hearing from the cancelation department, because having the
worst support on the planet makes me rethink being a Verizon customer.”

On 4/25/11 12:53 PM, “customersupport” wrote:

“Dear A. XXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. I have received your follow up email
dated 4/23/11 regarding your continued difficulty to access online so
that you can express an interest in the new DVR with more capacity for
storage. My name is Tom, and I will be happy to assist you.

Please excuse the delay in responding to your email. I do appreciate
your frustration with doing something that seems to be of a routine
request.

Unfortunately, all your emails did not have the account number that
would allow me to assist you. I called a Can Be Reached phone that ends
with 4888 and this number could not be completed.

Please reply to this email with some phone numbers and when is the best
time to call so we can assist you. Please have your account number when
we call to.

Hoping we will be able to assist you soon.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Tom
Verizon eCenter”

Yes! Somebody is reading
04/24/2011 12:54 PM – Sent Reply,

“Call me anytime at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

After no phone calls its now turned into an insane email mess of people not doing anything.

On 4/25/11 12:57 PM, “customersupport” wrote:
Dear S. XXXXXXXXX,

I have replied to your email of 4/23/11. I believe this is a duplicate
but if I am wrong, then please reply with the best phone number to reach
you at and give me a reasonable time frame to call in up till 7 PM EST.

Please have your account number available too.

I had called you on a previously good, can be reached number that ended
in 4888. I could not complete that call.

Verizon eCenter,

Tom”

Somehow my first name became an S. I didn’t even respond because I assumed he had seen my first email and phone number. Then call me back. Guess not!

On 4/27/11 7:11 AM, “customersupport” wrote:

Dear A. Matthews,

Thank you for choosing Verizon. I have received your email dated
4/25/11 regarding ordering the new Dvr set top box . My name is Donna,
and I will be happy to assist you.

I am sorry to hear that you are still experiencing trouble ordering the
new Dvr set top box. We are not able to order the new Dvr box for you
manually it must be placed online. I have submitted a trouble ticket on
your behalf to assist in the resolution to allow your ordering of the
new set top box. You will be advised when the issue has been resolved.
It could take up to 30 days to resolve the issue.

I hope I have resolved your reason for contacting us. If you have
additional questions, or if we may be of assistance to you in the
future, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.

Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Donna
Verizon eCenter

Not even sure where this one came from. Way to start getting random on me version.

04/27/20100 Received Email,

Guess what this was? My account being solved? Nope just another email telling me I qualify for a DVR Upgrade and I should follow this link and do this thing that doesn’t woooooork. Your Wait for the Verizon FiOS TV 500GB DVR Is Over

Again I sit here with a very broken account, paying for a DVR that doesn’t even do its 19.99 features, and I can’t get an upgrade. The only thing that apparently works is the basic service and paying my bill (of course that works).

Don’t get me wrong, I love Verizon. They have a fast network, great quality TV, and awesome features. I’ve even thrown Super Bowl that Verizon gets HouseParty to throw with Verizon Customers. I like talking about the good things about the service.

If there was another company that offered me the same services, and a customer service department that talked to its engineers, man would switch in a heart beat. Do you realize how frustrating it is to go back and forth over email and get nothing. I even called, I spoke to 10 different departments. Finally found someone who was going to take me seriously, I worked with them for hours. Even did a screen sharing session, gave me that sanity stamp. Did I get a call back like she said I would?

No Response.

So that leads us to here. I’m done trying. There are plenty of services on the internet that I can go elsewhere. Its sad to see companies spend so much time competing that they don’t stop and think about the consumer. Were people too. Sometimes listening to us will get you further than what they guy next to you is doing.

In the long shot that this actually grabs anyones attention over at good old big red. Here are some reference numbers.

TT# 106613

Something 1: KMM3445981V92128L0KM

Something 2: KMM3490400V26806L0KM

Something 3: KMM3495926V18316L0KM

Something 4: KMM3529831V88644L0KM

Thank you, and good night.

Andrew

 

* Update 05-06-2011*

So posting this to the community forum has had the post remove now, and I got a message.

Exstatica,

I’m sorry to hear about your recent issue. The Verizon Forums is a

peer-to-peer support channel in which users help other users. Because

your issue appears to need account specific assistance from Verizon,

I’ve moved your message to an employee monitored board, where a Verizon representative can assist you. You will be contacted by email,

private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number

on your Verizon account as soon as possible.

If you want to contact Verizon directly, please use our Contact Us link:

http://www.22.verizon.com/Residential/Support/ContactUs.

Thank you for your participation in the Verizon Forums!

OrnahP

We’ll see what happens.

* Update 2 – 05-09-2011*

So apparently Verizon can’t just find someone to help me, they have to continue to pass it around the company

“I’m sorry to hear about the repeated frustrations with ordering the new DVR and the multiple online verizon.com accounts. You are correct in your assumption because the accounts are split, its rejecting your order for the DVR. We need to get the accounts merged so you can view everything on the Verizon.net website. We want to help you out. So we can get your account information securely, please fill out  http://bit.ly/xxxxxxx . Make sure to include your name, address, home phone, best contact number, and best times you can be reached by phone. Please send me a message back when you have submitted it so we can retrieve the info. Thanks!

Anthony Taylor
Social Media Escalations”

Thanks for telling me something I didn’t know. Now I have to start this long chain all over again? I don’t think so.

 

* Update 3 – 05-10-2011 *

Heard from Eric over at Verizon. Apparently tomorrow everything is going to be fixed and I’ll be able to upgrade my DVR and hopefully use the Remote DVR upgrade. What I’d really like is someone to credit me back for 3 months of home media DVR. That would at least make me feel like they care about their customers. We’ll see tomorrow if anything changes.

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Google Voice with Sprint enabled!

May 03 2011

Yup, received this email.

You have two as you can read above. You can either keep your Sprint number, and replace your Google Voice number, or you can replace your Sprint number with your Google Voice number. You still get to keep the number and it works just as it did before except everything is routed to Google Voice instead, and your Outbound SMS, CallerID, is your GV#.

It was very easy to do, took only a minute or so. The process is just simple. I kind of wish they made a graphic, or one of those cartoon Youtube video explaining how each option works, and what path your calls take.

I think they would have twice as many people using it if they understood how it functioned. It would have to in that page that you choose which option you want.

It also appears you can go back to split numbers. I think this gives people a chance to try out both options and see which one they are going to like best.

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Motorola Xoom Movie Encoding

Mar 16 2011

I recently encoded a handfull of movies for my Xoom, one being the new Tron Legacy movie.

I re-encoded a 1080p mkv file

these are the settings I used

Picture Settings:

Anamorphic: strict

Filters:
Decomb – default
Detelecine – default

Target size: 3900 (since the xoom can’t handle files larger than 4gb)

Audio tab: remove all but one channel since you don’t need multiple streams

Advanced:
Referenced Frames – Default (3)
Maximum B-Frames – 0
CABAC Entropy Coding: unchecked
8×8 transform: unchecked
weighted p-frames: unchecked

option string should be: 8x8dct=0:bframes=0:cabac=0:weightp=0

screenshots are…

 

exported preset
http://www.exstatica.net/HB_Export.plist

If you use the exported hb settings make sure you still modify the picture settings as it may not be stored in the preset file. I’ve had zero stuttering, sounds great. and the quality is fantastic.

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Google Chrome Icon

Mar 15 2011

Google Chrome has always been a favorite browser since it was first released. I’ve been running the dev version for the last few years. Today I just noticed after a short update the icon has changed.

Google posted the update on 11.0.696.12 here.

I for one really like the new icon.

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Kettle Classics not so Spicy Jalapeño chips

Mar 14 2011

I just recently picked up a small bag of these chips from the grocery store. I figured Spicy Jalapeño meant that it was going to be very spicy. Even the pepper on its own is known to be spicy, but then to add the adjective Spicy to the description and you can only imagine that this chip is suppose to be crazy hot. Its sad when such marketing leads you to buy a product that gives you such hope. I do love spicy foods, and when someone writes the word spicy on their package I would assume its at a level that requires you to either eat one and then wash it down, or just keep eating them because the layers upon layers of chips keeps the spicy flavor from destroying your mouth.

The description on the back even led me to believe that it was going to require additional mouth cooling support.

There’s a distinct difference between spicy and “Ay, caramba!” spicy. Salsa dancing is spicy. Salsa dancing  at midnight on the rooftop in Jackson Heights, NY during a heat wave in August is “Ay, caramba!” spicy. This is how to approach Kettle Classics Spicy Jalapeño. It’s got a spicy charge that happens naturally like dancing. made with pure jalapeño peppers, onion, garlic, and paprika. That’s some “Ay, caramba!” spicy.

They were plain, boring, and almost flavorless. There is a dash of jalapeño, with an overwhelming amount of suck.

It was more like licking an idaho potato in the dead of winter while only wearing scarf.

 

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Honeycomb Quarks

Mar 05 2011

Now that I have a Xoom, I’ve found some things that really bug me.

App Launcher

When you are anywhere but the home screen you can’t get to the app launcher. Its a 2 step process. There is no reason I should have to go back to the home screen just to get to my list of apps. This makes switching between apps slow, and inefficient.  Also having the app launcher button at the upper left is just out of the way, it makes using both a Android phone and tablet slightly confusing. It doesn’t flow naturally, this needs to be near the bottom. Even take a queue from the browser labs and enable Quick Controls system wide (which I’ll talk about more in the browser section).

Task Switching

When I first saw what it looked like I was excited. It made switching between apps easy. Now that I’ve used it for just a day I find that it is too limited to be really useful. First I’d like to see more than 4 past items. I’d like to see everything for today, but also like the OSX time machine. When you want to show apps for previous days you should be able to scroll back further, maybe click on one and have it expand out by dates, and maybe even times so you can go back and see what you were doing 3 days ago for example.

Browser

The browser is amazing, its probably one of the best parts of Honeycomb. Its fast, and full of features.  If you go into the settings portion, and then the lab features, there is something called Quick Controls.  Once enabled at first glance it doesn’t do anything but take your thumb and slide it out from either side into the screen and you’ll see a rounded menu pop up. This feature is awesome. It makes opening new tabs easy, and page navigation simple. It took a few minutes to get used to it, but its pretty awesome. I’d also like to see a better bookmark system. The bookmark page is great, but you have to go into it save a bookmark. It would also be nice to add pinning to the browser. There are some cases when you want to save a page, but not bookmark it. Thats were pinning is helpful in Chrome, pin a page, and its always there when you load the browser.

Universal Search

I covered this in a previous post, I just want to see search moved to the bottom left, so its always available. It would be nice to be able to search at anytime, anywhere, without having to go to the home screen first.

Dashboard

The dashboard, or + sign whatever that thing is called is mostly useless. Its an overview of your home screens, while that is great, its almost useless. It would be nice if the widget selecter was actually a place you could put things. It would overlay whatever you were doing, and be semi transparent. It would also be a quick view of whatever you want. A notepad for example, maybe an IM list. It wouldn’t matter because its customizable. You can even merge the Universal search into it. I’m just saying, sometimes you need an overview of whatever you want/need.

Misc

Apps, apps, apps. They suck, there are very few that are optimized for tablets, its only a matter of time, but I hate waiting.

I’m sure there is more, but that is all I have for now. I’ll post again when I have more.

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Honeycomb Universal Search

Feb 23 2011

I’m not sure if you have ever used Alfred for the mac, but its fast. I mean really stupid fast. Its not just for launching applications. it has the capability of indexing music and play just like that.

What honeycomb needs is a universal search. It should show all the icons so I can either tap on them or hit go on the one thats currently highlighted. It should extend to more than just apps. It should index music on the cloud, bookmarks, contacts, and Google instant.

How do you get efficiently to such a UI with the minium amount of effort. Buttons are horrible, so Honeycomb has that down. We need a way to bring up the keyboard. I know that the back button is a dual purpose with going back, and changing the keyboard visibility. I think that it would be a better idea to create a keyboard button, but this button also does various things. In cases where you don’t need a back button you can hide it.

Let users choose what side or order these buttons are in. I would default to the right side. I know people with windows might naturally go to the bottom left to get to the start menu, but in a touch based platform I think it would make more sense to have the keyboard button on the right. But hey, maybe ask them if they are left handed or right handed (like me, hense the right side).

This button can take what you’ve done with the 2.3 platform hardware search button. Now though you are adding a universal search over the whole ui included. Just make the current foreground application higher on the list. Show recent items, maybe frequently used apps. Like of like the chrome tab page. I’ve been a dev user since they first published the channels. I know what google is capable of. Use some ninja algorithm, and show us our natural flow of how we use a device.

It needs to be big, but transparent. not so much, but enough that you can still see what you were just doing. You need at least three buttons. One that is submit, go, or some sort of choose that selection. You’ll need a need a close button, something that takes you back to where you were. This can be that one I spoke about earlier on the bottom. Lets not forget a clear button. holding backspace is so mind-numbingly boooooring.

We need filters, Create an API that allows developers to show their icon. You can enable or disable their results by just taping it. Make it clean, have the icon fade in and out based on if its added to the results.

We need a natural way to get all of our information at our finger tips.

Thats my idea.

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Media Center Setup

Jan 04 2011

I thought I’d write something up that talks about an almost perfect Media Center Setup. I’ve been running some sort of media centric platform since the first days of MythTV. Over the years I’ve spent countless days making sure my platform is easy to use, and is up to date.

There is a lot of information here, so I’ll do my best to explain it. If you have any questions please feel free to post and I’ll gladly build an FAQ here.

NOTE: I do not work for any of the companies I mention here. They are just tools that I found extremely useful, and I thought I’d share.

NOTE2: The collection you see below has been collected over the years via DVD’s, Blue-Rays, and other Physical Media.

Backend:

Computer Name: Unobtainium

Everyone is going to have something different. In my case I have a very large storage array, its 24 x 1.5TB 7200RPM drives in a Raid6. They are connected via a LSI/3ware 9690SA-8I. Its loud, and very power hungry. I’m not going to go into details of the specs of the system because it really doesn’t matter.

The OS I run is Openfiler.

I chose Openfiler because I’m a linux guru, and I liked having the ability to get into the os and install additional software. It did have a bit of a learning curve. That was because I’m used to Gentoo, Centos, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, where you either build from some sort of package manager or install from ports. Openfiler uses RPath as its os. Which its package manager is Conary. It was a challenge to learn, and still is in some cases. For the most part, with a little document reading, its not too difficult.

I’m big on redundancy, security, and the safety of my data. Raid 6 gave me the most space for the best performance, and redundancy. Having the double parity has saved my data more than once. With Raid6 I was able to just break 30TB. I have about 5 drives of the exact same model in production just stacked near the server in case I have a drive failure. So far in the span of a year I’ve had 1 drive fail.

I also have a large UPS, its connected via USB and will tell the storage array to shutdown if the UPS is running on battery for more than 5 minutes. This UPS lasts at most for about 11 minutes. We don’t want the storage array shutting down if the power flickers, or turns off for a brief minute, but we do want it to shutdown if it doesn’t look like power is coming back, or the batteries are getting low. I also have a bunch of the network gear connected to the same ups. I think I might break it up because the storage array is more important than the network.

Stats and Data: I have a lot of data I have to protect so keeping an eye on things is important. This is where Munin comes in use. It can give you details on performance, and system statistics.

IO Stats

Drive Temps

Plus a lot lot more.

Raid Controler software is also very important. If there is software for your raid I recommend installing it. In my case its a utility called 3DM2. Its web based and it gives me array status, rebuild status, and most importantly emails me if something is happening. With Raid 6 I have about a 1 week rebuild time when a drive fails. It doesn’t seem to hinder the performance though.

Once the storage array was up and running I thought long and hard about my folder structure. I’ve gone through a lot of setups over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of setups and this is one I’m finally happy with. I could slice this array up into lots of different partitions but then resizing can be a pain, even if you’re using XFS. So I created one large partition. This made sure that no one partition would get full, and all shares could share the same amount of storage.

I’m going to try and go into detail of how I chose my folder structure.

Folder Structure:

Audio ( One large folder called Music, Organizing music is a pain, I have yet to tackle that problem. )

Backups ( various backups from other computers in the house )

DropBox ( A quick and dirty way to share files between computers )

Pictures ( We picked up Photography as a hobby )

  • Finished ( retouched photos )
  • Raw ( Photos in RAW format )
  • Stock ( Stock photos used for web and print )

Library ( Used to store the software, and e-books, code, and other misc items )

Video

  • DVR ( I have TV, but I don’t have the movie channels, so shows like Dexter and Weeds I have to get on my own. )
  • High Definition ( 99% 1080p)
  • Standard Definition
  • Originals ( used for dvdrs and raw disk images )
  • Television Series ( Full seasons of shows )
  • Workout ( What can I say, I like Yoga )
  • P* ( yes exactly what you think it is )

About every month I go through the standard def folder and remove content that has been replaced by Hi def. I know I have the space, but I don’t think there is much of a point

Mounting Drives:

I run active directory ( if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a geek ) So when any of the computers login they auto mount the folders on each computer.

Frontend

Computer Name: Deep Thought

I’m not going to get into details of my TV or surround sound because this is more about using what you have. After a bunch of research I landed on the ZOTAC GF9300-D-E. I loaded it with the following specs

Pentium E5300 2.6ghz Dual core processor

Corsair 4gb ram

250gb 7200 rpm Sata drive

All in a APEX MI-008 case. Although the stock CPU would not fit which I read was going to be a problem, was not an issue since we have a stock of them at the office for servers and usually its not hard to find a low profile one. Problem Solved. I loaded Windows 7, because I wanted the full Media Center experience.

This board has hardware 1080p decoding and plays media well on my TV. The biggest issue is how do you play your content? How do you organize your content for couch viewing with just a remote?

I tried MyMovies however the management associated with it was insane. It was ok with movies, but handling TV, and other content was challenging. It also requires SQL Light, and has a collection management interface that can be installed on a laptop for example. It was clunky though. So I decided to go out searching for alternatives.

Hello Media Browser. The setup is dead simple, and provides great features. It can automatically search your content and update the meta data. It also had a feature that immediately let me know that this was a keeper. Instead of having one giant library of all of your content you could break it up. So I took the Video share layout from above and implemented it into Media Browser.

You can then rename and create custom icons for the way each folder should look in Media Center. After about a year of using this setup, I discovered that I didn’t like how media browser managed my media. I also wanted trailers. I wasn’t ready to ditch Media Browser all together though. Well recently I discovered another great tool. Its called Media Center Master. I didn’t even have to try it out. I Knew that it was worth buying. I ended up getting the lifetime license, and never looked back. Not only does this tool handle multiple folders, but it also auto scans, downloads trailers, and most important of all, it generates the all important .xml file that Media Browser uses to display meta data. For the most part it has located all of my media, downloaded backdrops, and churned through those pesky seasons of TV shows I keep. It not only downloads the backdrops and information for every episodes but it also generates the meta file in such a way that you can easily browse though your seasons in Media Browser.

I also thought that supporting Media Browser was in its and my best interest, and with that you get some extra features. The best part of it is the theme Perl. Here is how my frontend now looks.

uTorrent

If you have ever used the WebUI in uTorrent you’ll know its alright. The worst thing about it is you can’t pick where you want to store directories. Thats were VNC comes into play. I run VNC on the Media Center PC. I can remote into it, copy the link, and paste it into uTorrent. It prompts where I want to store it, I pick the correct path, adjusting any directory names or file names.

I still do use the WebUI when I want to just watch the transfers, however VNC is much easier, plus I can load Media Center Master, and manually put in the IMDB for the fetcher to update the correct title. Sometimes movies that have been remade will show duplicated because it doesn’t know the date difference.

Currently my uTorrent has almost 1000 torrents in it. The system seems to be able to handle it just fine.

Misc

I picked up a Logitech Mini. Its pretty useful for a quick and dirty mouse and keyboard, but it ends up in the care more than in the house due to the CarPC. With an Android phone and AirHID using my phone for a trackpad and keyboard is great in a pinch

Good wireless headphones are always a bonus for when your other half is sleeping, and you are watching horror movies.

Universal Remote, in this case its a Logitech Harmony, and the old USB IR receiver that came with an older tuner card that works for Media center works perfectly.

ToDo

I’ve wanted to be able to get my videos transcoded to my phone or streamed to my laptop remotely incase I’m at my parents. However I have yet to find a tool that can do that cleanly. I tried TVersity, but it sucks, and crashes a lot. I recently purchased a Slingbox Pro. Its pretty awesome to watch football wherever I am, including on my phone. However it only has one Hi Def input, and a couple standard def inputs. I haven’t worked out that solution yet, but its on the list. I might just build something on the Openfiler since its a beast and could handle the transcoding.

There you have it, my setup. Hope that it helped a few people who have a media management nightmare.

-Ex

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