networking
How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide: Part One
December 23, 2009
As promised in my How To Setup Xbox 360 Media Player Guide teaser, with this help of this guide you should be able to stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit! I told you I’d show you how to do it, so here it is. From scratch.
Part One: Infrastructure and Software
I recommend that you follow this guide with a clean installation of Windows 7 on a modern, Intel, dual-core or better native PC (ie. Not VM or Boot Camp), with at least 2GB of RAM, an internal SATA HDD, wired Ethernet and USB2 onboard.
Continue reading »A Complete Xbox 360 Media Player ‘Ecosystem’ Guide (Teaser)
October 13, 2009
Stream everything. Play anything. Hundreds of HD movies. Thousands of songs. No DVDs, no DRM, no getting up from the sofa. No need for your PC to even be on and above all, no fruit.
For a simple, straightforward process for everyone to accomplish this and so much more with reliable ease, The Average Windows Nerd presents “Xbox 360 – A Complete Ecosystem Guide”, a practical and detailed step by step guide to making your Xbox 360 the media hub of your Windows 7 – networked Home, just like I did for “how to play iTunes H264 movie files on the Xbox 360“.
Continue reading »iTunes 9: So What?!?! – Part Two: Steal, Innovate, Repeat!
October 4, 2009
It’s Bill time again! (it’s always Bill O’clock in my house). I think Bill’s expression here, is a combination of shame and lust. Anyway, on with the whinging about Apple…
I always take delight in posing this quesstion to Mac Monks: “Well if OSX is so reliable and fantastic, where are all the Apple servers then!?” Exactly. There’s only one word in networking, and that word is Windows.
In part one of my iTunes 9 review, I told you how rubbish media sharing was in iTunes 9 and I told you why, but you know what? It doesn’t even matter. iTunes is a great audio manager and a competent audio streamer, but it’s no media-hub. Windows, however, is.
Practical sharing in Windows is so simple, I can cover it a paragraph. Here we go then…
Continue reading »iTunes 9 Review: So What?!?!
September 27, 2009
What can I say to follow up on my iTunes 9 teaser? Well, the scary doll from SAW said:
“Ringtones at a breakthrough price of $1.29” “We’ve bumped podcasts over and given the slot to ringtones”
Because that’s what everyone wants isn’t it? Not free, informative podcasts, oh no. Fucking shitty 30 second ringtones that cost more than the whole song, that’s what we want! – Assholes.
Continue reading »Windows 7 RC Essentials: Getting Started Guide – Part 3
June 15, 2009
You’ve read and followed part 1 and part 2 of my Windows 7 RC essentials guide to getting started with Microsoft’s latest operating system, so now here’s the 3rd and final part!
Part Three: Explore and Connect
So after your lightning-fast install of Win 7, it’s all gravy, right? Well.. no. Windows 7 contains this fuck-nut called HomeGroup. I’ve commented before on how simple and universal the HomeGroup networking infrastructure is with the X-Box, and that’s certainly true here. Unfortunately, it seems to absolutely disrupt network connectivity with anything that isn’t Windows 7 (such as Vista). I’m on a Windows Server 2003 Domain, so file sharing worked for me, but network printing didn’t.
Continue reading »How To Play Apple iTunes H.264 Movie Files On Xbox 360
November 9, 2008
There’s always been something a little “hit and miss” about Microsoft Workgroup Networking. If the tides are right, if the lunar cycle is correct and you’re wearing compatible trousers, Workgroup networking might just work. This is why I run a Windows Server Domain at home and aside from the f*cking Mac (not mine, my dad’s), it’s reliable and flawless.
The Xbox 360 doesn’t recognize Domains, so it’s back to the wiji-board world of Workgroup networking! This is not a universal guide and is presented “as is”. I do not guarantee that this will work for you, however all steps outlined here are innocuous and entirely reversible, so you’ve nothing to lose by giving it a go. I set this up with Vista Ultimate, but I believe it will also work with Vista Home Premium and XP MCE 2005, or indeed anything that works with the latest revision of Media Centre Extender devices. If doesn’t work, feel free not to email me about it. Also, this is a power-user guide. I assume you know the fundamentals of Windows, Windows Media Player and basic Windows networking. Here we go…
Continue reading »LG Renoir (KC910) Event
September 29, 2008
A few days ago I was invited along to another LG Bloggers’ Event that was held around Covent Garden in London. This time round, the event was for their latest mobile phone called the LG Renoir (KC910).
This is the mobile phone which I wrote about here on Zath a few weeks ago when it was still only known as the LG Renoir KC910 (preview). I’m pleased to see that like I hoped for in my preview post, LG have decided to give its latest creation an actual name to be known as instead of just the LG KC910 – I feel the LG KF600 potentially suffered somewhat marketing-wise from only being known by its model number. I mean the LG Secret sounds much better than just simply the LG KF750.
Continue reading »Northern UK Bloggers’ Meet-Up
August 16, 2008
The first Northern UK Bloggers’ Meet-up took place yesterday at the Old Broadcasting House in Leeds – which is now a one of the facilities of Leeds Met University, which happens to be where I was a student back in 2001-2004 – it kind of felt like I’d come full circle!
The aim of this first session was to decide on the format for future events (which we kind of did), have some informal discussions about blogging and basically get to know each other.
In total there was about 20 bloggers that turned out for this initial event, we proceeded into the “boardroom” – not quite like the Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar waiting for us – there was certainly no intimidating grillings, it was a very relaxed and good-humoured affair.
Continue reading »Hi-Tech Gadgets
June 19, 2008
Do you like hi-tech gadgets? Of course you do, who doesn’t like a good hi-tech gadget? I mean they’re like toys for adults to play with!
I recently met several fellow technology / gadget bloggers at LG’s ‘Secret’ Bloggers’ Event to promote the release of their new ‘Secret’ mobile phone. The event was enjoyable in terms of hearing about and getting to play with LG’s latest mobile phone, we also had the opportunity to talk to the LG people to discuss their products, future directions they may take and the industry in general.
Continue reading »LG’s ‘Secret’ Bloggers’ Event
April 28, 2008
A couple of weeks ago LG invited me to participate in some of the launch events they had planned for their latest mobile phone handset; the ‘LG Secret’.
On Thursday 24th April (unfortunately I couldn’t attend this event), LG held a press conference to announce the name and other details of the latest in their range of ‘Black Label’ series of mobile phone handsets – until this event, no-one had been told what this new mobile would even be called.
Continue reading »
