Tag Archives: HTPC

“Your Site is old and busted”

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So Richard says my site is “old and busted” and thus said he was going to take my link off of his blog roll from his site. I agree that content has been lacking on here for a while now, but honestly nothing has been going on recently that is really all that worth while to talk/write about. So to appease Richard I am updating my site and posting.

I haven’t been skiing, or snowmobiling or anything along those lines in a while so I guess I just have forgotten to update my site. However I did purchase a new car a little over a week ago. While browsing my usual Ford Focus forums, I came across a post that a kid in the MNFOCUS forum started a post saying he was looking for a used Focus with a 5-speed manual and well I had just that, and was contemplating on selling my Focus anyways. I sent the kid and PM, he responded, we met up so he could see the car and the rest is history.

A few days later I was looking for a Ford Fusion and on the way home from work I decided to stop by Freeway Ford and check out a used 2007 Ford Fusion they had. I got there and took it for a test drive right away and loved every minute of it. The car was fully loaded, heated leather seats, dvd navigation system w/ Sat radio and ipod hookup, power moon/sun roof, power windows, power seats, and my favorite feature, All-Wheel Drive.

So without direct concent from Jody (aka “the Wife”) I started the paper work and bought the car and drove it home that same night. At first Jody was pissed that I bought the car without her concent or without her being there but eventually she let it go, espcecially after I let her drive the car, even though she won’t admit it, I think she loves the car more than her truck.

So after the paper work was all finished up, I got the keys to my new (new to me) 2007 Ford Fusion and I couldn’t be happier. It is a great car, and I will admit way better than my “Riced out Focus”. Even though I will miss the Focus and miss having a manual transmission, I enjoy every minute with the Fusion, it is a great ride, smooth handling, and quiet to boot.

I haven’t taken any pictures of the new car yet but once the weather gets warmer and I have time to wash and wax her, I’ll throw up some pictures.

Another update (other than my new car) is that I have finally upgraded my HTPC, no more old ass Pentium4 and windows Media Center 2005. I upgraded the “guts” to my HTPC, upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate which contains Vista Media Center. So far I am really enjoying the new HTPC and its running 100% stable with full auto commercial skip and extending with Media Center Extenders.

I want to save another post to go more in depth on the HTPC upgrade so I will end here.

Until next time,

- Josh

Auto Skip Commercials

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This weekend, was one of the first weekends in a long ass time that I’ve had to actually sit down, watch some tv and just be lazy. Since the wife goes to be fairly early I tend to sit on the computer and puts, and well I was catching up on some RSS feeds I came across this post: Skipping Commercials with Media Center and right away I knew it was something I had to try myself.

So I spent the remainder of the evening (Friday Night) downloading, installing and testing out this feature within my HTPC running Windows Media Center 2005. I followed the wiki: Found HERE and in no time at all I had this up and running.

Once the app was installed, and up and running correctly, I was in love! No more using the remote to fast forward for each commercial, no more rewinding if the 30 second skip went too far into the show, just plain no more holding onto the remote during the tv show. I can now just hit play, set the remote down and NOT have to touch it for the remainder of the tv show.

So for anyone using Windows MCE I highly recommend checking out this app, yes ShowAnalyer does cost some money, but after seeing what auto skip can do, I’d gladly pay for it again without blinking and eye. Now if only my Comcast HD DVR could do the same thing I’d really be in heaven then.

enjoy!

- Josh