Important note: the software below is now officially unsupported. I'm not a Videotron client anymore, so it became difficult, and without interest, for me to continue development of this solution to track your bandwidth quota. If you know any developer that might be interested in continuing development and support, feel free to send them a note. (JavaScript is the main programming language.) Download the widget version 1.3.9 What’s new in 1.

(Some background info on why I created Greyhole can be read in my previous post.) Update: Greyhole has matured quite a lot since I posted this. You can now learn about Greyhole on the official website: www.greyhole.net. There. I did it. Greyhole is now available to all avid enthusiasts who would like to try it. What is it? It’s Windows Home Server Drive Extender concept, but open source, running on Linux.

[Update] I did it. Read about it here. I do like Windows Home Server Drive Extender technology. It allows oneself to aggregate a bunch of various-sized hard disks into one big storage pool. You can then define a number of shares that will share (!) that storage pool dynamically. AND you can define which shares you want duplicated, which basically mean that DE (Drive Extender) will make sure that all the files on there are on two different physical hard drives, to safeguard those files against hardware failures.

So, I was happily copying files around on my Windows Home Server, when I noticed that the speed of the transfers were now at 1.5MB/s… Uncool, when copying similar files from the same directories was at 50-80MB/s minutes earlier. I tried to think what I might have changed since it worked fine. I tried reseting the CMOS, disconnecting all hard drives (IDE, USB, SATA) that were connected, except my primary drive, to no avail.

My central HVAC system has issues cooling down the 3rd floor of our house during the summer. Even with all 1st & 2nd floor traps closed, the system, which is in the basement, has difficulties cooling down the 3rd floor. The higher the exterior temperature, the higher the difference of temperature between the 1st and 3rd floors. The average difference is somewhere between 4 and 5°C, and I measured differences as high as 10°C in the beginning of the summer.

Update: There is now a much easier way to auto-start XBMC on Apple TV boot. See details here. I’ll leave the below post here for posterity… Here’s how to have XBMC auto-start when your Apple TV boots. Create a text file with the following content: ` <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>com.teamxbmc.xbmc</string> <key>OnDemand</key> <false/> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/MacOS/XBMC</string> <string>-fs</string> </array> </dict> </plist> `

Update: The information below is about TV Forecast version 2.3.5. Since I wrote the post below, Matt Comi released an official fix, namely version 2.4, which now use TVRage.com as its data source. You should use TV Forecast official releases (1st link below), instead of trying to hack an old widget’s code like I did below. TV Forecast is a nice widget that Matt Comi created. You tell it what TV shows you watch, and it will keep track of the upcoming episodes for those shows.

_(Note that the following Mac-related; I only own Mac computers, so I didn’t try to find a solution to this problem on Windows.) _ Since Gmail released the Offline feature in Labs, I guess many people have enabled it. I did, as soon as the feature was available in my account. And one of the first thing I did after enabling it, is trying to see how I could secure the data it downloads.

CrashPlan****, it’s a remote backup solution for (almost) everyone. The principle is easy enough: install the software client (available for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux), change the default selection of files that will be backed up (if you want to) and you’re on your way to never loose a file again! Where are your backup stored? You have the choice. One option is to pay CrashPlan developers (the company is called Code 42) a small fee each month for them to store your backup: this is what they call CrashPlan Central.

_ (I usually write in english in here, but this one will be in French. It’s about a Windows XP keyboard layout for Canadian French Mac keyboards. So, move along, english-only-speaking-people!) _ Installer Windows XP sur un Mac, que ça soit dans Parallels Desktop, WMWare Fusion ou avec Bootcamp, c’est parfois bien pratique. Ce qui n’est pas pratique par contre, c’est d’essayer d’utiliser un clavier Mac canadien français dans Windows! Plusieurs touches sont différentes, dont les accents, plusieurs Shift-chiffres, etc.