My First Arduino Protocol

This is a quick video of my first Arduino circuit. I built myself a protocol in ‘C’ into the Arduino board to receive commands from my web server to Connect, Disconnect, Light sequences of LEDs, & sound a buzzer. All this is able to be controlled from anywhere in the world within a web page which is hosted on my home servers. At the moment this doesn’t really do anything useful but as a first go at amateur electronics, im pretty proud of myself. With an extensive amount of time and skill the Arduino could potentially be rigged to control an entire home automation system, but lets not get ahead of myself hey!

PixelGrafters TV Show FanArt Manager

PixelGrafters.com
PixelGrafters Google Code Project Page

Ive been working on something rather special the past few months, hence the lack of blog posts. Ive been re-purposing PixelGrafters, but before I get onto what Ive done, a little history behind the name.

PixelGrafters has been through a few different purposes over the past 10 years or so. It started life as a Web Hosting Company which ran for a good 2 – 3 years. After selling my customers, PixelGrafters became a successful search engine for movie FanArt allowing users to download artwork for their movies from public databases in the quickest possible way.

Now PixelGrafters has changed to become a piece of Open Source Web Based software distributed under the GNU license. Its designed for users to run the software from their own home servers and it will scan their personal stored TV shows on their network and allow them to manage the FanArt stored within their TV Shows directory. All artwork can be automatically picked and downloaded for each show saving the user hours of trawling through public databases looking for their preferred FanArt. All this can be done right from your couch on your iPad.

PixelGrafters is best used alongside XBMC as all automatically downloaded artwork files are named according to the FanArt standards of XBMC.

Coming to PixelGrafters soon will be Episode Renaming allowing you to manage your TV Show File names and folder structures right from your iPad. Also will be a schedule allowing you to follow your own TV shows and the air dates of the next episode.

Im actively looking for coders to help work on the project so if your interested in helping then visit the web site, download the code, have a play around and then contact me about any ideas you have for contributing.

iPad HoverBar

iPad HoverBar

Recently I bought an iPad stand to sit next to my iMac. Its called the HoverBar by TwelveSouth and this one is rather unique in that its a massive flexible metal rod that clamps to the back of the iMac stand. The iPad then sits in a holder on the other end that can rotate 360 degrees. Once set up in the right position this is a very nice elegant way to have your iPad sitting around as it keeps your desk nice and clutter free.

Woe betide you if you want to change its position drastically though. Beding the metal bar requires the strength of the hulk.Getting this thing set up initially can also involve much shouting like the hulk as its extremely awkward, don’t be fooled by its claims of easy positioning. Its bollocks! Once you’ve finally got it set in a desired position, save yourself the hassle and keep it there!

In conclusion, this is a great product if your prepared to undergo the stress of setting it up. The benefit of awesome de-clutteration is well worth the stressful setup fee.

TwelveSouth HoverBar Product Page

Blu-Ray Collection

Blu-Ray Collection

Currently consisting of 81 Blu-Rays here is a list just for fun of the Movies I have in lovely Hi-Definition.

Justice, The Thing, The Expendables, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolutions, Inception, Unstoppable, Trespass, Hobo with a Shotgun, Let Me In, Season of the Witch, Sanctum, Priest, Alice in Wonderland, Kane in See no Evil, Toy Story 3, Drive Angry, Terminator Salvation, Limitless, Crank 2, Daybreakers, Halloween 2, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Burke and Hare, Ninja Assassin, Scre4m, Red, Surrogates, Your Highness, Unknown, Devil, Unthinkable, Horrible Bosses, Cowboys vs Aliens, Scott Pilgrim vs the world, Bad Teacher, Righteous Kill, Hush, Knowing, Day of the Dead, Payback, Death Sentence, War of the Worlds, Legion, Skyline, Black Sheep, Sucker Punch, Talladega Nights, Source Code, The Dark Night, Pandorum, The Hangover, Edge of Darkness, Snatch, The Taking of Pelham 123, Bad santa, Swordfish, The Happening, Pineapple Express, Liar Liar, You dont mess with the Zohan, My name is Bruce, Sin City, Splinter, Other Guys, Full Metal Jacket, Land of the Lost, Captain America the First Avenger, Red Riding Hood, Shaun of the Dead, Tower Heist, Die Hard, The Mist, Demolition Man, Hellboy, The Bank Job, The Incredible Hulk, Watchmen

Facebook & Instagram

Recently I got bored of “FaceBook” and deleted my account. for a number of reasons I did this:

  • It tries to take over the internet and keep people in its own little bubble
  • Its Full of idiots & creepy people
  • Its just plain dull most of the time
  • It constantly barraged me with information I have no interest in
  • I got bombarded with status updates from people I’ve never heard of due to that pesky “like” button
  • Its like talking to a brick wall with rules and regulations

These reasons all made me decide that my “FaceBook” account was pointless so I deleted it. I do on the other hand still use the social network “Instagram”. I love taking pictures and I think it does what it sais on the tin down to a tee. It does that 1 single thing very well and is perfect for sharing your photos with friends. 

“FaceBook” fails because it tries to do too much and does most of it really badly and is always getting into trouble. All it ever seems to do is go around buying up all our favourite social networks and assimilating them into its crap. A little like the well known “Borg”?

Now “FaceBook” has assimilated the wonderful service “Instagram”, who knows whats going to happen, are we going to see it disappear and end up being another sub-service of “FaceBook”? or will we simply see the “Instagram” service unable to be used without connecting a “FaceBook” account?

I don’t like this shit and I want to continue to have the ability to use services that focus on doing 1 thing really well instead of lots of this really pants.

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