HKMacs

Just to let all my clients know that I recently completed the OS X Snow Leopard Server Essentials 10.6  course and passed the exam (9L0-403) and now will be offering setup of Snow Leopard Server. Records may be viewed at the Apple Certified Professional Registry (Please note – it may take a couple of weeks to be updated).

For OS X Server Setup enquiries please contact me, Vince Loden at: (852) 93486884 or by email on this page.

Isn’t it a pain when you want to watch a video on your iDevice you need to copy the file to iTunes and then go through all the hassle of synching it and possibly having to convert it if it’s .avi or .mkv (HD) format. Now there is an instant solution with Air Video which allows you to stream video from your Mac or PC and convert it on the fly. You can do this over your home WiFi network and 3G. As long as your computer is on at home, you have access to a limitless number of movies and TV shows, and they take up no space on your portable device.

It works like this. You install server software on your computer, and grab the app from the iTunes Store. If your devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, Air Video will see the computer and display it onscreen. When you tap it, it shows the list of folders you have chosen to share (you can add iTunes playlists, too).

From there, you can choose a movie and press play. It will stream direct to your miniature screen as a Quicktime stream, and you can treat it as if it were a local file: Play, pause and scrubbing are all supported. You can even use an external subtitle file or switch languages, should the movie have more than one. And you can stream video from any hard drive on your network. An HD hooked up to a Time Capsule works fine, for example.

But wait, you say: What about all my ripped AVI files, and my BitTorrented DIVX movies? This is where the magic comes in. Air Video will convert these files on the fly so they’re playable on the iPad and iPhone. Just tap “Play with Live Conversion” and your computer will start to convert the movie and — after a few seconds — send out a compatible stream. This killer feature means that you don’t need to do any tedious, lengthy ripping of your files just to play them on the iPad. If you already started watching the move, Air Video even remembers and lets you choose whether to play from where you left off, or to start over. The only files it can’t work with are videos with DRM.

Well I don’t have access to an iPad and my iPhone is not 3G so I did some field testing with free WiFi around Yung Shue Wan. It worked better than I thought with about a 30 second delay for video to stream and start playing but amazingly it streamed and converted .mkv 720p from an attached USB drive to another computer on my home network which is in turn using half my upload bandwidth with torrents. You need to configure the server to allow connections from the outside world (for home network use, no configuration is required). If you have a UPnP-enabled router, this involves setting an optional password. If not, you’ll need to use port forwarding. To connect when outside, you need to enter a PIN and the app will take care of the rest. The PIN saves you the hassle of noting down your IP address.

Needless to say I was very impressed. Air Video costs just $3, and there is a full-featured free version that shows only a subsection of the movies in each folder. The internet streaming seems amazing, but the real magic is in the live conversion. I can now see a use for an iPad!

Probably like me many of you don’t like the way Facebook presents your homepage and fills it full of unwanted information. I’ve just discovered some plugins that enable you to have some control over the information you receive.

First off is Facebook Purity. It removes all the annoying quiz messages and other silly application spam from your Facebook homepage, leaving behind just the standard Facebook apps such as status updates, wall posts, links, notes, photos, etc. If you feel happy with messing around with scripts you can customize it also.

Secondly is Facebook Fixer which enables bigger profile pictures and photos, easier viewing of albums, links to download videos, showing people’s age and sign, google calendar integration, bookmarks, keyboard shortcuts & more.

Thirdly is Unfriend Finder which allows you to know who’s  removed you on Facebook.

To use these scripts with Safari you must download and install SIMBL. However I must warn you that SIMBL plugins are not supported by Apple and may well break in updates of Safari. SIMBL does include an uninstaller so don’t be too worried if it breaks.

I have installed these plugins and they appear to work, however do be prepared for them to break as Facebook doesn’t like people messing around with their pages. If you check the links you can install similiar solutions for other browsers such as Firefox or Chrome and other platforms (Windows and Linux).

I’m not sure if this is in the manual, which I guess nobody reads anyway, but if you hold any letter key that potentially has a modifier such as an accent, a pop-up list of available options appears.

As you can see, I’ve added my first sponsored ad to this blog for a new MacBook at the Apple Store. Please use this link to buy anything at the Apple Store as I will earn a princely 1% commission as an affiliate on items purchased through this link which will help pay my running costs for this blog which I hope you will all find as a useful resource over time. Please also take time to check out my Forums from time to time as I will endeavour to answer your questions there as well.

Oh, and by the way I’ve switched my theme to zSofa which is really clean and crisp – just a shame it isn’t on the iPhone.

Installation went very smoothly on GoDaddy hosting. Now I need to find a style. Any suggestions anyone? I’ve added Akismet for spam. Now I guess I just need to start writing!