These days every mac has a remote control receiver and Apple has stopped shipping remotes with their machines because admittedly we all already have one by now. There are a few people though that have a Mac perfectly capable of running Front Row but can’t use the Apple Remote with their Mac because it is too old.
I am one of these, as I have an old Mac Mini G4 setup as a media center. I love it because it can play all my movies, even HD, without many problems, but unfortunately I had some remote-trouble recently. As a solution to my initial lack of remote I bought the Keyspan RF Remote, which did the trick of simulating an Apple Remote for a while until the Keyspan remote died. As Keyspan doesn’t sell these anymore and they go for quite a few buck on eBay, I started to look for a different solution.
This is when I found about the Mantra TR1 sold by Twisted Melon which is a simple IR receiver that can work with the standard Apple Remote. These guys at Twisted Melon normally write the remote control software Mira which can be used together with the Mantra TR1, which was in turn created to give those people without a build-in remote control receiver a cheap solution. The Mantra TR1 was just £14.38 including shipping from Australia, so it was a very good deal (better than the Keyspan RF Remote).
Software
I wouldn’t recommend buying the Mantra TR1 together with the Mira software though. The software hasn’t been maintained for a while and is buggy as hell, on both my Mac Mini and my Macbook. Instead I would advise you to go for SofaControl (£9) which is another application that can work with this receiver and does a way better job.
About the Mantra TR1
Finally I thought I’d share with you my opinion of the hardware. The photo on their site is pretty big although the receiver seems to be small. I thought it would therefore be quite bulky but it isn’t. It’s quite cute and small and weighs basically nothing. Reception is pretty good and basically works through my TV as I had it behind my TV for a while and it still worked.
It has a little red light that blinks when it receives a remote signal. This can be quite annoying if you want to keep the receiver in sight but as I said it works fine even out of sight. One of the interesting things though of seeing the light is that I noticed that sometimes it receives my command but doesn’t do anything. I don’t know if this is because of bad reception or not but it is very seldom and not that annoying.
All and all I know have a proper remote for my Mac Mini media center again and that for only £24.
I wanted to investigate the option of having a cheap and easy VPN solution so that I could secure my data when I am on public WiFi. Obviously the real die-hard techies can set up their own VPNs with industry grade tools, or setup a VPN using SSH tunneling, but I didn’t want to spend too much time figuring out all the details. So, I did a quick Google search and found ShareTool.
ShareTool is a very simple application that lets you connect to your home network and enjoy the Bonjour services there (like printing, network file sharing, etc). What they add as an extra is something called “secure browsing” which makes a secure tunnel to your home network and lets you then browse the internet encrypted over this connection. They use a special Firefox profile that they preload for you, and honestly this is really handy for people that just want to browse securely without releasing all their details in plaintext on the public WiFi.
I wanted to do more though than just browsing so I decided to look at how they did this tunneling. I discovered they set up a SOCKS proxy which I decided could be used to divert all traffic through, not just web traffic. So, I set it up and it works. I don’t want to write out all the details so why don’t I just show you (watch on Vimeo for High Definition quality video).
I hope this helped some people use open WiFi a bit more wisely.
Here is what I realized the two quite different companies have in common:
They don’t sell normal “stuff”: B&J might have some basic flavors like “Vanilla like it oughta be”, and Crumpler might sell a few bags that look like an average no-name brand, but in general both brands sell products that stick out because their products are pretty unique and recognizable. Do I only notice this because they both only target very specific crowds?
They give their products weird names: My Crumpler bag is called a “Warm Shower”, my favorite B&J ice cream is called “Half Baked”. Not very normal names and often with a double meaning.
They have an odd sense of humor: Take a quick look at the Crumpler site or the side of a bucket of B&J and you know what I mean. Cows, naked men, funny situations, etc.
Their products are “expensive” but not “luxurious”: The average Crumpler bag and B&J ice cream cost a bit more than their generic counterparts, but somehow they are not about luxury. If you would buy a luxury bag, it would be made of leather, but Crumpler does not sell leather bags. If you would get some Sainsburry’s luxury ice cream, it would probably be served with some special topping, like a cherry or something, and maybe they provide it in a nice “special” crystal-like but still plastic bucket, but B&J ice cream never gets served like that.
So do these companies have something more intrinsic in common than I know of? Please tell me, I want to know.
I have been restoring some old photos for my family recently and discovered I’m “pretty good” at it. Today I fixed an old photo of my grandparents from Italy, taken in 1941. The photo was heavily damaged, had so called “photo paper texture” and was striped by either light or something else.
After less than half an hour of editing I had version 1, which I threw away and quickly redid a version 2 in a few minutes which can be seen below together with the original.
I think it all worked out pretty well but wanted to challenge myself, so I decided to try and colorize the photo. This is what I ended up with.
Admittedly not my best work but we need to make mistakes to learn. I might recolorize it somewhere in the future, but as my mom as happy with the results I might not bother for a while.
Lenses For Hire - Finally found a UK Lens-hire shop. Doesn't stock the lens I want though, and the shipment is quite expensive. Does anyone know one in London?
