You changed the world, made it a better place and inspired others to do the same. R.I.P.

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However, when my old standard-definition TV was dying, I wanted to upgrade to a new, shiny LCD TV, and so I did. Back then, it didn’t matter as much, as HD content really wasn’t that popular yet, and the display of SD content on the TV was rather acceptable.

Now, some years later, I recently had a small batch of money, and therefore decided to retire the, now old, LG 32″ TV, and get a brand-sparkling-new 47″ LED version instead. Now doing that was one thing, but I really wanted to upgrade my mediacenter as well. My initial thought, being the Apple-fanboy that I am, was to get a Mac Mini, and hack that like a madman. However, I knew that the advancements within “nettops” (Small desktop computers based on the lowpower netbook cpu’s) meant that you could get a similar sized PC at half the price of the Mini (And using less power too, something quite important in these global warming times ;) ).

Anyway, these were the primary requirements for my new system:

Should be able to handle most formats
Should be able to handle full-HD playback
Should be able to stream from the NAS in the home office without lag
Should be easy to manage

So, I ended up getting a AsRock ION 330HT , a model very popular among XBMC fans. It’s small, uses the Nvidia ION platform (capable of running full-HD without straining the CPU), has HDMI out, has eSATA, 6 USB ports and even a VGA port if you’re using an old screen for the initial setup. Oh, and it has built-in IR-receiver and a remote to go along with it, so you don’t need an external (read: Ugly) receiver!

There’s a lot of different setups outthere, and other producers are becoming as popular as the AsRock. Shuttle has new models coming out at the moment, Acer etc. are also in the race for the living room with smaller, more friendly devices (No more large PC enclosures in the living room, along with fan noise, woohoo!), so better alternatives might already be available. I just suggest having a look at the XBMC Forum before buying anything.

The initial setup

This took me some trial and error, but it will be worth it in the end, as the final system works excellently. Don’t expect everything to work after 5 mins. though, so if you have no patience, or dislike reading and/or troubleshooting, doing this setup may not be for you.

Anyway: First up, get a minimal version of Ubuntu 32 or 64 bit. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD should provide you with download links. You’d want Karmic Koala, as that’s suggested as the most stable atm, when running XBMC. To not have to use a CD for the minimal install (It’s only 12MB), I use UNetbootin to create a bootable USB drive.

Now boot the machine from the USB key, and run through the Ubuntu install. You’d probably want to partition your main drive with one of the default setups, that create 3 partitions (root, home and swap). This is an advantage, as it allows you to store all your media within /home and not have it deleted if/when you reinstall your HTPC.
Furthermore, when the installer asks you to select packages to install, you’d want to select the “Basic Ubuntu Server” and “OpenSSH Server”, to install only the basics, and allow for SSH access to the machine later on (Makes maintenance somewhat easier when the machine is finally located below your TV).
Finally, create a user named “xbmc”. This user will run the actual software, own all the mediafiles etc.

Installing the basics

Assuming you’ve finished the Ubuntu setup, log on as root (using the password you setup in the initial install), and do the following:

[shell]visudo[/shell]

Now after the line containing “root”, add the following:

[shell]xbmc ALL=(ALL) ALL[/shell]

This allows the xbmc user to use the sudo command for all commands. Now logout of the root account, and log in as xbmc. Here’s the fun part: A couple of XBMC users has decided to gather all of the guides, howtos etc. in one simple installer, that simply allows you to run their installer instead of having to install XBMC, graphic drivers etc. manually.

I use this to setup my AsRock box, as it’s able to fix graphic drivers and HD acceleration, setup my remote, setup audio over HDMI, setup XBMC and make everything boot up when starting the machine, without having to manually change anything. Simply put, when the basic system is installed and this script is run, XBMC should just be ready to take on everything you throw at it.

Anyway, to run the installer, type the following as the xbmc user:

[shell]wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/xci/files/Release/xci.sh/download
chmod +x xci.sh; sudo ./xci.sh[/shell]

And follow the onscreen instructions, to install XBMC stable and whatever you may need. Now you should be done! To get mediafiles onto your new mediacenter, try SFTP’ing a couple of files over to test. In the longer run you may want to setup Samba shares or setup NFS on the machine, to make it easier, but that’s a story for another day ;)

Let’s start at the beginning: Getting Things Done is a way of improving productivity. It’s a way of organizing your life, it’s a way of optimizing your day-to-day life and it’s a way to combat stress. This might sound like just yet another scheme to steal money, but it’s not really. The only thing you have to invest in, is the book, and from there on, the implementation of GTD in you life depends on what you make of it.

GTD has had quite a lot of success during the last couple of years, and is in general very popular among especially developers, as it has a very structured approach to projectmanagement, and life in general.

The concepts of GTD

The primary concept of GTD, handles the way we perceive tasks. Usually, a lot of people have things written down on post-its, taking the tasks one by one in no particular order. Usually this means a lot of clutter, or “stuff” as it’s called in GTD.

GTD puts focus on a couple of things to remove stuff, both from our desks and our consciousness, by splitting every project into atomic “bits” representing every single, physical action required for the project to be completed.

The Inbox

The inbox is the source of organizing. Everything goes inhere, just like a mail inbox. The inbox is where you write everything down, ideas, notes, todos, projects etc. The inbox is sorted regularly, taking care of smaller tasks right away, while larger projects are split into single, physical actions described later in this post.

An important note about the inbox, is that a large part of GTD is having the discipline to clean this up, or review it. This is for a lot of people handled on a daily basis, and a more advanced weekly or monthly basis. This is also the largest weak spot of GTD, as it requires a steady discipline to maintain the order of organizing everything regularly, and avoid having a large inbox.

Actions

Actions are the atomic bits and pieces of GTD. Actions define every physical action you have to take to complete the project at hand. Actions make up projects, and inorder to finish a project, one must complete every action within. This could be “Call Jack Bauer about nuclear device”, “Gather information on Ruby development”, “E-mail John from IT about server specs, remember to CC Jack”.

Contexts

Contexts are defined by the surroundings you are currently in. This is a way of organizing actions that can only be fixed while being “at the computer”, “at the office”, “on the phone” or even “In Brazil”. Context are used to group all actions, based on location or the tools at hand, and provides you with a simple list of “Things you’re able to do right now”. This means a context might hold 10 actions for 4 different projects, meaning you’ll be able to focus on what’s actually achievable from your current location, with the current tools.

More reading

As this is a very brief introduction into the world of GTD, which will probably be expanded into more advanced articles later on, I would recommend reading more about GTD, and some general concepts of increasing productivity without adding stress. Here’s a few of my favourite books and sites about GTD.

David Allen – Getting Things Done
43 Folders
What is GTD ?

Back in 1999, I purchased my very first domain. It was called highonpixels.dk , and acted as my personal playground at the time. During the first couple of years, I focused a lot on webdesign and usability, and the website was my first adventures into creating webpages. Alot has happened since then, I’ve matured, gotten a couple of different jobs, and over the years my website faded into the background.

I rarely had the time to update the site, my friends started poking me for more content and new layouts etc., but in the end I just didn’t have the drive for updating a website anymore. Working as a webdeveloper on a fulltime-basis for clients will do that to you, trust me ;)

So what changed ? Well, during the last year or so, I’ve regained a lot of the enthusiasm regarding the web, and the technologies surrounding it. Another thing that has happened, is that I just recently acquired this domain. For the last couple of years it’s been occupied by another danish guy with the same name, and I’ve tried to capture it a couple of times without success. However, in December 2008, magic happened. The domain was released, and I put a couple of hosting-companies on the case of capturing it for me, which happened around Christmas (yay, best christmaspresent for myself ever!).

One of the things I’ve had a lot of advantages from online, has been technical guides. Everything from setting up virtualhosts on a Mac, over learning BASH-scripting to hacking my Xbox to allow it to be a multimedia-player. All of these experiences has helped me a lot, but sometimes I see myself googling for the same themes over and over again. And everytime I need a guide I have to find it again, and hope the site I’m looking for is still available. Initially I thought about running my own Wiki for the guides that I need, but I figure someone else could probably benefit from my mistakes and experiences.

So I’ve decided to launch a blog-like site with those exact subjects. The site will contain guides for most of everything I come into contact with. Expect guides involving Linux/Unix/Mac maintenance, Javascript, MySQL, PHP architecture and development patterns, as well as my personal thoughts, ideas and tips.

Anyway, welcome once more, I will try to make your stay as pleasant as possible.