With Apple’s recent Mac Mini update, I was finally able to start my new media center setup. With 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD, it has been able to handle whatever meager tasks I have given it. I set up the web server (Apache with PHP5) with a small web application I’ve been working on. Currently, I can interact with my Transmission BitTorrent client, alter my network settings, and view a live webcam stream (via EvoCam).
I set up a sensor in EvoCam to detect motion in one section that acts like an additional security system. If a “Motion-On” file exists in my Dropbox folder, it captures a snapshot. If a “Twitter-On” file exists, it sends a tweet to my home’s Twitter account with a link to the image. If a “Voice-On” file exists, it says “Motion Detected! The owner has been notified. If you are an unauthorized visitor, please leave immediately.” I need to tweak that script a little so that I can turn the options on/off via the web interface (maybe have the AppleScript read settings from a file updated through PHP?). I’d like to find some software to split my webcam video so that I can use the feed with multiple applications. Anybody know a good one?
I’ve been running the latest Boxee alpha version. I’m very disappointed with how Hulu has been trying to block Boxee users. I love the Hulu service and I am more than willing to sit through the same 15-30-second commercial breaks, but I want to do it through a full-screen 10-ft interface that doesn’t require a mouse for interaction. As far as Boxee goes, I’m not all that impressed. It’s a great way to view web video content, but its main focus is still on home media. It takes several steps to navigate to web video and the “home” screen is near-useless displaying recently-viewed videos, recently-added media, friend recommendations, and friend activity. The social aspect of Boxee is nice, but I usually watch videos so that I can turn my brain off and unless there was some kind of instant-messenger built-in that allowed me to chat while I was watching videos, I really don’t care what everybody else is watching. The iTunes integration works fine for music, but isn’t great for videos. Plus, since I have iTunes on my laptop set to sync my iPod and iPhone and you can’t share an iTunes library on multiple machines, it doesn’t make sense to keep videos in two places. If I could sync music from my laptop and videos from the Mac Mini onto the same device, I would do that. The latest alpha has been crashing Finder, which is very annoying, too.
I haven’t plunged into the home automation project yet. Indigo and an Insteon starter kit is like $400. While that would be very cool in the future, it’s unnecessary right now. I’d really like to set the outside lights on a schedule and hook up the webcam motion sensor to a light. Plus, I’d like to integrate it all with my web interface. Maybe someday.
I’ve found I could really use are a web browser with a 10-ft mouse-less interface. I use Firefox now and sync bookmarks, passwords, etc. with 5 computers using the XMarks extension. The problem with using it on my 50-inch DLP at 720p resolution is that the pages are not easily readable from 10-12 feet. I have to zoom the page, which can make them unreadable sometimes. I’m not sure about a good way to browse using a remote without moving from link to link. I think this might be my next research project. Surely there is some extension, userscript, or wrapper for Firefox to make it easier to use with a remote. Anybody know of something?
