JeffreyGriffin.com

If you do not yet have a Windows Home Server you need one. Why, you ask? Simple, because it does almost everything you might need in a home environment, it runs automated backups, acts as a central place to store all your digital media and even acts as a print server. It is headless (no monitor) so it can be put about anywhere and the amount of storage is unlimited, simply pop in another internal or external hard drive.

What is that you say? You are already running Small Business Server on your network? Great, me too. WHS integrates seamlessly with SBS and can even be used to back up the SBS server. If you are like me and use Media Center Extenders it is a better place to store your media than the SBS machine because then your Extenders can access the media seamlessly.

You can buy one direct from HP or build one from an old machine.

So… When are you going to start running Windows Home Server on your network?

Here is a writeup about installing my old Diamond Hex speakers in the CL. I could not find much info on what would fit so I decided to wing it and it turned out ok. For those that are interested these are the old Eton made first generation 6.5″ (Really closer to 7 as they are over-sized) speakers with the silk tweeters. 

 I first followed the instructions at http://www.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=335272 to remove the door panels. 

Next I had to run the wires through the grommet into the door. This was a real pain because I was running two 14 gauge wires, one for the tweeter and one for the mid. I pulled the grommet out of the door and the body first and then taped the wires to a short piece of clothes hanger wire that I had rolled over on one end so as not to puncture the grommet. I then used some Vaseline to lube the coat hanger and the wires. After about 15 minutes of pure hell per door the wires were finally through and could be pulled through into the door. 

The next challenge was to run the wires through the body into the car. This is a pain because there is so much electronics stuffed under the dash and also the fact that the hole where the grommet meets up with the body does not meet up with where the wires eventually feed into the car. You will need to try and angle the wires toward the rear of the car while pushing them through the hole where the grommet meets the body and then hope your hand is small enough to reach around all the electronics and find the wires. 

Once the wires had been pulled into the car, the grommets reattached and the wires ran along the passenger side to the trunk it was time to fit the speakers. Id wanted a stock look so I decided to mount the mids in the stock location in the door and the tweeters in the stock location in the sail panels. To properly fit the mids I had to cut out some of the sheet-metal where the stock speaker was, I was lucky in that I was able to cut enough metal but still leave the three places where the stock speaker was mounted so it could be put back in at a later date if needed. Below is a picture of the metal that was cut out. 

I then made spacers out of 3/4″ MDF that allowed the speaker magnet to clear the window glass but did not interfere with the door panels. I drilled 4 holes in the MDF spacer for self tapping sheet-metal screws and then tapered the holes a bit so the screws would be flush with the MDF when installed so as not to interfere with the speaker mounting. I used some short wood screws to mount the speaker to the spacers. 

For the tweeters I had to dremmel out a larger hole in the sail panel and also dremmel out some of the plastic on behind the fabric cover piece for clearance. 

The finished product looks stock and sounds much better. Up next mounting the amps and building the sub enclosure. 

My speakers for the Billiards Room finally arrived so I figured I would do a write up about installing them. I had previously installed in-walls in the living room for a surround sound setup so I knew what would be involved in this project. 

First I already had wired jacks into the wall for the TV, CAT5 and RCA’s to run to a receiver so that portion was already good to go. The way this will run is that I am using an Xbox as a Media Center Extender and the audio out from it will run to a receiver in the closet to be amplified and sent to the speakers. 

Next I had to position the templates for the holes to be cut for the speakers and draw around them.

I cut out the holes using an air saw (Highly recommended, very maneuverable and lightweight).

The next hurdle was that I wanted to build BackBoxes to improve the sound of the speakers. Without them they would have been in an infinite baffle arrangement with their rear’s to the Attic, this is not ideal for sound reproduction. I used 3/4″ MDF and some 2x2s to make end pieces that fit between the studs above and below where the speaker cutouts were, I attached these by screwing through the 2×2 in the the studs. I then cut out more 3/4′ MDF to form the rear of the box and screwed this into the end pieces and the studs.

After this I moved over to the closet where I would be installing the receiver to power the speakers. In here I needed to install a power outlet and a plate to hold the speaker terminals and the RCA’s coming from the TV in the Billiards Room.

With the receiver and RCA’s wired up and speaker wire ran it was now time to install the speakers. Before I installed them in the wall I stuffed the boxes I had made with acoustic stuffing to improve the sound.

Now all that was left to do was mount the speakers and enjoy! All and all this was a fairly easy project but one that required some time and planning.

Have you been wondering why the print screen button stopped working? Add this key and you should have it back.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media
Center\Service\Video

Value: EnablePrintScreen
Type: DWord (32 bit)
Contents: 0x00000001

BE AWARE THAT THIS SEEMS TO BREAK HIGH DEF!!! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

 Is this the new face of search engines? I kind of like the concept and am interested to see what this grows into.

http://msdewey.com/

I was having no luck installing using the DVD, each time I could start the installer and select to install Visual Studio but then the installer would disappear and nothing would happen.

As it turns out the solution was to copy the CD to a folder on the hard drive and install from there. Don’t know why but now it works.

If you are like me and have been wanting more options in the MCE SDK it appears your requests have been answered. The new SDK for Diamond (MCE in the vista timeframe) which is available on MSDN now offers developers the chance to leverage the same rendering that MCE itself uses. Check out the sandbox for more info.

http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/PermaLink,guid,817c2b05-2a9e-47ac-80c9-1c4db5b26c18.aspx

It looks like digital cable withouth a cable box is almost here. ATI’s OCUR was demonstrated at this years CES show working with MCE. I am a DirecTV guy myself (I refuse to have anything to do with Comcast) but for others this will be the end all be all of tuners. Now where is my DirecTV tuner….

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2662&p=2

Looks like some really cool things are coming down the pike. Cable Card support, new SKY stuff as well as a whole lot more. Check it out at the link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

But then again if you are reading this you already know that. Still working on migrating / recovering things from the old site (stupid harddrive errors) but other than that things are coming along nicely.