For a long time I had resisted converting my DVD and Blu-Ray disks into any other format because I didn't want to lose any quality.  I had lived by this rule for a long time, and thankfully companies like QNAP and Thecus came to my storage rescue.  However, the day has come where the cost of storing all the extra garbage that comes along with these movies has opened my eyes to benefits conversions.  With that, I have began converting my movie collection to a format that allows me to lose all the excess fat, but keep my movie loss-less.

With the conversion to MKV, a new dilemma has plagued my media canter, Windows Media Center in Windows 7 does not natively support recognizing or playing back videos in this format.  Luckily, there are few things we can do to rectify this issue; allowing us to take advantage of the format and still maintain all the functionality we have been used to from WMC.

Step 1.  Installing a codec pack. 

There has been much debate about codec packs and having them on your system, however, I have not found any other way to get things working properly without them.  Some are of the opinion that FFDShow (Tryouts) will be all that you need to get things working, however, in my home, this simply has not worked very well.  Lately, I have been using Shark007 on all my HTPC's and I am not disappointed in the least.

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I can better be classified as more of a PlayStation fan than an XBOX 360 fan, mainly because I don't like to pay to play.  However, there are still some things that makes the XBOX an integral part of my entertainment center.  Firstly, its application list and UI is more attractive and user friendly than that of the PlayStation 3.  The unfortunate part of the XBOX's strengths is that it requires Gold membership.  Well, thankfully, Microsoft has loosened its reigns and plans on giving the "rest" of us some candy.

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The New iPad

The new iPad offers high improvements that individuals can take advantage of, but whether they really need such improvements is another topic altogether. The new iPad offers an important element, better pixels that keeps it at the top today, as compared to the iPad 2 or any other tablet available in the market.

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There is no doubt that the HTPC enthusiast has some options when looking for a chassis to fill the void in their entertainment center.  It seems like so many of the options are either too small, too big, to ugly, or too expensive.  With that in mind, SilverStone has stepped up their game.  SilverStone is no slouch when it comes to manufacturing high quality computer components and with the introduction of the GD06, the company is trying to shake up the HTPC chassis market a bit.

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Are you annoyed with having your 18 hour WOW sessions interrupted because you have to go to school or to work? Worry not, the fine developer known as Jean-Sebastien Royer has your solution. That is if you’re willing to drop $5.04. This is a remote desktop app that’s made to do one thing and one thing only, play PC games. At this moment the app does have its bugs and if you go into your purchase knowing that, then I think you’ll be fine. Even at this stage it’s an impressive app with a whole laundry list of features and is highly customizable.  Hopefully that will get enough initial support to allow/motivate the developer to improve on the app and correct the issues people are having, like not truly supporting tablets and other small issues like that.

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If our readers are anything like me, they like to keep their devices up to date with the latest firmware.  Typically, this is either to fix some bugs that have been found or to introduce some new features to a product.  With that said, it is also normal for a company to distribute a changelog which indicates either what changes have been made or what features have been added.

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Personally, I am sick and tired of the United States government meddling more and more in our lives.  The movie and music industry is using our elected officials like puppets (muppets) and we are sitting idly by and letting it happen.  Well, I signed the petition, and my voice will be heard next election.  G.R.I.P. - Get Rid of Incumbent Politicians.  If we really want to make changes, we have to get those that pander to big business out of office and let them know that we have the power to do it.  After all, they are there to represent us...

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QNAP has limited the amount of resources dedicated to their NAS lineup when rebuilding a RAID array or performing rsync backups.  The decision here was to limit the amount of impact these types of processes have on your system in order to maintain an acceptable level of responsiveness.  This is very considerate of QNAP, however, I prefer a bit more control over my system and would like these processes to complete faster; well-knowing I will be sacrificing system responsiveness.
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Many of us are struggling to get a grip on our financial lives.  A lot of us don't know which accounts have what in them, what bills are due on what days, or what credit cards have the highest balances.  Getting a grip on your financial life doesn't have to be a strain.  There are utilities out there that can provide you real time information about your financial picture without having to worry about waiting for statements or miscalculating something in a spreadsheet.  The best part about all of this is that these two utilities I am going to introduce to you today is that they are completely free.

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Personally, I have never really been a fan of Apple products.  That doesn't mean they don't have their place in the world, it just means they aren't for me.  However, when one of the most influential people in technology passes, we ALL mourn the loss.  Whether we are PC, Mac, Linux, etc, we can all recognize and appreciate what Steve Jobs has done in our industry.  Steve, this one's for you...

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