mgroves

So, I bought myself a MyBook World 1TB network hard drive for Christmas. I was hoping that my Xbox 360 would "just see it" on the network, and I could stick all my videos and stuff on there via my laptop, or other computer.

I was wrong on both counts.

First, no matter what I did, I couldn't get my Xbox 360 to see it.

Second, in the process of trying to hack around with it, I made this little NAS drive into a pretty versatile media server.

I found this great little wiki site that's all about hacking the MyBook World. The key? Enabling SSH. Once you have that, you then have full root access to a lightweight linux server right there in the same box. Now, this isn't exactly a powerhouse machine: it's some sort of ARM processor with something like 64mb of memory. But it turns out, you can do a lot with that.

The first step was being able to download and install/build stuff. To do that, I at least needed a compiler. Fortunately, the site above has a very handy zip file containing all I need to copy over a C compiler. Next, I installed a package manager called optware, which is kinda like an apt-get sort of thing, except it's meant to install stuff on embedded systems like NAS drives or routers.

From that point, no more compiling! I next installed ushare via optware, which is a media server. I had to play with the configuration a bit, but now my NAS drive (with a name of my choosing) shows up on Xbox 360! Woo!

But wait, there's more. Oh yes, much more. I also installed Transmission, a bittorrent client with a web interface. I think you see where this is going. My laptop is now no longer involved in any part of this. I can stick torrent files into a "watch" directory, and Transmission picks them up automatically. Of course, I can do this from any computer via SSH, or via the normal network drive share. I even installed Lynx on the NAS, so I can even skip the middleman.

And one last neat trick: I installed Python and pytvshows to automatically poll RSS feeds for shows that I want to watch and download their torrent files in the watch folder, where they get picked up my Transmission. Now it's completely hands-free! Unfortunately, pytvshows is a bit out of date, and ezrss.it doesn't seem very reliable these days. So, after CodeMash, I decided to install Ruby, and write my own torrent grabbing script.

In short, I wouldn't recommend getting this drive, unless you enjoy hacking around with it for endless hours. Fortunately for me, I'm a nerdy coder that's used compilers, linux, etc, before, so I had some idea of what I was doing. For the average Joe, this is a mountain of a task.

I decided to read Pygmalion this weekend, and of course I had Rex Harrison in mind while reading.

So enjoy this video! By the way, I was reading the comments for the video, and I think I agree that Hugh Laurie would make an excellent Henry Higgins, assuming he can sing.

And don't think this has anything to do with my wife being away for a week either.

I find Shakespeare so hard to read, and yet I find his writing so eloquent, beautiful, and well crafted. What am I to do?

Buy some Shakespeare Made Easy books, that's what!

Shakespeare Made Easy is a series of "translations" of Shakespeare into modern English. That alone isn't what I'm looking for--I want to enjoy Shakespeare, not pass a class. What makes these books good, is that the translation is side-by-side with the original English. Which means you can appreciate the craftsmanship of Shakespeare's words while simulataeously understanding what the heck he is saying. Genius!

Here's an example:

Preorder now...

Here's a sneak peek...

Have you seen the trailer for The Dark Knight, the upcoming sequel to Batman Begins?

Here's the original trailer.

Here's the 1966 version.

Here's the 1989 version.

Here's the animated version.

Here's the 1989 version side by side with with the actual trailer.

Looks like a great movie.

Guy Fieri, the host of Food Network shows including (but not limited to, unfortunatly), "Guy's Big Bite" and "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" is a tool, and I hate him.

I shall present my case in this post, and let me assure you that it is a strong case.

• His sunglasses. When indoors, he wears them backwards on his stupid head (see above illustration).
• His hair. It's all bleached and spiky like a main character from a Japanese RPG. It makes me physically ill.
• His "jokes". They aren't really jokes, they are trite statements of boring cliche that even Jay Leno wouldn't chuckle at. They are promptly followed by guffaws from Fieri himself and uncomfortable chortles from whoever he's talking to. "So much salami call my mommy!" Die.
• On "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives", Guy will often sample the food at said establishments. He will take an oversized bite with his disgusting pie-hole, pause for a moment to act like he's some sort of culinary expert, close his eyes while savoring the triple onion burger (or whatever), and then say something like "oh that's good". This sequence makes up 90% of the show.
• Guy's "hip" attitude makes me want to walk outside and punch the first person I see. He wears oversized shorts like a member of the Insane Clown Posse, drives a classic convertible, and says things like "That's what I'm talkin about!" Kill yourself!

If that isn't enough to convince you that he deserves the death penalty, check out his Guy-isms at guyfieri.com:

• Check yourself...
• Everybody in the pool!
• My food's out of bounds...
• This is gonna be money!
• ...never too big a bite!
• "Off the hook!" and "Off the HOOK!"
• It's on like Donkey Kong...
• The real deal Holyfield.
• Laugh 1 (gibbering idiot) and Laugh 2 (slobbering cretin)

I dare you to watch this video clip and not smash your computer screen in twain.

He may be dying of heart disease from all the garbage he's eating, but that's just not fast enough.

Shut your mouth!

Venture Brothers season 3 is coming.

There were some teaser clips shown at Comic Con; you can watch the bootleg footage of it below.

The G.I. Joe parody looks right up the Venture Brothers alley. I'm actually kinda suprised that I haven't seen a good G.I. Joe parody outside the Fensler Films. It just seems ripe for parody.

Someone has been uploading more episodes of MST3K to Google Video recently.

So I thought I'd mention that I'm still updating my list of MST3K episodes online regularly.

If you are looking for a good episode to watch, check out Space Mutiny. It's an awful science fiction action movie featuring a rock stupid chunk faced hero, his senior citizen love interest, and lots of reused footage from the original Battlestar Galactica.

And don't fracking forget it!

There be spoilers below.

Here's a video with a very brief and vague recap of seasons 1 through 3.

Here's where we left off:

Four of the final five skinjobs were revealed, as they all heard the same music that no one else could hear.

Earth is close. Very close.

Starbuck is dead, but she probably isn't really dead.

Remember when I did "Ask Matt" back in October?

Well, it was such a rousing success that I thought I'd try it again.

So go ahead, and ask away. Any question, any question at all. It could be trivial and easy, or it could be metaphysical and difficult.

Here are some topics/questions to avoid of if you expect a good answer:

• My Little Pony
• Politics
• Sentences that end in question marks
• Advice for people 25 and younger
• Questions that are asked in English (or any non-English language)
• Steers
• "Does rockets really work?"
• Advice for people over 25

If you stay clear of those topics, I promise you that I will give you a well-researched, thought provoking answer.