Long Story Short

First ReadItLater morphs into Pocket, and now Mytvrss morphs into followshows. If you’re not familiar with mytvrss, it is a simple service that gives you notice in an RSS feed when your new shows are airing. Every day it gives me an update of shows I’m following in Google Reader. You could follow it in whatever reader works for you.

To try it, follow the link to mytvrss here, and then go to the top of the page and click on the ‘RSS feeds’ link you find there.  They give simple directions for creating a feed consisting only of the shows you watch.  Once you check the shows you want to follow, scroll to the bottom and click on ‘>Create feed’.  Now go up to the url and copy the id.

Next bop on over to followshows.com and sign on up.  From any screen after you sign up, go to the drop down menu with your name and select settings.  Enter your mytvrss id in the box provided and click import.  From now on followshows can provide an rss feed or send you emails whenever a new show is coming on.  The mytvrss people claim the feed from followshows is even prettier than what we’re used to seeing from mytvrss. The main change is that a thumbnail has been added to the feed.

But I like the calendar view, so that is what I bookmarked.  I also like that I can import the calender using the address at the bottom into my Google or Rainlendar or Rainmeter calendars.  The ‘Queue’ lists your shows from the newest to the oldest with a little thumbnail and some episode info.  ’Home’ shows your recent activity.  ’Tracker’ lists the shows you follow in alphabetical order.

It is a little hard to figure out how to delete a show. Go to the followshows show page (not just an episode). There will be a button that says ‘Following’ or ‘Follow’. If you hover over the ‘Following’ button it becomes ‘Unfollow’. Click ‘Unfollow’ to remove the show from your feed. I prefer the selection page at mytvrss and hope followshows will improve this on their site.

Other than that, the interface is very straightforward. It reminds me of Clicker in that regard. However, it is extremely slow to respond. [UPDATE: I returned to their site 2012-04-30 and it was snappy. Not sure what happened the first day.] That really is my only gripe about an otherwise excellent free service.

I think I’ll make this my only RSS feed in XBMC.  Then I’ll have a list of new shows scrolling across the home screen when I settle in for some quality time with the boob tube.



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My Evernote bookmarklet is not working today.  So, I fall back on Read It Later to temporarily store some web pages.  Only when I go to the website, I’m redirected to getpocket.com. The website formerly known as Read It Later shall henceforward be known as Pocket. (You know, as in, “I’ll just stick this in my pocket until later.) With the new name, came a new, improved look.  It appears that Read It Later is following on the heels of Pinterest with regard to their new visual layout.  I think their grid (albeit more symmetrical than Pinterest) is a big improvement over the old interface.  So, now, when I’m having trouble with Evernote, I’ll have something a little prettier on which to fall back.  Well, done Read It Later, er, Pocket.

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I tried the Belkin Pro Tri Fold and Photive iPad cases on my new iPad, but the autowake feature didn’t work consistently on either one. Neither these nor the many other covers I’ve seen are nearly as attractive as the Yoobao cover. The top grain leather on the Yoobao cover from Pyrus Electronics is far and away the best material I’ve seen on an iPad cover. It looks and smells like the hunt seat saddles with which I used to ride horses as a kid. However, the feel is much softer. It is a slim case that looks professional and protects the iPad well.

All ports and switches are accessible. The autowake works perfectly every time. Unfortunately, I have to take my iPad out of the case to fit the camera kit onto the iPad. The opening in the leather isn’t quite big enough for that. I would highly recommend this cover. It works like Apple’s smart cover but provides better coverage and looks more professional.

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“Till it’s gone”

After literally years of work, I pretty much had my HTPC configured the way I wanted it. I could watch live TV on Windows 7 Media Center (via a Hauppauge 2250 tuner card) and everything else on XBMC (via Sickbeard/Sabanzbd). So, of course, it was time for something to go wrong.

Not surprisingly, what went wrong was the power supply that came in my hec 7K09 computer case. The power supply was often criticized in reviews and is an odd form factor. That means that I would have to buy another one just like it in order to replace it. They no longer sell the case, but the power supply is still available – for the same price as the case.

And so I have embarked in an entirely new direction with an entirely new case and a new power supply. I’ll stick with my old Asus motherboard and AMD triple core processor. The case I’ve ordered is the Silverstone Grandia GD06B. The fans that come with the case are reputed to be effective and quiet. I like the idea of moving the storage drives I now have in a ProBox into the main computer case. So I’m willing to go a little bigger.  My hec case only allowed up to two drives but it wasn’t practical cable-wise to fit the second one in there.  The place for the optical drive was so low over the mobo that I couldn’t put a normal one in that case either.  Having four drives in the Grandia should be a treat.

As a bonus, I’ve ordered a Samsung Blu Ray drive. I’ll let you know whether I can integrate this in with XBMC.  I hope so, because I’d really like to put my PS3 back downstairs with the Sony Google TV.  (They play so well together.)  I’m hoping this case actually does have room for such a drive.

Now, you’re going to think I cheaped out on the new power supply. I ordered the Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W. A lot of you will say that I should have purchased the Silverstone Strider Plus. The case is limited to a 150 mm PS and either of these would fit. The Strider Plus is modular (you can unplug cables you don’t use from the PS). That would have made cable management easier. The Strider Plus would probably last longer as well. In a computer that is on 24/7, that is a big deal. But what sold me on the Rosewill was all of the reviews claiming how quiet it was. In an HTPC, I have to give that precedence over longevity or convenience.

So, after two and a half years, my HTPC stands ready to be refreshed.  In the meantime, I’m using TWC’s PVR and I feel like have been asked to gather berries and hunt with a club.  I’ve been spoiled by Amazon Prime, but could only get the power supply from Newegg.  It takes them about as long to process an order as it takes Amazon to get things here.  So, I guess I’ll be tapping my foot anxiously for a few days and leaning on the cable box for entertainment.
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