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Mounting SMB Media on AppleTV

We’ve been using XBMC to view movies and videos on our first generation AppleTV for a while, but it has always been a pain to manually copy (via scp) the files to the AppleTV and then remove them once they’ve been watched because the disk space is limited.

So I finally got around to setting up an SMB share on our big media center Mac Mini and mounting that to both AppleTV units.

AwkwardTV is an amazingly useful wiki site with lots of AppleTV hacks and how-to pages, I cannot recommend it enough. Visit wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/ and learn all about the inner workings of your AppleTV. In particular the page on SMBFS mounting is most useful.

You’ll need to organize all your Movies, TV Shows, and Videos into a Folder on you media server; then share those folders via System Preferences/Sharing. Note that the name of the folder you are sharing becomes the name of the Volume you will mount in NitoTV on your AppleTV.

Your first generation AppleTV needs to already have ssh enabled (probably via a PatchStick hack. That also installs XBMC, Boxee, and NitoTV. You will also need to fetch the MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg from Apple. Copy MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg into AppleTV’s ~/Documents folder…

scp MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg frontrow@appletv.local:/Users/frontrow/Documents
sudo mount -uw /
sudo -s
SOURCE='/Users/frontrow/Documents'
hdid /$SOURCE/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.dmg
cd /
pax -r -z -f /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ 10.4.9\ Combined\ Update\ \(Intel\)/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.9Intel.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz \
'./System/Library/Extensions/smbfs.kext' \
'./sbin/mount_smbfs' \
'./sbin/mount_nfs'
umount /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ 10.4.9\ Combined\ Update\ \(Intel\)/
exit
sudo chmod +s /sbin/mount_smbfs /sbin/mount_afp
sudo mount -ur /
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/smbfs.kext

I could not get manual mounts to work from the command line, but the Network Mounts in NitoTV worked just fine and that makes it easy to start from the FrontRow menus with an ordinary remote.

Use your remote to go into NitoTV on your AppleTV, Network menu, Add a Custom Mount; an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad with Remote or Remote HD software will make this much easier as there is a lot of text to type into the options for the mount point.

It really helps to be able to grab the XBMC sources.xml file and the NitoTV mounts.plist files to your Mac terminal or PC with Putty, edit them in a decent text editor, then copy them back later.

scp frontrow@appletv.local:/Users/frontrow/Library/Application\\\ Support/XBMC/userdata/sources.xml .
scp frontrow@appletv.local:/Users/frontrow/Library/Application\\\ Support/nito/mounts.plist .

Now you can edit them in your favorite editor; be sure it saves them as plain ASCII text (not as an RTF file). When done, put the modified files back on your AppleTV:

scp mounts.plist frontrow@appletv.local:/Users/frontrow/Library/Application\\\ Support/nito/
scp sources.xml frontrow@appletv.local:/Users/frontrow/Library/Application\\\ Support/XBMC/userdata/

You will have to restart XBMC and NitoTV on your AppleTV to see the changes, but now mounting the remote share and then browsing your server’s media in XBMC are easy to do. Enjoy.

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2011 01 31 snolan Fun
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An Ounce of Preparedness is Valuable

An old habit I have from being stationed in Northern Japan and finishing school in Upstate New York is that from October through March my car has permanently living in it:

  • a short handled snow shovel
  • a wind-up or shake-charged flashlight/radio
  • a heavy blanket
  • a beach towel
  • a bag of mulch, or top-soil, or sand
  • dry gloves, scarf, and knit cap

When the weather says a storm is coming, I frequently add a long handled snow shovel and snow boots.

I rarely get to use any of them, but that is just using the power of Murphy in my favor. When I do need them, they are handy and where I need them. Last night would have been immeasurably better if just 10% of the cars on the road had similar equipment stowed in them.

I know I need a generator now, as we are getting more and more heavy snows and ice storms with warmer winters… You know you need to stick those things in your car now.

If you can afford it, switch from those Z rated, low-profile, high-performance racing tires and rims every winter for cheap, repairable, steel wheels and all-season tires. I passed a lot of fancy cars immobilized by just having street legal racing slicks instead of proper tires for winter driving. Heck, if you can’t afford the second set of wheels and tires, you should not probably have the racing gear on your car at all… but that is just my opinion. In some ways it’s a shame that manufacturers and dealers started including the slick racing gear as standard equipment… too many people don’t even think about it anymore.

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2011 01 28 snolan Cars Comments (0) Permalink

I am massively relieved that power is back on…

This morning I went by the house to check on things and feed the cats and found that the power was back on at the house; and that by some miracle I do not fully understand most of our treasured marine aquarium livestock appears to have survived! We also still have some propane though the fireplaces have been running non-stop since Wednesday night. Cats and water pipes are fine, hot-tub is fine, freezers remained frozen…

I am in shock and disbelief that we survived that long without power so well. I hope everyone else does too.

I have to say huge thanks to the power restoration crews and road clearing crews. In the face of natural calamity (salt washing rain followed by sleet and then several inches of heavy wet sticky snow all in only a few hours), and with that compounded by massive plow-blocking traffic jams of epic proportions; they have done a remarkable job of getting the roads passable quickly, then clearing roads so power repair crews could get to down lines, then working on subdivisions (which continues).

Something should be done about not super-saturating the roads all at once with so much traffic, but frankly that could not have been foreseen, at least not on the scale we encountered. The heavy snow taking down overhead lines is something that can only be fixed by re-running those lines underground, which is expensive; but we really need to do it because warmer winters with more wet/sticky snow and ice will be more frequent going forward.

The Prius was a champ, I was able to slowly drive past trucks, cars, and even large snow plows that had no traction at all in the worst of the storm. I did bottom out on Mountain Road where the snow was deep enough that I could not clear the piles, but was able to back up for a mile using the backup camera (following my own tire tracks back out) to try an alternate route. I got stuck 150′ from the driveway and used the snow blower to clear a path to the driveway, getting my car off the street just in time for the plow to come through!

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2011 01 28 snolan Aquariums
Environment
House
Local
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Anger and Civic Responsibility

Twenty years ago today, was the angriest I remember being in my entire life. I was at a friend’s house going over SCA heraldic arms submissions with a friend and our host, when our host’s wife shouted down (we were in the basement) to turn on the news. All channels were broadcasting that the United States was at war, and that Desert Shield had become Desert Storm. I watched for a bit, called my boss to report in because I was active-duty Air Force at the time, received word that my unit was not officially involved and to report for work as normal the next day, and then continued to watch the news.

We neglected our heraldic review session.

I grew angrier and angrier as President George Herbert Walker Bush announced he was committing United States forces to battle and completely side-step and dance around the specific reasons why he was putting lives on the line. I did not disagree with the war at the time, but I thought it was shameful and irresponsible to commit to death without explaining why: clearly, succinctly, and without reservation. Bush put himself in the same hall of shame for me that day as President Lyndon Johnson, who abandoned U.S. troops already engaged in a war that he was very largely responsible for.

I am sad that nothing in the US News is marking this anniversary, as it clearly changed the world like very few other events. Warfare itself is vastly different as a result of the 1991 Gulf War, and our military-industrial complex has been on a very different footing since then. What civic responsibility does a general or president have when committing lives to battle? There are no easy answers.

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2011 01 18 snolan Foreign Policy
News
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Computer Security and Global Security, Windows Virus?

There are some very interesting developments in the news regarding the Stuxnet virus. I confess that I mostly ignored this virus, like most computer viruses, when it came out as it appeared to impact only computers running the Windows operating system. It turns out I was wrong, it actually uses Windows to spread itself, but targets industrial equipment, specifically the industrial equipment used in state-run nuclear centrifuges.

It is now looking more and more like this specific computer virus was a kind of software warfare deliberately designed to sabotage a nuclear program in Iran. This has big ramifications for computer security and global security and needs to be read and understood by everyone with a computer, not just computer security geeks.

Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay (NT Times)

Update: VanityFair has a new, easier to read story about the Stuxnet virus and cuber-warfare:
A Declaration of Cyber-War

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2011 01 17 snolan Computer Security
Computers
Foreign Policy
News
Windows Comments (0) Permalink

Verizon vs AT&T iPhone

CNet has a pretty good chart of AT&T vs Verizon iPhone:

http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20028154-85.html

Of course they are not mentioning that 3G on AT&T is much faster than CDMA on Verizon, but phone coverage is much better on Verizon CDMA than it is on AT&T 3G.

It comes down to mobile hot-spot vs data during a call; unless you can’t stand one of the two carriers.

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2011 01 11 snolan News Comments (2) Permalink

Violent Political Rhetoric

Mark says this far better than I can, there is no balance in violent political rhetoric… It’s nearly all coming from the Republicans and their political allies.

Violent Political Rhetoric? Look Right.

2011 01 11 snolan Blogging
News
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Yuletide Ball was Fantastic Fun

Erci and I attended Yuletide Ball Championships with our teachers from The Ballroom, Darryl Adams and Michele Kearney. The championship is typically 3-4 days of competitive dancing and showcase exhibitions. There is also always a New Year’s Eve Gala Ball, which we attended with Ann Marlow and Dan Van Bey. The Gala is always lots of fun, and it tends to be a ballroom dancer reunion of people who have danced together occasionally for years and years. We especially enjoyed the before and after parties with friends in the hotel.

If you like ballroom dance at all, I highly recommend this relaxed, fun, and affordable event. Put it on your calendar for next year. It looks like New Year’s Eve is on a Saturday in 2011, the championship could be before the Gala Ball on Thursday – Saturday, or after Sunday through Monday.

I hope you all rang in the new year with similar joy and fun. Happy new year!

2011 01 02 snolan Dance
Fun
Holidays
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Very happy I disabled Adobe/Macromedia Flash on my Macs

A few weeks ago I decided to disable Adobe/Macromedia Flash on all my Macintosh computers. I am here to tell you I do NOT regret it at all, and now recommend it highly.

Flash was an extremely useful extension for many years; it made it possible to view videos on the web without specialized software or downloading the video file and playing it in your own media player. It also allowed some very interactive content (much like Javascript).

Sadly, like many good things, it has been horribly abused. The very same features that improve interactivity also make it extremely vulnerable to exploitation my malicious programmers. The same features that let it play videos in your browser, also means that Flash has to burn a lot of processor cycles, memory, and battery power.

HTML5 makes Flash unnecessary by duplicating it’s video and interactivity features in a standards compliant and open to scrutiny way. HTML5 is also optimized to run in very little memory and require very few resources. Most importantly, HTML5 videos close all needed resources once the video is done (freeing your computer up to do other things).

When I ran across John Gruber’s instructions for how to disable Flash, but have it when I needed it occasionally, I decided to try it out.

Going Flash-Free on Mac OS X, and How to Cheat When You Need It

On Mac OS X, the three main browsers (Firefix, Safari, and Camino) all share the same OS based Flash infrastructure. By simply moving that aside, all three browsers no longer have access to Flash at all (you also have to move aside ClickToFlash extension if you have been using that to filter your Flash; which was my previous recommendation).

I can still watch YouTube videos by using Safari and setting the Develop/User Agent menu to “Mobile Safari 3.2.2 – iPad” (that forces YouTube to send HTML5 video as it makes YouTube think you are on an iPad and cannot even download Flash player to install on your Mac).

For the few work related Flash interactivity needs I have, I also downloaded the Google Chrome browser which has it’s own Flash player functionality not built into the OS (this is important, as whenever Flash starts hogging your computer, you can simply quit Chrome and end all Flash activity).

The benefits have been unbelievable!
My battery life on my laptop is very nearly DOUBLED!!!!

Allow me to repeat that. My laptops now enjoy nearly 10 hours of battery life for normal use by me (previously I was getting 4.5 – 5.5 hours). Yes – DOUBLED!

I am no longer sharing CPU resources and memory with dozens of badly coded Flash objects that would hang around even after I shutdown Firefox or Safari; so my laptop seems faster.

I am no longer vulnerable to Flash cookie tracking, nor a dozen well know Flash security hacks.

I am thrilled to recommend that you all turn off Flash for good and enjoy your laptop focused on what you want it to be focused on from now on.

Synopsis:

  • Move Flash, Shockwave, and ClickToFlash out of /Library/Internet Plug-Ins to a new folder called Internet Plug-Ins (disabled) (/Library, ~/Library for each user on each computer).
  • Install Google Chrome web browser (just in case you occasionally need Flash again).
  • Install YouTube5 Safari Extension 2 (for each user on each computer).
  • Enable the Developer features on Safari.
  • Reboot to rid yourself of any currently running Flash crap.
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2010 12 29 snolan Computer Security
Computers
Web Design Comments (1) Permalink

There goes Net Neutrality

The FCC has exposed themselves to be mouthpieces for corporate overlords. The “openess” of Android is a complete distraction and has nothing to do with throttled connections and extortionate pricing by carriers. This is hugely disappointing and we will regret it for a long, long time.

Update: Steve Wozniak’s open letter to the FCC to keep the internet free

2010 12 21 snolan News
Politics Comments (0) Permalink