Home Theater Follies

Oct. 23, 2010
1345h
The home theater PC ambitions have been sharply curtailed with the wretched Antec Multimedia Station bay insert device confounding me as to how it works and where does it store the music and DVD files. I updated the attendant iMon software, and still it is a mystery as to what the fuck is going on. After reviewing screenshots of Songbird, Griffith, CGStar last night, I see that iMon isn't even close to providing a decent review of one's media library, which includes pics, videos, movies, and music. Let it be said that if you are going to create a HTPC application, or even a specialized server for this purpose, you need to thoroughly evaluate the software in advance, with the hardware (remote control, bay insert, or even touch screen) with great care. And make sure it isn't iMon.

1900h
What is with the Google sabotage? I always have 100 results per page, and now I get ten, even after resetting it back to 100. And the capability to open to a new tab has also been stripped out.

Then, Windows Media Player sabotage. I cannot get a video to be taken into the video library, essentially a list of the videos I have. Then ditto for pictures; the dialog box just disappears when I select Organize, Videos, and poof, it goes nowhere. Consistent with the pissing match over the Antec Multimedia Station bay insert that I have a mind to rip out, having spent $160 to put in. The freaking volume knob wouldn't work when playing my very first video on this PC this afternoon. And when in Windows Media Player, the freaking volume slder, mouse activated, wasn't doing anything either; no volume change even if the slider did move.

A shut-in day today, if one discounts the trip to the laundry room on this floor. No motivation to even get my regular Saturday newspaper for an extended read. Bummer, to say the least. The laundry also got sabotaged, with the track pants sucking up lint "from" the bath mat towel. Like WTF; this towel never lints, ever, and suddenly it unloaded onto the track pants and nothing else. The last time the track pants were laundered by me there was lint on them that couldn't be taken off after two washings. So I had to take them into the dry cleaners who managed to fix the problem, har, har. These are the pants I wear to yoga, and as I don't sweat that much in them, I don't launder them every week. Seemingly, the chemical/EMF signature of my black track yoga pants is a big deal for the assholes. The second time through, and on their own, and the track pants cleaned up OK, another example of making them different from the rest of the laundry load. A 2" diameter skin of difficult-to-remove white lint (on black underwear) also "happened" to arrive on my underwear in the same laundry load.

Other bullshit, getting back to the home theater front; I put on my very first DVD on this PC, the film Frida, and lo, if they didn't choke down the audio volume so I could barely hear what was spoken. The Windows Media Player volume control didn't work, and nor did the Antex physical bay insert volume control. Have I not complained about past DVD operation sabotage, like lost drivers, no player, and other bullshit to fuck my experience in playing a DVD? And not forgetting, this was another of the "fallow" DVDs, a dozen or so that were purchased in 01-2010, and after intial failures/obstruction I gave up. The Frida DVD was the first one to be opened since then, a whole ten months of leaving them unopened in a stack on the file cabinet. Fucking tiresome that I am not allowed to play a DVD, or CD for that matter, when I want and without sabotage in some form.

Oct. 24, 2010
1235h
I am doing a round of viewing the alternate energy news, and encounter a description of a new vertical axis (upright) wind turbine. But no picture. So I google it, and still no picture, and then go to the manufacturer, and still no picture. Freaking bizarre to say the least that the assholes put me through this curiousity pursuit and then stymie it at every turn for the most basic intent, to actually see it.

A short post, as I will be off to the FFF in short order. Today, a Sunday, and a low Fuckover profile I hope. Plus it seems that it is a big deal for shut-in days to be followed by a FFF engagement. No idea why, but that is how it has been for years now.