In which I detail how I built a portable media centre that can be used in any house or hotel room, allowing me to watch HD movies, YouTube, and other video content, stream Rdio, Spotify, Soundcloud and more – all using the £25 Raspberry Pi. Read on for a walkthrough and some handy pointers…
Its been both fun and frustrating messing around with my Raspberry Pi, as I continue to find that the big wins are easy enough (e.g. installing an operating system) whilst supposedly simple tasks can become painfully frustrating. Wireless networking is one such area, and I’ve lost more time than is healthy trying to get my R-Pi up and running with wifi.
Ultimately, I’ve concluded that you’re far better off taking the path of least resistance. Where WiFi is concerned, that means using an adapter that uses the Realtek RTL8188CUS chip, because someone created a very useful script that will do all the configuring for you. I bought the MicroNet N150 adapter for this reason – plus it is tiny and runs on minimal power, which means it won’t require any powered USB hub in order to ensure consistent performance.
So why the fuss over WiFi? Well, because what I had in mind was a portable XBMC build which I could then use wherever I was – be that a hotel room, a relative’s house or whatever. The aim was to build a system that could run on WiFi easily, because this provided two big benefits: firstly, I could stream media or whatever I wanted as desired. Secondly, it meant I could also control XBMC using the official XBMC remote app for iPhone. That would mean no keyboard or mouse would be required, ensuring I could travel light.
Continue reading “Creating a hotel-friendly portable media centre with Raspberry Pi”
Various questions have come to mind when pondering the UMG/EMI merger and the divestments around them. Here’s a few with my own conjecture:
A colleague of mine in the US just tipped me off to the fact that Facebook appear to have retired the ability to geo-lock posts from artist Pages. The whole geo-targeting aspect of Pages has gotten a little confusing of late, as Facebook introduced means to geo-lock (ie no one in country X can see the post) and a separate means to geo-target (ie only people in country X see the post in their News Feed, but the post itself is viewable to all on the Page itself). Confusing? Just a bit – and I’m happy to admit I fell foul of it at least once. 
Its been interesting (though perhaps “depressing” might be a better term) reading the various articles springing from the 
Last week I thought I’d finally bite the bullet and start getting rid of some of my CD collection. The simple fact of it is that I now use Rdio for the bulk of my listening, with Spotify occasionally getting some use too. Compact Disc has gone from being a prized possession to a fairly anachronistic format for me and, out of sheer laziness if nothing else, I find myself simply reaching for my phone and plugging it into the nearest stereo or iPod dock when I want to listen to music.
Its been fantastic to read the unilaterally glowing coverage of the Blue Note label’s Spotify app, and if you’ve not tried it yet I strongly urge you to go and do so. The best review I saw from a friend was just two words: “worm hole”. He’s right too: you can lose hours to this. 
Now, aside from roaring with laughter at this monstrous gaffe, I have to say this did raise the important point of checking your ad out before you hit “Publish”….
Note: this post originally appeared in my comment section 
Getting online when travelling is often a pretty painful experience. Or at least, a very expensive one, as hotels often charge criminal amounts just to access their wireless network. As if that isn’t bad enough, the connection speeds are usually rotten once you do get online. The irony of course is that 9 times out of 10, there is an ethernet port in your room as well, which has infinitely faster speeds and costs nothing to use.