MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Or, "someone's thought about this."
Two things are impressing me at the moment.
1) HDMI. I switch on the Bluray player, it sends a signal to the amp which powers on and selects the correct input and settings for that source. The amp brings the TV out of standby, selecting the correct channel for playback. One button, and everything's good to go. Gone are the analogue days of playing russian roulette with settings and inputs, a nightmare when others in the house less familiar with your setup just want to put the telly on.
All the remotes interoperate, automagically, without spending hours configuring each one manually, keying in obscure keystrokes and trial-and-error codes from the back of the manual. I want to turn up the volume, I pick the nearest remote and press the volume control and it Just Works, even if I'm watching Sky and happen to be holding the Bluray remote.
At night I don't want to disturb the neighbours, so I decide to use the TV speakers. Switch off the amp, it reverts to a pass-through device and the TV un-mutes itself. All the volume controls now seamlessly work the telly instead. Genius.
2) VMWare. I got a new laptop at work this week. Historically I've have kept a copy of the disk from the old one just in case, either physically swapping the drives or cloning it, so that I can access it if I've missed copying something over (eg, I forgot to note down the licence key for an app).
This time, I installed VMWare Converter (free) on the old laptop. It takes a snapshot of the running PC and saves it as a file. Copied the file to the new machine, installed VMWare Player (also free) and pointed it at the image. In a window, just like I'm sat in front of it, my old laptop boots up and lets me log into it even though the physical machine [i]no longer exists.[/i] It's practically witchcraft.
We live in interesting times. What have you got that Just Works?
Teamviewer
Tin openers have never caused me any trouble, and forks seem to perform very well in the food portion transfer department.
Old school Deore XT thumbshifters (with hidden eighth click).
Toothbrush.
Teamviewer
On a similar note, LogMeIn.
Set up account.
Install client software on parents computers.
Download the iPhone App, now free, or use the web interface.
BOOM. Full control with no port forwarding, router fiddling.
noteeth - MemberToothbrush.
Objection!
Objection!
You think dentures clean themselves? 😉
Similar to LogMeIn - Hamachi! Lovely VPN without faff.
+1 logmein, I previously setup a VNC server on my parents computer and used a SSH tunnel to securely connect it to, lots of config hassles on PC and router. Now it's logon to my logmein account and click 🙂
Good points. I use LogMeIn and TeamViewer on a regular basis, similar applications with a slightly different mode of operation; the LMI connection is initiated by the remote user so is good for unattended devices, TV requires the local user to start the connection and so is better when authorisation is required (eg, supporting friends' computers).
But yeah, TBH I think we can add "remote support" to the list generically. Since I first started using it in anger years ago with VNC and RDP it's revolutionised the way I, and indeed IT staff generally, work.
Android based smartphone - no faff or having to deal with any crap software, i can drag and drop video files and ebooks /comics for me to view in my breaks at work 🙂
Windows 7.
TV remote controls
Insulated cup
I can see how that'd be especially useful to ice hockey players.
Cougar - Member
At night I don't want to disturb the neighbours, so I decide to use the TV speakers. Switch off the amp, it reverts to a pass-through device and the TV un-mutes itself. All the volume controls now seamlessly work the telly instead. Genius.
That's really good, what TV/amp?
That's really good, what TV/amp?
It's a Toshiba TV and Yamaha amp - so not even the same make. That's what makes it doubly impressive.
<geek>It uses a thing called CEC - Consumer Electronics Control - which is what you see branded as Regza Link, Viera Link etc by different manufacturers, but it's all a standardised thing under the branding and all interoperable. Manufacturers keep that bit quiet though, to encourage you to buy players that match your TV.</geek>
Toasters.
Further reading,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#CEC
(seems individual feature implementation is optional, the standard just makes the data connection mandatory, which makes sense)
+1 Teamviewer
Toasters.
I'd contest that. Finding a toaster that a) toasts evenly and consistently and b) actually has slots long enough to accept bread from a toastie loaf is really really difficult.
Mine's one of the better ones I've used, but it's equipped with the turnydial of doom. It goes from 1 to 6; setting it to 4 results in warm bread, setting it to 4.01 results in charcoal. I can only conclude that the '6' setting is intended for some sort of industrial welding application and the '1' setting is for people who don't like toast.
Toasters
You insane, homey?
Cougar - Member
Further reading,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#CEC
(seems individual feature implementation is optional, the standard just makes the data connection mandatory, which makes sense)
Love that. All the individual bits needed have been about for years, just took somebody to sit down and think about it then make a standard which (unusually) actually works.
(that sketch is where I got 'turnydial' from)
All the individual bits needed have been about for years, just took somebody to sit down and think about it then make a standard which (unusually) actually works.
Yeah. Ostensibly it's the successor to the old AV.link used in SCART connectors, but like you say someone's actually thought about it and done it properly, which is what I was getting at when I started the thread. Very cool.
The tin opener on a Swiss Army Knife.
Tilley lamps. Perfected about 100 years ago.
These wifi enabled [url= http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/?categoryid=1862&model=TL-WPA281KIT ]Powerline Adapters[/url]
Extend your wireless network? Add an instant AP to a non-wifi router/switch? All done with the touch of a button. Amazing things.
Forgot about powerline adaptors, been using the novatech ones for a while and they do just work 🙂
Unix/Linux
Amazingly powerful and adaptable, infinately configurable, reliable beyond belief. Tough. I have heavily used servers at work that have uptimes for around 7 years, still running fine.
Windows 7 +1
Oh, also, (from work) Cisco VPN 3000 series appliances. I have two at work that are also heavily used, are 5 years out of support and have been in use for over 15 years with not one single failure.
Powwrplug home network 'plugs'. Thought there was no way they would work, they do, very easily and very brilliantly.
Sky HD box and remote. Faultless.
Agree, add remote record app and anytime+ and it's pretty unbeatable.
One minute in...
Sturmey Archer three speed hub.
[quote=samuri said]Unix/Linux
Amazingly powerful and adaptable, infinately configurable, reliable beyond belief. Tough. I have heavily used servers at work that have uptimes for around 7 years, still running fine.
Windows 7 +1
Unless you have a piece of hardware that either decides that they aren't going to tolerate!
OS X and iDisk syncing (no really!)
DropBox
Husqvarna chainsaws
So far, Windows 8.
Windows Live Mesh/Sky drive
USB storage
Badaboom video transcoder
Sky Go.
Not got it myself, but seems very nice.
Sky+ for that matter.
Electricity.
Time machine backup.
Sat next to my computer for two years just does it's thing and has saved me from my own stupidity more than once. No real setup and no maintenance.
Audio amplifiers.
They just go on and on. I would actually like my twenty year old amp to die so that i could justify buying a new one.
Digital alarm clocks.
Mine was a hand me down from my mother, I have no idea how old it is but I've had it twenty five years, everything on it still works perfectly.
My Laney GH50L guitar amp. Almost 6 years since I got it and still going strong with only 1 tube change.
Big **** off knives or sticks with nails in them.
<geek>It uses a thing called CEC - Consumer Electronics Control - which is what you see branded as Regza Link, Viera Link etc by different manufacturers, but [b]it's all a standardised thing under the branding and all interoperable[/b]. Manufacturers keep that bit quiet though, to encourage you to buy players that match your TV.</geek>
No it ain't. 🙂 All my Sony stuff used to work in the way you describe, but not anymore.
*Glares at Samsung TV and LG blu-ray player*
Dropbox - yay!
SUgarSync - boo!
Tin openers have never caused me any trouble,
Funny -we have a completely useless tin opener (safety thing) that for some unfathomable reason, it's yet to have been binned and replaced for, ooh, 6 years! Perhaps it has a spell over
DrP
Dropbox - yay!SUgarSync - boo!
Dropbox - boo!
SugarSync - yay!
Drop box "lost" a lot of my files. So it's a booooo from me.
Toilets.