Mount network drive before starting an app

Filed under Apple, Mac OSX

On my Mac Mini, I have SABNZBd+ installed. I wanted to make it download my usenet downloads straight to my NAS.

So I made my Mac automaticly mount a drive on the NAS on boot, and I also put SABNZBd+ in my login items. But that gave me a problem, sometimes SABNZBd started before my network drive was mounted. SABNZBd then created a directory called /Volumes/Media. After that, when my NAS was mounted, it mounted to /Volumes/Media-1. So that sucked. I could not find a way to change the order at which startup programs ran, so I decided to create an AppleScript application which first mounted a network drive and then runned SABNZBd.

Here it is:

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set Media to "smb://myUsername:myPassword@192.168.1.1/Media"
tell application "Finder"
	activate
	mount volume Media
end tell
tell application "SABnzbd"
	activate
end tell

MusIQ is available in the AppStore now!

Filed under Personal stuff

Since the release of iPhone OS 3.0, MusIQ was available in the AppStore.

The description from the AppStore:

Play MusIQ and test your music knowledge! MusIQ plays songs from your own music library and you have to guess the song playing. Four possible answers are given and speed is of the essence, since precious points and time are ticking away.

There is also an ‘Unlimited Mode’, which lets you guess songs, until you fail a round. That way you can just keep playing, as long as you know the right answers.

MusIQ takes advantage of the new features of firmware 3.0, so make sure your iPhone/iPod is up to date with the latest firmware from Apple.

Make sure you have at least 40 songs on your iPhone/iPod.

New corporate website went live!

Filed under Personal stuff

My new corporate website just went live!

Check out : http://www.wimhaanstra.com.

Newsleecher problem solved!

Filed under Personal stuff

In a previous post (http://www.depl0y.com/?p=411) I mentioned switching from my Windows based file server, to a Mac Mini with a NAS. I would lose the ability to run Newsleecher then, so today I went hunting for a solution (as I was sick in bed).

After some research I found SABNZBd, which is a web enabled deamon you install on your PC/Mac/Whatever based system. After I installed it, I noticed Newzbin.com integration and I fixed myself an account.

Now I can just bookmark the stuff I want to download on Newzbin.com and it will be downloaded on my Mac. There are also ‘plugins’ that will update the XBMC library when a download is complete and I will be using that when my Mac arrives.

XBMC: Some screenies of my config

Filed under Personal stuff

I have been fooling around with XBMC a bit this weekend, whenever I was not visiting the loo for my stumach flu food poisoning :(.

Replacing my HDX 1000 with a Mac Mini

Filed under Apple, Personal stuff

For my HD movie playback I have been using an HDX 1000 the last couple of months. The HDX is connected via an ethernet connection with my file server, which is an Intel quadcore with over 4TB of storage and 12GB of memory. Since this isn’t the most energy efficient way to stream movies to my TV, I planned a complete reorganisation of PC equipment at home.

I am replacing my HDX 1000 with a Mac Mini (2.26GHz with 4GB of RAM), which will be connected to my TV with a mini-DVI to DVI to HDMI cable. The Mac Mini has an optical audio out, which will be connected to my Sony receiver, for optimal DTS/DD5.1 audio.

The Mac Mini will stream it’s movies from a multi TB NAS, which will be connected to a gigabit router. For software, I am currently expirimenting with XBMC, with the Aeon skin. The Mac Mini will also be connected to my 26″ IIyama monitor, so that it can be used as a desktop PC too, which gives my MacBook Pro a bit more breathing room. Also the switch to a Mac Mini will give me the ability to playback those anoying DVD’s the kids bring home sometimes.

I already ordered my Mac Mini and it will be delivered between the 8th and 11th of May.

So, what problems am I going to encounter?

• I needed to find a mini-TOS to TOS cable, which wasn’t available in the Apple store somehow. Found one on eBay for under $5.
• The remote control didn’t work at once with XBMC somehow. I installed a piece of software called “Sofa Control” which fixed this, but this software isn’t free.
• I use usenet a lot, with my file server gone, I will no longer be able to use Newsleecher. What alternatives are there for Newsleecher for OSX?

As soon as my Mac Mini arrives, I will post a report about my progress, maybe with some pics.

You’ve been promoted!

Filed under Links, Personal stuff, iPhone

It has been pretty silent the last month. I have been busy with work, holidays, iPhone apps and more stuff.

First off, there has been an interesting development at work. My boss announced him leaving the company and they needed one or more people to fill in his job. Just before I left for a week of fishing in Denmark I heard that they would let 2 colleagues and me take over his responsibilities! W00t! So from today on, I am trying to lead my colleagues to get things done!

Next up, I am working on a game for iPhone OS 3.0, which uses a couple of new features that aren’t available in 2.0 yet. Can’t talk about it too much yet, but everyone who played it, loved it! The game will be ready for release, when iPhone OS 3.0 and the new iPhone are released. A funny fact: I tried emailing a phone store in Belgium, to reserve a new iPhone, when it comes out. But it turns out, you can’t get yourself on the list, before the phone is announced…. :(.

I am also getting more active on StackOverflow. I must say, it’s getting a bit addictive and the reputation system works very good. If you don’t participate yet, make sure you check it out. I also love the way StackOverflow is now taking over Experts Exchange position in Google, because that site is just annoying.

I hope I will be updating my blog more often now.

PS: ReviewReader was denied by Apple. I tried arguing with them, but they do not respond to my emails :(

Windows 7, new features in the announced RC1

Filed under Personal stuff

Windows 7 build 7000 en 7022 are pretty good. 7022 is a lot faster than 7000 for me, especially browsing local disks.

Well, Microsoft posted a list of changes they made when going from the beta to the first RC! You can see that list here.

What I find very interesting, are the the next few points:

2. Windows Logo + <#> keyboard shortcut - This gives you the option to cycle through the open instances of an application located on nr # of your taskbar!
5. Taskbar scaling - This makes the taskbar contain more icons of applications! Woohoo! It also states that applications can’t register itself on the taskbar anymore, which is a good thing!

All in all, I only read good things about RC1…. now all we need is a date of release :D

Running Sitecore 6 on Windows 7’s IIS

Filed under C#

Just posting this info, for all the people getting an error after installing Sitecore 6 on IIS7 of Windows 7.

The error

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Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
 
Exception Details: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: The system cannot find the file specified.

Well, the solution is rather easy… make sure you got the following code in your global.asax

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  public void Application_Start() {
	  System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider.UseMachineKeyStore = true;
	  System.Security.Cryptography.DSACryptoServiceProvider.UseMachineKeyStore = true;
  }

Make Xcode behave more like Visual Studio ;)

Filed under Apple, Cocoa, Xcode, iPhone, iPhone SDK

I am getting used to Xcode more and more, but the default behavior for double clicking files in the file tree really sucks. In the default mode it opens up an extra window, which is annoying when you are used to Visual Studio.

I googled on this a lot lately and I couldn’t find any answers, so I finally went looking through the settings of Xcode, just to see what I could tweak. Well I found it!

Well first, you need to close all project windows in your Xcode and then go to the Xcode preferences screen.

In the general tab, set the layout option to “Condensed”. After that you can open up a project and your file tree will be a undocked window. Double click one of the files in your tree, that should open up a code windows and on the code windows’ right-top side should appear 2 icons like this:

Make sure the 2nd icon from the right says “Grouped”. If it says ungrouped just click it once to make it say “Grouped”.

After that, when you double click a file, it will just show you the code in the currently open code window! Hurray!