As of this writing, Telecable in Puerto Vallarta is down (and I suspect the same in Chapala and Zapopan). This is nothing new it is wednesday and has been happening all week!

I can ping most sites and I can clearly see Internet connectivity, however no sites are browsable. This very site pings fine and resolves to the correct IP . Interestingly enough a ping to google gives me the following
ping google.com
PING google.com (200.56.195.123) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 200-56-195-123-cable.cybercable.net.mx (200.56.195.123): icmp_req=1 ttl=60 time=11.7 ms
64 bytes from 200-56-195-123-cable.cybercable.net.mx (200.56.195.123): icmp_req=2 ttl=60 time=12.5 ms
64 bytes from 200-56-195-123-cable.cybercable.net.mx (200.56.195.123): icmp_req=3 ttl=60 time=9.54 ms
64 bytes from 200-56-195-123-cable.cybercable.net.mx (200.56.195.123): icmp_req=4 ttl=60 time=9.72 ms

— google.com ping statistics —
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 9.544/10.900/12.535/1.295 ms

It seems that the wisdom of Telecable is to put a transparent proxy in between its users and Internet however that proxy seems to fail frequently (this is a workaround to having real bandwidth!) . Thus my ping to google.com does not even reach Google rather an IP at Telecable

Combine that with lost packets to the internet and you have a formula for failure, that is without mentioning the MANY areas where Telecable can not deliver a stable signal to a modem!

I recently set up a project in Chapala where a client started to use a Dual WAN router. That router has turned out to be a waste of money for the client because the second connection, Telecable in Chapala was far too unreliable. During peak hours they would have 28% packet loss. Disconnecting Telecable and using only Infinitum on the same router and same network yielded 0% packet loss so clearly the failure was not on the network.

As it seems that the failures are system wide it surprises me to no end that Telecable seems incapable of fixing the problem. Don’t they use their own services and recognize their failures?

If Telecable fails late on a Friday often times you can set your clock as to when it will be fixed, because it will probably be 9:20 AM on Monday morning when it starts working again, unless of course it is a holiday weekend meaning you will have half the week without service!

How can Telecable keep upgrading to offer 100 Mbps (Unity service), High Definition TV, telephone and the like when they can not even get basic internet connectivity right? Dont they want to ensure that the foundation is stable before adding services that rely on that foundation?

How can a business rely on that kind of service when relying on VoIP email and instant messaging? Bad enough that a family will not have Internet in the home for hours or days at a time.

For a linux user just try a sudo apt-get update or yum update on Telecable. You may try ten times or more and never complete the update!

Also, what provider in their right mind makes a customer pay for a Public IP address?

Now off to Telecable’s server at speedtest.net. Telecable themselves recommend that customers use speedtest.net. When doing so your speed test from a Telecable connection reaches telecable’s speedtest server in Zapopan, or Vallarta because it has the best ping from your telecable connection. The reality is that in order to reach that IP you do not even go off of telecable’s network! This means you are not testing bandwidth to the internet AT ALL , rather the bandwidth across Telecable’s network, which is not where their problems lie.  Choosing a server in Texas will likely give a more accurate result as you need to see if Telecable is overselling their connection to the Internet which appears to connect in Texas. Telecable is well aware of this and uses this trick to trick their customers into seeing a false bandwidth result from speedtest.net on their service. Telecable seems to not fail in speed across their network rather they have a bottleneck in their connection to the internet resulting in dropped and delayed packets. Their ColaLoca (SuperGlue) solution to this is to put a transparent proxy on the line to save their connection from the most frequent images and text loaded from Facebook and Google. What they really need to do is fix the foundation of the problems and that is their inadequate connectivity to the Internet!

To the management at Telecable…. If you need a consultation for your issues and how to resolve them I can gladly help at a reduced rate. It is my desire to see effective competition in the market that helps to break the TelMex monopoly. Unfortunately after ten years you have never got it right enough to be effective competition for TelMex.

I used XBMCBuntu Frodo beta. It has been downgraded to Eden 11, and updated to Frodo 12, and now 12.1 . It is based on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise so this pretty much applies to installing precise as well. If installing Ubuntu or Mint you may need to also install the generic kernel instead of the PAE kernel. You should do this upon initial ATV1 boot to linux.

Here are the tricks I learned while refining an installation of xbmcbuntu on Apple TV

IMPORTANT: first connect Apple TV 1 to HDMI TV, Update ATV1 to Apple OS latest. Then go to settings and set HDMI output to RGB High. If not connected to HDMI TV this can not be done.

I will not go into detail of the ATV Bootloader installation here that is well documented everywhere however most of the Linux distros referenced in those posts are older. My goal is to cover Xbmcbuntu/UbuntuPrecise12.04

I found the easiest way to make the apple TV bootloader to work is to leave it in “auto” and use an old style Grub menu.lst (grub 1) .

You should first test the ATV bootloader once you have created it, and see if the apple TV starts a boot sequence. You can then connect the USB or Hard disk to a USB or IDE port on a PC and proceed with the installation on a PC. if booting from USB thumb drive or USB hard disk it is important to understand that SOME ATV units will not boot to a thumb drive if no hard drive is installed. I have never figured out why but some will also not boot to USB at all , even with Hard Disk installed. If you can not boot to a thumb drive or USB disk, you can get a USB to PATA (IDE) adapter and do the install by removing the ATV drive.

Installation of Linux
Because the ATV 1 is quirky it is easiest to do the install on a desktop PC I strongly recommend disconnecting all hard disks other that the ATV hard disk before proceeding.

Boot your PC to XBMCBuntu, Ubuntu or Linux Mint CD or DVD. Perform a custom partition install to ATV Hard disk or USB thumb drive, and install to an EXT3 type filesystem, without erasing the ATV Bootloader partition (THIS MUST BE GPT PARTITION!). I dont think the ATV bootloader is compatible with EXT4 or at least it never worked for me. During the install you should also create a 500Meg swap space, and after the install note the UUIDs of swap and system volume. You can use “sudo blkid” or get them, or by running Gparted.

After the install is complete, create /boot/grub/menu.lst and put the following in the file. Make sure the owner is root, and that you change <UUID>  to the UUID of your disk that you got while running the live CD/installer. Note the processor.max_cstate=2 that is important and must be added if you already have a Grub1 menu.lst

title        XBMCBuntu, kernel 3.2.0-34-generic
uuid        <UUID>
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-34-generic root=UUID=59b56a95-de9c-4c04-ba25-21c057b090dd ro quiet nosplash processor.max_cstate=2
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-34-generic

now we will edit /etc/fstab so it looks like this using your UUID and your SwapUUID. You probably will not have to change thew UUIDs unless you have reformatted or changed partitions in some way. The important part is the last line that causes the ATV Bootloader partition to not mount. This prevents you from having to see it in file dialogues.
# / was on /dev/sde3 during installation
UUID=<UUID> /               ext3    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sde2 during installation
UUID=<SwapUUID> none            swap    sw              0       0
LABEL=Recovery  Recovery  hfsplus  noauto

You should now have an ATV bootable hard disk or thumb drive. Proceed to install on ATV1 and boot.

Post installation and first ATV boot. You can do this from ssh if you have ssh access.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa alsa-utils nvidia-common nvidia-current nvidia-current-updates nvidia-settings nvidia-settings-updates xbmc git-core libusb-dev pkg-config g++

sudo apt-get autoclean

edit /home/xbmc/.xbmc/userdata/advancedsettings.xml to be the following, removing any other content. You will probably have to create this file, It may not exist.

<advancedsettings>
<loglevel>0</loglevel>
<useddsfanart>false</useddsfanart>
<videolibrary>
<cleanonupdate>false</cleanonupdate>
</videolibrary>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
<network>
<disableipv6>true</disableipv6>
<cachemembuffersize>2621440</cachemembuffersize>
<curlclienttimeout>60</curlclienttimeout>
</network>
<video>
<fpsdetect>2</fpsdetect>
</video>
<latency>
<delay>0</delay>
</latency>
<cputempcommand>cputemp</cputempcommand>
<gputempcommand>gputemp</gputempcommand>
<samba>
<clienttimeout>30</clienttimeout>
</samba>
</advancedsettings>

Install ATVClient for support of Apple Remote and to make sense of the front panel LED. When LED lights when remoite button is pressed your battery is getting low. This also allows pairing whereas lirc does not.

git clone git://github.com/Evinyatar/atvclient.git
cd atvclient
./configure && make
sudo make install
sudo cp atvclient /etc/init.d/atvclient
sudo update-rc.d atvclient defaults
sudo /etc/init.d/atvclient start
cd ..

Analog and Optical audio fix (not necessary for HDMI only audio)

Edit
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Comment out the last line and add the second line so that the last two lines showw as below

# options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=0xfff2
options snd-hda-intel model=imac24

For HDMI
edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and use the following removing all other entries.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 295.40  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-04.nvidia.com)  Thu Apr  5 22:33:07 PDT 2012

Section “Monitor”
Identifier     “Monitor0″
VendorName     “Unknown”
ModelName      “Unknown”
HorizSync       28.0 – 33.0
VertRefresh     43.0 – 72.0
Option         “DPMS”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Option      “HWCursor” “Off”
Identifier     “Screen0″
Device         “Device0″
Monitor        “Monitor0″
DefaultDepth    24
Option         “NoLogo” “True”
Option         “DynamicTwinView” “False”
Option         “FlatPanelProperties” “Scaling = Native”
SubSection “Display”
Depth       24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier     “Mouse0″
Driver         “mouse”
Option         “Protocol” “auto”
Option         “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option         “Emulate3Buttons” “no”
Option         “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier     “Keyboard0″
Driver         “kbd”
# generated from default
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option         “Composite” “Disable”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier     “Layout0″
Screen      0  “Screen0″
InputDevice    “Keyboard0″ “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice    “Mouse0″ “CorePointer”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier     “Device0″
Driver         “nvidia”
VendorName     “NVIDIA Corporation”
Option    ”NoLogo”    ”True”
Option “DynamicTwinView” “false”
Option “RegistryDwords” “RMDisableRenderToSysmem=1″
Option         “NoFlip” “false”
Option         “ConnectToAcpid” “0″
Option         “HWCursor” “false”
EndSection

For Component or composite out

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=AppleTV_Composite_%26_Component_Video

Optional (required for CrystalHD Support) Note: Results can be intermittent. It seems that on both the 70015 and 70012, the heat of the Apple TV is an issue. When the Apple TV heats up the CrystalHD stops working. A reboot will not fix it only allowing the Apple TV to cool down. Consider removing the rubber bottom and clearing glue from Aluminum holes and placing large rubber feet on the bottom. Also consider a solid state drive or removing the disk completely from the inside of the ATV1. I have placed hard disks in external USB cases and used as system drive.

I have tried to install support for Crystal HD from many variants of ubuntu 12.04 (xbmcbuntu, linux Mint, etc) with not too much success . The best way is to install from source

sudo apt-get install checkinstall git-core autoconf build-essential subversion dpkg-dev fakeroot pbuilder build-essential dh-make debhelper devscripts patchutils quilt git-buildpackage pristine-tar git yasm zlib1g-dev zlib-bin libzip-dev libx11-dev libx11-dev libxv-dev vstream-client-dev libgtk2.0-dev libpulse-dev libxxf86dga-dev x11proto-xf86dga-dev git libgstreamermm-0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev automake
git clone git://git.linuxtv.org/jarod/crystalhd.git
cd crystalhd/driver/linux
autoconf
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd ../../linux_lib/libcrystalhd/
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe crystalhd

Reboot

run “alsamixer” from the prompt turn up all volumes and unmute anything showing as MM. (use the M key)

Enjoy Linux on ATV1 with XBMC Frodo 12.1!

If you can not get through this, we can sell you a preinstalled thumb drive. Contact us using the links at the bottom of the page for current pricing and information. Also if this guide is helpful, consider donating using the paypal link on the left column.

The main word here is interaction. With the SyncNow ACR technology, TV time will be very fun. You can turn a boring advertisement into a game through this application which is also available on smartphones. Interaction is what technology is all about. It’s not just on TV that something like this was done; even poker has this advancement. Online poker sites such as partypoker français are already innovations in themselves, but with the introduction of the interactive table, the game just got more convenient. Through this feature, enthusiasts will be able to wisely choose among virtual poker tables which they’ll sit in. This provides valuable information regarding the players within a table, which makes it easier for players to grade their opponents. Poker is also comparable to multi-player online games not only because of the number of players that can play the game, but also due to the “room” where involved players may interact with each other despite being miles away. The relationship that online poker and its followers have is very different from what a traditional television and a commercial have. If on TV, viewers get to see an advertisement but can’t make the company know what they like and don’t like about it, in poker, a player can say anything he wants. This is what Gulli and Civolution are trying to change. The two companies want to make advertisements part of the fun, not just as something that people can use as an excuse to do something or change channel.

For those who are reluctant to indulge in this application because of technical issues, don’t worry because Gulli and Civolution will provide manuals and door-to-door services. There are also cheap service providers that can help you have a smoother transition to better TV viewing. You can also visit syncnow.com for more info.

So to minimize the duplication of files, my brain went to work (despite me wanting it to) about how I could make a dual or triple boot OS with common document folders. Part of the complexity is that each OS uses a different disk format and what works for one or two OSes does not always work for another or may not suit me as in the case of FAT32 . FAT32 does not work for me because I can not write large files to it. The EXT2/3 drivers I had tried on windows always had disasterous results, and the  HFS+ support in Linux does not support Journaling. That seemed to leave me at NTFS which I have seen work fine from Linux and works on OSX 10.6 with NTFS-3G and FUSE.

Here is the part that make my triple booting unique..  common document folders independent of any OS partition.

Along the way I found this article at Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.com/5702815/the-complete-guide-to-sharing-your-data-across-multiple-operating-systems.
My formula deviates from this because I want a dedicated partition for documents only, that is independent of any OS. That means two of my three OSes can crash and all documents are retrievable from the third OS. I have seen many OSes crash and few disks that have only files ever crash, until the disk gets old.

If you are using real Mac hardware you may want to change the order somewhat, and probably want to use the ReFit boot menu.

I created a common user and password on all three OSes making sure that it was all lower cause usernames as Mint requires this. This makes mapping easier , especially in Mint.

From each OS I then copied/merged all files and folders from the user directories of each OS to the “FILES” disk under the common username created earlier.

we will also place a a file called “testfile” in the FILES disk with the path of /<username>/Desktop

First I installed Windows 7
This is a no brainer

I then reduced the size of the Windows partition to about 25 GB Using a Linux Live DVD to make room for the other 2 OSes

Then I installed OSX
First making a partition of 25 GB by selecting the Disk Utility on the Installer menu.

Then I Installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 14
on another 25GB partition, which was easy enough by selecting the “Install alongside other …” If you install this after Win and before OSX you may need to use “advanced partitioning options” to leave space for other OSes, or resize the partition after installing.

For some reason I had to reinstall OSX at this point as it had somehow become corrupted so I selected from the Apple Installer to reformat and then reinstalled. Your mileage may vary. If I had to do it again I would install OSX last.

I tested each OS as it was installed
so I was not too concerned with boot menus at this point. I was then able to use the Hackintosh Boot menu to boot whichever OS I selected. If you are on a real Mac try ReFit for the boot menu.

I then took the remaining Hard Disk space and formatted it as NTFS
calling it “Files” which is how we will refer to it from here on out.

from Mac OSX

Copy all user folders to /<username> on the FILES volume.

I first installed Mac FUSE and NTFS-3G,

The lines between separators below did not work on OSX they are for purposes of later diagnostic!
__________________________________________
then I ran the following command to get uid and gid

id

Using uid and gid from above I mapped the “Files” hard disk to the “Users” Folder with the following command

LABEL=Files /Users ntfs-3g uid=501,gid=20,umask=022

For the above command you can also mount with UUID or Device number

This now makes FILES on an NTFS volume behave like a “Users” directory . It was fine at first , but then it stopped working!
__________________________________________

So after setting things back to normal, I then looked at the Users Preference pane and went to advanced options and set the uses folder to /Volumes/Files/<username>, and BINGO! that works. After a reboot we should be able to see our testfile on the desktop and should be able to copy and paste it to Documents.

In LinuxMint

Copy/Merge  all user folders to /<username> on the FILES volume.

The lines between separators below did not work in Linux Mint they are for purposes of later diagnostic!
__________________________________________
The symlink method in the Lifehacker article did not work for reasons of permissions on NTFS drives. Not sure if this was permissions of the symlink or the folder it pointed to, which is NTFS and void of Linux permissions.
__________________________________________

If we mount with fstab the umask option allows us to force the permissions keeping Linux happy.

run the command

id

note UID and GID

edit /etc/fstab

add the following at the end , replacing your UID and GID as noted above.

LABEL=Files /home ntfs uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=022

and immediately reboot!

You should now see the test file that you places in the FILES/<username>/Desktop folder appearing on your desktop. You should be able to copy and paste this file to assure you have write permissions in the user folders.

In Windows 7

Copy/Merge  all user folders to /<username> on the FILES volume.

We have  few options in Windows 7 we can add the FILES volume to the libraries however I find this confusing in Windows and prefer to change the location of each folder. For instance if you right click on Documents , then select the Location tab you can select any folder, which we will change this to the /<username>/Documents directory on the FILES partition or disk. Once we do that for all folders we sho0uld probably reboot and we should see our testfile on the desktop which we should be able to copy and paste.

Conclusion

Now when I download a windows file in Linux I will be able to immediately reboot and have that same file available without having to worry about it being accessible from Windows, as all document folder are now common across all Operating systems. I can now also go to a single location /<username> on the FILES volume and back up all data from all OSes in a single pass to my NAS or external UISB disk. I will also be using portable apps that run on windows and can run on Wine from Linux , or maybe even just install them into FILES disk when I see fit. This will also save me as I will not need 2 copies of Phoptoshop (one in Linux and one in Windows), as they will both point to the same set of files.

For reference this was done on a Gateway LT27 Netbook with iATKOS OSX 10.6 and default bootloader. I have been unable to get the built in keyboard and trackpad working and can not get screen resolutions working correctly, as I am only offer 4×3 resolutions. My nertbook has been altered as it has had the internal Broadcom Wifi removed and replaced with a Broadcom CrystalHD card. I use an RaLink Micro USB Wifi adapter that works in Win Mac and Linux. I had to battle some to get working wired ethernet but eventually found the driver.

I found that customizing these icons was quite simple and after configuring Photoshop on Wine, I put myself to the task.

Here is a sample of the end result:

Custom Icons in Linux Mint 13 Maya Mate

The process is simple. I used transparent PNG images but you could use JPG images and maybe others.

On booth the “desktop” icon and in the “computer” separately select the drive icon, then properties. IN the “Basic” tab click on the existing icon. Now select the new icon.

Now my remaining question is how can I do the same with printers in the printer panel. and Can I really not do this on Windows? I think you can do this on OSX as well.

Icons should be square, so keep that in mind or they may be distorted.

• Enough memory for XBMC and buffering of on – line videos
• Supported video card on your platform. This can be what is in your Apple TV or Android or for PC based systems, some of the newer ATI cards, Some of the newer Nvidia cards,  or CrystalHD, as well as a plethoraq of others if you only want standard Definition.Broadband connection for on-line streaming. Many first Generation Apple TVs can even be upgraded to decode HD in hardware.
• Hard disk space for files , whether via NAS, network share, or internal Hard Disk Drive

Of course there are a daunting number of adjustments and tweaks you can make some more necessary than others ,  Many tweaks are specific to hardware such as issues that can arise with Nvidia and DVD image playback on Linux, while installations using CrystalHD or ATI Video cards may have their own sets of issues.

The good news is that with XBMC and several key add ons,  you get more content than with Hulu and Netfix, and more content than Cable and much of the content is on demand with no monthly fees.

If you have tried to configure XBMC and just can not get some things right look for support on the XBMC forums or for unofficial add ons try the XBMCHub forums (Please register using this link!) .

If you find it overwhelming to build your own XBMC system, of course we can build and configure a complete, pre-configured  XBMC system and ship it globally to wherever you are in the world. Use the “contact us” links or “Call us now” Link at the bottom of each page. Of course our systems come with access to our private forms and private servers to get add-ons, updates and more often times before they are available elsewhere.

Once you have a working Home Theatre PC system, and can see how it all works together with add-ons and local media, you will never want to go without. It can play most any video audio and image format over most any kind of Network share whether Linux NFS, Windows SMB, or Mac OSX AFP. It can also connect to multiple web formats such as HTTP, FTP and much more.

If you have seen the changes in Google TOS (Terms of Service) in the last several months, you may be quick to write off that it does not really affect you. If you use Android however, think again! You see Android by design requires you to use a Gmail account if you want apps or any one of the features that make Android so cool. And it is way cool.

Do you use Android Market or Google Play? If so, you have surrendered your privacy to Google. From the moment your phone or tablet is turned on and connected to Internet, they can harvest your personal data without limits. Contacts; Names, emails Phone Numbers, even map your movements throughout the day. That is IF you have entered a Google account anywhere in your Android and you probably have! Now add to that the data they harvest from Gmail and Google Voice accounts and its even bigger. No Google account no worries? Guess what,  SOMEONE , SOMEWHERE has entered your data into one of these accounts and it has become available to Google. No matter how hard you work to keep your cell phone number private, someone has probably given it to Google.

Is it a coincidence that the substantial changes in Google TOS occurred AFTER the popularity of Android? What about my Android that pre-dates those changes in TOS? Now my old Android just becomes a personal information leak to Google? I would not do that with my network or my computer, why would I do it on the one device that tracks more information about me than any other device? Am I truly obligated the the changes in TOS that occurred AFTER the purchase of my Android?

Now remove the Google account from Android and you clear the apps. By sideloading you can reinstall, but many paid apps want to connect to the Google account to have paid features. This forces users to use Google accounts on Android. Thats right many apps such as Bria have tied their product to Android Market (or Google Play) in a way that no Google Account means no paid features. In the case of Bria it will not work at all! Now this means that app developers are conspiring with Google against YOUR privacy. When I bought the license for Bria, the new Google TOS were not yet in place. Now I must agree to changes in TOS continue to use Bria? Bria “phones home” (no pun intended) to Google to check on my license. It can not reach Google so it just tells me NO WAY!

So an important person or a celebrity gives your their contact information and you enter it into your address book or Gmail or Google Voice Account.  Now Google has that direct line and private email address for Bill Gates or President Obama . Undoubtedly they have amassed the largest database of unlisted and cell phone numbers in this way. They probably even have your children’s personal emails and phone numbers without their or your consent. Do they care that they are harvesting data about or from minors? Probably not! Just another drop in the sea of data that they have collected so far.

(update) Google also now seems to ask (as if requiring) a phone number on Gmail accounts. This step can be skipped. It used to be they had a small link to skip the step now you just leave the phone field blank. Yet another way for Google to get your personal data into their data mine.

What can we do?

Let’s uninstall Google apps and force the divorce of Google accounts from Android.  Microsoft or Apple does not force us to give up personal information to use their apps so why should Google get away with it?

Is this a case for class action litigation against Google? I think so! Antitrust?

Want apps? Give us your personal information! It does not matter that you already paid to use the app after removing the Google account you can not make it work.

Demand more 3rd party sources and only buy apps that are NOT Market/Play dependent. Use alternate sources for apps that do not require us to give up our privacy.

Encourage developers to avoid exclusively distributing their apps on Google Market/Play, and encourage the use of direct downloads for sideloading. On an interesting note , I have tried to acquire the FujiXerox Print Utility for Android. Since those printers are for sale mostly ion Australia and Asia, I can not get the needed print utility because I can not find it anywhere for download. I had this problem with the Samsung print utility some time ago as well, when Samsung products are clearly sold in this region. Are they so afraid that I will reverse engineer their print utility? They only work for their printers.

So as I had this text file saved and waiting to publish it, I activated a Google Voice account for testing on Asterisk Open Source PBX. I had success at dialing outbound calls via Google voice, one to my brother who did not answer his cell, but for the life of me could not get inbounds to work. So a little debugging was in order while there was an incoming call. I would dial the new Google Voice number and hear it ring a few times on the phone I dialed from. I would see an incoming call to Asterisk. and it would not ring to the extension. That is not the important part.  What is important is one time I dialed the new Google Voice number and let it ring more than several times and I heard what appeared to be my mother’s voice! Wait a minute! My mother’s voice? She is well into her 70s and does not use a computer let alone ANY Google service. How did her voice POSSIBLY get recorded on that number? So my brother later sees he missed a call from a number he does not recognize. he returns the call, and hears what sounds like, no, he is sure it IS his mother’s voice at this weird number. He wonders….Is she okay? Is she in the Hospital? So I am not the only one that is convinced that this is my mother’s voice and he and I had not spoken yet. After a night of perplexing over this and checking to see if there was already a forwarding number assigned in the old Google account there is none. Calls are going only to Google Chat, which I originally had confirmed anyway. I call my mother the next day and explain to her that I think calls are mysteriously routing to her phone number. I then try to call her on the Google Voice number and get the recording. It just gets weirder… The calls are not forwarding to her only Google chat and terminate to a recording like an old (maybe from several years ago?) answering machine greeting of her! I don’t think she could use voice mail let alone Google Voice! How and where did Google get this recording?

It makes me wonder what Google is really up to!

____________

This just in! Still another development in the Google data mine.When you use Google login to post a comment  to another site (OpenID). Google claims the site is requesting your email address. Whet they fail to inform you is they are giving up your name as well! This came up as a result of an error the morning after making this post.Why would Google not tell us they they are giving up our email AND name? Don’t we have a right to know that? maybe next Google will tell them our phone number and date of birth just because they ask?

The original request was: //finish_auth.php?return_url=http://www.askmefast.com/q-qna1424895.html&service=google&code=1424895&code2=963747&code3=518109&janrain_nonce=2012-10-14T15%3A38%3A47Z3YdO6G&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fud&openid.response_nonce=2012-10-14T15%3A39%3A11ZQizhOW0CF4KEmw&openid.return_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.askmefast.com%3A80%2F%2Ffinish_auth.php%3Freturn_url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.askmefast.com%2Fq-qna1424895.html%26service%3Dgoogle%26code%3D1424895%26code2%3D963747%26code3%3D518109%26janrain_nonce%3D2012-10-14T15%253A38%253A47Z3YdO6G&openid.assoc_handle=AMlYA9Vj5SdK0s-2LteErFXinnRSR4SuRxgZ4SlvM328_gTdEQeq-BZq&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle%2Cns.ext1%2Cext1.mode%2Cext1.type.firstname%2Cext1.value.firstname%2Cext1.type.email%2Cext1.value.email%2Cext1.type.lastname%2Cext1.value.lastname&openid.sig=6igpEazcUIXRbonl5eAjDox2bhY%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fid%3Fid%3DAItOawlqvt4mOz4SOrBwQsUwmJ5I7BinWP2JN_A&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Faccounts%2Fo8%2Fid%3Fid%3DAItOawlqvt4mOz4SOrBwQsUwmJ5I7BinWP2JN_A&openid.ns.ext1=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fsrv%2Fax%2F1.0&openid.ext1.mode=fetch_response&openid.ext1.type.firstname=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2FnamePerson%2Ffirst&openid.ext1.value.firstname=MyFirstName&openid.ext1.type.email=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2Fcontact%2Femail&openid.ext1.value.email=MyUserName%40gmail.com&openid.ext1.type.lastname=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2FnamePerson%2Flast&openid.ext1.value.lastname=MyLastName
.

First if you have a Mac or PC with no Apple IR sensor , see this post to get a real Apple IR hardware sensor on any system with a USB port.

Although it refers to a G4 Mac Mini , I have tested my Apple IR Receiver on a PC running Linux Mint 13 Maya Mate, and XBMC and the following.

After corresponding  with Cristoph a.k.a. Evenyatar back in late December 2011 about the ATVClient and whether it could be extended to all Mac IR sensors,  he did make some suggestions but was not inclined to update the code. It made sense to me that if the Apple TV 1 remote was supported , the same could be done on any Mac IR receiver.His leads were spot on target and in fact after months of doing nothing to test and after selling my G4 Mac Mini, I was looking for a remote for an XBMC system and came across my hacked Apple IR sensor, and Apple Remote.

Here is how I did it . It involves a couple of more steps than those for downloading and compiling the Git repository

Modified from http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_Ubuntu_and_XBMC_on_Apple_TV_1

but modified for your Apple, or Mac built in IR receiver.

If you have lirc installed, uninstall it first.

from the linux command shell type (If an external receiver is used connect it first)

lsusb

and note the line that identifies your Apple IR Receiver. It mat look like the same as my homebrew unit,

Bus 003 Device 003: ID 05ac:8242 Apple, Inc. IR Receiver [built-in]

or

iMac 24/2.16 Duo White
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 05ac:8240 Apple, Inc. IR Receiver [built-in]

Note the four digits AFTER the “05ac:”

Now type

sudo apt-get install git-core libusb-dev pkg-config

sudo apt-get install g++

git clone git://github.com/Evinyatar/atvclient.git

Now I recommend you use a text editor like Nano , Gedit, or Pluma and open the file  atvclient/src/atvclient.cpp, and search for  “8241″ without quotes, and change this to the digits you noted earlier after the “05ac:” Save the modified file.

then type each line below one at a time.

cd atvclient

./configure && make

sudo make install

sudo cp atvclient /etc/init.d/atvclient

sudo update-rc.d atvclient defaults

sudo /etc/init.d/atvclient start

cd ..

Now fire up XBMC and enjoy

Thanks Cristoph!

We now offer our servers, FTP, Web Proxy and forums to users who have built their own systems. These servers allow you to easily install new add ons with little effort right from the XBMC GUI as well as, get help and advice from users in our private forums. For those outside of the USA our web proxy allows add ons like Free Cable and Hulu to work.  We offer all of this for a great value of just $10.00 Per month (paid quarterly), and you can cancel at any time.

We help to streamline your installation of add ons like no other.

After having been around the block a few times it is clear that there are limited sources, but the hands down winner is Electronica Limac (Limac Electronics) in the middle of the mall at Plaza Caracol. What these guys do not have they can often order or fabricate. The staff is always helpful and most always there is someone available that can speak English. They will even make custom length Network cables usually while you wait!

What kinds of things to they have?

• Cell phone, Camera and camcorder batteries
• Chargers for cell phones, Cameras and Camcorders
• Power supply adapters for auto and home
• Remote controls
• Cables, Connectors and adapters for TV, Computer, Video, Audio; USB, HDMI, RCA, Mini,
• Security Systems; Video surveillance, alarms
• Telephones
• Computer Accessories
• Networking Products; Wireless routers, switches, wireless adapters, network cables, IP cameras

Their phone number is 224 6040

If you find what you need there and need a professional installation, please call us or contact us with the information at the bottom of this page.