I’m in geek heaven
You may have noticed that the US election is in full swing, which for me means that it’s time to tune back into The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The way that these two programs can distil an issue down to its most salient points, and be outrageously funny at the same time, is amazing.
Because I simply cannot bring myself to pay for Austar, following these two shows means either watching a streamed version on the Comedy Central website, which is low res and means hooking my laptop up to the tv, or getting a copy downloaded to Mrsdave’s Mac, which means I have to watch the shows in my bedroom. Neither of these solutions was ideal, but as election season is only once every two years I put up with it.
This week, however, I was saved from my torment by the power of geekiness. After our discussion of all things ’80s a while back, I decided to get a copy of Star Blazers to share with Buster Boy. Again, I was left with the problem of having the videos on Mrsdave’s Mac rather than in a format that could be viewed in the lounge room. But this time luck was on my side and I stumbled upon a great little piece of software called Rivet, which allows content from Mrsdave’s Mac to be streamed over the network to our X-box 360 so that it can be watched on the TV. Added to this I have an app which automatically finds and downloads new episodes of shows I want to watch, meaning that I don’t even have to go searching for content, so with a few button clicks on my X-box remote I now have all my favourite shows available to me.
I cannot tell you how cool this is. For a geek like me, who spends their working life seeing technology not working, it is really awesome to see people making stuff like this work so well. So now you know why there’s been nothing on the blog for a while, the Argo has just passed Saturn, and Jon and Steven are whipping Sarah Palin back to Alaska, who has time to write?
Welcome back from geekland, Dave! That’s pretty cool.
BTW, what’s the other app and is it mac compatible?
Cheers, mate.
Hi jr, the other app is simply called TVshows, and it is indeed an OS X application. The way it works is that it subscribes to an RSS service for every show that you select and if it finds a new episode it’ll download the torrent file. At this point my BitTorrent client, Transmission, takes over and downloads the file. As soon as the show is downloaded Rivet makes it available to the X-box, so once you have chosen the shows you want the whole process requires no more intervention.
TVshows is extra good during our summer, when the new shows from the US are showing but we’re being bored to death with repeats and failed shows like Joey.
what I’d give to have enough bandwidth to even download one episode … That’s life! BTW Dave, are there any geeks left without Macs?
Oh Christ, I’ve accidentally stumbled upon “Gary Geek’s riveting software blog”.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Btw, Dave, “I have to watch the shows in MY bedroom” ? Mrs Dave had enough of the geek, eh?
Greg, I think that Mac usage has been growing quite rapidly since the release of OS X as it gave the real alpha geeks a platform, that could do just about anything. The switch to intel chips only solidified that growth.
I don’t know how I’d deal with losing high speed broadband, it’s such a part of daily life now. I recently had to use the internet to download a file at a customer’s site and nearly tore my hair out waiting for their ADSL1 connection to bring down a 70Mb file.
Ray, do you get The Daily Show and Colbert Report in your Austar package? If you haven’t seen it you can’t understand the delight at being able to get easy access to it, particularly in election season.
BTW I’m allowed to refer to it as my bedroom whenever I’m not in the presence of Mrsdave.
I’ve seen Colbert and he’s OK. It’s not part of the standard $50+ per month Austar package though, you have to pay extra for “The Comedy Channel”.
So you take your ‘X box’ into the bedroom? Is that like a fleshlight?
And shortly after Mr Dixon’s last reply, the whole thread went pear shaped.
He has a habit of doing that, doesn’t he?
THIS is how vicious rumours (in this instance appropriate) start, Dave.
Sorry JR, I’ll remember to stay out of geek threads in future.
It’s not that we don’t want you, Ray. Don’t feel too bad. It’s not like we want you to get a complex or anything, mate. And stop calling me a bloody Geek, OK?
Lighten up JR, Dave called homself one. And I put “stupid” on my own forehead. Don’t be so ‘precious’ mate.
Sorry, mate, only kidding. But having another look at it, there’s no indication. Please accept my humble apologies.
Oh the torture of waiting for a torrent. I have unlimited bandwidth, but the real download speeds are measly. I end up getting 5, maybe 6kbps. I just queue torrents up before bed and download over a series of nights.
About two nights an epp for my favourite stuff.
So we’re all ‘buddies’ again? Except maybe …..
What happened there?
Ray, what I meant to say, was that there was no indication in the offending post that I was joking, hence the unreserved and humble apology from me to you for the un-intentioned slip up on my part.
All of you, into the tub of jelly now!
I hope that you’re volunteering to referee Bron, I want no part in the event.
That sounds like fun, Bron. When, where? And you’re invited too.
Now, here. Thank you but that was already a given.
is Dave still in Sydney by any chance, Bron?
Btw JR, I was referring to the apparent split beteen 2 other bloggers, not you and me. (Why do I have to keep explaining myself? Maybe I need a course in diplomatic relations – Bron, you could help there!)