Projects
Project #2: Building an HTPC with Snow Leopard 10.6 and XBMC
May 2nd
I had fun building the Xen server in my first project, since that one is completed it is time I start with project 2! Building an HTPC with Snow Leopard 10.6 and XBMC.
I’ve been using my Xbox 1 chipped with XBMC for over 4 years now, and it has served me some good times. But as the movie quality keeps improving, or increasing in size, the Xbox doesn’t have what it take’s anymore. For example, viewing a movie in 1080p quality is simply not possible. Mostly because the file format MKV is not supported, or weakly supported.
A friend of me was talking about his new HTPC running on Snow Leopard with XMBC and it got me thinking, running Snow Leopard om my TV sounds good to me anyway. And being able to finally view Full-HD movies on my TV (witch it has never done before) is something i really want, I’m done watching crappy DivX’s.
Of course it never comes cheap, for a reasonable priced hardware configuration you come somewhere near 400 – 450 euro’s. And if I want a nice casing that fits next to my amplifier it costs me even more. The same goes for ’sound reduced’ hardware. So I think I’m just going with the average hardware and put this in a basic casing, and hide it behind my couch 
Maybe put some sound reducing stuff in the casing to reduce the annoying fan noise.
- Edit, Turns out HTPC casings are not that expensive after all. Found one for 60 euro’s, Looks like it’s going to be next to my amplifier afterall 
Project #1: Installing and configuring Xen 3.0.3 on CentOS 5.4
Apr 28th
Hi there,
I don’t often write something to my blog, mostly because I can’t find the time or the subject to write about, or the subject I can disclose to the public that is ^^. Anyway, I want to bust two bugs in one slap. That is writing something that is helpful to anyone interested and also for an archive of my projects. Often I start a personal project, mostly it doesn’t get completed because i get pulled of due other projects that actually bring food on the table. But this time I’m approaching it from another direction. Making my projects public for anyone to read. This keeps me motivated to complete the project and hopefully get some nice feedback from it.
My first project I’m posting is installing Xen 3.0.3 on a fresh server. Recently I’ve sold my webhosting company because I did not have the time, nor the long-term motivation for it. I’ve sold the company including the servers. But I managed to keep one server for myself and friends. This server is going to be used in this project so that I and my friends can have their own Virtual Machine.
Note that this is entirely new for me, and I don’t have any experience on virtualization what so ever, if you can provide me with any helpful feedback it will be appreciated
For some reason I have chosen to use Xen, why I don’t know exactly, other then its open source and according to the manual very easy to setup. I did look into other possibilities but it seems Xen is the most complete, and free software for virtualization. Also build by some of the most experienced companies out there, that gives me a big boost in confidence on support, communities etc.
I will update this post frequently on the status of the installation, how I did it and a complete log of installation commands that worked for my server. So if this post intrigues you, bookmark it!
Project is finished. This website is now running on a Virtual Machine! More >
Project #0: iGoogle-like Drag & Drop Portal v2.0
Sep 14th
Because i am getting alot of visits for the js-portal i decided to fine-tune it a bit. So, in follow up of version 1 here’s version 2
Visit the demo for download, and please comment if you like it and use it, it’s kinda fun to see it in a working project.
Update: On request i added MySQL database support, the script now saves the blocks into DB and pulls them out
Update2: I get allot of good responses but also many feature requests, so i decided to ask you script users what you would like to see as a new feature in the script, and i will try build it all in. Please type a comment on what you would like to see build in
Update3: 17 Nov 2010, Hi all, there has not been much activity lately on this script, but I decided to create a complete new version. Would you like it to have jquery support too? Im thinking about it.. I also made a public repository on github, you can visit and help coding here:
