Recommended: XBOX Media Center

Okay, so I just got an XBOX (no, not a 360). And I've modded it. I'm a big media center freak so the first thing I reached for was XBOX Media Center.

And I'm pretty impressed. Okay, so it's a bit crashy, and it's a little hard to find, but it IS free, and while it works it works great. Get yourself one of the latest CVS builds and you'll be going off.

The nice thing about XBMC, as it is often called, is that it is expandable. You can use XML to customise it, and Python to program it (lucky that I have a book on Python already). This is great, as it means such things as TV guides can be added to it. Not to mention direct support (via MySQL and SAMBA) for my MythTV recordings.

Brilliant!

PS. To mod the XBOX don't go past Softmod Installer Deluxe, which you can find here, but make sure you get the latest version 4.5, especially if you have a PAL XBOX (this caused me no end of confusion). And if you use Splinter Cell to softmod, make sure you get the matching (PAL/NTSC) game save!

Kudos to Datel/Codejunkies for making the Action Replay product that makes this possible, and Liksang.com for the XBOX to USB goodies.

If anyone has a script for ecto...

I'd be grateful if anyone has a script that implements expandable post summaries in ecto -- the one's Blogger suggests

here or better.

Revitalising my blog...

Okay, I'm finally going to put a concentrated effort into getting this back off the ground.

There's a lot of software and things that I see or play with in a week, so I want to be able to comment quickly on them here.

To make my life easier I'm also going to be trying out some different weblog clients, the first of which is ecto. Let's see how this goes, and maybe I'll recommend it.
[posted with ecto]