I setup FreeNAS and it has a builtin UPnP server so I was looking for a way to view the videos (AVI/DIVX/XVID/MPG/etc) on my ipad. I finally found 8Player. Costs $5 but it streams all music, videos and pictures like a champ. Well worth the $5. I tried almost every other one I could find that did UPnP and this one was the best.
For some reason, teaching my Indian co-workers 80s rap lingo is hilarious to me.
Today:
(04:46:59 PM) COWORKER: Hey Brian
(04:47:07 PM) ME: word
(04:47:17 PM) COWORKER: ?
(04:47:47 PM) ME: heh
(04:48:01 PM) ME: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=word
1) well said
2) said in a agreement
3) can be used as a greeting, hey whats up
(04:48:10 PM) COWORKER: :)
(04:48:12 PM) COWORKER: ok..
(04:48:12 PM) ME: means "hey what's up" in 80s rap lingo :)
(04:48:16 PM) ME: word
(04:48:23 PM) COWORKER: cool..
and this was a month ago:
(02:38:52 PM) COWORKER: Hi Brian
(02:38:56 PM) ME: word
(02:40:10 PM) what's word ?
(02:40:42 PM) ME: word - an 80s rap greeting - also
synonymous with yes
(02:40:57 PM) COWORKER: ok
(02:41:23 PM) ME: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=word
(02:41:31 PM) ME: 1) well said
2)said in a agreement
3) can be used as a greeting, hey whats up
(02:42:01 PM) ME: I expect you to greet me with "word" next time I see you
(02:42:21 PM) COWORKER: word
Over the weekend I installed FreeNAS 7 (not the latest – 8) on a mini PC I was looking to sell. Nobody wanted to buy it and I had read recently on Lifehacker about FreeNAS. I’ve been wanting a central file server for a while now that could house MP3s and movies, etc and stream it to various devices (iphone, ipad, Xbox 360, XBMX, etc) and this sounded perfect. I got it all setup finally despite it being somewhat involved and non-intuitive. I wanted to plug in my 500GB USB HD into it but it says not to use NTFS with it so if I want to do that I’m going to have to copy all the data off of it (not sure I have ~300GB of extra space anywhere), format it for FreeNAS, then copy the stuff back. Maybe I’ll just get an internal drive for it instead and start fresh.
Following right on the heels of The Lost Gate, also by Orson Scott Card, I went straight into another OSC book, Pathfinder. I liked Pathfinder much more than The Lost Gate. I got this one, too via the local libraries digital checkout (via Overdrive).
Pathfinder has two interwoven storylines – one is a sci-fi storyline and one is a medieval storyline. For the first half of the book I had no idea what they had to do with each other and the sci-fi storyline actually started irking me because the other was so much more interesting. Eventually, it made sense once all was revealed. This is a book that can easily be spoiled by the wrong summary of it so I won’t go into any detail about the plot (and don’t go reading summaries elsewhere). Here’s a hint… time travel. Confusing time travel.
The narration was excellently done by numerous voices. Each chapter/story was done in a different voice then at times new chapters that focused on a different character had a new narrator. It was a bit odd at first since I got used to (and liked) the first narrator but I got over it.
I really enjoyed the characters and the storylines in this book and heartily recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi/fantasy. OSC leaves the door wide open for the sequels and a good litmus test for me is would I read/listen to the next one in the series? For Pathfinder, I would.
I’ll explain in more detail later.