Making Use of What I Have

I've been eyeing a NAS drive for our home network. I have a mobile drive with a collection of movies and it'd be handy to be able to stream them from the network rather than directly plugging the drive into the television.  For example, on my Nvidia Shield, there are excellent programs to sort and maintain info on my entire, current collection of around 1,000 titles.

   

The cheapest, 2-bay network-accessible drive enclosures go for about $CA 250 and that's without the actual disks!  I cannot justify paying over $CA 500 for this solution. So, I dug through the closet and located a really old Android TV box. 

I should be able to plug my existing 5TB mobile drive into the device. I won't even bother with video output from the box as I'll just need the movie files' network locations to play them. I may even be able to plug this box/disc combo into the extra ethernet port on the bedroom mesh router.  Yay, something new to try.

Remember OTA Television?

Earlier in the summer, we moved to a local provider for 75 Mbps Internet service through our city's fiber network. Saying so long to our old provider meant saying goodbye to their TV over IP too. Luckily, Surf TV was offered as an add-on to our Surf Internet package.



There have been very few hiccoughs with our new guys. The Internet TV is an app which runs on a standard Android box. They've been working on it for some time as it's currently on release 16. I commented via their site that I was having trouble pulling up the list of recorded PVR shows. They promptly sent me the newest APK of their app. It is, indeed, a bit better.

I like working with this company early-on in their growth. I feel as though I'm participating in the development and improvement of their services.

Repurposed

I hate throwing things away. I have that weird propensity to hoard. Thankfully, we have very little space in which to do so. I think it's a gene that came from my father. He had to buy a shed on adjoining property just to store old Volkswagon parts, an extra pickup camper, and more tools than any person would use.

Even when things come to the end of their useful life, I spend time imagining how they can be re-used. I'm pretty proud that my old Nexus 5 can live on, even without a telco SIM inside.

My old phone has now become a type of entertainment remote for our old Google Chromecast. We have an Android TV box that works perfectly. However, booting it up just to play a bit of radio or listen to a few minutes of music seems like a lot of effort. Now I can flip on the TV and HTS and make more use of the Chromecast. I think it does provide better-quality, video streaming than the HDMI out of my TV box.

As an added bonus, I can use my Nexus 5 as an MP3 player for my walks. Not being an earbuds-kind-of-guy, I can slip on my large, over-the-ear, Sony headphones. I let Google Music copy about 5GB of music to my former phone. That app can be switched over to 'downloads only' when I go outside. It will still stay up-to-date with new downloads and my thumbs up or down data when it's connected to WiFi inside.

I feel better not tossing the rather ancient phone. It has now been repurposed strictly for audio and video apps.

Lots of Little Things to Do

There's only one problem with being home and it's that our bodies are still on a time zone that's around sixteen hours ahead of this one. We were dog tired last night but ended up wide awake at 4:00 AM. We got up to just ride it out.

There are a multitude things about being home which aren't problems at all. The weather was pretty good. It is very nice to come back to our cozy little lives in BC. We really are so lucky to be able to experience many varieties of existing. We have so many unique memories. This is quite the opposite of getting into a rut. We experience different actual types of life.

Now that we're back, we had a few things to do. This morning I took a bus uptown before 9 o'clock. I wanted to get to the Royal City Mall as soon as it opened to buy seven months of car insurance at my broker. That should bring us right up until the beginning of another winter away. Of course, if I decide to buy a new car this summer, I can switch coverage to a new vehicle. As well, we went to the Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam for groceries. It is a habit I've missed. Moreover, there were lots of little things around the apartment which needed to be done. For example, I had to plug in the Android TV box. We used it extensively in Malaysia for Netflix and other TV and music. Thankfully, Telus had our Internet ready and running for us when we flipped on all the electrical switches yesterday. Lastly, I caught up on updates for our dining-table laptop which had stayed in Canada. I like having my computers all vastly over-organized. Task, accomplished.

Dorothy was right about home. She, like us, needed to get away on an adventure to appreciate home all the more!

A Slow Sunday

Day 40 - I walked with Jay to the neighbourhood market this morning. Just as last week, we had a street hawker make hoppers for us. We didn't eat them for breakfast but saved them to eat with dinner. It was a slow day. I do relish the fact it was a slow day with a temperature of 31C.











In the evening, as well as a movie on Netflix, I started the VPN and the CBC app on our Android box. We were able to watch the Royal Canadian Air Farce. The once mightly comedy-skit program is now relegated to just a New Year's Eve special. I have to admit it was pretty uninspiring and, more tragically, most unfunny.

Nine Months Later ...

Day 37 - Tonight we finished up season 2 of The Crown on Netflix.

I'm happy we brought along my Android box. It used to hit or miss when abroad as to whether we'd be able to keep up on our TV episodes. Now, I just bring TV along with me, thanks to the Internet and some available apps. We caught the first episode of season 30 of The Amazing Race tonight too. Of course, you might be able to see how that fits into our sensitivities, especially as we were watching from Malaysia.



Today also marks the ninth-month anniversary of Jay's heart surgery. I am so thankful for his doctors and the Canadian medical system. After his five grafts, his heart health is now much better than it's been in decades.

Bus Route #301

Day 03 - We slept deeply last night, of course. I have this running self-argument figuring out if jetlag is worse when flying east or west. Perhaps it boils down to the time of the flight and whether one is crossing the dateline. I don't think we're going to have much trouble on this trip. Six o'clock is a bit early to get up but I think we are already to keep a local schedule.

We had bought some basic staples at a neighbourhood store yesterday. So, we had enough for breakfast. That coffee packet was not instant and needed to be strained. Today, however, we wanted to get out and get a lot of food and supplies.



After a bit of a slow start to the morning, we decided to take the bus to George Town. We are exactly at the end of bus route #301 which goes to Penang's main city. We will be using Rapid Penang transit during our stay although our apartment comes with a space in the building.



The traffic is a bit a problem in Penang. So knowing commute times is a bit impossible. I think it was a pleasant 50 minutes to get to Komtar. It took a whopping 2.80 Ringgit ($US 0.66) and our first goal was to find the ticketing office to get a pass. We didn't have any photos with us, so we got unlimited weekly passes for a week for $7.34 rather than one month cards.





I bought a Malaysian cell phone SIM and popped it into my phone. Then, we walked around a lot, trying to get our bearings. I love the fact I have personalized, internal maps of so many cities of the world. We visited George Town once but spent only a day or so in the capital of the Penang state. It is such a nice mixture of cultures.





We found the downtown Mydin, a large department store with reasonable prices. However, we were getting hungry and decided to board a bus on the gratis, downtown bus loop. As we were nearing the end we saw 'Little India' and stopped to pick up some spices and supplies which Jay will use in his cooking.

We also ate biryani, of course on authentic banana leaves.



It was getting on towards 2:00 PM and the hottest part of the day. It was probably about 31C today. So, we decided to go home after finding the Jetty, which is our bus's last stop in George Town. It took a long time to get back. Today was a national holiday and I hope this is why the roads were so packed.

After showering and relaxing we realized we had still not really picked up provisions. However, when coming back we spotted the stop for a major TESCO and also a shopping center complex which was only about 10 minutes away on the bus. We decided to take a trip to the Kompleks Bukit Jambul. We saw online that the major anchor store is now a Mydin.



Yup. It had everything and we bought three bags of groceries and I was able to swipe my Amazon Canada Visa card which has no foreign transaction fees. It was after 6:30 PM, so we also ate in the food court. My Nasi (something or other) was about 650 ringitt, or about US$ 1.60.



We got home late but I was able to use my Android box and watch the latest episode of The Orville. This is going to be a great three months ...

Streaming from Singapore

Switching to any of the 'supposed' news channels offers me identical local, national, and international stories. Oh, and by the way, trending YouTube videos are NOT news!



I can watch live television news from just about anywhere via my Android TV Box. Often it is nicer and necessary to broaden one's horizons.

I find it tragically ironic that the Internet provides pretty much the whole world at one's fingertips; yet, during the last 20 years people seem to have become a great deal more ignorant and insular.

Missed It When I was Eight

I like movies and I like the ease with which one can now catch up on films from the past.

We consume a tremendous amount of streamed video. In fact as we have television via IP, I guess you can say that everything shown on the screen comes in over an Internet connection nowadays. Much of what we watch is a one-off deal. For example, I cannot see any need to save much of what we watch. Yet, I have never gone over my broadband limits, so I often search for movies to download. There's a 2 TB portable drive connected to my Android TV box.

As I had Telus cancel our landline last week, I opted to pay a few bucks more a month to get 25 Mbps service. That also means I now get 300 GB of data per month to use. I think I'll be doing a bit more downloading. I hate the idea of not bumping up against my limits.

Umami and Me

If I spend just a few minutes in front of the TV after selecting something to view in the BBC iPlayer app, I learn something new. Why is it I can't say this with other television networks?

I just discovered The Secrets of Food. I started watching episode 2, but I think I should probably watch them in order. I had never heard of of the word umami, although Jay often talks about some foods as having a savory taste. I didn't know that our tongue can differentiate only five basic tastes. Wikipedia does mention there are ten other sensations a tongue can detect. That's a lot of sensory input. It's no wonder I enjoy eating so much!


කන්න.
I do realize how spoiled I am. With kitchen cupboards full of exotic spices and Jay creating the meals, I get many more tastes than an average guy here. Our basic lunch plates always looks like the one in this picture, although the precise combinations on the plate are different every single day!

To Scrobble

About a year ago, I lamented that it was pretty hard to keep up with what to watch nowadays. Television produces some petty amazing stories. There are more movies available than time to watch them. It's all about picking and choosing in 2017. Today, I quit an app called TVShow Time as I found I really didn't keep up entering what we'd seen and where in a series we were.

When we binge a series, it is pretty easy to remember. For example, I know that we completed just six episodes of the season four of Black Sails. We'll finish up soon by watching a couple of episodes a night. Sometimes, it gets confusing though.

I thought I'd try trakt.tv. I think it may keep keeping track a little easier. At least I can supposedly try automatic scrobbling from Terrarium TV.

Biding Our Time

This is a rather quiet time as we slowly approach the date of Jay's heart surgery in the middle of next week. We walked across Columbia Street to the department store. Jay didn't have an adequate robe to use in the hospital. He found a fine, blue one. He's probably going to probably be in Royal Columbian Hospital for four or five nights.



I pulled back the living room TV in order to position the replacement, little Android TV Box. I had to get out the vacuum cleaner as it was a bit dusty back there! I've pretty much got it set up now. I've stayed with the Leelbox home launcher for now. It allows for zero modification to many of the tiles. I could go back to a launcher I used previously called, Top TV. Yet, it'd take at least 45 minutes to start from scratch with that, so it can wait.

Anyway, I've had no surprises when spending hands-on time with the Leelbox M9S Pro. I like it.

Total Control

I'd never paid more for next day delivery. However, it was only a few bucks so I figured, why not?



I get to celebrate my nerdiness fairly infrequently nowadays. Back in the old days of old Windows, one could spend endless hours fiddling and fuddling. Now I never notice any Win 10 maintenance going on, except on those few occasions when logging on in the morning takes longer because the system had to reboot in its dark lonesomeness.



So I am finding it very fulfilling to go through the new TV Box, busily deleting unnecessary programs and adding those I require. Who'd want to do Facebook on their television screen, honestly?

I don't know whether I should go with the stock home menuing from a third-party app as I did on the old Minix. So many decisions to get the device exactly as I want it. Perhaps, that is why I've always liked computers. One can create an exactly customized experience matching one's own wants, needs, or peculiarities. There is little else in life where I can exercise such complete domination and total control. Such is a terrible pity for the world in general, I guess.

Streaming Showbox to the Living Room TV

Back in 2014 I wanted a good-quality Android streaming box. At the time that sort of meant buying a Minix. I had to wait a bit for an X8-H to come from Hong Kong. It was supposedly a powerful beast. I was never terribly impressed, although it did have 2/16 GB ram and did some things exceedingly well. I waited and waited for the company to come up with some system updates, but Minix never did. It wasn't long before new models became the focus of their attention.

My box travelled with us to Luxor, Egypt last winter where it was attached to an old tube TV. We ended up streaming more on the big laptop but it did work. We depend on several apps for keeping up on current TV shows and movies. Yet last night, it didn't make it past the beginning splash screen. When I tried this morning, I couldn't get any result out of the HDMI port.



So, I was easily convinced to order something new on amazon.ca today. I figure a new Leelbox M9S Pro will fun to learn and play with. In actuality, my very old Chromecast is probably enough to make my TV smart. This is especially true since I figured out this afternoon how to use allcast to stream showbox to it. Either my Android tablet or phone could have sufficed. I do so like un-boxing little electronic gadgets though.

The First Saturday of October

The apartment smells of oil. It comes from frying, so that's good (and really unusual).

Jay made a few Sri Lanka treats. I remember them as gifts from neighbours during the Christmas we were in Minuwangoda. Christian, Moslem, and Buddhist neighbours often share food during the different religious holidays. That means there are nearly always special foods to eat.


Today was a darker day with rain. We started the day by doing the usual weekly grocery shopping. We have friends coming for dinner tomorrow so I picked up a few growlers of beer from Central City Brewing. As well as some hot tub time, a productive hour was spent power-napping.

A few minutes ago, I also downloaded a newer version of the BBC iPlayer for my Android TV box. I had to add a London postcode to my BBC account and verify that I was older than 18. My VPN makes it appear as if I'm sitting in London but I was a little bothered by having to verify I had a TV licence. World News Today is showing right now.

Dancers and Elephants Wearing Swag

We watch a lot of TV via the little Android box. It uses our broadband Internet connection. Actually, in fact, we watch all television over IP as our regular programming also comes via Telus, our Internet provider.

So, it no longer strikes me as unusual that we were able to watch the Kandy Perahera live this morning directly from one of the main Sri Lankan television channels. As the time there is 12 1/2 hours ahead of Vancouver, we caught the night time celebration at 9 AM.

It might be worth noting that when we got to British Columbia twenty years ago, we rocked a 56K dial-up fax/modem.

A Tiny New Keyboard

Thanks, Amazon Prime. You are able to get things in my mailbox so quickly that you're easier than making a trip to a physical store.

I had been using a standard, wireless Microsoft keyboard and mouse with my Android TV Box last summer. When in Egypt for the winter I brought only the mouse for navigation and used the on-screen, software keyboard. However, the little USB fob got bent in my luggage last week. As it stopped working, I can no longer use the same arrangement as I did last summer. I used to keep the keyboard on the bottom shelf of the coffee table where it was both convenient and easy. I wondered about the best way to replace the setup.


This weekend, I saw this backlit Rii® i8 Mini Handheld Keyboard online. I ordered it on Saturday and Canada Post put it in my box this afternoon.

It's Show Time - Day 67

When packing just one bag for a 5-month winter vacation, one has to be sure to bring only the essentials.

I consider my Android TV Box an essential item. After all, it's not much bigger or heavier than package of mosquito coils. I assumed we'd not have a wide-screen in our rental place in Egypt, so I ordered a little HDMI to RCA converter from China last summer too. These items are worth their weight, perhaps not in gold, but surely in entertainment value.


The TV here is not hi-def but there is a choice of hundreds of channels over a two-satellite system. Still, the useful channels end up being the news. There is not much in the way of interesting English-language programming.

We use the 17" laptop for Netflix streaming but, watching a real TV, even if a retro one, seems more comfortable. We have been primarily viewing downloaded movies via my key-ring's USB through the box. We had not really been keeping up with our normally-watched television programs since we left home at the beginning of November. Maybe it's time to start binging a bit during the evenings though ...

Frugal Packing

Getting packed for a five and a half month stay is not as hard as it sounds.

We regularly laugh at people who are apparently carrying half their home with them on a vacation. We've travelled enough over the years to have a lot of tricks up our sleeves. I've mentioned several here in the past. For example, one can take along one's oldest socks and underwear and just toss them along the way. That makes for lighter bags on the return trip.

At a certain point, most travellers also realize that nearly every item in their bags can be easily purchased at any destination. A bottle of shampoo is surely available in every place you're likely to end up. Even clothes purchased during a trip can make a nice souvenirs, so it really doesn't make sense to bring everything that one may possibly need.

When going away for the whole winter though, some other unusual items might end up being useful. I plan on bringing along our Android TV box. I love it and hopefully the Internet in Luxor is robust enough for video downloading. The plastic box itself is only the size of Tim Horton's doughnut. Additionally though, I will need its mobile drive and assorted wires. I won't have our home theatre system for audio, but I can use the tiny portable ones. Oh, they will take up a little more room too. In case the TV doesn't have RCA inputs, I'll need to pick up one of these adapters. I have a zillion wires and never the ones I need. Wait, and what about a keyboard and mouse?

The kilos I'll save, in bringing only a couple of pairs of pants, will be used up on other 'necessary' items.

Brain Backup Required

A bit earlier in the summer, I was all gung-ho about sorting out years of our vacation videos. I found a very erratic collection DVDs and a few dusty SD card carrying this data. I had begun to sort out the trips already on YouTube and vowed to get everything else into mp4 files for eventual uploading. Within the last several months, I even considered that at the current 60+ GB, I might have to run into my former place employment just get it all on YouTube. (The British Columbia Institute of Technology, of course, has excellent Internet bandwidth.)

I have come quite far with getting just about all the old discs and SD cards into a useful file format. Of course, these could be played directly from any computer or the Android box for the TV. Yet something was bothering me. It did seem like there was a bit of a gap during the years of 2010/11. Hum?

Timehop, that little app that reminds one of social media interactions on the anniversary of the original dates, has its work cut out for it. There was a decade or so when I was able to escape the first term of the academic year and set aside the time for travel. We loved to get away during September weather as it was always pleasant. In addition, the autumn can be very conducive for touring in Europe, or in fact many places, without crowds. For example, today, I got notification for sharing the eJournal entry from September 15, 2011. We were on the 'missing day' enroute to Shanghai. The video of that trip is online for sure.

Yet, what I saw on this date in 2010 caused me a bit of concern. We'd also seen a TV episode of Departures of Canadian guys travelling in Fes the other night. I couldn't recall ever seeimg that trip video when we travelled to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Had I lost that whole trip? And where was our trip to Central America in 2011? Crap, had I copied over those SD cards and lost all that video too?

Today, I was cleaning a drawer and located an old Seagate mobile drive.


Of course, I had been organized. I found all sorts of HD video in a neatly organized folder. I should have given myself more credit. It's not the data I had forgotten to backup; it was the fact I'd forgotten the hard disc even existed.

As a classmate from high school used to say: Oh Lordie!