I am now on the winding down stage of my leave so starting big projects is out of the question.  Pimping a media centre, though, is just the kind of small project to tackle to keep the mind busy.

The box generates this boring blue screen that you can see in the picture on the left. When you first get the box it looks all funky and then after a while the novelty wears off. So I decided to change it.  Seeing as how I am watching a lot of Sci Fi shows at the moment I decided to settle on a space theme.

Before I get a million comments, I know that the planets are in the wrong positions.  Live with it!  Each of the planets is an icon that links to a particular Directory or Jukebox.  After I got the Popcorn box sorted out I started working on the movie and tv series directories.

The Jukebox software that I decided to use is called YAMJ.  Yet Another Media Jukebox.  There are loads of different Jukeboxes out there but I like things that are clean and simple which is why I settled for the YAMJ software.

The YAMJ software automatically scans your Movie directory and generates all the posters, plot information and and box sets that make the whole system work.

There is a little tweaking that needs to be done, like getting your file names in the right format for the software to recognise or choosing the right skin for your purposes, but once all that is done the systems looks really cool and works brilliantly.

If you need any help on this check out the links below:

Yet Another Movie Jukebox support

Skins/ Themes

Popcorn A100

Networked Media Tank Wiki

Cheers

Pete

1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours. Obviously there was no ash cloud to worry about then.

 1506 – In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

 As for Birthdays today, it is Cher’s . She was born in 1946 making her 64 years old today. Thus demonstrating that the bunny huggers are not wrong, plastic really does last forever. 

And last but not least, today two years ago the great Frank Sinatra died.  As it turns out Frank Sinatra died on the 14th of May 1998.  So he doesn’t belong in this post at all.  Ain’t that a bugger!!!

I read an article in the newspaper on Monday and decided to try and find a video of it. Sure enough good ol’ You tube came to the rescue.

A meteor splashed across the sky over the Gauteng region. It was seen in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and Botswana. The Science guys are trying to find out where it came from and finally where it landed.
Here is the clip of it flying overhead.

Pete

An addictive little tune

With Hollywood celebrities dropping like flies, I thought I would start a new  event on our web page.  Something that will show the young’uns what a real star is.   It is with this in mind that I introduce this month’s “Star of the Month”.

Fomalhaut (pronounced Foam-al-hot)

Constellation: Piscis Australis

Age: 100 – 300 million years old  (Kinda like a Miley Cyrus, maybe Lindsay Lohan of the space scene)

Distance from Earth: 25 Light Years

Magnitude: +1.16

Nickname:  (When you have been around as long as these guys you tend to get a lot of them, here’s the most popular)

Mouth of the Fish, Mouth of the Whale

Claim to fame:  He is a Daddy.  It is the First Star system with a planet that we can see in visible light, Namely Fomalhaut B.  (I know kak sounding name especially when you think that it is not like they only had a week to come up with it.)

Has a Dust Cloud which surrounds it and makes it look rather like Sauron’s Eye in Lord of the Rings!

Famous Family:  Fomalhaut is a member of the Castor Moving group.  No they are not a removal company but merely a bunch of stars that share a similar movement through space.  To name drop a few, Vega and Castor are rumoured to roll with our boy!

No record of any DUI’s or Accidental OD’s at this stage but hey… in 300 million years he must have let his guard down at least once.  Where did Fomalhaut B come from for instance.

So there we have it folks.  This weeks Star of the Month.

On this day in 1970,  The Apollo 13 Space craft lifted off from Kennedy Space Centre.  After 2 days there was an explosion onboard and the crew had to abandon their mission and head back home.  Their story is a fascinating one and the hardships these three men had to endure became legend.

It was on this mission that the Commander James Lovell said the famous words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

One thing you may not have known about this was that the Grumman Aerospace Corporation, the folks who built the Lunar Module, issued an invoice for $312,421.24 to North American Rockwell, the folks who built the Command Module, for “towing” the crippled ship to the Moon and back.

The invoice was drawn up by a pilot called Sam Greenberg as a joke following Apollo 13′s successful return to earth.

The invoice included a 20% commercial discount, as well as a further 2%  discount if North American paid in cash.

North American politely declined payment, noting that they had ferried Grumman LMs to the Moon on three previous occasions with no such reciprocal charges

Today I will be taking a look at something that has stood up and made me take notice.

In the “Nothing good will come of this” Catergory.
View Larger Map

North Korea wants to launch a bliksemse big rocket into space.  They claim that it is a communications satellite and that it is a peaceful move.  Naturally, Japan, which is literally on North Korea’s doorstep is quietly having a cadenza.  So what could possibly go wrong?  There are a number of things which cause concern.  Firstly what if this isn’t a peaceful mission and is actually a test of a new ballistic missile system.  This is primarily what Japan is worried about and so they have positioned a number of the Warships in the area.  Japan has promised to shoot  down any missile which enters it’s airspace.  North Korea has said that it would beat three shades of Sh*te out of anyone trying to stop the missile from getting to space.

The yanks then stood and and sort of patted everyone on the head and said, “Now now Children… North Korea … please don’t launch this missile and to Japan… Don’t worry boys We’ve got your back!”  To this extent the Americans have positioned a number of their warships into the area as well.  Watch this space, the Launch is expected soon.

Pete

This is what happens if you have a set of kick arse speakers, a bottle of salt and too much time on your hands. 

Once again a member of the Bowen Clan has launched into print and got published.  For christmas last year we bought Mom a year long subscription to a magazine called Odyssey.  It covers all the sort of Mind, body and soul subjects.

 Anyhoo, Mom wrote an article to this magazine and has gotten it published.  She called the article "Touching Souls – The Teabag way"

Either click on the photo or the URL below and it will take you to the magazine.  Scroll down about half way through the articles.  There is poem about a Dove and then you will see this picture of Mom at Macchu Picchu and an article below it. 

http://www.odysseymagazine.co.za/ezine/may-june-2008/index.htm#1

Have a read, it certainly is an interesting concept. 

Cheers

Pete