Adding a Bluetooth dongle to an existing radio is pretty trivial now-a-days. You can pick one up that will sit in your 12v (ciggie) adapter for about $8 at ***Mart stores with the 3.5" standard aux plug. Usually these little guys have a USB port for charging too so you can add two features her older model might not have in one quick go.
Not as clean as replacing the deck (sub $100 could get you Bluetooth, USB, SiriusXM, MP3/WMA, etc) but if you want to stay easy going, they work great.
We use a NUC with Windows 10 as our TV box. We ditched Netflix+Prime for $20 Sling 'Blue' about a year ago, then about 4 months back added $10 to that to get Sling 'Orange' + Lifestyle Bundle which ended up taking the original 40ish channels to 70ish channels. Comparable DirecTV would be about $90 a month after the fees and taxes, cable locally would be about $75. These are nearly all live, main-line cable channels with only about 10% of filler channels (Bloomberg, TheBlaze, Afro, etc). They also include replays and on-demand of about 75% of what airs available.
Including the price of Internet in there--$100 a month for gigabit service with a 1TB cap, we're still under $140 including taxes and fees total for Internet+TV. The Internet/TV bundle would be about the $160ish ($150+taxes and fees) but wouldn't be gigabit and would have a lower cap (100mb + 500gb cap).
I've got a Macmini running OSX, Kodi, and a 4TB WD Cloud Duo something something NAS using DNLA. It works perfectly with a mouse, sometimes the remote works, sometimes it doesn't, and I blame that on the lousy IR support in recent versions of OSX. No such worries, just use the mouse from the couch. Bonus, all TV providers "flash" and HTML5 video works from their websites, I can torrent from the Macmini directly, and it sleeps/wakes quickly without any HDMI oddities. Our LG Tv (Circa 2012ish) has Netflix/Youtube/Pandora and can stream things "thrown" to it from the phone/iPad.
This is my experience too...my 2007 MacBook Pro seldom had (past tense, it finally died last year) issues with any Wifi points. My 2011 MacBook Air though, seems to have issues every time the OSX updates to a newer point release. Mountain Lion was the worst of these upgrades--the Air wouldn't stay connected to my home router (WRT54G) reliably at all. I ended up replacing that router with a Netgear 300N and the connection improved greatly until Mavericks came along and it started all over again. Interestingly, my 2012 iMac has never had any issues with either router or any OSX updates...
I've got a 2013 i7 iMac and have for the last two months been running it with Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp to play some games I was given for my birthday. I spent an afternoon (2-3 hoursish) installing Windows, an IRC client, a Torrent client, and a pair of web browsers--guess what? All the same versions I have on the OSX side. I prefer OSX's look and polish--especially the fonts; and PuTTY isn't as nice as having the native terminal It speaks the the hardware that either OS works "enough."
Riight, because math > reality. Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme on a global scale,and the GP got it 100% correct. How do I know? Ugh, see my username--bitcoin hates me.
I agree here, the cost of the Chromebook's savings will be negated by the "custom solutions" required to get it to do routine mundane tasks. Get him either a cheap Windows 8 device (HP has a couple in the CB's price range) or if the walled-garden/appstore is more his thing, an iDevice(TM).
Might I recommend this one instead:
http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=scrypt_altcoin_cloning_guide
Written by yours truly back in May. Source is no longer on line for the examples (foocoin) but there's so many clones out there, one can use any of them.
I completely agree. I am using a late 2012 iMac with a WheelMouse Optical USB I bought in 2000 because to me, its a MUCH better input device than the "Magic Mouse."
This is why my wife's MacBook had to go at one point. 32bit EFI hamstring'd the 2.1GHz Core2Duo and not allowing install of 64bit OSX. Its a trivial gripe though as the laptop was still totally usable, alas, it was un-upgradeable. My friend just learned the hardway about this with an iMac. He'd thought he'd found an amazing deal but then got it home and find out it won't let him use Lion/Mt. Lion or upgrade the RAM past 3Gb.
I agree with this; my HTPC is an E6400 with 4Gb of RAM and it saw a HUGE performance boost when I replaced its 5450 with a 6670. Skyrim went from 30s FPS at 1024x768 to 50+ fps at 720p. I realize the jump from XGA to 720p isn't much but the 6670's higher framerates and being able to use anti-aliasing make games much more enjoyable and visual quality is vastly improved.
Wow and I thought I was pretty 1337 for having my PRO-100 connected to my iMac for listening to my local Sheriff's dispatch. Good points on both sides if you ask me...
I agree, my kids know a lot about computers because I work on them for a living. They are NOT typical of their friends. Most of their friends know their way about an iDevice or how to check their Gmail or Facebook, but that's the extent of it. My 10 year old could help you mount a heatsink to your Core2Duo and re-install Windows, but that's because he's helped dad do just that on countless computers in his short existence.
This disposable computing age we're entering has its ups and downs...
...from a NAS device. Like you, I've spent HOURS getting all the TV cataloged, named correctly, and with images. Like you, I have kids I don't want watching certain things and I solve it thusly:
1:Create a share on your NAS which has the items you DON'T want them to watch and make it so that it needs a password or whatever credentials you need to connect to it.
2:Add the share to XBMC, but put it under a Master Profile.
3: Create another Profile for your younglings that can't access the shared files. Double bonus, since you password protected the share, if they do go scanning the network, they'll have to have to know the (hopefully) different password to mount the share with your non-kid content.
I will second Zebra's line, suprised to have read down this far to find someone recommending them. I personally like the Telescopic, but the Sarasa's are insanely nice with their gel-ink.
I say this is great! As a current paying user of Crossover Linux and Mac, I'll be happy to have a year's extension for free. Crazy that my Lame Duck version of Crossover 7 Linux is now nearly 8 years old--its still in use on a couple older kiosk-style Linux PCs at work in our breakroom to run Word for the interns to make resumes on. I primarily use Office on my Linux version, and my wife plays "Hidden Object Games" in our Mac version!
I'm running Windows 8 on a Core2Duo as an HTPC, upgraded from Windows 7. All of my games installed via the Games For Windows Store, Steam, and direct installs from DVD (Diablo III, I'm looking at you) work flawlessly. Also, I output via HDMI to a 46" Sony Wega in 720p with no issues aside from once and awhile I have to log out and back in to get the audio to wake up over HDMI (yea, my TV is ancient I'm behind the times).
I too scoffed at the clunker's program and continue to drive an 85 Bronco II, its got 180K on it and never had anything more than routine things done to it. Its a serious beater, but I average about 18mpg in it and it has a real truck underneath (Ranger) with decent 4x4 capability. Plus its like $140 a year to insure. I rue the day that it will eventually pass-on, but even then I'll get $250 to recycle its steel at the local recycler!
I'm only counting distros I actually used for more than a day or two, and yes I'm counting all *nix's, not just Linux...
In order since 1999 (when I discovered Linux):
Redhat 5.x, Redhat 6.x, CalderaLinux (loved the Novell Client built in), Various Fedora/FedoraCore's, Solaris 10, Solaris Express, OpenSolaris, Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Debian Etch, Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian Squeeze.
There were a few years (2004-2009) that I really liked and used Solaris quite a bit, but it lost me when the whole Oracle purchase went through. Fedora lost me when Ubuntu came along, and likewise, Ubuntu has recently started losing me to Debian. I like to think Debian's got the right mix of what I'm looking for (I'm posting this using Squeeze) and don't plan to leave anytime soon! Slow is fine with me, I want it to WORK and Debian does a good job of that!
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Adding a Bluetooth dongle to an existing radio is pretty trivial now-a-days. You can pick one up that will sit in your 12v (ciggie) adapter for about $8 at ***Mart stores with the 3.5" standard aux plug. Usually these little guys have a USB port for charging too so you can add two features her older model might not have in one quick go. Not as clean as replacing the deck (sub $100 could get you Bluetooth, USB, SiriusXM, MP3/WMA, etc) but if you want to stay easy going, they work great.
We use a NUC with Windows 10 as our TV box. We ditched Netflix+Prime for $20 Sling 'Blue' about a year ago, then about 4 months back added $10 to that to get Sling 'Orange' + Lifestyle Bundle which ended up taking the original 40ish channels to 70ish channels. Comparable DirecTV would be about $90 a month after the fees and taxes, cable locally would be about $75. These are nearly all live, main-line cable channels with only about 10% of filler channels (Bloomberg, TheBlaze, Afro, etc). They also include replays and on-demand of about 75% of what airs available. Including the price of Internet in there--$100 a month for gigabit service with a 1TB cap, we're still under $140 including taxes and fees total for Internet+TV. The Internet/TV bundle would be about the $160ish ($150+taxes and fees) but wouldn't be gigabit and would have a lower cap (100mb + 500gb cap).
Sling? Works for me on Ubuntu with Chrome.
There is absolutely a Diablo port--its loaded in my PS1 right now (thought it hasn't been played in a few years).
I 100% agree, well said.
I've got a Macmini running OSX, Kodi, and a 4TB WD Cloud Duo something something NAS using DNLA. It works perfectly with a mouse, sometimes the remote works, sometimes it doesn't, and I blame that on the lousy IR support in recent versions of OSX. No such worries, just use the mouse from the couch. Bonus, all TV providers "flash" and HTML5 video works from their websites, I can torrent from the Macmini directly, and it sleeps/wakes quickly without any HDMI oddities. Our LG Tv (Circa 2012ish) has Netflix/Youtube/Pandora and can stream things "thrown" to it from the phone/iPad.
This is my experience too...my 2007 MacBook Pro seldom had (past tense, it finally died last year) issues with any Wifi points. My 2011 MacBook Air though, seems to have issues every time the OSX updates to a newer point release. Mountain Lion was the worst of these upgrades--the Air wouldn't stay connected to my home router (WRT54G) reliably at all. I ended up replacing that router with a Netgear 300N and the connection improved greatly until Mavericks came along and it started all over again. Interestingly, my 2012 iMac has never had any issues with either router or any OSX updates...
I've got a 2013 i7 iMac and have for the last two months been running it with Windows 8.1 via Bootcamp to play some games I was given for my birthday. I spent an afternoon (2-3 hoursish) installing Windows, an IRC client, a Torrent client, and a pair of web browsers--guess what? All the same versions I have on the OSX side. I prefer OSX's look and polish--especially the fonts; and PuTTY isn't as nice as having the native terminal It speaks the the hardware that either OS works "enough."
Riight, because math > reality. Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme on a global scale,and the GP got it 100% correct. How do I know? Ugh, see my username--bitcoin hates me.
I agree here, the cost of the Chromebook's savings will be negated by the "custom solutions" required to get it to do routine mundane tasks. Get him either a cheap Windows 8 device (HP has a couple in the CB's price range) or if the walled-garden/appstore is more his thing, an iDevice(TM).
Might I recommend this one instead: http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=scrypt_altcoin_cloning_guide Written by yours truly back in May. Source is no longer on line for the examples (foocoin) but there's so many clones out there, one can use any of them.
I completely agree. I am using a late 2012 iMac with a WheelMouse Optical USB I bought in 2000 because to me, its a MUCH better input device than the "Magic Mouse."
This is why my wife's MacBook had to go at one point. 32bit EFI hamstring'd the 2.1GHz Core2Duo and not allowing install of 64bit OSX. Its a trivial gripe though as the laptop was still totally usable, alas, it was un-upgradeable. My friend just learned the hardway about this with an iMac. He'd thought he'd found an amazing deal but then got it home and find out it won't let him use Lion/Mt. Lion or upgrade the RAM past 3Gb.
I agree with this; my HTPC is an E6400 with 4Gb of RAM and it saw a HUGE performance boost when I replaced its 5450 with a 6670. Skyrim went from 30s FPS at 1024x768 to 50+ fps at 720p. I realize the jump from XGA to 720p isn't much but the 6670's higher framerates and being able to use anti-aliasing make games much more enjoyable and visual quality is vastly improved.
Wow and I thought I was pretty 1337 for having my PRO-100 connected to my iMac for listening to my local Sheriff's dispatch. Good points on both sides if you ask me...
I agree, my kids know a lot about computers because I work on them for a living. They are NOT typical of their friends. Most of their friends know their way about an iDevice or how to check their Gmail or Facebook, but that's the extent of it. My 10 year old could help you mount a heatsink to your Core2Duo and re-install Windows, but that's because he's helped dad do just that on countless computers in his short existence.
This disposable computing age we're entering has its ups and downs...
...from a NAS device. Like you, I've spent HOURS getting all the TV cataloged, named correctly, and with images. Like you, I have kids I don't want watching certain things and I solve it thusly:
1:Create a share on your NAS which has the items you DON'T want them to watch and make it so that it needs a password or whatever credentials you need to connect to it.
2:Add the share to XBMC, but put it under a Master Profile.
3: Create another Profile for your younglings that can't access the shared files. Double bonus, since you password protected the share, if they do go scanning the network, they'll have to have to know the (hopefully) different password to mount the share with your non-kid content.
4:??? Profit?
Check this out: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=108232 I think it will help you sort your media out with haste.
I will second Zebra's line, suprised to have read down this far to find someone recommending them. I personally like the Telescopic, but the Sarasa's are insanely nice with their gel-ink.
I say this is great! As a current paying user of Crossover Linux and Mac, I'll be happy to have a year's extension for free. Crazy that my Lame Duck version of Crossover 7 Linux is now nearly 8 years old--its still in use on a couple older kiosk-style Linux PCs at work in our breakroom to run Word for the interns to make resumes on. I primarily use Office on my Linux version, and my wife plays "Hidden Object Games" in our Mac version!
I'm running Windows 8 on a Core2Duo as an HTPC, upgraded from Windows 7. All of my games installed via the Games For Windows Store, Steam, and direct installs from DVD (Diablo III, I'm looking at you) work flawlessly. Also, I output via HDMI to a 46" Sony Wega in 720p with no issues aside from once and awhile I have to log out and back in to get the audio to wake up over HDMI (yea, my TV is ancient I'm behind the times).
I read "Minnesota," (and MOOC) and instantly had flashbacks to grade school, Apple-II, and Oregon Trail. Here's hoping no one contracts dysentery.
I am a nerd and I like Debian stable.
I too scoffed at the clunker's program and continue to drive an 85 Bronco II, its got 180K on it and never had anything more than routine things done to it. Its a serious beater, but I average about 18mpg in it and it has a real truck underneath (Ranger) with decent 4x4 capability. Plus its like $140 a year to insure. I rue the day that it will eventually pass-on, but even then I'll get $250 to recycle its steel at the local recycler!
^^this is my question for Bruce too!
I'm only counting distros I actually used for more than a day or two, and yes I'm counting all *nix's, not just Linux...
In order since 1999 (when I discovered Linux):
Redhat 5.x, Redhat 6.x, CalderaLinux (loved the Novell Client built in), Various Fedora/FedoraCore's, Solaris 10, Solaris Express, OpenSolaris, Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 10.04, Debian Etch, Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian Squeeze.
There were a few years (2004-2009) that I really liked and used Solaris quite a bit, but it lost me when the whole Oracle purchase went through. Fedora lost me when Ubuntu came along, and likewise, Ubuntu has recently started losing me to Debian. I like to think Debian's got the right mix of what I'm looking for (I'm posting this using Squeeze) and don't plan to leave anytime soon! Slow is fine with me, I want it to WORK and Debian does a good job of that!