Home Media Automation – Part 2

In my last post, I showed how to use Apple TV & iTunes to see all you movies on you LCD and listen all your music on your home theater. Wireless played an important role for syncing the media, but you can also use wired connection.

Now let’s take this a step further. There was time when there were no remote controls, for time you have to change the channel or volume we had to go up to the TV or music system. Those days are long gone. So in your home media automation, you will definitely not like to go up to your computer to change the media. The good thing will be if you can get a remote for your computer as well. Even better will be the ability to use your remote across rooms/walls, such that you can increase & decrease the volume of your system or change the song from a different room.

Adding a new remote to your Apple TV

Steps to follow:

  1. Download “Remote Control” application for iTunes store and install it on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
  2. Open Remote Control app on your iPhone/iPod and go to settings. Select “Add Library”.
  3. Open your Apple TV settings. Under that go to Remotes. Enter the pin as you see on your iPod/iPhone.
  4. Again, select ‘add library’ on Remote App on iPod/iPhone.
  5. Open iTunes, you will see your phone or iPod name in the left bar. Enter your 4 digit pin as displayed on the Remote app in iTunes.

You are ready to go. You iPod Touch or iPhone now acts as a remote. By using your iPod Touch or iPhone, you can now control your media, sitting in a different room.


Adding new media library to your Remote App in iPod Touch or iPhone


Controlling your Apple TV from iPod Touch or iPhone


Controlling songs playing on iTunes on your computer

Home Media Automation – Part 1

Gadgets are men’s best friends, aren’t we all fond of them! :) We, men, always want simplicity in life. Somethings are in your hands, of which you can be proud of. Automating your home media is one way to achieve it.

Sexy and expensive home theater system are for the rich, but that should not mean that other should be deprived of it.

Here are list key requirements for home automation -

  • Most likely you have tons of mp3, photos, & movies on your computer.
  • You have a home theater system connected to your LCD.

Basic expectations -

  • Play music on home theater (probably 5.1 channel system)
  • Watch your movies & photos on your bigger LCD screen

Value add -

  • Able to control your media with a remote, irrespective of source & target

The solution here is only specific to Apple products, but you can look for other alternatives if you are not an apple fan.

PrerequisitesTelevision and Apple TV

  • Tons of media
  • iTunes on your computer
  • Apple TV 
  • LCD TV
  • iPhone or iPod Touch or iPad (Optional)
  • Wireless Router

 

Once you have all the prerequisites, all that you need is to configure them to work together.

imageThe first thing to start with is setting up your Apple TV. AppleTV has an internal storage of up to 160 GB, so it can store your media from computer. It has ability to sync itself over the wire or wireless. I prefer wireless, after all who wants to see wires running between the system  tv. I have given the sound output of Apple Tv to my home theater and Video output to my LCD

After setting up AppleTV, you should be able to see it in iTunes. One of the very interesting thing now you will notice is that at the bottom right of iTunes you will have multiple speaker option. You can now choose which speaker you want the output to – computer or apple tv. This is how you can listen to your favorite songs on the much better home theater system. Note that you can not stream video this way. But there is a solution to that too.

Now, the catch is that AppleTV can only play MP4 videos, but the good thing is that MP4’s are better then AVI’s in quality and you even get High Definition (HD) videos. 10022010049

As I said earlier, Apple TV has up to 160 GB of storage space, you can store all your media on it. But in care you have much more, then this is not the suggested approach. Instead configure your AppleTV to stream all kinds of media from your computer rather than storing it.

On Apple TV, go to Settings—> Computers, select “Add shared iTunes library’, proceed as per instructions.

Once you have done this, you shall be able to see all you media [movies & music] listing in Apple TV. 1002201005210022010054

Your are now ready to play all you mp4  & mp3 on your computer on your LCD, without copying your media on a CD or USB drive.

Books I read…

Earth needs an Avatar to save her…

Varaha, or the Boar Incarnation of Vishnu.
Mahdya Pradesh, 9th-10th century.

Avatar is a Sanskrit work, which literally means incarnation. Avatar is a very common referenced term in Hinduism, and almost every God has an avatar. For example, Siva has twenty-eight avatars, Vishnu has 10, also referred as Dasavatara (Das = 10), Ganesha has 8, and so on. Rama & Krishna are the two well-known avatars of Vishnu in human form. Both these avatars were to get rid of evil from earth.

Anyway, I m not going to talk about Hinduism, but rather about the latest James Cameron’s movie – Avatar. It is one of the highest grocers of all time (crossing $ 1 Billion mark). The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Humans are exploiting the natural resources of Pandora, and in doing so threaten the existence of the local race Na’vi and its ecosystem.

One important thing shown in the movie is the literal connection between everything that exists there; the neural network between na’vi, animals, & ‘Tree of Souls’, plugging their ponytails into the creatures’ nerve systems or binding with tree’s branches. Humans are shown in their true color in the movie, what we really do is destroy, not realizing that on Earth everything is connected – trees, animals, weather, food. Everything…

We need a new avatar on earth to save her from the evil clutches of humans. Probably humans should be re-engineered so that they become more sensible and learn how to coexist with others.

Truly Communist!

I was a kid, but I still remember the news flashes of Tiananmen Square massacre on 4th June, 1989. The protests were mainly led by students and intellectuals demanding political liberalization, free market reforms, right to freedom of speech & access to information. In all, the protest was a demanded for democracy.

More than two decades have passed since then, but there is no change in the Chinese way of shielding & hiding information from rest of the world. Last year in June, the Chinese authorities blocked internet access to Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live.com, and many other social networking sites. Google’s China search engine & map show filtered content. In a recent event, many hackers from China tried to hack Google server. The hack was not just limited to MNCs, but also targeted towards nations. According to recent news, number of Chinese hackers tried to hack India’s PM’s Office servers. As expected, all such incidents were denied by Chinese government.

What is it that China fear so much that it does not allow free press, freedom of expressions, right to share and access information?

Another interesting thing I read today was that Chinese authorities have pulled the Avatar (2D) from some of its cinemas over fears that it could cause political unrest. The plot of human colonists attempting to demolish an alien village for its resources comes close to China, where millions of people were evicted from their homes to make room for high rises and government infrastructure projects. Reason of not pulling Avatar (3D) is that there are not many 3D theaters in China, and hence no threat.

We and Naxalism

Brief History

I have given sequence of events which were source of present day Naxalite movement.

  • First communist party (CPI) was formed in 1924 by M N Roy in wake of Russian revolution.
  • First sign of armed struggle by communist in Telengana(district of hyderabad) region in 1946.
  • Followed by reorganization within ranks of communists and introspection.
  • CPI split-ed and CPI (M) was formed in 1964, which was to follow chinese model of revolution.
  • During same period peasants forcefully occupied lands in an anti-landlord movement on 1967 in small town of Naxalbari in West Bengal at Indo-Nepal border. The word Naxalism has been driven from word Naxalbari.
  • From the shadows of two big parties, who had gone soft over period of time, emerged All India Communist Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) in 1968.
  • Another party on principles of Lenin and Marx was formed by Charu Mazumdar in 1969
  • Yet another party by name of MCC was formed under Asit Sen.
  • Agrarian struggle in Srikakulam(Andhra Pradesh)
    • Struggle started on 1959
    • Meager wage of less than half a rupee and only 59 kg of grain a year.
    • Land once mortgaged was not returned.
    • Not allowed to use traditional method of farming.

Naxalite affected areas

  • Bihar
  • Jharkhand
  • Madhya Pradesh
  • Orissa
  • Chhattisgarh
  • Andhra Pradesh
  • Maharashtra
  • Karnataka
  • Tamil Nadu
  • West Bengal
  • Uttar Pradesh
  • Uttarakhand

Brief history above tells us that it is basically an agrarian movement started by peasants against the atrocities committed by landlords or so called high caste people against low caste people. Later all aggrieved people formed some kind of organisation under leadership of some leader, so that they can fight for injustice caused to them. So question is “what’s wrong in fighting for their basic rights”. Naturally answer would be “yes they should fight, but within constitutional means not by violence”.  Well we will come back to same question little later.

Who is responsible?    

Most people reply, would be, “its inapt handling by government”. Well, it is right to some extent. We must not forget that in democracy, government is ‘by the people’, so government reflects ‘we the people’. Therefore, we too are responsible for naxalism. I will put in better words, “ its, we the people, who have started the problem of naxalism and when it went out of control we want government to solve it, without realizing that such a problem should not have arisen at first place.”

Situations

Let us consider following hypothetical situations:-

  • Mr, P  owns a flat/house legally. He goes for vacation abroad for a month. When he returns back he is shocked to see his flat being occupied by some big shot politician’s son. You being good citizen you fight a case in court but you lose.
  • Mr, Q gets phone call that his son has been kidnapped. He again, good citizen reports to police, to his utter dismay, police recommends him to pay ransom and show their inability to handle the situation, so Mr X has to fend for himself.
  • Mr. R and his daughter were traveling in train. Few goons too boarded the train and molested his daughter in front of her father. Police again shows inability to handle the situation.
  • Mr. S, seeing atrocities on rise files a PIL in Supreme Court to bring strong laws against rich and powerful and for safety of general public. Supreme directs government to take action. 10 years have passed but still legislation for having strong law is awaited.

Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, Mr P, Q and R under leadership of Mr S forms the organization against a government where they kept, VIOLENCE, as one of the means to achieve their aim. Four situations cited above shows failure of judiciary, executives and legislators, these are three pillars on which edifice of democracy rests. Or in other words system of democracy or government has failed, so if it has failed why not change the system. So these fours gentleman started campaign to change the system with option of VIOLENCE.

Now, let’s go back to Naxalism. Land grab policy by land lord (equivalent to house grab of Mr P), failure of security, self respect and human dignity (equivalent to situation of Mr Q and R) and failure of constitutional means of waging war (equivalent to hypothetical situations mentioned above) has led to what Naxalism is today. Now back to previous question in paragraph 3 above. Now why not VIOLENCE be means to achieve aims, after all Chinese leader Mao Zedong had led Chinese revolution on Principle ‘power flow from barrel of gun’ and he was successful and in present day world US and China are only super power in the world.  So is the case with Moaist of Nepal. Therefore  naxalite,  too follow principle and theory of Mao Zedong, hence Naxalite are also known as ‘Left Wing Extremist’  with insignia as sickle and hammer on red background.

Do I support Naxalism 

No, I don’t support Naxalism but I know the problem. Nor I am in favor of changing the democratic system of government after all it has proved its worth since time immemorial. We must understand that Naxalite are the people who have been alienated from mainstream. Solution lies in rectifying the wrong which has been done to them (almost like returning house of Mr P or giving justice to Mr Q and R), ensuring safety and human dignity of all(Human Right Commission I hope you are listening).

What  ‘we the people’ should do

I am very happy that ‘we the people’ fighting for Ruchika to get her justice in ‘molestation case by DGP Rathore’ (equivalent to atrocities committed by landlord or upper caste). Problem is, are we fighting for hundred of Ruchika who have been molested, raped and killed by DGP Rathore equivalents. No, we are not fighting for hundred of Ruchika residing in Naxal areas, so if we don’t fight then Naxalite will fight for them. And they are fighting with VIOLENT means (may be they are cornered with no escape route).Well I know we can’t go out of our ways and fight for justice, otherwise org will suffer for which you work, but at least we can do following, and act as retardant, so that Naxal like problem don’t arise and even if it arises, it does not proliferates.

  • Be human and respect humans and not religion, color, caste he or she belongs to.
  • Be careful when you choose words when communicating with colleagues, stranger, friends, it should not show your biased nature. For e.g avoid using “you chinki”, “tum log to aise hi hote ho”, “aukaat men reh”,  “which religion/region/caste you belong to”, “whats your sur name”.
  • Be analytical if human commits mistake and take required step with humane touch. Don’t be emotional (it can be anger, love, frustration, irritation, disgust, depression) as it may lead to inequality and biased solution to the problem.
  • Don’t criticize someone’s custom, tradition, food and traditional attire rather respect it and show willingness to know more.
  • Maintain human dignity.
  • Remember no work is small or big. They may be tough or easy. Sorry, do not try to equate BIG with TOUGH and SMALL with EASY. It is almost like; LENGTH can never be equivalent to MASS.
  • Remember, what you think is your RIGHT as human in order live on earth, same RIGHT holds good for every living human.
  • Last BE GOOD.

I have tried to explain Naxlism in simple way, without going into theory of Marxism, Leninism or Maoism; I have also not touched upon strategy: military, political or social to solve the problem, let government do it. I have written it for common men and women like you and me.

Evening Sky!

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The missing national pride!

If I ask you a question “What are you proud of in India?” then probably you will have many answers, probably I have some answers like rich heritage, glorious past, national monuments, and many such things, richest cricket board, largest rail network, highest battle field, the list will be too long. But if I ask what is your contribution in keeping the pride and passing it to next generation than probably there isn’t must.

From time and again in many of my previous posts, I keep coming back to the sorry conditions of driving on roads. So is it related to our national pride? Probably ‘yes’, probably ‘no’. Couple of year’s back I had gone on vacation to Sri Lanka. It is a poor country, not a single highway, under terror for couple of decades, but as soon as I step in the Colombo airport and spoke to custom officer, I felt a difference. Airport was far better than any other airport at that time in India, though now India has much bigger and better airports.  When I stepped out of it, army was everywhere. The guide and our driver gave a brief update of DO’s and DONT’s. That included not to litter anywhere in public and keep all the trash in the car. Roads were not as wide as we have in India and there were no dividers, but still people managed to follow lane driving. In fact, in morning, during office hours the incoming traffic in the city is more than the outgoing, so the incoming traffic gets the 2/3 (two-third) of the road width and the outgoing gets the remaining 1/3 (one-third), and it is followed without any dividers or a traffic cop. Another example was autos. They were the same ‘humara’ Bajaj, but of course driver was different, because you will not expect an Indian auto driver to tell you that he will not carry more than three passengers. How you behave on the road goes a long way in defining your country, for which you can later be proud of.

On similar lines, let me take another example. India is hosting the 19th Common Wealth Games in October’2010. It is only the first time it has been hosted by India and second time in Asia. Now compare it with Olympics hosted by China in Beijing. CWG should be same to India as Olympics for China. It should be a matter of huge pride for not just New Delhi but for whole India. China has spent approximately 40 Billion dollars to host the Olympics. China built 12 new venues of total 37 for hosting the game in Beijing. They transformed the city, and probably whoever visited there for the first time (or even the return visitors) were spell-bound with the glittering city. For making this kind of event a huge success it is not just the government’s but also individual responsibility. I was told that on the day of the opening ceremony all industries in and around Beijing were shutdown to bring down the pollution. The opening ceremony was the best ever experienced in any of the previous events.

Coming back to India, Do you have traffic congestion around airport, the first entry point in the country? YES, during peak hours it may take minimum 30 minutes to reach the main road out of airport premise. Are people aware of such a huge event being hosted in Delhi? Not many. Ask an auto driver, he does not know. The progress of work is slow, and you still don’t see the transformation. Probably the only good thing that has happened as a result of CWG is the metro, which is no doubt the world-class. In September 2009, Commonwealth Games federation Chief Mike Fennell reported that the games were at risk of falling behind schedule and that it was “reasonable to conclude that the current situation poses a serious risk to the Commonwealth Games in 2010″.

In 2008 a new 4.43 km runway, the longest operational runway in Asia became operational at IGI Airport, Delhi. It is fitted with the highly sophisticated Instruments Landing System (ILS) on both sides, and is built to the highest Code F standards. Even with the state of art technology, there were 200+ flights delayed 2 days back.

What will happen to our national pride if we have politicians like Raj Thackeray and Police Chiefs like SPS Rathore who signifies the national shame? Or consider the root of Naxalism which goes back to 1967 started from the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, as of 2009 40 percent of India’s geographical area is under Naxalite threat. So what is the root cause, in simple word it is the over exploitation of humans by other humans. I will let Vishal talk more about it. But the fact is that there is no pride in the fact that 40% of India is under direct influence of Naxalism and people like us may be the cause.

To make a contribution, it is not important that everyone has to give dedicated time, rather it is the way of life. Not everyone can become a socialist or run an NGO, but what I do in my day-to-day life is a big part in showing what we actually are. Even though India is an emerging superpower, we still see and hear lot of things and incidents happening which are the matters of national shame. As an individual we can play our small but significant role so that we can say “I am proud to be an Indian”.