The big players are Real-debrid, multihosters and a few others. As file hosting services go up and down like flies, these services have come into existence.

Right now, it’s best to only order smaller packs, you never know how long these services are going to remain active. It’s all a crap shoot. Sometimes file hosting sites have a lot of issues with speed, and services like these may have trouble keeping up with accounts and such to allow their users to download from all the various file hosts.

There is a simpler solution out there to file hosts however, and I’d advise anyone looking at getting files to take a close look at Usenet. I have a Usenet Tutorial up and running for those of you who are interested. Otherwise these types of services are currently the easiest to use in the file hosting space.

So after a few months of using the 2D HD picture, which I was highly satisfied with I found out that glasses were actually $19 for the 2011 Samsung models. I also found that some 3D Bluray players on eBay that are slightly damaged but still work fine are around $60. So 3X $19 glasses = $57 + $60 bluray player = $117 to “upgrade” to 3D. I’m not including the plasma’s cost because I was going to buy that anyway no matter what. Suddenly this doesn’t look like such an expensive proposition.

Some movies have done a rather poor job implementing 3D and others look stunning. For example, Resident Evil Afterlife looks amazing in 3D and actually saves the film itself, making it entertaining enough that you are still enjoying the mind numbing action. In 2D I would’ve probably turned it off after awhile because there was basically no plot and just nonstop action. 3D saved this movie. It seems like it was just a tech demo for 3D rather than a “real” movie.

Thing is, film makers need to get an understanding of all the aspects of 3D and then implement them into “good” movies. That could definitely make it worth it. Some of the IMAX presentations like Under the Sea can be breathtaking, and then other 3D movies forget that they’re even 3D, the movie would be basically the same in 2D.

So the question is, is it worth it?

I would have to say it’s probably worth it IF you already have the TV, might as well spend a little and get the 3D stuff. If you’re upgrading your TV right now it’s probably worth it since the current good TV models are all 3D.

Basically, don’t don’t buy a TV just for 3D. Buy it for the HD display and 2D first and foremost, and if it has 3D, it might be worth picking up the extras to enjoy it. There’s not that much 3D content out there right now worthy of buying an entire setup, so just stick to your current TV.

Fad or Not?

Who knows. I didn’t spend much on it, ($117) so it doesn’t bother me if it sticks around or not. My TV displays the best 2D HD images I’ve ever seen.

It seems like a lot of companies are throwing a ton of money at 3D and really, if they get the hang of it I know movies can be beautiful in 3D, there’s a few gems out there that show the power of 3D. It’s a pretty solid tech, I mean colors aren’t lost and the picture can look great. The main issue right now is crosstalk which I’m sure can and will be resolved in the future for the most part. It’s pretty non-existent as it is. The glasses don’t annoy me but maybe it’s because I wear prescription glasses anyway and wearing 1 more pair really doesn’t bother me.

The only other problem I’ve noticed is slight dizziness from 3D. I used to never get dizzy while watching 3D, however I’ve just barely recovered from vestibular neuritis. So that’s probably the cause.

Follow my guide on usenet and start sharing and downloading files right away.

#2 Rapidgator & Netload.in

These 2 are aiming to replace Megaupload. Will the succeed? Who knows.

#3 Torrents

Torrents can hold your open source software with ease, and have been around for ages. You can share your files with colleagues fairly easily with torrents.

Any other alternatives you know of? Post them in the comments section.

This is how you’re going to get many of the plugins listed below. Without it, you have to install all unofficial plugins manually. You do however have to install this one manually because it is also unofficial.

#2 Hulu Plugin

This plugin is in bluecop’s repository. It gives you access to all of Hulu’s content without ads, straight to your tv. (If you choose to do so, though Hulu may not like you doing this.)

#3 Youtube Plugin

This one is available through the regular XBMC Repository. Everyone likes to watch Youtube on their TV right? Well this plugin does that nicely.

#4 Free Cable

Free cable is also in bluecop’s repository. It takes content from cable websites that they are offering for free and gives you access on your TV.

#5 Navi-X

As far as I’m aware you need to install this from zip file – I haven’t seen any repository with it. Navi-X offers lots of content that you can stream to your TV. You can get it here.

#6 Advanced Launcher

Advanced launcher is available on the Angelscry repository. It can launch games, applications and more from XBMC.

#7 Sabnzb

If you have Usenet, NZBMatrix, Sabnzb and a android remote OR keyboard this can really help you out. You can search and download things directly from your couch. There are other plugins that are a work in progress that are working to integrate usenet functionality even more into XBMC. For now, you have to download and install the plugin from a ZIP file here. This is only if you’re running Eden. If you’re running V10 still you can get it from the official XBMC repository.

#8 Pseudo TV

This addon is in the official repository. It takes your media collection and makes “channels” for you to surf through.

#9 Radio Addon

I use this one quite a lot – you can get it from the official XBMC repository. It has news channels along with many “top hits” stations and categories for whatever music taste you might have.

#10 Al Jazeera

Available through the official XBMC repository. This is a streaming news station that is free to air. I always like to tune in every now and then.

There’s more plugins I use a lot including soundcloud, vimeo, and plenty more. Explore for yourself and see what XBMC addons have to offer.

Why?

Well I have a smart TV, but the functions are limited and the onscreen functionality is quite limited, along with the fact it SLOWLY opens everything. Same problem with the bluray player – it has some of that functionality, but it’s slow as molasses.

My HTPC zooms by everything – because, well, it’s a full computer. It can run streams like it’s nothing, pause play and fast forward with ease. No jerkiness or other issues at all.  I can access pretty much any audio stream, or video stream on the internet. That includes zShare, Youtube, Vimeo, anything really. Live feeds can also come through on my HTPC. XBMC has a plugin for Hulu, so I can watch TV shows from there as well as FOX news and any other feeds around. All while I’m sitting on the recliner.

I once dreamed of a day where all PC video content was available on my TV. With XBMC + and HTPC that dream has come true. I also have my Android phone setup with the XBMC remote app, this makes it very easy to input text when I need to while still having a “remote like” experience.

If you really want to go all out and have a TV subscription or other things of the like you can feed all that stuff through to your HTPC making it 1 Box for everything. Pop in 6TB of storage and you can completely get rid of all your movie racks. (Bluray might be a little more difficult, but if you convert them to X264 it’s not as much space.. but for now you might want to hold on to your blurays for optimal quality.)

If you want to play games on your TV that’s also possible if you build it with that in mind. It can be truly an “all in one” system, just like a PC is.

It can also grab stuff from usenet automatically with Sickbeard, Sabnzb, Couchpotato, and Headphones – a truly automated experience. If you just have Internet + an HTPC + Hulu and maybe usenet with other plugins you get something that can truly rival or beat cable.

The trick is setting it up. This can be quite a pain especially since PC’s aren’t designed to do this – even if you get a prebuilt machine that’s made to be an HTPC, there’s still quite a bit of setup involved. Another thing you have to consider is if you’re going to setup a hard drive server along with your small form factor HTPC or if you’re going to just throw the hard drives in your main HTPC.

It really can be quite daunting when you’re unfamiliar with the whole thing. It’s great once it’s setup, truly is, completely customizable, but as with most things, if it’s REALLY customizabe, it’s going to take a lot of work to setup.

I will be writing some guides in the future for setting up an HTPC – but I’m only going to touch on the basics to start with. Once you go all out crazy with hooking in sabnzb, android phones, sickbeard and other things it starts to get complex. It took me a bit of tinkering before everything worked seamlessly because there were errors I had to deal with, and guess what? I’m well versed in these types of things. I’ve setup servers, bitcoin mining machines, I even ran the original XBMC on my Xbox from the IRC channel Xbins. I’ve setup multiple hackintoshes. Modified ROMS for my Router, yea, I always run those. I also run modified kernels and such on my phone. So yes, I’m familiar with experimental software and server setups.

I’m also well versed in Linux. If it took me a couple hours to setup – it might take you much longer, but maybe you won’t run into errors and program issues like I did. Anyway, it’s just something to consider before you go deep with HTPC setups. I personally think it was totally worth the setup time, but as I said I’m very much used to these types of things.

Anyway, I’ve had it for a couple months and pounded it pretty hard with plenty of keystrokes. This thing is a dream to type on compared to regular dome keyboards, there’s no doubt about that. As far as games go, I’ve found it has a better response time than the dome keyboards as well. I can always tell when I press a key, and strokes are never missed like they are on dome keyboards.

The only drawback to mechanical keyboards MIGHT be the noise, but I really enjoy it because I know when I press a key. Throughout all my punishment, the thing still types like it’s brand new instead of slowly degrading like my dome keyboards have done every single time. The only thing I’ve noticed is that the WASD keys I use for FPS games have faded a bit, same with the homerow but this is a problem I’ve had with every keyboard I’ve owned. The hardest hit letters fade.

As far as this keyboard goes, I have no complaints. Some people have noticed poor quality control on razer’s part with misaligned keys and such, but mine has been rock solid. I’m so happy with this keyboard that in the future I think I’ll pick up a Das Keyboard when/if this keyboard dies. This was sort of a trial to see if I’d actually like having a mechanical keyboard – and the answer is YES. I don’t want anything else now.

Another big difference from the dome keyboards is that mechanical keyboards are very heavy in comparison.

The main thing is – mechanical keyboards are for people that type A LOT. If you don’t type a ton – you can probably just stick with a cheap Microsoft keyboard, it really won’t be much difference for you. However, for those of us that type like mad or game like mad, and destroy keyboards left and right – mechanical keyboards are for you.

I updated mobile flash and was able to watch flash videos without them lagging too badly. There’s still some lag, but the videos are watchable so long as you’re not moving too much while the video is playing. I tried out some local news sites in their desktop form and almost had no issues at all loading up the full featured version.

Another thing I noticed, when I was connected to 1X (which goes to only about 100kbit or less) instead of 3G, the default browser would just hang on the page and not load anything. Dolphin continued to load the page even while connected via 1X.

Another thing I like about Dolphin is the tab feature. You can actually pull off a few tabs on the Incredible. The gesture feature is kinda nice, but I don’t usually use it. Maybe I will in the future if I get used to it, but it’s an interesting toy for now.

In short, it seems like the best browser out right now, way better than default.

Mobile browsers & internet still have a ways to go, but I’m pretty impressed with how things are going. Seems like everything is getting developed out pretty rapidly. Soon it’ll be on par with having a laptop in the palm of your hand.

I remember when I was a kid, I wanted a laptop.. Well back then they cost $2k+ and had at most an 800MHz processor. With Moore’s law we’ll be rocking a 2 or even 3 GHz phone in no time. Add in 4G to the mix and bam. Get ready for awesomeness.

I’ll start off with audio quality, I’m no audiophile by any means, but I have had some experience with higher end headphones. I’d rate the quality as “good”.  They’re  way above the terrible headphones you get with an iPod. If you have no previous experience with higher end headphones they might be the best you’ve ever heard.

The noise canceling is where these headphones really shine, and that’s what they were designed for. When I first got them I put them on while at home, and it did get rid of the fan noise from my computer, but that’s about all I noticed. Then I took them with me on a trip to Florida. On the car ride to the airport I wore them, and it drowned out most of the noise from the car. More impressive. Once I boarded the plane and it took off, I put these headphones on and was shocked. People talking? Gone. Engine noise? Gone. Babies crying? Gone. All I could hear was my music if the music was turned up to 25% volume on my iPod. That’s amazing. When I turned off the music completely I was able to make out some people talking etc, but not much. I turned them off a few times and was instantly greeted with reality, and it was LOUD.

So in conclusion, I’d definitely pick these up if you fly a lot or ride the bus a lot. Noise canceling is superb and totally worth the money. If you want just high quality sound though, you’re better off looking elsewhere. Personally, I’m never getting on a plane again without my QC15′s. Greatest experience ever on a plane.

You can buy them here: Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones

Generally, if I drink 1 2 liter per day it’ll last a month and a half. I make them very carbonated though, about what you’d get from the store. One note is I push the PSI higher than you probably should, 50PSI, I found that if I put it lower it wouldn’t get carbonated quickly enough for my liking. However, this will vary depending on how cold the water is that you’re trying to carbonate.

How To:

1. Fill 2 liter bottle with water, leave some space at the top.

2. Carbonator attachment on bottle has a pin on top, push it down and squeeze the bottle to remove excess air.

3. Attach hose to carbonator by pulling up on the attachment and pushing down.

4. Screw down pin on co2 tank until you feel it pushing down on the tank’s pin.

5. Adjust PSI on regulator until it’s at 30 – 35PSI (Or higher, depending on how cold the water is in the bottle, 50PSI works best but not recommended by most.)

6. Release Co2 via the red lever on the side.

7. Shake bottle for 60 seconds or so.

8. Turn off the co2, unscrew the valve, remove attachment from carbonator.

9. Remove carbonator from bottle and enjoy freshly carbonated water.

Soda requires different steps, I haven’t done it so I don’t know. This process might seem complicated, but it’s really easy after you’ve done it a few times, and it saves a bundle of $ very quickly if you drink a lot of it. Personally, I drink it on and off but when I’m in the mood I drink 1 – 2 bottles in a day.

So there you go.. Quick, easy & cheap carbonated water. Forgive me if I’m using incorrect terms to describe the components Kit can be found at KegConnection.

Informational purposes only, I take no responsibility for personal injury. If you utilize any information provided in this site, you do so at your own risk and you specifically waive any right to make any claim against the author and publisher of this Website and materials as the result of the use of such information.

While doing all this, EyeFinity was not the priority. The priority was more screen space to work with. However, since I had the whole setup basically, why not mess with EyeFinity?

I had to set all of them at 1680X1050 since that’s the lowest resolution out of the bunch. That gives me 5040X1050 – which looks horrible out of games. I was pretty much expecting everything to be horrible since like I said, all 3 are different monitors, and the LG screen has these horridly big bezels. So, by far not the best setup for something like EyeFinity.

After getting in game however, everything looks good. I’m shocked. The bezels don’t bother me -  I’m shocked. I was able to get the other 2 to line up with my 24″  – I’m shocked. My games are more immersive and I’m enjoying myself a lot – yet again pure shock.

So what does all this tell me? You don’t have to have the perfect setup to get EyeFinity enjoyable or working right. I’ve looked and I’ve looked – but I have yet to find anyone running EyeFinity with different monitors and resolutions like me. I am thinking about switching the 22″ and 24″ screen out for 2 more 23″ IPS Dell panels, but that is far into the future. At that point, I’ll have something to compare against and see if it’s really that much better than my current setup.

Lots and lots of people think EyeFinity is just a gimmick – well I really have to disagree there. After going EyeFinity – I don’t want to go back. I don’t think you can say anything until you’ve experienced it first hand for more than a few days. As you can see, I was very skeptical of the technology and thought it would completely suck. I was wrong.

Sure, it’s a somewhat costly setup, but if you need the monitors for productivity anyway, you can’t go wrong. Let me tell you, 2 monitors is 100x better than 1 and 3 seems like the sweet spot for me.  Sure, spaces are cool, but if you need to see a bunch of things at once you can’t do that with spaces. (also remember that one panel must be DisplayPort or you need an active display port adapter for the 3rd monitor)

Conclusion

After having this setup for awhile – I can safely say that EyeFinity is awesome. Game play is just so much more immersive – and fun. It’s really really hard to form an opinion without experiencing it first hand which is going to be a drawback for this technology to spread. Also, yes I know that Matrox has had this technology for quite awhile – but you have to buy a $300 device on top of the $300 video card which makes it even less accessible to the mainstream audience. So ATI has done something magical – introducing videocards capable of driving 3 displays (FINALLY) and combining 3 monitors into 1 display – all wrapped into a highly powerful graphics card. I won’t be switching to nVidia unless they implement similar technology.

Picture taken before all monitors were lined up correctly..

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