The Thing About of IPTV

Date:  Oct 4, 2015

I learned something new the past week.  And I would like to share it here.  This article is for advance users.  Means, you are capable of Google for a topic, such as How to Install XBMC, or Kodi or TVMC, and you are able to understand and execute the instructions found.  :)  If you can do so, I am sure you are about to open up a brand new world of Steaming TV entertainment.

1.  IPTV is to

         a) watch Live TV,

         b) Video On Demand,

         c) Your own collections of videos, be it Home Video, or downloaded videos,

         d) Listen to music,

         e) Watch Youtube or Vimeo,

         f) Play Games,

         g) Watch Podcast, etc on your TV. 

 

2.  IPTV is about three things.

         a) Hardware - such as Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, Xiaomi, Android TV box, Minix, ViewQwest TV2, etc etc.

         b) Software - the Apps or Apks that allows you to watch the TV shows

         c) Contents - the web site that holds all these contents

   

3.  In the past, I have posted a lot of TV boxes, a lot of Apps that you can run to watch TV.  The false impressions is China has done a pretty good job in this.  All you need is to load nice simple desktop, and run the Apps from the Desktop.  As simple as that.

 

It is easy to use.  Once you launch an app, you get to see all these wonderful shows.  Almost every apps has similar shows and setup.  However, what differentiate them is where there place their contents and how they stream it to us.

Every ISP has different IP upstreams and different ways to get to these contents.  That is why some users complaint slow and buffering all the time, cannot watch.

It has nothing to do with these contents.  It is the ISP who decided what they allow you to watch.

Always remember the basic concept… ISP who owns TV channels are afraid that you no longer subscribe to their TV channels.  So, somehow, watching IPTV is not an enjoyable experience on these ISP networks.  These ISP afraid that if users start watching IPTV it will cannibalise their TV channels revenues.  Otherwise, these super rich ISP who always earn profits in Millions or Billions, don’t tell me they can’t hire the right people or find the right solutions to solve their network problem.

The main point here is, I and some of the friends agrees that China is pretty advance in these IPTV streaming business.

We do not know what is their business model.  Or do they even have any business model, how they make money, etc etc.

But we enjoy so much.

Until the China Government started to come in to regulate these part of the business.

They start setting up a lot of rules.

All the software cannot be installed into the TV.

All the software running on the TV box cannot display on the TV without approval from the government.

It is a Cat and Mouse chasing game.

One by one, we see them (the TV apps) go down.  Then they come back up again, then, they go down.

So, what about the Western community.  We did not see any TV apps coming out from these western community such as US.

The only thing we cheered is Youtube, and Podcast.

So, I always thought that the Western world is lagging behind.

Until the last few weeks, when I start playing XBMC, Kodi & TVMC.

 

4.  What is XBMC?

XBMC stands for Xbox Media Centre.  I believe it is originally an application on Xbox which is the Media Centre to play your videos and music files.

Later, when it is open source, developers come up with various versions that can do many things.

To me when I look at it, it is like GOPHER. 

Hey, how many of you knows GOPHER?  The text base browsers.  The one like directory based navigation where you need to navigate inside to find information.  

XBMC is just like that.  I believe is a set of XMLs for people to display thumbnails, and contents, once selected, it link to the media player.

Kodi seems to be the new name for it.  So, we will use Kodi from now on.

And TVMC is a special customised version that loads all the common, and popular IPTV streaming onto Kodi.

 

5.  So, when I take a look at it, and google it.  There are tons of information out there to teach people how to customise their Kodi.  And all these developers, customised Add-Ons to easily access a certain content providers to get the video streaming.  You can watch almost everything you want.

For example, let’s say I want to watch Doctor Who latest episode, what will I do?

And the videos playback is very good.  It stream from Akamai.  The quality s at least 720p.  And it all depends on your ISP network too. 

 

6.  There are many Add-ons out there.  This is similar to the APK we found from the China Shafa App Store.  The Kodi/TVMC is like the Shafa Desktop.  The biggest different is, Kodi reads the XMLs informations and thus, it is easy to customised the Kodi Add-On contents.  As for the APK from Shafa App store, all those are APK, means software by itself.  If the developer need to change anything, they need to write the software to change it.  As for Kodi, it is a consistent platform.  All you need to do is to change the feeding information to him.  It is very simple, not so fancy too.  May need a lot of navigation clicks, but it does the same thing.  And the whole world is using it.  You can get Spanish show, you can get Korean movies, etc etc.

 

7.  As CartoonHD APK got shutdown.  This is my new way of watching English movies and TV streams.  I am still trying to understand it too.  TVMC somehow does not work on my Xiaomi, so, TVMC runs on my Amazon FireTV.  The Live TV somehow does not work on Xiaomi TVbox too, only have sound no video.  Something to do with the hardware.  But it support others Android platforms (True Android).

 

I will share more once I know more about it.  For now, I am watching all the TV series and latest movies from US on Genesis, Doctor Who on BBC iPlayer, Apple Podcast, etc.  All these add-ons available on TVMC.

 

Lessons learned about nutrients and pest control

Well, its been a few weeks since my last post. Im sorry to say that I did not do my due diligence in researching the addition of nutrients to the growbeds in conjunction with the use of organic home made pest control measures. Due to some iron deficiencies in several of my plants, I decided to order some chelated iron to add to the fish tanks and to spray on the plants. I also, experienced some issues with red spider mites on a few of my plants, some on my Cilantro, and Stevia. After mixing up a home made remedy of garlic pepper tea, I decided to attack the red spider mites with a spray bottle of my home made concoction. This appeared to work, so I decided to spray all of my plants...no big deal or so I thought until I sprayed them afterwards with the iron chelate, which was a little to strong. As you can imagine the garlic pepper tea opened the pores in the plants leaves/stems and the iron chelate, being a little too strong, did the rest. By the next morning I had tons of black leaves on most of my plants and within a few days many had died and / or the leaves were severely burned. I am glad to say those plants left have recovered fully, and are growing once again. I even have a few new tomatoes on my plants.  I also had to pick a few cutter type worms from some of my swiss chard, so I have ordered some organic BT and Neem oil spray to treat the pest in the future.This will also help with any fungal problems I might encounter in the future. Lesson learned, follow the instructions to the letter on the label, or from the source of the information. A setback...yes, but not the end of the world.

Here are a few pics of the disaster.

Putting Mirror

Date:  Nov 1, 2015

I always don’t have a good feeling when my wife is cleaning and re-arranging the store room.

Why?

Because, she will dig out a lot a lot of things.  HaHaHaHa...

Such as this.  A Putting Mirror.  I don’t even know I bought this from Taobao.

And she just keep it inside.  Until 2-3 years later, it surfaced.

It’s a putting Mirror.  You putt on this mirror, so that you can look at yourself.  And you how far you need to pull back to create the pendulum motion.

Wow, this is a perfect tool to train Jay Jay.

How far each putt can go.  

This is how I told Jay.

1.  Potential energy.  If pull the putter behind, it will elevate to a certain height.  And then, you let go to create a pendulum motion, and by right, it should go to the other side and reach almost the “same height”.  

2.  It cannot go to a different height.  For example, if it go to a different height, which it is easy to see from the red line there below, that means, you are “force push” the putter too much.  When you “force push” the putter, the potential energy plus the kinetic energy will push the ball very hard, until you cannot know how much force you push it.

3.  It cannot go to a lower height too.  If it go lower, which is shorter than the red line, means you “force pull” it.  Just like Star Wars.  When you force pull it, you lost the momentum, you lost your energy, so that ball will go very near.

4.  Feel the force, let it drop and let the force (potential energy) guide you to the correct height on the other side.  And I asked him to close the eyes, and feel the swing a few time, then I place the ball quickly during his swing, and “TUK”….. the ball roll naturally with a distance that almost zero force was asserted.

5.  That is how you feel the putt.  Also, you need to know the distance.  From your eyes, you should be able to tell the approximate distance.  So, he carries a measuring tape, and I will ask, how long is the table edge.  How long is the TV console table, etc.  This is to make him think about distance. 

See, Jay still think that playing golf is using his “strength”.  It is easy now to point out to him how he putt with Slow Motion video.  He pulled back to about 1 red line, but when he swing the putter, he put in some strength and speed.  That is why the golf ball go so fast.

The red lines is to help you see the putting motion.  Is is straight, am I using force? 

Much better.  But a bit too stiff.  Just let him train on this let him figure it himself.

My wife found this also from the store room.  This is the black ramp putting mat that Jay uses this week.

She also found this.  Where you can rotate and place the putting hole differently.

She also found…. hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha 

(???????)

DWC Raft Construction Update 2

OK...so I have finished hooking all the components up for the new DWC rafts in system 2. All is working according to plan. The only adjustment I had to make was to the riser tube coming off the bottom of the FTs. I had to shorten it by 1" as I was having an overflow problem in one of the FT as the ebb/flow grow bed were draining. Easy fix, with a hacksaw and 2" coupling. I have also built a weather protective box for the pumps and air blower. I still need to paint it to match the greenhouse...shouldnt take more than a couple of hours to paint.

I have included a video overview of the system so far....

  I purchased 4  - 4 x 8 extruded polystyrene 1" foam sheets from Home Depot for use as my rafts. I then cut these into 4 sections and drilled 3" holes, using a hole saw, in each to accommodate 3" net cups.

 I have 5 rafts that each have 36 holes on 8" centers and I have 3 rafts that have 16 holes on 12" centers. This gives me a total of  228 holes for plants in both rafts combined.  The 8" center hole rafts will be used for leafy vegetables such as lettuce, Kale, Greens, and Herbs, while the 12" center rafts will house tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli.   I had to paint the tops with a latex based paint to provide some protection from the UV rays of the sun.

All painted up and installed in the rafts.

I also drilled 1" holes about every 2 for air stones coming off the 1" PVC airline running down the middle of the rafts. As you can see from the photo, there are plenty of bubbles coming up against the rafts.

After completing all of this work, I noticed that the top layer of weed block was breaking fairly rapidly in the sun, so I decided to lay down UV resistant tarps over the weed block, hopefully I will get a couple of years use out the tarps before they need to be replaced.

 Ultimately, I will be placing pea gravel down over the weed block, but no time for that now...Im off to get some Mozambique Tilapia at Overton Fish Farms....

Next up ....the Tilapia.

when it rains

it pours. Its been a rough couple of days around here. I get paid twice a month, the 10th and the 25th but due to x-mas I got paid on the 23rd and dont get another paycheck till the 10th, 18 long days, plus I used most of that check to buy x-mas presents for my daughter.

We used Genas paycheck to cover bills and buy a couch for our new place but what we didnt plan on was Genas truck having electrical issues so we spent $80 on a battery and that didnt solve the problem so we spent another $150 replacing the alternator.

Finally it seemed like it was all good to go but that night she left for work and called me to come get her. The truck broke down about halfway to work. To make matters worse, my bank account was empty and I had 1/8th of a tank of gas to get me to work the next day so i could get the $35 a coworker owed me for repairing his computer.

I managed to make it to where she had broke down, popped the hood and found that one of the clips from a wire on the alternator has vibrated loose. I pushed the clip on tight, jumped started the truck and followed her back home going very light on the gas pedal as opposed to my normally heavy foot. We got the truck home without any issues but my car was sucking fumes at that point and with all the unplanned expenses and all of the money we spent closing on the house and getting moved we were both flat broke till payday.

Luckily we had a big water jug with a bunch of change in it and we scrounged up $11.00 to put gas in the car. This is where not having a credit card can really suck.

I managed to make it to work and my coworker saved my ass by paying me the $35.00 he owed me and I was able to put enough gas in the car to cover me until payday.

If something isnt done about the price of gas rising were all in deep trouble. Of course, nothing will be done about it and it will continue to rise. Oil company profits are at record highs and the bureaucrats are lining their pockets by protecting and subsidizing the oil companies. Add to that the fact the dollar is at an all time low, prices keep rising and our income is not keeping up.

That right there is why we decided to be more self sufficient, why pay for things that you can grow yourself? we can use the money for other things that we need like fuel.

Many People think Ron Paul is out of his mind but hes really trying to do what we are doing only on a large scale, take care of ourselves and dont rely on the government for anything. I think as prices continue to rise and people have less and less disposable income the idea of being self sufficient will catch on.


ok sheeple, that all for now

Jay Jays New Golf Swing

Date:  Oct 21, 2015

Today, Jay jay has learned how to turn the hip.  And his swing is just so good that I enjoyed watching the video over and over and over and over again.

I can’t even learn so fast like him.

Yeah I know I know is exam period coming soon, but could help it.  As long as he has school off day, I will try sent him to practise.  HaHaHa...

Well done Jay!

Here are some of the golf swing highlights in slow-mo.  

I love to take the slow mo so that you can see how he carried the golf club up, got chicken wings or not, and how his hip turned and how he hit the ball and follow thru in a perfect camera posture.  Well done Jay.

A bit overswing at the back.  But this is a very good shot.  It is 160m, rolling a further 10 meter may be.  And I am sure he Jay Jay has out driven his mum with this shot.  hahaha

No over swing, and the hip turn is good.  And the hit is powerful for the 9 year old boy.

This is not the slow mo.  And look at his hitting, with more practise I am sure he got the chance to compete against the P5 & P6 in his class.  :)

Hopefully this coming Sunday, the haze is gone, and they can proceed with the Monthly Competition on the 9-hole game.  But because he just changed his swing, he might need the hang of getting knowing about his distance.  He no longer can use the Driver for some holes.  His 7-Iron can reach 100 meter too with this swing.

Good Luck Jay Jay!