The Apple TV “Apple TV” is not responding. Check that any firewall software running on this computer has been set to allow communication on port 3689.

A quick Google search reveals I am not the only one and there is no known solution. Thanks Apple!

Here is my plan, based on the advice found here.

A good backup plan must be redundant and automatic, therefore I am purchasing two hard drives, and two external enclosures. One 250gb which will back up my iMac’s internal drive, and one 500gb, which will back up my external media drive that holds my music and photo collection. I will do a SuperDuper backup each night of each drive, which will essentially mirror the drives. The idea being, that if my iMac’s drive fails on me, I can just add in the drive in the enclosure and pick up right where I left off.

This is in addition to backing up off site to Mozy and Time Machine.

Next month I will buy two more of the exact same two drives so I can do the exact same thing, only I will take them to work every month and switch. That way I always have a drive off site in case of a fire.

Again, this is addition to my off site backup to Mozy. Like I said, I am due for a major failure.

We currently have two 32″ LCD displays. One is in our living room, and one is on the wall in our bedroom. I have an Xbox 360 and a Blu-Ray (PS3) downstairs along with a high-def DVR downstairs and a normal high-def set top box upstairs. Problem is, I want to play Xbox, and Monica wants to watch her recorded “stories.”

My ideal solution is a media server recording all the content, serving photos, music, podcasts, movies etc. Trouble is, there are products out there that will do all that with standard def TV, but nothing exists for high-def tv.

• I would be fairly satisfied with a Windows Media Center PC streaming to two Xbox 360s, but in order to get high-def TV you need a cable card, and apparently that is next to impossible to get running on your own
• I would be really satisfied with two Tivos, but the high-def models apparently do not support multi-room viewing
• Moxi sounds promising, but is not available through Comcast or their Pittsburgh area competitors
• Verizon has a multi-room DVR for its Fios service, but it won’t stream high-def
• There are many open source projects out there, but most won’t do a remote or streamed version of the interface to a smaller remote box, and none of them work with cable, only over the air high-def

This is something that has really been annoying me lately.

the new apps

The new apps are really great, they mimic Apple’s iLife suite and work together really well. One example is with Outlook Express. I opened “Outlook Express” and created a new message, I then opened “Contacts,” created a new contact, saved it and went back to my “Outlook Express” message, found the contact and added it to the message. I didn’t have to re-open Outlook or the message window.

aero and glass

I don’t love the new UI. Its very busy with all the transparencies and blurring going on, but its still a better option than what Windows users have now, that and you can turn it off and go old school if you wanted.

A few things that are really nice about it is the “Windows/Tab” menu, the new search and all of the context sensitive meta data it displays. You can resize thumbnails in real time with a slider, you can search from anywhere. Vista organizes really well. I dig it.

conclusion

I personally can’t wait to get Vista, not sure when I will, but I will sometime soon. I love the way it organizes files, and I love the new apps and how they work together. Its worth the upgrade, especially if your getting it with a new PC, I question the worth when your paying $200 for Home, but in the end, I think I will be happy with it once I do buy it.

Between this, all the bs with the High Def DVDs, HDCP and music DRM…I am getting fed up.

My only hope is they manage to keep the cost of the episodes at a reasonable level, $20 for 10 hours of gameplay is probably the price point I would be willing to keep paying.