So far I’ve tried 3 media servers:

• TVersity
• PS3 Media Server
• Windows Media Server

Based on my experiences since about 2007, here’s some pros and cons for each.

Windows Media Server pros:

• runs straight out of the box (whether you like it or not)
• requires very little setup or tweaking
• fairly reliable

Windows Media Player cons:

• often get ‘no title’ messages when looking for media (I think this is WMP indexing files, but I have disabled it for this reason)
• can’t play MKVs or other HD formats
• can’t convert video on the fly to a format friendly to your setup (e.g. HD to standard def)
• can’t configure when (or how, or how often) it indexes media

TVersity pros:

• It’s free
• Will convert media on the fly so it’s compatible with your streaming device (e.g. Xbox, Playstation)
• It’s lets you configure which directories you want to share out, on screen menus etc
• highly configurable, e.g. how often you want to index media
• lets you view your media by date added to system (very handy)
• can let you play internet services through your TV like Youtube and RSS
• It groups like directories into one. E.g. if you have 3 directories called ‘videos’, they all display on your Playstation as one ‘videos’

TVersity cons:

• seems to have issues on Windows 7 with Trend Micro Security (never had problems on Win XP)
• often have to the TVersity service (sometimes every day. I’m yet to find a fix to make it run always)
• It’s fiddly to get the HD support for MKV files working
• There are regular updates – to fix bugs!
• The indexing of media can take say 2-10 minutes. But I’ve been having dramas with it on Windows 7. Some videos it just doesn’t want to index.

PS3 media server pros:

• It just works!
• It’s free and very impressive
• Generates thumbnail images for all your videos
• It doesn’t index files. You simply view the directory structure of your computer and find the files you want to play
• you can configure menus
• Up and running in minutes

PS3 media server cons:

• Sony have NOTHING to do with it. It’s written by a very clever French bloke!
• It’s not updated often, but it is stable.
• It can’t convert on the fly
• I assume it only works with PS3s

All that said, I end up using PS3 Media Server all the time and occasionally TVersity for high def stuff. Although sometimes you wonder why not just have a computer in the living room. It would be much simpler… When all is said and done streaming is only starting to become a reality for the complete novice in 2010. Looking back on my uni days when I did PC setups and internet tuition, I still don’t think any of these media servers for all their merits are simple enough for the novice. There’s too much network setup, firewall configuration and just in depth PC nerd knowledge required. Ultimately, there needs to be a Playstation with Terabytes of storage that’s dead simple. But until then, pick your media server of choice and get out that manual.

A note about the Playstation as a media server

Regardless of the media server you’re connecting to, the Playstation 3 however is excellent. It lets you fast forward and rewind like DVDs which many media gates don’t offer. And with the Blu Ray player it’s the way to go. Even without ever buying a game, it’s pretty good. The only complaint is that the Bluetooth remote is far too sensitive. Knock any button on the remote and it turns the Playstation on. It gets annoying after a while! I wish I could say more for the XBox. But it’s so nerdy I can’t fathom ever using it!

Pro-ject do a seriously great looking, well made turntable.

A word of warning to anyone that’s not yet an audiophile – turntables are a gateway drug for more addictive high quality audio equipment! In the past I’ve been a bit pragmatic and cheap with audio gear. But there comes a point when you can’t be bothered with bargain basement, consumer stuff from your national chain department store. Or perhaps you don’t like the look of some gaudy plastic black box in your flash living room. With its tacky, mass produced digital screen flashing useless information at you with all the subtlety of a Bangkok strip bar. Forget that. It’s not my thing! It will only last you until your next eBay purge or council hard rubbish day.

Pro-ject turntables are a whole new frontier. They are not gaudy and they are definitely not cheap.  Their cheapest turntable is approx $500 and you don’t get much for your money on paper. My Debut III turntable comes in red base and an Ortofon cartridge or ‘needle’ (I don’t know much about turntables). I think the base is made of MDF, not even wood (the wood models cost a lot more). It doesn’t even have a button to select between 45 and 33 speeds! There’s no automatic on/off for the record. So you get that ‘ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk…’ once the record finishes playing until you stop it.

What you do get though is absolute quality. The finish is flawless and the quality of the whole arm and needle is amazing. It reaks of something you would give to your grand kids. Just by looking at it, you know it’s made in Austria. Whichever way you look at it, this is not mass produced rubbish.

Unfortunately this model doesn’t come with a phono stage. This is like a pre-amp thing specifically designed to amplify signals from a turntable into your amp. The Pro-ject phono stages range anywhere from $200 to $2000 for valve based units.  One of the more entry level phono stages has USB out, which you can use for playback and recording vinyls through your computer. This is what I’m using right now and it works and sounds great. The Debut III does come in a range of colours which really works too, well except for the lime green!

While I can’t recommend this unit highly enough, it is basic. So if you do need to play records at different speeds or need a few more features, then you’re going to need to spend a lot more money. Considering I set out to buy an old Bang and Olufsen Beogram turntable, this is a brand new turntable and costs about what I was going to spend on that anyway (the B&O is at least 20 years old).

If you don’t already like premium audio gear, be warned. This is the ganja of the audio drug world and this will suck you into the expensive and narcotic world of premium audio!

If you are in the market for one…

I got mine from Encel Stereo in Richmond and they were absolutely fantastic. If they didn’t have it in stock (they have most of the range), it was only a few days away. They gave great prices and set the whole thing up.

I wish I could say the same about Secher Audio. They gave me a 2006 brochure, took my deposit, forgot to order the unit in (it sounded like it anyway), then found out after three weeks of leading me on that they couldn’t get it in stock because of some alledged dispute with the supplier. All the time never returning phone calls, not once!  I must have called them at least 10 times. At least they refunded my money. They might be better with very high end stuff, but sadly I can’t recommend them based on this transaction.

It’s not difficult to be a Japanophile. Far beyond the desert bling of the middle east Japan manifests everything that’s good in this world, whilst hiding its brutality in plain sight. Perhaps Japan was the first Asian country to binge on Western opulence; to celebrate en primeur French champagne vintages, gorge itself on grain fed beef and the latest flaunt Louis Vuitton handbags. They still do this in abundance, but in a world of Cantopop and Asian subtleties Japan has no problem expressing each and every pop cultural phenomenon known to man. All with a dedication that is inspirational rather than insipid.   It seems the Chinese copy their style in a muted, toned down inoffensive way, but are yet to add anything to the palette. That’s what makes Japan so amazing.

Walking through the streets of Ginza in Tokyo, on the surface little has changed. Cadillac Escalades drive past Italian wine bars all the time while bums sell papers on the street. At night those same bums are there sleeping in makeshift tents, having barely moved an inch. Unlike Japan of nearly 20 years ago, even Ginza shows signs of hard times. Once famous for $20 coffees, the lofty mock Fifth Avenue Ginza now has senior citizens working the local McDonalds and espresso served at highly reasonable prices. A highly obvious sign that while Ginza carries on, Japan’s economy has peaked. The Chinese might not rock as hard as their Japanese contemporaries and they don’t care. They’re too busy cashing in.

Maybe all this reality has caused Japan to sober up and take a good look at itself. Japan 1991 had beer (and we all know what else) vending machines on every corner. Cocky black suited salary men laughed and jeered their way to Friday chain smoking their way through the day. The streets were a pastiche of urban grey and telephone hooker ads while perverts blatantly read porn on the train. It was taboo for women to walk into pachinko parlors while Sylvester Stallone plugged cup noodles for tens of millions of dollars. I am here to confirm that this Japan no longer exists.

Smokers are now tucked into a yellow rectangle on the street in a scene that resembles more Singapore than Shinjuku. Smoking in public is otherwise restricted. On the subway, there are women only train carriages serving as a salvation from ’sukebe’ salary men. While not on the subways, the women now hit the pachinko parlors. But that’s not really the point. There are probably more sleazy dives than ever in Tokyo. They’re only in plain site if you go to the sleazier sides of town where foreigners aren’t always welcome and seldom venture. But the sleaze used to be so rife it would stick to your shoes.

With peripheral vision, more detail becomes clear. Japan is not staffed by Japanese any more. Toyota town Nagoya is home to 60,000 Brazilian workers manning the lines at Toyota plants. Indian workers off shore their IT. Filipino nurses, maids and strippers speak Japanese better than their native Tagalog.  For all intents, it’s harder than ever to be a working class Japanese than ever when ‘made in Japan’ doesn’t mean ‘made by Japanese’. It seems to have affected the Japanese psyche. Or at least their travel schedule as the few remaining ‘job for life’ salarymen flock on the next flight to China to check on their factories.

All is not lost though. Trendy Harajuku caters to freaks well. It has a massive open park which serves up carte blanche freaks indulging in Jamaican dance hall reggae, 50s  rock and roll dancers and hip hop dance crews. Harajuku will cater to anyones’ peccadillo anytime. They even have a kebab van. All this and all the ostentatious fashion you can point a stick at. A great chunk of Japan’s Gross Domestic Product is no longer technology but is cutesy Japanese schmaltz. Hello Kitty is now to Japan what supercomputers and semiconductors used to be. Forget feudal dynasties, we have entered the ‘kireii’ era of Japan.

Even if they’ve lost their chintz, the trains still run like clockwork every three minutes. They look dated but are still immaculate. Each runs to endless shopping malls of hyaku-en (dollar shops) stores and super glitzy shopping malls. Scattered amongst them are restaurants that serve fantastic quality food. On any given Friday you can eat kaisen sets (a Japanese meal of several courses elegantly presented in a box with several draws, originally intended for regal types) for a pittance. Good time restaurants serve a crazy mix of deep fried treats and beer by the pitcher that has that healthy mix of up market workers’ bar and Japanese quirkiness. Seems the elixir for a Japan that works far harder for less than ever.

Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect the same experience from Japan 20 years later. Technologically it has peaked. They no longer seem to ridiculously pander to gaijin. The Tokyo horizon may not change each year with burgeoning construction like Shanghai. The Yuen may be mitier than ever but for all the grim realities, Japan is still a fabulous fusion of the finest of Asian and Western cultures. With Swiss precision they find a niche and place for everything, yet still remain quintessentially their own ubiquitous identity. And while Japan will never be cheap – just cheaper – it’s still as much fun as ever. God bless the people of the sun. The Chinese can only imitate you.

Frankly you could never expect much of Hotmail. It’s a lo-fi “me too!” approach to online services. They bought it from an Indian guy years ago who was experimenting (Hotmail being kind of an acronym of HTML – HoTMaiL) and kinda grafted a Microsoft head on it in some Frankensteinesque way. Then of course they leave it out to pasture for years until Google kicks their arse into online oblivion. Harsh, but pretty much true.

Yes the functionality has improved over time, but it’s still not cutting edge. And for such a lo-fi experience, you wouldn’t expect ads from the bleeding edge would you? And rightly so because Microsoft are now advertising the new Hotmail to existing users!

In what must be the most poorly executed online campaign since I was organising online campaigns, there’s a ‘the new Hotmail is here’ banner appearing in Hotmail. Better still, when you click it, you are taken to some ridiculous page of a guy in a hoodie asking you to sign up for the service. But I’m already a customer. Then the schpeel about how great it is makes it look like it’s not actually live yet. Golly I’m confused.

Well with campaigns this poorly executed, hopefully big brother at Microsoft can be trusted not to be able to do anything too intelligent spying on my web mail.

Oh and it gets better! Scroll to the bottom of the ridicilous hoodie page, and they have the  ‘more from Ninemsn’ section. One tab says ‘time for a new car?’ they have used a picture of a TRD Hilux – a vehicle which was discontinued due to lack of well, interest. From anyone. Yay Microsoft. Well done for having your eye on the ball yet again.

Whether or not this is a con or not depends on your moral disposition. It is a con if you don’t like people lying to you or being grossly ripped off. Some of you seem to think that this is the essence of capitalism. The culprits of this scam probably go with the Israeli bit because of poor old Israel always getting bombed in the news and what have the Jews done to anyone (a hem, MOSSAD! But let’s stick to the point). In this sense it is a scam. It’s highly unlikely that they’re Israeli. They’re just backpackers. And because of the all the bohemian Israeli hippies that travel the world (we saw a bunch in Peru), it’s a lovable and harmless persona for some unsuspecting homemaker cooking dinner to be surprised by.

The other way is it’s guaranteed not student art – Jewish or otherwise. They are reproduction paintings of more famous art, made in a factory probably somewhere in China. What is consistent is at poor quality canvases and very inferior inks are used. They’re typically not going to look great forever. Just think, Ford could paint your car with crappy paint, but what would it look like in 5 years? You wouldn’t want to drive it, and you certainly wouldn’t want a dull, faded painting on your wall either.

Perhaps the student thing justifies the cheaper materials. Then again, what student wouldn’t experiment with different materials and better quality to improve their art.

Someone in the comments eluded to the fact you can buy these prints direct from the manufacturer online. The price we got one for was $145 Australian. But the cost price must be about $20 – $50 each in reality.

For all of you that said pathos and bullshit aside, these people are doing nothing illegal, to some extent you’re right. Door to door sales or art isn’t legal. If bullshit wasn’t legal then no politician could ever get elected. My point is, even if it is quasi legal, it’s certainly not ethical. There’s no refund policy, no consumer affairs to ensure a level playing field.

Let’s face it, if you knocked on someones door saying you were a Palestinian/Iraqi/Syrian/Lebanese or whatever Arabic student, this would be all over the media. The US terror threat would be yellow, lilac or puce or something like that. Hence the Israeli + student persona. Clearly it works at least some of the time.

These guys, male and female need to tell a story to make you feel like you’re helping out students to give you a warm fuzzy feeling. Make no mistake, it’s absolute bullshit. You’re helping a local backpacker pay for their trip to the big banana or whatever local attraction in your area. And some local rich guy is wheeling it in. It’s the big easy for someone.

So whatever you do, don’t let your heart swell with pride and buy ten of them, thinking you’re helping out some aspirational creative types. Especially don’t get greedy and think the art is by some dazzling future prodigy that will make you wealthy. Because the only one getting wealthy is the local rich guy, giving these backpackers paltry commissions to bang on your door when you’re eating dinner!

But what if you like the art? Well there’s one piece of advice. When the offer to frame the art for you (and they will), my advice is go for it. Because any professional framer worth a pinch of salt will tell you their framing is worth ten times more than the so called art you just brought. So cheap art necessitates cheap framing. Just don’t give them anything more than a mobile number. Chances are it won’t go sour but who knows.

So how do you sum this up? If you get offered any paintings door to door, the sky isn’t going to fall down. They’re not MOSSAD agents infecting your pets with ebola virus or bugging your apartment for some bizarre Israeli intelligence purposes.

My advice to you is to kid the kidder. If you like something you see, be frank with them with the fact that you know the whole thing is bunk and offer them a crappy price for their mass produced paintings. Do everything cash, no credit or cheques and tell them you’ll call the cops if they don’t piss off sharpish.

1) Go to the KLCC observation deck. it’s a big fucking tower!!! You have to climb a big fucking tower! Like how the fuck COULDN’T you climb one! It’s easy, i didn’t. But if you want to go, they only let like 5000 up to the observatory bit every day. Shopping is OK in KLCC, nothing I haven’t seen anywhere else. Watch it when you step outside though, the heat REALLY hits you in about 300 metres! Perhaps a cab to your destination might be a good idea if you’re not crazy about humidity.

N.B. KL really isn’t that accessible, especially if it’s raining because you get covered in pollution. And when it’s hot, you’ll walk about 500 metres and have sweat right through your clothes! This is not really an exaggeration. You’ve been warned!

Oh yeah, everything is negotiable – retail or market stand. Don’t like take any shit from no one lady!

2) See the view from KL Tower. So damn high the elevator ride is a few minutes. You can have quite a conversation going to the top. It is cheaper and easier to get into than KLCC though, as they only let a set amount of people go to the top each day. Awesome view, I got the anxiety attacks because it was so high. Kinda sorta good, but meh. No monkeys.

3) Eat naan bread at Steven’s Corner. If you can go to a place called ’stevens corner’ it’s near the mid valley mall off old Kelang Road. It’s like a third world Chapel St. Everyone cruises around there and Steven’s Corner has about the best naan bread you can eat anywhere in the world. They also have really great fruit drinks and lasses. Plus there’s about 100 other hawker stands (or mamaks as the locals call them. You CAN’T go to KL without eating at one) there as well if that doesn’t grab you. Will be about 45 mins out of KL maybe. I drank in the beer garden there till about 6 in the morning once. Long story, but a very easy and CHEAP place to eat some of the best food ever. I mean seriously good!

Mid valley mall is like Southland in Melbourne. Don’t bother. In fact I think I’ve seen an identical floor plan for that mall in Australia… another boring story.

4) Party in Bangsar. if you don’t want to slum it, hang out in Bangsar. it’s a little slice of Toorak and there’s night markets on a Sunday, ooh and the completely unpredictable (and inflatable) Irish pub. Very Chapel Street. Watch out for kids selling you DVDs, tissues, candies and completely useless shit. They’re persistent. i think there is a nightclub there called the Beach Club, which is a notoriously easy pick up joint/party club. But all the bars are here.

5) Bintang Walk is kinda touristy but really cool. Lots of nice pricey shops and la de dah stuff. Ooh Starbucks!

6) Wander down Petaling Street (aka China town) it’s truly awesome. During the day it’s stinking hot though. At night it’s cooler and becomes one massive market as the roads are only passable on feet with all the market vendor tents taking up the road. You can get this drink they call cats eye or something in Cantonese. Here you will find all the knock off software, DVDs, cds, clothes, watches, sunnies; anything a Chinese man can knock off will be sold here. It’s good to see because when the po-lice raid the joint, all the dodgy wares are on hospital beds and they plough them down the street!

7) Visit a Hindu temple. Go to this Indian temple near Petaling st, Brickfields
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Kandaswamy_Kovil,_Brickfields
it’s unbelievable and almost walking distance from Chinatown.

8 ) Visit an amazing Buddhist temple. It’s really really cool, probably the number two thing. Because it overlooks the whole town and it’s absolutely massive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thean_Hou_Temple

Oh yeah and eat nasi lemak. They have it wrapped in banana leaves on the tables of cafes in little pyramids. It’s a true Malaysian experience and would cost you about thirty cents from the average hawker stand, or mamaks as they’re known.

P.S. Cab drivers are scary. But not as scary as the cabs. Get used to it.