So, you have an Apple TV. Great. But, you aren't overly pleased with the little Apple Remote. Well, if you happen to have an iPod Touch or iPhone. You're in luck.

With the advent of the Apple iPhone / iPod Touch 2.0 software update and the AppStore, comes a little app called Remote (free). Download and sync the app to your device to get started.

When you launch Remote you'll need to enter a passcode in order to pair the device with Apple TV. This is much like how you had to enter a code in iTunes to pair with Apple TV.



Once the device is paired to Apple TV, it connects and you're able to control Apple TV from anywhere your device can access the network. What this means is that since the device doesn't require a line-of-sight to the Apple TV like an IR remote does, you can have control of Apple TV from just about anywhere in the house. If the iPod Touch or iPhone can connect to your wireless network, you're good to go. Sweet.



The iPhone/iTouch will show album art, playlists, track lists, track controls..everything you need.



The other nice thing with this method is that you don't have to turn on the TV to use Apple TV. If you're only listening to music and thus really don't need the display, you're in good shape. Save some power, save your TV.

So now it's time to pick which media device I'd place into my home theater setup. My requirements to play digital music and photos is pretty easy, lots of players work those options.

* Netgear's EVA8000 is popular, works well with my Netgear ReadyNAS DUO and costs $349.99. It does support a good number of formats, and will do video. It requires a PC to be available since it's just a streaming device, i.e. no internal storage. It also won't play iTunes protected content.

* Now, there's no question the Sonos unit is pretty darn sweet. They've got a really nice deal there, if you want music only. Sonos also supports a really wide variety of file types including Apple's AAC and Ogg Vorbis. You can of course connect an iPod to the Sonos unit which would allow the iTunes DRM content to be shared. It's also multi-room capable.

Sonos can be a pretty expensive option though. The smallest player - ZonePlayer 90 (which is un-amplified, good for connection to a home theater receiver) runs $349, and that's before you add the Controller for another $399. If you want the amplified ZonePlayer 120, that's $499. A bundle including one of each item can be yours for $999.

* Squeezebox from Slim Devices (owned by Logitech) is another popular option, and they have quite a collection of devices, ranging from the rather simple Squeezebox Classic for $299, up to the $1,999 Transporter. The Duet isn't a bad option at $399 and comes with a display remote and the player. It is however, music only.

* Then there's the option of a built PC for the purpose of playing the content. Sure I could use my NAS and access the PC via the TV. Sure this could work, but certainly not for much less than what you'd pay for a 40GB Apple TV, and have it be something that works into a media center well (i.e. a small device). The other issue is simply the user interface that many of the PC based options use. Simplicity is key, and I think Apple TV wins there too.

* A number of home theater receiver/amp manufactuers such as Yamaha, Denon and Onkyo have set up their units with Ethernet ports for network connectivity and streamed content. Some also have iPod docks and connectors so the iPod content is available to your home theater that way.

In terms of dealing with that pesky Apple Fairplay DRM, there are solutions ranging from apps that strip DRM from tracks purchased in iTunes (which seem to get broken again every time iTunes is updated) or apps that have virtual CD burner emulation and allow you to burn your iTunes content to a virtual CD and then rip it back into the library. What a pain.

So...what's a technophile to do?

For awhile now I've been wanting to put together a solution for digital media in my home theater system. There are of course quite a few options out there on the market, and of course there's always the option of a roll-your-own design.

As with anything, what you plan to do with it makes quite the difference. So first off I had to set my expectations and have a list of goals to accomplish. Quite honestly they're pretty simple:

1. Play digital music on the home theater system, including files purchased from iTunes

2. Ability to show photos/slideshows on the TV from my photo collection

In the past we've used our TiVo Series 2 with the media server software on a PC, which lets us stream music and photos from a PC on our network. However, even with the little additions they've added over time, the experience is far from satisfying. Photo support works "ok" but the resolution is far from what I'd call great, and of course on the music side the TiVo can't play iTunes purchased content.

The requirement to view/listen to content purchased from the iTunes store turns out to be quite the differentiator.

Before we get to that point, let's talk about file type & size. Eventually I'll likely get into video over the network, but right now I am just talking music & photos. On the music side I have to balance file size with quality. Ideally you'd like to use a lossless file format, or one that maintains the full fidelity of the CD you're ripping.

Choices generally would be WAV, FLAC or the Apple lossless format. The tradeoff there is file size. Lossless files will be very large. Perhaps on the order of 35MB for a 4 minute track. Do the math and you see how much disk you'll use up. This also doesn't work well on portable media players due to their relatively small storage capacity.

So you're left with the option of either use a lossy format such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis and the like - and choosing a high enough bitrate to maintain quality or having two copies of everything, one for the home theater and one for the portable players.

Clearly two copies isn't the best idea. Sure I could have a TON of storage to accommodate that plan but the management of such isn't something I find to appealing. So, lossy format it is.

As to format, MP3 is by far the most well supported. There are many who swear by Ogg, and some that claim AAC is better. While Ogg is quite popular and supported on many players, it isn't quite as well supported for what I want to do on iTunes (iPod support requires some custom work), and AAC doesn't seem to be much better than MP3 to my ears and isn't as well supported. So MP3 is the format. Good, two out of three choices.

The last one is bitrate. Well this is easy. I can tell some difference between 192k and 320, so I'll go with 320. Sure the iTunes store stuff is 192 or lately 256 has shown up - but that's OK.

Ok, with that solved it's time to figure out what media device to include with the home theater gear....stay tuned.

Ok well not really.

IndyCar at Kentucky

Scott Dixon wins the Kentucky IndyCar race, with Helio Castroneves finishing second for the 7th time this year. Of course Helio could be as unlucky as Vitor Meira who started 2nd and led a fair number of laps, trying to get his first series win this weekend. And yet again, it wasn't meant to be.

Vitor's comment afterwards, something to the effect that they need to consistantly be starting up front to have a chance certainly has weight. As he said, you can't have 1 or 2 chances each year and expect to win. You need to give yourself more starts up front to position yourself for the win.

We were happy to see Sarah Fisher out there this weekend, and I suppose no one expected too much considering she hasn't been on track since Indianapolis in May. Al told though I'd say she did reasonably well, passed cars, didn't wreck and finished.

One note on the new TV deal for 2009.

NASCAR at Watkins Glen

Ok first off, NASCAR...figure out how to put wets & wipers on your cars and run them in the rain. The Nationwide race in the rain was pretty cool. Why can't they do that with Cup? Canceling quals on a road course because of rain is just pathetic. If anything should be on their list for 2009 things to fix, that's right there as #2 with the whole tire issue and Goodyear.

We're happy to see that Sam Hornish Jr. is OK after his car slid sideways, driver's-side-first, into the barrier of sand barrels dividing the rack from pits. Pretty wild stuff. The wreck on Lap 83, started by contact between Michael McDowell sent David Gilliland's Ford spinning out of control into the guardrail. This promptly caused all hell to break loose with something like 9 cars involved. Bobby Labonte limped away from the wreck and was transported to a local hospital for a look-see.

So Kyle Busch wins at the Glen....his 8th win this year. Those who don't like "the shrub" better get used to him.

The IndyCar series announced yesterday, a new TV deal with ABC and Versus for 2009 and beyond.

ABC will apparently get five races in 2009, with the balance to be shown on Versus. The Versus deal includes longer windows for coverage (minimum of 3 hrs), as well as additional coverage for IndyLights, qualifying coverage, rebroadcasts and other visibility that simply isn't available with today's package. The Versus deal is also reported at 10 years!

The usual fare on Versus are things like the NHL, the Tour de France, cage fighting, bull riding, college football and the like.

Now, there has been more than a little bit of curious reaction to this plan. For me, on the surface I think it looks like how F1 is on SPEED. You have most everything on SPEED with a few on Fox.

The trouble is, with IndyCar being mainly based in the US, we need more exposure to the US market and race fan, not less. Versus has the potential to relegate IndyCar to a network that relatively few people have heard of.

On the other hand, IndyCar could manage to write their own ticket in this deal because it's much less likely that they'd get booted off the air for another broadcast or delayed/tossed to a sub-par channel like we see with ESPN. It's pretty obvious that ESPN is NASCAR country these days.

Speaking of which, how many times has NASCAR's coverage changed networks? They're all over the place it seems to me.

So, in the end, this will be a very interesting road for IndyCar. It could be positive, it could flop.

Follow up:

A commenter in my "IndyCar 2009 Stop, Start, Continue" post said that it's nice that I say they need more sponsors and such but my saying that isn't a new idea and that I really have no solution. Well here's an idea then.

Since Comcast owns Versus, perhaps they'd like to be the title sponsor for the series. There's an idea for you. DirectTV is also an option simply due to their current relationship.

I think the sponsors that are sought out for IndyCar have to be those who want to establish themselves outside the normal NASCAR path. IndyCar is more economical for a sponsor, and unlike NASCAR's 43 car field - the sponsor stands more chance of being seen. With the diversity of circuits in the series many drivers from different backgrounds have the ability to come in and perform well, and that's good for a sponsor.

So there we go. What do you think?

There are now just a few races left in the 2008 IndyCar Series campaign, including this weekend's race in Edmonton. It is, at this point time to begin a review of the season thus far, and begin looking to the future of this now converged American Open Wheel series.

So, what can the IndyCar Series stop doing, start doing and keep doing for 2009 and beyond?

STOP

* Flying starts on road/street curcuits. They're ugly, the field is either too bunched up or too spread out. They don't work. Standing starts work far better for this type of track.

* Making such use of full course cautions on road/street curcuits. This has improved somewhat over the season but really the series needs to employ more crane systems like we see in F1, and get the cars out of the kitty litter without requiring full course cautions.

* Allowing rolling chicanes like Marty Roth from being a hindrance to others. I am all for opportunities in racing, and yes "buy a ride" is where we are today (or in the case of Marty, have more money than sense) but let's get real here. Marty needs to keep John Andretti out there and hang up the helmet himself. It's pretty sad to have him out there instead of someone like Sarah Fisher. Sadly the same goes for Milka Duno, who honestly is one of the nicer competitors out there, great personality but her driving is questionable even with a few "decent for her" finishes. Watching her hold up traffic at Texas is scary.

* Taking 5+ laps to get the field cleaned up for a restart when someone spins a car but doesn't hit anything! I believe IndyCar has a great safety team, some of the best in the business. They respond quickly and I think are respected by the drivers & teams. However, we've seen the league take waaaaay too long to get things restarted after the simplest of incidents - ones where no debris or actual contact occurs.

START

* Increasing the money pool available to participants. The current revenue sharing plan is good for some of the smaller teams but overall purses are down as a result. I don't mind seeing the revenue sharing but the overall purse for a race shouldn't suffer as much. There should be more of a prize to win. As Robin Miller's said, the Indy 500 should be a good $10 mil to win.

* Telling ISC to take a hike. They're solely interested in NASCAR and that doesn't work for IndyCar.

* Attracting more sponsors, especially a TITLE sponsor. This would go a long ways towards series viability.

* Building a better TV package. Marty Reid and Scott Goodyear are getting annoying. Granted, it's better than with Rusty Wallace. No insult meant to Rusty per se, but he doesn't belong in the IndyCar booth. I thought having Eddie Cheever in there was pretty funny but I doubt he'd do it long term since he's got the Rolex team to worry with. Part of what makes Formula One coverage on SPEED so dang good is the commentator staff. IndyCar needs to work on something like this for itself.

* Looking for solutions to yellow flag finishes. Now, let this be known - I DO NOT care for the Green, White, Checker philosophy of NASCAR. I think all this does is manufacture a finish. It isn't fuel strategy, it's crap. I don't agree with doing a GWC over & over until you get a finish.

edit: Apparently I need to clarify this statement. I don't personally have much of an issue with yellow finishes. Sure they aren't what I like to see but that's racing. However, and this is the major point, there are many fans who don't feel this way. Because of that, we have an issue. Heck, even Robin Miller agrees with that. Scary. : )

On ovals we tend to see more yellow finishes. And every time we do, especially when it's with only a few laps to go, fans react poorly. So we need a solution. Perhaps look at the way it's done on short track racing where only the green laps count. Start billing a race as "200 GREEN FLAG laps." In some ways I like this, in some ways I don't.

This is a tough one for me to figure out really. In some ways I hate the yellow finish, but in some ways I say look the race is supposed to be x number of laps or miles, and that's it. There's no overtime in racing. It is what it is.


CONTINUE

* Being open to female drivers. While some might think they're good PR but not worth it overall, I disagree. I think it's great that the IndyCar series is proving itself as a stage for women drivers. Good on them, bring it on.

* Developing interest with automakers. The engine summit we saw a few weeks ago is a great first step. I hope the series has the guts to open things up to more options other than one engine supplier and one specific formula. I'd love to see a diesel option, and certainly the return of turbos would be a good thing. We desperately need a new car and engine competition now that the series is unified.

* Having a solid working relationship with Firestone. They produce a good, reliable tire and with Bridgestone are clearly the best supplier for high profile open wheel series. Before the merger, Firestone/Bridgestone covered IndyCar, Formula One and ChampCar. We've seen how poorly Goodyear is doing with NASCAR of late and Michelin's had its issues and as such isn't in Formula One today. Tires is one place where I think a control tire isn't necessarily a bad thing but it has to be a high quality product. I think Firestone's done well there.

* Supporting alternative fuel sources. Ethanol, and especially corn based ethanol has taken quite a beating in the press, but I for one am happy that the series is at least trying something. You can't say that for NASCAR or even Formula 1 (at the moment at least). No solution is going to be perfect the first time out, but I think we'd all like to see any ethanol used to be based on something other than feed stock products like corn.

* Partnering with other series over a race weekend. ALMS at Mid-Ohio and St Pete among others is a great thing for the fans and adds a lot of value to the race weekend.

* Keeping ticket prices reasonable. NASCAR races have been overpriced for years now, while IndyCar prices have remained very reasonable. As consumer disposable income is reduced, IndyCar wins on value for the dollar.


So, has unification been good for IndyCar? Sure it has. Is it perfect? Heck no. Can it be? Who knows. I am not sure any series can be perfect. You can always make changes. But, IndyCar is at that point where they have to get some things worked out for the future, and now is the absolute time to get things going.

There seems to be some momentum and interest. Let's keep it up. There will be much more to write on this topic in the future, that much is guaranteed.

you start to recognize certain commercial actors from the other spots they've done.

It's kinda scary really.

It's been something like 15 years since NASCAR first came to the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In that time we've seen some great races, despite the opinion of many who live near the track that they should never have been there in the first place.

Of course financially it makes sense for IMS to host more than one event a year, but purists say the Indy 500 is it, and no others are necessary.

Once again yesterday, NASCAR had tire issues while running at Indianapolis. The apologists like to blame IMS. As D. Waltrip quoted last night on Wind Tunnel, an article that claimed "it's not the race, but the place" that's the problem.

Seriously?

The blame seems to be levied at the diamond grinding process that IMS has used in recent years to even out the surface of the nearly 100 year old oval in Speedway, IN. This process has been used several times in recent years, and each year NASCAR comes to The Brickyard, there's a problem. So what do we get? A pathetic, every 10 laps or so "competition caution" filled snoozer that took from 2 PM- almost 6 PM to run. Granted I love racing but there's something to be said for IndyCars taking less time than that to run 100 more miles. Of course they're also running a good 40-60 MPH faster than the cup cars.

Now for the real reasons for the tire issues. Part of it had to do with the very little testing they've done at IMS with the CoT. Frankly it is partly the same issue Michelin ran into at IMS with F1 - although part of that was the teams running the tires under pressure. For some reason NASCAR thought the same tire they've used before would work. Bad call. And, the bit of testing they did have (three cars), Goodyear said they had the same results as in the race.

Gee. Learn much? Guess not.

A few years ago Charlotte (IIRC) ground their track but didn't tell Goodyear. Honestly, if Goodyear didn't know IMS ground the track they've got their heads somewhere dark and it is plainly silly for Jimmy Spencer and all the rest of the usual NASCAR apologist puppets to simply let this slide and claim that NASCAR and Goodyear "did the best they could."

Tony Stewart has it right, Goodyear is a joke.

How many thousand miles has Firestone & Bridgestone run on that track without any issues? Sure, IndyCars are lighter and have a far different footprint on the track. They also generate a TON more downforce than a Cup car. But when was the last time we heard of tires failing on IndyCars at Indy?

It isn't like Goodyear hadn't raced there before.

If NASCAR is supposed to be so great, and Goodyear such a solid supplier they'd figure this out and get the thing right. I'll take all of the caution flag finishes in IndyCar this year to this performance from NASCAR.

Don't blame the track. Man up for getting it wrong, and fix it.

I understand the need for some websites to either try to prevent comment spam, or generate some data on who reads & comments on their site, even those who would like to send information to registered users.

However, this trend of being forced to register on a site to simply add a comment on an article is highly annoying. Posting on forums is another matter and I'm fine with registering for those.

I have enough passwords to remember, and frankly for a simple news site to make me register means I am not likely going to bother to post.

There is simply no excuse for this. Golf Channel seriously needs a real IT department and a real commitment to providing a quality online experience for its visitors.

Cable network or not, there's got to be some funding coming into that network that they could pay for putting up a decent discussion board system for the golfing fans out there.

Otherwise heck I should start one myself.

On the surface the Golf Channel website isn't terrible. It does run with Microsoft's ASPX framework, so you can plan on some things not working well with browsers other than IE. It gets a bit clunky from time to time but overall it is OK. I don't care for the news article comments which seem to always be formatted as one lump of text, ugly and not easy to read.

However, when you try to make use of the discussion boards you see the dirty underbelly of the site. It's just pathetic, and here's why:

First off, there's the frameset basis for the whole thing. Sure back in the day this might be a way to accomplish this task, but not today. The whole presentation is terrible. Even the top logo is cut off. Funny stuff.



Second is the left hand nav bar which lists the threads in a topic, but it scrolls independently from the rest of the content and generally wraps text around itself and doesn't appear to resize well. Sure you can change the "size" of the frame but the content doesn't adjust with it. Pointless.

Thirdly, there is the mysterious login name issue. It seems that from time to time it "remembers" you using some other name to log onto the site? Isn't that lovely...come on folks. Even Microsoft can do security better than that. They say it's some kind of cookie issue but that's funny when the cookie should contain MY logon name not someone else's.

Now, even with the ugliness factor of the site, I went out there to participate. Well that would be nice if I could actually post something. However, when every time you click a topic to reply the connection fails and gives you an error it becomes a tad difficult to participate.



The thing is that there are so many good options out there to fix this that it's quite insane they haven't done something about it. Reading what I can of the forum I am not alone in my critique here. With things like vBulletin, phpBB, Joomla CMS, Drupal CMS all readily available and open source, there is just no excuse.

Heck go follow the lead of the PGA Tour and use Lotus Domino and other Lotus technologies. And while you're at it, ditch Microsoft ASP and Windows server. The moderator says he has "hackers" getting in the site and he has no idea where they're coming from. Hmm, competent IT? Hardly. Give me one IBM POWER system with the IBM i operating system and I'll run the whole thing (including PHP based apps) and be good to go.

Clearly GC isn't capable of handling this on their own. In fact there was a comment from a moderator indicating they were "looking at" outsourcing the web environment. Please do so...NOW! What's funnier still is that the moderator asked if anyone had input to send it along. Well the email forms don't seem to work (go figure), and when I try to add a comment I can't, so hey good stuff.

This is of course the Internet and there are other golf forums out there to participate in. Frankly I suggest everyone who's a golf fan go check them out, because Golf Channel's discussion boards aren't worth the effort.