Its also been interesting to see what “Silicon Valley” is really like. Are the streets coated with silicon? No! Sure, there are more IT companies here, but there are around a million people in the area – most just have normal jobs.

But eBay certainly has ambitious goals – they are certainly not sitting on their hands. Some big projects in full flight. It has been a challenge to learn and keep up with “eBay speed”, but getting there. Certainly if you like a challenge there is almost certainly something for you here.

Oh, I thought I was going to get a chance to meet one of the Java Posse too – Dick Wall talking about Scala – but it was booked out 4 times past capacity in a day. Next time maybe!

I have two young boys that are precious and a lot of work. A friend once described children as “very”. Very tiring, very hard work, very rewarding. (You can add your own to this list I am sure.). Big-T was almost three as I started out, and little-J almost one. Both loved daddy’s iPhone.  What, give an expensive iPhone to a young child to destroy I hear you say? I only give it to them supervised when sitting on soft carpet. I have heard others giving it to them in the car – not far to drop. And my kids have never dropped it yet. On the contrary – prising the phone out of those tiny little fingers can be a real challenge!

They say “getting married does not change your life. Having kids – that’s what changes your life”. I say amen to that!!!

[Well its 2 years later as I write this post and they still love it. I have not updated my site for a while, so I am deleting the page I had and just leaving this post instead.]

I will leave my LiveScribe articles around a bit longer, but they are now officially ancient history and may disappear at any time.  Lets keep the internet a tidy place!

This post is how I have set it up on my iMac. I was after a simple installation approach where I am the only user.  This is for Trac 0.12.1.

Creating a Subversion Repository

I installed Xcode first, so I am not sure if Subversion was installed with Xcode, or if it just came with the OS. But it was already installed so no software install was required. I created /Library/Subversion/Repository/HelloIphone3 (where “HelloIphone3″ is my project name). I tend to create a subversion repository per project (this may be overkill). The following commands are from a “Terminal” window (under Applications, Utilities).

$ mkdir -p /Library/Subversion/Repository
$ svnadmin create /Library/Subversion/Repository/HelloIphone3
 

Using Xcode I then imported the project from Xcode into SVN, and checked it out again into Xcode (as described in the Xcode documentation). Then Xcode knew the project was all being managed by SVN.

Installing Trac Software

First I installed the Trac software.  (I did not keep notes when I started, so the following may have errors.) I followed the Trac installation page.

$ easy_install Babel==0.9.5 Genshi==0.6
$ easy_install Trac
$ easy_install -U Trac
 

Creating a Trac Environment

I created a Trac “environment” for the project.  I decided to create Trac environments under /Library/Trac/Environment to follow a similar pattern as for Subversion repositories. Each Trac environment I am going to create with the same name as the repository name.

$ mkdir -p /Library/Trac/Environment
$ trac-admin /Library/Trac/Environment/HelloIphone3 initenv
 

It prompted for a project name (I entered “HelloIphone3″ again) and a database connection string (I just hit return to accept the default, which was to use the built in SQLite database).

Environment Authentication

I created an account for myself.  I decided to use “basic” authentication as its all local – no security concerns.  (I did not really want authentication, but I could not see how to get administrative access without an account.  I did not look very hard mind you!)

$ htpasswd -c /Library/Trac/Environment/htpasswd myusername
 

It prompts for the password to use for the new user (I did not really use “myusername” of course).  I kept the password file outside the environment so I can share it between all environments easily. (I pass it on the command line of the tracd process below.) I then told Trac I was an administrator.

$ trac-admin /Library/Trac/Environment/HelloIphone3 permission add myusername TRAC_ADMIN
 

Starting Trac

I decided to use the Trac built in HTTP daemon (tracd) so I did not have to configure Apache or similar.  To run I settled on the command line

$ tracd -p 8000 --hostname=localhost --basic-auth="*,/Library/Trac/Environment/htpasswd,Localhost" \
    -e /Library/Trac/Environment
 

Here -p 8000 is the port, --hostname=localhost means it won’t accept remote connections, --basic-auth defines the password file location (* means all environments, and “Localhost” is the relm name), -e says list all environments under the specified directory, so I don’t need to change the tracd configuration every time I create a new environment.

TODO: I want to start using launchctl, but I cannot get it to work or see any error messages. Help or suggestions appreciated! I want to run as my normal user, on demand would be nice. For now I restart by hand (with a shell script). I am hoping I don’t get file permission issues here since I did everything as my normal login, not root.

Keeping SVN and Trac in Sync

I then told Trac about the SVN repository. I went to the Trac home page (http://localhost:8000/), selected the HelloIphone3 environment from the list, authenticated, then clicked on the “Admin” button (on top right of page). I clicked on “Repositories” (bottom left) to register the SVN repository. On the right is an “Add Repository” panel. I typed “HelloIphone3″ as the repository name, selected “svn” as the repository type, and entered “/Library/Subversion/Repository/HelloIphone3″ as the directory. Then I clicked “add”.

After adding the repository, you need to tell Trac to sync the SVN repository with Trac. This is done using

$ trac-admin /Library/Trac/Environment/HelloIphone3 repository resync
 

To tell Trac about each commit, you need a svn commit hook.  If you don’t have a commit hook yet, start with the supplied template file

$ cd /Library/Subversion/Repository/HelloIphone3/hooks
$ cp commit-hook.tmpl commit-hook
$ chmod +x commit-hook
 

Then edit the file and add the following two lines near the end

ENV=/Library/Trac/Environment/HelloIphone3
trac-admin $ENV changeset added HelloIphone3 $REV
 

I commented out the line starting with mailer.py on the assumption its sending out email per commit, which I don’t need as I am the only committer.

Auto linking Commit Messages with Trac Tickets

Next, so that you can refer to tickets (including closing them) from Xcode in the SVN commit message (e.g. by including “See #41″ or “Fixes #23″ in the commit message), go to the Trac “Admin” page again, select “Plugins” from the right sidebar menu, expand the “Trac 0.12.1″ tree in the middle section, scroll down to near the end where it says “CommitTicketReferenceMacro” and “CommitTicketUpdater”, tick the checkbox next to both (expand the items to see more instructions on how to use it), then click “Apply Changes” at the bottom of the page.

Easy huh? I have tested for all of 2 minutes now, so it must be right!

If you want to see the videos, there is one on Mighty Mac (more Bash, Dash and Ferdinand actually) and one on Duncan.  Having seen some of the other videos with 6 million (!!!) views, I thought there might be some interest.  After the first weekend I was up to… 10 views.  Hmmm. Maybe I will keep my day job after all!

This article I found contained a nice overview of DLNA that I could understand.  There is of course the DLNA web site – but I have not found that site so useful to date.  I also found this article interesting from Sony.  This article (“why do I hate the DLNA protocol so much”) I personally found interesting from someone who has been implementing the DLNA standard in an open source project.  I have a programming background, so it was interesting to see that DLNA is implemented using HTTP, XML, SOAP, and streaming multimedia content over HTTP (with appropriate content types).  I had hoped to read the spec online – from that last post it looks like its $5,000 for a copy of the spec (!).  Hmmm – might be better to go look at the open source implementation instead!

So it appears that DLNA is a subset of UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) A/V, where only specific file formats are permitted.  Ok.

My hope for DLNA is that with a DLNA compatible TV, it might be an easy way to view multiple available sources (Foxtel, DVD, baby video monitor) easily, much like selecting between different A/V inputs on your TV.  The problem is the need to convert the different sources into a DLNA stream.  Examples of sources I want to convert include:

• DVD output (although there are “DLNA compatible” DVD players on the market now – just have to work out if they can view a DLNA source or act as a DLNA source).
• Foxtel pay TV
• Baby video monitor

The trick here is how to convert the HDMI output of the Foxtel box, or the low quality composite video output of my baby monitor, into a DLNA stream.  Hopefully there is a box that can do this – but it does not sound trivial and I have not found such a box yet.  It might require a full PC in order to do it.  For example, it may be that the Foxtel output needs to be transcoded in real time to one of the DLNA supported video formats.  Doing it real time is the challenge.

Note: I may ditch my current baby monitor solution if I can find a DLNA compatible surveillance camera system.  The nice thing about DLNA is multiple TVs can watch the stream at the same time – so can check up on the baby from the nearest TV.  I got a blank look when I asked for a DLNA compatible from a local electronics shop (but it could have just been the salesperson I got).

Another thing I don’t understand yet is how to pause, change track etc when viewing a DVD.  I believe it is possible, but not sure how yet.  (Some hints are given here – play, pause, seek, volume, … basic stuff only?)  And what controls can be sent down the channel to the device?  For example, can you send an “eject DVD” command, more more usefully, all the commands to control my Foxtel (pay TV) IQ box (includes hard disk recorder)?  I don’t understand enough about DLNA yet to work out what is possible.  Some stuff I have read indicated that pause, play, change track was supported within DLNA.  It may be that sending IR signals back somehow (independent to DLNA) is still going to be required.

More investigation to come!

PS: Gosh, doing more Google searches you find forum posts such as this one that go on for pages.  Looks like there is lots of people around doing stuff in this area.

• HDMI extenders are used to send HDMI signals over longer distances if a direct cable cannot reach (HDMI has length limitations – once source saying 5m, another 15m).  Useful to send a HDMI signal off to a bedroom for example.
• HDMI switches can be used to select one of multiple HDMI sources.  A 4 input HDMI switch has 4 inputs and 1 output.
• HDMI matrixes are like HDMI switches, but they have multiple outputs.  A 4 x 4 matrix for example has 4 input sources and 4 output connectors.  The 4 outputs can then be sent off to other rooms in the house.

HDMI matrixes are particularly interesting to me as its close to what I want to achieve.  I can have the Foxtel, DVD players, etc all in one location plugged into the matrix.  The matrix outputs can then be sent off to different rooms in the house were TVs are (e.g. family room and master bedroom).  Each of the 4 outputs can individually select which of the 4 inputs to view.

I have not ruled out a HDMI matrix in my final solution.  They seem very close to what I want to achieve.  Negatives however include:

• Yet another remote is required to select the HDMI input to view.
• Does not integrate nicely with Panasonic Viera Link, Sony Sync etc.  I would like to select an input source on the TV and start watching.  With a HDMI matrix, on the TV I need to select the HDMI input to view, then use the matrix remote to select which input to view.  Feels a little clunky.
• Not sure if the matrixes cut out some functionality.  For example, HDMI allows “commands” to be sent from a TV back to a DVD (for example).  But what if multiple rooms are viewing the same input source?  Which command set (if any) will get through to the device?

I am not sure if a HDMI matrix with HDMI extenders for each remote location is going to be my final solution or not.  It looks like a possibility, but not a slam dunk.

Next I need to do some more DLNA reading and learning.  (I found this article to be a particularly good introduction.)  DLNA is an alternative to HDMI to achieve the goals I laid out in a previous post.  Rather than have multiple HDMI sources being sent out over dedicated cables, my current understanding is you plug a computer network cable into your TV so it can stream content to be viewed over a normal computer network.  This requires no dedicated cable runs, as per HDMI.  Many of the newest TVs I see in my local shops have DLNA support built in now, so it seems to becoming mainstream.  My main confusion is about how much (if any) control over the source device being viewed is catered for.

I came across this list of remote controls which was interesting.  Following through some of the links and reading some more, the impression I get is:

• Funky universal remote controls with color panels run out of battery pretty quickly, so need frequent recharging.
• Boring remote controls without any panel have batteries that last much much longer.
• People are moving away from special purpose remotes with panels towards using iPads, Android phones etc.
• The devices are useful for other purposes (so you keep them charged anyway).
• They can be cheaper than the special purpose hardware due to volume of sales.
• One negative of using your iPhone as the remote is if someone rings you and you want to mute your TV or pause the DVD, then you have to find and reopen the application your phone closed when you answered the phone call.
• Remote controls that come with a product (TV, DVD, etc) are geared to serve that exact purpose – some universal remotes cannot do all of the features as you would like.
• For example, I have an old learning remote.  The volume up/down buttons when held only send a single signal over.  I have to click multiple times to increase/decrease the volume.  I cannot just hold the button down for a while.  Little things like this can be annoying.

There are IR extenders such as RedEye that have an iPhone app that can control over Wifi an IR blaster that you put near the equipment you want to control.  RedEye provides a free iPhone app that allows you to pick which buttons you want on the app screen and what they do.  Takes a bit to set up, but very flexible (from what I have read).  I have not ruled out the RedEye product from my final home AV solution yet.

The alternative is it get a simple IR extender which has an IR receiver (not an iPhone app) and then sends the IR signal back to a blaster near your equipment.  So you just use the normal remote, but you can be in a different room to the device you are controlling.  Pretty simple, and pretty reliable/robust.

Many of the major vendors reduce the problem by providing remotes that control many of their devices (as long as you buy all Panasonic, all Sony, etc), so your TV remote can control the DVD player too.  This does help.  It means getting the same brand DVD and TV for example may be a definite win (in terms of keeping complexity down).

I am coming to the opinion that its not necessary to get it down to one remote.  If the remote is too hard to use, it defeats the purpose a bit.  For example, I don’t mind having a Foxtel (pay TV) remote and a TV remote – but its nice if the TV remote can control the DVD player as well.  (Of course I posted recently that the Foxtel remote can also be used to control your TV, DVD, and amplifier.  I am just not sure whether the restricted functionality using the Foxtel remote will make it a worthwhile thing to do in practice.)

I was considering a HDMI matrix which I plan to describe in a separate post.  My understanding for each output (TV) you typically select its input using yet another remote control.  This seems annoying.  A remote control to pick whether to watch Foxtel or a DVD?  This is where programming the Foxtel IQ remote might be a sensible thing to do as the matrix remote does very little – maybe only needing a single button to cycle through the available input sources.

DLNA and remote controls is another area I want to look into – but again, in a future post.