Stream movies from your Mac to your Wii

…without using VLC or any media apps--paid or otherwise--on your Mac.

I've searched for months and have yet to find a comprehensive guide for streaming video from the Mac to the Wii. After wading through dozens of forums, I've finally cobbled together a way to wirelessly stream movies -- and it's much easier than I expected. And completely free, which is even better.

(This method has only been tested on my Mac running 10.5.8. Your mileage may vary.)

To begin, you'll need:

• The Homebrew Channel installed on an SD card for your Wii.
• an SD card reader for your Mac.
• a wireless router of some sort.
  

Step 1 - Share the stuff on your Mac.

• Open your System Preferences and click "Accounts". Click "Guest Account" and make sure "Allow guests to connect to shared folders" is selected.
• Go back the the preferences menu and click "Sharing". Turn on File Sharing and add the folder containing your media that you'd like to share. Or you can just share your entire hard drive, if you like. Make sure guests are allowed to read & write. (I'm not too worried about security, as my machines are protected by my router's firewall, but if you're concerned about such things you may want to experiment with password settings.)
  
• Click "Options..." and make sure that "Share files and folders using SMB" is checked.
• Back to the preferences menu again. Click "Network" and look for the internal IP of your Mac--in my case, it was 10.0.1.4. Remember this for later...but first, fire up that Wii...

2. Install MPlayer CE via the Homebrew Channel on your Wii.

• The nice thing about this method is that you can use a relatively small SD card, as you won't have to copy over any movie files. Mine was an old 128MB card, and everything loaded just fine.
• When you're finished, you'll have a nice, fresh copy of the program on your SD card. Take it to your Mac.

3. Edit a file or two.

• Here's where it gets a little tricky. I don't think you can do much severe damage here, but make sure you backup these two files (smb.conf and menu.conf) before you make any changes to them. Just in case.
• Open the smb.conf file located in "/Apps/mplayer_ce/" on the SD card. Edit the following information:

#Samba share1 (smb1:/)
ip1=10.0.1.4 (internal IP of your mac)
share1="name of your shared directory"
user1=0
pass1=0

• If you have other folders or hard drives you've set up to share, enter those settings into their placeholders now.
• If you have multiple shares you'd like to be able to distinguish in the MPlayer menu on the Wii, open up the menu.conf file (also in "/Apps/mplayer_ce" on the SD card) and search for the following:

cmdlist name="open_smb"

• Look a couple of lines below and edit the menu items (i.e. "SMB Share 1...") to reflect the shared folders you configured in smb.conf.
• save your edited files, eject the card, and take it back (for the last time) to the Wii...

Step 4 - Watch a movie!

(I've only tried this with AVIs and mp4s...I assume other media types will work here, but I haven't been able to test them yet.)

• Fire up The Homebrew Channel and launch MPlayer CE. Select "Open" then "File" then "SMB". If you edited your menu options, you should see them now. If you didn't edit your menu, go ahead and select "SMB Share 1..."

And there's your moment of truth. If it all worked, you should see a file listing of your shared folder. All that's left is to select a movie and watch it. Huzzah!

Success? Failure? Better ideas? Let us know in the comments.

Wirelessly sync iCal calendars to your BlackBerry

I like my technology best when I have to deal with it least. For the last year, I had been swimming nicely with a v360 that would automatically sync with iCal and Address Book on my Mac. But then I threw caution to the wind and upgraded to a BlackBerry Pearl. I loved the bigger screen, push email, internet access, blah blah blah... but there was zero iSync support for the Mac. Zero bluetooth sync support period. I was crushed.

"You mean I'm going to actually have to plug in to the computer to sync my calendar?!" I thought in a burst of geekalicious self-pity. I mucked about with PocketMac, but I was absolutely opposed to paying for the Missing Sync software. There is no way in hell I'm going to pay that much for software that gives me the ability to do something other people can already to for free--and won't even do it wirelessly.

I'm a busy guy. And when I say busy, I mean lazy. I usually forgot to plug in to sync my calendar, and as a result often had a lot of scheduling conflicts when I relied on my BlackBerry for info. I googled far and wide for a solution, but came up with nada. So I finally got around to doing something about it myself, and I came up with a solution that works well for me. Maybe it'll work for you, too.

(A few caveats before we begin: This only works for calendar info, not contacts. You'll still need PocketMac for that. And as far as I know, this only works one way, from iCal to the BB. I haven't worked out a way to sync back from the BB to iCal. I personally don't need this ability, but I know many others will. Also, because we're jumping through a few different hoops here, the transfer isn't instantaneous. I haven't actually timed it out, but any changes I've made in iCal seem to take anywhere from several minutes to an hour or so to make it onto the BB. You can force Google Sync to re-sync whenever you wish, which sometimes helps, but the delay seems to lay in the iCalx > Google connection. For me, an hour or so delay is better than no transfer at all, but of course YMMV. If you have any better solutions or ways to improve this process, please leave a comment below.)

Still with me? Okay, for this process, you'll need:

- iCal (free)
- an iCal Exchange account (free)
- a Google account (free)
- Google Sync for BlackBerry (free)
- a BlackBerry (not so free)

Step 1 - Sync iCal with iCalx

Once you set up your iCalx account, grab the link to publish a public calendar from iCal to iCalx. It'll look something like:

http://icalx.com/public/[yourusername]/

Open up iCal and select the calendar you want to publish. Choose "Calendar > Publish..."



Enter the info as shown above. Make sure to choose the private server option and click "Publish changes automatically." Click "Publish" and head on over to iCalx.

Step 2 - Sync iCalx with Google Calendar


Go to your account page, and control-click (or right click, if you can) on the .ics link next to the calendar you just uploaded and select "Copy Link". Now it's time to head over to Google Calendar.


Just below the mini-month calendar on the left, click "Add" and select "Add by URL." Plug in the calendar address you copied from iCalx, and click "Add."

If it worked, the name of the new caledar on the sidebar will change from the long address you pasted to the name you gave the calendar in iCal. This could take anywhere from a few seconds two a minute or so. Any longer than that, and something may have gone wrong along the way. It's happened to me a couple of times, and simply repeating the last step usually clears it up for me.

Repeat this entire process for each calendar in iCal you want to sync to your BlackBerry. After that, the hard part's over. Time to pick up the BlackBerry.

Step 3 - Sync Google Calendar with the BlackBerry

If you haven't already, point your BB browser to google.com and download Google Sync. Enter your account information, and then select the calendars you want to sync to the BlackBerry. Tell it to sync, which could take a few minutes, depending on how many calendar entries there are to transfer. I don't have a screenshot, but my settings look something like this:

When to sync: Automatic
On Conflicts: Server Wins

That's it! Now whenever you make a change in your iCal account, it will automatically update the iCalx account, which will automatically update the Google account, which will then automatically sync to your BlackBerry. Best of all, you don't have to plug anything in, and you don't have to spend any more money. Huzzah!

how to: make a great pot of tea

I recently learned a few tips from a Canadian who often prepares high tea for guests at a Shakespeare festival:

1. Boil the water

Don't just get it hot. Boil it. Electric kettles work fine, with the added benefit of shutting off at just the right temperature. Microwaving is not recommended. When I'm at home, I personally prefer the old whistling-type stovetop kettle, but when I'm working at a theatre, an electric kettle is really the only choice.

2. Heat the teapot

If the pot is cold, it'll cool the boiling water too quickly and won't let the leaves steep properly. To heat the pot, either stick it in an oven at low heat or (if you're away from an oven) fill the teapot with very hot water. I find it handy to boil some water, pour it in the teapot, and let it set for a minute or so. Then bring the water in the kettle back to a boil (it won't take long becuase it's already hot) as you empty the pot and add the leaves.

3. Add the water to the tea

And not the other way around. The water should be boiling as it touches the tea. After adding the water, put the lid on the pot.

4. Let it steep

You don't have to touch it. Don't swirl it, dunk it, or shake it. Just let the water and the tea do its magical thing for 3-5 minutes, depending on how strong you like it. Any less, and it's not tea. Any more, and you've got a bitter mess. When the time's up, open the lid and discard the teabags. Consider using a tea cozy if you're not going to drink it too quickly.

5. Enjoy

Pour and add your sugar and milk or lemon, if you like. If you're going to add milk, make sure you put it in the cup before you pour the tea. There's actual science behind this: it has to do with letting the milk cool the tea, instead of the tea scalding the milk. If you're going to add lemon, don't add milk. Rememeber that one time at the bar when your friends ordered you a cement mixer? That's why.

Will knowing how to prepare tea make you a better actor? Probably not. But it will make you a better person.* There's also the cool factor, and the chance that someone might make some scones for you. And the street cred. The sweet, sweet, streed cred.
___
*Not true.