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Image by William Hook via Flickr

Sometime ago I purchased a first generation Apple TV as a media extender or as I have read on the net “the ultimate media extender”.  I was pleased with it.  Not really overwhelmed.  Things got a little better when I ran a jailbreak script on it.  It was still only about 90% to where I really wanted to be.  One of the major hang-ups for me was the constant updates and then having to re-run the jailbreak.  It was getting annoying.

After doing some research I decided to buy a Boxee Box.  I almost went with a Roku but after helping someone set-up one I decided that it was not the option I was looking for.  I downloaded the Boxee software to my laptop to try it out and see what I thought about it.  The GUI did take some getting used to but after a couple of months I think that I am relatively comfortable with it.

After a quick and quite easy set-up I was ready to go.  Get some apps up and running.  I need to have my MLB.TV and NHL Gamecenter.  That went smooth enough.  Next up, mapping it to my media server.  Again, not very difficult.  To my surprise after all the media folders were mapped it took a while to actually go back and navigate these folders.  I was a littled concerned.  Well, after some time I was able to navigate the folders.  Behold, it went out and got all the album and DVD cover data on it’s own.  That was one heck of nice feature that I was not aware of.

I am still working with a variety of apps beyond my sports related ones.  I have a list that I have been working on getting installed and will report the choices that I have settled on.  For my money this is the best set top box, media extender, or whatever you want to call it, is the best thing out there at this time.

Image by Night-thing via Flickr

I was recently out a Las Vegas occupying my wife as she was attending a convention.  This gave me an opportunity to visit the Pinball Museum.  This is something I have wanted to do for some time.  Pinball is a game that I grew up enjoying it and getting the chance to see all the various machines and hopefully playing some of my favorites.

After locating the museum the next task was getting a cab and head out there.  While the number of machines did not disappoint me and getting to play so many of my childhood favorites.  I took numerous pictures and hope to share them with you soon.  (This will force me to install a photo gallery plug-in)  Once I am able to do this I can tell you that you will step back in time on some of them just as I did.  It was quite an experience.  The only real downside was that it was in an old industrial park type garage.  Not really what I expected however, it is the beautiful machines that make up the museum and not the building so much.