Plex bridges the gap between your Mac and your home theater, doing so with a visually appealing user interface that provides instant access to your media. Plex can play a wide range of video, audio and photo formats as well as online streaming audio and video. The real power of Plex is found in its library features: Organize your media into versatile libraries, automatically retrieve metadata from the Internet, and display your libraries using one of the visually stunning skins.
The new Plex Media Server allows Plex to effortlessly connect to all of your favorite local/online content. iTunes, iPhoto and Aperture content update in Plex seamlessly and in real time. Plex Media Server also connects with the brand new App Store which serves plug-ins that provide a huge amount of online content to Plex. Plug-ins work by leveraging WebKit to display video from online sources. Many of these sources are in HD and use the site’s native flash and silverlight players.
Time for another one of my ever so popular 24 in 24 sessions. This time, we are going to be looking at open source media systems. This is going to be a mix of media centers, media servers, and HTPC setups.
I’ve done a lot of digging and I think that I will be covering pretty much every single major package out there. (Now that I’ve said that, there is going to be at least one person out there whi is going to say, “Hey you missed ________!” I can fee it coming!)
Just what are these things? Essentially, these act as an interface between your home network, the Internet, and your television. They allow you to take a computer and control it using a remote so that you can watch all of those torrents from the comfort of your couch!
So sit back and relax. The 24 in 24 marathon starts in one hour!
We’ve been hearing from the CDC all over the news today about how the swine flu has hit Mexico and parts of the US and Canada very hard. There is even some speculation as to whether or not this is the upcoming pandemic that we are long overdue for.
I thought that I would take this opportunity to put IT departments on alert so that they are prepared for the possibility of a swine flu pandemic or any other public health emergency.
Increased Stain
The most important factor that IT needs to realize is that in the time of a pandemic, there is going to be significant strain put upon both IT staff and IT resources.
It will start out as an increase in Internet traffic as people from work start researching “swine flu” and “pandemic”. There will also be an increase in e-mail traffic, both from people e-mailing about the topic and then also spammers attempting to capitalize the scare. This will happen before there is a pandemic or even any cases of swine flu in your immediate area.
Work From Home Requirements
If swine flu symtoms are discovered in your area, then the pressure will really start. People will be urged to work from home. This will put increased pressure on your Internet connection and also your VPN setup. At this point, it becomes critical that you have a solid plan in place to provide remote access to the following network resources:
files
databases
e-mail
workstations
collaboration tools
intranet websites
From a support perspective, also make sure that you can perform the following tasks remotely:
reboot/troubleshoot servers
reconfigure any network component
access BIOS and POST on any server
access user’s home computers and network components
access workstations and laptops
When Disaster Strikes
But, no matter how hard you plan, something will go wrong. It always does and someone will be required to go into your data center or server room. If this occurs, you have two options for dealing with the situation:
Co-ordinate will all other individuals who may need to be in the office and ensure that there are never two people there at the same time, or
Have an IT person stock up for the long haul and spend his/her entire time at the data center, keeping everything running.
Option 2 is the best for maintaining everything and keeping it up and running. This person can also act as a centralized contact point for getting non-digital information out to others.
Plan Now
While it is hard to say at this point whether or not we will be experiencing a pandemic, now is the time to plan for it, not later. Make sure that you have a solid plan in place that will allow you to not only keep your company running but moving forward. Some things to consider when planning for a pandemic:
Who will co-ordinate everything?
How will IT services be prioritized during this time? Who gets access to what first?
What will have to go on hold until the situation is resolved?
What critical outsourced services need to be running in order for your disaster plan to work? e.g. power, Internet
Do you have sufficient redundancy in your systems to ensure that you can keep moving forward with your business?
Create a list of critical employees that need to be given first priority for all things network.
Conclusion
I really hope that this is not one of those events that we see in disaster movies. I really don’t. But, if we do find ourselves in the middle of a public health emergency, it is important that the IT department be prepared. How you respond to this situation could make or break your entire company.
Time for another one of my ever so popular 
We’ve been hearing from the CDC all over the news today about how the 
