First of all I had a couple of questions on MSAS which I don't know that much about.

Can I tell which tuner is being used when a recording takes place using MSAS? No, you can not.  What you can do, which may or may not help is use OnTVRecordStateChange from a background add-in which will give you a GUID and you could track which was in use - this won't help if a tuner is being used for live TV though.  Here's a code snippet on how to use OnTVRecordStateChange:

void IAddInEntryPoint.Launch(AddInHost host)
{

host.Television.OnTVRecordStateChange += new Microsoft.MediaCenter.AddIn.TVRecordStateChangeDelegate(TvRecordStateChangedHandler);

...

}

public void TvRecordStateChangedHandler(object obj, Microsoft.MediaCenter.AddIn.TVRecordStateChangeArgs TVArgs) {

if (TVArgs.Started)

mcHost.HostControl.Dialog("Recording started on tuner " + TVArgs.Tuner, "TV Recording",1,10,false);

else if (TVArgs.Stopped)

mcHost.HostControl.Dialog("Recording stopped on tuner " + TVArgs.Tuner, "TV Recording",1,10,false);

}

Can I use remote desktop to connect to a Media Center PC? Yes.  You can even use Media Center, but it won't play video over a RDP connection

Can I use animated backgrounds in an HTML page? Not really a media center question, but I don't see why not, use an animated gif.

Could I create an add-in that played a selection of WAV files with a gap between them? Yes, using Playmedia and Playrate you could contstruct an addin to do this - waiting until the playrate was stopped, then wating however long you want before playing the next file.  You could also use More With This  to make this work with any folder of audio files.

Can I use ASP.NET for development?  Yes.  You can use any web technology that outputs HTML.

Can I use WinForms for development?  Yes, but if you're running as a .exe you won't have access to Media Center APIs.  If you're running as a .NET applet in a webpage you'll have access to the Media Center APIs from the HTML page and will have to communicate between the page and the .NET applet to use the Media Center APIs - non-trivial to do, but not hard.

Is there a way for HTML apps and add-ins to exchange information (parameters) and trigger events? (Is it possible for an add-in to be registered as a listener to an event that is fired within an HTML application?) No, there’s no built in way for add-ins and HTML pages to communicate.< Communication between a background add-in and an HTML page could be achieved with an ActiveX/.NET control on the HTML page and then .NET Remoting between the two components.

How do I register a .exe file so it runs from More Programs? The same way you register an add-in, except instead of using the “addin” property on the entrypoint tag, use “run” with the path to the .exe

• AMD Athlon 64 3400+
• 1GB DDR SDRAM
• 200GB hard drive
• ATI Radeon Xpress 200
• 8 in 1 media reader
• Rewritable dual-layer DVD drive
• CD-ROM drive

Wow.  No mention of a TV Tuner, monitor or remote though... 

I've never bought an eMachines computer before, but that seems like a great deal for a pretty powerful system.

How can I keep the Media Center window on top so I can work on other things?  In Media Center go to Settings\General\Startup and Window Behavior and select "Media Center window always on top".

How can I associate an HTML application with an add-in?  Register both the add-in and the HTML page together.  Instead of registering the HTML app and the add-in you need to register them both as a single application with multiple entrypoints - one entrypoint for the add-in and one for the HTML page.  This will make them both part of the same application and so from a background add-in a call to ApplicationInfo.IsForeground will return "true" when the HTML page is currently being displayed.

In Media Center 2005 add-ins can do pretty much what they want to do without restriction, if one starts to misbehave the best thing you can do is to disable it:

1. Start Media Center
2. Click on Settings
3. Click on General
4. Click More Programs Options
5. Click Edit More Programs
6. Deslect the app to disable and click Save

This will disable the app from starting and hide anything entrypoint it's registered throughout Media Center.  It won't uninstall the app, but it will prevent it from running.

I love my 20D, but it's not a camera that I can use all the time, it's just too big, so I also have a Canon SD500 which I've mentioned before.  I'll get different types of photos from each camera; I can't do the same things with the SD500 that I can do with the 20D, but I can take it places a 20D just isn't appropriate.  It's hard to be inconspicuous with a large SLR camera and buy the time I've tweaked the settings the moment is lost.  The SD500 I use for more spontaneous photos, I don't mess with the settings, just accept the defaults and let the camera deal with the situation and most of the time it does a great job, probably better than I could have done manually.  Take this as an example - that was shot at dawn directly into the rising sun with the SD500 and captured the scene exactly as I wanted it.  The 20D on the otherhand lets me get photos like this, which the SD500 wasn't able to manage (subjects lit entirely by candle light on a moving boat).  The SD500 also shoots video, a feature I never thought I'd use as I've always prefered still shots, but I found a few instances when video captured a scene much better than a still image could.  The 20D as you'd expect from an SLR doesn't capture video.  Different tools for different jobs.

The New York Times also has some tips on digital photography, nothing really new to me there, but it might be off interested to any just getting into digital.

What fonts should I use for my HTML Media Center application and can I use Flash?  The SDK is where to go for design guidelines for HTML applications (the short answer is to use a sans serif font).  Yes, Flash can be used in HTML Media Center applications - Napster and MSN Music both use Flash.

How can I add an application to the Start Menu?  You can't.  Well OK, you can, but we recommend that only OEMs use this functionality as there is a limit to how many applications can appear on the start menu and adding a new app will stomp on existing applications.  If you intend to distribute your application you shouldn't do this, but if you really want to know, the details are in the SDK here.

I've seen the Media Center software for sale online is it OK to buy it?  I'm no lawyer so I'm not going to comment on this.  Media Center is an OEM product and only available with new PCs is the official answer though.

So what's been going on?  Well, I'm very excited about the XBox 360 and it's built in Media Center Extender.  There will definitely be one of those next to my TV later this year.  With the XBox 360 there I might just move the Media Center PC away from the TV and hide it out of the way somewhere.  That will simplify the connections around the TV and reduce my ambient nosie level a bit.  Although I only actually notice that PC when it's on and I'm not watching TV which isn't that often as it's normally asleep.  Ideally I'd like to place an XBox 360 in bedroom along with a nice big thin flat display but a bunch of money is going to have to appear from somewhere for that to happen, I've already blown most of my disposable income on a new PC and display (I got one of the new Dell 24" displays and it's a beautiful thing) and that's ignoring my expensive hobbies of photography and world travel.

I spent almost a month away from work travelling the world which was great fun.  I first went to Amsterdam for a day where I got to spend the day with my Mum (with me living in Seattle and her in England we don't see eachother that often).  Then I flew to Delhi where I joined Intrepid Travel's Delhi to Kathmandu trip.  I've traveled with Intrepid before and I continue to recommend them to anyway looking for a trip that's a bit different.  I like that when I travel with them there's a set itinerary but there's plenty of time to do what I want to.  I could talk about my travel philosophy for hours so I won't get started here, but it's something I'm very passionate about.  This trip was really great.  I got to see the Taj Mahal for a start and to really experience India.  It wasn't without it's low points though, I did at one point end up in a hospital in Nepal suffering from food poisoning and dehydration.  That wasn't a lot of fun and wasn't made any better by being in a bus crash the next day.  Thankfully nobody was injured and it didn't really cause us any problems.  That's what makes travelling fun though.  The experiences and the unexpected.  The trip came to and end in Kathmandu and I stayed on in the city for a few days before flying to Bangkok and Taipei alone.  I could write pages (and perhaps I will one day) on the whole trip, but for now I'll leave you with the photos.

Just after getting back from that trip I flew to Chicago for the weekend.  Chicago is too close for an overnight flight to be good.  I don't function that well on three hours of sleep.  I did have a great time in the city though, it was the first time I'd gone there and left the airport.  My dad flew in from England for the weekend as well and showed me around as he's been there before.  I went to the U2 concert while I was there which was incredible.  They put on an awesome show.  My dad didn't come to the show with me so I made it up to him by taking him to see a Cubs game at Wrigley field.  He knew we were going but thought we had terrible seats, that was something I'd lead him to believe as in reality our seats were in the third row behind home plate and I wanted to surprise him - there a stitch of the view from our seats here.

OK, back to work...