Easy to understand instructions for setting up VLC remote android app. 
I love watching movies/ TV shows on my laptop plugged into my TV via a HDMI cable , I use VLC media player I'm sure you've heard of it . Well this is a great little set-up but it's missing one thing for it to a true couch potato experience , yes a remote control. Lucky for me such an thing exists in the form of Remote for VLC android app . This is a great little app but a little hard for the novice user to set up, so I decided to rewrite the instructions so people who are not as tech savvy can still set it up on their android device and enjoy the life of a couch potato.

The first thing you need to do is start VLC media player in server mode, for those who have never done that before or don't know what that means , start VLC ,
in the left hand corner you will see  local network option expand that and click on Network streams. You may get a firewall warning that's OK , just click Allow.

Right now you need to make sure web interface is enabled this is done by simply going to the left hand top corner of VLC and click on View >> Add interface ( it's at the bottom of the list ) >> then select Web from the list.

Now here is what I feel is the tricky bit for the novice user, edit the .host files if you are like me you will have no idea what a .host file is let alone how to edit it , well I'll try and explain in plain English. These instructions are for Windows 7.
First open notepad as administrator ( windows start menu>> all programs >> Accessories>> right click on notepad>> then select the option to 'run as administrator'.

Important make sure you have 'all files' selected not just 'text files' other wise the .host file won't show.
In notepad select >>open >> then navigate to the program file for VLC, in my PC it was>> computer>> local disk ( C )>> program files (x86)>> videolan>> ( provided you installed VLC in it's default location your VLC program file should be in that location too) Now you need to navigate to the .host file open the videolan file then>> VLC >>Lua>>http>> then open the .host file ( in mine it was about 1/2 way down.

Now you are ready to edit the .host file , provided your PC / home network is behind a router delete the contents and replace with
 ::/0
0.0.0.0/0

or
# private addresses
#fc00::/7
#fec0::/10
10.0.0.0/8
172.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0/16
169.254.0.0/16

then just save and exit the notepad. and that's it well for the PC side of things anyway, but you may need to restart VLC after editing the .host files for the changes to take effect.
Setting up the app is much simpler . just install from the link , once installed open the app and provided your VLC media player is set up correctly running the app will scan for the server once it finds it you are connected and ready to use the remote, ( make sure your android device and PC are on the same network ( your home network)
If you have any issues my instructions don't cover see these links for extra information I found useful.

Android-vlc-remote-wiki-Troubleshooting
howtogeek-how-to-edit-your-hosts-file

Daily Reader My New Favorite Mobile RSS Reader
Well as I have already said lately I discovered the joy of RSS I have now started using a new RSS reader  on my Android device, with a much smaller memory footprint and off-line reading available Daily Reader ( Google Reader ) is my new top choice Android reader , take a look at it and see what you think.

What I love the most is the off-line reading which is so useful never mind the fact it saves on data charges, it's easy to get carried aways reading things that interest you and blam you are nearly if not over your limit for that month but with Daily Reader you can choose to read the saved page option ( provided you enabled that setting in settings, find it under settings >> display content >> select the saved page option for off-line viewing).
My android phone has a stupidly small amount of internal memory so the small memory foot print ( which I find a nice surprise  especially considering it has off-line reading , I would think it would have a bigger memory foot print, but I'm no expert on these things) is always welcome.

Christmas Food Shopping Apps/ to hopefully help you out at this busy time of year.
Well Christmas is upon us and unless you are crazy all your Christmas presents will be bought but what about the food, whats Christmas without FOOD.
I was quite surprised at all the shopping apps there are out their available on Android  to help you save money and make life easier when food shopping lets take a look.
In the UK we love our supermarkets and each respective supermarket has it's own app .
Asda
This app has alot of features and seems very popular has the Google play store reviews are glowing take a look for yourself.
Some of the features it boasts are :

• Shop the full grocery range available on our desktop website


• - Browse the app as a guest; no need to create an ASDA Home Shopping login


• - Start your shop from your Favourites and quickly add those items to your trolley


• - Browse special offers; tap the red Multisave flags to view all items included in the offer


• - Find and learn about items using voice search, barcode scanner and QR code scanner

• - Sort items by price; filter by type or by your favourite brand


• - Book a delivery time slot; easily amend your slot up until 10pm the day before your 
delivery and set a calendar appointment to remind you of your delivery date/time

• - Order groceries online and collect at selected stores with Click & Collect

• - Top up your ASDA delivery order while on the go; amend (or cancel) your order


• - View ASDA’s petrol price at your nearest petrol station

• - Find your nearest ASDA store, view opening hours and get directions


• - Store the app on your SD card

It basically sounds like you nearly have the full asda store website on your phone doesn't it. The app is 3.2MB which is a  pretty small memory footprint ( but the app is able to be stored on the SD card which is even better ).

Happy News

 OOOoooohhhhh yey, I've just read some very  Happy News  Seth MacFarlane is to guest voice on an episode of The Simpsons, what joy. I love everything Seth has done and I've always loved The Simpsons. From alot of the reviews I've read online this season of The Simpsons isn't doing so great and I admit it does feel like when I watch it they have run out of ideas but I want to be clear here I love the Simpsons and after all they are in their 24TH!!! season  which is a massive achievement. We also have the extra treat that Seth will sing in the episode. Take a look at the link above for more information. I'm really looking forward to this episode two of my faves in one happy days.

The Joy of RSS

I only got my first PC ( a laptop ) 18 months and since then I can honestly say I learn something new everyday.
When I was a child my dad would say you should always learn something new everyday and often ask me well what have you learnt today and I always have to rack my brains to think of something well now everyday my brain is getting bigger  , whether it's something regarding how to use my PC and get the most out of it or learn a new function or just learning a new fact by reading something on-line.

Well my brain is now expanding much faster as I have discovered the joy of RSS feeds, all the information from the news and websites you are interested in in one place , what could be better . I'm not what you would a 'techie' so take a look at my favorite website Gizmo's  for some good infomation on what RSS feeds are if you don't already know.
Gizmo's freeware/ tech support alert /what is RSS all about

I found what for me is the prefect set-up , I can always find something interesting to read. As most of us already have a Google account these days the first thing I did was set up Google reader
 Google Reader
Then I connected it to Feedly because I prefer the view / look of Feedly and it as more fuctions .
Feedly
Then lastly I installed g reader on my android phone , I installed g reader instead of Feedly or Google reader on my phone because it has a smaller memory foot-print ( as we all know memory is precious on our android devices ) and more features
g reader / Google Play Store
plus with the Speech Synthesis app your phone can then read out the articles to you, this speech app also works well with Pocket another one of my loves.
So if you've never used RSS before give it a go and impress your friends with the useless and maybe some useful knowledge you have.

Judgment Day update: Disney’s grenade-catching robot, and the burger-flipping robot that could replace 2 million US workers | ExtremeTech

Here it is the first burger made by a robot , it looks pretty tasty, I'm just glad they have got them doing something useful who doesn't love burgers, I'm hungry now.