Software interface for the 6100 Media Center

Initially I thought about creating a Facespan interface for the media center.

Facespan puts attractive and functional GUI front ends on Applescripts.

I quickly scraped that idea however, and decided to create the front end in html and have the Media Center be run as a web page off the hard drive.

There are a number of benefits:

Cross platform development – I can work on the code on a Mac, PC, even my PDA.

Javascript. While javascript has so many quirks (especially differences between browsers and operating systems), it will be useful for a few things – including a time display. (blinking 12:00 ala a vcr anyone?)

Full screen (kiosk type) mode. I can hide the menu bar and make it appear like any OS I want.

Animated gifs. While too many would be distracting – the ability to easily add animation by placing an animated gif is a huge bonus.

Integrated web content. Possibly using frames. Why grab content via Applescript, repurpose it, then put it back in Facespan if I can just slap it right in a frame? Normally as a web designer I stay away from frames and hate them with a passion – but in this case – since I have a closed environment – I might use them.

Rollovers. Easily give visual feedback for button presses. Not a high priority for me – but nice to know that it’s there.

Sound. Again easy to embed. But I promise – no annoying Tivo clicks!

Fonts. Easy to specify and customize. Since this is going to be displayed on a TV I’ll probably be using a larger font size than the regular Mac OS uses.