Your heart will skip a beat.
This wouldn’t have anything to do with Swine Flu, would it?
Archive for April, 2009
Getting Songbird To Sing Beyond The Cage
Sunday, April 26th, 2009Worse case scenario happened. The laptop I was using for a Songbird powered stereo had a sudden and massive hard drive crash. Nothing is recoverable, the drive isn’t even recognized.
It’s not the end of the world, I keep all the actual music files on a Drobo connected to a server in the basement. So those are relatively safe. But all the intangible stuff, like the meta data for ratings and playlists are gone. With over 18,000 tracks they’re not easy to get back.
But what to do now? I’m taking this as a sign to do something better. I’d prefer not to have a laptop just sitting in the living room any more. In the realm of Network Music Player there are only a few real choices:
- Logitech Squeezebox
- Roku Soundbridge
- Apple Airport Express
And they all have their problems. (And the Sonos is too expensive to even bother talking about.)
The Squeezebox hardware is pretty pricey and I don’t have an audio system on the main floor that could take advantage of the fidelity that they put out. Only one package has anything other then a text based screen with an IR remote. Ug. It also requires a service running on a computer somewhere. I tried installing it on the PowerMac I’m using as a server but it refuses to start. Not even an error message in the console to explain why. I’ve been able to get it running on other PC’s and the service interface is UGLY. The only playlist management is through reading an iTunes database. Ouch.
The Roku seems to be very tied to iTunes as well and the Firefly media server feels really bare-bones. After their new video player, I think this is being forgotten about.
The Airport Express is a nifty little device, but it’s specifically designed for iTunes. And if you want a controller for it, you need at least an iPod Touch.
I’m a very committed fan of Songbird, but I’m not left with many options for it. There’s a Songbird Remote for the iPod Touch, but Songbird still can’t “speak” through the Airport Express. Unless I get Airfoil as well – which will allow any app to pipe it’s sound through the Express.
Sounds good, right? Well then there’s the issue of Songbird not having a PowerPC build anymore. There was someone who was producing their own PowerPC package, but I don’t know if it’s still being maintained. Then there’s the question if all the extensions and addons will work with it as well.
I picked up a Airport Express to try out and so I’d be able to play something on the main floor. It’s streaming from iTunes on a everyday laptop for now, but it is working. And it gives me Wireless-N to boot. But it’s still not Songbird and all the flexibility that comes with it.
So, to get everything working just right I need a PowerPC version of Songbird, an iPod Touch, Airfoil, Songbird Remote iPod app and Songbird Extention.
What could possibly go wrong with that?
*sigh*
Banhammered!
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009Last November, Adam Frucci of Gizmodo put up a post about a Japanese robot to train doctors for ER patients. And he referred to it looking less then realistic by describing the robot as having “a bad case of the Downs“.
"A Bad Case of the Downs"
I thought it was in incredibly bad taste, and I said so:
And it still isn't.
It’s not a brilliant retort, but it certainly got the point across. I’m still surprised that Gizmodo let the original post’s language through in the first place.
Well today Adam put up another post where he specifically points out that he’s the “token jackass” of Gizmodo:
Shameless Jackass
As long as he was talking about how much of a jerk he is, I thought I’d remind him of his past: 
Maybe to the folks at Gizmodo that seemed a little out of context or they just want to ignore it, ’cause not too much later I noticed:
Banhammered!
No one is going to miss my presence on the Gizmodo comments and nothing I do is going to change things, but I still think it was worth it. It’s gotta be pretty bad before I think about taking a stand on something, even this small.
Oto-Wa Taiko: 20th Anniversary Concert
Sunday, April 5th, 2009We went to the Oto-Wa Taiko concert Saturday night and I had a really good time. Unfortunately we were running late and I didn’t get a chance to bring my camera. I was so jealous of the photographers who were shooting the event.
I’ve been to a number of these concerts over the last five years and I’m starting to recognize a lot of the pieces, but I think they’ve added a few for this showing. The dragon head was definitely new and some of the sets didn’t feel that familiar.
It was also the first time I caught Dagaku. Which is the children’s drumming group. I guess it’s like a farm team. I was surprised by how good they were! Some of them were the proverbial knee high to a grasshopper but they performed really well for their four sets. The final piece they did ended with a beat and a pose and the kid on the far right of the stage dropped her stick on the pose – it was so cute it could have been on purpose.
My one concern of the show was the… um… Big Ass Drum in the back. If I remember correctly, I should have felt bodily fluids shake when it was hit. It seemed to have been producing the right tone, nice and deep, but the power didn’t seem to be there. And they were whaling on it – the stand was shaking – but much lighter strikes on drums at the front seemed much louder. Maybe it was the raised platform it was on, maybe the position on stage, maybe it was that I was sitting farther back then before – it just seemed a little odd. Weird acoustics I guess.
Watching the show I got the idea of a type of performance I’d like to see: Imagine a Taiko version of Devil went down to Georgia. Two groups in a challenge/response give’n take with the beat. With the idea it’s a battle over their very souls, each round should get a little faster and a little more frantic like the music I’m use to from home. Of course, that’s more or less an excuse to justify what I like to hear. But I’m ok with that.
I’ll definitely be going to future concerts.
