Author: DOuG pRATt

Nursing a Problem

Before I became one of the voluntarily unemployed, I was in meetings with Dell Computer Corporation where they pitched a “hospital of the future” initiative, using remote technology to aid patient care. Nothing came of it where I worked, but Dell was right about where things needed to go, and the pandemic made the need urgent.

The point that’s made about nurses no longer tolerating some demands, such as working night shifts, doesn’t address the reality that there must be night nurses.

Google Gargles

I’ve completed a lengthy journey of understanding a problem with Google’s (discontinued) Chromecast Audio device. The symptom is the sound sputters, as if it were gargling.

The process I’ve been through to figure out the problem would be tedious to explain and boring to read. The upshot was that I bought an excellent external DAC with a display.

Topping E30 II Lite DAC

These are the essential points:

  • Android resamples audio to 48 kHz. This will be seen when using the Home app to cast all audio from Android, rather than casting from an app that does its own audio rendering.
  • Android audio played via USB is always 48 kHz.
  • Resampling 44.1 audio to 48 kHz causes Chromecast Audio to “gargle.” This is true whether using the device’s analog output or an external DAC.
  • USB audio works perfectly at 48 kHz.
  • Google Chrome browser no longer supports audio-only Chromecast.*

All of this is within Google’s “ecosystem” and control, especially considering my Android phone is a Google Pixel 4a. It’s an example of where Google continues to be sloppy and inconsistent.

They create a lot of interesting stuff, with the Chromecast Audio puck at the top of the list, as far as I’m concerned. It’s painful recalling the innovative Logitech Revue with Google TV being abruptly discontinued. Google’s problem is they don’t fully commit to the pursuit of polishing their products to perfection as Apple, following Steve Jobs’ lead, seems obsessed with doing.

* Correction: The Chrome browser in one of my Windows 10 PC’s continues to show Chromecast Audio as an available device. It’s playing the audio for a YouTube video, at 48 kHz. So after so much careful checking, being sure that my WiFi PC’s are on the same network as Chromecast Audio, only to see the device no longer being listed in the Chrome browser, I am confronted with yet another quirk that will require even further testing.

Follow-up: Oh yeah, it’s working now!

A Friendly Exchange

My old friend who lived in San Francisco for many years has been telling me about the local politics where she lives now.

What she said: Voting time is about the only time I really miss living in CA. Before every election we got pamphlets that had exactly whom we would be voting for, their bios, their statements, their rebuttals, their counter-rebuttals, along with every proposition, and pro and con statements for them. Here, you cannot even find your own polling place online! The area here makes it VERY hard to vote because we are gerrymandered regularly without any notice. *sigh*

My reply: Thanks to the pandemic, the SF Bay area’s commercial real estate market, and perhaps the city itself, could be in a so-called “doom loop.” So it’s good you left, but the manipulation of the voting process you’re seeing sure does seem like typical Republican dirty tricks.

I have to laugh when pundits say GOP traditionalists, like Romney, don’t recognize their party under Trump. They had blinders on, not wanting to see their party for what it’s really about, once you look below the rich investor class. It’s exactly the same as what it was, except now it’s pumped up on steroids and been given full expression by Trump.

Mitt is one leading “traditional” Republican who was naive about Trump and the truth he revealed about the Grand Old Party. Mitch is another.