Category: Tech

Wi-Fi follow-up

A couple more things about my new Wi-Fi radio setup. As was pointed out to me by tastewar, one of the features of the Logitech Squeezebox server is it can remotely control a Squeezebox client.

Logitech Squeezebos Web remote

The Web interface works for both the Squeezebox Radio and the Chumby One, which unfortunately doesn’t have its own Squeezebox UI. Needing a full-blown computer to control the Chumby makes Squeezebox support almost useless; however, I was pleased to discover that the Squeezebox Radio itself can control the Chumby. I would much prefer the Chumby having a Squeezebox control panel like the excellent interface it has for Pandora, but for now having one radio control another is a workable solution.

The Logitechal Song

As Wally Cleaver would say, I’ve been goofing around. The Logitech Squeezebox Radio is so good I was inspired to make a video to show how I have it set up. There’s no remote yet, so you get to see my hairy arm working the controls.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/Logitech.flv 512 384]

As I said in the video, turn it up and it gets loud. How loud? The meter shows 108 dB, and the sound is clear and solid.

Logitech Squeezebox Radio 108 dB

Something else I mentioned is the music server that’s in the basement. Logitech’s Squeezebox server is running on my spare computer, bought on the day Windows XP was released — October 25, 2001. The music is on a 160 GB USB drive that I outgrew on my primary Windows desktop.

Logitech Squeezebox Server

CD ripping is done with Windows Media Player 11. It’s set up for Carol’s convenience, so that all she has to do is open the tray and insert the disc. It rips and ejects automatically.

Daddy’s got a Squeezebox

Thanks to a couple of Christmas additions, Internet radio now rules. It comes with irony, because WBZ AM in Boston, at 64 Kbps, now sounds much better than the FM stations WBUR, streaming at 32k, and WGBH with its piddling shortwave-quality 24k. [Note: Two days after I posted this item, WBUR went to 64K, and a few weeks later WGBH did likewise.]

I’m tickled to have BBC Radio 2 as a preset in the bedroom on the Logitech Squeezebox Radio. Santa delivered it from Amazon, but it’s on sale this week at Best Buy for the same $150 price. I have quibbles with the buttons that could have been prevented by making the navigation knob a bit smaller, but other than that — and a couple of lock-ups that came up when I was flipping between menus rather abruptly — I give the Squeezebox Radio a rave recommendation.

The other Wifi radio is a fun, but quirky, device in the kitchen called a Chumby One. Being much more demanding to set up than the Logitech, the Chumby is a techie’s delight, but it is not a consumer-friendly product, and its $120 price makes the Squeezebox a better deal when it’s on sale; however, the Chumby is more than an Internet radio.

At first I was worried about the Squeezebox not having a regular FM tuner, but the Chumby One’s tuner is next to useless, and because I installed a battery there’s no place to store the antenna, so I’m actually considering cutting it off. But now that I’ve had a couple of days to enjoy Internet radio that’s been freed from the need for a full-blown computer, I’m OK with letting go of broadcast AM and FM radio.

Peter’s nut — ow! — buster

To the surprise of many in these recessionary times, this year’s live presentation of Piotr (or Pyotr or Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker by the Boston Ballet is selling out. The other big thing in entertainment going on right now isn’t typical holiday fare, it’s James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Frankly, I’m not fond of computer-generated characters, except the cartoonish varieties, and the previews for “Avatar” looked stupid to me. But it’s been getting good reviews, at least when the 3D projection is done right. And Bismo liked it, so I’m planning to see it in IMAX next week with Eric.

What I have to acknowledge and admire about James Cameron is that his attitude is similar to that of Walt Disney, who was told that “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and, later, Disneyland were crazy ideas. Disney’s most far-out movie venture was “Fantasia,” which didn’t turn a profit for 30 years. As Cameron has done with “Avatar,” “Fantasia” in its day pushed every technical boundary there was. Its use of multi-channel surround sound was, to say the least, groundbreaking. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to hear Fantasound exactly as it was originally presented, as explained here…

YouTube doesn’t have a good copy of the Nutcracker Suite from “Fantasia,” so I have done my own transfer, in stereo, with the original, restored Stokowski soundtrack. Walt came up with the idea of using fish for the “Arabian Dance,” which I think is the only sequence that doesn’t work.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/Fantasia.flv 512 384]

Verizon’s knock at att

tastewar reminded me of Verizon’s ad featuring the Island of Misfit Toys. It doesn’t knock the iPhone, just the network that supports it.

I was a Cingular customer when the iPhone was first announced three years ago, and I was surprised when the AT&T brand name prevailed. It’s completely outdated. “American?” No, international. “Telephone?” OK, I guess that still applies. “Telegraph?” Uh, no.

Last spring I switched the family from AT&T to Verizon. My basic Samsung flip phone had been handy for checking e-mail, but it got so slow as to be useless. Obviously, the phone didn’t slow down, the GSM EDGE network had. When I visited the AT&T store at the big local mall it was apparent I was no longer part of a customer demographic they wished to serve. It was 3G or nothing, and I was a voice customer.

The incredible success of the iPhone — my buddy Bismo is a fan — makes AT&T seem like a winner, but its monopoly can’t last. Once Verizon starts rolling out the LTE 4G network that uses the former UHF TV band, I bet you’ll find the next generation of iPhone there, and then AT&T will be in a world of hurt.