Category: Tech

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.

Why FiOS?

Had a nice chat today with a helpful customer service rep at Verizon. Seems that being such an early adopter of FiOS, I was missing out, not only on some HD channels, but some bandwidth, and I was paying $14/month more than I should be. Here’s how it looks now.

Looks good, except that “about 50 miles” is almost twice the distance from here to Boston.

Eye’m all right…

If not for modern medical science, I would be blind. Ten years ago today, the retina in my left eye detached. A piece of plastic was sewn onto the top of that eye, and the vitreous was removed.

Within a few months, both of my eyes developed cataracts, and I now wear the ultimate contact lenses — internal ones. They’re fixed focus, with one eye better for close-up sight and the other optimized for long distance vision.

But now there’s a promising new cataract replacement technology under development. It’s coming too late for me, but for those of you who have yet to experience the world in amber, you’re in luck.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/HDvision.flv 512 288]