Category: Tech

My first receiver was a Pioneer SX-440, purchased when I was sixteen, with money I earned washing dishes.

The SX-440 gets a shout-out from Kevin, owner of Skylabs Audio, a vintage hi-fi store in Iowa. He likes the “black front” Pioneers, but says they aren’t selling very well.

Every so often I think about recreating my high school stereo by buying an SX-440, a Garrard 40B turntable and a pair of Realistic MC-1000 speakers. Maybe I’ll do it, but probably won’t. I already have a pair of my first headphones, the Pioneer SE-20A.

Fifteen years ago, I made what could be called a “strategic decision,” by moving this site from iPower to Bluehost. At that time the company, based in Orem, Utah, was owned by its founder, Matt Heaton.

Since then, Bluehost has been through a couple acquisitions and mergers. Ironically, along the way iPower became part of Bluehost.

My strategy in going with Bluehost was based on the premise that bigger is better. (My former employer’s refusal to embrace growth over quarterly profit has left it struggling to survive for more than ten years.) Bluehost, with its WordPress-centered business model, seemed poised for growth. I guessed right, as Bluehost is one of the largest WordPress hosting platforms.

Larry Ellison has announced that Bluehost’s parent company will be migrating to Oracle Cloud. We shall see if this will have an effect, one way or another, on ‘Prattling Before the Pratfall’.

https://www.techradar.com/pro/bluehost-owner-is-moving-to-oracle-cloud-so-could-thousands-of-websites-be-about-to-migrate

Chromecast is working again for everything here except on the one device I care about, Chromecast Audio.

Update: Castaway! Chromecast Audio is working again. Yippee Yay.

First it was Google telling me my Pixel 4a phone’s battery was going to get clobbered by an update. The upshot of that was the purchase of a Pixel 8a for $300.

Now my 2nd generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices have been clobbered, possibly by outdated encryption certificates. Google says they’re going to “roll out a fix.”

Important information about your Chromecast

We’re contacting you because of a disruption affecting Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices. We apologize for the issue and understand your frustration. We are working to roll out a fix as soon as possible and will share updates and guidance on the Nest Community page. We appreciate your patience as we resolve this issue.

© 2025 Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

There is no replacement for Chromecast Audio. The new Google TV Streamer that replaces Chromecast is too much like Roku and Fire TV — and too expensive by comparison — to be of any interest to me.

The only music service I care about that’s missing from Lyrion is SiriusXM. For that, there’s a Google Chromecast Audio device on the Harman-Kardon receiver in the living room.

I’ll start SiriusXM in Chrome on my laptop PC, cast it to Chromecast Audio, then close the tab on the browser. Later, I’ll use the Google Home application on my phone to stop casting. Right now, however, the SiriusXM station I started playing yesterday is still playing, because Google Home can’t connect to Chromecast Audio.

Every Chromecast Audio device in the world is experiencing the failure.

https://www.androidpolice.com/unable-to-cast-to-chromecast-youre-not-alone/

But not to worry, Google says they’re working on it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/1j7crcn/comment/mgzcsog/?rdt=52529

My radio-controlled Acu-Rite wall clock is supposed to be synchronized with the NIST Atomic Clock.

https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwvb

All the Acu-Rite has to do is receive the signal from that one station, WWVB in Fort Collins, Colorado. Apparently, it wasn’t paying attention last night, when Daylight Saving Time kicked in.

Maybe it’s bothered that the station’s call letters aren’t KWVB, despite being west of the Mississippi River. Or perhaps the clock doesn’t like Daylight Saving Time because of Colorado’s proximity to Arizona. Wait. Did Trump tell Elon to turn off the signal?

Update: I took the battery out of the clock and replaced it. Overnight, it synched up with the shortwave signal and now displays the correct time.