Category: Tech

You Are Standing at a Blog Post

Before Myst there was the interactive text game Adventure. Introduced in 1976, I first played Adventure on an Infoton dumb terminal in 1981. I can’t find a picture of the Infoton, so here’s a Lear-Siegler ADM-3A, also introduced in 1976.

I became an expert on dumb terminals (Dumb Terminals for Dummies?) and asynchronous data communication at the suggestion of the co-founder of my employer. My thorough understanding of 7-bit ASCII, RS-232 interfacing, start bit/data bits/parity bit/stop bits, and Xon/Xoff flow control served me well for about ten years, until it was rendered irrelevant by the PC revolution. I never got all the way through Adventure, but it’s available to play online for free.

https://quuxplusone.github.io/Advent/

Tough Times at Bose

Bose Corporate headquarters, Framingham, Massachusetts

There have been layoffs at privately-held Bose Corporation. They stopped producing home stereo loudspeakers a while ago, with the model 301 being the last one. I won’t be surprised if the unique Wave Music System is discontinued.

Something I didn’t know until reading this article is that MIT has majority ownership of the company, but it has no say in management.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/layoffs-hit-bose-as-the-company-focuses-on-its-most-popular-products/ar-AAWTjzY

Recast

Here is yet another post about Google Chromecast for audio. The eBay seller who sold me a new Chromecast Audio player for $50 started charging $75 for them, and now they’re sold out. So I was lucky to get one when I did, at the price I did.

Considering the utility and quality of this inexpensive product, it’s a shame it was discontinued by Google. Amir at Audio Science Review had high praise for the technical quality of Chromecast Audio, especially when used with a Toslink cable connecting to an external DAC. And he had no complaints about its internal DAC, which is how I use the player.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-chromecast-audio-analog-performance.4562/

When I started testing my Onkyo receiver’s Chromecast Built-in feature, I noted the difference between the behavior of the SiriusXM app on my phone and the TuneIn app.

Cast Away

The tech site reviews I’d read agreed on one point about Chromecast Audio. That it establishes a direct Internet connection between the audio renderer and streaming services. The app doing the controlling is just that, a remote control. The reviewers should have done some deeper digging.

It was very curious to me that TuneIn had some success with the Onkyo, but the SiriusXM app didn’t, requiring the workaround of using the Google Home app. I wanted to know exactly what was going on. To my satisfaction, the excellent HiFi Cast app not only revealed why SiriusXM failed — which turned out to be the Onkyo’s broken Eventing Mode — but also why TuneIn had some success. The answer is in this screenshot.

Casting has an option the reviewers missed — that it can play through an app. The stream comes to the phone and is then redirected to the audio renderer in the player. Switching to “Via Hi-Fi Cast” causes the same sputtering effect I hear when casting with the TuneIn app. The sputtering disappears when I use the Google Home app to do the casting. The implication is the TuneIn app is redirecting by default. That’s why it was somewhat successful with the Onkyo, whereas the SiriusXM app apparently runs in direct mode.

That’s enough for now. To the exasperation of at least one of you, there is even more about Chromecast Audio that I will explain later.

Cookie Crumbs

Web browser cookies, especially so-called third-party cookies. The subject of great controversy, because they can be abused. But sometimes they can be useful. Last year I’d contacted a couple of local contractors about replacing the walkways in front of the house, and along the side of the garage. I wasn’t happy with either of their proposals, so I waited until this Spring to try again.

A house around the corner had some work done that looked all right, and using Google Chrome I contacted the contractor. I met with him and the quote came in at almost exactly the amount I’d guessed it would. That’s good, but it’s not for all of the work that needs to be done, which includes replacing the driveway. I’d have to find somebody else to do that work. As I contemplated the walkway estimate, an ad appeared for a contractor who can do all of the work. I clicked on the phone number and left a voice message.

Follow-up: That second outfit is a no-go. A lot of aggressive sales talk that boiled down to them wanting so much money for the walkway it was obvious to me they only want to do the driveway. A neighbor had his driveway replaced last week by a different outfit, so I called them. Once again I am reminded of how comparatively easy it was finding good contractors in Arizona when getting my late parents’ house ready to sell.