More than two years after finally getting this site stabilized, I continue to be nervous whenever any change is made to the layers of software sitting below WordPress.
Yesterday, as required by the hosting service, I updated the version of PHP that WordPress runs on, from release 8.0 to 8.2, and………… a miracle. Nothing bad happened.
Well, this sucks royally. I have been subscribing to Pandora’s basic service, free of commercials, at $3.99 for years. As a bonus on Logitech Media Server (formerly Squeezebox), Pandora has excellent sound quality, running at 192 kbps. It could come to an end with this announcement from Logitech.
UESmartRadio.com and MySqueezebox.com Servers 2024-01-25, 18:07 Hello Squeezebox and UE SmartRadio users: After a more than ten year journey, as of February 2024, we will discontinue our UESmartRadio.com and MySqueezebox.com servers. We would like to thank you for your loyalty and support throughout this time. It has not been an easy decision to make, particularly because we have been maintaining the Squeezebox servers more than a decade after we stopped selling the devices themselves. However, after carefully evaluating the changing music services landscape and ever-evolving security requirements, we have to recognize that, going forward, we will not be able to maintain our services to the necessary standards. As a consequence of this shutdown, support for services integrating with MySqueezebox.com/UESmartRadio.com will no longer be available on your devices. Most notably this will impact users of TIDAL, Pandora, and Deezer. Nevertheless, you will still be able to use your UE SmartRadio/Squeezebox by accessing the Logitech Media Server locally. UE SmartRadio users will need to migrate to Squeezebox, and all users will need to download and run some software locally, which can be found here. (To initiate the transition, navigate to "Advanced Settings" on your Smart Radio and scroll down to select "Switch to Squeezebox”.) That means you can continue to enjoy much of the functionality you love. We're here to assist you during this transition, and we will be available to answer any questions or provide guidance should you encounter any difficulties. Thank you again for being part of our community. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at forums.slimdevices.com. Last edited by mherger; 2024-01-25, 18:15.
It’s not clear if Pandora will continue to work through my in-house Logitech Media Server installations. Even if it doesn’t, my Pandora account works in the living room with my phone and Chromecast Audio, and downstairs on the Onkyo receiver’s app.
I’m okay with losing Pandora on the Logitech Squeezebox Radios in the bedroom and the kitchen. What’s not okay would be losing TuneIn on the Radios. It depends on whether or not TuneIn still works through my local LMS installations after MySqueezebox is shut down. All of this is the result of living in a Bluetooth world.
Follow-up: On Logitech Media Server I signed out of mysqueezebox.com and restarted the service. TuneIn is still working. *WHEW* I think that should be a definitive test. Pandora definitely will not work without MySqueezebox.
Ortofon of Denmark celebrates the coronation of King Frederik X as only it can, with this series of tutorials on tonearm installation and alignment.
According to Jim Dawson, this was one of the early recordings produced at the legendary Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. Jim says co-founder David Gold is still alive.
My 3-year-old Google Pixel 4a phone has a headphone jack. That was one of the reasons why I bought it, so there’s no need to retire the excellent and durable Sony portable headphones that I bought at least a year before starting this blog.
Whenever I eventually get a new phone, it will undoubtedly not have a headphone jack. Adapters with a DAC that converts USB-C to 3.5mm analog audio can be had for $10 and less.
Another option is the Linsoul 7HZ Salnotes Zero IEM with USB-C connector and built-in DAC. It costs $24 and works well, with volume and play/pause controls for mobile use.
Used with the right ear tip (for me it’s not the one that’s pictured) the sound is excellent. For the ultra-nerdy, there’s a setting in the Wavelet app for Android that tweaks the sound closer to the Harman IEM curve.
In my more productive and lucrative past life, I worked with VMware, both the product and the company. VMware brought virtual servers into the corporate mainstream, where they became an essential tool for enterprise computing.
When I retired, VMware was mostly owned by storage system technology vendor EMC. At the time, Dell was in the process of acquiring EMC, and we were under non-disclosure regarding Michael Dell seeking financial backing from China to close the deal. I assume the loan was settled long ago. VMware is now owned by Broadcom, which is making some painful changes at its new acquisition.
For a time VMware, Cisco Systems, and EMC were in a partnership called VCE, offering pre-configured server/storage/networking packages.
These product offerings made sense at the time, given the complexity of the configurations. A typical IT department, deploying desktop PC’s, making employee badges and replacing laser printer toner cartridges, didn’t have the resources to install and configure VMware with an EMC Storage Area Network. One area I specialized in was Storage Area Networking, a technology that hyper-converged networking has effectively made obsolete. Hyper-converged networking, first used at Amazon, is the foundation of cloud computing, which runs on commodity server hardware. The worst of the complexity is remote to customers, leaving IT departments free to deploy desktop PC’s, make employee badges and replace laser printer toner cartridges.
VCE’s long-term viability quickly faded with the rise of cloud computing, and the partnership was dissolved. On-premises systems continue to be essential for many applications, and yet I have to wonder how much more relevance VMware and EMC have in the corporate IT market.
My job was often fun, and it was certainly always interesting, but I’m glad to be out of it. Life put too many personal challenges in my way to manage both it and what I used to do for work.
