Last.FM at 75MPH

March 04, 2008 at 11:33 PM | categories: geeky, cool stuff, n800 | View Comments

I got a new phone today, a Samsung A737 from ATT. I signed up for their media net unlimited for an additional $15 and it gives me internet access, not only on my phone, but on my N800 too.

I have the Vagalume Last.FM client installed on my N800, and guess what? The 3G connection is sufficient for streaming! :)

I tested it out today, only a 5 mile trip on I-15 (SLC metro area). At 75 MPH, I went through about 3 songs. I advanced (skipped) the song about 5 times, and each time it went to the next song very rapidly (1-2 seconds delay). The whole time the music only cut out once when I first got onto the freeway, but only for about 2 seconds and it corrected itself.

I am extremely giddy at all the geeky prospects that lie ahead for me :)

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Streaming my music collection from anywhere.

September 18, 2007 at 11:27 PM | categories: geeky, linux | View Comments

I'm really in love with MPD. It lets me listen to my music anywhere and let's me use the same interface whether I'm stitting at home or at the office.

Recently I got a Nokia N800 which is great because it has wifi and and a great soundcard (even great speakers for a device of this size): it's begging to be a portable WIFI boombox.

The only problem is that MPD only supports Ogg vorbis through Icecast. Ogg vorbis is available through alsa applications on the N800 but most of the applications on the N800 are not alsa aware, which means that the nice little desktop applet for media streams won't communicate with MPD/Icecast.

I figured out recently that MPD CAN stream in Mp3 format (albeit in a bit of an indirect fashion):

MPD -> JACK -> oddcastv3 -> Icecast -> N800

The process was a little bit involved but not too terribly difficult once I figured out the correct pipeline. It's late and I don't really feel like writing up the whole process. If anyone is interested, make a comment and I'll post some more details.

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