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I've been MP3 encoding my CD collection for over 6 years, and have almost exclusively used a Linux application called Grip to handle the digital audio extraction and encoding processes. Grip is great. It uses the incredible CDParanoia for CD Digitial Audio (CDDA) extraction. CDParanoia considers the non-trackability of CD tracks while extracting audio, which results in an audio file free of pops or clicks (except those done intentionally). And Grip can be configured to use any number of audio encoders, from MP3 to Ogg Vorbis. My favorite MP3 encoder has long been Lame. It uses a very efficient encoding algorithm that results in the best sounding MP3's I've encountered.

Posted by Scott at 11:55 AM | Permalink

Photos of my handywork:

Posted by Scott at 2:45 PM | Permalink

I recently moved within the city of Monterey and requested that SBC transfer my phone and DSL service. It was pretty uneventful aside from wiring issues in the new apartment, which resides in a 70-80 year old Victorian. SBC fulfilled their duties by providing service to the demarcation line. Aside from that, the wires connecting the service to the apartment jacks were lost in a rat's nest of grimy antique cables. Therein lies the problem.

So, I improvised an interim solution consisting of a severed phone extension cable with the red and green wires connected to our posts in the demarcation service box. But the phone line is currently run out of a living room window, which is too unsightly for my girlfriend. Therefore, I need to trace our cables in the mess this weekend (or sooner).

I looked online for different tone/probe kits for cable testing and settled on a really nice Fluke IntelliTone tester; however, the price tag (~$160 USD) was hard to swallow for a tool I'll use no more than once or twice a year. Thankfully, my Dad was able to borrow an analog tone/probe kit from work. Otherwise, the Fluke product would make a great solution.

Posted by Scott at 12:35 PM | Permalink

Last Friday, my friend Jason Liao passed away in a tragic car accident in Marina, CA. I had dinner with him earlier that fateful night. Jason was working at CTB/McGraw Hill in Monterey as an engineer. He loved all aspects of engineering, having received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley. He also loved autocross and Corvettes. Why must what we love be our greatest weakness?

Jason was a caring, sincere and brilliant person. He jumpstarted my interest in UNIX by introducing me to Linux when we were still in high school. We watched Linus Torvalds speak at Berkeley in 1996 as undergrads. We rafted the mighty Cache Creek with Nic Farrell and Aaron Rowden. I watched Jason persevere throughout a rough-and-tumble economy, and emerge with an optimistic outlook. Jason could reason and maintain a balanced perspective under any circumstances.

Jason: thank you

Posted by Scott at 4:14 PM | Permalink

I was reminded of the Lomo camera craze while reading a Wired News article on the use of antique radio equipment for playing songs off an iPod or other digital music source. Technology is moving towards providing a unified vision of the world. Which is better: Monet's oil painting of a sunflower, or a high-resolution 6 mega-pixel digital image of the same scene? Is a painstakingly digitally mastered studio recording of your favorite band more enjoyable than a concert performance? Randomness is something we're losing in the never-ending chase for greater precision.

Posted by Scott at 8:58 AM | Permalink

Since I purchased my Apple Powerbook in July, I've wanted to get some experience developing Cocoa (Objective-C) applications. I subscribe to O'Reilly Safari, which provides me with a huge library of technical books to draw upon. "Programming in Objective-C" (Stephen G. Kochan) is the best book I've encountered yet. I haven't programmed in C since university (nearly 4 years), and Java has given me a nice, cozy environment safe from memory leaks (usually), pointers and other non-niceties. But C is powerful. And 1337. This book is great for a non-C programmers, or those who are a bit rusty and want to make a transition to Objective-C. The language is quite elegant. It's got all the power of C, with the ability to define objects in a manner almost identical to Java. And no C++ oddities.

Posted by Scott at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday I had the idea of using my Linksys WRT54GS wireless access point as a bridge to a neighboring wireless network. I knew that that capability didn't exist in the WRT54GS out of the box, but that there are various projects on the Internet touting aftermarket firmware capable of such a task. The most popular being Satori, from Sveasoft. I was able to download the firmware from LinksysInfo.com and install in a matter of minutes.

1) Unzip the Satori distribution to obtain the .bin firmware image
2) Login to the access point through the Linksys web interface
3) Choose to upgrade the firmware with the Satori firmware image
4) Once the image is installed, reset the Linksys access point by holding the 'reset' button for 15-20 seconds
5) Login to the access point to confirm successful installation of the new firmware
6) If currently running in 'AP' (Access Point) wireless mode, change it to 'client' to act as a client to the primary network. Specify the SSID of the primary network in the SSID text box.
7) Disable the DHCP server and assign a static IP (192.168.1.10, something currently not used) to the router.

Now, the router should be capable of bridging the ethernet switch to the neighboring wireless network.

Posted by Scott at 12:40 PM | Permalink

Posted by Scott at 12:53 PM | Permalink