General Nonsense

last-fm

Posted by Matthew on October 12, 2007
Posted in: General Nonsense, Internet stuff. Leave a Comment

You got it, yet another current Internet fad that certain people whom will rename nameless have told me to try.

Although this is actually different. I like this one. Do yourself a favor and check out Last-FM. In a nutshell, it is a HUGE, and I do mean HUGE, catalog of music. Notice I didn’t say popular music. I agree that I tend to listen to some rather off-color music from time to time. However, one thing last-fm has shown me is that I am far from alone.

Create a free account and login. It is super simple and super fast. Type an artist that you like and within seconds you will be listening to music that is similar to your requested artist. You can even ban songs that you don’t like, and you will never hear them again.

Better STILL is that there is a console based player for it called shell-fm. Same basic idea, but I can run it in a text only console shell on my Linux box.

Check out my last-fm music profile page to see exactly what I mean. At the top of this page there is a list of my last 10 (or so) songs that I have listened to.

Been a long time

Posted by Matthew on October 4, 2007
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Wow. I almost forgot I have a blog. Or whatever you actually call this.

Lots of things have gone on. So far so good with the Little Daubenspeck. We have a work pool and I have put a lot of cash on the baby being a girl. Take that bet to the bank.

Let’s talk sports. Let’s not. The Eagles are really in the tank. 1-3 is a really good start. The offense is horrible, the defense is worse. It is time for some serious change and I hope it happens soon.

The Phillies. They have made it into the post season for the first time since the 90’s. In traditional Philadelphia style, they blew the first game at home against the Colorado Rockies. Today is game two, let’s hope they have a bit better showing. I won’t keep my hopes up. That’s just “the way of things.”

The Flyers. They seemed really shaky during the pre-season. However, hockey’s pre-season is usually even less meaningful then football. The Flyers have a LOT of new players and it will take some time for all those new players to gel properly. Only time will tell.

Ok, sports done. “House” things are moving along (somewhat). I did finally take the leap into High-definition (HD) TV. I picked up a 50″ Plasma TV and got the HD package from my cable company. WOW is really all I can say. I should have done this before; costs be damned! I also picked up a Playstation 3. There is no use playing video games in standard definition. Again, all I can say is wow. HD gaming is the way to go. If you have the means to get anything HD, stop reading this now and DO IT ALREADY.

That should about do it. I hope to get back to regular posting, but sometimes I honestly just don’t have the time.

Why do I listen?

Posted by Matthew on September 26, 2007
Posted in: General Nonsense, Rants. 2 comments

So. A few people have finally talked me into signing up for a Facebook account. I signed up, I linked to a few friends. Then the usual question came up… Now what?

I must be getting old, that’s the only result I can come up with. I just had no use for it. I have a webpage. I have an image gallery. I have a blog. I have email. I use IRC and everyone that I need to keep in touch with knows I am there 22 out of the 24 hours in a day. I have my own Jabber server and account. The list of ways to contact and keep in touch is already long enough.

I’m sure this sounds like a rant. It probably is, but I just didn’t see the point really. I’m not looking for new friends that “share my interests.” Most of the people that have the same overall interests that I do, frankly, scare the hell out of me.

I understand that the newest fad (that will probably be around for a long time) is this social networking. I, personally, just have no need for it.

I pretty much knew this would be the result when I signed up. I’ve done it in the past (re: Twitter) and has pretty much the same feelings. I just don’t need another tool to keep me connected with “friends.”

sipie

Posted by Matthew on September 7, 2007
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sipie. For all your command-line Sirius streaming needs:

Enter stream: octane
07 09|07 14:41 octane: Sevendust-Ugly
07 09|07 14:42 octane: Puddle Of Mudd-Famous
07 09|07 14:45 octane: Octane-Rock Fuel 4 The Masses
07 09|07 14:51 octane: Kayla-kayla@sirius-radio.com
07 09|07 14:51 octane: Saliva-King Of The Stereo
07 09|07 14:55 octane: Nickelback-Rock Star
07 09|07 14:59 octane: Seether-Truth

If you have python installed and want a GUI or (more importantly) a great command-line player, go install sipie. Installation is a snap and it uses several different audio players (etc mplayer) to handle the streaming.

Still here

Posted by Matthew on September 3, 2007
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Yes, I am still here. The house (among other life things) have taken precedence lately. I still don’t even have MythTV hooked up yet. I did finally plug the backend server in and updated to the new version of Myth. I also created and setup the new schedulesdirect deal as well. That seems to be working, and Myth is recording the correct programs at the right times. However, I don’t have cable hooked to it yet, so I now have a lot of hours of snow to watch. All in due time, however. This house deal is a slow but sure process.

I figure it will take us about 5 years to get all of the boxes in the basement unpacked and put away. The good news with that, however, is that the rest of the house is really clean and clutter free. All the junk is in boxes in the basement!

Test test test

Posted by Matthew on August 25, 2007
Posted in: General Nonsense. 1 comment

It’s been a while since I have had the time to post. Jen and I have been slowly moving out of our apartment and into the new house. Well today was official move in day.

Thanks to our families, we have about 98% of all of our stuff/junk moved into the basement of the new house. Read that again, everything is in the basement. We just have to figure out where the heck to put everything next.

There are just a few odds and ends left in the house, except for some really important stuff. My main server is still there, along with all of my other MythTV gear. I haven’t had the time to run any CAT5 at the new house, so it is just not ready for Myth yet. I better get in gear, we have to be out of the apartment by the 31st.

So little time, so much to do.

Little friend

Posted by Matthew on July 23, 2007
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Little friend

For the last few days, there was a small furry addition in the corner near the office door. He hadn’t moved in days, which seemed odd to me. However, when the rain came, he decided to go hide elsewhere…

I really need to get a better camera phone. This one takes some really bad pictures. If you can’t tell what that blob is, it is a little brown bat.