Wikipedia : Caveat Emptor

You'll have noticed I link to Wikipedia a lot.

Wikipedia is one of the internet phenomema of the last couple of years - an online encyclopedia which is compiled by anyone who cares to contribute.

Personally, I think it's great, but beware ...

Wikipedia is useful if you use it as a start to your internet quests for knowledge. Usually it is a good source of information regarding concrete, factual information on such items as .flac or cricket.

However, Wikipedia's strength is also its weakness. Subjects which are open to interpretation can be biased and even misleading.

So treat its information with caution. Don't base your newspaper article, thesis or even your homework on it without verification.

You have been warned.

WiFi 02 : Streaming

There are a couple of choices when it comes to using your WiFi internet radio to play your music collection; running a music server and streaming audio. The Noxon iRadio can do either.

I use streaming to play a random selection of my music library across our home wifi network. It's possible to listen to the stream via a computer on the wlan as well as a device such as a wifi radio.

Probably the easiest way of doing this is to use WinAmp and its associated SHOUTcast software.

Installing WinAmp is straight forward enough. There are possibly better music and media players, but WinAmp is reasonably easy to set up as a streaming application.

In addition you need the SHOUTCast DSP plugin for WinAmp and SHOUTcast Server. Both come with instructions on how to associate with WinAmp. The plugin is activated from WinAmp's options menu, but the server requires a little setting up via a .txt file. The settings are all fully explained in the file, but do require careful reading.

The advantage of streaming in this way is that you can play any music file format you like - or at least have the WinAmp codec for - despite the fact that the iRadio will only play a limited number of formats. For example, the iRadio will not play .flac or .ape files, but WinAmp/SHOUTcast transcodes the stream into an .mp3, or in my case, AAC+/48kbps format for the iRadio to play.

The disadvantage of streaming is that it is not possible to effect a choice of what's played through the iRadio. The music is directed by WinAmp's playlist. However, it does mean that from time to time you rediscover the little gems hidden away in your music collection.

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*See my hifi index here.

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Gridiron : Eagles vs Giants

Well, I did baseball, and now it's American Football's turn.

So a cold, dull day saw us drive across to Phillie to the Eagle's stadium to watch my first US football game. Not my first ever gridiron; I have watched it on tv and local UK teams in muddy fields in the corner of the park, but nothing like this.

The stadium was immense. Several tiers of seating rising high into the sky. Hey, the section where we were even had waitress service. Not like Plymouth Argyle's Mayflower stand at all really.

The protagonists, the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants - Linda's team - were at more or less opposite ends of the league, but that didn't stop the Eagles making a good start against the high-rolling Giants. However, the Giants doggedly made a slow, but not particularly elegant come-back to take the game by the end.

US football is a great game spoiled only by the fact that an hour on the field takes over three hours after all the stoppages and intervals are factored in. Fortunately, although it was a cold day there was no wind in our faces, so apart from frigid feet we survived quite well.

Rackett : Joe's Pub, NYC

Hey Rock and Roll!!!

Just how do you categorise Rackett?

I mean, do you measure rock and rollers by their teenage acne or by their ability to wear a rather nice sports jacket?

Well, by the second measure Rackett were right up there with the best ... And by musical standards they were up there too, especially when combined with their librettist (?) Paul Muldoon, award winning poet and darling of the New York Times.

Okay, so he's not the darling of the New York Times, but they don't get everything right, do they?

Anyway, a great evening was had by all. By my estimation half of Princeton's literati were there. Actually, they laughed at the same lines I did, so I must be cleverer than I thought.

The venue, Joe's Pub is one of the best in NYC, and thus by extrapolation I suppose, one of the best anywhere. It's certainly a place to get close up and personal with whoever's on stage. But watch your sports jacket... It will get grabbed by Joe's coat Nazis for sure ...

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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HiFi 04 : Sansui AU-317 MkII

I bought this Sansui AU-317 MkII integrated amplifier in 1978. If I recall it was about ukp400.00; about the price of a good example on eBay today.

The Sansui is very nicely built - virtually aircraft standard - and to me sounds great.

A useful feature is that the preamplifier and the amplifier can be separated. They are linked via a set of RCA connects on the back. It also has a phono-stage for connection to a record turntable and a sub-phono filter feature. This is necessary because the amp's frequency response runs down to dc and the filter stops your bass speakers transporting in and out with the warps on your lp records.

It can drive two sets of speakers either separately or together which I hope will enable me to have a play with bi-wiring at some point.

The problem I have here is that my particular amplifier was made for the European market. It has a voltage selector on the back, but this switches between 220v/240v @50Hz - rather a fine distinction.

Fortunately, I found this device, the Quick 220, which in practice supplies about 235v@60Hz. The amp seems to run well on this and so far, I haven't found the 60Hz supply to be a problem. I anticipated some extra heat, but this doesn't seem apparent.

There are some snags with the amp, mostly of a consequence of the time it was built. The RCA plugs are not gold-plated, appearing to be made of nickel-silver which has dulled over the years. But they're clean and otherwise uncorroded and I can't detect any performance issues as a result.

More seriously, the speaker terminals are of the quick-fit variety rather than nice stud-type terminals. However, if you take care over the insertion of the speaker cables, it doesn't appear to be a problem.

Lastly, I managed to find the amplifier's product manual in .pdf format and now available here. It also includes details of the AU-117 and AU-217 amps.

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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WiFi 01 : Noxon iRadio

I remember when I was a lad ... Eeeeeee ... you were lucky, mate!!!

Under the bed-clothes with a short-wave radio listening to the cqs from around the globe. I wasn't nearly as keen as some of my friends who had qsl cards printed and sent them off around the world and in turn received cards from scores of exotic locations.

Well, in a way internet radio lets you do this too. And the Noxon iRadio has turned out to be one of the best gadgets I have ever had the fortune to have used with a computer. Well, I say computer, but actually all the iRadio requires is an internet connection. In my case, a wifi connection. It really doesn't need a computer at all!

Now, I have no idea if the iRadio is the best ever device in this genre. There may well be better devices. There are certainly more specialised devices such as the SqueezeBox which is more of a HiFi device and which may well fit into my future plans.

But it is actually quite hard to find this type of device in the USA. They do exist, but are around double the price at least. Certainly nothing in this price range!!!

Maybe the encroachment of satellite radio here mitigates against it, but you can't help wondering if a device which enables you to connect to virtually anything that interests you for free compared to a satellite subscription, might meet some resistance in the US retail market.

Anyway, my iRadio enables me to listen to maybe around 6000 radio stations around the world, many of them in quality stereo.

I just need to give a plug for BBC 5Live International, SomaFM and Lounge-Radio in particular. And just to say it is also great for listening to podcasts, especially Mark Kermode's film reviews.

But the radio connection is just one aspect of the iRadio's talents. Next WiFi articles will explain how to stream your music collection over your domestic wifi network and how to us the iRadio with a music server.

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*See my hifi / media index here.

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What A Week To Give Up Smoking ...

So there we are ... Plymouth Argyle tootling along nicely in The Championship. A useful team. Engaging fans. A committed manager ...

Committed manager ... Oops!!! Oh well.

I'm not blaming Ian Holloway for taking a new job where he's probably being paid twice as much, but he should be really careful about swearing undying love with team and town just days before resigning.

Anyway, following the Argyle is a bit of a masochistic pursuit, as anyone in the Green Army will tell you, so we're pretty used to disappointment so I suppose this can go on the list of exes.

But in the course of following the soap-like twists and turns I've found a couple of Argyle fans who live in NJ, one not ten miles from where I live. Hopefully we'll meet up at Nevada Smith's in NYC next time Plymouth are on Setanta.