R.I.P. Lukáš Ladra

He was THE father of Czech videogaming journalism, he was just a couple of years older than me and he died unexpectedly a week ago.

This is how his closest friend Jakub Červinka said goodbye to him:



The last piece is my arrangement of Chris Huelsbeck's Turrican II ending theme. Check the video description for the MP3 download link...

Squeezebox: It just works - and more!

For a long time, I wanted to write something about Logitech Squeezebox line of products. From my experience, they are different from most other home electronics: Not only they really do everything they should do. They also do much more than advertised. In fact, their capabilities are so vast, most people don't even understand what this system is capable of.

Squeezebox is a line of networked audio and control components. Most of them play streaming audio from your favorite source. Most of them are able to display graphical output of various quality. Some of them are designed to control the audio players. All the communication between all components is through WiFi or standard LAN cable. All the components are connected to your home LAN as if they were standard computers (i.e. they have they normal IP addresses and hostnames, you can log into them and hack them, etc.). Any of your home computers can function as both "player" and "controller" of any other component (yes, including command line scripting).



First of all, these components "just work" out of the box. For example, you just connect the player to any WiFi network with access to the Internet, it automatically updates its firmware and is immediately able to play any streaming audio from the Internet. That's all. You don't have to install anything anywhere. In fact, you can just connect it to some public WiFi network and don't even have to own any computer.

However, it gets much more interesting when you have your own MP3 collection and a home computer which is running all the time. You install Squeezebox Server on this computer (it supports Windows, Mac and Linux) and then you can play anything from your music collection on any of your Squeezebox players or on any computer connected to your home network. Of course you can play different albums on different devices and everything can be controlled either via Squeezebox remote or via browser interface from any of your home computers:



Squeezebox doesn't force you into any proprietary solutions and does not lock you in. Your music collections is simply a collection of folders and subfolders containing audio files and cover art images. Everything is indexed according to standard ID3 tags and Squeezebox's private database and indexes don't clutter your music folders - they are kept completely separate.

I now have Squeezebox Player (just a miniature box connected to external speakers), Squeezebox Remote (WiFi remote control with full color display) and Squeezebox Boom (audio system with built-in speakers and large monochromatic display).

Audio quality obviously depends on what kind of Squeezebox device you are using (the most expensive system costs 10x more than the cheapest one) but my mid-range Boom has perfectly clear sound and is totally quiet when not playing.



I know there are many similar soultions but I have never experienced anything that simply works as effortlessly as the Squeezebox. There are lots of thoughtful touches, for example the way the alarms and display dimming work and can be configured so that the device does not disturb you when you sleep and you can be awakened by your favorite song or your favorite radio station.

On the other hand, Squeezebox is a godsend for all control freaks because the configuration possibilities are staggering and all the software (including the server and firmware in all devices) can be fully customized - the server itself is written in Perl and the devices are running Linux. However, I didn't have to do that - I am perfectly happy with the standard configuration options and I don't even use all of them: For example, your Squeezebox device can display your Flickr photos, your RSS feeds, you can play games on it etc...

I really love tech gadgets and I must stress again that there are not many gadgets that I found as useful and as capable as the Squeezebox family of products.

Legends Never Die

Songsmith OMG WTF OLOL ROFL (Part 2 - The End)

Of course, the best usage of Microsoft Songsmith is to feed it isolated vocals of famous singers (and not singers):









This is the day the music died...

OMG WTF Songsmith?!

I'm putting this video here for two reasons:

1. The technology itself looks like it could be basis for something interesting (in this implementation, it's clear the chord progressions must become repetitive sooner rather than later).
2. This is another proof that Microsoft marketing department is absolutely batshit crazy and/or on drugs.

Cooking By The Book

This video is a work of genius. Every second is brillantly done, it's catchy and it's so wrong on so many levels.

Remember, if there was no Internet, we'd probably never see this.



For those not "in the know": This is a mashup of two completely unrelated videos.

For those "in the know": This is the stuff Pedobear's dreams are made of.

And Today's WTF song is...

...from Japan, of course!

Ennio Morricone: 79 Years Old, Still God

This is what I shot yesterday in Vienna:



(He can also do techno.)

This is also a subtle reminder that I moved from Google Video to YouTube (owned by Google, linked to your Google account).

Turisas: Another Kind Of "Battle Metal"

I've never heard about of this band before. If nothing more, their covers sound really catchy:

The Butt Biting Bug

This is currently the #1 song in Japan. Helpful English subtitles provided...

YMCA In Finnish

Something to make you feel much less gay:

One Lazy Sundany Afternoon In Philippines Prison...

Sweet Lo-Fi Music From YUO

Download some free (legal) minimalistic electronica. There's also a music video.

The band is called "Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot".

I Remember When These Bands Were Cool

When talking with younger people, it occured to me that most of them never heard about the lesser known bands I grew up with and loved some 15-20 years ago.

I don't want to preach and explain to you how much more interesting these people were (are!) in comparison with Britney Spears and how much more fun they had with their own images. I just present three of them over here and - if you are interested - you can find more about them on Wikipedia, YouTube, The Pirate Bay etc., etc...

First, there is Yello (and their "Oh Yeah"). These two guys probably invented techno and serious syntesizer/sampler programming.



Then, we have Army of Lovers. You probably heard "Crucified" because it's sometimes played even today, but they had many more hits and - in their case - you really have to see their music videos.



And, finally (for today), here are The Sparks and their "When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way'?". Of these three, they are the most versatile. The carreer of these two brothers spans several decades and several wildly different musical styles. They influenced the Pet Shop Boys and they wrote a song for Hong Kong action director Tsui Hark (who can't even speak English, let alone sing!), called I'm Tsui Hark!

Gollimar!

When two people do the same thing, the results can be wildly different:

Aural Torture

Another blast from the past! A nice person sent me an MP3 of an old song I programmed for Commodore Amiga in 1991 (and I thought it was lost forever). Note that this music is "oldskool" even by 1991 standards (it uses synthesis, not samples) and might be unbearable for most people.

My even older songs (for ZX Spectrum) can be downloaded here, their recent remixes are here (except for "hubbard_bytefest.mp3" which is, of course, originally by Rob Hubbard, not by me).