One Louder…

Dunno how this one passed me by but these are fantastic

I’ve got a HTPC running my living room which is plugged into my amp and I’ve been playing my music collection on it by controlling it with the funky Remote app on the iPhone.

I’ve also got some micro hifi separates in my bedroom. One Airport Express later and I can now stream my whole collection to it and also control it with my iPhone with the funky album art interface and everything!

The best part is that I think there was recently an update to Remote which means you can even select which speaker system you want to use, or even use both!

My Dad recently kitted out their house with Sonos stuff and other than being able to play different music in different rooms at the same time, you can do pretty much everything including streaming radio, but for about £800 cheaper

Much recommended if you’ve got the core already of a similar set up.

Was browsing through the helpdesk emails earlier and found this little gem.

spastic computer

Dear Helpdesk
 
My computer is being afflicted by spasms of lunacy - as if some demented systems person is taking remote control of the machine and going bonkers.
 
Apart from that, it’s fine.

After what seems like many, many hours of hearing about Luke’s adventures with Vista Media Center, I thought I would give it a go also. The installation itself was fine, except for that my M-Audio Revolution 5.1 soundcard was not recognised, and a quick scan of the M-Audio website reveals that there are no drivers for Vista. This is also the case for my M-Audio 24/96 card that I use for home recording on my PC. After an hour hunting round various sites for a beta or 3rd party driver, the situation because all too apparantly. M-Audio are a bunch of lazy cockwombles and I was going to have to get a new one. Luckily Maplins stocked a no-name card with digital optical out for about £20 that installed fine!

I have to say that the new interface is very impressive and has all the functionality you need. My favourite bit is probably the “Collage” of album covers when you browse your MP3 collection which reminds me of the Punk exhibition at the Millais Gallery. If you haven’t spent days organising all the ID3 tags of your MP3’s, you aren’t going to get the best out of this however.

The only other shiney new tech I’ve got lately were these speakers to replace my ancient old creative ones that have finally given up to ghost and refused to make any sound other than a wierd hiss.

Other than that, we’ve have a few viewings but no offers on the flat yet so not in the position to make a strong offer on anywhere yet. I think our current first choice may be gone as it isn’t on the estate agents website anymore, but one thing we have found from looking at places is that there is a lot of great stuff out there, and it is coming on so quickly that we shouldn’t have a problem in finding something ace