Keeping in tune with the previous posting, we may as well follow up with the announcement that the Walkman has officially ejected its last tape.

After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman, the first low-cost, portable music player.

The company announced on Monday that it has ceased production of the classic, cassette tape Walkman in Japan, effectively sounding the death knell of the once iconic, now obsolete device and marking the end of one of the most successful consumer gadgets of all time.

Yes, they were actually still being manufactured until as recently as April 2010!

Until the first generation Walkman (known as the "Soundabout" in many other countries including the USA, "Freestyle" in Sweden and the "Stowaway" in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan, people had no concept of portable music other than holding a transistor radio up to their ear.

More than portability, it fostered a personalisation to music, a theme the iPod would also highlight in those early dancing silhouette ads. The Walkman was also the father of the mixtape, an offspring that nearly trumps the progenitor. For the first time, music was something you could make yours by arranging it and swapping it.

Somewhat ironically, the announcement was delivered just one day ahead of the iPod's ninth anniversary on October 23 -- although the decline of the cassette Walkman is attributed primarily to the explosive popularity of CD players in the '90s, and not the iPod.


Nevertheless, the "Walkman" brand will continue to live on via Sony's range of portable CD players (previously the "Discman") and and other flash-based players as well as Sony-Ericsson mobile phones.

(Text and images sourced from CNet, CNN, Mashable, the Seattle Times, Wikipedia, and elsewhere).

Or: The history of hmvh vs. mp3

Like most connected people in the 21st century, I've accumulated a plentitude of MP3 audio/music files. Like many modern people in the western world, I've ripped most of my CD collection to MP3 music files, and like many other people I've also converted my old cassette collection to MP3 audio files.

Like an audiophile, however, I've not switched to this so-called digital camp.


Despite the ubiquity of digital audio files (in whatever format) and the devil's walkman (iPod), MP3 files are by no means my preferred means of listening to music. Still, they are kinda cool, convenient, useful, comparatively small, and portable.

As a result I've accumulated a fair amount since I started collecting them (as far as that's even possible) in earnest after I decided to rip all my CDs during several boring weeks of being holed up in an apartment in 2001. Before long, I got broadband, discovered P2P and even managed to fill a few gaps (yes, I've been a naughty boy). Still, most sound like crap and all it's done is make me go out and buy more CDs.

But on a positive note, a great feature of MP3 files is their ability to store additional metadata (ID3 tags) such as song and artist name, album title and track number, genres, and even "artwork". It was researching those missing and incorrect ones which proved to be quite the challenge in the early days, and it was this how I happened across and eventually got involved with discogs. It is the information within the ID3 tags alone that turns the MP3 format from background noise into a powerful and informative tool. Usefulness is key.

And throughout, Winamp has been (since version 1.x) the default player of choice. It was quick, simple, free, allowed editing of ID3 tags, and supported just about any audio format thrown at it (including MIDi and MODule [from the BBS days] as well as Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files [although initially only via plugins]).

All in all, Winamp did and still does what I need it to do.

In fact, as I write this, it's playing a mix.

Yes, a mix. All the MP3 stuff that's been collecting on my hard drives as of late consists of either DJ mixes or other free downloadable material by netlabels, or mashups, promos and freebies by aspiring or independent artists, or my own CD/tape/vinyl rips. There is so much out there -- all for free and perfectly legal.

Digital media has arrived, and I suppose it's here to stay for a while.

But how does one effectively maintain a growing collection of MP3 files, one that, as the owner's tastes and interests change, becomes increasingly unclear and unwieldy? How does one keep track of everything?

In the beginning it was easy to keep an overview of a hard drive with a batch of songs on it: Windows' own old file manager in conjunction with a great indexing utility called Everything and Winamp (now matured to version 5) and my own stringent tagging standards and sorting methods ensured that I always know where my shit is. No duplicates, no problem.

As for playing entire directories or MP3 CD-ROMs, it's the outstanding 1by1 Directory Player that has earned itself a permanent place in the regular utility arsenal.

So what's missing, I hear you ask? What's the point of this blog entry?

Well, if you're looking for a "professional" review of software-based music players, look no further than this good and informative article at anythingbutipod.com.

What follows below is my own experience and opinion.

Strange as this may seem for someone who spends most of his time dealing with music in one way or another, media managers are actually new territory for me. Honestly. I had some very specific requirements and had never, until now, really had rhyme nor reason to "manage" my music collection.

But when you've got thousands of files strewn across dozens of directories folders, you can lose track of what you have as well as the sequence the tracks of an album were intended to be played in. You can lose track of the albums an artist has released or when those albums or tracks did come out. If you'd like to play tunes written by a specific songsmith, regardless of who performs them, then you'd need something that can read the metadata and create a proper and dynamic database. Without modifying the original files. And grab the so-called "cover art" if it's available somewhere. And auto-detect changes that I will make to the directory structure or ID3 tags as more information becomes available.

Most importantly, it needs to look good at a mere 1024x768 resolution. And be free.

Free is good. Linux is free. Ubuntu has grown up. It's a contender.

There are Linux distributions that center specifically around home theatre PCs, such as Acoustic Reality's eAR OS, or Element OS with its so-called "10-foot display".



Interesting as they may be, neither fit the bill. I'm not building an HTPC. No DLNA yet.

The next step was to round up all possible and interesting players one could find and give them a spin with a small selection of tunes. 1by1, Amarok, Banshee, Foobar2000, iTunes, J. River's Media Jukebox, MediaMonkey, Songbird, Rhythmbox, Winamp, even Windows' own Media Player 11 were tracked down and installed (specifically using the default settings and skins), and they were all tasked with detecting, managing and playing a dummy directory of some 200 MP3 files.


The first thing one notices is that most adhere to a familiar formulaic interface / layout of a bunch of playback buttons on the top or bottom row, a tree/menu structure on the left, a list of songs/files in the larger main/right window, and some window dressing by way of cover art or filters / search results in another section within that large window. The views are customisable.

Had I chosen the Linux route, Banshee would most certainly have been the winner over the default Amarok, especially when one considers that a decent music manager requires more than the intended laptop's 1024 pixel width.

Meanwhile, in the Mac/Windows camp, iTunes is the undeniable 800-pound gorilla.

Its cute Cover Flow feature was just about its only redeeming feature, were it not for the additional and horribly intrusive other nonsense it installed, proving that it's heavily centered on iPod devices (ain't got one) and is joined at the hip with the iTunes Store (physical media for my cash, thanks). I tested Version 9 as version 10 was released only after the final decision to not take the Apple route was already made.


Another behemoth of a player that looked most promising at first was Songbird.

Although neither the test bench nor the target system are exactly slouches, Songbird is slooooow to launch and took some 40 seconds to autodetect and import an additional 120 tunes it was fed with. It had probably the most attractive interface of all but relied too heavily on a permanent internet connection to feed its otherwise great mashTape feature that includes display of artist biographies (courtesy of last.fm and Wikipedia), lyrics, news, and similar goodies. I was a little disappointed to have had to rule Songbird out of this roost.

Then there's MediaMonkey, a slimmer and more off-line player which had too many restrictions in the free version. I didn't fancy its interface much either.

The highly-regarded Foobar2000 and the latest version of 1by1, in turn, had more simplistic interfaces but didn't quite make the grade either although MediaMonkey and Foobar2000 each have very dedicated groups of followers and their own specific features, strengths and plug-ins while I, personally, have always been terribly fond of 1by1 because of its miniscule size and simple explorer-like interface. I therefore couldn't help but keep it as a secondary player.

Windows Media Player's interface is one I simply cannot stand by default. I also discovered that it has a habit of re-creating empty directories for items in its library that I've since long deleted. WMP clearly has some issues with subservience and ended up nowhere near consideration for the primary music player.

Ironically, it was only after having evaluated the aforementioned players that I figured I may as well see what the latest incarnation of that old Winamp mainstay looked like and grabbed its latest version. Whoah!


Overcomplicated overkill with a major "wow" factor (image lifted off Wikipedia).

Finally, after some brainstorming, soulsearching and due consultation with soothsayers, the honour of becoming the primary music organiser was bestowed upon J. River's Media Jukebox 12.


It's simple and intuitive, compact at the 1024x768 resolution the chosen laptop natively displays, surprisingly quick to respond to manual changes made to the directory structure, imports new content into the database within a few seconds, supports ReplayGain, quietly finds and downloads "cover art" during idle CPU cycles into a directory of my choice when online, keeps logs of what was played when, and has numerous playlist options that I've not fully explored yet (including its own "smartlists" of "100 random songs" or "not recently played" that update themselves). All functions that I've found useful are available in the free version, and nor does being offline give the listener the impression that he's missing out on any real info or critical functionality.

It also scrobbles.

Yes, I've re-discovered and polished my old last.fm account. Now I listen and scrobble.

Finnaly, perhaps the most important aspect of media players that may appear to have been overlooked: sound quality.

Subjectivity aside, what we're dealing with here is a bunch of MP3 files (encoded at bitrates ranging from 128- to 320 kbps). They get played via an integrated soundcard and pumped through the same laptop's internal speakers or silly little earbuds. Bose or B&W or Yamaha kind of performance is out of the question, right off the bat. This is not hi-fi. All players have equalisers and  DSPs that one can fine-tune to your ears and the pithy hardware that plays it, and they therefore sound just about OK.

A more detailed study into dynamics and the loudness war may follow when I get around to re-ripping and analysing my CD/vinyl collections again. It's not exactly an iPad but I'm sure this setup will make do until then. And it can play/burn CDs/DVDs.

Now that old Acer laptop has been dubbed my "aPod".

It's not often that something as ordinary as a few select writing utensils and a simple caption can speak volumes about human sexual preferences and perversions. LOLCats have been doing this for... what?

Oh? Urhm, nevermind. Forget the last part.

This was received some months ago and almost got relegated to the happy dumping grounds were it not so clever and funny as to deserve its very own entry on the blog.

























The penis mightier than the sword...

Before anyone accuses this blogger of stagnation, thundering silence or an utter lack of activity, let it be said that we have been keeping ourselves rather occupied.

With loose tasks, mostly... lots and lots of loose items that need to get done before the next project can begin.

To wit, a few loose thoughts and ramblings: Received a few more tapes. Have started buying records again. Ubuntu 10.4 is a rather usable and mature package. IBM Thinkpads are solid and robust laptops. iHate iTunes. FreeNAS is an avenue worth exploring. I've learnt who my friends are. Max Normal / Waddy Jones / die Antwoord intrigues me to no end. Mark Zuckerberg did grow up to be a doos. Didn't make it to SIGINT 2010. The new Star Trek movie was enjoyable. Donnie Darko was better on second viewing. And there are still some 100 South African record labels unaccounted for and unprofiled on sicDogs.

So there!

Progress update: South African discogs label research progress = 148 objects remaining.

This is pretty much what our tweets consisted of during the last few months: status updates of the current round of research and rummage through previously- and recently-added record labels in the discogs database, and pre-search of those that hope to be included sometime in the future.

Months of this insanity involving late hours trying to piece together the origins of an existing label and the forensics to determine the time and cause of demise of a label that's disappeared off the radar can drive a person nuts. Conversely, it's the controversial Google Book Search that's turned out to be an invaluable tool for hunting down facts on companies that existed during the dark days of apartheid, BC.

Surprisingly, people have been rather forthcoming when confronted with straight requests for info; many, in fact, are truly thrilled to discover that there's someone who still cares and is interested, and that's always positive.

But sorry, no entertaining "fan mail summary" for 2009 either, no nasty emails, no complaints by disgruntled oggers, nobody wants to "touch me on my studio".

And before we lose our minds completely, we'll momentarily reroute power to other tasks and interest... we still have to deal with this bunch of artefacts.

So, today is that other hallmark day named after a certain Saint Valentine, a Roman priest who got arrested, stoned and then had his head separated from his body for the crime of marrying (heaven forbid!) Christian couples.

Charming.

And what is it then that we should give our dear loved ones? One of these perhaps?


Next up on the event calender we have that annual four-day weekend where we will all gather to celebrate a botched execution by painting eggs and pretending they were hidden in our gardens by a chocolate bunny rabbit.

What? Were you expecting little hearts and roses and cuddly teddy bears?

Fuck, no!

We've got a gender-specific role to play and a bad reputation to maintain.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture made up of words must be worth much more.

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

In that case, here are my Twitter's and this blog's RSS feeds, and a dump of this blog's current page's text presented as word clouds.

Well, since a new year is upon us and stacks of new and updated post-it notes adorn the office as reminders of things to do and projects to complete you'll have to excuse us -- this world needs to get taken over.

"More matter with less art."

While we're rounding up what's left of the current decade, allow us to reveal some statistics of nonsense within the vast hmvh network of shenaniganisms.

For starters, few folks like them rednecks no more. Very little visitors as of late... maybe Averell should sign up on the Facebooks instead?


Then it's turned out that the most popular blog posting by far is the the pseudo-humouresque, quasi-investigative, and semi-critical-of-life-online essay called "The story of Moshzilla" which this year became a point of reference on "Know Your Meme" and, for a brief period, even was the authoritative source for a since-deleted Wikipedia article (we had nothing to do with it).

What it boils down to is that some people out there simply shouldn't be seen dancing.



No matter what the occasion, no matter what the music, no matter what degree of intoxication, most people do look ridiculous dancing... no matter what their skill level.



Then there are some people who love to take photos of other people dancing. Some photos end up deleted, some end up in photo albums, and some end up online.

So, if you're going to be striking some "Lynndie" poses this New Year's Eve, it'd be best to do it in the privacy of your own home lest you want to end up as a famous meme.


However, the strangest search query in recent memory came on Christmas Day from someone in Michigan who googled for "jokes that you can see without them seeing your cellphone number". Huh?

2010 is gonna be interesting.