The RTL8187 range of wireless chips has been supported in Linux for a while. The exception to this rule is the RTL8187B. It's now supported in the Linux kernel but support is patchy at best.
The sad news is, the wireless chip in my laptop is the ever so wonderful RTL8187B. It works ok on Windows, so no chance of a refund on that one. However, I can (under Ubuntu 8.10) use unsecured and WPA networks. I'm still to test it on Eduroam, but the fact it works on the WPA network at home is a good sign.
Though, I do have to use the "sudo iwconfig rate 5.5M fixed" trick. For some bizare reason, letting the card do it's thing can cause packets to stop being shifted. Go figure.
However, by sheer concidence, the USB wireless dongle on my desktop uses the same chip. The dongle in question is the Belkin F5D7050. Thankfully, it's slightly more stable than the laptop card. That's as long as you don't let it overheat, which it does on a whim....
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009
Music Scheduling
I'll be honest and up front - I've never done it as a job. I've on occasion had to create clocks for on-air hours and fix many scheduling errors, but it's never fully been my responsibility.
I've learned the basics though. Don't schedule slow tracks at 0700, etc. This is all being kept in mind as I design the scheduler for AllDay DJ 3.
Voice tracking is a huge thing just now. AllDay DJ 2 will do it, but it's not particularly user friendly. I plan to fix this in the new scheduler. Also dayparting is one big thing I am looking to build in. Take an example I saw at Perth FM - we were looking for an easy way to say "only play this promo Mon-Fri". Not too easy with the software in use. An intuitive way to do this without creating a million and one spot groups is something I am very much looking to build in.
So, your ideas would be great. What do schedulers (human of course) find difficult to do with software? Let's see if we can make scheduling easy... though not too much. :)
I've learned the basics though. Don't schedule slow tracks at 0700, etc. This is all being kept in mind as I design the scheduler for AllDay DJ 3.
Voice tracking is a huge thing just now. AllDay DJ 2 will do it, but it's not particularly user friendly. I plan to fix this in the new scheduler. Also dayparting is one big thing I am looking to build in. Take an example I saw at Perth FM - we were looking for an easy way to say "only play this promo Mon-Fri". Not too easy with the software in use. An intuitive way to do this without creating a million and one spot groups is something I am very much looking to build in.
So, your ideas would be great. What do schedulers (human of course) find difficult to do with software? Let's see if we can make scheduling easy... though not too much. :)
Saturday 21 February 2009
Playout Woes
So, we're a few weeks into taking the Digiplay plunge. It should be
stated now that no playout system will be deployed problem free. There
will almost always some niggle or glitch which gets ironed out and the
system works over time.
However, you don't usually have to recode serious portions of the
playout system.It's actually starting to worry me the amount of work
the team are putting in to get a system that currently limps along.
studio_play and studio_manage (the in-studio parts of Digiplay) both
seem to crash with various issues. It can hang indefinitely when a load
error occurs (we've worked around this) and on a whim studio_manage can
die. It usually works after recovery so go figure.
It's causing real issues for the on-air team. They are dealing with
loosing playout during live output and on occasion loosing the
sustainer feed. Not really acceptable and the reason why one of
Digiplay's outputs has been removed from the mixer and replaced with a
second CD player.
I can only hope we can get to stable quickly. It's simply not
sustainable to be maintaining a playout system at code level. If we
cannot get to a stable state in a reasonable period, we may have to
write the whole thing off as a lesson.
stated now that no playout system will be deployed problem free. There
will almost always some niggle or glitch which gets ironed out and the
system works over time.
However, you don't usually have to recode serious portions of the
playout system.It's actually starting to worry me the amount of work
the team are putting in to get a system that currently limps along.
studio_play and studio_manage (the in-studio parts of Digiplay) both
seem to crash with various issues. It can hang indefinitely when a load
error occurs (we've worked around this) and on a whim studio_manage can
die. It usually works after recovery so go figure.
It's causing real issues for the on-air team. They are dealing with
loosing playout during live output and on occasion loosing the
sustainer feed. Not really acceptable and the reason why one of
Digiplay's outputs has been removed from the mixer and replaced with a
second CD player.
I can only hope we can get to stable quickly. It's simply not
sustainable to be maintaining a playout system at code level. If we
cannot get to a stable state in a reasonable period, we may have to
write the whole thing off as a lesson.
Saturday 14 February 2009
More Radio Fun
Yesterday, I took Digiplay on air for a spin. When it worked it was very good. Thankfully when it crashed, it didn't take the audio thread out with it. So I could wait until the end of the song and reset the system then.
I can see it being useful once stable and bedded in. Thankfully it wasn't obvious I was having issues when you listened to the station output.
Today saw me taking on two on-air shifts in one day. To say I was knackered by the end of it would be accurate. I'm not complaining, it was fun but maybe worth repeating with more sleep before the breakfast stint. :)
I can see it being useful once stable and bedded in. Thankfully it wasn't obvious I was having issues when you listened to the station output.
Today saw me taking on two on-air shifts in one day. To say I was knackered by the end of it would be accurate. I'm not complaining, it was fun but maybe worth repeating with more sleep before the breakfast stint. :)
Tuesday 3 February 2009
AllDay DJ 3 Edges Closer
I will admit there is still miles to go with version 3 of AllDay DJ. However, some rather major features have now been implemented. You can now play voice tracks / sweepers on top of other tracks, the basics for command carts exist (networking and waiting is still to be worked on), tracks times / metadata can be edited and you get a cool popup when double clicking a track on the playlist full of useful track information.
The next big milestone is the scheduler (then the other bits can be built around it). The current plan is a web based (or intra-web based for the security concious) scheduler. This would allow management of the scheduler and voice tracking from your web broswer. Not bad eh? There are a few minor issues with implementing voice tracking via. a website that I can forsee but otherwise we should be just fine.
The next big milestone is the scheduler (then the other bits can be built around it). The current plan is a web based (or intra-web based for the security concious) scheduler. This would allow management of the scheduler and voice tracking from your web broswer. Not bad eh? There are a few minor issues with implementing voice tracking via. a website that I can forsee but otherwise we should be just fine.
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