The Foundation

With the popularity of digital music (ala iTunes and Windows Media Player), I thought it made sense to begin our journey by setting up a digital jukebox.The goals of the jukebox will be (for starters):

• Ability to play ALL of your digital music tracks
• Ability to play music through your home stereo or receiver
• Ability to control your music from anywhere in the house

At the heart of almost any new technical project is a home computer. The PC has come a long way since its inception when most thought it was a typewriter that doesn’t require white out.Over time, I have been able to acquire dozens of PC’s through upgrades of my own, or as friends and offices were upgrading to the latest and greatest. This has allowed me to dedicate PC’s to specifictasks: Media Servers, e-mail hosts, office machines, home automation server, guest PC’s, and others.

If you don’t have multiple PC’s, that is no problem.

Most new computers today have enough horsepower to be an office tool, e-mail machine, a web surfing research tool, complete photo and movie studio, a music jukebox, a dedicated cardless solitaire machine, and millions of other things at once.  Because of this, the home PC makes a great start for your project.

For our Music Jukebox PC, I recommend a computer with the following MINIMUM specifications:

• Windows XP or 32 bit Vista

• 600mhz Pentium or better

• 512MB RAM

• In order to get the most from your music server. you should also have access to the Internet.

If you eventually plan to add music videos or movies to your server, I recommend the following minimum:

• Windows XP or 32 bit Vista
• 2Ghz Pentium or better
• 1GB RAM
• 32MB video RAM

Beyond the above, you will also want to take into account the hard drive size. Your average digitized music file will be roughly 6MB. This means you could store approximately 160 tracks on a 1GB hard drive.  Since this is not 1990, you will most likely have a hard drive that is significantly bigger then that.I personally like to use an external hard drive connected to my PC via a fire wire cable. This gives me a couple of benefits:

1. I can upgrade to a larger hard drive as needed for more media without having to move all of the applications loaded in my PC to a new drive.
2. In the event of an emergency, I can grab the drive and run.  It is a lot easier to run from the zombies in your robe carrying a little hard drive than a big PC case.

With the hardware in place, it is time to give consideration to software.My next entry will discuss the basic software required to start our jukebox.

Technical Reason

When developing the purpose for your next technical journey, it is important that you act “reasonable” and not get caught up in hype.

This is a constant battle for me.  I am drawn to buy anything shiny that plugs in or comes in shrinkwrap. I, luckily, have balance.  My wife, Rebecca, is the voice of reason for technology; she helps define the purpose of my technical journeys.  Reason has taught me:.

“Just because you can, does not mean you should.”

That one is easy to understand. 

Yes, I could have the stereo automatically play “Who Let the Dogs Out” every time the back door opens, but should I?  I have been told the answer is, ” no.”

“It can’t check the milk.”

This relates to a heated debate in my house between me, my brother & sister in-law, and my wife.  The conversation had turned to a plan to have the refrigerator track exactly what we had in it; thereby allowing us to automatically create shopping lists.

The entire plan was brought to halt when Rebecca said, “but it can’t check milk.” If you only had a splash of milk left in the carton, a person would check it and buy more.  The auto grocery list refrigerator would not “think” about the almost empty milk; therefore, milk would not be on the grocery list.  Granted the debate went on with a system of scales and dates to solve the problem, but the point was made.  If the purpose was to automate making a grocery list, this solution did not meet our purpose.

“Don’t take anything away.”

Technologies are great when they enhance our lives–making lives more fun definitely counts as an enhancement..  However,  these same technologies suck when they take things away from us.  Automated lamps or lamps on timers pull this nasty trick.  Having a lamp automated gives you the ability to turn that lamp on or off from anywhere in the world, except one place…  the knob under the shade.  If you turn a lamp off from the knob, a timer can not turn it on, and an automation system is dead in the water. And no one wants to fumble for a remote if you need to quickly kill the light to hide from the zombies.

As you decide how you are going to meet your purpose, be sure you don’t take anything away.

With these nuggets in tow, I am able to begin my home technology journeys with direction, grand ideas, and wife approval.

In The Beginning

At the heart of any great journey is a purpose.  In fact, at the heart of any small journey  is a purpose.  Otherwise going out to buy cereal would be an aimless drive.

I recommend when you start adding more technologies to your home, you think about the purpose.  This way you can be sure that what you install:

• is what you really want.
• does what you need.
• fits your budget.

 My Techno Purpose

Since one of the purposes of this blog is to explain the technologies used in my own home, I will share the charter for the technology of my abode. Some are concepts; some are specific requests (also known as demands). Concepts

• It must help us entertain ourselves and others.
• It must be easy to use without retraining.
• It must be usable when tech support (me) is unavailable.
• It must have  a direct cost to benefit ratio (scientific formula involving smile levels).

Requests

• I would like to be able to play music videos on demand on our flat screen.
• I would like to be able to control all of our music from the study, kitchen, bathroom, living room, and media room.
• I want to hit one button when guests come over to set the lights, change the thermostat, and start the music.

Once you pick your purpose, it is time to dive in.  My next blog entry will discuss some things to keep in mind when defining your purpose.