Just wanted to share a cool little web script with you called Andromeda, by Turnstyle Software. This script allows you to set up a personal web server to stream your music library to any web-connected device. I use it to access my music from whatever internet-connected PC I happen to be working on.

What's really slick about Andromeda is that it parses your music directory structure and displays a simple menu to let you navigate your library, play albums or tracks, or even create playlists. I used to use this back in California with compressed music files (due to my limited upstream bandwidth). Thanks to a higher upstream, I'm now able to stream my lossless music. Very cool - check it out if you have a chance!

Oh, and you may also find Turnstyle's Bitty Browser interesting if you end up using Andromeda. It's described as picture-in-picture for the web. I think of it as a great Live.com gadget that allows me to access my music from my home page. (Just wish Live.com worked with Safari on the Mac, but that's a whole other story.)

 

[Edit: Resized image to fit the page better.]

Bought my brother a Zune for Christmas and we spent a bit of time setting up at home so he could get some music on it for the long drive home. Overall, I really like it, but it has some rough edges that I hope we will get polished up.

On the positive side, the player itself is pretty slick. The screen is large, bright, and quite frankly, gorgeous. UI is simple and easy to use, and the included FM tuner is a nice bonus. It feels a tich bigger than the same 30 GB iPod, but I like the feel a bit better - the case is made of that textured plastic you sometimes find on high-end home theater remote controls. Nice "grippability", to make up a term. Note that I didn't use (nor care to) use it to playback videos, so I can't comment on that. Also didn't play with the wireless capability.

On the negative side, actually hooking it up to a Vista PC and getting it synced had some issues. It may be that the early version of the Zune software for Vista has issues - I don't know - but it shouldn't have been as painful as it was.

To start, the Zune decided it wanted to try and sync all of my music library automatically. This may be a good scenario for most people, but since my library is a half-terabyte of lossless WMA tracks stored on a basement media server, it was pretty obvious it would never all fit (even transcoding on the fly as it does). Even worse, there was no option to tell the Zune software to not automatically sync to the entire library - you had to go ahead, cancel the sync, turn off automatic syncing, and then reset/erase the Zune to have any control over what tracks you want on the device. Bah.

We also had some weird issues with stability - the sync crashed several times, we'd get half-albums moved over and then have to start again, and once the whole PC froze. Again, this may just be due to early Vista support, but it was a pain.

That said, overall I really like it. Sounds great, easy to use, and I actually like the Zune software when it's working well. My one hope is that there will eventually be more advanced Zune car adapters. Right now, it appears there's only an FM tuner interface, and it would be difficult for me to use as I'm a bit of an audio whore (remember the lossless library?) My dream would be some sort of conversion gadget to allow me to use the Zune with iPod interfaces. My BMW 3 series has an iPod interface, but I'd much prefer being able to simply plug in the Zune but control it with the steering wheel controls. I'll pick one up for myself in the near future, but having a way to connect to the universe of iPod interface-supporting devices would make it a no-brainer.
 

Just a quick note in case any of you like Enigma (as in the musical artist). I loved some of the earlier albums, especially the mix of vocals, kettle drums, and overall bassline. Unfortunately, the more recent albums sort of lost me - weren't bad, but didn't really grip me as much as their earlier stuff. Anyway, just picked up the latest album A Posteriori and am really enjoying it - thought I'd share in case some of you might find it of interest. Also picked up the latest Delerium album, Nuages Du Monde - so far so good there, as well. Hope you're all having a great holiday!