I have (hare-brained) plans for a business venture which would involve large amounts of storage. So, I thought I'd have a play around with iSCSI, mdadm, and lvm on a couple of linux boxes to see how it works.

I needed to run slimserver on a Windows XP laptop.

I wanted to use the latest code from svn, but I also wanted to run slimserver as a Windows service.

This article describes how to do it.

Since buying a Squeezebox, I have been steadily ripping all my CDs into FLAC format.

However, I also have an iPod and the iPod can not play back FLAC files, and even if it could, MP3 files are a lot smaller and good enough quality for mobile use.

I needed some way to convert my large FLAC collection to MP3, and came up with a perl script, imaginatively entitled "flac2mp3".

Please see the flac2mp3 webpage:

http://robinbowes.com/projects/flac2mp3

The Art DI/O was not designed to be used with domestic hifi equipment and has a nominal output level out 20dBu. In contrast, most hifi equipment is designed to operate at a nominal input level of 0dBu. Some hifi equipment can cope with this high signal level, but a lot (mine included) require the level to be reduced to prevent overload of the input stage.

Ultimately I will probably modify the DI/O output stage to operate at 0dBU, but until I get round to that I needed to build some sort of attenuator. This article describes the design process I went through to design a suitable attenuator circuit.

After spending some time listening to my Squeezebox with a variety of external DACs (P3-A, Arcam delta Black Box 5) I decided to take the plunge and get myself an Art DI/O. I found one on eBay and it's on its way.