How ? Digital / Analogue Music (Summer Tech Update)

Scandyna "The Drop" speakers.

As promised, here is the tech update from ‘miniaturelife’ and as you’d expect, my love new shiny hasn’t fallen by the wayside anywhere near as much as actually writing updates on this blog has. As I’ve discussed before, my love of music in its analogue form – particularly on vinyl – has long been an issue with the idea of living a smaller life. However, whilst you cannot reduce the size of the format, you can reduce the size of the gear involved and still embrace lots of digital music joy simultaneously.

When? H1 2011

Yes, the updates have not been exactly fast or frequent here at ‘miniaturelife’ HQ in East London and it’s been well over 6 months since I gave you an update and as ever there is a great deal to catch up on. In order to break it down into some manageable chunks; a general catchup, a tech update and a specific article about my adventures in the world of tablet computing. This then is the first of these, the general catch-up.

How ? 2011 Tech Update Pt II

In the first part, I added some updates about the replacement cycle of the gear I already here installed at ‘miniaturelife’, in the second part of this catch-up, what abut the new things that have been added, or passed through these 4 walls in the last few months ?

Freeview HD and NOTV v2.00

MyGica FreeviewHD -the box

Back during the NOTV experiment (and it’s v2.00 incarnation), I’d mentioned my desire to make use of the relatively new and still not widespread ‘FreeviewHD’ service being rolled out across the UK.

As I live in one of the first areas to benefit from this free-to-air HD TV service, I was anxious to get hold of an early device to add to the Vaio NOTV box. So began the long wait, which went on from the launch of the service in December 2009, until November 2010, when I finally received he first USB FreeviewHD adaptor on the the market, the ‘MyGiga DVB-T2′.

How ? 2011 Tech Update Pt 1

As I mentioned in the last post rounding up the end-of-year ‘miniaturelife’ news, there’s been some additional tech changes in what I have running here. Some has been sold, some given away and some more added and as 2011 unfolds I expect there to be some more tinkering with what remains to make the whole thing work a bit more efficiently.

First, the casualties. Having bought myself the Vaio P Series netbook in the build-up to moving, I found that I didn’t use it all. Other than travelling with me once to the US, it spend most of the year sat on a shelf, discharging its battery with great gusto. Come November, it went to a new home via eBay, at a small financial loss (but well behind they typical depreciation of tech gear).

When ? 1st Year Review

I’m one of those people who does tend to think to themselves in an idle minute ‘..I wonder what I was doing this time last year… ? Pretty often, I haven’t got a clue and use the ‘source of note’ [cough] Gmail, to give me an idea by flicking back through the dates to the appropriate day/week/month. Of course, in this case, I can remember precisely what I was doing this time in 2010; franticly selling as much as I could on eBay, hunting for the location for this project and waking up in the middle of the night a bit panicky at whether I’d manage the logistics in such a short time.

How ? The Elephant In The (Storage) Room

I’m now about 2/3rds of the way through the span of the original project and, as you can probably tell from the overall lack of panicky updates, everything has gone pretty swingingly if judged against the parameters I have set myself.

Not once have I thought ‘I wish I had more space’ or more importantly ‘I wish I had [item] that is back in the storage unit’ and it is that latter element that currently concerns me.

When ? Happy Montage (Summer 2010)

 

Front Door Cam via Windows Media Centre at miniaturelife

 

You know that bit in the film where they need to move the plot on, show progress via a series of little vignettes with accompanying motivational music ?

Yeah, we all hate those bits don’t we, they seem a bit lazy. Last few months here in ‘miniaturelife’ whilst I’ve a bit light on updates, rest assured that life has still be continuing.

So, erm… here is my equivalent of the ‘Happy Montage’, updates on what’s been going on over here in East London over the summer (you’ll have to add you own musical soundtrack I’m afraid as you see fit).