So I finished my B&O MP3 player; no one is more surprised about this than me. It is quite amazing what a deadline can do for your motivation levels. I got it finished just in time for the 2006 Great Mac Mod Challenge, and then I killed it. Involuntary manslaughter I think the term is; I was both reckless and negligent.
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A few months ago Rory (of Rory Glory fame) gave me his non-functioning 4G (fourth generation) iPod; he thought I might like to do something with it. Rory had taken the iPod to an Apple store in Melbourne and was told it would cost more to fix then replace; he bought a new one. I stuffed around with the iPod for a couple of hours (disconnected the battery and did a software restore), it’s now fully functional. If I was Rory I’d be pretty pissed with the Apple store; but personally, I’m quite happy. So, I could give it back, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, I decided to have a play with iPodLinux.
Yes, if you didn’t already know, your* iPod can run Linux. (*dependant on iPod model, your mileage may vary; check the list of supported iPods)
The iPodLinux project consists of two main components, the Linux (uClinux) kernel and a user interface called podzilla. These components are currently packaged in an easy to use installation program. My iPodLinux install went without a hitch. I downloaded the Mac installer here, connected the iPod to my computer, ran the installer, and in under 5 mins I had a dual booting Linux/Apple iPod. It was worth the effort just to see this:
Tux, the Linux mascot; apparently chilled out on cool tunes (not on Ganja).
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As I was contemplating a title for this post I realised that “Woz” is “God” backwards, or at least it’s “god” transposed onto a backwards alphabet. Check it out:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
z y x w v u t s r q p o n m l k j i h g f e d c b a
| | |
Take the letter “o” as the rotation point, flip the alphabet backwards and then transpose the word “god” onto the reversed alphabet, you get “woz”.
I’m talking about Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple Computer, you can read about Woz at Wikipedia) and although he may not be an actual god (or even the antichrist; not withstanding that whole $666.66 pricing issue…) he is quite amazing. In ’86 a friend of mine at Yarrawonga High got a “limited edition” Apple IIgs signed by Woz (Apple made at least 10,000 of these ‘limited editions’). I remember thinking, “you’d have to be pretty special to get your name on a computer”. Woz is pretty special (and probably a bit of a dork, but hey, in the 80’s being a dork could be truly cool, not just faux-cool like it is now).
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The Beocenter 4600 is a very impressive object,
but it’s also HUGE and when I finally give up on the struggle to keep mine working it seemed to get even larger; it became a giant silent monolith. My apartment just wasn’t big enough for the both of us, one of us had to go. Fortunately for me I’ve got the opposable thumbs.
This is the 4600 after disassembly (the record player section is out of shot). The black base is made from Bakelite, the front panel and slider are aluminium and the side pieces are wood veneer over aluminium. The tape player is built as a separate sub-unit, it even has its own power switch. I decided to rebuild the machine as an MP3 player (the saga of the B&O mod began here). I wanted the MP3 player to match my Beomaster 1500 amp; I started by cutting the B&O’s base down to a more reasonable size.
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The practice of modding is full of stops and starts. Progress is dispersed; a lump of time here, a lump of time there, and long periods of non-engagement. This period of non-engagement impacts on my understanding of the mod; during this time my knowledge of the project begins to atrophy. This is particularly the case with my long running B&O MP3 project.
With the task no longer “at hand” the skills I’ve learned are leaving me. It’s a frustrating situation, the longer the non-engagement, the more estranged I become form the project. A language was developed through the modding process. This language both structured and opened a space of dialogue where the productive possibilities of the project could be explored and brought forth. Through lack of engagement, dialogue becomes more difficult; the mod still speaks the same language but it has become foreign to me. Why a screw here and not there? Why a program variable for ALL_ITEMS? Finding the answers to these questions will involve relearning the mods language.
Good project documentation is the solution (project diaries, sketch books, code commenting, etc.) but I often find my documentation is a little on the light side. This is were the blog can help; on numerous occasions I’ve used my own Pokia post as a reference while I repeat the mod. In the case of the B&O mod my blogging hasn’t been particularly useful, there’s a lot of stuff that just hasn’t made it up here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be digging around in the ‘Drafts’ section of WordPress and dragging some of the files into public view. Hopefully this will get me reengaged with the B&O mod, who knows I may actually finish it one day.
