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Compaq's PJB-100 MP3 Player Open-Sourced
spludge writes: "Remember the PJB-100? The portable 4.6 gig hard-drive MP3 player -- the one that did not have support for Linux? Compaq just released all the code to communicate and control it under the GPL! All the code and documentation is available for linux and for windows. Read about the details and what you'll need online. Lots of information about how the PJB works and how to communicate with it via USB."
I don't think jesser was saying that you are doing anything wrong or not fully supporting open source. The title of the article was a little misleading (they open sourced hardware?!?!).
:)
I personally agree that opening the libraries and protocols, and not the end-user application is the right way of doing it. That way, we get a small, clean source tree that we can understand. If you (I haven't looked at it yet) made even the smallest effort to make the source readable, then it should be easy to build support into your own apps. A jukebox is nice, but I can code a simple one up in an hour or two.
Oh, and you're right, I certainly do NOT want the MFC
-Dave
Citizens Against Plate Tectonics
Compaq have code which runs under Linux and they have code which runs under Windows. Now if you want to port it to BeOS, or Apple's OS-of-the-week, or DOS, or VMS, or CPM, that's your project, not Compaq's, and not Hemos'.
GPL my ass. Who said anything about violating the GPL?
--
Infuriate left and right
I wonder how well that verse survived after all the translations throughout history though. I wonder what it originally said.
That translation is direct original Greek (the same Greek is in all of the approx. 5000 copies of the New Testament we have from around around 250 AD) -> English. There have been no intermediate translations.
It's amazing how many people believe this myth that the Bible has been retranslated many times over the years, and has in some way "lost it's meaning" (as if a few translations could change the entire meaning of a book anyway).
In fact, we have many copies of all of the Bible in its original languages.
Gerv
Fair enough - thanks :-)
Gerv
(If it's firmware I can't imagine the firmware staying un-hacked for long to remove it as it's the biggest "suck" feature on this box.)
Why does this suck so bad? if this is the way a company avoids lawsuits from the RIAA then more power to them. This device is made for playback purposes. It's like complaining that your walkman can't record.
Note: I still think the RIAA is evil, but I want cool toys and I'm not willing to wait until someone manages to knock them down for a decent MP3 player...
Can you use Wrapster to make this thing double as a backup device? Or will it choke on the bogus mp3s and prevent you from listening to the actual music you, umm, ripped from your cd collection?
From the FAQ:
Q: I want to copy the MP3s from my PJB-100 back to my PC. How do I do that?
A: You cannot. To ensure that the PJB-100 complies with the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), It is not possible to retrieve the MP3 files from the PJB-100. You should physically posess each CD that you transfer to the PJB-100, or have rights to the material you download from the Internet.
When reading the product documentation for the PJB several months ago, it seemed to indicate that I needed to rip my CDs directly to the PJB in order to play them. That would be a big problem for me, as I have already digitized my 200+ cd collection.
Now that there is Linux source out there so we can make our own tools, is it possible for one to simply upload MP3s to the PJB, without ripping them directly to the unit?
That was the only thing that stopped me from purchasing one before....re-ripping hundreds of CDs is just no fun.
Anyone know?
Why, of course there is! And another one too...
Isn't modern technology great?
You're comparing Apples to Volvos. The Nomad and Rio arent in the same class as this device. Most of the cost stems from the harddrive, just like most of the Rio's cost stems from the FlashRAM. I cant help but wonder why a project hasnt been born, to the best of my knowledge, to just create a hardware decoder that interfaces into an ATAPI device. Or even just a plug in hardware decoder to smack into a USB port.
...and the geek shall inherit the earth...
www.linux-skunkworks.com
MEEPT!
Gawd I hope you're the one and only, because the Mastah seems to have left us for greener pastures of karma..
Oh, and it appears your last post felt the wrath of the Mighty Moderation Race, as have so many before it. If the management fized it there would sure be a bit less bytching..
Would some moderator kindly promote the post to -1?? You'll have to change your URL to read '...&threshold=-5....', but it would be the right thing to do..
.sig: Now legally binding!
I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it were $500-$600 cheaper than what they're asking for it. Hopefully the Nomad will compete and the price will drop quickly.
numb
This actually caught me a bit off guard. I'm so used to seeing Compaq screw over consumers and businesses with their junky desktops it amazes me that they would do something this cool. I mean, sure they have the *nix test drive thing going on, but they only do that to try and get people to stop running to Dell for servers.
I mean, hell, this is the company that released a line of PC's last year so underpowered and overloaded with proprietary bloatware right out of the box that they tried to blame it on Windows (Sure Windows sucks, but you didn't see any other manufacturer blaming crap performance on 400+mhz machines with 64+ megs of ram on M$), and now they turn around and give people an easy way to have all kinds of fun with an mp3 player under the GPL..
Kinda makes me wonder why tho.. anyone know anything about quality/sales levels of those players?
Or is a big corporation actually just being nice?
I'm writing a jukebox manager at the moment and I'm probably going to have a go at hacking the PJB firmware. All I know so far is that it has a Motorola 56309 DSP. I have a flash update file, "player3-215-rev-oem.img". But of course it is in some unknown format. Anyone have any ideas of a way to go about this/
I agree more with the Bible version though. But money is like the company - amoral. It is neither evil nor good. It is a tool, a medium, an energy, if you will. And it could be used for good or evil - and that also largely depends on how you define such concepts.
But with the Bible version of the quote, you'll have to agree that companies ARE evil - because their reason for being is the bottom-line - meaning, the corporation, though emotionless and amoral, by its very agenda for existence, is evil because it "loves" money. This kind of throws off the original post about companies not being evil, doesn't it?
But I think you bring up a good point - corporations are created for the best interest of itself. And it is composed of shareholders who have vested interest. One of the main features of the corporation is limited individual liabilities, right? So the individuals are not responsible for the liabilities of the corporation, and by the same token, the individuals are not responsible for the "evils" that the company does in pursuit of increasing the bottom line, right? Because they are not only not responsible for the company's liabilities, they are also not responsible for the companies moral and/or ethical conducts.
But someone must be the target in the company, and it's usually the CEO of the company (e.g. Bill Gates, Microsoft). Perhaps we will villanize the CEO as the figurehead representative of the company's moral conscience. But as the CEO, he is obligated to put the bottom line on top, it is his responsibility to the shareholders. So who's evil, if anybody is to be called evil at all?
You want info on LCD's? Here:
ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/rstevew/LCD/
You can't handle the truth.
if I want to store and retrieve files from it, its MY business.
the rio somehow got away with store AND retrieval. why didn't DEC^h^h^hcompaq?
I won't support companies that cave in so easily to the Music Muscle(tm). so for now, I'll be content with building my own linux boxen to do whatever-the-hell-I-please with my mp3 files. sure, my boxes aren't as small, but they're OPEN and are politic-free.
and you know, even if you DO comply with the MusicMucle's wishes, they'll just find other reasons to sue you. there's never enough licensing and money to keep TheMuscle happy, it seems. sigh...
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I think that moves like this will be more common in the future. It will show companies that allowing people to add more functionality and compatibility to their products will make them better. This way, they will sell more, and have to invest less in production.
Remember, companies are not evil, as many people think they are. They just do what is the most profitable, if this turns out to make them more money, they will continue to do so.
---Lane
What's the point of moderating?!
No, Compaq didn't open-source the whole thing. They can't, since there's lots of licensed material in there that Compaq cannot redistribute.
I did much of the work preparing this kit. It was derived from the actual sources, and it includes the key parts you'll need. The rest of it (the stuff that was not included) is Windows MFC stuff. Does anyone here really want that? I thought not
Maybe I shouldn't have said "In the true spirit of open source..." stuff since I'm not even sure I know what that is myself
I'm hoping people will write some interesting applications with this.
/Mitch.
Disclaimer: I speak for me, not Compaq.
If you're considering purchasing the PJB, you may want to wait on Creative's Nomad Jukebox. Not only will it store a more music (6GB), it costs a couple hundred less, has some very interesting add-ons coming out (transmit music to your car's FM radio), and looks a hell of a lot cooler. http://www.nomadworld.com/products/qna.html#jukebo x
This is the stuff that is nice to see in the community. Compaq will, also, get alot of recognition in releasing this too, which is partly probably what they are seeking.
:)
A good idea would be to figure out how to rig up a LCD to this and hook it up in a car with some stuff, and then you'd have a really good car MP3 player!
Mmm... soo many possibilities
Have fun with this one..
From the PJB FAQ:
Q: I want to copy the MP3s from my PJB-100 back to my PC. How do I do that? A: You cannot. To ensure that the PJB-100 complies with the Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA), It is not possible to retrieve the MP3 files from the PJB-100. You should physically posess each CD that you transfer to the PJB-100, or have rights to the material you download from the Internet.
Does anybody know if this is a firmware limitation or a software one?
(If it's firmware I can't imagine the firmware staying un-hacked for long to remove it as it's the biggest "suck" feature on this box.)
The Tick - "Spoon!"
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Hopefully competition and time will bring the cost, and thus, the price, down.
I find it rather useful that my Diamond Rio can be treated as a 64MB "silicon disk" via use of the SnowBlind RIO utility , rio .
In contrast, according to the PjBox FAQ , there's no reasonable way of getting digital data off the unit.
Ignoring, of course, the notion of encoding other sorts of data into MP3, and then doing a modem-like demodulation of that back into digital data, which would take additional hardware and the entertainment of building a suitable error-correcting protocol that can cope with there being no feedback from PC back to MP3 player.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Quoting the linked href="http://bboard.mp3.com/mp3/ubb/Forum5/HTML/0
In addition, it also sounds like they didn't open-source the whole thing:
In the true spirit of the Open Source world, this kit doesn't contain a Linux Jukebox Manager, but it does contain what you'll need to get started and write your own.
But that's probably good, because it means an interface can be written between existing jukebox managers (are those the same as playlists?) and this program, allowing the same programs to be used with competing mp3 players.
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The shareholder is always right.