tbray writes "Dave Edmondson wanted to play MP3's in his car; his
solution was perhaps a bit over the top. But then, why wouldn't you want an
E450 in your trunk? Check the pix."
His solution is way over the top but... The software used is very simple at the moment, nothing more than an rc script that plays random tracks from the mp3 archive stored in the ~80G/export/mp3 filesystem. That filesystem is constructed by concatenating a bunch of 9G SCSI disks (the root filesystem is mirrored across a similar set of disks)
It it possible to use just a regular 100-200GB x few disks with this box? I mean, as soon as you have a fridge in your car for the purpose of listening music (comapred to portable mp3 player), you might as well go megalomaniac and stash it with 1TB hard drive space.
Oh yes, on related notes, can he wash his picnic dishes in it? Does it keep beer cold? It looks like a funny kitchen appliance.
Okay, I laughed
by
daviddennis
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
But where'd he get power for this thing? I would think it would require massive alternator upgrades for it to work, but I see nothing of the kind on his page. The only hint is that the inverter link goes to a page suggesting that it needs 30v power, while I thought car power was universally 12v.
I can see this solution for a motor home where a generator can be available, but not a minivan.
This seems like something that must have not cost much to do, or he would have done better than that crummy cassette adapter. That implies that standard power must have worked (?).
Strange.
D
Re:Okay, I laughed
by
OverlordQ
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
From the page: The system arrived with three power supplies and, though it's clear that this is good for reliability, the space taken by one of them proved convenient to store the power inverter necessary to get from the in-car 12V supply back to the 230V required by the system.
And from the inverter page:
Provides 230V AC output from standard cigarette lighter plug
-- Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Re:Okay, I laughed
by
haroldK
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
But where'd he get power for this thing? I would think it would require massive alternator upgrades for it to work, but I see nothing of the kind on his page. The only hint is that the inverter link goes to a page suggesting that it needs 30v power, while I thought car power was universally 12v.
30A does not equal 30V. A cigarette lighter probably isn't good enough for the full rating of this invertor (mine, for instance is on a 20A fuse along with the interior lights and stereo), but it's possible to tie in to the alternator output directly.
Re:Okay, I laughed
by
Chagrin
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
E450 doesn't *require* 240V.
But yeah, I kinda doubt he installed 2 gauge copper myself.
--
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
Slashdot got trolled.
by
jared_hanson
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I think slashdot just got trolled. An excerpt from his page as reasons for doing this:
-multiple processors to ensure that mp3 decode is not interrupted by other process activity,
-good internal storage capacity, including the ability to take advantage of software RAID for reliability,
-large memory for good caching of tunes being played,
-easily expandable to allow for future projects,
-excellent support for Solaris 10, so that I can test bug-fixes, etc. while on the road if necessary. This also means that there is wide application availability (Oracle, great Java tools, etc.)
Does anyone who knows anything about MP3s think you need large or multiple processors to handle the task? Do you need massive memory to cache the songs? No on both counts.
Plus, the pictures on the site look like he just set his Sun server in the back of his SUV and snapped a couple photographs. No details on the hookup to the sound system at all.
If any story ever showed the ineptitude of Slashdot editors, this would be it.
-- -- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Re:Bah...
by
Jeff+DeMaagd
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
A second hand SCSI drive is relatively cheap, last I bought a 10k drive, it was $50 for a 9GB. SCAs are even cheaper since the need for an adaptor for anything that doesn't have a backplane ups the cost in other systems. It looks like E450 has one.
An e450 is massive stupid overkill though, that is, if that system is actually for real in that minivan. Nothing done there couldn't be done on a single CPU with a single stick of memory on a single hard drive.
Power Problems
by
whataboutMike
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
One more evidence that it might be a hoax: the E450 requires ~1600 watts of power and the power inverter that he says he uses provides only 300W... A difference of about ~1200W...
Re:Simple idea
by
AKnightCowboy
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
If you read the article carefully, you would have noticed that it cost him a whopping $0. For that much, how can you go wrong? It may not be the wootenest system ever, but its definitely neato.
He could've sold it on eBay and bought at least a half dozen brand new iPods. On the other hand, it does pain me to see that the e450s we bought about 4 years ago for $38,000 are now going for $2000. We should've bought a Mac as they hold their resale value better.
Check the pic. The box is on wheels. This guy just took pics of an e450 in his trunk and wrote up a humorous article to accompany them.
But it was funny. I laughed at all the slashdotters who ate it.:-D
-- Antti S. Brax - Old school - http://www.iki.fi/asb/
Free to him, but was it to Sun?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
No wonder Sun isn't profitable: the employees are too busy taking still useful hardware home from work and hacking it up.
Re:Kenwood Music Keg
by
flab007
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I just bought me a Pioneer DEH-P3500MP.. I just burn a number of my MP3's to a CDR and voila.. works like a charm!
Re:What's *not* necessary
by
DJStealth
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Once I heard he had a laptop to manage everything, I realized that this whole thing must be a joke. He probably had to transport the E450 between branches at work, and decided to take some pics of it.
Slashdot Mirror
His solution is way over the top but... /export/mp3 filesystem. That filesystem is constructed by concatenating a bunch of 9G SCSI disks (the root filesystem is mirrored across a similar set of disks)
The software used is very simple at the moment, nothing more than an rc script that plays random tracks from the mp3 archive stored in the ~80G
It it possible to use just a regular 100-200GB x few disks with this box? I mean, as soon as you have a fridge in your car for the purpose of listening music (comapred to portable mp3 player), you might as well go megalomaniac and stash it with 1TB hard drive space.
Oh yes, on related notes, can he wash his picnic dishes in it? Does it keep beer cold? It looks like a funny kitchen appliance.
But where'd he get power for this thing? I would think it would require massive alternator upgrades for it to work, but I see nothing of the kind on his page. The only hint is that the inverter link goes to a page suggesting that it needs 30v power, while I thought car power was universally 12v.
I can see this solution for a motor home where a generator can be available, but not a minivan.
This seems like something that must have not cost much to do, or he would have done better than that crummy cassette adapter. That implies that standard power must have worked (?).
Strange.
D
I think slashdot just got trolled. An excerpt from his page as reasons for doing this:
-multiple processors to ensure that mp3 decode is not interrupted by other process activity,
-good internal storage capacity, including the ability to take advantage of software RAID for reliability,
-large memory for good caching of tunes being played,
-easily expandable to allow for future projects,
-excellent support for Solaris 10, so that I can test bug-fixes, etc. while on the road if necessary. This also means that there is wide application availability (Oracle, great Java tools, etc.)
Does anyone who knows anything about MP3s think you need large or multiple processors to handle the task? Do you need massive memory to cache the songs? No on both counts.
Plus, the pictures on the site look like he just set his Sun server in the back of his SUV and snapped a couple photographs. No details on the hookup to the sound system at all.
If any story ever showed the ineptitude of Slashdot editors, this would be it.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
A second hand SCSI drive is relatively cheap, last I bought a 10k drive, it was $50 for a 9GB. SCAs are even cheaper since the need for an adaptor for anything that doesn't have a backplane ups the cost in other systems. It looks like E450 has one.
An e450 is massive stupid overkill though, that is, if that system is actually for real in that minivan. Nothing done there couldn't be done on a single CPU with a single stick of memory on a single hard drive.
One more evidence that it might be a hoax: the E450 requires ~1600 watts of power and the power inverter that he says he uses provides only 300W... A difference of about ~1200W...
He could've sold it on eBay and bought at least a half dozen brand new iPods. On the other hand, it does pain me to see that the e450s we bought about 4 years ago for $38,000 are now going for $2000. We should've bought a Mac as they hold their resale value better.
Check the pic. The box is on wheels. This guy just took pics of an e450 in his trunk and wrote up a humorous article to accompany them.
But it was funny. I laughed at all the slashdotters who ate it. :-D
Antti S. Brax - Old school - http://www.iki.fi/asb/
No wonder Sun isn't profitable: the employees are too busy taking still useful hardware home from work and hacking it up.
I just bought me a Pioneer DEH-P3500MP .. I just burn a number of my MP3's to a CDR and voila .. works like a charm!
Once I heard he had a laptop to manage everything, I realized that this whole thing must be a joke. He probably had to transport the E450 between branches at work, and decided to take some pics of it.