Kevin Boone
Kevin Boone
Kevin Boone
Musing on computing, math, electronics, de-Googling and the small web, from an old warhorse of the IT industry.
Latest Posts
Copying an audio CD -- perhaps to a portable music player -- is a common enough operation. There are strong opinions on how to do this, and what software to use. But does it really make any difference? Or is one bit the same as any other?
The availability of "better than CD" audio recordings is driving, and being driven by, more expensive and elaborate audio hardware, even in the consumer market. Is this a good thing?
You really can't improve your hi-fi system with a fancy mains cable. But why? And why do people think you can?
Bits are bits, right? If a CD transport just sends digital data to a DAC, is it even possible that different transports sound different?
Do balanced headphones provide an improvement in sound quality over conventional, single-ended designs? Unlikely. In fact, the increased complexity of these designs may actually reduce the accuracy of sound reproduction.
Vintage vinyl records ought, perhaps, to be played on a vintage turntable. Although such appliances are still widely available, and can work well, they fall short of contemporary electrical safety standards.
Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of headphone that are currently available, without all the "audiophile" silliness.
Desktop Linux will take off next year -- or so people have been saying for years. Do desktop containerization technologies like Flatpak make this more, or less, likely?
Using 'date' and 'timedatectl' to build a utility to help with scheduling meetings in different timezones.
How to use tools like curl, sed, and groff to retrieve a weather forecast from the BBC, and format it for the terminal.
How to use Bash shell arithmetic to create a simple tide table
How to use Bash shell techniques to extract metadata (tags) from various audio file formats.
Using Linux command-line utilities to query an on-line database of Internet radio stations.
Using a Linux Bash script to generate audio/visual cues for timing paced breathing exercises.
How to use tools like curl and xsltproc to retrieve news headlines from the BBC, and display them using the manual viewer