SqueezeNetwork Alpha up and running...

[dean]

Hi Folks,

The latest nightly releases of SlimServer include firmware that can
connect to our SqueezeNetwork service.

Right now it's providing Internet Radio, RSS News Feeds, Alarm Clock
(with a bunch of cool alarm sounds and environmental sounds), Live
Music Archive access and more. Expect this feature set to grow over
time!

I encourage the brave among us to download and try the latest version
and use the SqueezeNetwork.

We're not making an official announcement just yet on the Discuss
list since we're not ready for real load testing and you can expect
the service to go up and down a few times a day as we shake out the
servers.

Thanks, and feel free to post your experiences here. When we do open
it up more broadly, we'll create a forum specifically for
SqueezeNetwork discussion.

Thanks,

Team SqueezeNetwork!

[sellars]

Just installed the nightly....and I'm already lovin' it....

[kdf]

Quoting dean blackketter <dean (AT) slimdevices (DOT) com>:

> Hi Folks,
>
> The latest nightly releases of SlimServer include firmware that can
> connect to our SqueezeNetwork service.
>
> Right now it's providing Internet Radio, RSS News Feeds, Alarm Clock
> (with a bunch of cool alarm sounds and environmental sounds), Live
> Music Archive access and more. Expect this feature set to grow over
> time!
>
> I encourage the brave among us to download and try the latest version
> and use the SqueezeNetwork.

Done, tested and listened to RadioIO for about 30 minutes (busy drinking with a
buddy so distraction ensued after that!) Thank you for the sign out menu. I
was wondering how that would come up after the early testing. I'm afraid I
cannot risk the alarm clock as my ISP has been so abyssmally unstable of late.
Annoyingly it also freaks out the router so I can't even use the RSS plugin on
my local version lately.

I'll have time next week to beat on it from softsqueeze in england for a week,
then I'm off to drink Guinness and behave badly in Ireland!!

-kdf

btw...what happened to that dance mix sample that I found a few weeks ago during
the earlier tests?? (I'm not going to get more descriptive since it would give
away the most hilarious part)

[mherger]

> Right now it's providing Internet Radio, RSS News Feeds, Alarm Clock
> (with a bunch of cool alarm sounds and environmental sounds)

There are really some golden greats:

- coins: for the business men
- city: for those poor guys living in the countryside
- hair dryer: missing your ex-girlfriend?

But my real favourite is "horse whinny" - though I really expected a pony
;-)

Small typo: there's a "frieght train" passing.

--

Michael

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[mherger]

> Done, tested and listened to RadioIO for about 30 minutes (busy drinking

Could RadioIO be an alarm option?

> with a
> buddy so distraction ensued after that!) Thank you for the sign out
> menu. I
> was wondering how that would come up after the early testing. I'm

Are "accounts" (PINs?) not stored yet? Today I had to run through the
setup again (had a first test yesterday).

> I'll have time next week to beat on it from softsqueeze in england for a

I'm not so sure softsqueeze will support it, does it?

--

Michael

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[kdf]

Quoting Michael Herger <slim (AT) herger (DOT) net>:

> I'm not so sure softsqueeze will support it, does it?

guess it doesn't ...oh well, guess its more guinness time

[Philip Downer]

> The latest nightly releases of SlimServer include firmware
> that can connect to our SqueezeNetwork service.
>
> Right now it's providing Internet Radio, RSS News Feeds,
> Alarm Clock (with a bunch of cool alarm sounds and
> environmental sounds), Live Music Archive access and more.
> Expect this feature set to grow over time!

I've not tested it out yet (I plan to later today) but I'm wondering how
the interface works? I'm guessing that it's just an ir remote and the
sb2 display as it's being totally handled by the squeezebox. I am
however wondering if there is going to be (or allready is) support for,
well let's say a wireless pda to control the squeezenetwork feature. I'm
just curious about situations where the SB2 is completely hidden away.

Phil

[dean]

Hi Philip,

On May 18, 2005, at 2:15 AM, Philip Downer wrote:
> I've not tested it out yet (I plan to later today) but I'm
> wondering how
> the interface works? I'm guessing that it's just an ir remote and the
> sb2 display as it's being totally handled by the squeezebox. I am
> however wondering if there is going to be (or allready is) support
> for,
> well let's say a wireless pda to control the squeezenetwork
> feature. I'm
> just curious about situations where the SB2 is completely hidden away.

SqueezeNetwork uses a version of SlimServer running at our
datacenter, fortified with load balancers, back-end databases and
more. Audio data streams directly to the players (instead of through
the server software), but apart from that, the UI is handled as before.

We do plan on opening up a web interface which will allow you to log
in and control your Squeezebox connected to the SqueezeNetwork, but
it hasn't been turned on yet.

Give it a try, let us know what you think, and stay tuned for
improvements!

-dean

[vidurapparao]

Michael Herger wrote:

>> Done, tested and listened to RadioIO for about 30 minutes (busy drinking
>
>
> Could RadioIO be an alarm option?

Currently, any of your favorites can be alarm options. Select a radioio
station as a favorite (one of the options available when you browse
track info for the station) and it should appear on the alarm sounds page.

>> buddy so distraction ensued after that!) Thank you for the sign out
>> menu. I
>> was wondering how that would come up after the early testing. I'm
>
> with a
>
> Are "accounts" (PINs?) not stored yet? Today I had to run through the
> setup again (had a first test yesterday).

We had to reset the database yesterday (it's an alpha, right?), but by
the time we get to production preferences will be more permanent.

--Vidur

[Christian Pernegger]

> > I encourage the brave among us to download and try the latest version
> > and use the SqueezeNetwork.

Brave? I just ran my auto-update script ...

Didn't do much testing yet, beyond the initial connect, and a little
fooling-around but I must say I was positively surprised about getting
the full timezone selection.

> I'm afraid I cannot risk the alarm clock as my ISP has been so abyssmally unstable of
> late.

I've had one noticeable outage in 2 years and I still don't trust all
the components and connections between the sb2 and sqn enough to run
my alarm over it. (Going to file an enhancement req for emergency
alarm in firmware now ...)

Hopefully there'll be better integration between local server(s) and
sqn sometime (i. e. parallel connections, fallback). I don't think the
user should have to switch between them manually. "Use squeeze
network? yes/no" should be enough.

Any chance slimdevices want to enter the music subscription business?
sqn seems just the ticket ^^

C.