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Hardware

Empeg in March 63

Posted by CmdrTaco from the toys-to-kill-for dept.
BladeRunner writes sent us a link to a news.com article with a bit more news on the empeg. For those of you who live in a shell, the empeg is the StrongArm/Linux based car MP3 player that is making me want to break several of the 10 commandments.
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Empeg in March More

Empeg in March

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  • I live in a shell [zsh.org]...
    --
  • So, what does this give me that my 8-track doesn't already?

    A cool display.

  • Just have the empeg flash a "Microsoft Windows CE" logo if it detects someone trying to steal it.. The crook will put it back and run off.
  • Honestly, Rob, I don't see how coveting thy neighbor's wife is going to help you get one of these.
  • ...you don't spend any time in your car anyway.


    ;-)

  • I think it's on rails so you can remove the entire unit - a habit it would be useful to acquire.

    This thing almost makes me want to learn to drive...

  • i saw linux... but what's this about windows based software? title downloading? phooey...
  • January gets to be -40 (F or C, doesn't matter) and I don't think there's a piece of hardware alive for under $1M that could survive that.

    It's rated to -20 degrees C (non-operating), and (I think) -5 operating. Colder than that and they recommend taking it inside. Surely this applies to any other in car audio system, too, though?

  • We're up to at least six now. Surprise, surprise, the search function doesn't go back to the first two in October 1998--the archives have been wiped. Those two were on or just before 19 October, when both CmdrTaco and someone else posted the exact same link. Then there was one on 27 January [slashdot.org], one on 8 February [slashdot.org], one on 3 March [slashdot.org], and this one on 12 March [slashdot.org]. Possibly as many as two of them have posted anything new...
  • I really think people who can't count should refrain from reading slashdot, the topics are likely to be over your head.

    A quick look through the archive shows that two stories on the empeg have been posted. Both were links to news articles about the empeg (Slashdot News for Nerds, remember?). You were off by forty, which makes your percentage error 1000%.

    Now, readers may have mentioned the empeg when commenting on other stories related to mp3s, but you can hardly hold Slashdot accountable for that.
  • Hmm, what's this? The fourty-second time empeg has been promoted on /. this month? What's up here?

  • Yeah, yeah. I figured you'd catch the 42 as a reference to Douglas Adams and not an actual number of posts (which I realize has only been two or three), but...
  • Yes, but I'd rather listen to MP3 lossiness instead of AM or FM lossiness any day. Plus AM and FM both have really awful noise filtering, and there's no way to pre-queue audio for when you drive under a bridge or into underground parking.
  • hrm? what on earth is wrong with zsh? it's more configurable, and more filled with practical little features, than bash, and, like bash, it derives its scripting language from sh, rather than the braindead csh. The first thing I do on all my new accounts is change my shell to zsh and import my .zshrc from another box...
  • Why not just use that money to buy a laptop with a decent sound card, buy a car-CD/Cassette adaptor, and your off and running. There might be a problem stabalizing your laptop, but for $999, I'll find a way

    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user, Jon Katz hater: bite me!
  • I think it'd be pretty awesome to have a windup version of a portable MP3 player than can play 35 hours of music.
    It'd make hiking a lot more fun.
  • Considering the problem with people breaking into cars just to steal the stereo... (Happened twice with one of my friends!)
    If these things become popular enough for theives to recognize them, won't they be even more likely to be stolen since they're so expensive?
    Removable faceplate empegs?
    It'd still be worth it to steal the harddrive...
  • Oh give it a rest already! its new stuff on it.. if you don't want to read it, DON'T but don't just post in here and bitch and complain about it.

  • Wouldn't this significantly reduce the amount of music you could have in the thing? If my memory serves, even the 2GB version has the equivalent of 35 albums worth of storage, and you can only handle 6-12 CDs with a trunk-mounted CD changer.

    D

    ----
  • Ubiquitous post follows:

    I'd like to get a dozen of these for a beowulf cluster. That would rock.


    Bwahahahahahaha

    ----

  • Microsoft is mentioned a million times.. Do you have a problem with this too? Linux is mentioned alot too.. hmm, what's wrong with that?
  • Then there's the car its in, Rob do a car poll, I'd bet that most slashdotters dont drive the latest BMW or Porsche model.

    At least the ones that aren't communists :)
  • You know, cool as it sounds, I don't imagine something like this being any good where I live (Minnesota). January gets to be -40 (F or C, doesn't matter) and I don't think there's a piece of hardware alive for under $1M that could survive that. I mean, really, HDs are touchy enough as it is, but between the cold and the vibration, I don't see it being practical.

    I hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it would survive a winter where I live...

    Chris

  • I had the opportunity when Hugo was in the states for Linuxworld last week to have him over to my apartment. He brought along a completed prototype (what the production models will be built on) and we plugged it into our home stereo (nice bose system with a big klipsch subwoofer and lots of power) via its RCAs. The Empeg rules. We brought out a linux workstation and minicom'd into it via the serial port, he logged into the Empeg and proceeded to change a few options, show us the beta 3D visualization code and more. (You can _login_ to your car stereo!)

    THIS THING KICKS ASS.

    The visualization is _very_ cool and the possibilities for expansion are amazing as well. If you have the cash, this is the toy of the decade. Hugo even went so far as to stand on it - it's that sturdy. This isn't a toy folks, this is a regular pull-out car stereo deck; it just happens to run linux and play mp3s. ;-)

    Like someone else said, you better watch out for trees, this thing is mesmerizing. :)

    I sound like a PR employee, but when you actually see it, you can't help but be a little giddy.

    -Brian

  • I think you wanted to go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and got lost.

    -- Keith
    -- Keith Moore
  • Wait a minute ! An MP3 player that works in .. a car , you say !! This is incredible. What a first!

    [cut to felix the cat with lines coming out of his head to indicate amazement]

    MEEPT!!
  • Not fair. I drive a BMW.

    Okay, so it isn't the latest. It's a 1987. But I still take offence to that remark. ;)

    Seriously though, if you've been to the expensive section of your local retail hifi audio specialist, you would see a few high end tape decks (and a cd player or two) that hide the slot behind a moveable, full-sized LCD screen. It's very similar to the look of the empeg and thieves know what those look like. Just as pricy too. So, don't think that will save you if you get one (which I am going to).

    Since it is a computer, you could conceivably wire it into being not only anti-theft, but the heart of your car's security system.

    But then again, you might just lose it anyway. Never underestimate the stupidity of a petty thief. Pulling it out and putting it in the boot is still the best defense.

    --Chris
  • becuase there is no such thing as a laptop with a good soundcard ---
    unrealated --does anyone know if you could plug this thing into a real stereo that would be well, awesome.


    -ben signing out
  • What about the Cube? It's a little short on storage space, by your requirements, but it's kinda portable.
  • So, what does this give me that my 8-track doesn't already?
  • But what if you have no arms! Bad joke.. I know.
  • Umm.. Crooks are stupid.. They wouldn't care.
  • See I would like a dual unit... I.E. interface up front, the server in the back with a 5 channel digital amp built in, and 4 hd's. I don't think it would be hard to do that.. Basically the interface would be up front with a semi dumb terminal to do all the selections and processes.. Then the rear unit could be hacked to do all sorts of things.. But that's just my 2 cents..
  • Besides, his neighbors probably don't have one yet.

    Mmmm, car mp3s. Now, for the first site to push mp3 music to this player over a cell connection. That would be sweet. Just tune in to www.carmuse.com. Yes.

    Zagmar
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Just take it inside with you at night. Walking in to work with it would be a little hard to explain, but geeks would admire you. But seriously I know people that do the same with portable CD players and such. Besides it's just one more thing ppl here in the midwest can bitch about.

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