About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Colophon

This runs on Django, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

The Book

Book cover I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley in October 2008, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well. Click on the book title above to learn more.

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Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

Spam Report

At least 45585 pieces of comment spam killed since January 12th, mostly via Akismet.

Product idea: Single-speaker iPod station

The starting premise here is: most speakers sold to work with the iPod and other DAPs are crap. They have fragile plastic cases, pointless stereo, and little 1" speakers that "deliver surprisingly good sound quality" or whatever euphemism one uses when trying to rationalize spending $100+ on something that sounds like a telephone receiver.

I've pitched my idea for a better approach to my cool product designer friends, but they're busy working on magnesium snowboard bindings, electric mountain bikes, and military-spec safety glasses.

In short, the idea is this: a ruggedized 5" cube with a single high-quality 3.5" speaker, a volume control, and inputs for your favorite DAP. Built-in NiMH batteries that get charged via a USB connection. That's it.

I swear that I thought this up before the Tivoli iPal came out. There's a reason that the iPal reviews rave about the sound quality: it has a bigger speaker. There's no magic. Make the speaker even bigger, and make the unit cheaper (removing the radio electronics), and there you go. I don't know if you'll make a million bucks, but I'll buy one.

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
fun + rants
2 comments

Some related posts: STFU • Hizzitachi

• Comment from petrilli , later that day

A 3.5" mid and a tweeter, please. Pretending that something like that can reproduce anything in the highs is silly, and puts undue stress on it. You could even make them... gasp co-axial, and save space. Honestly, repackage a car speaker for all I care, they'd sound better.

• Comment from Paul , later that day

That's a great idea -- a 3.5" co-ax car speaker would be perfect.