E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

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I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

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Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. 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.

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At least 96060 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, 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
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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.

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