Cool mp3 Server

Just thought I'd share a little trick I did:

Using the free+open source "slimserver" software from www.slimdevices.com, I was able to set up an MP3 server on my main home pc. This has mp3's on the hdd of all my (legally purchased!) CD's . Slimserver drives a web interface (so you control it through pocket IE etc), then you just point GSPlayer (also free) at the relevant url on your home network (works over wifi), and it streams the selected tracks to your device.

This now means I can listen to my entire 20GB music collection, via my Qtek S100, anywhere in the house and garden. You all might think this is not that useful, but it sure is cool (if a bit geeky...), and making it work was more fun than putting up shelves.

Downsides - setting it up was slightly non-intuitive, but not difficult. The web interface doesn't look too pretty at 320x240. Slimserver chews very high cpu usage for a while when you first install, as it indexes all the mp3's it can find (but it seems resource light after that). I had to change the default bitrate for streaming to 128kbps, because initially I was getting no sound.

Give it a go, and you too can have iPod-beating tens of gigbytes of music served via your phone (or PDA, or laptop, for that matter!)

WWWikis

I have a wiki (no good reason why) at

www.coffee-cat.pbwiki.com
seemed like a good idea yesterday.

I think it is generally visible, but I think it might be password protected for editing, so no-one can modify it anyway (not that it has any content either...)

Stuff I Did

Video of Anna, experimental, aspect ratio currently broken...