Author: itbucketlist

After a few more failed attempts to remote play using omxplayer, mpg123, and aplay, I tried a new approach.  mpd(Music Player Daemon).  Took me about 15 minutes to set this up using this guide.  Once the service was up and running I looked for an interface to control the PI remotely.  The default install of the Manjaro Linux I am using in a Virtual Box had the Contata media player software installed.  Used this to connect to the PI and I now have a groovy remote way to manage playlists, play music and even stream internet radio.  Just a couple more things to do then I am done with 2 items on the bucket list.  Have to get another 2G external drive to mirror the data to for the NAS to be complete and then need a clever way to hide all the wires and components I had to use for the whole setup of the Media Server.  Perhaps this weekend….

Worked on #5 and #15 today.  I have a Rasperry Pi 3B with a HiFiBerry DAC Pro sitting on top of it.  Put together the case a while ago and never got around to getting it to work.  So today I booted up my PI connected to my Tempus keyboard + monitor.  You can search that up on Amazon.  I was looking for a portable solution for working on pi projects and this seemed like it might fit the bill.  It has a power supply, USB keyboard and 7″ HDMI connected monitor.  The screen is REALLY tiny, as is the keyboard.  Ideally suited for younger eyes and trimmer fingers than what I am sporting these days.  So consider that before you decide to buy one.

After booting up my PI, running Raspian(Jessie) btw, I plugged in a Western Digital 2TB USB Passport Drive and created an entry in the fstab to automount it at bootup.  Then downloaded, installed and configured samba to export the mountpoint and voila! PI powered NAS 😀  A great step by step guide on how to do this can be found here.

Verified that I could write and read files there from my Windows 10 box.  Now I just had to configure the HiFiBerry DAC to be the default soundcard instead of the standard 3.5mm jack on the PI.  Did this by editing the /boot/config.txt file and rebooted.  Played a test track with Banshee and got amazing sound.  I can highly recommend the DACs from HiFiBerry for anyone looking to do something similar.

I then promptly unplugged the keyboard and monitor, as ultimately, I want this to function headless.  I ssh-ed into my PI and tried running omxplayer on the test track.  No joy   Got all the pieces together and the hardware working right, now just have to sort out the config bugs.  After I figure out how to get this to play headless, I have the rough idea of how to create a shuffler with python that will randomize tracks in a given directory.  This is a project for another day however….

I should probably start with an introduction.  I have worked in the IT industry as a UNIX professional for 20 years.  Call it a nerd’s midlife crisis but I realized that there are many topics in IT I am interested in, but have never taken the time to actually pursue.  The plan is to document the list and my progress, trials, tribulations, lessons learned and any helpful hints for anybody else interested in taking their own journey through the myriad of available IT experiences out there.  I may call out products, sites as I go and promise to review them honestly if I do.  I am receiving no payment in any form from anybody for any comments made in this blog.  By the way, creating a blog is #1 on the list so, hey look at all the progress already! 😉

So here’s the initial list.  I fully expect this to grow.  I do not expect to complete them in any particular order, just as opportunities present themselves.

1. Create a Blog  ——>       5/1/18
2. Attend a developer conference
3. Create a mobile app for Android
4. Try out many Linux distros and pick a favorite (writing this in Firefox on Manjaro Linux 17.1.9,the KDE version, in a Virtual Box on Windows 10)
5. Create a NAS storage using a Raspberry Pi
6. Make a web game
7. Find a favorite IDE, currently trying PyCharm by JetBrains
8. Experience as many languages as I can, being from a commercial UNIX world I have C and ksh down.  Currently learning python.
9. Make a website for someone else
10. Write a program on a quantum computer
11. Get a laptop running Qubes OS and practice security by isolation
12. Contribute to an open source project
13. Get a hold of a massive amount of data and extract a unique insight (Data Science)
14. Make my house a smart home
15. Create a media server

I am sure there will be more but that is all for now.