I recently de-boxed my shiny new Squeezebox Duet. What a great device...

Slimdevices (now owned by Logitech) really seem to have nailed this. The free (open source) Squeezecenter server software is good enough just to use it on its own with a software emulator to listen to music on a PC. But the Duet remote and Receiver are fine pieces of kit, work as advertised, and work out of the box. No mean feat.

In comparison I have been using a Turtle beach Audiotron for 3 1/2 years, so I am no stranger to network music players. Turtle Beach followed a completely different design path, and ended up giving up. The Audiotron was a fine piece of kit, but I always seemed to battle whenever I changed something on the network. Also, the remote had limited range/angle, the screen was tiny, sound quality was OK on digital and crap on analogue, and it hummed (transformer hum).

Slim devices cleverly architected the Squeezebox (and Slimp3 before that) on a thin client model, so upgrading was mostly a question of software upgrades at the server end. So now, the Duet controller can control any device from the tiny Receiver all the way back to an original Slimp3. Special conditions apply, of course!

So back to the Duet Controler and Receiver:

• It sounds fantastic. To the uncritical ear (mine) it sounds much the same through analogue cables as coax into my HK home theater receiver.
• It is easy to use. Quite intuitive to anyone that has ever used an ipod... just a bit better as it has more features.
• It looks great. Nice quality graphics.
• The whole architecture is open. The little controller runs Busybox linux, and you can log in to it. The geek in me loves that the text displayed when you log in says:

This network device is for authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use
of this system may result in you hearing very bad music. If you do not consent
to these terms, LOG OFF IMMEDIATELY.

Ha, only joking. Now you have logged in feel free to change your root password
using the 'passwd' command. You can safely modify any of the files on this
system. A factory reset (press and hold add on power on) will remove all your
modifications and revert to the installed firmware.
Enjoy!

• It is fast. Even aquiring and starting to stream an internet radio station is fast.

So is it worth the money? (I paid just over NZ$400 from acquire.co.nz)

Maybe. Definitely compared to a Sonos. And definitely for me, lover of great geek technology.

Will the price come down? Undoubtedly.

Alternative public transport systems/fuels: http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/transportation/public-transit/

"Lost City: Forgotten Plans for an Alternative Auckland" http://www.nzsses.auckland.ac.nz/conference/2007/papers/HARRIS-Lost%20City.pdf

For the last couple of weeks I have been riding to work and back in a bus *gasp*! Actually I have been pleasantly surprised at how convenient and moderately pleasant it can be. Of course, I have been blessed with a bus route that takes me from quite close to home to very close to work; I work more-or-less 'standard' hours, and the weather has been really great.

What's more is that personal technologies like iPod/MP3 players, mobile phones etc help cocoon us in our own little worlds. I have even been able to happily and reliably surf the net on my laptop, thanks to a Telecom 3G modem.

Negatives for me have been:

• Tiny seats. My legs generally don't fit between 2 rows of seats :-(
• Randomness of departure times. I missed the last bus yesterday because the driver was a few minutes early. Why can't they run to a standard time for goodness sake?
• They are still bumpy and noisy, no matter how good/loud the music is on the ipod
• I hate the waiting
• I hate living to someone else's schedule
• I'm pretty much 'stuck' at work for the day. The schedules are so sparse that there is nothing before 4.45pm unless I take a round-about route.
• It sucks when it rains.
  

• I arrive at work and at home relaxed
• It probably works out a bit cheaper, even though I don't pay for parking at work
• It typically takes no longer than the car, now that we have a great expressway alongside the Auckland Northern motorway
  

This is a follow-on from my previous entry, and addresses the insistence by planners and politicians that we should relinquish our provate motor vehicles for public transport. Now the question I ask is: "When in any futuristic movie did you see people sitting in buses or trains?" Answer: Hardly ever. Because it is not what we aspire to.

We don't aspire to a scenario where we give up our personal liberties of being able to travel where we want, when we want, at the temperature and company of our choosing. But we need to recognise some of the issues we are facing and address those through practical solutions.

As I see it, the issues are:

• Congestion on roads
• Emissions from private motor vehicles
• Parking in CBDs
• Cost

I reckon that many of these 'issues' are solvable with technology more-or-less available today.

How about encouraging smaller more efficient vehicles (electric? diesel? hybrid? fuel-cell?) that have inbuilt guidance systems for motorway travel. Some Mercedes-Benz models are coming out with something like this already. Imagine if you could minimise/avoid dickhead behaviour (ie leaving massive gaps, cutting in) on the motorway by letting your vehicle on-board guidance system lock onto the vehicle in front of you? That would massively increase carrying capacity of the roads by avoiding the need for gaps between cars. Satellite navigation could guide you to your offramp, and an advanced form of ramp controls would get you on smoothly. Computer networks have been doing this forever, so why not roading networks.

I like to think of this approach like a train of small, privately-owned carriages, each with its own schedule, start and end point. I'd rather ride in my train than a crowded smelly one that requires me to follow rigid routes and schedules and walk in the rain at either end.

Back to efficiency and emissions, have you ever considered the efficiency and economics of buses and trains? Sure they may make a journey in the morning and one in the evening at capacity, but there are many journeys they make empty or at much lower capacity. Buses also make a massive (negative) impact on traffic when they join other flows.

This better efficiency will result in lower costs to all (if you also consider the economic value of better utilisation of roading capital).

I don't have an answer for parking issues in CBDs with my "train of small, privately-owned carriages". Perhaps you do?

Anyway, the point of this is that buses and trains exist only in the future vision of people with low aspirations for themselves and our society. Agree or disagree?

We seem to be facing a couple of situations here (in Greenhithe) where civil servants and elected officials want to tell us how we should get ourselves around in future:

• We will definitely need another airport in 50 years time within the current urban limits (Part 1)
  
• We need to get people out of their vehicles into public transport: namely buses and trains (Part 2)
  

The first point is being played out by Waitakere City Council and their bid to turn Whenuapai Airbase into a commercial airport, "because it is a strategic asset that we'd be remiss for allowing it to fall into alternate use" (my words, but summarising the sentiment). Now let's imagine what air travel will actually be like in 50 years time...

If the Kyoto lobby get their way, no-one will be allowed on a hydrocarbon-fuelled jet anyway. Jets spew out tons of burnt hydrocarbons with byproducts including carbon dioxide and water vapour (the most significant greenhouse gas - ever seen the clouds that jets make - also known as vapour trails?). But let's say that technology finds a way around this issue, and indeed history tells us that it is technology breakthroughs that will have the most significant impact (not local government politicians).

I can only assume that alternately fuelled planes will probably be smaller than current ones -- especially for short-haul -- but will be more efficient. Hence the ability to meet customer demands and fly more frequently to places of your choosing. Equally, air traffic control and security technology (along with lower passenger numbers per flight) will be such that the massive safety factors and security issues limiting current flying patterns will mean that we can get far more passengers through existing airports. So these volume factors (with better schedule flexibility) will mean that less airports are needed for similar passenger numbers. In a small market like New Zealand (and Auckland) competition will drive a smaller, less suitable airport operation into extinction.

So let's rather plan to improve the primary airport and it's local transport connections, and allow in future for more destinations (probably in regional and tourism centres). I predict that airports in places like Christchurch, Queenstown, Rotorua and Whangarei will become more significant, along with Auckland International. Whenuapai, I'm afraid, is doomed to extinction. It either needs to stay as an Air Force base or be carved up and made into something that will turn a profit long-term.

I initially established a website for my home town - Greenhithe - as a way to bring the community together and make it the sort of place I could be happy living forever. When I first moved there, Greenhithe was a village where everyone knew their neighbours, every kid went to the local kindy and local school. As such, it worked like a traditional village. Of course, that could never last and we fell victim to urban densification, itinerant population etc. So the purpose of the website was to rekindle that sense of community as an online community. As such, it follows the following core principles:

• Users should be able to add their own content
• Usage is free to community organisations
• Contains both 'push' elements (eg email newsletter, RSS) and traditional 'pull'
• It should be easy to use and not overwhelmed by commercialism