DD-WRT is a third party developed firmware released under the terms of the GPL for many ieee802.11a/b/g/h/n wireless routers based on a Broadcom or Atheros chip reference design. DD-WRT runs a small httpd server used for configuring the router (remember that opening WEB server to the world could be potential security problem). I am currently running DD-WRT v24-sp2 (07/22/09) vpn and occasionally cannot connect at all to the web interface after the router has been under heavy load or operating for a substantial amount of time. Rather than reboot the router the following commands can attempt to restart the web interface, executed via ssh or telnet:
Stopservice httpd
Startservice httpd
Looking to improve upon my automated CD > FLAC ripping experience I've investigated moving away from the simple but excellent sound-juicer CD ripping app to Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Exact Audio Copy is a CD ripper for audio CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main difference between EAC and most other rippers is that it reads audio CDs almost perfectly. If there are any errors that can’t be corrected, it will tell you on which time position the (possible) distortion occurred, so you could easily control it with the media player. It effectively strives for a bit perfect reproduction of the original CD/DVD. Unfortunately there isn't a native bit perfect CD ripper under Ubuntu that I'm aware of, the closest tool is RubyRipper but that doesn't ensure a bit perfect copy from what I understand. Read on to see how I implemented EAC with Wine under Ubuntu...
I stumbled across a really interesting link here from Nigel Coldwell comparing different audio compression techniques and bit rate.
To quote his opening lines:
"I've compiled a table containing the same audio sample compressed into different bit rate using several common compression techniques. Namely MP3 (constant bit rate and VBR,) windows media audio, ogg vorbis, AAC and flac. My intention is that you can use this to work out the lowest bit rate at which the audio sounds clear to you. this will depend on the equipment you're using, and your hearing. I firmly believe that if you can't hear the difference then there is no point wasting space."
I'm still a firm convert to FLAC but nevertheless this is a very interesting read and listen. especially if you are space constrained. Check it out here: http://nigelcoldwell.co.uk/audio/
Since getting iTunes running smoothly on my Ubuntu server under VirtualBox I was looking to upgrade and automate my CD ripping process. My aim here was to have a near 'zero click' approach for ripping an inserted CD to FLAC for opensource goodness and then to convert the files to ALAC for iTunes compatibility and HomeSharing. The two click solution I've reached involves 1) to select the right CD metadata from an CD info site and 2) to hit the button to rip, the script does the rest. It now takes me under 15 minutes to rip a CD to FLAC and get it into iTunes and shared over HomeSharing with just two clicks, here's how...
N.B. As of October 2011 ALAC is now open source too.
