Linux how to articles and guides, PHP / MySQL / Python / Bash scripting, and music tips, tricks, and hacks

Mashup I made a while back with Solar Stone’s amazing Solarcoaster. Czech it:

Solar Stone – Solarcoaster (ip2k mashup) by ip2k

somaseek.com is a new search engine for the history of all the great internet radio stations at http://somafm.com . It has near real-time history (updated every 5 minutes) and browsable history for each station. I’m working on getting pagination going for history, as well as a datepicker for browsing and Sphinx-powered search instead of the current MySQL fulltext search. I’m trying to keep it simple and not clutter it up with junk. I do plan on moving away from the very plain look of the site, but for now it’s usable and I’ve been tracking all of SomaFM’s stations since late February 2010, so there is already quite a bit of history that you can look through.

This project was born out of a few needs: I needed to get better at actual PHP / MySQL coding, I was annoyed with the twitter history of SomaFM (As of about a month ago, song history isn’t even listed on Twitter for the soma stations), and I always found good music through SomaFM but wanted to quickly learn more about the artist / song.

SomaFM has these key features to solve the above problems:
- Written in simple and extensible PHP / MySQL / JavaScript / CSS / HTML. Sphinx search coming soon.
- Tracks all of the stations, all of the time, so you can always search for what you were listening to.
- Provides links to LastFM, iLike, and Amazon Music (via SomaFM’s reseller link, so they get a portion of your purchase if you click through and buy via somaseek.com or somafm.com) to quickly find out more about songs / artists and give back to the community.
- Open source in actual implementation, just like Reddit. Other sites are starting to “see the light” and do this too. Hosted on Google Code is all the actual source code to the website, minus the database passwords, of course!
http://code.google.com/p/somaseek/

Please use and enjoy SomaSeek, and leave comments on this post if you have any ideas on how to improve it that weren’t listed above. I played with the idea of Facebook / Twitter “share” integration as well as trying to link to the groups on Facebook.

I own a pair of Shure E3cs that I bought at Target on sale for $30 (retail is around $200). It was an amazing find and I’ve been quite happy with them. I had some Etymotic ER6i IEMs before owning the Shures, and the Shure phones are a bit more durable (thicker cable) and easier to take in and out (soft rubber tips instead of comply foam tips). They both have their place in my collection and both get used.

However, to my dismay, the last time I pulled my Shures out of the case to listen to music, I found that the sound coming from the left driver was much quieter than the right. At first, I didn’t even hear anything and thought that the driver was dead. I frantically searched the internet and the forums on Head-Fi and found that it might just be wax build-up (eww). I took the rubber tip off and the sound was still very quiet. There was no visible obstruction and I poked around lightly with a paperclip to see if I could free the wax, but there was none.

When I got home, I used the paperclip to GENTLY remove the filter (without poking it through the end, I just pushed to the side and pulled back, the friction of the paperclip pulling the tiny silver plug with green filter out). I then soaked the filter in rubbing alcohol for about 10 seconds, using the paperclip to ensure there was no air and that the alcohol got in and through the filter. I then picked it up and let the alcohol drain through the filter. I let the filter air dry for about a minute, then re-installed it the same was it was installed before I removed it by gently inserting it, green “cap” side first, then pushing it down by the metal sides (DO NOT PUSH ON THE GREEN FILTER, IT WILL TEAR) until it was properly seated at about the same depth as the other side. Volia, worked.

The entire filter is about the size of one grain of couscous, maybe 2mm by 0.75mm. The filter has TINY holes to prevent wax from getting in the driver, and obviously did its job. Shure should really include instructions on how to change the filter like Etymotic does. Instead they advise you to contact customer service, and I’ve heard of repair bills around $80 to just clean and replace the filters.

Link to the User’s Manual