depth first search

The family visit went well. The IJCAI paper is almost done. So I guess I’m running out of excuses not to post. I bought Ana a 2.1 speaker sound system for the living room. She was listening to music while cooking using only her laptop speakers. In the process of shopping for that gift, I stumbled across this. It’s too pricey for me, but I love the concept, a wireless do anything, intriguingly flexible music box.

Instead I’ve repurposed one of our old laptops into a sort of music server for the living room. We can VNC to it from our own laptops if we want to change the music, adjust the volume, etc. Indeed, I got to thinking that a “netbook” actually ends up being cheaper than the Squeezebox Duet, and is arguably a replacement for it (wireless, play music from anywhere, etc). Of course the key feature is the remote, which if CNET is to be believed is the shining light in the setup.

So, that leaves an obvious question. Can I buy a general purpose remote for a laptop? I’ve seen “remotes” that allow people to wirelessly flip through PowerPoint slides. But a general purpose, lcd screen style remote? Maybe I should put this in the category things-I-want-to-buy-that-don’t-exist-yet-and-would-be-too-expensive-even-if-they-did, you know, right along side the android butler and my rocketpack.

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