Sorry for the lateness on this one, but Positron 1.0 has been released by Xiph.org! By those not in the know, Positron is a command-line sync utility for Linux, released under the Xiph.org BSD-variant license. Go get it now!

Or Go, the sale has ended, if youre a big Latin dork like I am. The mystical, magical deep-discount sale is over, but there are very, very exciting things coming soon. Ill be posting another musical spotlight soon, because I heard a great band the other week, and I think they deserve your attention.

Oh, and that Vorbis thing... Hmm... Very soon. Very soon.

Hey there. Sorry for the lack of updates, but that should be changing real soon. We are currently working on some updates for the site that should be completed in very short order.

Hey, theres a new beta firmware from Xiph.org... According to reports, it will beef up Vorbis playback to include higher bitrate Vorbis files. You can get it right here. Just keep in mind that this is way-beta and has no warranty. Enjoy!

Hey, go get the new firmware!

Here are the release notes:

Version 1.40 contains the following updates to the Neuros firmware:
1. Added 5 band graphic equalizer, including 5 factory default settings (Rock, Pop, Jazz, Bass Boost and Classical) and one custom setting. Each factory default setting can be customized as well. (Please note that the EQ feature currently works for normal playback and not for MyFi, even though the XIM in MyFi allows you to access the EQ feature. In v1.41 this will be removed from the MyFI XIM).
2. In Settings menu, added

Hey, heres an album re-ripper (Itll rip into Vorbis and still keep existing tags) for you, written by The Doctor What and found on the Xiph mailing lists.

http://open.neurosaudio.com/extra/album-rerip.pl.gz

Heres some notes on using it:

For those that are re-ripping their collection due to pre-1.0 oggs and
other ogg problems...I humbly submit the following, an album re-rip
program. Its reasonably safe and will save all the tags you
painstakingly edited once already...

Note however, this script has one flaw: It requires the oggs to be of
the format NN-.ogg where NN is the track number. If this
isnt the case, the script will have to be changed to pull the track
number from the tags or something. :-/

Good luck, and let me know if you have any problems. Thanks!

By the way, even though the Mighty Discount has ended, youll probably want to take a look at the big rebate being offered by buy.com. Its a hundred bucks off of the 20G HD and the HD/Flash bundle. This is a great deal if you dont have a Neuros yet, and if you dont, you should!

(end salesboy rant)

You should also check out whats going on with ACCOPS if you get any of your music from a p2p network like Kazaa. Theres very scary legislation going on, and its important to anyone interested in technology and music.

Wouldnt it be great if there were a fantastic band from Philly that put songs online? They do! You can check out their mp3.com website by following this link, where you can grab a lot of their tunes.

Wouldnt it be even cooler if their bassist had a blog? He does! Its called More Boom In The Room!

Wouldnt it be fantastic if they were hip to issues concerning licensing and music? They are, and theyve been featured as an artist by the good folks over at Creative Commons. Check out the write-up here!

Enjoy! Remember, if theres a band youd like you see on the open.neurosaudio.com artist spotlight, drop me a mail!

Please read the topic of this post in your best Dalek voice. Thank you.

Sean Starkey and Craig Blake have created a cool app called the Neuros Database Manipulator, and you can get your hands on it at http://neurosdbm.sourceforge.net/. Its written entirely in Java, and the source code is available under the GPL. Good work, guys! If theres anything I can do to help out, drop me an E-mail!

Also, the Open Source Mighty Discount is still running, and will keep going until the eleventh of July. Thats this Friday, so remember to save a chunk of your paycheck so you can get one. Theyre really cool, I promise.

Have fun, kids!

Neurosetta is an updated firmware for the Neuros Audio Computer which enables the Neuros to play Ogg Vorbis files.

In order to make sure that we can get a lot of Open Source people involved in the beta, were offering The Mighty Discount again! Head over to the Mighty Salepitch links on the right and and put in the coupon code OPEN1597 (no quotes) when you place your order. The Mighty Discount will run until 7/11.

Heres information on the firmware beta, courtesy of Xiph.Org.

Current Status

The firmware is currently in a beta state. Right now it plays back only Ogg Vorbis files (MP3 support does not work, as it has not yet been integrated into this build). Other than that, it should be fully functional. The code is not fully optimized yet, and will skip audibly on files that are over about 200kbps. This will be fixed in the final version. Optimization and integration are the only gating items.

Instructions

Please note that you can both upgrade and downgrade firmware on the Neuros. It should be pain-free to try out this firmware and then switch back if you find
it necessary.

Prepare: Turn off automatic sync in the Neuros Sync Manager before beginning.

Turn off the Neuros. Unplug the power cord and USB cable. Press the down button and the power button at the same time. Follow on-screen instructions to connect USB cable.

Windows

Open up the Neuros Removable drive in Windows Explorer.

Linux

Mount your Neuros.

Copy the woid.hex file into the firmware directory on the Neuros. If that directory doesnt exist, create it. If there is already a woid.hex file there, overwrite it. If youre using Linux, unmount the Neuros.

Wait for the USB IDLE message to appear on the Neuros.

Unplug the USB cable from the Neuros and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

To upload Ogg Vorbis files to the Neuros, you will need to follow the instructions for enabling Vorbis support in positron.

Firmware Download

woid.hex

Bugs, Contact, Etc

Please report bugs at bugs.xiph.org against the Neurosetta product.

There will be discussion of Neurosetta on the NeurosAudio.com forums.