Scratching Itches: Chat

Chat networks

I connect to multiple chat networks:

• IRC
• AIM
• MSN
• google talk
• facebook chat (jabber)

Needs

I wanted to be able to connect to message a person or read messages from anywhere.

I also didn’t want to have to constantly connect just to check messages. I needed push notifications to my iPhone.

Solution

My solution allows for me to connect via any irc client, since irc clients are easily accessible on many devices.

• Weechat (irc chat client in the terminal)
• Bitlbee - allows me to connect to all my non-irc chat networks
• ZNC (irc bouncer, keeps connections to bitlbee / freenode alive)
• Prowl push notifications on iPhone 4s (there’s a Prowl module for ZNC that i use)
• Colloquy on iPhone

This setup requires a server to run ZNC and Bitlbee.

This setup allows me to connect using any irc connection and let’s me disconnect with my client without losing connection to messaging. When I get messaged I get a push notification to my phone, then I can reconnect and reply however I choose, either via computer in weechat or through my phone in Colloquy.

Scratching Itches: Listening to Music

In this series I’ll be talking about little lifehacks I have found that work for me.

All my music is stored in one location, but I want to be able to listen to it from work, in the car or wherever I go.

I hardly ever plug my phone into my computer and I don’t want to have to manually sync my music over. I want to be able to listen to my latest music without syncing.

My criteria for a solution:

• don’t want to have to sync anything
• in browser
• mobile accessible

And So I Found… Subsonic

• iphone & android apps (which can cache songs onto the phone)
• accessible in the browser
• user authentication
• last.fm scrobbling
• playlist support
• multi-user

The downside of running subsonic is that there is some setup. You need a dedicated machine to run the server and set up port forwarding through your router if you want to access it externally. Using no-ip.com helps so I don’t have to remember an IP address to access subsonic. Subsonic also has to transcode the audio to the bitrate of your choice so you can’t skip positions right away (unless the song is already cached on your device).

The music player also is flash (which isn’t so great on linux especially on a 64-bit OS).

Subsonic can also eat up bandwidth when streaming to something outside the network. I had to mitigate this using QoS on my DD-WRT router.

Long-term conclusion

I’ve been using this setup for almost a year and I’ve had no problems with it. I listen to my music on my phone, listen to music in the browser at work and home (no native music player needed).