This started off as a conversation between myself and a good friend of mine. I realized that most innovation in my life was created from being cheap or lazy. Here are some examples.
This is a favorite of mine. I wanted to be able to change the music playing at the pool with out getting up. Here’s how I did it in 2007 without a smartphone.
I had jailbroken a Playstation portable that was running a really crappy version of VNC on a PC that had my iTunes library on it. It was so cool when I got it working. It was sooooo clunky. Barely worked most of the time. It was very slow too. What is VNC you might ask? It is remote access software for windows and other operating systems. The PSP acted like a mouse and keyboard while displaying the desktop on the screen. I miss the PSP.
I didn’t stop there. 10 years later this setup has been streamlined and improved. Aside from stereo equipment that I already owned, to get my wireless music server running cost less than $100.
Now I can take my phone and use Apple’s airplay into the server that’s running on a Raspberry pi that can also access my NAS (Network Attached Storage) with the same iTunes songs from years ago. Of course now I use apple music to listen to new and old music. It’s amazing to me that I can listen to practically anything that I want. (Try to find the Mystical Krewe of Klearlight, you wont.)
I have a simple test for this type of setup. The wife test. 3 steps or less to get up and running. Although this passed the test, I think most people feel weird not doing a lot of manual operation to get music going.
I built a Plex movie server a year or so ago. At first it was on an old PC. With an older dual core processor, it couldn’t handle the transcoding process from plex. Raspberry pi to the rescue again. For those that aren’t aware, the raspberry pi is a 35 dollar mini linux based computer about the size of a pack of smokes. The plex server is great. You get a new movie for your kid, RIP it to plex and you’ll never have to worry about scratched up discs again.
I remember when I was in tech school I had a broken distortion pedal. The footswitch quit working as most old DOD pedals would after some use. I noticed while I was doing soldering practice in class that VCR buttons had the same type of switch. Presto. Fixed pedal.
That’s the point, use your imagination and let the laziness flow through you. My old professor Mr. Phillips’ montra was “A good technician is a lazy technician”. How true that is. Most lazy people work very hard at being lazy.
Cheap doesn’t hurt either. I could have went out and blown a grand on some sonos speakers. No, I bought an FM Transmitter to use the radios that I already owned.
So the next time you want to go blow a ton of money on some device just remember that with a little bit of effort, you can have something you made cheaper.
What do you think? Comment below. Maybe I’ll write a tutorial on how to build these type of systems. Let me know. Thanks!
