Casman Blog

Originally posted on the Linuxologist, a free software enthusiast’s blog. Comments section has some great information on Do-It-Yourself car stereo projects.

Author’s note: I was intending to research and write a piece on how Linux is being used as an mp3 player in cars. I’ve owned a Linux based mp3 player for six years. I was assuming it was not the only solution. It’s not, but as of the fall of 2008, buying a Linux-based mp3 player for your car is not super easy.

If you’ve just started using Linux, you’ve probably noticed an interesting phenomenon. You’ve entered a group of rugged individualists, non-conformists, people who know how to pull things apart and put them back together, people who don’t like being spoon fed. There’s plenty about Linux and the various desktops and applications in open source that’s easy and fun to use. But real Linux nerds prefer rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty.

One branch of this rugged individualism, so to speak, is running Linux in different environments. Just using Linux in your PC? Ok, that’s pretty good. But how about building a Linux system from scratch? Or on your phone? Even better, how about in your car?

Linux as Car Stereo

Using Linux for other things — not just as a stereo — in your car is possible, of course. You can connect in with the OBD-II (On-Board Diagnostics II) interface to the car’s sensor network. This interface has been required on all cars since 1996 and produces quite a bit of data on the functions of the car.

Sometimes this is called a “carputer.” Though a little dated, mp3car.com has a good “Car Computing 101.” Linux may become the operating system of your car in the near future, but that’s probably out of the hands of hobbyists.

Not for Mere Mortals

First, let’s get the really geeky, really great stuff out of the way. Time Killer is probably the pinnacle. The TITLE tag on his web page says “The Coolest Car in the World.” In this case, I would hardly say that’s hyperbole. Time Killer built the Linux car stereo from scratch, modified his dashboard, and put it all together with a touch screen monitor.

There are some other great Do-It-Yourself sites out there as well.

In reality, the quick answer to “Can I put Linux in my car easily?” would be probably… no. Please prove me wrong! But I’ve been using Linux in my car for years, and I’m pretty much a hardware lightweight. So you know where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Homage to the Empeg

The Empeg was, I believe, the very first mass produced in-dash mp3 car stereo. It was called the Empeg Car, and it was first shipped to customers in 1999. It was a fully functional Linux computer that had a “sled” that was mounted in the single DIN slot in your car, just like a pull-out car stereo. The computer’s main display was set to handle playlists and all sorts of information about your music. The faceplate lens was, by default, the blue color, as pictured here.

Lens kits, which included green, amber, and red lenses, were sold separately. In Silicon Valley, car stereo installation places generally knew of the Riocar and would do the installation. Whether they knew it or not, installing a sled and connecting good speakers and a sub woofer was not advanced work for them.

In November 2000, Empeg was acquired by SONICblue Incorporated, which continued to market an updated version of the car player – the Rio Car – until it was discontinued in January 2002. The total number of existing players in the world is about 4000 players.

It was right about this time that a friend told me he had an extra one, and I could buy it. They were considered really good mp3 players but generally too expensive. Somewhere in the range of $800 – $1200. But because they had been discontinued, the price had dropped. I paid $400.

You can still buy an Empeg Riocar at Amazon and other places. But it is often not available, so you’ll probably need to set an alert and keep checking.

Some Technical Details

Today, there’s a slowly fading but still committed Empeg Riocar owner community. This is Linux after all. The community is the real strength. The version of Linux used in the Empeg Riocar is called Hijack and it is hosted on SourceForge, the famous open source projects repository.

Disk drive size varied depending on the model. All models below 60GB were single-drive models, leaving one of the two bays free for the addition of a second disk drive. A lot of my friends added extra disk drives, though I settled for the 20GB. That is, actually, a lot of space for your music.

The player did not come with a radio tuner. An add-on AM/FM/RDS radio tuner module, that installed inside the dashboard behind the docking sled, was sold separately. One DIN-sized car docking sled with four 4v line-level outputs (stereo front/rear) and two line-level aux inputs (stereo). One AC adapter for using the player indoors. One USB cable for loading songs into the player. Here’s a great summary of the different model specs. And extreme details here.

Finally…

It’s tough if you specifically want to run Linux in your car and are looking for a ready-made product. There is nothing like that being sold currently. But with some digging and some effort, there are Do-It-Yourself projects or discontinued products that still have active support communities. The bragging rights are worth it!

Originally posted to the Page One PR blog on September 23, 2008

Plat’Home, a Linux pioneer in Japan, turned to Page One PR to expand into the US market in late 2007. Plat’Home sells a line of small “microservers” not much bigger than a smartphone but with enough power to handle a wide range of IT applications. A publicly-traded company and an established brand in Japan, Plat’Home was essentially unknown in the U.S. With a conservative budget for overseas operations, they needed to rely on online sales and low-touch, Web-based marketing (including PR). Their initial marketing efforts focused on product flexibility and a wide range of possible uses because, hey, that’s what their Japan customers had wanted!

Plat’Home, in discussions with Page One, realized that they needed more specific differentiation in the U.S. market and re-positioned the product value proposition around the microservers’ hidden strengths – low power consumption and extreme temperature resistance. In our rollout strategy at Page One, we also offered review units to reporters. You have to see these things to believe them. Out of the box, the high quality Japanese engineering and small size – a fully functional server that fits in the palm of your hand – has a big impact.

Plat’Home has the advantage of having market-tested products. While they appear to be a startup here, the products they sell in the U.S. market are in their fifth generation, with many large satisfied Japanese customers such as KDDI (telecom), HitachiSoft (software), Yomiuri (news), and Shimizu (construction).

Page One, in media outreach and Web-based guerilla marketing, focused on “tiny, green and extreme toughness,” to re-launch Plat’Home products in the U.S.. Clips piled up quickly, with coverage in CNET, Wired, The Register, Slashdot (with 188 comments), E-Commerce Times, and many other important IT trade publications.

U.S. web site traffic, the main barometer of success and where all sales leads originate, jumped 20-fold and then 70-fold and finally 90-fold. It was like an online firehose. In-coming sales leads tracked a similar trajectory, overloading Plat’Home’s ability to respond, initially (they subsequently added “Buy Now” buttons on most of their Web pages). That’s a nice problem to have!

The U.S. market is large and noisy for foreign companies entering for the first time. Adjusting to the landscape of U.S. media can also be daunting. But Plat’Home now has increased interest in the U.S. market, both in the media and with customers. They still have work ahead of them but they have built a good foundation for long-term success by focusing their messages and playing to their strengths.

Plat’Home-At-A-Glance
Daily U.S. web site traffic before Page One PR: life support, almost flat line. Minimal inbound sales queries (see trend lines in graph below).

March 31, 2008, first press release with Page One PR (clips in CNET, others):

* Web traffic up 2,000%;
* In-bound sales queries up 500% over historic traffic level.

April 21, 2008, second press release with Page One PR (clips in Wired and Slashdot, others):

* Web traffic up 7,000%;
* In-bound sales queries up 1,000% over historic traffic level.

April 28, 2008, follow-up Page One pitching on second news release sparks second round of media coverage (clips in The Register, others):

* Web traffic up 9,000%;
* In-bound sales queries up 1,300% over historic traffic level.

Interesting technology news for Linux enthusiasts. Plat’Home, a Linux pioneer in Japan, is running a contest around their OpenMicroServer series. If you’re not familiar with their products, several reviews have come out lately including Jason Perlow’s at ZDNet. (Note this is not the exact model that is being offered in the contest.)

The contest is called “Will Linux Work?” in kind of the same vein as the off-beat “Will it blend?” videos you can find on YouTube, but it has a more serious purpose in mind. From August 1st through September 5th, 2008, anyone can send in ideas for how they’d like to use their tough, small, eco-friendly devices.

From the Plat’Home site:

Plat’Home’s OpenMicroServers are known for being tough. Their compact, fanless, diskless design combined with the stability of Linux creates a product that is great for companies that configure once and then stick the server off in a corner for weeks and months and years, even, without checking its condition. This “benign neglect” is tough on normal servers. Not for Plat’Home’s OpenMicroServers.

For four weeks, from August 1st, 2008, through September 5th, 2008, Plat’Home is conducting an online contest, soliciting ideas for the most interesting and challenging conditions to successfully run Plat’Home’s OpenMicroServers.

Does your small business in Arizona have a server room with no air conditioning? Do you live in Alaska and need servers that might be subjected to cold conditions? Are you an archeologist that needs a computer that can be taken on a dig with you and survive dust and bugs? Tell us about it! We want to know if Linux is the solution! “Will Linux Work?”

After collecting ideas for 5 weeks, Plat’Home will announce a winner. The prize? Five OpenMicroServers, and you get to use them — and keep them — as you see fit. At $599 a pop, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Personally, I’ve been thinking about redo-ing my car mp3 player. I have to look into it a little more, but a small Linux server like this might work really well.

Last week and the first half of this week is Golden Week in Japan, connecting about 4-5 different holidays into one big long one. April 29th is Showa (the previous emperor) Day, May 3rd is Constitution Day, May 4th is Greenery Day, and May 5th is Children’s Day. May 1, May Day, also slips in there, though I don’t think it’s an official public holiday. As usual, because everyone vacations at the same time, traffic is horrible.

Don’t expect to get quick answers back from your Japanese partners and friends until after this Wednesday (May 7th).

Two weeks ago while playing soccer I crunched my Achilles tendon. Bad. It’s almost a “100% rupture of the tendon,” which means I had an easy decision to make: Just let it heal and have no pushing off power for athletic activities or… go under the knife. I’m 40 and play ice hockey, soccer, and have my eye on a second marathon “soon,” so I elected to have a doctor go in and reattach it, with the idea that I’ll get my strength back — I heard 100% — in something like 2-3 months.

Have you ever started a new hobby and all of a sudden noticed all the stores and web sites and people involved who were essentially invisible to you before? Being on crutches feels like that a little. I never knew how much effort it is. Most people, busy and in a rush, are not particularly sympathetic. I’ve gotten more than my share of annoyed glances and mumbled curses.

But, there’s this invisible percentage of the population who know exactly what it’s like. And they will hold doors for you and get out of your way and wait for you and give words of encouragement. Crossing paths with someone yesterday, this stranger slowed down, giving me lots of room to hobble by, and as I passed said, “I’ve been there. I know it’s tough. Good luck.” It was an unexpected lift. In fact, yesterday, in busy downtown San Francisco, on my way back and forth from parking stupidly far away from work, four different people went out of their way to ask if I needed help, if they could hail a taxi for me, if I was doing okay. I don’t think I look pitiful — I hope not! — but they still went out of their way to offer help. Very cool.

Here’s to the kindness of strangers.