Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 10, 2022

Ah yes. The Master becomes the Padawan. Alas, I know the feeling. In the age of Main Frame computing I was a god.! Now I turn to my wife and grandchildren to make a phone call. Sigh.

You will not find music on face book.

Sirius Channel 39, Hair Nation.

The stereo doesn’t have game apps or pop-up click-bait ads…

Still can’t figure out how to make Mrs. Lemon Juice’s Echo work her friend got her for Christmas. In my first car I had two full sized stereo speakers lying in the back seat wired into the car radio/tape player.

Music Bee is nice for playing my music on the computer. Have nice powered bluetooth speakers too. I have a ton of my own music.

Arlo now knows what it feels like to be a senior dinosaur.

I won’t give up my component stereo. I put it all together for the sounds that it could produce. I haven’t heard any phones that could compete.

I will admit to copying most of my vinyl to MP3 and put it all on a 36G USB. That way I can listen to my tunes in the car and wherever else I may be with a small player and head phones.

My wife’s new Samsung phone actually responds to my fingers! Her last three didn’t and I had to wear special gloves to use them.

So true!

I still have my stereo . Turntable,receiver, 5 disc cd player and speakers.

Around our house, it’s Alexa play………….

In an airport parking tower elevator the other day: hold door open button on the left, close door button on the right. Inside the terminal, same type of elevator, same shape and size of controls: hold door open button on the right, close door button on the left.

In the onslaught of huge handheld computing power, we’ve lost sight of the fact that uniform standards are important. Even single vendors change their interface standards out of the blue, not because it is better, but because they can, and they need to justify charging the end user for something.

It isn’t that Arlo is stupid; it’s because the interface no longer makes sense.

Silly, those were different times!

Last summer i renegotiated my Sirius Canada contract and also got the app added to our phones. Later in early fall Costco was selling a Sony Bluetooth speaker for 32 bucks and I bought one. I got the “Why do you want that?” from the missus and then when Christmas rolled around and I started with the all Christmas station on SXM she was happy. Then two days ago they had an Elvis birthday celebration and she listened to that frequently. Did I get a thank you? No. But I did not expect one because I was just doing what was expected of me as the alleged head of the house.

When I die, my wife is going to have trouble with the digital music system I’ve set up. Basically, she lives in the technological 1980s. She’s learned to work part of it because it’s based in Bose’s SoundTouch system, & I’ve programmed that to carry the internet radio & SiriusXM stations she wants. But if anything goes wrong with the wifi connection, she’s lost. And she has no idea how to make Spotify happen on her phone, much less the speakers. So I’ve kept some analog equipment in the setup, just so she’ll have something that will work. The Bose Wave Radio will be essential, since it includes an old fashioned radio with a built in CD player & can be used without wifi. Likewise my component system, although only if I die with the radio set to WFMT in Chicago. She only has a vague idea of how to access the CD player. (As for television, she’s going to have to revert to cable or give up watching her ice skating programs & Cubs games. Maybe I should be looking into that anyway…)

I miss my Marantz 200 watt receiver with my Utah speakers.

Feel your pain Arlo. The Kenwood, Marantz, Samsung, Akai and BSF are downstairs in the Rec room. Some fancy Sony receiver accessed via Bluetooth from my phone with 500 songs on it. Guess which one gets played the most.

Arlo you’re dinosaur.

I love hearing the vinyl vs digital, solid state vs vacuum tubes and all the different operating systems arguments. It’s just like cooks in a kitchen telling everyone what spices that you have to use in order to make a dish perfect. What works for you is great just don’t tell me that I can never experience life to your level of perfection.

I gave my stereo and records to my granddaughter, who adores David Bowie and my other tastes in music.

Cue up the Megadeth, Janis! I know you love ‘Hangar 18.’ Poor Arlo, with the puppy dog eyes in panel 2.

I’ve started a new warehouse job this week. I assumed it would be “No phones, no way,” but I found they do allow bone-conducting headphones after you have been trained for a while. Now I’m curious how much time they allow you to look for music.

The problem is not the digital format but the inability of some people to adapt. There are people who have trouble with refresh rates or other improvements in the digital world such as s/n or dynamic range. Their inability to adapt does not decrease the digital world.