Author Archives: Donncha

Listening to Online Radio

In the evenings I like to listen to The Last Word on . Unfortunately I’d also like to listen to Radio 1 from RTE. Here’s how I’ll do it:

  • TodayFM streams using the Microsoft ASX format. Mplayer understands this format with the right plugin and can even play online streams! What’s more, Mplayer can also save it’s output to a file. With this command I can save the stream for later listening:

    mplayer -ao pcm -aofile todayfm.wav -vc null -vo null http://www.virtuetv.com/clients/srh/today_fm.asx

  • Mplayer can also play Realaudio but the one available through apt-get doesn’t so I’ll just listen to Radio 1 in realtime.


Does anyone know how I can pipe the output of Mplayer to lame or another mp3 encoder?

Train map and schedules in Chicago

When in Chicago you’re going to use the L at some stage. This is the elevated (and underground) train system that services downtown Chicago and it’s suburbs. This map is a good starting point if you want to know about the different lines and the Loop.
For reference, I’m living near “Irving Park” – follow the Brown Line from downtown and Irving Park is 3/4 of the way up.

Busy morning..

And an expensive one..

  1. Payed the car insurance for a year.
  2. Booked and payed for flights from Chicago to Boston and New York to Chicago for next month

I could have saved money on the car insurance but I’m far away from home and organising past insurance details and policy numbers would be a pain from here.
Oh yeah, I’m heading to Boston on August 20th and New York on the 24th. Back to Chicago on the 27th. If you’re in those two cities around then I’d love to get in touch!

J1 students are not being employed

J1 visa applicants in the USA are having a lot of trouble finding work because they haven’t got a Social Security Number. Apparently, employers can hire and pay students who have applied for an SSN but I haven’t seen it happen. This online.ie story has more, and here’s a realaudio interview with Seana MacReamoinn, spokesperson for USIT explaining the situation for students.