What sold you on HiJack?

I've been debating about whether or not to install the HiJack kernal. I keep hearing that it has tons of features, and have seen the list on the HiJack site, but to be honest, it doesn't mean much to me because I don't "get it" yet. I guess the main hesitation on my part has been wanting 2.0bX to get sorted on my machine first (do I have shell shock from deleting all my artists starting with the letter C? - perhaps! ). I know the install will be simple with the LogoEditor and options like FTP sound cool in theroy, but I don't know much about the directory structure on the empeg to trust myself.

So basically, I am not knocking the HiJack at all. I stayed away from all the early posts on the subject because it seemed over my head. And now I'm trying to catch up. What convinced YOU to install it and try to sell me on the idea!

The most valuable user-facing aspect of hijack for me is the IR translation. Over time it has become more flexible than Frank's IR trans implementation, and allowed me to squeeze much more functionality out of my little 11 button Pioneer steering wheel remote.

The kftpd and khttpd daemons are going to be key in establishing a common platform where apps can install themselves onto the Empeg without manual intervention. They're also convenient for backup/restore stuff.

The other user-facing features are basically conveniences. Screen blanker, temperature warning.. Little niceties that add a little functionality here and there if you need them.

Then there's the breakout game. Can't live without that.

The one thing (and perhaps most underrated thing) that Hijack has is the I/O interface to user programs. The display output and IR input capabilities which allow a user program to seamlessly integrate into the player's UI. I used this for my trivia game and for a couple other projects I'm working on, and it's a real easy to use interface. Anyone who's out there writing things that will take user input and display output should be using it. After all, this was really the original inspiration behind Hijack, hence the name (it hijacks the player's input/output.)

Does the volume adjuster work good?

Oh yeah I forgot to mention VolAdj (mainly because I don't use it.) VolAdj does dynamic compression, so if you like the effect of dynamic compression (volume auto-compensates for soft and loud parts in your music) then it "works good." I favor a track-by-track normalization such as what's in the works for some undetermined future version of the player software.

Greetings!

Initially, I had been avoiding hijack. I did not really need any of the IR translation or other utilities. Eventually, I decided to try it for the voladjust features and for the built in ftp / http. I have not looked back. My first hijack installation was v107.

It does work well, considering what it is attempting to do. It is the feature of HiJack that I use most (which is why I ported to to the Rio Receiver as well).

There are some tracks that you have to turn VolAdj off for, because you get very obvious artifacts (the volume "pumps" up and down) with them caused by VolAdj. Thankfully these tracks are very rare and it is easy to turn VolAdj on and off with HiJack.

if you own an empeg put hijack on, even if you dont use it much, at least you will have the breakout game, now i cant think one person on this board could honestly say they dont or havent used that if they have hijack on there empeg

You can connect to the empeg via the RioReciever when HiJack is installed?

the http daemon sounded cool, but the breakout game is what really sold me. I want to see more games on my empeg. I'd write some of my own if I could get my linux box up and figured out (I'm a windows programmer).

There is a Tetris clone available at Brian's site. Go under Programming and then look for Tetris. Right now it doesn't yet integrate with the player, i.e. you have to quit to a shell prompt and then run it. Brian could probably port it to use Hijack's display/input routines but I'm sure we'd all rather have him working on his translucent/illuminated buttons hack.

I had thought about porting Emptris to Hijack myself, but it never topped my list of stuff to do.

In any event I did release a very early version of a Trivia game which does bind to Hijack, but most people claimed it was too difficult to install. Until we find an easy way to install programs on the Empeg (and no, putting them in the kernel is not the answer!) that's going to be the major stumbling block.

One of my favorite Hijack features is the ability to turn off the annoying "Periodic checking" of the filesystems, that seems to happen about every 5-10 "sync" operations.

You know, where Emplode (or emptool) stalls for about 20 minutes while "checking media", when all you wanted to do was upload one track.. Time consuming, annoying, and totally unnecessary (the player will still check filesystems, but only when damaged).

The other biggie is "Restore DC/Car Visuals", which makes in-car operation of INFO/VISUALS the same as at-home operation.

Oh yeah, the PopUp knob-menu for functions that normally require the Rio Remote -- priceless!

-ml

Yeah... Speaking of which, how about my suggestion of adding the "tweak order" buttons as a sub-menu to that PopUp?

What I like about voladj is that it doesn't manipulate the wav or mp3 file. If you don't like it, turn it off and play the song again.

I, too am considering HiJack. One important feature that I would like is the ability to switch between the Tuner and HDD via a knob press. This would let my wife (and me) switch modes (in and out of Tuner) without the remote or messing with menus.

Is this possible with the current HiJack? The list of features refers to:
- Long Knob Press (2+ seconds) cycles among input sources.

Is there documentation of this anywhere? And has anyone used this feature?

Thanks for any help!

Best regards,
Bob

Restore DC/Car Visuals is one of my favorites too, but I installed Hijack it because I have a tuner and wanted an easy way to switch between radio and the player which Hijack does wonderfully. I don't find the breakout game particularly fun (the Empeg is just not the ideal platform for video games), but it does get a laugh from people.

I have never said it before so I will say it now, thanks a bunch mlord.

Well the normalization proposed for the Empeg player software doesn't touch the actual MP3/WAV file either. It just saves a "volume adjustment factor" and scales the volume accordingly the next time the song plays. (The first time you play, it analyzes the track to figure out how much normalization is needed.)

Not sure if they plan to let the user enable/disable normalization, but I would imagine it'd be available as an Emplode player config option at some point.

No. HiJack only provides a basic web server for serving static files. To serve a Receiver the empeg would need code that answered the various HTTP requests that the Receiver works.

Unless you had a DHCP server and NFS server available the empeg would also need to provide these.

My primary reason for using Hijack is that it allows me to turn Voladj on and off easily, without having to resort to a shell script.

My second favorite feature is the ability to switch to the tuner by pressing and holding the knob.

My third favorite feature is the ability to redefine the knob-press to do other things.

Very similar to Tony F, I was sold on Hijack as soon as it provided a means to fiddle with VolAdj. Next were all those functions available from knob that normally require remote. Finally, there are ftp anf http daemons and all those useful /proc/* files. Ah, yes, I forgot remote key remapping: I just dug out a big old remote that happens to use the right code set; I will first try to define macros for key sequences I often use.

I currently don't use UI functions for userland programs, but plan to play with that a bit, too.

My friend did a funny little hack using the http daemon from Hijack. He wrote a quick html page that makes a call to the empeg and grabs the display graphic (which is used for the actual empeg display) and displays it in the browser, refreshing every second. So, he has his empeg display showing up in his browser.

Or you could use my VNC server and actually control the empeg from the browser as well.

Wow, that is totally cool! I use VNC on my home computer to access it from work. I'll have to play with this when I finally install HiJack.

We need a FAQ for HiJack....

Wasn't there a thread asking for someone to write up a summary/FAQ for hijack or did I just make that up?

I know I posted it before... not sure if it was in its own thread. So, if it was me, than I am being the whiner! I just figured that asking someone to spend all this time working on the kernal and then turn around and ask them to also make a user friendly how-to site is too much... Two completely different mindsets doing that.

Yeah. I'd be happy to do a how-to, my only problem is time. School and work take up most of my day. If anyone wants to work together I'm sure we can get something up in no time.
And if I raise enough money for a new server I'll have less work... and more time ; ) So buy my laptop here: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1326188125
; D Hehe. I have EmpegWeb(view and controll empeg throught http with Hijack) and Etherflash (to update kernel though ethernet) up at http://www.empeg.tk.

-Greg

So the visuals are different in the car? I haven't installed my player yet. How are they different?

And I don't really expect anyone to answer this ignorance question, but, what the hell is a shell?

So the visuals are different in the car? I haven't installed my player yet. How are they different?

I don't know what gave you that idea. The visuals are the same in the car, they just aren't turned on by default. Every time you boot the player in the car, it switches to a text screen, which you can switch back to visuals yourself if you want. The reason for this is in the FAQ (although a moment's reflection should also tell you the reason).

And I don't really expect anyone to answer this ignorance question, but, what the hell is a shell?

In this context, it refers to the Linux command prompt.

So to use the http or ftp daemons, can you just point your browser or ftp program at the empeg and go?

- Jon

Yes, if they are installed and running (ie you installed hijack).

Somebody here also has some html pages for remote display AND remote control of the player. But EmpegVNC is currently better!

-ml

>how about my suggestion of adding the "tweak order"
>buttons as a sub-menu to that PopUp?

I like it, and it will be possible if/when I do the "config.ini" support for redefining the quick-knob-press menus (which, btw, ought to be able to be assigned to ANY button(s), not just the knob).

In the meanwhile, where the heck did the chap who volunteered to make us a users guide wander off to? I've sort of lost track of him.

Heeeeellllllllllooo?

Actually, you know, my favorite feature of Hijack now has gotta be the revived interest in hacking the player that is evident on the BBS these days.

It's taken some time, but with the ftpd/khttpd working for the past couple of weeks, some cool hacks are just starting to trickle in.

I can hardly wait to see what you people do next!

-ml

Hadn't noticed that. Cool. And empegVNC will always be better, because I'm a Manly-Man(tm)! Seriously, nice to hear that it works for you.

Is mandiola actively updating those pages? One flaw is the ftp address is hardcoded into center pane. This causes problems as the IP address changes often.

Calvin

I doubt I'm the first to have done this, but I put an 802.11b wireless card in my iPAQ handheld and then connected using VNC to the empeg. It's pretty cool to be able to walk around the house and still see the visuals on the empeg and change songs. It makes for a pretty fancy remote.

Neal

Looks like we have an easy solution to that wired remote people have wanted for their cars. Ethernet card, PDA and a crossover cable. Just have to make sure the graphics on the served page are appropriate for the display device.

Bruno

Hi,

Easy? Come on, that's WAY overkill.

Oh, you were joking?

That is like, so cool , and geeky as hell too!

-ml

No, I wasn't joking. People have wanted to use PDAs in the past. That's surely overkill, but if they have them, why not dock them while driving for a remote purposes? All the talk had previously involved serial communication and making custom applications on the PDA to send commands. Forget about actually showing the player interface. With the new hacks anyone can set this up without needing a serial cable or any additional custom software.

There were a couple of people that were thinking about mounting their empegs out of view. This would work well for them.

Bruno

I need to get around to doing this sometime soon with my iPaq. Last time I looked into it, we had Displayserver, but no Java solution for the iPaq. I did run across one recently that I will have to test, but VNC should be nice as well.

Though the biggest use will probably be implemented with just HTML. That use is easy switching between a few different playlists quickly. Though I'd have to hook the empeg up to the network somehow when I plan on using this solution.

There's one fellow working on IRDA TCPIP. Why bother with ethernet card and crossover cable at all?

Calvin

IRDA requires line of sight and it's short range. Some folks want/have to put their empeg in concealed locations. I suppose you can rig up some kind of repeater - but I think an ethernet cable is a bit easier than that. Plus it's ready now.

Bruno

Look out! Next thing you know there'll be security issues and you'll have a 'hacker' in the car next to you scanning your car's network and altering your playlist for you!

mlord really derves more credit than we can give in my opinion. In his own time he's sparked a renaissance in development for the empeg/rio car. I think this is the kind of development that the empeg team were really hoping for. It also proves what is possible for portable playback devices. More than just attaching it to the computer and squirting songs to it. It's sparked ability to transport files and (now) stream audio through HTTP.

To all involved in contributions, thanks, from the rest of us who wish we could be of more help.
I was happy enough with the simple implemetation of voladj and such, but these recent development are most welcome too!

I doubt I'm the first to have done this, ...

Blaze that trail, man! You won't be the last. I'm waiting to get some time to install HiJack (probably after 2.0 GA) then I need to work with VNC. I have noodled about a thousand possible ways to have decent remote-control functionality on my (modest, not a yacht!) sailboat, and VNC/wireless/PDA is really the answer, I think. My big stumbling block? A good PDA with a sunlight-immune TFT screen (like that new NEC laptop). Any pointers appreciated on that count!

As many folks have said here, the torrent of development on development in HiJack, VNC and elsewhere is amazing. I bow down to all involved.

Uuup! Time for Rally Sweden!

I thought Rob was never keen on turning the empeg into a toaster kettle.



Calvin

Then how about an 802.11b card on the pda? And an ethernet to 802.11b adapter for the empeg? hmm

Calvin