Whatever happened to the WendyFilter?

This was a really cool idea. Even if it was not triggered by something connected to the serial port, but by a menu option, it would still be pretty damn funky.

Richard.

It's on the list for R1.0.

Rob

I may well be being totally thick here, but I've searched this BBS and I can only find one other reference to "Wendy Filter", and even that assumes knowledge.

So.... What is a Wendy Filter?

Nick.

Well, I didn't know either, but it appears that a search with a wider scope (i.e. the entire web) turns up this reference in Empeg Newsletter #2:

As you may be aware, the empeg-car has an onboard serial port. As you'd expect, the back of the unit has a PC-style serial connector which you can use to connect the unit to a PC that doesn't have USB support.

As you wouldn't expect, the TX and RX pins of this serial port are also replicated on the car-mounting chassis. This means that, if you have another computer fitted in your car, it can talk to the empeg-car as soon as you've slotted the unit into the dash.

We've been thinking of uses for this. Some are sensible, some are less sensible. Some are downright silly. Some, like these, are stupid, but completely possible. There now follows one of them:

Do you have embarassing corners of your music collection? Are there things that, given the option, you'd not admit to liking because your cool would be so damaged, it'd be a write-off? I do. I'm going to have to get it out in the open and say that I actually like a couple of (deep breath) Hanson and East 17 tunes. What can I say? When noone else is in the car, I have been known to MMM-bop, or even sing tunelessly along to the strains of 'House of love'. Pathetic, isn't it?

For people like me, the empeg-car has something called a Wendy-filter, which is named after a common passenger in my car who doesn't share all my taste in music (not even half, in fact...). When you turn on the Wendy-filter, the empeg-car suddenly forgets all those embarrasing (or partner-annoying) parts of your music collection. In fact, it won't admit they exist at all. They won't appear in any random playlist, and you just can't find them from the user interface. Wendy loves it as she hates Carter USM (pah!). Steve's wife, Diane, loves it because she'd rather not hear Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Ok, so this is easily controlled from the user interface, but you might forget! You may be impressing your new date with your right-on music collection only to be interrupted by Hanson. To prevent such problems, simply wire up a pressure pad underneath the passenger seat (or the seatbelt warning sensor) with a little PIC microprocessor and hey presto! If you have company, you don't hear embarassing tunes. The PIC will send the empeg-car commands to turn the Wendy-filter on when appropriate. What more could you ask for?

This is neat, but I have no PIC-programming skills, so hopefully there's some sort of simple I/O on the Mark2s... (hijacking the cellphone input?)

Alex

Wow - somehow I'd missed that.. This would actually be REALLY useful..
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Reading this thread, I keep getting these weird flashbacks to "A Fish Called Wanda", in which, if I remember, Cleese's wife was named Wendy. When Wanda's engraved locket falls into her hands and she mistakes it as a gift, she says, "and it's even got a wuh-for-Wendy". That, and the scene near the end in the courtroom where Cleese gets all flustered, Fawlty-towers-style, and mixes up Wanda and Wendy's names in front of everyone.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144

The WendyFilter will appear in the software, hopefully by first release - but maybe a bit later on. Work has been done on implementation, but it's just not finished yet (and really requires some work on emplode for naming preset filters, etc).

Hugo
(Wendy was, at the point I wrote the newsletter, my gf. However, two weeks after the newsletter (and a few years after we got engaged) she left me... still, she didn't actually cite musical differences as a problem per-se ;) )

Rob> It's on the list for R1.0.

That's very cool. I sort of thought that it might have been discarded, but my fears were completely without basis.

Hurrah!

Richard.

Still not in 1.01 but maybe for 1.1?

Here's another thought on the Wendy filter....

The "Wendy Filter" would be great for the office. I have several songs on my unit that are not the radio play version (i.e. explicit lyrics) and I often set my Empeg to shuffle through ALL of my music throughout the day.
However when I hit one if those tracks I always skip it, and I feel the need to stop playback if I leave my office.

The wendy filter would solve this problem.

P.S. I think the idea of a voice and menu activation for the wendy filter would be great. But maybe we need more than one filter i.e. office wendy filter and car wendy filter.

Still not in 1.01 but maybe for 1.1?

As I understand it, yes, WendyFilters are planned for 1.1. Not certain about this though.

I have several songs on my unit that are not the radio play version (i.e. explicit lyrics) (...) However when I hit one if those tracks I always skip it, and I feel the need to stop playback if I leave my office.

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing the WendyFilter was designed for.

But maybe we need more than one filter i.e. office wendy filter and car wendy filter.

As I understand it, you'll be able to mix and match multiple WendyFilters if you like. Maybe Hugo could clarify (unless he wants to keep the new features a secret... Naaah, who am I kidding?).

___________
Tony Fabris