Sonos Roam

Cutting edge as I ever plan to be, a review of the first Sonos Roam which came out years ago, and not version two which, as it turns out, does fix one of my main bugbears with their first attempt.

Bought just over a year ago, the excuse was needing a Bluetooth speaker for an upcoming holiday – as such I used it twice. It has Alexa and (after a recent update) Google voice assistants. It fits in nicely (very nicely) if you have other Sonos speakers.

It has a multi-function button for switching on/off and switching between WiFi or Bluetooth, and appears to operate based on how long you press that button down. Probably I should have read the manual but from what I’ve seen, even the people who have read the manual think it’s a terrible design, awful, and the main improvement between this version and its successor.

You want to leave that button alone.

It would periodically (every week) disconnect from the WiFi, forcing a reboot – which given the “one” button problem (did I mention how bad that was?) is a trial. You really want to leave that button alone. It felt like a bad purchase, I can’t abide tech. not working, not knowing if it’s going to work the next time you try to use it. The problem in this case appeared to be an issue the Roam has with mesh networks, certainly my mesh network. The solution was to stop the Roam from roaming, tie it to one point, as it were. I’m not sure that all mesh networks give you this feature.

Another issue on returning from a recent holiday (where I didn’t use the speaker once!) was the difficulty reconnecting to my Sonos system so that I could group speakers for playback. In this case it turned out the system software had been updated for my other speakers whilst I was away. I’d blame that one on Sonos in general rather than the speaker itself. They do seem to drop the ball from time to time.

All-in-all, not a purchase I’d recommend. Maybe a somewhat generous three out of five. Should I be giving ratings? I’ll have to think on that.

I used to write

I have a strong suspicion that this will be a short revival. I used to write, and it did have some useful benefits of the kind that, had I kept it up, I’d be more easily able to explain now. Something to do with presenting a coherent case, or keeping your mind sharp, or…

Anyway, whilst this may be short-lived, I shall give it another go. Only this time, somewhat less pompous, more eclectic, random with more spelling mistakes and some questionable grammar. What I’m trying to say is it’ll probably be a bit sh*t.

This is just to say (Brexit remix)

This is just to say

I have taken
the votes
that were on
the referendum

the one
you were probably
thinking
you had won

Forgive me
you were wrong
so impecunious
and so discounted

Abuse, and the Remain voters who enable it

There are numerous examples of European projects from which, we’ve been told, mainly by the EU, we’ll get nothing should we have the conceit to (Br)exit, never mind the much-anticipated problems with our food and medical supplies. Were we to use the marriage/divorce analogy these threats should strike us as the kind of relationship where one partner says to their disenchanted other “if you leave, you’ll get nothing, not even that for which you’ve so clearly contributed; life will be (made) difficult.”

I voted Remain (I’m a little tired at feeling the need to say that), I was upset at the result, yet what to think of those whose anger at an impending separation is such that they blame the victim of the abuse, rather than the actions of the abuser? This is clearly an abusive relationship, and you know what they say about those. At least I thought I did.

Distracted boyfriend

Kinder, gentler politics

Sound and fury

If it takes you two years to specifically address anti-Semitism without hiding behind “all forms of racism”, and then only when you’re cornered…

If your deputy one day promises to “eradicate” anti-Semitism, and the next claims to be unable to address the issue of a prominent member of the NEC questioning the suspension of an alleged holocaust denier...

If after promising to act, you have local Constituency Labour Parties threatening an MP with deselection or, in the case of Bristol West, being called in to explain their actions in supporting the Jewish community by attending an anti-racist demo…

I’d say that counts as enabling the behaviour that you claim isn’t in your name. The rest is just noise, signifying nothing.