Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween
Originally uploaded by NickCody.
I can't remember a more beautiful fall day than the one going on right now on Long Island.
« September 2004 | Main | November 2004 »
October 31, 2004
Happy Halloween
Originally uploaded by NickCody.
October 29, 2004
iPodder
Last night it took everything I had not to start writing my own iPodder software. I knew I would fail and I simply wouldn't get anything else done.
The stuff out there for Windows still seems to suck real bad even for a more advanced user like myself. I can't imagine how regular computer enthusiasts could survive.
No offense to the dev groups working on this stuff, I'm simply speaking relative to iPodderX for the Mac, which rocks.
Here are my criticisms on i-podder.js, iPodder (Python), jPodder, and iPodder.NET.
i-podder.js
The script seems to choke on feeds every now and then. This is an intermittent problem. If you read the code, you see that there isn't a whole lot of error checking. Even with this serious fault, I still use it. The other solutions simply seems to mysteriously stop working after a while.
iPodder (Python)
Where's the development on this? I listenened to the ipodder-dev podcast and Garth Kidd says something about a new release soon since not everyone gets the nightly CVS stuff. Well, I must admit that I did see something new last night and it simply didn't work. I got exceptions when it tried to manipulate iTunes and parts of the interface were disabled. Garth mentioned that they were concentrating on the engine and welcomed UI developers to help out. Hopefully someone will have time for that.
jPodder
Neat proprietary install (is lzPack standard in the Java world?). Very iPodderX-like interface. Neat capability to browse the podcast directory. This one seems actively developed and I am a bit surprised to see how much it has come in the past few days (week) since I got my first negative impression.
It's nice that they allow you to pull down an OPML and use that. However, my OPML is behind www-authenticate at Bloglines.com so I can't specify my OPML.
I may write a follow-up if I plan on using it.
iPodder.NET
Very primitive interface and the development seems kind of slow. Feeds have to be added manually and are maintained in the standard .NET config file. Having the feeds in this file makes it difficult for me to use by Blogroll extractor since I have to insert a fragment into the XML file. Not a terrible technical feat, but more than I am inclined to develop right now. (I actually refactored my extractor last night to generate the proper format via a nice generic command-line parameter, but I still have to write the capability to insert the fragment into the app config file).
To sum it all up
The whole revolution is still in its infancy so it's not surprising that the tools are still broken to a certain degree. The way I see it, these are the key features for me:
- Browsing of podcast feeds
- Auto-synchronizing with feeds you want if maintained on something like bloglines
- Solid integration with iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.
- Better overall detection of already-downloaded files (lots of ways to attack this)
- Allow applying rules to Podcasts and possibly auto-insert tags. This is important as long as iTunes doesn't allow me to say "Genre is 'Speech' or 'Podcast' or 'Comedy' AND PlayCount = 0" Currently iTunes only allows all conditions to be AND'd together or OR'd together.
Lots more to discuss on this topic, but I don't have a lot of time to flesh out a whole white paper on the topic.
October 28, 2004
Eclipse 2004
Eclipse 2004
Originally uploaded by uncle buck.
I'm borrowing someone else's digital photo of last night's lunar eclipse so I can show off a cool feature of flickr.
Lots of people posted pictures of the eclipse last night and this morning.
Flickr has a cool tagging system that makes it easy to find all of them. Simply go to this link and see what lots of folks were doing last night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/eclipse
Video of the Lunar Eclipse October 27, 2004
I created this rather large video of the awesome total lunar eclipse. You may want to stream it). While the fidelity of the video is only so-so, it was a lot of fun to capture.
I had to keep running in and out of the house because the earth kept moving on me and I had to constantly reset my camcorder. The nerve.
This video should come in as an enclosure, so it might get pulled down by anyone using ipodder on this blog.
October 27, 2004
lookANDsee
I've been thoroughly enjoying lookANDsee, a photo blog/podcast by a guy named Gordon Smith. He takes pictures around his home in Australia.
His blog is simple, pure, yet its full of endlessly rich detail. Even while I'm commuting I enjoy hearing him describe his photgraphs.
The audioblog entries are all under 10 minutes, so it's an ideal subscription if you're into podcasting and looking to fill out your podcast blogroll.
All things coffee
A friend sent me a link to Whole Latte Love.
Mmmmmm. I read ani article in Scientific Magazine a while back by what I think was the Chief Scientist/Chemist over at illy.com. You can get the abstract over at the Scientific American web site.
What I learned was one bad bean in a pot can spoil the whole pot. All about Crema and why it tastes so good. What happens to beans when you roast them. And a whole lot more.
October 26, 2004
4.5 days of Podcasts queued up
iTunes tells me that I have 4.5 days worth of Podcasts backed up. I can only listen for about 2 hours a day (on the train, a bit in the late evening) so I suppose it's time to start unsubscribing from a few feeds!
October 22, 2004
Lookout didn't see Google coming
The Google Desktop Search isn't new, it was out last week. What is new is that I've uninstalled Lookout Search for Microsoft Outlook since I really don't need two search engines for my e-mail and files.
As I created the hyperlink to Lookout (above), I see that they came out with a new experimental version. All I see are bug fixes and minor feature updates (" Added option to display full folder name in search results").
I think it excellent that the original authors of Lookout sold out to Microsoft before their market was commoditized.
October 21, 2004
OPML and BloglinesBlogRollExtractor
It has just occurred to me that I could enhance my simple Python script to read any old OPML link and you can pull down podcast feeds from anywhere and not just Bloglines. This includes the podcast directory over at ipodder.org such as New Podcasts.
Perhaps iPodder can be configured to pull down feeds on an evaluation basis. Create a GUI to browse the directory and subscribe for a single download. There are so many Podcasts up there now that it seems only logical that browsing them would be a good idea. Maybe.
I see that Dave Winer has launched audio.weblogs.com. However, I don't think I would ever willingly subscribe to that feed in it's entirety. There too many Podcasts! Some people might not point iPodder at it for this reason. Rather, they might want to subscribe to the feed just to see the new stuff coming in.
It might be nice if someone wrote a sampler Podcast. It would resemble Dave's site, but it would only have 5 minutes of each podcast. I'm not an mp3 genius, but I think you can download the first n bytes of a mp3 file, save it, and play it back. I think that the format is tolerant of sudden losses of the rest of the file. It would seem easy, then, to create a sample feed in this manner.
Kill Bill
Funny.
Sox win
I wonder what it's like to be living in Boston right about now...
October 20, 2004
i-podder.js
I created a batch file so my BloglinesBlogRollExtractor.py can be used to write a feeds.txt needed by i-podder.js (available from ipodder.org).
The batch files is trivial:
@echo off
setlocal
set IPODDER_DOWNLOAD_PATH=E:\Music Library
echo %IPODDER_DOWNLOAD_PATH%> feeds.txt
python BloglinesBlogrollExtractor.py >> feeds.txt
endlocal
I schedule this to run every few hours. Feel free to tweak it to your liking. I'll be more than happy to help you if you have any trouble.
This has only been tested under Windows XP.
Bloglines Podcast Extractor
Over the past few hours, I hacked together a simple Python script which pulls down my Bloglines 'Podcasts' OPML folder and copies them to favorites.txt used by iPodder (the yellow lemon one, not Adam Curry's version). This script frees me from manually updating my new podcasts in two places (Bloglines and iPodder).
Centralized administration baby.
I originally thought that Bloglines didn't supply OPML for their blogroll but that's because I only looked at their BlogRoll API (which are just simple http links and javascript). Stupid me, I should have looked at their SyncApi.
I am posting this immediately after I got it working on my setup so expect it to be very buggy or at least very inflexible for your situation. I have only tested this under Windows XP.
You can download the script here. To run it, follow these steps:
- Install Python 2.3
- Download the file and put it in he same directory as iPodder. Please backup your favorites.txt.
- Change to your iPodder directory (usually C:\Program Files\iPodder) and execute this command:
- C:\Python23\python BloglinesBlogrollExtractor.py > favorites.txt
That's really it. If you want to schedule it, that's fine, but you should realize that iPodder doesn't re-read your favorites.txt until you exit and restart. I can work on a solution to that but perhaps I'll send a note to the iPodder dev team so they can listen for manual changes to the file... or perhaps they can support this natively.
One tip on scheduling. File redirection doesn't work unless you use cmd.exe /c. So, you might see this in your scheduler:
Run: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c "C:\Program Files\iPodder\BloglinesBlogrollExtractor.py" > favorites.txt
Start in: "C:\Program Files\iPodder"
Good luck and let me know if you find this script useful. I would be thrilled if someone actually wanted to use it and wants me to improve it somehow.
October 19, 2004
Bloglines and OPML
I finally got around to organizing my blogroll on Bloglines. I'm really diggin' bloglines lately and I'm totally sold on the idea of a server-based aggregator. At least for my digital lifestyle. There are so many solutions out there that it took me a while to find something that seemed natural and causes me the least pain.
I was a die-hard NewsGator fan and I thought it insane to read blogs on anything but Outlook. There I was with a solution that brought everything right to my doorstep. Until I was home. Sure, I could login to my corporate VPN but this was an extra step that I started getting annoyed with. Sure, I could read my blogs offline with NewsGator (since Outlook provides that) but I eventually found that it was too cumbersome to have my laptop out on the train.
I tried to use bloglines and newsgator simultaneously, but my list of feeds kept getting mismatched. So, I made the switch to bloglines and I can't see myself going back.
For one, bloglines downloads the latest blogs at the server so I never have to wait for a feed poll to finish. A handy client notifier application allows me to get alerted whenever my feeds get updated.
Plus, my blogroll is accessible via JavaScript or through direct http. This allowed me to include my blogroll in my blog's right panel (go see).
I find that I don't need the offline capabilities of NewsGator on the train since I've been listening to a neverending playlist of Podcasts.
Next up, I want to write a client application that will pull off my Podcast folder from my blogroll and insert it into feeds.txt or favorites.txt file that i-podder.js and iPodder use. Unfortunately, the blogroll is in an XHTML fragment. To manipulate it I'll have to parse it which won't be nearly as much fun as parsing OPML.
Deprecating RSS 1.0 Feed
This is the last post to my RSS 1.0 feed. Please re-subscribe to my RSS 2.0 Feed.
October 17, 2004
The Grate
October 14, 2004
Bittorrent
I donated $10 to BitTorrent today. I think I'll pass on the t-shirt, but I'm glad I gave my share.
Monopoly one, meet monopoly two
October 8, 2004
60Gb iPod
Gizmodo has the scoop on a possible 60Gb iPod with a high-resolution color LCD and a video out (for showing the photos on your TV).
With the Podcasting rage sweeping the world like a brushfire, I'd say they should add a Microphone port and a second generic Line-in port.
This way you can audioblog, mix in a conversation with your friend over Skype through the Line-in, and possibly mix in music from the iPod itself while you're talking.
The Podcasting dream machine.
UPDATE: Engadget reports, " Besides playing MP3s, the SA250, Auvia™s new 256MB USB-style flash memory has an FM tuner, a built-in voice recorder, and can record MP3s from radio broadcasts. It connects to your PC or Mac at the faster USB 2.0, and one AAA battery will last you 15 hours." Sounds like some of what I wished for is a reality!
October 7, 2004
Flickr posting
On the beach, indirect
Originally uploaded by NickCody.
I started using Flickr a few days ago, which seems to be the perfect online photo service.
They have an open API, support RSS feeds, integrate with many blogging engines (I'm posting from the Flickr interface now), and have a host of other features.
Flickr seems to be all about community as you can view photos from other users, set up friends, family, and other contacts and you can notify each other when new photos are available.
It's still all a jumble in my mind, but I'm getting there.
The service is free, but they only give you 10MB of upload. I'm at 77% capacity now and I'm not even half-way through October. I'm happy enough with the service already that I'm considering a commercial purchase which is like $3.50 a month.
My 5 year old son took this picture of a picture and I thought it gave the photo more personality than the original.
October 6, 2004
Enclosure Test
Get a hold of iPodder and see if this mp3 flies!
The direct link to the mp3 is needed to give Brandon Fuller's MT-Enclosures a clue that there is an enclosure present.
I suppose this would be a reason to upgrade Movable Type from my free version to the paid version. I could probably click on an enclosure link and have it all done automagically without needing to create a dummy link in the entry.
October 4, 2004
Reflections on Programming
A friend of mind started his own blog a few months ago and I kept meaning to point it out. John's blog concentrates on, "design techniques, project management, and the little things that make the day to day slog through coding fun, rather than a chore. " He just moved from bloglines over to blogger.
Subscribed.
As a point of note, I've switched over to bloglines for RSS aggregation. I still use NewsGator, but mainly to read my company's internal blogs. Bloglines has some cool features including blog recommendations, desktop alert clients, straightforward and fast page layout, and much more. The Feed and User directories are always interesting.
Photo sharing with Flickr
A friend turned me on to yet another photo sharing site called Flickr. The service interested my friend because is supports syndication via RSS 2.0 and Atom and that's why it interests me. Syndication, of course, is the process by which you can subscribe to changes to the site.
I created a profile in a jiffy and you can view my photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickcody or http://www.flickr.com/people/nickcody
RSS 2.0 and Atom feeds are available.
You may also have noticed that some random recent photos will appear in my sidebar. This is thanks to a simple bit of Javascript they allowed me to customize and paste into my main page template.
With Flickr, you can share photos by making them public and it's easy to see what other Flickr users, including your contacts, are doing with Flickr.
Flickr also seems to allow you to create a blog, but I already have this one so I didn't go into that party of the site.
The first set of shots I put up t here are a series of photos taken by my son, who's five. I gave him a 2 megapixel camera for his birthday earlier this year and he's taken over 800 photos with it. I'm amazed at some of his results. Check out the giovannishot slideshow.