Topics

26

Living Room / Proposed IP Treaty declared a 'National Security' Secret

« on: March 13, 2009, 09:45 AM »

(this borders on the political, but its implications in software and the Internet make it topical, I think)

If ratified, leaked documents posted on WikiLeaks and other comments suggest the proposed trade accord would criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow internet service providers to monitor their customers' communications.
...
But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.
...
The national security claim is stunning, given that the treaty negotiations have included the 27 member states of the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand, all of whom presumably have access to the "classified" information.

See full article on Wired

27

Living Room / Windows Secrets jumps shark

« on: February 14, 2009, 07:48 AM »

We've complained about the quality of the "Windows Secrets" newsletter in the past, and the fact that it's aimed toward much less sophisticated users than the other publications that it's swallowed. I think they've really showed us this in the latest update:


As you can see, they are referring to VNC-derived remote desktop apps as "virtual machine software". I think that anyone claiming to inform the rest of us ought to understand that this label applies to programs like VMware and VirtualPC; VNC is a completely unrelated beast.

As I sit here with my mouse over the "Post" button it occurs to me that this post may be somewhat cruel, so I'm hesitant. On the other hand, I think it really calls into question their real-world experience and their editing. And readers have certainly been offering constructive criticism for some time; they've had every chance to get things in order.

Update: I should specify that this is in reference to their newsletter edition "Windows Secrets NEWS UPDATE • Issue 184a • 2009-02-14".

28

General Software Discussion / Leaked images of MS Office 14

« on: January 16, 2009, 09:42 AM »

Leaked images of Microsoft Office 14:

A few more images at the link.

It looks like the ribbon is sticking around 

(from Neowin.net)

29

Living Room / Portable MP3 player recommendations

« on: January 01, 2009, 07:32 PM »

My Zune 30 just bricked, and I need a new player . I know that portable MP3 players have been discussed before (e.g., here), but I figure that this market changes enough that an update might be appropriate.

My default choice is a pretty direct replacement for the Zune with a Zune 80, available at Circuit City for $163. Here's my wish list:

• I'd like to keep the storage capacity to at least the same level as I have now, 30GB.
• The price should be under $200.
• Battery life should be at least 10 hours of audio playback.
• The UI should be easy to operate -- I listen in the car, and would prefer not to drive into a tree.
• I would prefer that it be accessible as simple USB mass storage (the Zune's closed interface is a pain)
• Being able to maintain a bookmark in a long track is absolutely critical, a non-negotiable feature. (Zune allows this if you lie to the thing, saying that your audiobook is a podcast)

I'm opposed to iPod because it's so darned expensive for its capabilities. I looked at Cowon and Creative Zen -- both of these are more expensive (particularly the Cowon), and I can't tell about the bookmarking capability.

Anyone care to help me with suggestions?

30

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« on: December 07, 2008, 10:12 AM »

NANY 2009 Entry Information

Application Name	LifeSaver
Version	1.0.3311
Short Description	Keep a diary
Supported OSes	Windows with .Net
Web Page	none yet
Download Link	Author's web site Or from attachment to this post, below.
System Requirements	.Net 2 Internet Explorer (don't worry, you don't need to use it as your web browser)
Version History	2009-01-11 - 1.0.3311 New feature: file menu now has MRU (Most Recently Used) file list for your convenience. 2009-01-11 - 1.0.3298 Spoiler Fix bug where changes to an entry didn't get saved if the user clicks next/prev too quickly. 2009-01-01 - 1.0.3288 (Release 1) Spoiler Add EULA to installer and About box Fix installer to overwrite old version Fix bug where changing entry body text forced rebuild of calendar Fix bug where XML export didn't close file immediately Add meta data to XML export Remove BETA warnings 2008-12-21 - 1.0.3277.22049 (Beta) Spoiler Add XML export Add ability to open a file from Explorer Fixed calendar colors (I hope) Added a bunch of graphics to make it pretty Added Delete, then disabled it because of a problem in the backend datastore Fixed the need to click away from the text editor to get changes to save Improved synchronization between entry date editor and calendar selector (there may still be issues here, I'm still chasing it) Fixed a bug in the browse to Previous feature (sometimes entries would be skipped when occurring on consecutive days) 2008-12-16 - 1.0.0.1 (alpha 2) Spoiler Added password (remember, this isn't crypto) Added auto backup datafile Fix crash when you start app but don't open file for several minutes Fix crash when you try to re-open the same file that's already open Fix problem where "create new" diary over an existing one would open instead of creating new 2008-12-14 - First public alpha
Author	Chris Wuestefeld: CWuestefeld

Description
At the surface, it's Yet Another Diary/Journal Application. But as I've complained here, as recently as last month, a fundamental problem with all Diary software I've found is that the data is locked into a proprietary datastore and format. This is absolutely antithetical to the purpose of a diary: long-term tracking of thoughts. At some point in the future, our current applications and the format in which they store the data will be obsolete; it's imperative that something like this be easily extractable, in a way that can be imported into future systems.

Features

• Entries formatted in rich text (HTML to facilitate export)
• Password-protected datastore (not cryptographically strong, but should be enough to keep out your little brother)
• Multiple entries allowed per day
• Browse next/previous entry
• Export to XML

Planned Features

• Entry tagging, including browse by tag
• Full-text search
• Images attached to entries
• Score entries on user-defined criteria to track progress toward goals

Screenshots
[ Invalid Attachment ]

Known Issues

• Previous version must be uninstalled before upgrading.
• Delete entry not allowed yet.
• There isn't yet any way to change your password.

31

Found Deals and Discounts / USBSafelyRemove: 1yr free / lifetime discount

« on: November 26, 2008, 08:11 AM »

I just saw a Raymond.cc post telling about a free 1-yr license for USBSafelyRemove.

USB flash drives are so common nowadays and I believe most of us already have one. It is very convenient to carry along our data with us all the time but can also be a problem when you’re unable to properly eject it from your computer. The error message “The device ‘Generic volume’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.” is what you’ll see when you’re having the problem. You can use Unlocker to unlock the files in used and then eject OR you can use a special tool called USB Safely Remove developed to help you easily manage your external hotpluggable device.

USB Safely Remove normally cost $20 for a single user license which last a lifetime but they’re giving away free licenses to everyone for a week in order to promote upcoming version 4.0. You may use all the features of the program and get upgrades for one year for free. Actually they’ve done this early this year on February to promote version 3.3, so no big surprise that they’ll start doing it again. Continue reading on how to get your free USB Safely Remove v4 registration code.

USB Safely Remove is a neat and handy replacement for the standard ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ tool. It will make life easier and save time for those who have several hotplug (USB, SATA, Firewire) devices and those who use them extensively.

Just in case, here's a direct link to the deal.

When I went there, I discovered there's also a 20% discount for a lifetime personal license. This seems like the perfect license: for your personal use, you get lifetime updates and usage on all of your computers.

Registration benefits
    * Buy only one license for using the program on all your computers!
    * Pay once, always get upgrades - free future version upgrades!
    * The registration reminder will never popup again.
    * Technical support.

The discounted price is $14. The page leads me to believe that the deal is only for today, but you know how those things go.

Disclaimer: I have no association with this company. Heck, I've never even used the product -- it just looks very useful, and I've heard good things about it.

Edit: it appears that the free license deal is only good this week, the week of Thanksgiving.

32

General Software Discussion / What's on your flash drive?

« on: November 07, 2008, 04:59 PM »

I've been putting together a flash drive with enough software installed to let me be useful on most any Windows PC. I've found a good deal of useful portable apps, and I wonder if anybody can add to the list. I started out with the 1GB edition of winPenPack, and then found these other things:

SoftMaker Office 2008	67MB	I like this much better than the OpenOffice that comes with winPenPack, so I deleted that (freeing up a ton of space) and put this in its stead. List price $80, but you can find it for much cheaper.
UltraExplorer	6MB + plugins	On my desktop I use DOpus, but don't have the portable license. After a bit of searching, this seems to be the best free portable explorer for a DOpus lover. Takes TotalCommander plugins for its file viewer, too.
Diagram Designer	<1MB (wow)	I really don't like the open-source Dia (portable here). Diagram Designer offers really good diagramming without the bells-and-whistles that I've never used anyway, for an incredibly small space premium.
Python development environment	92MB total	Movable Python - A python runtime that's portable. Not free, but at 5GBP it's close enough for me. SPE (Stani's Python Editor), a pretty decent Python IDE in under 6MB
Games		Jooleem Portable - a marble matching game LBreakout2 Portable Sudoku Portable
IrfanView	10MB with plugins	Image viewer
SysInternals ProcessExplorer	3.5MB	Monitor what the system's doing
Unknown Devices	<1MB	Find out what the mystery devices in your computer are.
TestDisk	<3MB	Disk partition recovery

33

General Software Discussion / Best Python IDE

« on: October 25, 2008, 05:25 PM »

As I've been learning the Python language I've been trying to find a comfortable IDE for my purposes. Naturally, the first one I encountered was the "built-in" IDLE, but this quickly proved to be too bare-bones. There are a number of more advanced ones that support code completion, automatic documentation and program structure diagramming, and refactoring.

I've been using SPE (Stani's Python Editor, http://pythonide.stani.be/ ) as it was the first "advanced" one I found, but I've run into roadblocks with it and it's got me frustrated. The last version with an installer had a broken winpdb (the debugger), and while there are newer releases, it seems like they quit building installers some time ago. In fact, it's difficult to find any prebuilt distribution for those of us without svn.

I've come across some others that seem more promising. Notably, pydev and Eric both boast of refactoring, which could be a boon.

Would anyone care to throw in two cents about the features, quality, and support of these tools (or any others)?

34

Living Room / Why no screensaver?

« on: October 25, 2008, 05:11 PM »

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that my screen saver is no longer coming up. It just sits there showing the desktop, regardless of how long I leave it. The monitor never goes to sleep, either.

Many times I've gone into display properties, and reset the timeouts for both screensaver and power management. It's not that some media player is running -- this even happens with a newly-booted desktop (of course with normal startup apps, but those don't seem relevant).

Has anybody ever seen this behavior on an XP system?

35

Living Room / Recommend a keyboard

« on: October 13, 2008, 11:20 AM »

For months I've been suffering through frequent blue screens (especially frustrating when burning a DVD!). I've finally isolated the problem to the driver for my BTC multimedia keyboard. So out it goes, and here I am looking for suggestions for a replacement.

Requirements:

• Firm keys - spongy stuff is no good
• Full-size keys - I'm a good touch typist, and if the keys aren't the regular size or location I get thrown off. This applies especially to the "Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn" group that manufacturers like to monkey with.
• Multimedia keys

Extra preferences (these are why I like the BTC in the first place), not required but I'd like them:

• Scroll wheel or ball
• Clipboard hotkeys (cut/copy/paste)
• Wired (I don't want to replace batteries, and there's no need since I'm always in the same spot)

Anybody got a favorite keyboard they can recommend?

36

General Software Discussion / Reorganizing music library

« on: October 11, 2008, 04:08 PM »

I'm trying to reorganize my music library. Not edit the tags -- I think I've got that squared away thanks to MusicIP, etc. -- but get the files themselves straight.

I'm not 100% confident of how well it will work, so I want to do it as a Copy operation rather than Move. I just hooked up a 300GB disk just for the job, so I've got more than enough room for it. This is an absolute requirement, and it disqualifies my normal library manager MediaMonkey.

I want to do it according AlbumArtist/AlbumName, which obviously means that the tool must support the AlbumArtist tag. That seems to disqualify my other tagging tools -- TheGodfather and Zortam.

Can anyone suggest to me an alternative that can satisfy these requirements?

Bonus points if it can provide a higher-level structure of alphabetic selector (an A folder containing all AlbumArtists starting with A, etc.), but that would be easy enough to do by hand afterward.

37

Living Room / The NSA Teams Up with the Chinese Government to Limit Internet Anonymity

« on: September 18, 2008, 08:55 AM »

(Remember, we're interested in the technical aspects of this and not politics)
From Schneier on Security
The NSA Teams Up with the Chinese Government to Limit Internet Anonymity

Definitely strange bedfellows:

    A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.

    The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public.

    [...]

    A second, apparently leaked ITU document offers surveillance and monitoring justifications that seem well-suited to repressive regimes:

        A political opponent to a government publishes articles putting the government in an unfavorable light. The government, having a law against any opposition, tries to identify the source of the negative articles but the articles having been published via a proxy server, is unable to do so protecting the anonymity of the author.

This is being sold as a way to go after the bad guys, but it won't help. Here's Steve Bellovin on that issue:

    First, very few attacks these days use spoofed source addresses; the real IP address already tells you where the attack is coming from. Second, in case of a DDoS attack, there are too many sources; you can't do anything with the information. Third, the machine attacking you is almost certainly someone else's hacked machine and tracking them down (and getting them to clean it up) is itself time-consuming.

...

38

General Software Discussion / New version: Copernic Desktop Search 3

« on: September 12, 2008, 10:42 AM »

Just noticed this, and I haven't seen it mentioned here.

http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/home/whats-new.html

What's New
Changes & improvements
    * Tweaked deskbar design for better usability
    * Reorganized options window:
          o Merged "Display" and "General" tabs
          o Contacts are now configured in the "Email & Organizer" tab
          o Simplified browser integration settings
    * Added video duration filters
    * Improved "Indexing Status" window (new "Pause/Resume" button, etc.)
    * New "Index this Folder" command displayed when searching within a non-indexed folder

Fixes
    * Default folders now properly configured for Windows Mail
    * Outlook Express/Windows Mail contacts now searchable by name
    * Email options could crash when closed too quickly
    * Index now updated properly when a new file type is added as “file name only”
    * Resolved deskbar-related shutdown issues

New system/software requirements
    * Windows XP/Vista or later
    * IE6 SP2 or later
    * Firefox 2.0 or later
    * Outlook 2000 or later

Features now exclusive to Professional and Corporate versions:
    * Search Outlook appointments, tasks and notes
    * Display search results as you type
    * Index network drives
    * Save searches ("My Searches")

It looks to me like they've removed the ability to index network drives (amongst other things). That's a big minus in my book.

39

Living Room / Micro-review: New TV Series "Fringe"

« on: September 12, 2008, 08:44 AM »

Not software related, but I think there are plenty of sci-fi fans around these parts.

I watched the first episode of the new series Fringe last night. This has been mega-hyped, being the latest product from J.J. Abrams, co-creator of Lost (his company is the "Bad Robot" at the end of each episode). I'm a big fan of Lost. Much of it has become implausible, but I'm the characters are compelling, the writing is smart, and I'm willing to suspend disbelief over whatever "the island" is, as long as they get basic ideas right.

So with Fringe, I really wanted to like it. But in the end, having lost count of the number of times I had to exclaim out loud "that's just not how that works", I've got to give it a thumbs down. 

I’m not talking about computer stuff, which Hollywood gets wrong universally -- there wasn't actually any of that. Nor am I talking about their premise of "fringe science". A quick list of butchered topics that anyone with a casual acquaintance with would recognize:

• Chemistry
• Biology, especially pathology, psychology and neuroscience
• Criminal justice, especially anything to do with the 4th amendment (and I don't mean torture, they got that part right)
• A few instances of basic common sense

It's not that I claim to be expert in those areas. My point is that any well-educated lay person ought to recognize these things as wholly implausible.

Nor did I find the characters compelling, and this was the big sell of the series. Yet there was no depth at all. It was claimed that JJ Abrams would do the same thing with Fringe in this respect as he did with Lost. But no one in the new show even hints at having the depth of Sawyer or even Hugo.

• Main character is a woman who hasn't been successful in her love life, fighting to save the (presumably) true love she's just found. Cliche?
• Her sidekick assistant, whose name I didn't even catch
• A brilliant scientist framed for the gov't research he was doing, checked out of a mental institution. Initially twitching and babbling about the bad pudding on Tuesdays, but very quickly becomes the guy who knows absolutely everything
• Mad scientist's son, a cliche of brilliant 190 IQ but lack of positive motivators lets him get into trouble

The one thing I found compelling was the ambiguity of the bad guy. At the end, we don’t know if the evil people are big corporations, a rogue government agency, or some more complex conspiracy.

40

Living Room / Pirating abandoned content?

« on: May 15, 2008, 10:01 AM »

How do you feel about downloading copies of things that simply can't be purchased any other way?

One recent thread refers to attempts to purchase an out-of-print video (https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13353.0); another to old-games-gone-freeware (https://www.donation....msg113055#msg113055). TechSupportAlert's latest newsletter refers to "abandonware" (http://techsupportal...rent.htm#Section_1.3).

I'm a big fan of e-books. Especially for fiction, I don't read paper anymore; my PDA is just too convenient. But most books still aren't available in this format. Where possible, I've purchased books that are sold this way (Baen books is good for this).

Morally speaking (legalities aside for the moment), where do you think I stand in downloading scanned books if they can't be purchased? In most cases, the books are available as paper, so I'm probably not justified.

But what about books that are completely out of print, so that I can't buy it even if I want to (unless I can find it used)? In this case, I'm not taking away anyone's potential income if I download an unauthorized scanned copy.

If the owner of intellectual property refuses to sell it, do they forfeit the right to protect their commercial interest in it?

41

General Software Discussion / Office 2007 Search Command add-in

« on: April 28, 2008, 04:19 PM »

Having trouble finding where a command is in the new Office Ribbon? Microsoft Labs has just released a ribbon add-in that lets you type text from a command, and it gives you a list of matching commands.

Search Commands helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks.

http://www.officelab...s/Pages/default.aspx

Update: I probably should have given credit to Lifehacker for this link. http://lifehacker.co...e-office-2007-ribbon

42

General Software Discussion / The Windows Apps You Never Need To Install

« on: April 25, 2008, 03:15 PM »

What software is more trouble than it's worth?

Today I stumbled on a post (http://www.dashes.co...the-windows-app.html) asking this question.

He proposes two things for the "award": WinZip and any codec pack. Other commenters point out the various IE toolbars, and Adobe Acrobat.

Unfortunately the conversation then collapses into debates about various archiving programs and codecs. But the question is still interesting.

So, what programs make you sigh when you sit down at someone else's computer?

43

Find And Run Robot / Feature idea: Don't open second instances

« on: April 24, 2008, 04:09 PM »

I keep a lot of apps running on my desktop. Sometimes I don't see that I've already got one open, and accidentally open a second instance. I'd like to avoid that.

So I think it would be cool if I could tell FARR that it should just bring-to-front an existing instance if one exists, and change focus to it. It might do this through a global checkbox, or maybe via a shift-click combination or something.

But how would it know that there's already an instance running? That's the real hurdle here. I don't think there's any completely correct answer, but I can think of a couple of ways to approximate it.

It could remember what processes it has spawned as a result of what choices, and check to see if that process is still running when the user repeats the same request.

You could go a step farther, and after the child process has spawned, look for its window and remember something about that permanently (title, window class, etc.), so it could identify them in the future even if it wasn't the agent that started the instance. Of course, there's a bunch of headaches in this, most significantly that it takes some time for the new process' window to open, and it may show different titles in different circumstances, or have multiple windows.

44

General Software Discussion / Lists Of Microsoft's Fame And Shame - 2008

« on: April 08, 2008, 09:53 AM »

I've had my fill of Microsoft bashing, and probably of MS love-fests as well. But rarer is a good look at where they really have done a good job, and where they are behind. Here's an objective article listing some of Microsoft's greatest accomplishments, and places where technology that they really should have a handle on is sorely lacking.

One of the important wins listed here to Microsoft's credit is Visual Studio, something most of us have some experience with. The article notes that there may be better IDEs that are tuned to a particular purpose, but VS is the best general-purpose solution available. The author also mentions VistaDB, which is a technology I've been watching: a .Net managed-code database (meaning it's highly portable) that's like 99% SQL Server compatible.

One place the author gets it wrong is holding up Outlook as a win. While it may have features that its major competition lacks, there are just so many things wrong with it that I can't believe anyone could award it any honors.

Since everyone loves to pick on Microsoft, I think we can summarize exactly what has caused such a commotion among technology enthusiasts. The areas where Microsoft has been given most reputational grief have been where the bar was raised higher by a third party, or else where a third party has made people scratch their heads and wonder, "Why am I using Microsoft's technology, anyway?" So I'd like to suggest a list of technologies that shame Microsoft.

http://www.jondavis....nd-Shame---2008.aspx

45

General Software Discussion / New kind of spreadsheet: Resolver One

« on: March 28, 2008, 09:29 AM »

I've been playing a bit with a new kind of spreadsheet product called Resolver One (http://www.resolvers...cts/resolver-one.php). Since DC people are very software-literate, and are frequently interested in alternative approaches, I thought this might be interesting to all.

The thing about Resolver is that it's really a spreadsheet framework with a built-in code generator. You don't need to know this; it's perfectly usable as a regular old spreadsheet. But as you interact with it, it generates Python code that implements the spreadsheet and all its calculations.

This is a little bit like using the form designers in Visual Studio.Net, for example. You can see the code that creates the sheets, sets the cell values and functions, etc. And you can edit that code and the spreadsheet "view" changes dynamically.

Since all of this is Python code, it means that you can have much more sophisticated cell calculations. But it goes much farther than that.

The logic you can implement isn't limited to the calculations that go on in the cell; anything that's happening in the whole spreadsheet is under your control. Old "macros", or the stuff that Excel might allow in VBA code, can all be accomplished through Python. In fact, since it's part of the code implementing the sheet rather than an adjunct to it, you can do much more powerful stuff.

Also, this is all written in .Net -- IronPython to be specific. So you have access to the whole .Net framework. You can use its classes, call their methods. You can also write your own .Net code in C# (or whatever), expose it into the spreadsheet's code, and use your own classes and methods.

Free for non-commercial use, a little bit expensive otherwise.

46

Living Room / Restating Godwin's Law

« on: March 24, 2008, 03:49 PM »

You may have heard of Godwin's Law http://en.wikipedia....ki/Godwin's_law

As a Usenet discussion grows longer,
the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Lately on DC I'm thinking that we should reformulate that:

As a DC discussion grows longer,
the probability of a suggestion involving SQL Notes approaches one.

I'm sure it's a great program. And for questions where it may actually be a good application, then by all means make the recommendation. But please, let's avoid hijacking the real discussion into a list of the merits of SQL Notes itself, or worse, into a how-to of finding and installing that software.

There is already an miles-long discussion about SQLNotes. Is there any reason that interested people can't be directed to that thread, or to a particular post therein?

(Not that this is my forum, or that I have any decision-making authority about what goes on here. But I personally think that the trend is interfering with the broader course of discussion on DC)

47

Living Room / Apple ][ software

« on: February 18, 2008, 07:12 PM »

I just picked up an old Apple ][e for nostalgia purposes, along with printer, mouse (!), and yes, even a 300 baud modem.  There was a box with a couple of software titles, but alas, I’ve long since discarded my old collection. It’s easy enough to find the disk images on the intertubes, but no way to put them onto media (they’re intended for emulators).

So this is an official beg: does anyone out there have a box of old Apple ][ disks that their spouses have been nagging to get rid of? I’d gladly pay postage if anyone were willing to donate to the Chris W Nostalgia Foundation    Please contact me off-list: [email protected]

FWIW, there are a couple of disks with it that jog my memory. One is a collection of Beagle Brothers utilities. I have fond memories of calling their stuff via GOSUB -- as far as I’m aware, they must be the first commercial vendor of programming components.

And there’s a copy of the Infocom game “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I once had that game for my Atari 800, but got so frustrated with it that I literally threw the disk out my college dorm window.

48

General Software Discussion / Media Monkey 3 is the most exciting audio player yet

« on: February 10, 2008, 02:17 PM »

I've always been a fan of MediaMonkey (http://www.MediaMonkey.com), but with it's recent version 3 release it's become the most exciting music player out there. MM has been just another one of a half-dozen or so leading players, but the scripts that its latest version is enabling make it top-of-the-heap.

The merits of music players is a frequent topic around here, and the tastes generally run to the utilitarian. This frequently means minimalist, but I wonder if that's because so much of the feature set in today's apps is eye candy and other junk that introduce complexity and bugs. The scripts that I'd like to tell you about really have use, so I hope they escape that criticism.

What to listen to?
My collection is large, so the biggest problem I've got is deciding what to listen to. There are external services to help you put together playlists (MusicIP is a good one), but I don't know of any that's well-integrated. Some folks have written MM scripts that I'd never have though of, but do a great job in building me a list of music to listen to.

Last.FM Node
This plugin builds a "best-of" list for an artist, or find tracks having a given tack, or research related artists, all based on actual Last.FM data. For each of these tasks it submits requests, then searches your own database looking for what you've got on that list.

The most basic operation is the "best-of" for an artist. Simply add a Favorite Artist, and it will get the top tracks for that artist from Last.FM:


But you can do other things with the artist. It's in a tree structure, so you can open up its node to see a list of related artists. In this picture I've opened Dream Theater, and within that, continued to drill down into Symphony X. For each of these artists, you can click on the node to see the "best of".


You can also get lists of top tracks having a given tag. Just add a Favorite Tag node, and click on it to retrieve your list. You can also drill into this to see top musicians having that tag, and repeat the process above to see their best songs.


You can read more about Last.FM node and download it here: http://www.mediamonk...iewtopic.php?t=24879

MagicNodes
If you don't like to rely on other people's taste, you can derive lists from your own database. A script called MagicNodes (http://www.mediamonk...iewtopic.php?t=19168) allows you define criteria for building a tree of music according to properties in your database. You might specify "Tracks from between 1970-1979 having Rating 4-5 classified as Soft Rock, organized by Artist". The list is navigable, and dynamically built as your collection evolves.

Cleaning Data
I'm pretty particular about my data, and I've got the lyrics for most of my music thanks to Zortam. However, I do run into occasional holes. When this happens I use the WebNodes script (http://www.mediamonk...iewtopic.php?t=25845).

When a song with missing lyrics comes up, I go to "Search the web". This opens a panel that contains one of various pre-seeded searches. Using the one for "lyrics-songs.com" I've never missed in finding the lyrics. Then just select them with your mouse and click the Lyrics button; they're automatically saved into the tracks ID3 tag.

Seeing what you're hearing
I really don't like visualizations, but I do like to see what I'm hearing. The MonkeyRok script (http://www.mediamonk...iewtopic.php?t=14494) displays some basic info about the track, but also lists the other tracks of the album that it's from, and lists other albums from the same artist. You can click these to add to the "Now Playing" list.

Improving the sound
The quality of sound from a PC isn't the best, between small speakers and occasional 128kb MP3s (before I knew any better). There's a DSP plugin (MM supports the same DSPs that WinAmp does) that seems like magic to me in the way that it improves the sound of the music. I'm sure purists will object that it's then not playing what the artist intended, but to my ears the sound is much more pleasant.

You can find the Sound Solution DSP here: http://www.soundsolu...solution-t966.0.html

I hope these improve your pleasure in music listening as much as they have for me.

49

General Software Discussion / Concatenating MP3s

« on: February 10, 2008, 11:56 AM »

I'm looking for a good way of concatenating MP3s. I know this seems like a stupid question. Out on the intertubes there are n+1 ways of joining MP3s -- writing these seems to be another favorite hobby of those who love to write video converters and file synchronizers.

However, it seems that the obvious way of doing this -- simply concatenating the files -- only partially works. In particular, it seems to me that the block numbers need to be fixed up.

What I'm trying to do is reassemble large audiobooks that have been broken into short pieces. A typical book might be 10 or more hours long, and because most MP3 players don't support bookmarks, they are frequently broken up into song-sized chunks. The latest version of the MS Zune firmware does have bookmarks (for podcasts, anyway), which is a much better way of doing things. I can set the book aside, listen to some music, and resume the book right where I left off. So I'd like to take better advantage of this feature.

The thing is, in the couple of MP3 joiners I've tried, the result is broken. The file plays as an MP3 just fine, but the Zune is unable to hold a bookmark that points beyond the first chunk of the book. In fact, it's not able to even correctly show the length of the book.

So, can anyone recommend a way of taking a set of input files and producing a new single MP3 that is completely according to specifications?

50

General Software Discussion / Office suite for my mom?

« on: December 31, 2007, 03:12 PM »

I know the question of "software that my mom can use" is cliche, but it's actually what I need to find. My mom just got a new computer for Christmas, and was disappointed not to find any software on it (I think she's lucky to have avoided all the crap on a typical new computer  )

Anyway, I need to set her up with an office suite. Here are the options that I see:

• Microsoft Office - just costs too much for her, not a feasible candidate
• Corel WordPerfect Office Ver. X3 - I happen to have a couple of NFR copies of this
• Open Office
• Star Office - I think largely the same thing as OO but with addons, so probably preferable
• IBM Lotus Symphony
• Softmaker/Ashampoo - http://www.softmaker...m/english/ofw_en.htm

She needs this both for her presentation (a minister, meaning she'll be writing sermons and maybe making small presentations to groups), as well as her studies (for a Doctor of Divinity, needing to write grad-student quality papers, do presentations for class, including some light charting). She's not a very sophisticated computer user at all; for anything but the most basic operations, she'll find the answer (usually by calling me*), and write down the sequence of menu options so she can do it again later.

(* calling me won't work on anything since MS Office, which I've already eliminated, so ease of use is probably a pretty important factor)

Would anyone like to offer opinions as to which choices would be better or worse?

Edit: add Softmaker to list