Archive for September, 2000
Rain
Rain is the beginning of fall
No commentsRadio Userland Remote Player
Remote Playing Package for Radio Userland.
| Copyright (c) 2000, Eric Soroos, eric@soroos.net |
| Version 0.91a |
WARNING
| This is preliminary. It is planned that there will be changes in the way that data is stored. I want to move to a specific number of named sites, instead of one hardwired site. |
| This package patches Userland code, (suites.playlist.getNextUrl and getSongTable) and probably will prevent other playlist.drivers from working. You probably want to make sure that you’re not clobbering important data. |
| It works on my machine. I’m going to revise some of the data structure and code layout. There is no warranty, express or implied. This code may be used in the Radio Userland / Frontier envrionment by anyone for any purpose, so long as this paragraph and copyright information is retained. GetNextUrl and GetSongTable are derivatives of Userland’s work, and retain all restrictions from the Radio Userland License. |
Download
| Frontier Table |
| Perl cgis |
This package provides 2 components:
| 1) Methods for retrieving id3 and m3u information from playlists and mp3’s hosted on remote computers, using an xml=rpc communications channel. This requires the remote playlist cgi’s installed on the remote machine. |
| 2) Methods for using an xml-rpc communications channel to play mp3s on a remote computer using XMMS. |
Installation
| Open the workspace.remotePlayer.fttb file in Radio Userland. |
| Run workspace.remotePlayer._install. This will install cleanly on Radio Userland 7.0b25, with the root updates as of 2000-09-27. It was also checked against the 2000-10-04 root update level. |
| Edit apps.xmms.baseUrl, |
| * host: rpc host for getting mp3 info or playing on the remote machine |
| * port: rpc port for getting mp3 info or playing on the remote machine |
| * m3uPath: the path to the rpc handler for getting playlist and id3 info |
| * path: the path to the rpc handler for playing mp3s |
| Install the cgis on your favorite linux machine. Note that there are some permission issues, and a couple of hardwired paths. Unless your home directory is /home/erics, you’re going to have to edit them. PLEASE read the readme. |
| Restart Radio Userland, new entries should show up on the Playback Application menu. Choose the one appropriate to your needs. |
| Run xmms.loadNewSongInfo to query your other machine and add all the mp3 info to your playlist data. You may want to add this to your bookmarks menu. |
Bugs
| This has been working on my machines for some time now, at home for using the linux box connected to the stereo to play, while the mac that I use as a desktop controls the playlists. It’s been pretty reliable for me. YMMV. |
| Occasionally Radio Userland will complain that there are 5 tcp streams open. Apparently defunct tcp streams aren’t closed properly. I’m trying to track this down. |
| Other than that, it’s stable alpha, meaning that features and code layout may change, but it’s basically stable. Email me or respond to this message if you’ve got more bugs. |
Screen Shots
| Radio Userland, choosing a playback application |
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| XMMS on the linux box, with one of the cgis in the background. |
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Our net.economy
How long can this last?
Yesterday I make an order from outpost.com. This morning an airborne express guy comes by with:
40 pounds of lead in a box. Shipped Free, Overnight.
Yes, it’s 40 pounds of lead organized in a 2u rackmount UPS, but still.
No commentsDiffuse Lighting
While yesterday had an unearthly glow, the light today was just grey.
At 9am, I cast no shadow. The light was even from every direction.
Sometimes even caffiene isn’t enough.
So tonight I’m spinning vinyl, instead of jamming out the MP3’s. It’s such a change to have to get up every 20 minutes to flip over the album. (Mostly old Talking Heads) So when am I going to install an ethernet drop into the turntable…
No commentsAfterglow
These are the days that need to be longer,
So I’ll stay awake all night… — paperboys
Today was a dream outside. Walking on the top of Capital Hill to lunch, the sky was an intense aggressive blue. The light felt almost soft and weak, but yet it was bright. There were no clouds, seemingly no haze.
I don’t feel that way often, the last time I can remember was when I was wandering around the top of Queen Anne earlier in the summer.
It feels like the end of summer. There’s a south wind, which means that the weather is about to turn. I fear that in the next day or so, we will enter the 9 month rainy season and not come out till next summer.
No commentsThree worlds
Got OsX beta today. Fedex express, it only shipped on the 15th. Woohoo.
So, I installed it on the one non critical machine at work — the iBook. Helpfully enough, the iBook can come home with me, so I can be a geek 18 hours a day. The install went like a dream, except that under DHCP, classic can’t find the network. And I can’t get to my linux/Netatalk file shares. With manual network configuration, everything works swimmingly, if not a little slowly.
Except that I can’t figure out how to make Radio Userland know where the history.xml file really is. File.exists(“frontier:frontier”) works, file.exists(“frontier:radio userland”) fails. (both exist, same permissions) Oh well, turning off the playlist thread means that I can use RU to update wiredfool. And listen to music. (soundtrack – Jason Webley. Yeah, I’m listening to him a lot now.)
The one thing that drives me completely nuts is the use of antialiased fonts. They look like utter CRAP on an active matrix screen. That screenshot will look beautiful on a crt; but when you see the really variable type visual density and the munged letter shapes, you will cringe. It honestly looks like I’ve got an lcd screen that I’m running at the wrong resolution. This lcd is so sharp that I see corners on the pixels. It looks best with classic, original mac fonts that were hand hinted for low res screen display. New York. Monaco. Chicago. (Charcoal) the character o nearly dissappears when useed in 12 point Ney York, antialiased, when at 10 point aliased, it’s clearly legible.
No comments24 Hours — A day in the Life
It’s Here.
I’m off to go riding, since this is likely to be the ‘Last, Best Day’ that we’re going to get for a long while.
Update: (and correction) After biking to work and heading back home, I’ve stopped by the Fremont Oktoberfest to see the ‘Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest’. Pumpkin gore everywhere. I must learn how to operate dangerous powertools so that I can carve like the masters. I stuck around to listen to ‘Easy Big Fella’, a local ska band. I’m thinking that I should go for a while and try to hear live music at least once a week for a few months. Might be an interesting experience.
No comments24 Hours — A day in the Life
24 hours in the life of the wired fool.
The day started the night before with a Paperboys cd release party, a little bit of wandering around golden gardens, and then dinner. Monday was all computer frustration, debugging and crashing. And a bit of blogging, but that’s not the main gig.
Sound track for the day, so helpfuly saved from my mp3 player, was: all the Paperboys albums, Harry Connick Jr.: When Harry met Sally Soundtrack, Peter Gabriel: So, Cowboy Junkies: Trinity Sessions, Pale Sun and Miles from our Home, Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman, The Beatles: Sgt Peppers, Counting Crows: August and Everything After, Jimi Hendrix: axis bold as love and Are You Experienced.
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No comments
sound track for putting this together: the paperboys: molinos, and jason webley, against the night
something more than these old feet brought me here
so these feet can’t take me away
Balance
I feel uncommonly well balanced today.
My house is aligned with the heavens such that on two days a year, the sun rises, shines through a window, down a long hall, and into my bedroom. (Once I open the door) So at just before 7am PDT, or exactly 6am solar time, the sun made it down my hallway and woke me up.
Of course, during the equinox, any city with east/west street grids tends to do this with a significant number of houses.
Happy equinox. Happy Octoberfest!
No commentsSeafug Meeting Tuesday
Reminder…
For those of you in Seattle…
Tuesday, 7pm, Seattle Frontier/Pike/Manila/Radio Userland User’s Group Meeting. 1818 Summit, on Capitol Hill.
This month, the buzz is on Radio Userland and p2p applications.
No comments