Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Very nice review of OS X shells: Bash and tcsh
bash on Mac OS X by David Miller -- "In the migration from Jaguar to Panther, one of the lesser discussed changes has been the switch from tcsh to bash as the default shell (for new accounts). In this article, David Miller delves into affected areas, such as aliases and environment variables, to help you make the transition."
OS X - create archive -- zips the file
macosxhints - Create Finder-equivalent zip archives from the Terminal
I've been using Panther for months. I noticed the "archive" option on a context menu but never bothered to figure out what it meant. Turns out it zips files including OS X metadata. Holy cow.
I absolutely love the 'Create Archive of ...' functionality in Panther, found in the Finder's File menu or in the contextual menu when you control-click on an item in the Finder. It's much faster than Stuffit, and it doesn't require me to install any third-party software. Sometimes I need to be able to create archives from the command line, and I wondered how I could get the same functionality of the 'Create Archive of ...' function in the terminal. tar and gzip are out because they don't preserve resource forks and HFS metadata ...
I've been using Panther for months. I noticed the "archive" option on a context menu but never bothered to figure out what it meant. Turns out it zips files including OS X metadata. Holy cow.
RealAudio reforms: thanks to car talk?
RealPlayer - the best digital media player - Real.com
RealAudio was infamous for a deceptive approach to distributing their audio player. They used to make it very difficult to locate and install the free player; they played a bait and switch to their fee-based product. Then they spammed their users mercilessly.
Then NPR's Car Talk switched from RA to Windows Media Player -- because of Real's policies.
Now Real has a very agreeable and pretty clear download page.
Probably too late.
When will software companies learn -- only Microsoft is big and powerful enough to abuse customers. Everyone else has to treat customers like precious gems.
RealAudio was infamous for a deceptive approach to distributing their audio player. They used to make it very difficult to locate and install the free player; they played a bait and switch to their fee-based product. Then they spammed their users mercilessly.
Then NPR's Car Talk switched from RA to Windows Media Player -- because of Real's policies.
Now Real has a very agreeable and pretty clear download page.
Probably too late.
When will software companies learn -- only Microsoft is big and powerful enough to abuse customers. Everyone else has to treat customers like precious gems.
Monday, March 01, 2004
newegg.com: Shuttle XPC Barebone System
newegg.com
This system gets rave reviews on NewEgg -- a demanding audience. I'm thinking of building a downstairs workstation that needs to be quiet, compact and understated, but also support the kids games. It would run XP. This looks pretty impressive. I'd need to add an 802.11G card, memory, a CPU, a hard drive (might scavenge one, I have several lying about), a CD reader (lots of those lying around) and a 1GB of memory. Total system with XP is probably @ $500 or so.
Shuttle XPC Barebone System for Socket 478 at 400/533MHz FSB Intel CPU, Model SS51G
Specifications:
CPU Support: Intel Pentium 4/Celeron (Socket 478, Max.FSB 533)
Chipsets: SiS651 + SiS962L
Memory: 2x 184pin (DDR266/333 up to 2GB)
IDE: 2x ATA133
Graphics: Build in SiS651
Expansion Slot: 1x PCI, 1x AGP 4X
Audio: Realtek ALC 650
LAN: Realtek 8100B
Extension Bay: 2x 3.5", 1x 5.25"
Front Panel Ports: 2x USB, 1x 1394, 1x SPDIF_Out, Audio ports
Back Panel Ports: 2x COM, 2x PS/2, 1x SPDIF_In, 1x VGA, 1x RJ45, 2x 1394, 2x USB, Audio ports
Power Supply: 200W(PFC)
Dimension: 300 x 200 x 185 mm
This system gets rave reviews on NewEgg -- a demanding audience. I'm thinking of building a downstairs workstation that needs to be quiet, compact and understated, but also support the kids games. It would run XP. This looks pretty impressive. I'd need to add an 802.11G card, memory, a CPU, a hard drive (might scavenge one, I have several lying about), a CD reader (lots of those lying around) and a 1GB of memory. Total system with XP is probably @ $500 or so.
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Convert AAC files from iTunes to MP3 and export
Updated 1/17/2007: It took a while for me to realize that even the latest version of iTunes has a simple way to convert non-DRMd music to MP3. It's not as easy as holding down the option key and selecting from the Advanced menu (no longer works), but it's easy enough.
In the Advanced menu there is, typically, a 'convert to aac' option. Turns out what you see here is determined by your import preferences. Set your import to MP3, this will show MP3.
You can convert, export and delete your mp3. I just export the ones I want to convert, move them to a different user account, and convert there.
--
Updated 7/14/06
It took a bit of work to figure out the Blacktree iTunes LAME Encoder. It's a GUI wrapped around a command line AAC to MP3 transcoder. By now there's probably something out that's easier to use, but I haven't looked. There's not much documentation.
My Palm Tungsten E plays MP3 files. My DVD player plays MP3 CDs. Great -- except my iTunes library, legally ripped from my personal CDs, is all AAC encoded. Nothing, yet, plays AAC except my iPod and iTunes.
I needed to be able to convert AAC to MP3. This requires software to:
iTunes LAME encoder does this. Note the UI is all about "Import" but in this case we're exporting from iTunes.
Installation:
In the Advanced menu there is, typically, a 'convert to aac' option. Turns out what you see here is determined by your import preferences. Set your import to MP3, this will show MP3.
You can convert, export and delete your mp3. I just export the ones I want to convert, move them to a different user account, and convert there.
--
Updated 7/14/06
It took a bit of work to figure out the Blacktree iTunes LAME Encoder. It's a GUI wrapped around a command line AAC to MP3 transcoder. By now there's probably something out that's easier to use, but I haven't looked. There's not much documentation.
My Palm Tungsten E plays MP3 files. My DVD player plays MP3 CDs. Great -- except my iTunes library, legally ripped from my personal CDs, is all AAC encoded. Nothing, yet, plays AAC except my iPod and iTunes.
I needed to be able to convert AAC to MP3. This requires software to:
1. convert AAC to AIFF (uncompressed)This process takes time, is tedious, etc. I wanted a utility that would automate this.
2. convert AIFF to MP3
iTunes LAME encoder does this. Note the UI is all about "Import" but in this case we're exporting from iTunes.
Installation:
1. Drag the app to Applications.Usage:
2. Drag the script to the iTunes script folder.
1. Set preferences: Destination to save to a local folder rather than iTunes library.
2. Click preferences: "Use Alternate Naming Convention" and delete all but %t (so a flat list of MP3 files is exported).
%a is the album
%l is the ?
%t is the tune or song
3. Change capture settings if desired
4. Create album for AAC files to export/convert and tunes to export there. Select all.
5. Click the LAME script from iTunes. Conversion takes quite a while.
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Extension Room :: Firefox Extensions :: Blogging Category
Extension Room :: Firefox Extensions :: Blogging Category: "Adds a context menu option to blog a link to the current page and the selected text (if any) through Blogger's BlogThis form"
I wondered if this would work w/ Firefox where the standard BlogThis scriptlet fails. Alas, it works just like BlogThis!, so it doesn't help.
I wondered if this would work w/ Firefox where the standard BlogThis scriptlet fails. Alas, it works just like BlogThis!, so it doesn't help.
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