Sometimes I have way too much stuff to do, but get stuck on an idea that really is useless. A few nights ago was one of those times. We all know that iTunes uses XML to organize the library, and that it tracks how many times we finish listening to a song. So I told myself….
- iTunes knows how many times I’ve finished (doesn’t count if you stop the song before it finishes) all my songs.
- iTunes knows how long said songs are
- Why can’t iTunes tell me how long I have listened to my music?
Well folks, it can. It just isn’t built in. There is probably some shareware app that does it, but I figured I’d give it a stab in PHP. Why PHP? I like it. Yes ,Perl would be better because all OS X users have it without screwing around, but I don’t like Perl.
Ergo, I wrote some code to massage iTunes’ library in a web scripting language. Most of the code came from here–it’s well written and open source. I just edited to my uses.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE PHP WORKING DO NOT COMPLAIN THAT THIS DOES NOT WORK. IF YOU NEED HELP, TRY MY WEB SERVING MADE EASY ARTICLES
The .zip file includes a [tiny] demo “library.xml” file that you can try right off the bat. Before long you should copy your file (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml) to the folder you just decompressed. Rename it library.xml. Put the folder (it should be called itunes) in your web directory and pop up your browser to http://localhost/itunes/. Depending on your machine speed and your library size, before long should pop-up how long you have listened to iTunes, how many songs you have listened to and how many songs you haven’t. Neat!
Remember that you surely have listened longer, this only tracks SONGS COMPLETED.
Without any introduction, here is CarbWire. What is it? An online review of everything low-carb. What’s that? It’s the diet philosophy that is putting the bread industry in a cold sweat.
If you are familiar with MobileTracker, you’ll fit right in at CarbWire. It’s mostly news, updated more than not, with a few [upcoming] reviews stuck in the daily grind. This is what was behind that crazy post from last week.
And as always, readers of this space get a first-look. Enjoy. I’d also like to thank 37Signals, this project was Basecamp’d.
Update: Google is becoming scary good. We already have a good placement in SERPs, and have had search referrals. Less than 24 hours after launch! Amazing.
Here is a great example of why a good webmaster can save you a ton of bad press. Matt Drudge noticed that JohnKerry.com has multiple examples of both “fuck” and “shit“. Normally these words are against the policies of this site (as they should be), but they appear here for historical accuracy. A simple regular expression would have been able to filter these out.
As many have pointed out, the FCC is attacking people who use said words on the airwaves. Why is a presidential candidate publishing them? One of the two has to change (I’m in favor for no censorship by the way). At least the Bush camp knows how to keep their foul language behind closed doors.
By the time you read this, you will likely find the offending words removed (having millions of people visit your site and laugh at your candidate has a way of spurring changes). But I have captured them for your viewing pleasure:
Kind of ironic that the man that can buy anything is calling for fees to send email. And surely his company will make the software to power this new system. Sorry Bill. As long as there are hackers out there with copies of Sendmail, email will be free.
His puzzle idea is even worse. What happens to an email list publisher? A company I have worked for sends out a monthly newsletter to its 30,000 members. The email is very popular with the members.
It won’t happen. But it’s funny to see the talking heads who don’t even use email try and talk about it.
I’m looking for people on low-carb diets. Any low-carb diet will work, but Atkins / South Beach / Zone is most needed. Drop a comment, email or AIM (jonknee41).
Update: Clarification: I’m not going to be going on a low-carb diet (I’m too light). I am just looking for readers that are on one of the popular ones. I’ll fill you in on the details “off blog”.
Google AdSense servers seem to be down, making a lot of sites slow to load or (in Mozilla) not load at all. Of course, right after I discovered this I went to WebMaster World to see if it’s a local thing, but WebMaster World is down! What are the odds.
Next, I went to Google to do a search, and can’t get there now either. That’s probably just my data center as www2.google.com works fine. Still, major problems at the Googleplex.
Anyone else seeing problems? The weather report looks alright, at least in my part of town.
I now know why more people don’t use “<" in their site titles. It doesn't work. I have stopped my personal protest against crappy search engines who show my site title as "I" instead of "I <3 Mena". The site name is now simply JG. Sorry Mena.
What happened to Gizmodo? Wait. I think I know. It’s divorced. Welcome to Engadget. Good to see Peter moving up in the world.
Thanks to my work on MobileTracker, I have a Motorola V600 to play with for a few weeks. It’s quite fun. I loaded a few choice MP3’s onto it via Bluetooth (worked like a charm) and had a blast.
I might try and post a few pics via the phone to the weblog. If you see any crazy posts, blame the phone.
While I will be posting a review at MobileTracker, if anyone has any specific questions about the phone, let me know.
Won’t be able to say that again for four more years. I never understood why February only had 28 days to begin with… Why couldn’t they chop off a day from 2 months that have 31 days. That way Feb has 30/31 days. I’m sure there is a reason. Anyone know?
