floodgate.blog

I’m actively involved with the tech support guys at my school in an effort to bring relatively mainstream web-based software to our school.  The tech guys successfully got WordpressMu running and configured in a way that works for what we need (not the default — I commend them on this).  My personal goal is to find a way to make MediaWiki work in a setting where access control is vital (I’d like to think all of my students are mature).. something that MediaWiki definitely doesn’t do.  I don’t fault MediaWiki for this — It’s designed for open collaboration and it works VERY well for that — it just won’t work for us.  I’ve been trying to make my laptop play as a demo/test server for a while and have been running into roadblocks:

1. Apache being called “Web Sharing” on my Mac is kind of dumb.. but functional once I got php running.
2. No mysql server available made testing MediaWiki problematic.
3. XAMPP, my trusted development tool in Windows and Linux is horribly inconsistent on OS X (they state this too) and didn’t know enough about the OS X universe to know what to look for.

My first stop was MacPorts.  I installed this, and will probably use it regardless of whether I install mysqld from the command line.  I do appreciate the functionality of ports (BSD) and portage (gentoo), and know that this is at least somewhat similar.  I held out because I figure there had to be some kind of “M”AMP server (like WAMP and LAMP packages)…

…and there is one called MAMP.  So, I will be installing this shortly and writing more about it later.  I also will be providing documentation on how I got from start to finish with MAMP, MediaWiki, and then Moodle.

In my last post, I mentioned that I have a small collection of mostly-functional mp3 players.  The wrench in the system isn’t that they sometimes do not work, but that the laptop I am currently using is a powerbook, and aside from copying music to a device via a file manager, there is no functionality to speak of.  In particular, I had become frustrated by the lack of playlist syncing between iTunes and anything but an iPod.

My first idea was to just blindly copy files from one finder window to the one for my player.  It worked well for playing albums, but if I wanted a decent “shuffled” playlist (read: entire library on the player), I had to take special note of what songs I copied over (I wasn’t up for Metallica followed by Michael Buble..).  I decided to see what Automator could do.

My first workflow was simple — it pulled the contents from an iTunes playlist and did a file copy to the correct folder on my 2gb player.  It was good enough for a month or so.  I then started wanting “more”.

Without playlists, I had to find a different way to group songs — by artist, track name, genre.. but even if I picked similar songs, their genres didn’t always line up (the genres are correct IMHO).  I then wondered if Automator could change a genre in-transit from iTunes to device.  So far as I can tell, the answer is NO.  I can change the genres in iTunes then copy (thus destroying all the work I did getting my genres where I wanted them).

I wrote a couple “mac-happy” friends of mine asking for advise, and for any apps or utilities that could handle changing id3 tag information.  One of them wrote back with a link to this post, and to id3tool.  I learned that it is possible to execute shell/bash scripts and commands from within Automator (I’m kind of pissed that I didn’t figure that part out on my own), and that id3tool could change a tag from outside of iTunes.  The unfortunate problem here is that for this to work and to not screw up my library, I have to copy my files to an intermediate location, then change those files, then copy them to device, then wipe out the temp files.

My automator workflow (will) look something like this:

Get Playlist > Copy to Temp Dir > Blast with id3Tool > Copy Temp to Device > Delete Temp Files

This is fine for shorter playlists and small devices — the idea of saving 20gb of space to copy playlists to my zen frightens me in that I have better uses for 20gb, and I can’t imagine that hitting the files one-by-one with id3tool across 20gb would be fast (nevermind a 20gb file copy…).

For now, I’ll enjoy the cheap 2GB and 4GB players out there and use this workflow (once I finish it — I have to make id3tool play nice).  The 20GB Zen will just be me copying files in finder, and eventually I’ll pick up an iPod nano.

In the last year or so, I’ve had many hardware failures: laptops, mp3 players, dvd players, etc, and have had little to no money to replace things as they died.  I was fortunate enough to have a friend lend me a laptop (which I am using right now), found a cheapie DVD player at Walmart, and had several MP3 players that stepped it up when a couple of the more frequently used ones kicked the bucket.

They all died for various reasons:

• Laptop’s internal power distribution cooked itself, and it would have been cheaper to buy a new laptop.
• My main MP3 player randomly crashes and has issues holding a charge.  If I have a paper clip handy (or don’t skip around too much between tracks), it works great.. when plugged into a wall.
• My cell phone was a piece of crap to begin with (see previous posts regarding my Chocolate.)

I remember when I acquired these items back in the day how excited I was because I was being different by getting a Zen Sleek, or being cool by getting the LG Chocolate, only to have them crap out.  The laptop was a thinkpad that was 5+ years old when it died — it definitely took a beating and somehow survived that long.  I find myself trying to find ways to revive these somewhat-dead devices.  Here are my “repurposing” theories for my dead devices:

• The Thinkpad — it’s collecting dust — once I get a torx set, I’ll gut it for parts and recycle whatever is left.
• The Chocolate — It will become a tire block that I will rigorously test one day when I am in a foul mood.    I hated that phone, and would thoroughly enjoy being a part of its crushing demise!
• The Zen — I struggled with this player.  I loved it, but hated the complete and total lack of accessories for it.  I recently found a site with VERY reasonable prices on chargers (both wall and car) and hopefully the rest the Zen has received lately will make it more likely to play nice.

Hopefully I will have more on finding new uses for fallen heroes.. that’s all for now.

Dripping with sarcasm, I present the Florida Gators, who are so amazing that they can be at home playing Alabama, and be at Tennessee.. both at 3:30pm on CBS   I enjoy glitches like this.. reminds us all of the importance of CHECKING YOUR WORK (no, I’m not a math teacher now am I… ).

Screenshot is from TitanTV.  I don’t fault them for this as they’re leagues better than everyone else out there.

Went looking for per-seat pricing for applications like Matlab, Mathematica, and Maple, and ran across Sage Math.  I’ve spent about 10 minutes with it running and am VERY impressed.  It is VERY useful at the level I teach at (Algebra II mostly), but has power well beyond calculus.  A more in depth review is probably coming soon, but I can say that it is off to a GREAT start.  I’m also a fan of any application that moves towards being web-based.    More later..

Ok, so maybe it is tasty and delicious, but the LG Chocolate is neither.  I remember fondly the day I decided to order this phone.  I was nearing the end of an equipment cycle, and with all the incentives VZW threw at me, I got the phone for free.  I was going to finally have that piece of equipment that combined phone with music and calendaring.  I think at the time I had accepted that at some point I would need to buy the “accessory” pack to get the cable to do any kind of syncing.

That dream faded as I found better uses for that $30.  Then the phone died.  The Chocolate has a set of soft buttons that include send, clear, and navigation.  These buttons croaked.  I find phones are particularly ineffective when the send button is not operating correctly.  I called up VZW and started the “send me a new one” process moving forward.  This was after only 8 months.

I got my phone, restored my contacts, and all was well again in the universe.  Not more than two months later, my “new” (cough*refurbished*cough) Chocolate’s earpiece stopped working.  I was left to make and receive calls via speakerphone, which was a pain.  I called up VZW again, and feeling like a pro at this was able to provide the necessary information rather quickly (yes, I can see the red dots, I didn’t drop it in a lake).  They apologized and promptly sent out a second replacement.

So, I have my new (3rd times a charm?) LG Chocolate.  At this point I already hated the phone for any of the following reasons:

• The soft buttons are too touchy: it took forever to get used to them in the first place, and I was constantly reminded of this if someone ever borrowed my phone to make a call.
• Not a “in the pocket” phone: I often would hear my phone talking in my pocket because something had inadvertently hit the speech recognition button.  This would prompt me to turn the phone off.  I imagine this isn’t what a cell carrier wants you to do.  I can’t send/receive over-priced text messages and browse online when it’s off now can I?
• Two “core” functionality parts of the phone (call button and speaker) died in the first year.  A little better Q&A testing might have been in order (I can and will accept that I may have had a set of lemons.. but I’ve talked to enough people with similar experiences to know I am not alone).

So, the third Chocolate worked great until last week.  I turned my phone on one morning and only part of the phone lit up.  All of my buttons lit up in that awkward red color, but the LCD did not.  At first, I could see that if I positioned the phone “just so” on the sliding motion, I could see the screen flicker.  I then began thinking about whether this was a 3-times-a-charm moment, or a 3-strikes-you’re-out moment.  I went with the latter.  I am pretty sure if I called in to get another RMA, they’d apologize profusely, and promptly issue a new phone.  I never fault their customer service in these situations.  They accept the problem and fix it, with almost no questions asked.  But, I just don’t like the phone.  I never did.  It never lived up to the hype.  So, for the last week or two I’ve been making calls “from memory”, either that I already know the number, or that I remember the speed dial preset.

So,

• To LG: Better Q&A.
• To VZW: Pick a better company for cell phones.  I’ve heard nothing but crap about the LG nV (1st one).  Stick with moto and make LG pay for putting out sub par hardware.
• To me: stick with what works.  I have alternated Moto and LG phones for the last 6 or 7 years, and the motorola ones always seem to make more sense.  I am going out on a limb though by picking up a treo.  I imagine I’ll write about that in the next couple weeks once it arrives and I’ve had a chance to play with it.