r3dux.org

Super simple tune but it’s catchy as all hell & v. feelgood!! Definitely stuff to make ya smile…

The WebMail plugin has been a trusty, appreciated boon to everyone wanting to get their hotmail/yahoo/gmail through a proper email client for years.

But due to the way providers re-jig their login mechanisms now and then, it just breaks. And breaks. Then breaks again. Not a bad word to the plugin authors – there’s nothing they can do about it, and it’s the prerogative of the email provider to setup their login and authentication mechanisms however they damn well see fit. But FFS – it’s email, you know? Can it just work, and stay working?

Following on from gmail offering POP and SMTP access for the last year or two, Hotmail now offers its own POP and SMTP servers – which means the WebMail plugin is no longer needed for Thunderbird, or personally by any webmail I use.

To modify your accounts in Thunderbird / Eudora etc – just set your hotmail accounts to the following details and you’re all set:

* Type: POP
* Server Name: pop3.live.com
* User Name: Your FULL email address
* Port: 995 (this should be automatically set when you select SSL)
* Use secure connection: SSL
* Use secure authentication: leave unchecked

If you want to use their SMTP server select “Outgoing Server (SMTP)” and press the Add button.

* Server Name: smtp.live.com
* Port: 587 (you could also use port 25 if your ISP doesn’t block it)
* Use name and password: Check it
* Username: Your FULL email address
* Use secure connection: TLS

Went to the Melbourne Show on Sunday and way fun it was too! =D

Rides, show-bags (kinda product bags with varied degrees of mixed stuff in ‘em depending on the theme.. I got Warheads and Jim’s Jerky bags, while the kids had a mix of lolly bags), Motobike jumping [which was absolutely insane!!], Pig Racing AND Pig Diving! That’s right – BOTH! Because… well, yeah. It was just on, okay? And of course, a as many samplers as we could get our hands on.

[View with PicLens]

Top notch day out.

Continuing my ongoing fascination with the Josh Joplin Group, I’ve been listening to “Here I Am” a bunch recently… It starts a little slow, but the chorus is just bj00tiful =D

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here I am and I don’t have much to say
It seems so strange to stare at you and to feel
This way
Feel this way

Here I am and I don’t really know this time
The phone can ring off the hook I don’t mind
I don’t mind

I don’t mind (Love is lonely)
I don’t mind (Love is cruel)
I don’t mind (Love is only for a fool)

So here I am and I’m not really sure right now
Shut up the shade the light’s too bright
And I don’t feel so well
Feel so well

Feel so well (Love is lonely)
Feel so well (Love is cruel)
Feel so well (Love is only for a fool)

Here I am and I don’t really care this time
The record skips and stammers the beat and
Repeats the line
Repeats the line

Repeats the line (Love is lonely)
Repeats the line (Love is cruel)
Repeats the line (Love is only for a fool)

So here I am…

I grabbed a bunch of FLAC files the other day, and as nice as they sound, I don’t think ~30-40MB per track is acceptable, so I did a bit of research and stumbled across this great post on LinuxTutorialBlog.

Turns out there’s a dead simple GUI based tool called SoundConverter – which really is as simple as pointing it at a directory and configuring your transcoding preferences (mp3, ogg, file-naming etc). A swift sudo apt-get install soundcoverter and a couple of clicks later and the job’s done.

If you really want a bash method, there’s a bunch of scripts and links in tfa, such as this one by Octavio Ruiz :

#!/bin/bash
#
# Copyright 2008 Octavio Ruiz
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3
# $Header: $
#
# Yet Another FLAC to MP3 script
#
# Author:
# Octavio Ruiz (Ta^3) <tacvbo@tacvbo.net>
# Modification/Fixage:
# r3dux
# Thanks:
# Those comments at:
# http://www.linuxtutorialblog.com/post/solution-converting-flac-to-mp3
# WebPage:
# https://github.com/tacvbo/yaflac2mp3/tree
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. YOU USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE AUTHOR
# WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR DATA LOSS, DAMAGES, LOSS OF PROFITS OR ANY
# OTHER KIND OF LOSS WHILE USING OR MISUSING THIS SOFTWARE.
# See the GNU General Public License for more details.
 
LAME_OPTS="-V 0 -q 0 --vbr-new"
 
id3v2=$(which id3v2)
old_IFS=${IFS}
IFS=''
files=( `find . -type f -name '*flac'` )
 
for N_files in ${!files[@]}
do
vars=( `metaflac --no-utf8-convert --export-tags-to=- "${files[${N_files}]}"` )
 
for N_vars in ${!vars[@]}
do
    export "$(echo "${vars[${N_vars}]%=*}" | tr [:upper:] [:lower:])=${vars[${N_vars}]#*=}"
done
 
flac -dc "${files[${N_files}]}" |\
    lame ${LAME_OPTS} --ignore-tag-errors --add-id3v2 \
        ${artist:+--ta} ${artist} \
        ${tracknumber:+--tn} ${tracknumber} \
        ${title:+--tt} ${title} \
        ${album:+--tl} ${album} \
        ${date:+--ty} ${date} \
        ${genre:+--tg} ${genre} \
        ${comment:+--tc} ${comment} \
        - "${files[${N_files}]/\.flac/.mp3}"
 
    [[ -x ${id3v2} ]] && ${id3v2} \
        ${artist:+--artist} ${artist} \
        ${tracknumber:+--track} ${tracknumber} \
        ${title:+--song} ${title} \
        ${album:+--album} ${album} \
        ${date:+--year} ${date} \
        ${genre:+--genre} ${genre} \
        ${comment:+--comment} ${comment} \
        "${files[${N_files}]/\.flac/.mp3}"
 
done
IFS=${old_IFS}

I’ve modded the LAME_OPTS line in the above script to use the -q 0 switch in lame (so it uses the highest quality algorithm it can), and changed the order of when the ${LAME_OPTS) options are passed to lame, which results in them actually being honoured. Which is nice. Should you have any specific encoding goals, you can always browse through the lame switches and mod it to your hearts content.

Sweet like chocolate =D

Note: To run the above script, just copy & paste into a file, maybe flac2mp3.sh or something, then chmod +x flac2mp3.sh to make it executable and run it on a folder like flac2mp3.sh MyFolderOfFLACFiles.