Wednesday, July 27. 2005
ALSA, Good Weather
Does anyone know anything about ALSA device name and plugs? The new Xine Config dialog is kind of full thanks to the fact that xine has a different configuration for sound devices depending on how many channels are being played.
For instance, by default the mono device for xine-lib is simply default and 6-channel sound is plug:surround51:0
Would there by some way to let the user specify which device they want to use (that's the goal, let users who have two sound cards specify which they want) and have that apply to all the channel settings? I don't think users have a need to change the plug settings, so it seems like it should be possible. I've looked at the xine-lib source code, it appears the device is being sent directly to the ALSA lib more or less.
And now I refer you to Konversation's /weather script:
Current Weather for Columbia, Columbia Regional Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 71.1°F, Pressure: 30.15" Hg, Wind: 10 MPH N
To translate, its great weather. Missouri's weather could be described as polarized: it can get really cold in winter and really hot in the summer. The Intermediate Value Theorem means its occasionally nice. Today is one of those days. Yesterday a cold front brought in some needed rain and today we're somehow having the cold front without the rain. Nice especially since we've just had a week or so of body temperature weather (to express it in a metric/imperial-neutral fashion).
So when I went to desposit my check at the bank I proceded to go down a path to a creek and watch fishs for about 15 minutes. Then I skipped a few rocks, remembered I'm not any good at that, and just starting throwing large rocks.
For instance, by default the mono device for xine-lib is simply default and 6-channel sound is plug:surround51:0
Would there by some way to let the user specify which device they want to use (that's the goal, let users who have two sound cards specify which they want) and have that apply to all the channel settings? I don't think users have a need to change the plug settings, so it seems like it should be possible. I've looked at the xine-lib source code, it appears the device is being sent directly to the ALSA lib more or less.
And now I refer you to Konversation's /weather script:
Current Weather for Columbia, Columbia Regional Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 71.1°F, Pressure: 30.15" Hg, Wind: 10 MPH N
To translate, its great weather. Missouri's weather could be described as polarized: it can get really cold in winter and really hot in the summer. The Intermediate Value Theorem means its occasionally nice. Today is one of those days. Yesterday a cold front brought in some needed rain and today we're somehow having the cold front without the rain. Nice especially since we've just had a week or so of body temperature weather (to express it in a metric/imperial-neutral fashion).
So when I went to desposit my check at the bank I proceded to go down a path to a creek and watch fishs for about 15 minutes. Then I skipped a few rocks, remembered I'm not any good at that, and just starting throwing large rocks.
ALSA, Good Weather
Does anyone know anything about ALSA device name and plugs? The new Xine Config dialog is kind of full thanks to the fact that xine has a different configuration for sound devices depending on how many channels are being played.
For instance, by default the mono device for xine-lib is simply default and 6-channel sound is plug:surround51:0
Would there by some way to let the user specify which device they want to use (that's the goal, let users who have two sound cards specify which they want) and have that apply to all the channel settings? I don't think users have a need to change the plug settings, so it seems like it should be possible. I've looked at the xine-lib source code, it appears the device is being sent directly to the ALSA lib more or less.
And now I refer you to Konversation's /weather script:
Current Weather for Columbia, Columbia Regional Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 71.1°F, Pressure: 30.15" Hg, Wind: 10 MPH N
To translate, its great weather. Missouri's weather could be described as polarized: it can get really cold in winter and really hot in the summer. The Intermediate Value Theorem means its occasionally nice. Today is one of those days. Yesterday a cold front brought in some needed rain and today we're somehow having the cold front without the rain. Nice especially since we've just had a week or so of body temperature weather (to express it in a metric/imperial-neutral fashion).
So when I went to desposit my check at the bank I proceded to go down a path to a creek and watch fishs for about 15 minutes. Then I skipped a few rocks, remembered I'm not any good at that, and just starting throwing large rocks.
Patch For Scrollbars Without Arrow Buttons
Patch For Scrollbars Without Arrow Buttons
Friday, July 15. 2005
The Rules of IRC Support
After finally getting my act together, I have written down the rules for IRC support that I've been playing around with for so long While they exist on my website, I was told that it would be a good topic for my first blog entry 
So, here you go:
You are on IRC, and we are here to help eachother. You are always allowed to ask a question, so asking for permission to ask a question is entirely silly, and will only increase the time between your wishing an answer to a question and getting the actual answer. Introductions are good, but don't wait for a response before asking your question.
To be able to give a good answer, the question must also be a good one. Make sure when you construct your inquiry that you are exhaustive when describing the problem. This could be the version of the program, the versions of any libraries that might be interesting, which operating system and version you are running the program on, or indeed any other relevant information. In short, give people information to work with. Saying that the program doesn't work is hardly enough information to be able to give you a proper solution to remedying that situation.
IRC may be instant communication, however a concept exists on IRC called idling, something which means that while people's names might appear in the list of names of the people in an IRC channel, they may not actually be physically present at the computer. Sometimes they may have gone off for a longer while, maybe even to work or elsewhere that might take hours until they return. What this means is that, while the person with the answer to your question may be present in the user list, they might not be able to answer your question before a while later, sometimes even hours.
So, remember to wait. Asking a question and then only waiting a few minutes before quitting is not helpful, neither to you or the person who might be able to help you out. They are there to help you, they would in all probability not be there otherwise, but if you won't wait around and let them help you, you are not letting them help you.
If the answer to a question is for example "Read the FAQ", it means that you are in no way the first person to ask the question, and that an answer is already available elsewhere. So, remember to try helping yourself first, before asking others to do it for you. Documents were written to help you, by people who want to help you, they were not written to take up space on a website.
After you have received your help, remember that you are now in possession of information that could help someone else with the same problem. You are now in a position where you can help others. Just as people have helped you, others might now benefit greatly from your help.
When presenting others with help, remember that you were in this position yourself once. These people are not stupid, they have simply not yet received the knowledge you possess.
While they exist on my website, I was told that it would be a good topic for my first blog entry So, here you go:1 Ask, don't ask to ask
You are on IRC, and we are here to help eachother. You are always allowed to ask a question, so asking for permission to ask a question is entirely silly, and will only increase the time between your wishing an answer to a question and getting the actual answer. Introductions are good, but don't wait for a response before asking your question.
2 Be exhaustive
To be able to give a good answer, the question must also be a good one. Make sure when you construct your inquiry that you are exhaustive when describing the problem. This could be the version of the program, the versions of any libraries that might be interesting, which operating system and version you are running the program on, or indeed any other relevant information. In short, give people information to work with. Saying that the program doesn't work is hardly enough information to be able to give you a proper solution to remedying that situation.
3 Wait
IRC may be instant communication, however a concept exists on IRC called idling, something which means that while people's names might appear in the list of names of the people in an IRC channel, they may not actually be physically present at the computer. Sometimes they may have gone off for a longer while, maybe even to work or elsewhere that might take hours until they return. What this means is that, while the person with the answer to your question may be present in the user list, they might not be able to answer your question before a while later, sometimes even hours.
So, remember to wait. Asking a question and then only waiting a few minutes before quitting is not helpful, neither to you or the person who might be able to help you out. They are there to help you, they would in all probability not be there otherwise, but if you won't wait around and let them help you, you are not letting them help you.
4 Help yourself
If the answer to a question is for example "Read the FAQ", it means that you are in no way the first person to ask the question, and that an answer is already available elsewhere. So, remember to try helping yourself first, before asking others to do it for you. Documents were written to help you, by people who want to help you, they were not written to take up space on a website.
5 Give back to others
After you have received your help, remember that you are now in possession of information that could help someone else with the same problem. You are now in a position where you can help others. Just as people have helped you, others might now benefit greatly from your help.
6 Remember yourself
When presenting others with help, remember that you were in this position yourself once. These people are not stupid, they have simply not yet received the knowledge you possess.
Why Today is Good
A couple of weeks ago I figured out I could quit my job about a month and a half early (I had been planning to quit the last week of August) and have enough money. Meaning that if I kept on working, that would be greedy, and I can't have that. ^^ Probably more relevant I need to work on a couple of websites before school starts. So, I gave my two-week-notice with today as my last day since its also the end of this pay period.
Only later did I put two and two together and realize that its also the night of the Harry Potter release. I had already been looking forward to today, since I get off work at 23:00 about two blocks from the Barnes and Noble. Some friends I haven't in a while should be there as well.
So while today should be awesome, I predict work will progress very slowly. Consider this perfect storm:
Outside of the website work, I should also start having time to get back into amaroK development. Here is my personal todo list, published to provide some pressure on myself:
Only later did I put two and two together and realize that its also the night of the Harry Potter release. I had already been looking forward to today, since I get off work at 23:00 about two blocks from the Barnes and Noble. Some friends I haven't in a while should be there as well.
So while today should be awesome, I predict work will progress very slowly. Consider this perfect storm:
- Last day of work
- Almost to the end of a two year wait for Harry Potter 6
- Its a slow season, so there isn't much work. I've been working the book sorting line, but there aren't actually that many books. I started reading some Beowolf yesterday and read almost all of Lysistrata the day before, it was surprisingly funny.
Outside of the website work, I should also start having time to get back into amaroK development. Here is my personal todo list, published to provide some pressure on myself:
- An album tagger of some sort. Right now I'm leaning towards using Amazon.com data.
- Better integrated .cue file support. I've been listening to books and it would be nice to have an easy way to "bookmark" where I left off.
- amaroK needs non-crappy remote playlist support. Right now it just relies on the filename extension. Looking at the Kaffeine code, this isn't an easy problem. Perhaps there should be a taglib for playlist decoding.
Why Today is Good
A couple of weeks ago I figured out I could quit my job about a month and a half early (I had been planning to quit the last week of August) and have enough money. Meaning that if I kept on working, that would be greedy, and I can't have that. ^^ Probably more relevant I need to work on a couple of websites before school starts. So, I gave my two-week-notice with today as my last day since its also the end of this pay period.
Only later did I put two and two together and realize that its also the night of the Harry Potter release. I had already been looking forward to today, since I get off work at 23:00 about two blocks from the Barnes and Noble. Some friends I haven't in a while should be there as well.
So while today should be awesome, I predict work will progress very slowly. Consider this perfect storm:
- Last day of work
- Almost to the end of a two year wait for Harry Potter 6
- Its a slow season, so there isn't much work. I've been working the book sorting line, but there aren't actually that many books. I started reading some Beowolf yesterday and read almost all of Lysistrata the day before, it was surprisingly funny.
Outside of the website work, I should also start having time to get back into amaroK development. Here is my personal todo list, published to provide some pressure on myself:
- An album tagger of some sort. Right now I'm leaning towards using Amazon.com data.
- Better integrated .cue file support. I've been listening to books and it would be nice to have an easy way to "bookmark" where I left off.
- amaroK needs non-crappy remote playlist support. Right now it just relies on the filename extension. Looking at the Kaffeine code, this isn't an easy problem. Perhaps there should be a taglib for playlist decoding.
Friday, July 1. 2005
porting amaroK to windows
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