Amazon MP3 Downloader
I bought the new Snow Patrol album the other night.
Usually, when I buy music, I use iTunes because it it so easy and they really execute it well. I can buy a track on my iPhone from where ever I am, as long as I'm on a wifi connection. But, then I get the DRM and the headaches that brings along (I can't put it on a non-IPOD MP3 player, for example, so one of my kids can listen to it).
But this time, I didn't bother with iTunes and tried out Amazon's new MP3 service. Although it's not as convenient as iTunes and I had to boot up the ol' computer to use it, it allowed me to download the tracks as MP3 format--completely DRM free. It added the tracks (with all the right ID3 tags, etc) straight into iTunes and Windows Media Player. I paid for the music like an adult and they treated me like an adult.
To use Amazon's MP3 service, you just add the album to your shopping basket like everything else, and then download an MP3 downloader program which is a little window that does nothing but lists the tracks it's downloading.
The process is very smooth. I am also able to listen to the tracks on my Ubuntu laptop without any fuss.
I mentioned how nice this service is to someone the other day (well, more than just one someone) and was asked, "You actually paid for the music?"
Yes. Yes I did. It cost me only around £6.50 (but older albums are £3), and I can listen to it completely guilt-free.
Anyway, if you buy music, give the Amazon service a try. It's nice to see some decent competition out there for iTunes.
Nike+ plugin from ear-fung.us
I've been messing around with the Nike+ api and C# for a while now. It's one of the projects I play with to keep my skills up before heading off to work. One of the big influences of this project is the Wordpress API developed by Mark at www.ear-fung.us.
Since moving back to Wordpress from Dasblog, I havent' been able to get this working because of my windows host. Now, after a few weeks of migration, I've finally moved to a Linux VPS. You can see my 3 most recent runs on the right-hand menu. Thanks Mark.
Nike+ C# code
A lot of people are emailing me with problems they are having downloading the Nike+ api code from Google Code. In order to access it, you need a google api login and password. This sucks, I know.
I will try to find a more open svn repository for this. I use some for Overpass, but don't really want to mix my pet project with it. For the meantime, here is the project as it stands now. If you are finding this post at a day later than 28 January 2009, you might want to look for a future post where I give more up to date source code.
The is mostly the API, so don't expect a nice GUI. However, I have included a windows app which I use for quick tests. I also have some unit tests, but these need to be maintained a little better. My plan was to work on this a bit more before releasing it, but a lot of people seem to be looking for something like this.
http://www.wroolie.co.uk/files/Nike+.zip
There is no rocket science here. The only difficult bit is connecting to Nike+. You can lift the code from this project if you want to. Ideally, see if you can access the SVN repository. If you add anything cool to it, please let me know. I mostly work on this when I have a few spare minutes here and there (and I don't have much of those), so it would be nice to see it grow or see if it is used anywhere interesting.
Credit Crunch Video
Charles Nwokolo, a friend and former colleague, has posted this video on You tube regarding the credit crunch:
If you like it, be sure to go to youtube and leave a comment:
CSS Revisited
I've read a lot about CSS back in 2000 or so and had pretty much exhausted the subject. In fact, I'm very proud of my css knowledge. I read the entire CSS1 W3C specification.
But hat was a long time ago. Yesterday morning I started reading CSS Mastery, which I picked up from the Marylebone library for a quick thumb-through. CSS has changed a lot and browsers are more strict in terms of compliance--making some of my layout methods obsolete.
Being an IE4/5 and Netscape designer is a lot difference than a IE6/7 and Firefox designer. Here are a few things I need to break out of the habit of doing:
- Using tables for layout (I think in terms of nested tables)
- Not declaring my doc-types accurately
- Mixing Presentation (width, height, nospan, etc) with markup
I know I'm not alone in these shortcomings, but I've always been a believer that you need to code to current standards, and not just code until it looks okay when you refresh your browser. Otherwise, a new browser gets released and the old forgiving browser you tested on goes away.
Anyway, my eyes are opened after the first few chapters. Question though: will CSS soon be irrelevant in the Silverlight / Flex world?
Taking a half day for history
I took a half-day off yesterday so I could be home to watch the inauguration at 4pm. I think most people watched it live. Even though it is so easy to record it (especially in the age of hdd recorders), it's the kind of thing you want to experience with everyone else, as it happens.
This inauguration was more like a holiday. I can't remember so much excitement before.
I remember watching the George Bush (senior) inauguration speech in Algebra class when I was in the 11th grade. I never paid much attention to the Clinton or Bush Jr festivities.
So, it was a nice afternoon off. Like most people, I feel relieved. It's finally over with.
Saw My First Hindi Film
This weekend I watched my first Hindi film. I know I could have watched one without taking a Hindi course first, but this was the whole reason I wanted to watch it.
I searched the local Blockbuster for films in Hindi, but it's a small town and they don't really have any. So, I ordered a few from LoveFilm and finally had one delivered last week.
I watched Chak De, a film about the a national India Woman's hockey team. I really enjoyed the movie. I found out from friends at work that it's a very popular international film. I guess I shouldn't feel too multi-cultural for having watched it, then.
The movie was really good, but I was surprised at how long it was. It was almost two and a half hours. Just when I thought it was over, it had an "Intermission" card go across the screen.
In terms of Hindi practice, despite being a Novice, I understood a lot that I could identify. My favourite sentences were the really short ones like "Con?" and "Kew?" and I was surprised how much English was thrown in.
My favourite scene was the fight in a McDonald's. I'm a simple man.
When I watch Chinese movies to practice language, they always seem very different than a Hollywood movie. It could be that my sampling is too small, I suppose-- but they always seem to be very artsy. This movie could have been a Hollywood movie easy.
I have a few more films selected on LoveFilm, but they seem to be very slow in sending them.
Jailbroke my iPhone
I spent a bit of time this morning learning how to jailbreak an iPhone. Still playing with it, but I really like the way you can customize everything.
Nike+ API on Google Code
I've been working on this API off and on for a while now.
I have a Google Code repository where it is hosted.
I've put the code at https://nikepluscsharp.googlecode.com/svn/trunk
The unit tests are working quite the way I would like them to. I mentioned this in a post I did last year and never put any real projects up.
The (so far) very blank project pages are located at:
http://code.google.com/p/nikepluscsharp/
Any problems you see with the code, please let me know.
About Eric Wroolie
Eric Wroolie is a software developer specialising in project Outsourcing and Offshoring.
As a software developer since 1998, he has built applications for Barclays Capital, BBC, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Omega Logic.
In 2004, he founded Overpass, a company that provides offshoring services to UK and US organisations.
He is a San Diego native who has spent the last 10 years living in England and working in London.
Eric speaks Chinese Mandarin and served in the US Army as a Mandarin and Vietnamese linguist.
In addition to being able to speak Mandarin, Eric can juggle three balls for almost twenty seconds, and make fart noises using his hands only (this is more difficult than it sounds-- try it).
Eric has an MCSD in Visual Basic 6 and previous languages, but now works with .Net. He holds ScrumMaster Certification with Scrum Alliance.
Eric on Twitter
- Slept in until 6:30. Went back to bed after ten minutes when I got up at 4. I'm being hit by mid-week fatigue. 1 day ago
- @jiffer I thought the Power of Less was alright, but not fantastic. If you've never read GTD (and who hasn't read that!), it's fine. Okay. in reply to jiffer 3 days ago
- @AlexBowman I was with you until you got to "sushi role" in reply to AlexBowman 3 days ago
- 3 mile run this morning. Also did a couple of hours work for a client. Baseball season is only a month away! 3 days ago
- Finished reading Linchpin by Seth Godin. Really enjoyed the book. Now I'm on "Power of Less" by Leo Babauta. 1 week ago
- More updates...
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