so, uh... i wanna go back to linux

[johnny]

that certainly isn't a ringing endorsement..

to add the story of my ever-changing window managers: i think i've settled on pekwm (which i've been using for a week and a bit now). it's very customizable (and the config files are really simple to boot), and though it isn't a tiled window manager by design it can do tiling/grouping quite nicely. and another thing! the themes seem pretty easy to make, so i might have a go at making one of my own. but for now i'll stick to downloading themes from hewphoria.com and customizing them as i see fit.

and now something to complain about... apparently v2.4 was the last version of pypanel--they're done with actively developing it--so now that i've installed python 2.5 it's fucked up. i could do a "pacman --sync python2.4" and run it with "python24 /usr/bin/pypanel" but that seems like a bad solution to me. i don't want out-dated stuff that's just going to cause me problems i'm thinking of looking to perlpanel or fbpanel next, or maybe i'll just use xfce4-panel..

[raublekick]

yeah, pypanel is fucked in edgy as well. i saw your screenie on ubuntuforums, it looked nice. there is a how-to in one of the openbox threads with how to get pypanel working that might work with arch as well, but it seems like too much of a hassle personally.

[johnny]

downloading the ubuntu 7.04 beta cd to play around with it (doubt i'll bother to install, just see what the live cd is like).

[johnny]

hey, remember that perl script i hacked together to rip cds? this afternoon i decided to rewrite it in python. complete with cddb lookups! it needs pycddb, discid, and lame. i'm not sure if pycddb and discid are in the ubuntu repositories, but i'm sure they'd be easy to compile if they aren't.

the code:

import os, commands, PyCDDB

def cddblookup():
	# get the disc id, create a PyCDDB object, and do the lookup
	discid = commands.getoutput("discid")
	db = PyCDDB.PyCDDB()
	try:
		matches = db.query(discid)
	except ValueError:
		# since i'm not testing the value returned from
		# discid this is necessary (in case the drive has no disc)
		print "no cd in tha drive!? :("
		exit()

	# did i find anything?
	if len(matches) > 0:
		if len(matches) > 1:
			# shit: multiple matches.. give the user a choice
			print "multiple matches for this cd.  choose of the following:"
			for i in range(len(matches)):
				artist, album = matches[i]['title'].split(" / ", 1)
				print "%d - %s by %s (%s)" % (i + 1, album, artist, matches[i]['category'])
			matchidx = input("enter the number of the correct match: ")
			matchidx = matchidx - 1
		else:
			# easy: one match (hope it's correct!)
			matchidx = 0
		albuminfo = db.read(matches[matchidx])
	
	else:
		# no results.. for now i'll be lazy and exit()
		print "cddb lookup failed, or no results found :["
		exit()
	return albuminfo

def ripandencode(albuminfo, enccmd):
	# rip *.wav files with cdparanoia
	ripstatus = os.system("cdparanoia -B")
	#print "cdparanoia -B"
	#raw_input()
	# encode mp3s using lame
	for track in range(len(albuminfo['TTITLE'])):
		if track < 10:
			tnum = "0" + str(track + 1)
		else:
			tnum = str(track + 1)
		lamecmd = enccmd.replace("%NUM%", tnum)
		lamecmd = lamecmd.replace("%TITLE%", albuminfo['TTITLE'][track])
		lamecmd = lamecmd.replace("%ALBUM%", album)
		lamecmd = lamecmd.replace("%ARTIST%", artist)
		encstatus = os.system(lamecmd)
		#print lamecmd
		#raw_input()
	print "done!"

if __name__ == "__main__":
	lamecmd = "lame -V 4 --tn %NUM% --tt \"%TITLE%\" --tl \"%ALBUM%\" --ta \"%ARTIST%\" track%NUM%.cdda.wav \"%NUM% - %TITLE%.mp3\""
	albuminfo = cddblookup()
	# i have the shit from cddb--ask if it's good before i rip
	artist, album = albuminfo['DTITLE'].split(" / ", 1)
	print "%s by %s" % (album, artist)
	for track in range(len(albuminfo['TTITLE'])):
		print "%02d. %s" % (track + 1, albuminfo['TTITLE'][track])
	gogogo = raw_input("rip and encode this cd? (y/n): ")
	if gogogo == "y":
		# rip with cdparanoia and encode mp3z with lame
		ripandencode(albuminfo, lamecmd)
	else:
		exit()

it's a bit ugly right now, but it gets the job done. there are some spots where i ought to return some sort of error code, or throw an exception (from the cddblookup() function) rather than just do an exit(), but i got lazy.

if you comment the two calls to os.system(...) and uncomment the print and raw_input() statements below each, you can see all the commands it will run without actually ripping anything.

to-do:

• change it so it handles multiple cd devices (right now you'd have to edit the calls to discid and cdparanoia in the script)
• add some sort of configuration file so a user can customize what sort of command is used to encode the *.wav files that cdparanoia produces (you could use a custom lame, oggenc, etc. command), and so they can customize the file naming scheme
• delete the *.wav files when it's done (maybe put an option in the config file to keep them)
• make the output nicer
• maybe think about doing up a gui (i hate coding that shit )

[raublekick]

yo that is pretty solid! i would use that for sure if there was a way to add your own info and / or edit the CDDB info.



Debian 4.0 is out for anyone who wants to go back to last year LOL

[johnny]

eventually i'm going to make that script better.. i'm just a slacker.

i finally got my laptop up and running again. i ended up doing a floppy/ftp install of arch (cd drive is fucked). i had some problems with all that kernel panic business, but now everything is working fine. i haven't installed X yet.. just been learning how to use gnu screen, which is pretty nifty. this machine is usually pretty slow, so i might just go without X and a window manager, etc.. as long as i can find decent console-based solutions to all the things i might do on this machine (i don't use this laptop very much..)

[raublekick]

i wan to learn sceren so bad

[johnny]

heh, sceren.. :P

i've been looking through some documentation for screen, and for the most part it's pretty simple. loads of keyboard shortcuts to remember, though.. what i'm having more difficulty with is the ~/.screenrc file. i've been looking at sample files online, and some of them are pretty ugly.

another thing which has piqued my interest in the past few days is LaTeX. so i've been reading docs for that too.

[raublekick]

mmm... feisty

[johnny]

so, how is it? has the installer improved? the installer used to always get my resolution wrong -- can you choose resolutions in the livecd installer now?

post your thoughts!

[Mr Biglesworth]

NERDS!

I'm still yet to try Linux, though I'm curious to. I'm getting a laptop when I go back to school, so I could possibly throw it on there.

[raublekick]

Well it's uh... not really too different on the surface. Gnome 2.18 is nice, and the new little codec add ons and the restricted driver stuff is nice. It's a bit zippier and banshee doesn't crash all the time, at least not yet!

Senior Baglesforth, there are tons of Live CDs, so if you just want a good, but slow, preview, check one out!

[johnny]

i've decided i'm going to install feisty on my desktop. i'm definitely going to stick with arch on my laptop -- arch is great for slower machines -- but i think i'll go back to running ubuntu on my desktop. it's just a bit simpler. as much as i enjoy some of the extra challenges that come with configuring a good arch setup.. i think i'd like for my desktop (main computer that i use) to just work without much fuss. for the most part it does work fine with arch, but every now and then something else will come up..

[johnny]

ah, another change of plans..! i figured i'd have a go at a gnome desktop in arch before i went all out and replaced arch with feisty. gnome 2.18 is pretty damn nice. also i've been using epiphany instead of firefox -- epiphany is much better, i say.

[raublekick]

is there any sort of compatibility between firefox plugins and epiphany plugins? i do like epiphany a lot, i just need some firefox plugins.

[johnny]

iunno. i don't really use any plugins or extensions, except flash. so it works fine for me.

[johnny]

so i've been using exaile and it's really nice. is there a way to make the osd always on instead of only displaying when the song changes? maybe there's a plugin fer that?

[raublekick]

hmm no idea, i haven't been using exaile for a few months now. i've been giving banshee a go and have started to like it a lot more.

[johnny]

so pidgin 2.0 is finally here! i really like the new logo and icons.

[raublekick]

yeah the new look is solid, but i'm happy with Gaim on Feisty right now so i'm not in a hurry to upgrade.


Life with Feisty has been pretty boring... I mean, everything has been working well :-/ I have everything set up how I want it, I haven't changed themes in a while, and so on.

The only real complaint I have is that compiz is a bit slow, but hey, I didn't have to jump through hoops to get it working.