Announcing the Debut of Tech Talk on RadioFreeG

Hello everyone,

Just announcing a new internet radio segment that I am working on.

I have been approached by RadioFreeG, himself to produce short tech themed segment on his show to discuss relevent issues or helpful information.

The first episode is available here. In it, I expose how Apple gives iPhone application developers the shaft after they pay Apple to be a developer, and spend weeks and months of their own time to develop an application, only to find they are not allowed to compete with Apple's application.

I also discuss how Google's Android phone OS will trump the iPhone and all of its bullshit.

Take a listen and then come back to leave your feedback, or request future topics.

UPDATED - October 21

A few articles to highlight the differences between Google and Apple:

Podcaster rejeceted because it duplicates iTunes functionality

Google Opens Up Android Codebase

Apple to iPhone Developers: Don’t Compete With Us?

Full Review of the T-Mobile G1 Android Device

Apple Censors App Store Rejection Notices

Apple Allows Lotus On iPhone (After Banning Competitor)

Why the Kill Switch Makes Sense for Android, and Not for iPhone

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Extract Audio from Video

Did you ever watch a YouTube video and think "I wish I could download that song"?

Well now you can. In fact, if you can download the video, chances are you can get the song from it.

First, you need the audio extraction software.

Go to AOA Media and download AoA Audio Extractor, it's freeware, so you don't have to pay for it. If any other software catches your eye, by all means purchase it. In the meantime we will move on.

Install "AoA Audio Extractor".

The software will convert AVI, MPEG, MPG, DAT, FLV (Flash Video), WMV/ASF, MOV, MP4, 3GP to MP3, WAV, and AC3.

Now get your video. If it is from YouTube, go HERE to download it. Copy the exact address of the YouTube video you want the audio from, and paste it into the box and hit "Get Video". The video will download as "get_video". You should add ".flv" to the end before saving.

Then run AoA Audio Extractor to extract the audio.

Voila! Done!

Further audio editing can be achieved with Audacity.

Here are a few jingles I was able to capture from YouTube, as an example.

Mini-Wheats Vanilla Commercial
Mini-Wheats Strawberry Commercial
Mini-Wheats Cinnamon Commercial



"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Oh my God! That's Cla-a-a-a-sic!

Promotional fee paid by the folks mentioned at above. Follow a link and help out "Don't Cross the Streams".

Greetings everyone,

For the longest time, I had been mulling over creating a collection of relatively popular classical music. Not "classical music" in the strictest definition. This refers to music composed between 1730 – 1820.

But I was looking for all instrumental pieces, for orchestra, preferably written before 1950. Yes, quite broad (it includes some opera pieces as well).

My search was really slow, since I rarely know the actual name of the piece that I was thinking of.

Then I stumbled across Kick Ass Classical, and the searching blasted off! The site has streaming audio clips of almost one hundred familiar "classical" tunes. This site is sweet and a highly recommended site for springboard from in search of completing your own collections. You'd be surprised at how many you will recognize.

Suddenly I was armed with titles and composers with which to search. The following sites were extremely fruitful:

http://www.downloading-music.org/: A very good site for finding music file links.
Tom.com: This site is in an Asian font, but it handles English titles.
Classic Cat: Another site that links you to audio files of classical performances.

Now, Classical music may not be as hip or as cool as some of the stuff played on the internet radio show CLIMAX RADIO, but it is excellent background music when you want to relax or are doing chores.

Note to Mr. Magnum and RadioFreeG, don't worry, I won't be submitting any Classical pieces to the show.

Another great resource that goes without saying, is bittorrent. Through this I found "The Classic Experience", "Classic Experience II", and "Classic Experience III". I'm still looking for "Classic Experience IV", so if anyone locates the file, post a link in the comments section of this post.

I've pretty much completed my collection, I've downloaded pretty much every piece recommended by Kick Ass Classical, and I must admit, its a pretty well-rounded collection.

So until next time, keep those Classical ears open, and keep on having fun!

To whet you appetite, I've posted the following YouTube video entitled "Cannon Rock".

Enjoy!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

♫ New Radio Show Promos! ♬

And now I present, new audio spots by Climax Radio, and T & M's Voices!

Play Promo

Play Promo

When you're listening to these guys, you can't help but keep on having fun!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Edge's "Ongoing History of New Music" in Your Pocket

If you're from Toronto, you know 102.1 the Edge as a famous local radio station dedicated to new music.

You'll also know that the station manager has a weekly show called The Ongoing History of New Music. A great show, but at almost an hour long, you usually can't listen to it in one sitting. They offer a stream off of their website (above) and a random podcast, but no real way download the shows you want to listen to to your mp3 player.

Or is there?

Well Stream Crossers, I, Soundwave, have cracked the code! Their internet site actually streams mp3's, which means that somewhere out there in www-land is a pile of Edge radio shows, just waiting to be listened to. But how?

1) Go to The Ongoing History of New Music and find the show you want to hear.

2) Click on it and a new window will open and the show will soon start playing. Right click on the page, and click on "Show Source". If you didn't get that option, you clicked on a flash portion, try again somewhere else.

3) A window with the source code will pop up. Somewhere on the site you will see a code like this: OHNM0559_01

4) That code represents the episode and segment (ie show0559, segment 1). Every episode has 4 segments.

5) Now in your browser, type in http://bstreamcorus.streamtheworld.com/OHNM/OHNM0546_01.mp3 (replace the code with that of the episode you want). Hit enter and save the segment to disk.

6) Now do this three more times, changing the _01 to _02,_03, and _04. Repeat with each episode you want.

Update (2008-11-18): If you are following steps 5 & 6 and Quicktime is playing the mp3 in the browser and won't let you download the file, here are some options:

1) Disable Quicktime from playing mp3's. If you are using Firefox 3, go to Tools > Options, then click on Applications. Here you can specify what happens with particular file types. Look for mp3 under content type and change the Action to Save or Always ask. If part of the Content Type is hidden because the column is too narrow, just hover the mouse over it and a small pop up will appear with the full text.

This option can be reversed afterwards.

2) Install the "Down them all" extension. Then after restarting Firefox, go to Tools > Manager. Then click on Add URL's and paste the mp3 link into the pop-up box. Don't forget to add the target folder as well.

The extension can also be uninstalled when you are finished if you want.

3) If the above doesn't work, open Quicktime, then go to Edit > Preferences > Quicktime Preferences. Go to the Browser tab, and uncheck "Play movies automatically". This works in Firefox and IE.

4) Also, you can stop Quicktime from loading in the background at boot time (in Windows) by going to Start > Run. Then type msconfig and click OK. The System Configuration Utility will pop up. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck the entry for QTTask. Then click OK. You may need to reboot for this to work.

If you have Firefox, you can use DownThemAll, and the Make Numbered List bookmarklet to download them all at the same time.

1) Install DownThemAll and set up the "Make Numbered List" bookmarklet.

2) Now follow the steps above up to and including step 5. Don't save the file, cancel the save prompt.

3) Now click on the "Make Numbered List" bookmarklet. This will bring up a new page. Set the 01 to cycle from 1 to 4 (check the Pad with Zeros checkbox). This will generate a series of unique links for each segment. You can even cycle the show number if you wish so it will generate a series of shows with all four segments linked.

4) Use DownThemAll to download all the files at once without having to click and save each one individually.

Enjoying history was never so entertaining!

Until next time, keep listening and keep on having fun!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Stop CD's Auto-Launching (P.S. Fuck You SONY)

Some of you may remember back in 2005 the big hoopla regarding the Sony Root Kit. In an effort to fight piracy, some Sony CD's included software that intercepted all interaction with the CD drive.

It all starts like this, you put your music CD into the CD drive of your computer, a prompt to install audio software will appear. However, by this point, the hidden software has already been installed without your permission. The software is normally undetectable because of various cloaking patches that it installs in Windows. Currently there is no know way to remove it without messing up your system. Antivirus programs are only able to remove the cloaking ability. Deleting the executable itself will disable your CD ROM drives.

As a result of this, I have come to the decision that SONY has no respect for the boundaries of your property. They invade your computer, putting your data and security at risk.

I will never buy another SONY product as long as I live. Fuck SONY. They don't care about their customers anymore, just their bottom line.

Your first line of defense is to stop CD's from launching everytime you put a CD in the drive. Some of you may recall my USB Stick post that U3 devices do the same thing by pretending to be CD's. This is originally thought of to be a convenience, but in light of the SONY fiasco, I will teach you how to turn it off.

First, download and install Tweak UI from Microsoft, here is the link to the XP version.

Run the program from START > Powertoys for Windows XP > Tweak UI

In the window that pops up, click on the + sign next to "My Computer". You will see AutoPlay in the list that appears. Click the + next to AutoPlay and select "Drives".

On the right hand side, you will be presented with a list of drives. A red question mark indicates that a drive does not exist.

Un-check the box next to your CD or DVD drive(s). Don't worry, this will not disable them, nor will it prevent you from installing software off of a CD. This just prevents Windows from arbitrarily installing software from a CD before you even know what's going on.

Now just click OK and close the window. A reboot of the system may be in order to get the new settings to kick in.

In the future if you really want the software to run, just right-click on the icon and select AUTOPLAY.

Now go out there, and keep on having fun (and stay away from SONY).

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Get Down Mr. Mini-Wheats!

As my multi-media addiction continues to worsen, I provide you with more gifts of multi-media, now with video.

Many of you may not have seen the first video before, but if you listen to 102.2 the Edge in Toronto, you may have heard it on the radio.

Before you press play, I must warn you... you'll probably be playing this at least 10 times before you can tear yourself away.

Now that that is out of the way, turn up the volume, clear some floorspace for dancing, and press PLAY!



While we're on the subject of great jingles, below is the famous "I'd like to buy the world a Coke" commercial. The story of this jingle is interesting, and the commercial itself is regarded as the single most popular advertising campaign of all time. Read more about it here. Some of you younger people may not have seen the commercial, but you may recognize the jingle, which was later written into a full length song. Enjoy!



P.S. If you look up, look waaaaaay up, you'll notice that the quote at the top of this page has a little blue arrow. This blue arrow will play the quote, along with the supporting dialog from the movie Ghostbusters. This, my friends, was the inspiration for this page (at least its namesake, anyway).

Until next time, keep on having fun!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Of Tags and Chipmunks

Wow! Now that was incredible! My first multimedia post on DCTS and my inbox was deluged with a flood, nay, TORRENT of people asking how I was able to integrate such a tiny, effective little mp3 player into my site.

I was being jostled! JOSTLED, I tell you!

Well my friends, you asked so I shall tell you. Its very simple, the player is PLAYTAGGER by del.ici.us

All you have to do is paste the following code once, anywhere, into your blog's HTML:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://images.del.icio.us/static/js/playtagger.js">
</script>

and that's all. Remove the </script> if you're getting HTML errors. Now, any hyperlinks that point to mp3 files will automatically be prepended with a blue arrow. Click on the arrow to play, and it changes to a red square and the word "playing". Click on the square to stop, click on the word "playing" to pause.

It does have one limitation, the mp3 must be encoded at 11025 Hz, 22050 Hz, or 44100 Hz. Anything else will sound like the chipmunks.

Here are some more music samples, old TVOntario themesongs, graciously provided by TVO Kids' Shows.

Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings

Dr. Snuggles

Readalong

A Bear Called Jeremy

Fables of the Green Forest

and OTHERS...

Enjoy everyone. As always, keep having fun.

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes... (all appologies to Mr. Bowie)

Hello Stream Crossers!

Some of you may have noticed some slight formatting changes on this BLOG. First of all, the page uses the full width of the window, so you don't have to scroll as much in a full-size window.

Secondly, if you are in Internet Explorer, the boxes have square corners. The rounded corners are now generated vis CSS3, so if you're browsing with Firefox, you should see beautifully rounded corners.

Also, today we will be throwing some shout-outs to other sites of the CREW Family of Blogs. Along with this, we will be beta testing our new integrated MP3 playing software. Please leave feedback about it in the comments section.

First off is "T & M's Voices". A well-rounded radio show, hosted by Tito and Magnum. When they aren't interviewing the elusive celebrity, they invite us into their inner sanctums and share with us the goings-on in their lives. Very funny, very well produced, and extremely well performed. They are a founding member of the CREW Family! Oh, and they have a pod-cast for you to subscribe to. Full instructions are on their site.

Just to whet your appetite for their show, I have linked to their interview with George Bush, Sr. from episode 12 I am not in the business of pirating their transmission, only the first one's free, for the latest episode (#15 as of the date of this posting), please follow the link above to their website.

Episode 12: Talking to the Bush

(Note 2007-02-06: Due to a limitation, this clip sounds like the chipmunks. Don't worry, I've fed back to Magnum, hopefully he will rectify the situation

Second, another founding member of the CREW Family, RadioFreeG and his self-titled radio show. Side-kicked by Super Producer Mummbles, together they serve up a heaping helping of introspectives on every day life and the forces that influence our perception of the world.

As well, RadioFreeG has a pod cast on his site. Here is but a taste of the smorgas-board of contemplation offered by RadioFreeG on his infamous "One Shots" broadcast:

RadioFreeG-Episode7-PoetrySlam

Last, but never, ever least is Leaky Brainpan, a blog run by another founding member of the CREW Family. Insights and behind-the-scenes looks at snapshots of life in the Canadian Armed Forces. Truly a modern classic if I've ever read one.

And that's it. Wow, two postings in a week. I hope that will satisfy some of my CRITICS... hope to be able to keep this up.

I will be back soon with some more computer improvement tips, as well I will be sending out methods for you yourself to add a funky music player to your blog as well.

Until next time, this is Soundwave saying, Keep having fun.

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Hey! Leggo my mp3's!!!

Attention Stream Crossers with iPods,

Is your iPod being a bit of a hog with your mp3's? While I know that there are many pieces of software out there that will allow you to transfer your songs back to your PC, they all need to be installed on your PC.

That's why iDump is such a cool tool. It is a simple executable file (ie no installation required, just click and run) that can even be run from your iPod.

Just click on the link above, download the "Executable Only" and save it anywhere you want. If you didn't save it to your iPod, it even has an option in the menu to copy itself to your iPod! What could be easier?

Until next time, keep having fun

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Two Tools for Managing Your Music

Hey Stream Crossers,

Like many music aficionados, collection is quite large. Also, since it is an amalgamation between several collections in my house, there is a significant degree of duplication. Add to that a great deal of missing tags, and poorly structured naming convensions, you have a recipe for a mess.

By this point, manual organization is out of the question. Software, and plenty of it, must be employed to manage this beast.

ID3-TagIT is a great free package for managing tags and file names. It has internet naming look up, but it is still quite rough. It manages bot v1 and v2 tags and lets you scrounge every last bit of information form the music files before having to look it up on the internet.

Media Monkey is a fantastic piece of software that really lets you get up to your elbows in managing you music. It also has an internet look up function. It uses Amazon.com as its source, which is great since you can also get the album art. unfortunately Amazon only has the actual disk's publication date, so you wind up with results stating that the Beatles' White Album was released in 2001. What the *&%^%$% ?

Another cool feature is that Media Monkey will suggest files that appear to be duplicates. It won't actually delete anything automatically, you have to hit the delete button for that to happen. The fact that MM "sees through" the file structure is a very powerful feature.

All in all, both these tools are good to have on your computer, but if you could have only one, Media Monkey is the choice since the last release of ID3-TagIT was in July 2005, rather old in software circles (its not like the software is so perfect that it can halt future releases).

With conventional recordings, where the entire album is released by one band or artist, I will create a directory for the band/artist and a sub folder for the album itself. If the CD is a compilation with various artists, I'll just create a folder for the album itself, unless I want to group the albums together such as with Christmas albums.

As for file naming conventions, my rule is pretty strict: - - . Again, if the CD is multi-artist, I'll go with - - . The track number is mandatory and always double digits (otherwise tracks 10, 11, and 12 show up before 1, 2, and 3). This way tracks order in the way they should appear on the CD, since someoverlap occurs on some tracks.

With these simple rules, you too can have a neatly organized music library.

Until next time, keep having fun!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"