This isn’t directly connected what I normally post about, but I’ve got a home I’m trying to sell!
New home
Easier switching of sound devices in Windows with Soundswitch 3.0dev1.
I’ve got a beta-quality release of Soundswitch available now.
You can also peruse the source code.
The big changes for 3.0 are as follows:
- Configure Source1 and Source2 via tray icon.
- Select current active sound device from tray icon.
- Single left click of tray icon switches between Source1 and Source2
- Rewrites of core parts to reduce bugs and increase speed.
Please let me know about bugs.
Links of the day
I bet this smells good.
I wonder if any significant portion of the Egyptian populace will hear about this.
Glucosamine and chondroitin shown to be ineffective supplements. How surprising.
Chemistry Ph.D. thesis + dance = cute smart girls edumacating.
What to do when a body part falls off.
Fashion and style
I often say I don’t care what other people think about me.
Now that I think about it, that’s a bit misleading.
When I say I don’t care what other people think about me, what I really mean is that I don’t care if people disdain my ideas for irrelevant reasons. If you have a rational reason to disagree, then I definitely care about hearing your argument, but otherwise I just don’t care.
What people think about you determines how they treat you and what you can get them to do for you, so it’s worth some effort to manipulate[1] their feelings towards you.
Unsurprisingly to students of the human mind, fashion can really alter someone’s perception of you. Even if that someone thinks they’re above such things. It’s just not possible to avoid.
Because of this, I pay some attention to fashion and style for men and women and am able to say with some confidence what works.
This post was motivated by this great post with fashion tips for men.
In fashion as in art – style emerges not from a lack of rules but from a mastery of them, from making them serve you instead of the other way around. If you’re a geek like me, you need to dial a fresh start – clear your closets of all those conference freebie t-shirts, put a shine on your shoes, and burn your butt-crack pants. Ultimately, these rules are not at all about tamping down your personality but about learning how to express it. And unfair as it is, people will take you more seriously when you dress with a modicum of style.
Footnotes:
[1] Manipulate isn’t a bad word. When you choose your clothing for the day you’re manipulating other people…it’s just the way it is. Hopefully by giving some thought to what you wear, you’re manipulating people into paying attention to what you’ve got to say. If you don’t give any thought to your clothing, you’re manipulating people into having impressions of you that you probably would rather they didn’t have.
Apple Trailer Downloader .2.2
New version of the Apple Trailer Downloader is now available.
This only includes a fix for one bug.
This bug was a failure to handle some Unicode strings and caused ATD to fail when encountering something like the ® character. A recent trailer that caused ATD to fail was for “The Wolfman”.
Windows download here.
Source available here.
Apple Trailer Downloader .2.1
Apple Trailer Downloader .2
Version .2 of my Apple Trailer Downloader is out. Major changes:
- Code organization to allow easier updates (this is an on-going effort since when I started this project it kind of grew organically rather than having some sort of plan.)
- Added the
--htenfooption. This creates a .nfo file for each trailer for use with the Home Theater Experience XBMC script. - Added the
--imdboption. This fetches movie information from the IMDB. Currently, it only uses this information to get MPAA ratings for trailers that Apple doesn’t specify a MPAA rating for. Many upcoming movies still don’t have MPAA ratings so this won’t help in those instances.
Hit the original post for more info and the download link.
Search PDF files using Windows Search in Vista and Windows 7 64-bit
If you wish for searches via the Start Menu or Explorer search boxes to search the contents of PDF files, you need to install Adobe’s iFilter.
You can get the version for 64-bit Windows, or if you install Adobe Reader you’ll get it for 32-bit Windows.
Apple Trailer Downloader
This isn’t currently working because of changes to Apple’s site. I hope to fix it before the end of the year.
I wanted all the movie trailers from Apple in the highest resolution available (1080p for most of them), so I wrote this script in python to fetch them all.
Usage
Update: I wasn’t very clear about this before. ATD keeps a database of what it’s already downloaded, so each time you run it, it will just download everything you haven’t downloaded yet.
This works through the command line in a very simple manner.
I’ll start out with some examples and then provide a full option list.
The following example will download 500 megabytes worth of trailers and save them to C:\Trailers.
atd -l 500 -d "C:\Trailers"
The next example will do the same and also append “-trailer” to the filename and change the extension to “.hdmov”.
atd -l 500 -d "C:\Trailers" -a "-trailer" -e "hdmov"
If there is a certain trailer you would like atd to download again (say you deleted the trailer on accident), you can call it as follows. The one downside to this method is that all this does is tell ATD to not skip this trailer when processing the trailer list. If it doesn’t make it to the movie because you’ve used the download limit option it won’t download it again. Changing this behavior is on my todo list.
atd --redown "Iron Man 2"
If you want the maximum resolution it downloads to be 480p you do it like so:
atd --respref "480p"
To get help you do this:
atd -h
Which will ouput:
Usage: atd [options] If no options passed, it will download all not already downloaded trailers to a subdir called Trailers. Options: --version show program's version number and exit -h, --help show this help message and exit -l MB, --downlimit=MB Approxmiate megabytes to download per session (default: 0) -d DIR, --dest=DIR Destination directory. (default: Trailers) -a TEXT, --append=TEXT Appends the specified text to the filename. (default: -trailer) -r, --rename Rename trailer with movies name. -e EXTENSION, --ext=EXTENSION Changes file extension to what is specified --redown=movie name Redownloads the trailer for the specified movie. Ex: --redown Iron Man 2 --flush WARNING: This option deletes your download history which means that all trailers will be downloaded again --respref=RESPREF Get specified resolution or less. Options are ['1080p', '720p', '480p', '640w', '480'] --reslimit=RESLIMIT Get specified resolution or dont get trailer at all --mdate=DATE Only get trailers for movies with a release date after this. (format: YYYY-MM-DD) --tdate=DATE Only get trailers released after this date. (format: YYYY-MM-DD) --fake Don't download, just print list of movies it would download trailers for with the specified commandline. (Ignores download limit) --htenfo Writes an nfo file for use with the Home Theater Experience XBMC script. --imdb Fetches missing information like MPAA rating from IMDB. (Slows down parsing)
Please report any bugs or feature requests you may have. This script is dependent upon how Apple presents it’s trailers on the web. If they change the correct (or incorrect depending on how you look at it) things this script will break. I’ll do my best to keep up with such changes.
Newest Version
Version 0.2.2 is here.
Source
ATD is now on github.
Older versions
Version 0.2.1 is here.
Version 0.2 for Windows users is here.
Version 0.2 for Linux users or users interested in the source can get it here.
Version 0.1 for Windows users is here.
Version 0.1 for Linux users or users interested in the source can get the source code here.
Planned Features
Rolling updates
With this feature, ATD will be able to keep a folder full of only trailers for movies past a certain date (for example, only trailers for movies that haven’t been released yet). It will remove trailers for movies before the date and add/dl trailers for movies with new trailers.
Known Bugs
- With
--imdb, ATD fetches info for all trailers even if because of other options like--downlimitwe’ve limited the number of trailers that will download. - Funkiness with
--redown. - Unicode handling is currently a hackjob.
Contrary actions to the Twelve Virtues – Relinquishment
Again, Yudkowsky writes:
The second virtue is relinquishment. P. C. Hodgell said: “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” Do not flinch from experiences that might destroy your beliefs. The thought you cannot think controls you more than thoughts you speak aloud. Submit yourself to ordeals and test yourself in fire. Relinquish the emotion which rests upon a mistaken belief, and seek to feel fully that emotion which fits the facts. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is hot, and it is cool, the Way opposes your fear. If the iron approaches your face, and you believe it is cool, and it is hot, the Way opposes your calm. Evaluate your beliefs first and then arrive at your emotions. Let yourself say: “If the iron is hot, I desire to believe it is hot, and if it is cool, I desire to believe it is cool.” Beware lest you become attached to beliefs you may not want.
I like that P.C. Hodgell quote: “That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” Your beliefs should hang upon the truth, truth doesn’t care about your beliefs. Of course, this isn’t the way the human brain works. When we’re comfortable with an idea, or if something we believe engenders positive emotions, we’re more likely to avoid facts that contradict our beliefs.
If you want to have an accurate view of the world around you, you’ve got to cultivate a willingness to give up things you believe, no matter how painful.
I know many who will find this idea foreign. Others will play lip service to the idea. Few will understand just how deep a change we have to make to implement the idea of being willing to relinquish our beliefs. It’s not comfortable. It hurts. Relinquishing cherished beliefs is anathema to the soul if you haven’t made it into something you enjoy. The default human position is to cherish beliefs, not to cherish truth. It require effort to reverse that.
One of the worst methods of practicing non-relinquishment is cherry-picking of facts to support a belief. It’s easy to “prove” anything you desire if you only accept facts in support of your belief. An important thing to remember in this circumstance is that most of the time, when cherry-picking of the facts is going on, the picker doesn’t think they’re doing it. It’s so easy for your brain to utterly dismiss things that don’t fit in to your worldview, that it doesn’t even seem like you’re making a mistake.
Unfortunately, you are.