Twitter gets new Following Block
As seen in the image above, Twitter got a new following block to replace the small button they had previously, mimicking the same look and feed on the following and followers pages.
Japanese Mnemonic to memorize the first 20 Elements
すいへいりーべぼくのふね。ななまがるシップスクラークか。
Suihei riibe boku no fune. Nanamagaru shippusu kuraaku ka?
This special mnemonic is used by the Japanese to remember the first 20 elements, in order. Continue reading for a mapping and a brief explanation where the reason might not be immediately understood.
Small Update: class::mp3Data v0.2
I just wanted to publish a small blog post letting you know that I have updated the mp3Data class to version 0.2.
Change log:
- Added function getArts() to retrieve ALL artwork embedded in ID3v2. These function returns an ordered array of PHP Image Resources.
Hope that if you use it, you enjoy the small change (not that it will be useful to many people)!
Code is located at pastebin and retains the same usage permissions as v0.1.
Apple Propaganda Takes a Stab at Nintendo
Apple reported today at it’s event that the iPod Touch was better than the Nintendo DS for the following reasons:![no-multi-touch[1]](http://tech.gtaero.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/nomultitouch1.jpg "no-multi-touch[1]")
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No Multi-Touch User Interface
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Games are Expensive
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No App Store
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No iPod
Now, If you don’t like to listen to me rant, It would probably be a safe bet that you’ll want to skip this post, because I’m going to be going into great deal about what exactly is wrong with those reasons. If you’re willing to listen to me rant and rave, then just continue reading 
PHP class mp3Data – Get ID3 Info from MP3
So recently, I submitted a bid on a project to make a lyrics website using PHP. I haven’t been contacted about whether or not I won the bid yet, but I decided that I might as well start some preliminary work on backend coding – It’ll make my life easier, and deliver a faster and better result to the client, so why not?
Why am I mentioning this, you ask? What does my personal life have to do with my tech blog? Well, I’m getting to that!
I almost immediately thought. “Hey, wouldn’t it be really cool if the admin of the website could simply upload an MP3 file and pull almost, if not all of the data from it to use on the site?” After which, I quickly searched around for something that would allow me to do just that, to read the ID3 tags on an MP3 file.
The first thing I came to, was the search result on the PHP website for “id3,” the ID3 PECL Library. Unfortunately, after trying for a very long time on DreamHost, I not only couldn’t get it to install, but had just wasted probably an hour in an attempt to. Not only that, but the library was still in its alpha stage.
Some quick internet searching took me to the getid3 library, a robust library programmed to read ID3 data tags (and other types of metadata?) from almost any type of file. I quickly set about to using it, and found its internal structure complicated and confusing. It didn’t even offer me a quick and easy way to access the album artwork.
After a good period of time learning some of the basic structure of ID3 and how the getid3 library worked, I set about to coding up a library of my own to quickly interface with getid3 and retrieve the information I needed.
The result is class::mp3Data. A very, very simple library built exclusively to interface with getid3 and retrieve basic information about an mp3 file while still retaining more advanced information for coders who need it. Take a look at some example code and the licensing permissions after the break.
Overlooked: iTunes 9 & Windows 7 Make Sweet Love
I’m not much of an Apple fanboy, in fact I generally don’t care much for the brand at all. But today’s iTunes update has made even me smile in elated happiness just a little bit.
Why is this, you ask? Because Apple is making sweet, sweet love with Windows 7.
As you can see, iTunes has added the ability to pause and skip forward and backward in Windows 7, a feature that (so far as I know) is only supported by Windows Media Player at this moment in time. But that isn’t all. The application now loads up quicker, doesn’t usually give off that annoying black background in place of UI elements, and even includes some Windows 7 Tasks!
As you can see very plainly in this picture, iTunes 9 has added tasks involving the iTunes store.
This is all of the secret love making I’ve found so far. Have you found any? If so, please, post about it in the comments!
Connecting to Mac OS X via VNC
In the entirety of my house, I happen to be the only Windows user (and an Avid one at that! Macintosh can suck my Windows 7 Orb!), but for some occasions I too wish I could use the Macintosh. For such things as the local web server, and in the future possibly making iPhone applications.
Now, I don’t like going downstairs to use the best non-laptop Macintosh. Its hooked up to a High Definition Projector system, and it is simply a burden to try to get anything code-wise with it done, without either sitting up close to the screen, or using Apple+ to make it larger, so, I did what any geek would attempt to do. Get Apple’s Screen Sharing system working with my Windows Box.
I have to be honest with you. It was a hassle and it was definitely NOT worth it. Regardless of client side settings, VNC was incredibly slow over the Local Network.
However, as some of you may wish to try this yourself, I’ve included the instructions after the break.
Moved to WordPress
Well, all that looks official. It seems we’ve now officially moved onto a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog from our previous place at Blogger. Don’t get me wrong, I love Blogger and all, but I wanted a lot more control, and a lot more experience with WordPress.
So, the new blog should be here to stay. I’ve made it so that old links should continue to work. If you have any problems with them, please go ahead and post what they are here, and I’ll work my hardest to fix them.
As for how awful the older posts look, I won’t be doing anything to rectify them. I’m sorry but its much too much work and I’m much too lazy to go through and fix things such as bad images and the whole Digg button thing to make all the posts look the same. They’ll be buried in the archive soon enough.
Needed: An Open-Protocol System for Commenting on the Web
One thing that many blogs have embraced is the trackback system for blogs to shout out to other blogs that they’re linking to them or using their information. This is a wonderful idea, and a similar solution should be applied to comments.
Now, I’m not fully up to speed with micro-formats and RDF, and such, but such a system should be easy to create and implement. The first thing we should do is extend RSS to include it. We already have the <comments> tag, which should obviously link to an RSS feed of comments for the item (using this new system, anyway.) So we need to add a <postComment> tag, yes?
This tag could go in either the <channel> element (for Comment-Streams) or in the <item> element (for news-streams and/or as a direct reply to other comments). Lets break it down something like this:
This would allow a large amount of customization for systems that have different fields without too much change needed. Just an extension to the current RSS spec. Essentially something similar could be done. What are your thoughts, improvements, and ideas for this?