Thanks for the tip, but I already have Access reading tags. It works great until it hits a comma, then it thinks it's a new record. Stupid INPUT command.
I solved part of the code's hangups by switching to byte-at-a-time reading, but I don't feel like making the whole tag loop do that. Can't see a way out of it really...
Commas notwithstanding, Access can build the playlists just fine. I just need a way to tell it how to program a format as mentioned above.
I have just over 1000 tracks, and when I bring in the rest of my CD's and run'em through CDex, I'll have days of non-repeat music from many genres.
What I'm working on now (and no flames please - I hve no choice of coding tool) is some Access VBA to take all my MP3's, read the ID3v3 tags (done), and build custom playlists I can feed to MusicMatch.
My goal is to be able to create "formats" and have Access choose songs based on special criteria, and then program my playlist. Something like: "Give me 60 minutes of easy-listening, one South Park/Futurama/etc., 15 minutes of Phil Collins, 45 minutes of dance, 90 minutes of techno and industrial, 2 comedy episodes, 30 minutes of classical (and don't break related songs!), 120 minutes of rock, etc..."
I have all the info I need, and once I get Access to handle badly-formed ID3v3 tags, it will be able to sort by genre, time, artist, etc. I just have to work out how to code the formats...
If I can finish this off, I can program a day's listening with no repeats, and do it again the next day following the same format but with different songs. I don't mind mixing genres but some things don't need to be adjacent in a playlist.
GTRacer
- Now if I could just voice-synth a SJ for the format changes...
I'm more shocked by the large percentages of people who can't remember what actually happened AND don't know that they're not remembering correctly.
This one's easy. Imagine your memory as a relational database. Now, remove the ability to checksum or use referential integrity. Now, randomly UPDATE/APPEND/DELETE from that table.
When that user queries the DB, they have little choice to belive the data is valid unless the data returned is clearly invalid.
When you sim the person from their voice, do you add visuals?
Do you mean, when I sim a voice when I haven't ever seen the person, like a radio commentator? I usually do, but they rarely match. But then again, I usually have no reason to sim such a person. It's usually people I know or have seen. In those cases, it's almost always 1:1, unless my memory of their voice or image is flawed.
And I hear my own thinking as a voice. I honestly couldn't imaine NOT hearing myself think. As I type this, it's like dictation, not data entry. I've always been a good speller, and I think it's because not only do I hear the word in my head, I often see them too, like a news ticker crawl. If I encounter a new word I don't know how to spell, I'll usually get frustrated trying to say it since I won't be able to visualize it internally...
Long story short, my brain is a cocktail of oddness...
Me too! I was somewhat shocked to find out most of the people can't "composite" what they see and mental images... I was talking to my mom and said I was seeing her, with Star Trek cap ships cruising around her head.
It isn't in the greatest detail composited like that, but I do it all day long.
Inside my mind with no visual input, I can get really detailed - all senses, large landscapes. I've always attributed this to what I call my "concept driver", a piece of wetware that tells my visual cortex a tree is here, here and here, allowing me to zip through them on a speeder-bike (just a f'rinstance - not all these vistas are SF-oriented). But I don't need to see detail down to the bark texture and ants crawling up the tree. I *can*, but not always at "60fps".
I really feel for people who can't do this - I think this ability, coupled with my excellent reasoning/troubleshooting skills have led me where I am in my career.
I also dream in full sensory detail, and contrary to what people have said, I've dreamed my death (by gunshot-to-head) TWICE. Once in a combat situation and once under uncertain curcumstances. Both times I heard a bang and felt an impact like a lead pipe. Kinda like something rang my head like a bell.
And no, there was nothing afterwards...I also dreamt a presumably-fatal fall complete with impact. I shook so hard on the landing I woke me and my wife up!
Can you do people's voices? I can usually hear a voice once or twice and I can almost always "sim" the person, voice, and sometimes accent. I do it a lot to prepare for meetings or team conflicts. Strangely, while I can do a whole original scene of Friends in my noggin, I almost never get lip-sync. I have to focus really hard to do it. I think the "concept driver" just tells the wetware to not worry about it and get on with the fun.
Seriously though, I've found RP to be much more annoying and disruptive than QT. I don't know if QT hides itself in Windows better than RP, but there's a lot more crap to clean up from RP. And it keeps grabbing filetypes...
Then again, WMP9 keeps asserting itself as my default.avi player despite my insistence that WMP6 is my choice - DivX broke my WMP9...
One big difference - Nintendo managed to sell MILLIONS of inferior non-lit GBA's, right up until the SP hit. And then they're selling MILLIONS of those.
I ask EB and Gamestop managers how many N-Gages have moved recently, and it's usually a two-digit number, even with the two rounds of discounts and bundling.
These aren't hard numbers, but if I had access to NPD, I bet I could find corroboration...
GTRacer
- If the N-Gage is a taco, does that make the QD a quesadilla? Too Cheesy?
I ordered one at work back in 1998 when I ran an Access database of medical claims info. It's how we backed up, since NetServ wasn't thrilled about the file sizes.
At a later company, they used 2-GB Jaz discs, but not for long. They eventually moved everything meaningful to a DLT-backed server.
I wonder why the nerds who post stories, almost always, assume that the system is gonna be networked?
Well, aside from often being true, how about the fact that if it ISN'T networked, there's a physical device on-site to hack. After a recon visit to determine the cable and box specs (if possible) or to find the maintenance panel...
They'd better hope they don't put one near me because I'd have the billboard speak my mind about their lousy radio stations...
GTRacer
- The only thing scary about the "Monsters in the Morning" is the quality
I'll be the first to admit that the concept behind The Matrix is one of the biggest mind-poppers I've yet seen. However, having AOL IM in-game will just make me think the Machine AI was either dumb or gullible for having installed any version of AOL...
I don't know about other gamers, but as a racing game junkie, I must admit I'm a sponsor/logo whore. I like playing racing games featuring signage and imagery of real racing-related and otherwise-relevant brands.
I get slightly annoyed at "fake" branding where the dev or pub couldn't secure licensing for real cars/tracks/race oil, etc.
I get more annoyed at racing games with little or no branding, if the equivalent RL series or race type would be so. I know street racing is different and that's fine.
I have absolutely no problem with in-game adverts in other genres as long as it makes sense. Or is done humorously. Who wouldn't like to fire up an FPS with the "Quiznos Rats" as targets?
That all said, I do find excessive brand-plugging during interviews to be VERY annoying.
I get Clarke's books confused with each other sometimes.
While the names Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are similar and share two letters, they are not of the same author. Asimov coined the Three (Four...Five...) Laws and the word "robotics" back in the Forties.
I was going to upmod you post, but I think I should reply instead. I agree COMPLETELY that space travel and the expansion of same should be newsworthy. But there's a difference between "Third Space Tourist" and the countdown to the final Friends ep:
Interest in space travel (or in most scientific discovery) is dependent on the initial "Wow" factor or in thinking about how some advance is superior.
That "wow" is generally finite, like a first impression. It may have been great a first, but the 30th time you meet $CELEBRITY, the reaction is different if it's not a personal contact. I've met many girls that were very attractive, exciting, etc., but since all but one are friends or acquaintances now, that "wow" isn't there any more. With my wife, there's much more to our relationship than the swoony feelings of a first date or kiss.
Humor however, is not so dependent on this "wow". A given joke, yes, but consistently well-written funny is much longer-lasting. Ditto for other brain-candy entertainments.
I mean seriously, this is Tim Roberts' idea of a great April Fool's joke, innit?
I had to stop reading after the first 8 pages I was in such hysterics! Some sig-worthy lines:
Infinium was positioned to become an industry leading global entertainment and interactive game company.
Severe damage has been caused to the Plaintiffs reputations in the business community...
The Article was published with the specific and malicious intent of causing damage to the reputations of Roberts, Infinium, and the Infinium Phantom Game System.
While Mr. Roberts is right that his reputation has been tarnished, [H]ardOCP just reported on the obvious. Roberts did himself in with his spotty history and lack of forthrightness.
As a gamer, I'd like another capable system to choose from. But I don't think these guys have it. Or maybe they do. Someone should check if they've got DNF as a launch title...
State by state... Last time I checked in Florida, it was a max of 8, BUT for 8 total, at least one had to be a space or dash. Otherwise you could use 7 or fewer alphanumerics.
GTRacer
- Was going with QKSILVR or QUICKAG for my spiffy 280ZX...
Are you sure? I checked their website last week and then emailed CustServ when the site wasn't clear. I just got a response from them that none of their portables are VBR-compatible.
If you have one that works with VBRs, please share your model number or location I can get one.
I'm guessing the console big 3 are all refusing to license any porn games...
I don't know about Japanese GameCubes and Xboxen, but there are lots of lightweight pr0n-type games for the PS2 in Japan. I've seen many strip-[insert boring game here]-type games, model/posing/voyeur types, and then there's the "Princess Maker" kind.
I don't know how many hentai games there are (don't see many on import sites or eBay) but I'm sure some of the ren'ai gets a bit hot.
Well I'm a' feedin': Because DiscMan-sized players only hold one disc at a time? I tend to be out of the house for longer than that. Plus, I don't like to be limited to one artist's stuff. With MP3/ATRAC,etc, I may only listen for two or three hours, but I can choose from a buffet of music, shows, etc.
Why spend so much time scouring your machine and googling filenames when there's cheap or free software to do it for you?
[KifKroker]Why indeed?[/KifKroker] Periodically, I start my work PC (they admin, but it's still vulnerable) and pull up a process list and printscreen it. From there, I compare to my last baseline to see if anything's changed and why.
Figuring out what was mal-ware and what 7 processes belonged to Novell was interesting. I learned about a couple of questionable services, and I learned more about what bloat-ware MS and Novell have foisted upon me. However, I *ALSO* run AA and Proxo (to keep crap from getting in via ActiveScript or JScript).
If I ever do get permission to admin this thing, I'll know where to swing the axe first!
MS makes its money by offering a superior product than the pirates offer...
You lost me, Chief. How is a legal copy of Office 2K from MS any superior than the copy I can get from Tran's corner shop in Taiwan? Other than package aesthetics, of course. MS's income has nothing to do with product superiority. They're a virtual monopoly, remember?
And while we're at it, enough people seem to think the alternate offerings (commercial and open-source) are superior to MS software and are eating into Redmond's market shares.
...theirs comes with support, the pirate's does not.
I dunno - I can get about as much support help from MS in the form of Windows Update, support.microsoft.com, and the KB no matter where I get my discs. Paid support is over and above the software price anyway.
Now THAT is just plain creepy...I'm listening to a playlist of over 60 Futurama and South Park mp3s, and that line was playing about 10 seconds before I read your post.
But let's face it, this contest isn't about finding cheaper ways to haul cargo or reach remote locations.
Sure it is! Those Robo-Tanks have to be transported and positioned on the enemy line, courtesy of the Robo-AssaultLander. And they can't refuel and rearm themselves now, can they? Robo-SupplyLine to the rescue!
Beyond science studies of their own, orbiters have an important communications role to play. Not since Viking has NASA employed both orbiters and landed vehicles together. Today, the Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters are helping the Spirit rover "talk" to ground controllers at JPL.
Slashdot Mirror
I solved part of the code's hangups by switching to byte-at-a-time reading, but I don't feel like making the whole tag loop do that. Can't see a way out of it really...
Commas notwithstanding, Access can build the playlists just fine. I just need a way to tell it how to program a format as mentioned above.
GTRacer
- Would use VB if they'd let me!
GTRacer
- alphabetically sorted for your convenience
What I'm working on now (and no flames please - I hve no choice of coding tool) is some Access VBA to take all my MP3's, read the ID3v3 tags (done), and build custom playlists I can feed to MusicMatch.
My goal is to be able to create "formats" and have Access choose songs based on special criteria, and then program my playlist. Something like: "Give me 60 minutes of easy-listening, one South Park/Futurama/etc., 15 minutes of Phil Collins, 45 minutes of dance, 90 minutes of techno and industrial, 2 comedy episodes, 30 minutes of classical (and don't break related songs!), 120 minutes of rock, etc..."
I have all the info I need, and once I get Access to handle badly-formed ID3v3 tags, it will be able to sort by genre, time, artist, etc. I just have to work out how to code the formats...
If I can finish this off, I can program a day's listening with no repeats, and do it again the next day following the same format but with different songs. I don't mind mixing genres but some things don't need to be adjacent in a playlist.
GTRacer
- Now if I could just voice-synth a SJ for the format changes...
This one's easy. Imagine your memory as a relational database. Now, remove the ability to checksum or use referential integrity. Now, randomly UPDATE/APPEND/DELETE from that table.
When that user queries the DB, they have little choice to belive the data is valid unless the data returned is clearly invalid.
When you sim the person from their voice, do you add visuals?
Do you mean, when I sim a voice when I haven't ever seen the person, like a radio commentator? I usually do, but they rarely match. But then again, I usually have no reason to sim such a person. It's usually people I know or have seen. In those cases, it's almost always 1:1, unless my memory of their voice or image is flawed.
And I hear my own thinking as a voice. I honestly couldn't imaine NOT hearing myself think. As I type this, it's like dictation, not data entry. I've always been a good speller, and I think it's because not only do I hear the word in my head, I often see them too, like a news ticker crawl. If I encounter a new word I don't know how to spell, I'll usually get frustrated trying to say it since I won't be able to visualize it internally...
Long story short, my brain is a cocktail of oddness...
GTRacer
- Can't imagine it any other way!
It isn't in the greatest detail composited like that, but I do it all day long.
Inside my mind with no visual input, I can get really detailed - all senses, large landscapes. I've always attributed this to what I call my "concept driver", a piece of wetware that tells my visual cortex a tree is here, here and here, allowing me to zip through them on a speeder-bike (just a f'rinstance - not all these vistas are SF-oriented). But I don't need to see detail down to the bark texture and ants crawling up the tree. I *can*, but not always at "60fps".
I really feel for people who can't do this - I think this ability, coupled with my excellent reasoning/troubleshooting skills have led me where I am in my career.
I also dream in full sensory detail, and contrary to what people have said, I've dreamed my death (by gunshot-to-head) TWICE. Once in a combat situation and once under uncertain curcumstances. Both times I heard a bang and felt an impact like a lead pipe. Kinda like something rang my head like a bell.
And no, there was nothing afterwards...I also dreamt a presumably-fatal fall complete with impact. I shook so hard on the landing I woke me and my wife up!
Can you do people's voices? I can usually hear a voice once or twice and I can almost always "sim" the person, voice, and sometimes accent. I do it a lot to prepare for meetings or team conflicts. Strangely, while I can do a whole original scene of Friends in my noggin, I almost never get lip-sync. I have to focus really hard to do it. I think the "concept driver" just tells the wetware to not worry about it and get on with the fun.
GTRacer
- I like to fly this way too
Seriously though, I've found RP to be much more annoying and disruptive than QT. I don't know if QT hides itself in Windows better than RP, but there's a lot more crap to clean up from RP. And it keeps grabbing filetypes...
Then again, WMP9 keeps asserting itself as my default .avi player despite my insistence that WMP6 is my choice - DivX broke my WMP9...
GTRacer
- The Real Deal
I ask EB and Gamestop managers how many N-Gages have moved recently, and it's usually a two-digit number, even with the two rounds of discounts and bundling.
These aren't hard numbers, but if I had access to NPD, I bet I could find corroboration...
GTRacer
- If the N-Gage is a taco, does that make the QD a quesadilla? Too Cheesy?
I ordered one at work back in 1998 when I ran an Access database of medical claims info. It's how we backed up, since NetServ wasn't thrilled about the file sizes.
At a later company, they used 2-GB Jaz discs, but not for long. They eventually moved everything meaningful to a DLT-backed server.
GTRacer
- Mission:Hell...
Well, aside from often being true, how about the fact that if it ISN'T networked, there's a physical device on-site to hack. After a recon visit to determine the cable and box specs (if possible) or to find the maintenance panel...
They'd better hope they don't put one near me because I'd have the billboard speak my mind about their lousy radio stations...
GTRacer
- The only thing scary about the "Monsters in the Morning" is the quality
Phear my l33t 1m sk1llz...or not...
GTRacer
- The Matrix has you, indeed!
I get slightly annoyed at "fake" branding where the dev or pub couldn't secure licensing for real cars/tracks/race oil, etc.
I get more annoyed at racing games with little or no branding, if the equivalent RL series or race type would be so. I know street racing is different and that's fine.
I have absolutely no problem with in-game adverts in other genres as long as it makes sense. Or is done humorously. Who wouldn't like to fire up an FPS with the "Quiznos Rats" as targets?
That all said, I do find excessive brand-plugging during interviews to be VERY annoying.
GTRacer
- Yes, that GTRacer
Ummm, how does having a mod chip make playing an Xbox game illegal?
Oh wait, I just saw your last name...
GTRacer .jp system!
- Would've modded but it was cooler to buy a
While the names Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are similar and share two letters, they are not of the same author. Asimov coined the Three (Four...Five...) Laws and the word "robotics" back in the Forties.
GTRacer
- Does the QRIO obey?
Interest in space travel (or in most scientific discovery) is dependent on the initial "Wow" factor or in thinking about how some advance is superior.
That "wow" is generally finite, like a first impression. It may have been great a first, but the 30th time you meet $CELEBRITY, the reaction is different if it's not a personal contact. I've met many girls that were very attractive, exciting, etc., but since all but one are friends or acquaintances now, that "wow" isn't there any more. With my wife, there's much more to our relationship than the swoony feelings of a first date or kiss.
Humor however, is not so dependent on this "wow". A given joke, yes, but consistently well-written funny is much longer-lasting. Ditto for other brain-candy entertainments.
GTRacer
- Would go up in a heartbeat!
I had to stop reading after the first 8 pages I was in such hysterics! Some sig-worthy lines:
Infinium was positioned to become an industry leading global entertainment and interactive game company.
Severe damage has been caused to the Plaintiffs reputations in the business community...
The Article was published with the specific and malicious intent of causing damage to the reputations of Roberts, Infinium, and the Infinium Phantom Game System.
While Mr. Roberts is right that his reputation has been tarnished, [H]ardOCP just reported on the obvious. Roberts did himself in with his spotty history and lack of forthrightness.
As a gamer, I'd like another capable system to choose from. But I don't think these guys have it. Or maybe they do. Someone should check if they've got DNF as a launch title...
GTRacer
- Really, this is a joke, right?
GTRacer
- Was going with QKSILVR or QUICKAG for my spiffy 280ZX...
If you have one that works with VBRs, please share your model number or location I can get one.
GTRacer
- THXkBYE
I don't know about Japanese GameCubes and Xboxen, but there are lots of lightweight pr0n-type games for the PS2 in Japan. I've seen many strip-[insert boring game here]-type games, model/posing/voyeur types, and then there's the "Princess Maker" kind.
I don't know how many hentai games there are (don't see many on import sites or eBay) but I'm sure some of the ren'ai gets a bit hot.
GTRacer
- Wouldn't mind making princesses...
Well I'm a' feedin': Because DiscMan-sized players only hold one disc at a time? I tend to be out of the house for longer than that. Plus, I don't like to be limited to one artist's stuff. With MP3/ATRAC,etc, I may only listen for two or three hours, but I can choose from a buffet of music, shows, etc.
GTRacer
- What portables play VBRs?
[KifKroker]Why indeed?[/KifKroker] Periodically, I start my work PC (they admin, but it's still vulnerable) and pull up a process list and printscreen it. From there, I compare to my last baseline to see if anything's changed and why.
Figuring out what was mal-ware and what 7 processes belonged to Novell was interesting. I learned about a couple of questionable services, and I learned more about what bloat-ware MS and Novell have foisted upon me. However, I *ALSO* run AA and Proxo (to keep crap from getting in via ActiveScript or JScript).
If I ever do get permission to admin this thing, I'll know where to swing the axe first!
GTRacer
- Restrictive noob-oriented SysPols suck!
You lost me, Chief. How is a legal copy of Office 2K from MS any superior than the copy I can get from Tran's corner shop in Taiwan? Other than package aesthetics, of course. MS's income has nothing to do with product superiority. They're a virtual monopoly, remember?
And while we're at it, enough people seem to think the alternate offerings (commercial and open-source) are superior to MS software and are eating into Redmond's market shares.
I dunno - I can get about as much support help from MS in the form of Windows Update, support.microsoft.com, and the KB no matter where I get my discs. Paid support is over and above the software price anyway.
I do agree with you on your MPAA assessment.
GTRacer
- Sparx loves Redmond.
Time to buy a lotto ticket!
GTRacer
- MomCorp
Sure it is! Those Robo-Tanks have to be transported and positioned on the enemy line, courtesy of the Robo-AssaultLander. And they can't refuel and rearm themselves now, can they? Robo-SupplyLine to the rescue!
GTRacer
- Still cooler than an Osprey
You mean, like this?
From the link:
HAND
GTRacer ...to the Moon, Alice!
-
GTRacer
- Who directs their Rayman-inspired vids?