musicfetcher.py : A python script to fetch music from freemusicarchive.org

I've worked out how it would work, but I need to learn how to get Python to find the substrings in question.
Any advice would be appreciated:

#!/usr/bin/python
#findurl.py
#Released under a GPLv3 Licence by Clockwork PC

import os
H = os.getenv("HOME")

#Get the lines in the file that contain the URL substrings
for line in open("/home/clockworkpcasus/Music/freemusicarchive.org/index.html"):
    if "http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download" in line:
        print line
#Create a BASH script in ~/Documents/bin
os.system("cpcbash.sh")

#Move the newly created script into ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org
os.system("cd ~/Documents/bin && mv `ls -alt | grep sh | head -n 1 | awk '{print $8}'` ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org/musicfetcher.sh")

#Make musicfetcher.sh executable
os.system("chmod +x ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org/musicfetcher.sh")

#Copy the URL substrings into ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org/musicfetcher.sh

#Turn each URL substring into the following: gnome-terminal -x wget http://freemusicarchive.org/Download/Music... etc.

#Save ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org/musicfetcher.sh

#Execute the script
os.system("/bin/bash ~/Music/freemusicarchive.org/musicfetcher.sh"

The Clockwork PC BASH script generator

Here is a little BASH script I wrote to automate the process of writing a BASH script.

To use it, open a terminal and enter the following commands:

mkdir ~/Documents/bin

gedit ~/Documents/bin/cpcbash.sh

Then paste the following text into the text files.

#!/bin/bash

#cpcbash.sh

#Released under a GPLv3 Licence by Clockwork PC (2011)

#BASH script to generate BASH scripts

echo "What do you want to call your BASH script?"

read RESPONSE

echo "#!/bin/bash" | tee $RESPONSE.sh

echo "#Filename:$RESPONSE.sh" | tee -a $RESPONSE.sh

echo "#Released under a GPLv3 Licence by Clockwork PC" | tee -a $RESPONSE.sh

chmod +x $RESPONSE.sh

sudo ln -s ~/Documents/bin/$RESPONSE.sh /usr/local/bin/$RESPONSE.sh

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/$RESPONSE.sh

gedit $RESPONSE.sh


exit

Save the text file and return to the terminal:

chmod +x ~/Documents/bin/cpcbash.sh

Now, whenever you want to write a bash script, just enter the following command:

cpcbash.sh

And enter a name WITHOUT the .sh suffix.

Enjoy!

How to get the ultimate screenshot functionality in Ubuntu with Compiz, Pinta, and our old friend BASH

STEP ONE: Create a screenshot folder and sound effects folder.  Mine is /media/DATA/Screenshots but yours could be ~/Documents/Screenshots

Copy and paste into a terminal

mkdir ~/Documents/Screenshots

mkdir ~/Videos/Sound_effects

STEP TWO: Enable Compiz Screenshots and PNG

STEP THREE: Install Pinta and Mplayer if you have not done so already

Copy and paste into a terminal:

sudo apt-get install pinta mplayer

STEP FOUR: Create a bin folder in Documents

Copy and paste into a terminal:

mkdir ~/Documents/bin

STEP FIVE: Create a BASH script in the bin folder

Copy and paste into a terminal:

gedit ~/Documents/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh

And paste the following text in:

#!/bin/bash

#compiz-screenshot.sh

#Released under a GPLv3 Licence by Clockwork PC http://www.clockworkpc.com.au

# Change into the Screenshots folder

cd /media/DATA/Screenshots

# Renaming the most recent PNG file in the directory

mv `ls -alt | grep png | head -n 1 | awk '{print $8}'` Screenshot_on_$(date +%F_%A_at_%H:%M:%S).png &

# Playing a camera click sound

mplayer $HOME/Videos/Sound_effects/camera1.wav &&

pinta `ls -alt | grep png | head -n 1 | awk '{print $8}'`

STEP 6: Make the script executable

Copy and paste into a terminal:

chmod +x ~/Documents/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh

STEP 7: Make a symlink in /usr/local/binCopy and paste into a terminal:

sudo ln -s ~/Documents/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh /usr/local/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh

sudo chmod +x ~/Documents/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh

STEP 8: Change settings in Compiz Screenshot according to this image

STEP 9: Download you desired sound effect, and save it to ~/Videos/Sound_effects and rename it to camera1.wav

OR

Change line 13 in ~/Documents/bin/compiz-screenshot.sh to point to the correct file.

And when you hold down the Super/Windows key and select a portion of the screen you'll get a perfectly detailed file, a camera click, and Pinta will open with it ready for you to edit.

How to get a perfectly detailed and date-stamped screenshot in Shutter on Linux

Go to Edit ==> Preferences in Shutter and insert this line in the Filename field:

screenshot_on_%F_%A_at_%H:%M:%S_of_$name_%NNN

You should also have a Screenshots folder, otherwise it'll clutter you Documents folder or Desktop (like on Mac)

The result?

Why I still use Chromium's "Application Shortcut" instead of Prism with Firefox 4 on Ubuntu 10.10

Here's one very important thing that I can do in Chromium's stand-alone Gmail window that I can't do in Prism's SSB window:

Drag and drop my attachments.

I hope this can be fixed soon.

Otherwise, Firefox 4 is my new favourite browser and well done to the Mozilla team for their splendid work.

Finding a string in Python

I want to find the URLs contained within a number of strings, probably about twenty, in a text file, which is basically a dump of the source code of a webpage.

What do I know about the strings?

• They are all 132 characters long
• They all begin with  <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/
• They all end with class="icn-arrow" title="Download"></a>
• They all contain an alphanumeric sequence of 40 characters like this: ea1f8f96b14ef56f6eef47a3e1e74269c195f4c1
• So I'm looking for 20 twenty strings of 132 characters that resemble this one:
• <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/ea1f8f96b14ef56f6eef47a3e1e74269c195f4c1 class="icn-arrow" title="Download"></a>

What do I know about the URL string?

• Every URL within the string is 83 characters:
• http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/ (43 characters)
• ea1f8f96b14ef56f6eef47a3e1e74269c195f4c1 (40 characters)

Why am I trying to do this?

Ultimately, I want to create a BASH script that is populated with lines like this

gnome-terminal -x wget http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/ea1f8f96b14ef56f6eef47a3e1e74269c195f4c1

So I'm trying to work out how to extract the URL from within the string and append it to a BASH script or text file.

Why would I do such a thing?

I'd like to automate the fetching of music files from freemusicarchive.org and I'd like to further my understanding of Python.

What problems do I foresee?

How do prevent clobber?  I don't want to download the same couple of files every day.  My gnome-terminal -x wget trick will only take me so far.

In the next stage I'd like to incorporate some kind of log or database of the URLs so that the program will only generate these download lines if the URL in question is not found in the log or database. 

What other ideas do I have?

1. At the moment the files being downloaded just have alphanumeric strings as names.  However, opening them in a music player reveals that they are tagged MP3s, so it would be great to download the file and rename it according to its tags.
2. It would also be nice to have a GUI to ask the user which genre of new music he'd like.  For myself I want to download everything, but that won't suit other users.

Alexander Garber

Director
Clockwork PC Open Source IT Solutions

"Informed decisions, real solutions"

www.clockworkpc.com.au

T:  +61-3-8060-6651
M: +61-430-854-599
alex@clockworkpc.com.au

A promising open source alternative to Dropbox

via webupd8.org

I don't have time at the moment to testdrive Sparkleshare, but I'll keep my eye on this project. I have long felt a tad uncomfortable using a closed, albeit reliable, service in Dropbox for synchronising my devices. I'd love to hear how people find it even at this early stage of development.

Ideas for a script for batch downloading of MP3s from freemusicarchive.org

As you can see from this video, it's still a pretty manual process:

But there should be a way to automate it.

Here's the process that I imagine the script would follow.  Items in red I haven't worked out how to do yet in Python.  I believe Python is the best language to do it in (plus I *really* want to do it in Python), but BASH is what I've really used to date so that's more-or-less what I think in.

#!/usr/bin/python
#freemusicfetcher.py
#Released under a GPLv3 Licence by Clockwork PC

#Ask the user what genre and sorting is desired:

input("Which genre?")

#Provide a list of options: Blues, Electronic, Hip-Hop, Classical, etc.

input("Which sorting method?")

# Provide a list of options: Most Interesting or Date Added

#Generate the query URL, e.g. for Most Interesting Blues, http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Blues/?sort=track_interest

# mkdir ~/Music/freemusicarchive/[Selected Genre]

# cd ~/Music/freemusicarchive/[Selected Genre]
# wget http://freemusicarchive.org/genre/Blues/?sort=track_interest [for example]

# Generate a BASH script in ~/Documents/bin/ called musicfetcher.sh and make it executable

# Use something like grep to find all of "http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/*" but nothing else, not even the quotation marks in the text

# Copy all the http://freemusicarchive.org/music/download/* and paste them into musicfetcher.sh

# In musicfetcher.sh replace ALL "http" with "gnome-terminal -x http"

# cp ~/Documents/bin/musicfetcher.sh ~/Music/freemusicarchive/musicfetcher.sh
# chmod +x ~/Music/freemusicarchive/musicfetcher.sh [if necessary]
# /bin/bash ~/Music/freemusicarchive/freemusicarchive-fetcher_.sh

-- Alex

Android: Sued by Microsoft, not by Linux | ITworld

via itworld.com

Just when you thought that Microsoft was focusing on innovation and compliance with web standards, it's reassuring to know that some things never change.

Redirect your home folders to /media/DATA on Ubuntu

Is this better than simply having a separate /home partition? Here are a couple reasons:

• You can make /media/DATA an NTFS partition, so it can double up as a Windows "D" drive.
• You can still have different user accounts, by simply creating a user folder on /media/DATA.

Please comment if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Redirect your home folders to /media/DATA on Ubuntu

Is this better than simply having a separate /home partition? Here are a couple reasons:

• You can make /media/DATA an NTFS partition, so it can double up as a Windows "D" drive.
• You can still have different user accounts, by simply creating a user folder on /media/DATA.

Please comment if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Installing Ubuntu in under 3 Minutes!

OK, the installation itself won't take three minutes, but this video will show you how it's done:

Email to a friend

GNU Call: An open source Skype

Free software world announces ambitious plans to build an open source Skype
alternative.

Following link http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/19177-GNU-Call-open-source-Skype.html was sent to you by alex@clockworkpc.com.au

With this message:

This is a very important project. Here's hoping it will be a success!

How to periodically change your desktop background in Gnome with your own images ((tag: linux, ubuntu, wallpaper)

I suggest uninstalling Webilder and using Desktop Drapes instead.  If you're not interested in downloading random images from Flickr, then Webilder probably doesn't suit your needs.

First step is to go to the Ubuntu Software Centre:

To uninstall Webilder:

1. Type in the search field the term webillder
2. Click on the item called webilder
3. Click on the "Remove" button
4. Provide your password if required

To install Desktop Drapes:

1. Go to the Ubuntu Software Centre
2. Type desktop drapes in the search field
3. Click on the menu entry
4. Click the "install" button
5. Provide your password if required

Partitioning your hard drive and installing Ubuntu

THE AIM OF THIS SECTION:

To set up an Ubuntu PC that 

1. is stable
2. is up to date
3. runs fast
4. works well with other operating systems
5. can be re-installed without loss of data
6. can be re-installed without loss of tweaks and personal preferences

PRE-INSTALLATION:

Once you have established that your computer will run Ubuntu, you need to decide how to partition your hard drive.

What to consider:

• Will I want to dual boot?
• Ubuntu LTS or six-monthly release?
• Where to store DATA?
• How big should my /home partition be?
• Do I want space for other Linux distributions?

SHOULD I DUAL BOOT WITH WINDOWS OR MAC OSX?

In the interest of simplicity, here is my advice, which we'll follow today.

• If you are new to Linux and you DO NOT have a Production machine with your current OS installed and configured, then you should dual boot with Windoze or Mac OSX.
• Create a separate partition for your data, label it DATA, and mount it at /media/DATA
• Your home folder should be at least 15GB big, especially if you intend to use Virtualbox.  You can get away with 10GB, but unless you have a very small hard drive (80GB or less), don't restrict yourself.
• Give yourself an empty partition for another Linux distribution.

UBUNTU LONG-TERM SUPPORT (LTS) VS. 6-MONTHLY RELEASES

A defining feature of Ubuntu is that a new version of it is released every 6 months, which includes a new LTS version every two years.  This distinguishes Ubuntu from rolling-release distributions and also until recently from its parent Debian, which used to have no set release cycle.

	Rolling Release	Version Release	Release When Ready
Examples	Gentoo, Arch	Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE	Debian Stable
System updates	Very quick	Moderate	Slow
New software	Very quick	After a few months*	Can be a long wait
Security	Rapid exposure to flaws, rapid access to fixes	Minimal exposure to flaws, generally rapid access to fixes	Minimal exposure to flaws, variable access to fixes
Stability	Unstable	Usually stable	Rock solid

WHY DOES UBUNTU RELEASE A NEW VERSION EVERY SIX MONTHS?

Every operating system has to balance two considerations: to stay updated and to be stable.  Every update introduces potential instability, and not updating would mean security holes would remain exposed and software would remain old.  In the world of FOSS, where the tendency for software to be even more of a work in progress than in proprietary software, this can be particularly frustrating.

Canonical determined for a number of reasons that releasing every six months allows Ubuntu to strike a balance between these opposing considerations.  So you can think of it like this:

If Ubuntu were a rolling distribution and kept on updating everything all the time, it would be unusable for most people.

If Ubuntu were a release-when-ready distribution, it would get outdated very quickly for many home users.

1. Software updates -- new versions of software, new software packages, new programs
2. Security updates -- patches to address security flaws
3. System updates -- usually behind-the-scenes updates
4. User interface updates -- most notable in Ubuntu, which is undergoing some dramatic changes in its look and feel

SHOULD I USE THE LONG-TERM SUPPORT RELEASE OR SHOULD I UPDATE EVERY SIX MONTHS?

Long-term Support 6-monthly Release Stability More stable Less stable Cool, new packages Mostly backported Included Support for new hardware Mostly backported Included Support for older hardware Included Mostly included Pretty UI changes Sometimes backported Included PPAs Included Included

As the idea is to get you started with a machine that runs reliably, and no prior knowledge of how to fix things is assumed, I recommend Ubuntu LTS until you become advanced enough to feel that you want to upgrade to a new release.  One thing to bear in mind about Ubuntu is its Personal Package Archive system (PPA), which allows you to subscribe to all the updates of a package or set of packages.

WHAT THE PPA MEANS FOR YOU:

If you want to stay up-to-date with a particular program, e.g. Firefox Beta, you can add the PPA to your sources list and get the newest version of Firefox and otherwise have the rest of your system as it is.  This to me is the best of both worlds.

WHERE TO STORE MY DATA?

By default, your data is stored in the user folder of your home partition, for example:

/home/clockworkpc/Documents

However, should you decide to re-install Ubuntu into the same partition, you will have to ensure that all of your data is backed up to another drive or partition, otherwise it will be lost.  This will give you a rough idea -- ignore the percentages:

USING GPARTED:

You can partition your hard drive during the installation of Ubuntu, but I strongly recommend doing this beforehand.  Every live CD comes with GParted installed.

Here is what my HDD looks like:

Partition Scheme: MS-DOS

No.	Size	Type	File System	Label	Mount Point
1	80GB	Primary	NTFS	Windows	/media/Windows
2	MAX	Primary	NTFS / EXT4	DATA	/media/DATA

Greplin: a brilliant, innovative, creepy idea

I had a look at Greplin, a search engine for your life.  As its name will tell the Linux users out there, it promises to be an extremely powerful search tool.  Unfortunately, its allusion to gremlins is also close to the mark.  It is currently in closed-source beta, and both conveniently and disturbingly will quickly index any of the services on its list.  This means that within minutes you can give Greplin complete access to all of your key data on Gmail, Gcal, GDocs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  I believe cloud computing is very convenient, but I know nothing about the makers of Greplin, or more importantly, where this company will go.

The creator of Greplin, a 19-year-old who grew up in the US, is a graduate of Y Combinator, where he was initially working on an application to turn just about any search into a link to an Amazon product.

If Greplin were a free, open source software that you could run on your own computer in complete privacy and use to index your cloud-based services, I would applaud it as a wonderful innovation.  But as it is, all I'm really doing is allowing a dubious stranger to grep my life.

Thanks, but no thanks.  I can live with the supposed inconvenience of having to check my appointments in my calendar. 

First problem with #ubuntu daily build resolved

Tried to use the wifi at an internet cafe, but couldn't connect.  My android HTC Desire HD could connect, and, of course, I had my USB to micro-USB cable handy, so am now working via a tethered connection.

When Ubuntu 11.04 comes out I will switch over to it and use Unity.

I can't speak for anyone else, but Unity promises to suit my workflow really well.  It's clean, neat, and fast.

-- Alex

Don't talk about open source or freedom until you know what that means to your audience

From the perspective of non-technical end users, it is not important that software is open source or free, unless the openness of the source code or the freedom of the software resonates with their ideals, or unless this translates into a better user experience.

How do we in the world of Free Open Source software (FOSS) convey to non-technical users that our software is better?  How does FOSS translate into a better user experience?

I don't believe that there is a uniform message that will speak to every end user, but I do believe that freedom or openness of source can resonate in some way with everyone.  In a lecture that Richard Stallman delivered in French at a university in France, he said something like this:

Free software can be understand through three ideals: liberty, fraternity, equality.

This evoked great applause, and we who advocate FOSS should carefully consider our audience before we talk excitedly about the thing we know and love.

Running Ubuntu 11.04 with Android USB tether at Design Victoria Seminar

I'm seriously impressed with Ubuntu 11.04 -- the Unity interface is easy, attractive, and really really quick.

How to automate the creation of .desktop files that refer to custom images

One thing to remember about .desktop files in Gnome is that they only work with hard links and system folders.  You cannot refer to an image in your home folder, if you want the same .desktop file to work in someone else's account or on another machine.

If you create a custom icon, the best place is /usr/share/icons.

So let's say you've created your very own Gnome Menu item called  cheetahballs.desktop file and you've put it in:

/media/DATA/Settings/cheetahballs.desktop

And you've got your very own icon:

/usr/share/icons/cheetahballs.png

If you re-install Ubuntu in your root partition and have /media/DATA mounted, then all you need to do is this:

sudo cp /media/DATA/Setting/cheetahballs.desktop /usr/share/applications/cheetahballs.desktop

If you want to have it on your desktop:

cp /media/DATA/Setting/cheetahballs.desktop $HOME/Desktop/cheetahballs.desktop

chmod +x $HOME/Desktop/cheetahballs.desktop

And of course, you could automate this by turning it into a BASH script:

gedit /media/DATA/Documents/bin/restore-desktop-files.sh

#!/bin/bash

#restore-desktop-files.sh

#Restore Gnome Menu item

cp /media/DATA/Setting/cheetahballs.desktop $HOME/Desktop/cheetahballs.desktop

chmod +x $HOME/Desktop/cheetahballs.desktop

#Create desktop shortcut

sudo cp /media/DATA/Setting/cheetahballs.desktop /usr/share/applications/cheetahballs.desktop

exit

In response to the Ubuntu-GNOME dispute http://zd.net/hcZ2yH

The FOSS world should thank its lucky stars for Shuttleworth.  I have watched many hours of his talks and interviews, and read his blog in detail -- something a lot of Ubuntu haters would never do -- and I am fully satisfied that the man has a clear idea of what needs to be done and the drive to make it happen.  I am a fierce advocate of FOSS and volunteer many hours to assist new GNU/Linux users, and also run a MacBook in order to use Screenflow, a wonderful, video editor that I use mostly to produce web videos that promote FOSS.  (Incidentally, I'm giving a lecture on 19th March 2011 at the Linux Users Victoria meeting in Melbourne, Australia),

I applaud Mark Shuttleworth's courage in speaking forthrightly about these topics, and I totally agree with the direction that Unity is heading in.  As experienced users, set in our ways, we might not like it ourselves, but Unity has been designed IN CONSULTATION WITH NOVICE USERS, not by dreamy developers.  When Ubuntu 11.04 comes out I will use Unity until it either works for me or I conclude that it's unusable -- that's my contribution to the real advance of FOSS beyond 1% of the desktop market.

A general tip about Java in Ubuntu

If you need to install Java on your Ubuntu PC, check the Ubuntu Software Centre before searching for installation files to download.

Go to the top left corner of the screen:

Applications --> Ubuntu Software Centre

Then type in the search box: java

And install:

• OpenJDK Java 6 Runtime
• OpenJDK Java 6 Web Start
• Icedtea Java Plug-in

As a general rule in Ubuntu in particular, it's always good to see what's in the Ubuntu Software Centre before looking for files to download from the internet.

ivritbevakashah is up and running! http://twitter.com/#!/ivritbevakashah

http://twitter.com/#!/ivritbevakashah

Just set up a twitter channel for a Melbourne-based Hebrew teacher: ivritbevakashah

Check it out:

http://twitter.com/ivritbevakashah

Just set up a twitter channel for a Melbourne-based Hebrew teacher: ivritbevakashah

Check it out:

http://twitter.com/ ivritbevakashah

Plans for Cheetah Balls v0.3 and beyond

Cheetah Balls is running very smoothly on my Ubuntu 10.10 PC -- like a wildcat across the savannah!

It is evolving into a handy little program and I expect it'll continue to be developed for quite a while.  Eventually I'd like to hand the project over to someone with more time, greater ability, even less sanity...

Here are some improvements planned for v0.3:

• Find only and all of the video files in temporary folders, rather than just grabbing all the +1000kb files
• Find only video files in temporary folders that are older than 1440 minutes (24 hours)
• Extract the audio from all the videos to MP3 and/or OGG (possibly with soundconverter from the command line)
• Include a daily cron job so that it will run automatically at midday every day
• Actually check to see if ~/Desktop/looseballs exists, rather than blindly create a new one
• Create a ~/Videos/Cheetah_balls and place date-stamped folders inside it
• More visual confirmation using xcowsay and some other images to let you know what Cheetah Balls is doing
• More verbose output when running from the command line
• Add gnome-terminal -x when running Cheetah Balls from cheetahballs.desktop

Wild dreams for an idyllic future:

• Re-write the whole damn thing in Python, because that would be just too cool for words.
• Turn it into a bona fide DEB package, rather than a collection of BASH scripts
• Put it up in the Clockwork PC PPA, and ultimately get it into the official Ubuntu repositories
• GUI to let you specify

• How old the video files should be
• Where to save them
• Whether to extract the audio
• Whether to extract the audio to MP3, OGG, FLAC, or WAV

Port it to M$ Windoze

Port it to Apple Hack

In the meantime, this will be exclusively for Linux OSes, specifically for Ubuntu and its derivatives, but probably OK for most other distributions.

-- Alex

Cheetah Balls v0.2!

I cleaned the code a bit and put all the installation files in the most logical place.

To install Cheetah Balls v0.2:

Download the BASH installer from here: http://selftaughtgeek.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/5/9/4159515/cheetahballs_installer.sh

Save it to the desktop.

Open a Terminal: (Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal)

cd ~/Desktop

chmod +x cheetahballs_installer.sh

./cheetahballs_installer.sh

And there you go!  You will have:

Desktop icon

GNOME Menu Item

Uninstaller in the GNOME Menu

In the future Cheetah Balls will be further improved:

• More file types
• More intelligent saving of cached files, rather than by size
• Batch extraction of audio from video files, probably using soundconverter

Please try it and let me know what you think.

-- Alex