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Over the past few weeks I've been mulling how to proceed with development of my shareware apps, and, I suppose, AppleScript development in general. With the imminent release of Snow Leopard, which can only be run on Intel Macs, I have been researching who the audience for this site is.
According to Google Analytics, over the past month (July 10 through August 10) 90.53% of Mac visitors have an Intel Mac, 8.73% are on a PPC, and the remainder are characterized as "not set". (update: I probably should have included originally that this site had 87,347 Mac visitors in that time.)
Further, of the Intel users 92.54% are on Leopard, 4.58% on Tiger, and the remainder either on 10.6 already or "not set".
So I guess there may not be that much to mull. I'll keep you posted.
Re-Posting Stream Startup Script
A couple few days ago I posted a script here that would ping the Radio Paradise stream until its server accepted the connection, suppressing the error dialog that would appear when a connection was denied. Well, that was the wrong version of the script. Here is the correct version, and the one I fire up every morning. You must select a radio stream track first, then run the script:
tell application "iTunes"
if selection is {} then return
set strm to (item 1 of selection)
if (get class of strm) is not URL track then return
repeat
try
play strm
exit repeat
on error m number n
delay 15
end try
end repeat
end tell
The earlier script used the open location command, errors from which could not be defeated with the try block.
UPDATED: Music Folder Files Not Added, v1.1
Music Folder Files Not Added is an application that will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Music" folder which are not in iTunes' library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Includes options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes or move them to the Trash.
This latest version fixes a problem with file paths containing single-quote characters.
UPDATED: Lyrics via LyricWiki v2.0
Since LyricWiki is no longer able to provide lyrics to applications from its API, I put a workaround in Lyrics Via LyricWiki. This script will use the name and artist of the single selected or playing track as the basis for a SOAP query to LyricWiki.org; fruitful results will be displayed so you can choose to apply the lyrics to the particular track.
LyricWiki Busts Its API
If you run an application or script which uses LyricWiki to supply lyrics (such as Lyrics Via LyricWiki) you will probably see this message instead of the lyric results you expected:
Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions from some of the major music publishers we can no longer return lyrics through the LyricWiki API (where this application gets some or all of its lyrics)...(Please note: this is not the fault of the developer who created this application, but is a restriction imposed by the music publishers themselves.)
I could have guessed this clampdown from publishers was coming.
Dupin v2.0.4 Released
Just posted Dupin v2.0.4. This update fixes a problem with "Selection to iTunes Playlist" and a couple of other minor issues.
On another Dupin note: most likely this will be the last incarnation for Tiger/10.4 systems. The next revision, v2.1, and its descendants will be for Leopard and Snow Leopard only. However, v2.0.x will remain available and I will continue to upgrade v2.0.x for Tiger if future circumstances justify it.
Project Cocktail
The news about Apple working with the music labels to "stimulate digital sales of albums by bundling a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads" is interesting, but these so-called "interactive" downloads are not new. As I recall, there have been several available from the iTunes Store, usually as part of larger "box" sets. They open in QuickTime and have virtual pages and hot links and they're pretty cool, depending on how they are designed.
Although I don't think it likely, wouldn't be surprised if DRM was part of the "talks".
Wal-Mart Computers for Wal-Mart People
"Having staked out a business that serves PC makers first, IT drones second, and consumers dead last, Microsoft is left only to advertise that its software arrives on cheap hardware that isn’t burdened with being cool or sexy like Apple’s. As a marketing strategy, that’s so blatantly moronic that it’s hard to imagine a Fortune 500 company could decide to do that."
Why Windows 7 is Microsoft’s next Zune — RoughlyDrafted Magazine (2009/05/09)
"Starting at 8 a.m. this Sunday, Wal-Mart gets a head start on back-to-school sales, offering a full-function Compaq Presario laptop computer for $298. This Compaq has a 15.6-inch LCD screen,an AMD processor, 160-gigabyte hard drive and 3 gigabytes of RAM, a hefty parcel of memory by most measures."
Let the Back-to-School Sales Begin - Gadgetwise Blog - NYTimes.com (2009/07/25)
Dupin v2.0.3 Released
Dupin v2.0.3 is now out and is essentially a maintenance release. I wanted to tie up some loose ends before continuing work on a version for Snow Leopard (due in September), so v2.0.3 is probably the last version before then. The issues fixed are rare, and most users never experienced them, but they've been nagging at me: fixed "disappearing" column bug; fixed problem with filenames of files imported from a non-Mac OS; fixed a harmless syntax problem with XML creation during Re-Playlist.
