fullmooninu's place of folly

The Portuguese Stereotype (in construction)

2012-02-16T16:45:00.002Z

Basically, this is a post where I intend to reunite things I find where Portuguese people are portrayed through foreign eyes.

1. Tintin - Mr. Oliveira da Figueira

The Tintin comic books have a huge international profile, and inside them, you can find portrayed: Mr. Oliveira da Figueira .

For a start, the name basically means Mr. OliveTree of the FigTree, and although both are common last names in Portugal, it seems that the author wasn't randomly picking names. So, Mr. FruitTree, I mean, Mr. Oliveira has a few appearances throughout the series, and ill try to iconize them in a few images. They are in Portuguese, but I'll translate for your personal entertainment.

Here, in Mr. Oliveira first appearance: Tintin, aboard a ship is introduced by the captain to a fellow passenger, a certain sir from Lisbon, Portugal.

Without any conversation, the Portuguese immediately jumps into the occasion by presenting Tintin with several opportunity items, like ties.

A beautiful tie that matches Tintin skin color, he says. Genuine swords from Toledo, Spain, and as a gift he'll throw in a watch and a toothbrush. After a while Tintin goes away congratulating himself for not buyin anything useless. He says "you always buy a lot of useless stuff from people like that". He's still loaded with junk, just doesn't realize it.

Mr. Oliveira sets shop in the middle of the desert. Tintin thinks it wont be successful, but Mr Oliveira set up show in high ground and brought a megaphone system. Immediately a lot of people come to buy things, mostly things that they don't need.

He explains to Tintin, that the operation was a success, and even better, that his clients will be back.

One of them comes back complaining about the horrible food, soap bar, that was sold to him, pledging revenge.

On another story, Tintin travels again to Mesopotamian parts, and sees Mr. Oliveira in a local market.

He recognizes Mr. Oliveira salesman skills: "Twisted man, always the same, he sold him a pair of roller skates".

Selling roller skates in a sand covered town, is of course his trademark move.

He recognizes Tintin, and immediately asks him to join him in a glass of Portuguese wine to celebrate their reunion.

Here, Mr. Olveira entertains a group of man with a very sad story, about the disgraces of a certain family. Of course the story is completely fabricated on the spot, but is nonetheless enough to make the men burst into tears.

Conclusion: In this stereotype, Portuguese are gifted merchants and men of the world, that without any evil intent push events towards their favor. No one needs a pair of roller skates in a desert town and no one sets up store in the desert. Yet he makes these happen. Mr Oliveira is also very very theatrical in his poses and speech. but even through all the personality twists, you can easily see that he's an alright guy. I would say it's actually quite representative of last century's middle class Portuguese persona. Maybe less today, but still very well done.

2. Asterix - Lusitanus

Another famous comic. In one of the more recent volumes, it portrays a Lusitanus roman slave: a member of the Lusitani tribe that lived in the western part of the Iberian peninsula. Whether questionable if Lusitani and Portuguese are synonyms, make no mistake about the authors intentions, this guy is supposed to depict a guy from Portugal.

Each of the free slaves states their intended destination. The Portuguese guy is the short guy.

Their leader asks them to take turns speaking.

The Spanish guy suggests Spain, and immediately the Portuguese suggests them to go to Portugal.

All this guy does is this. And from it you can read quite a bit.

Conclusion: Portuguese are short, dark haired, and have a shared sibling-like rivalry with Spanish people. Again, not a false stereotype. Not entirely accurate, but good.

(Ill keep adding stuff to this post.
to be continued...)

Fullmooninu Filename Translator v0.7 (download)

2011-09-23T22:38:00.001+01:00

Notice: This shouldn't be working anymore now that google translate API is a paid service. I'll revisit this project soon.

Finally, I made a usable version of the translation application.

Download it here.

This is useful for those that use programs that are incompatible with foreign filenames, or simply for ease of use.

Anyway, some guy told me it couldn't be done, so i tried to conceive a way to do it.

Just tell me if you are interested. The more people interested in this, the more effort i'll put in it.

This is not a concept. It's actually in quite functional stage. It does have a lot of predictable bugs to work out and still no GUI. Right now it's just a .exe you run anywhere you want it to work on.

It's pretty safe, just make sure to read before you confirm anything.

Feedback is appreciated! ^_^

(Portuguese) Gerar passos de dança para Stepmania

2011-09-20T06:48:00.005+01:00

Este tutorial serve para explicar uma maneira fácil e não propensa a erros, de adicionar músicas ao Stepmania.

Utiliza o software Dancing Monkeys e explica os truques necessários para que o Dancing Monkeys consiga gerar passos para a maior parte das canções.

É necessário:

1. Faça download das versões mais recentes do software listado acima.

A instalação actual do Dancing Monkeys não é compatível com o Windows 7. Corra a instalação em modo de compatibilidade com Windows XP (SP2) para que não hajam erros.

2. Escolha uma música. Isto em princípio será um ficheiro .mp3 , mas pode ser outro ficheiro qualquer, desde que o Foobar o reconheça.

O Foobar toca quase todos os tipos de ficheiros audio em existência, se necessário instale o plugin correspondente, disponível no site official.

Temos agora um ficheiro que o Foobar é capaz de tocar.

3. Converter para .wav

Deve-se converter o ficheiro para o formato não comprimido: .wav .

Para evitar clipping: Abre-se ou volta-se a abrir o ficheiro no Foobar, e aplica-se o TrackGain, com o right click menu.

Em seguida faz-se right click novamente no ficheiro e selecciona-se a opção para converter.

No menu que aparece, selecciona-se que se quer converter o ficheiro para .wav.

No mesmo menu, nas opções de Processing, deve-se selecionar que se quer aplicar o filtro DSP "Advanced Limiter" e a opção Track ReplayGain preventing clipping .

Depois da conversão tem-se um óptimo ficheiro .wav, pronto para ser lido pelo Dancing Monkeys.

4. Configurar o Dancing Monkeys e criar os passos

Se não quer que a canção seja cortada a metade, meta uma Length maior. O valor está em segundos, 600 segundos darão para obter uma versão completa da maior parte das músicas.

Tem de se permitir que hajam paragens na canção, caso contrário não será possível gerar os passos. Meta um valor grande como 60, na opção Max Stops.

Deixe o Dancing Monkeys analisar o ficheiro, e deverá ter no fim um directório que deverá copiar para o Program Files\StepMania\Songs .

Em caso de erro, consulte o log do Dancing Monkeys para saber o que correu mal.

Outra vez, de forma resumida:

abrir ficheiro no Foobar, e aplicar ReplayGain
converter para .wav com o Foobar, com as opções: Advanced Limiter e ReplayGain without clipping
configurar o Dancing Monkeys
adicionar o .wav resultante no DancingMonkeys e gerar os passos

Notas:

Este método facilmente pode ser aplicado a vários ficheiros simultaneamente;
se tiver já seguido o meu outro tutorial, "Como organizar uma colecção de música", os seus ficheiros já deverão todos estar prontos para o passo 3;
se quer costumizar o directório, adicionar background, etc: a maneira mais fácil é abrir os componentes de outro directório de música dentro do Stepmania e imitar;
se estiver a obter erros mesmo assim, tente utilizar variantes do ficheiro, o mp3 original, ou converter o mesmo para .mp3, utilizando as mesmas settings que para o .wav.

Tutorial: Setting up a quick online radio for your friends.

2011-09-13T17:46:00.008+01:00

If you are a gamer or something of the like and you would like to setup a quick online radio, for you and your friends to enjoy the same music while playing, this is the tutorial for you.

If you want to play music for people on Teamspeak or something, just keep reading.

After trying several tools, I came to the conclusion that presently, the easiest way to setup an online radio is by using the Shoutcast + Winamp combo.

Install Winamp

First, get and install the latest Winamp .

Install Shoutcast

Now here comes the catch: the latest Shoucast does not bring a graphic interface. If you want to do this easily, and not have to mess around in files, get an older version. You can get it around the web. Search for Shoutcast 1 9 8 . Try this download link first, it's where I got it.

Install it. Shoutcast is ready to broadcast to port 8000. No configuration required. Easy so far.

Install Shoutcast DSP

Finally, you will need to install the Shoucast DSP for Winamp, for the two, Winamp and Shoutcast, to communicate. Again, an older version is better here, for compatibility purposes and for better integrated mp3 support.

I used version 1.90, so search the internet for Shoutcast DSP 1 9 0. Try this download link first.

Install the DSP. Open winamp and the DSP menu should appear. If not, find it inside Winamp options.

Using it

All you have to do is to put files playing on winamp, and tell your friends to open the address on their media player. Most players will be able to do this easily.

For example, put a playlist playing, tell them to open http://yourIP:8000 .

In some cases the default 8000 port will not work, so change that in the Shoutcast settings.

To find out your IP visit this link http://www.whatsmyip.org/ and replace it in the previous example.

If you have a router you will probably need to open the 8000 port to accept connections to the radio.

And that's it. Again in easy steps:

Install Winamp
Install Shoutcast 1.9.8
Install Shoutcast DSP 1.9.0
Open port 8000 (may not be necessary)
Play files in winamp and give out your IP address

Other versions will work, but I don't guarantee any ease. This tutorial is all about easy.

Some extra tips:

you can configure the DSP to broadacast in higher quality. This option is on the encoder tab. In gaming this means you will get higher pings, so you have to be experimental here;
if you want to use another port you need to click on Edit config in Shoutcast and find and change the port number there;
it is good practice to listen to your own radio. If there are problems, you will know. So mute your Winamp player and open another player and listen to your own radio there. Your default address will be http://localhost:8000;
your IP is probably not static, so this means your IP address will change, and so you will have to provide people with your new radio address, probably at least once a day. To avoid this, find out about Dynamic Dns . You can use it to give your computer a permanent address. Here's a good one: http://dyn.com/dns/ .

That's all. Hope it was helpful.

(Portuguese) Final Fantasy 7 Remix - Colecção de Mods

2011-09-13T15:22:00.012+01:00

Isto deve ser interessante para todos aqueles fans de Final Fantasy 7 enquanto não sai a esperada versão actualizada oficial.

Trata.se de Final Fantasy 7 Remix, uma colecção de mods para a versão PC do jogo clássico Final Fantasy 7.

Novos modelos 3D, mecânicas actualizadas, um novo script de inteligência artificial, correcção de bugs e traduções. Este mod traz isto tudo.

Foi criada pelo utilizador titeguy e apresentada no forum qhimm. A thread original pode ser vista aqui e contém os links de download.

Para terem uma ideia do conteúdo: em bytes, o tamanho desta colecção é quase igual ao dos 4 cds que trazem a versão PC do jogo. É bastante fácil de instalar: basta ter a versão original instalada.

É uma óptima maneira de revisitar este clássico, aproveitando a nova e fresca perspectiva.

Filename Universal Translator - preview

2010-09-08T21:38:00.003+01:00

The download is in the more recent post: here

If you are a fan of asian things like me, you probably have your computer filled with files with foreign names. Some musics from the older days that you have absolutely no idea what are about or who the artist is ?

Some interesting screenshots you got around the place, with some nice unreadable korean names?

Yeah, sometimes, software will even refuse to open these. Although this is becoming less of a problem, as unicode support becomes universal, it's still nice to know that it can be done.

So, i went ahead and coded a prototype that does exactly this: presenting, unamed project: Filename Universal Translator!

So, bye bye chinese filenames that MusicIP music player doesn't like and refuses to open.

I can finally listen to all the crappy chinesepop I want to. Now I know for sure that these musics really are about what they sound like. If the artist is screaming oh my pleety girl! on top of his lungs, the music is probably called "the beautiful girl in my heart".mp3 or something similar.

Yes, confirmation at last!

Anyway, I started out a bit unmotivated by the advices that said it couldn't be done, so support is appreciated.
I do it for the fans!! -_-

(Portuguese) Seja música, imagens ou vídeos, se gostas da cena asiática, é quase certo encontrar partes do teu PC inundadas com ficheiros em lingua estrangeira (especialmente em japonês).

Há alguma maneira de mudar esses ficheiros todos para outra língua?

Bem, agora há pelo menos uma. Em fase de teste, ainda, mas já funcional.

Já comecei desmotivado pelo pro-guy que me disse que isto não podia ser feito.

Por isso, interesse da parte de quem está minimamente interessado, seria agradável.

I do it for the fans!!! -_-

(Portuguese) Ler Manga ou Comics no PC ou "O melhor leitor de mangapara PC: MangaMeeya"

2010-08-30T01:41:00.008+01:00

"Manga e PCs, o que é isso?"

Toda a gente nos dias que correm já tem ou teve algum ficheiro ou varios ficheiros de manga/comics/webcomics no PC.

Se bem que a geração mais recente de cybernautas é menos proficiente a nível informático que a anterior, e não consegue explorar todos os recantos da vasta internet, é também muito mais fácil encontrar o que se procura hoje em dia.

O Rapidshare e seus irmãos , e especialmente os torrents facilitam o acesso a todo o género de downloads.

Não julguem imediatemente que estou a dizer para irem sacar manga à net e lerem no PC. Por várias razões:

os fans têm o dever de comprar coisas aos autores de que gostam para que continuem a produzir mais coisas;
existem mesmo vários mangas/comics que foram lançados de forma gratuita na internet ou autores que não são contra a distribuição destes;
existe muita gente que saca e lê e depois compra, ou vice-versa;
existem já algumas editoras a vender manga sob formato digital.

Nota: Quando digo "comprar coisas aos autores" refiro-me a todo o género de mercadoria baseada numa série. Podem alegar que alguém que tenha todos os volumes e série animada de Naruto no PC sem ter comprado nenhum fascículo ou DVD, é um fan desnaturado e irresponsável.

Mas muitas vezes o mesmo fan tem o armário cheio de figurinhas de plástico de 80€ cada, e o quarto coberto com posters de Naruto. Este género de coisas também contam para o artista.

E muitas vezes mesmo que não tenham comprado nada, são estes os fans que formam o grosso do núcleo inicial e extremamente fiel que torna uma série popular e memorável.

Continuando a história:

Não se iludam quanto a certas coisas: não vão ler todos os mangas que existem, e muito mais dificilmente comprar todos os mangas que existem. E se querem encontrar coisas antigas à venda, boa sorte com isso.

Também, é quase um facto que os melhores manga de sempre já foram feitos (e esquecidos).

Bem, o que quero dizer com isto tudo é que não aprovo nem desaprovo quem tem manga/comics no PC. Devem é ter consciência do que estão a fazer e não se deixar iludir com políticas pró e contra, porque estão no geral ambas erradas.

Mas vamos ao que interessa. Ler manga no PC é um facto. Como fazê-lo bem?

Um manga ou comic vem sob duas formas: um ficheiro único para cada capítulo volume ou um directorio cheio de ficheiros de imagem.

Os ficheiros únicos normalmente são PDF, CBZ ou CBR . Estes podem ser abertos com um programa adequado;
Ou então são ficheiros RAR ou ZIP que normalmente têm de ser extraídos para depois ficarem sob a forma alternativa de:
Um directório cheio de ficheiros de imagem (dezenas de ficheiros JPEG , PNG ou GIF para cada manga).

Um facto que nem toda a gente conhece: um ficheiro CBZ é na verdade um simples ficheiro ZIP com a extensão alterada. E um ficheiro CBR é um ficheiro RAR. Podem mudar-lhes o filename para constatarem esse facto, ou abri-los no vosso Winrar ou programa semelhante e extraí-los para um directório qualquer como qualquer outro ficheiro ZIP/RAR.

Ora bem, agora o problema. O que usar para ler os ficheiros?

Grande parte das pessoas prefere uma solução generalista que abre tudo (inclusive ZIP e RAR), como um ACDSee ou então vão para uma solução que abre somente imagens como um IrfanView , e convertem os ficheiros para a forma do directório cheio de imagens.

Ora bem, ambos os programas são excelentes, mas há certos aspectos na leitura de um manga que o distinguem de um livro normal.

Existem e vão aparecendo novos programas dedicados à leitura de mangas.

Dos vários programas que testei (e testei vários), o que tem mais a oferecer neste momento, é o MangaMeeya.

Aqui um screenshot do MangaMeeya versão 2.4 Beta:

Como podem ver, este programa oferece uma interface simples. Como vantagens em relação a outros programas:

abre as extensões mais usadas (CBZ CBR GIF PNG JPEG);
ajusta o tamanho das imagens ao ecran com vários algoritmos de resize;
navegação imediata entre directorios e subdirectorios;
permite vizualisar 2 imagens (páginas) de cada vez, ordenando-as da esquerda para a direita ou vice versa (mangas lêem-se da direita para a esquerda, um facto que não é resolvido por software não dedicado à leitura de manga);
está pronto a usar, não é necessário configurar nada, basta abrir e começar a usar.

Como desvantagens. Para algumas pessoas, o facto de não ter instalação pode ser confuso (para outras a portabilidade é uma vantagem), e as teclas default são um bocado confusas, sendo mais fácil usar o rato ou reconfigurá-las.

O problema maior é que não encontrei uma página oficial para a versão inglesa deste programa.

Mas uma rápida pesquisa no google, deverá fornecer-vos a versão mais recente do programa.

Caso não encontrem, podem encontrar um link para download aqui: http://www.mydailymanga.com/2008/06/21/manga-reading-tool/

É a versão mais recente do programa à data da ultima edição deste artigo.

Boa leitura!

E tentem ser bons fans. =)

Internet Combo

2010-08-17T15:09:00.004+01:00

The webcomic has kind of predicted the video.

1. 2. Hungarian priest gets on skateboard to connect

Zoltan Lendvai's first skateboard bore the papal coat of arms

A Hungarian Catholic priest who spreads God's word from a skateboard has become an internet sensation.

A video of the Reverend Zoltan Lendvai, 45, in action has attracted almost 170,000 hits on YouTube.

The video, Funny Priest Skateboarding, shows Father Lendvai, clad in full clerical garb, displaying his moves.

It is not clear whether he has mastered the nose-grind or the kick-flip, but his skills have helped attract young people to his church.

Father Lendvai, whose first board bore the papal coat of arms, believes skateboarding can pave the way to God for young people.

He says his distinctive method of spreading the word on wheels is inspired by Saint John Bosco. The 19th century Italian priest and teacher dedicated his life to improving the lot of poor young people, using games as part of their education.

"Many times I have felt that this is the way I can bring many people a bit closer to Jesus," Father Lendvai, who learned to skateboard at the age of 14 at school, told Reuters news agency.

However, it was not until he started to serve as a priest that he realised the switch stance and the shove-it might be more effective than the sermon in turning young people towards the church.

Three teenage boys who had never attended church before started coming regularly after he showed off his skateboard tricks, said Father Lendvai, who lives and preaches in Redics, a small village on Hungary's border with Slovenia.

However, his four-wheeled ministry does not come cheap: he has given away at least six skateboards to his young parishioners.

source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10993749

Some music found on Indy.tv

2010-08-09T21:42:00.002+01:00

There used to be a site called Indy.tv that was basically a radio that went on playing music submitted by independent artists.

A user would rate music, and indy.tv would try to play stuff he/she liked. This was similar to last.fm and a multitude of other more recent services.

Well, I found out some awesome music through that service, and I haven't seen these bands resurface, so I decided to start uploading videos to youtube with these songs that used to be available on Indy.tv.

My taste is not, by far, universal. But for me these are memorable songs, so I'm going to hope someone out there discovers them through this effort.

Enjoy!

People Skills - Good

Jen Kearney - I don't feel

Ryan Du Bois - Sweird

(Portuguese) A originalidade das palavras: uma análise especulativa. Parte 1

2010-06-12T02:34:00.003+01:00

Encontrei este texto escrito há algum tempo, e resolvi testar a hipótese agora:

Eu acredito que as caracteristicas de uma etnia são reflectidas na sua lingua, na medida em que esta reflecte a etnia e as mudanças que a etnia sofreu ao longo do tempo.

Por exemplo, uma palavra de uso comum por uma população, normalmente adquire uma versão curta na lingua dessa população.

Eu proponho que se encontre as palavras com menor numero de silabas em todas as linguas, digamos, uma lista com palavras de até 3 sílabas de todas as linguas, com o significado correspondente.

A cada palavra de até 3 sílabas atribui-se o significado/significados de uso corrente e comum.

Depois removia-se da tabela todas as palavras em todas as linguas que tivessem o mesmo significado/significados de uso corrente e comum, ficando apenas em cada línguas as que identificam a lingua e portanto a etnia.

Isto poderia ser feito de modo automatico, com um dicionário multilingue.

O Plano:

1) pegar numa data de dicionários (lingua->inglês) e para cada ficheiro criar uma tabela palavra - significado

2) eliminar simultaneamente todas as linhas de palavra em todos os ficheiros que tivessem ocorrencia de significado similar

Claro que assim a lingua inglesa serviria de meio de análise, e não poderia ser analisada.

Mas isso pouco importa, visto que a lingua inglesa é tão usada e deturpada hoje em dia, em uso comum por várias etnias que talvez nao fosse de interesse analisá-la. Isto tambem se aplica às línguas mais faladas, mas em menor escala e gravidade.

3) por análise extensiva e especializada poder-se ia criar uma atributo denominado "conotação intraduzivel" que tornaria a palavra imediatemente "identificadora da lingua".

Poder-se-ia limitar este atributo a cerca de 20 palavras por lingua (valor meramente arbitário e deverá ser alterado para a ordem de grandeza obtida depois do processo automatizável referido nos passos 1,2 e 3)

Segundo o modelo descrito acima, vamos precisar de dicionários do género:

lingua A -> inglês
lingua B - > inglês
lingua C -> inglês

Em que o inglês é tratado como língua de analise.

Em seguida o que se faz é começar a varrer os significados das palavras.

A ideia é, para uma dada palavra Ap com significado IngAp no dicionário A->Ing encontrar todas as palavras com o mesmo ou similar significado em todos os dicionários.

Caso haja algum duplicado, simplesmente apagar todas as ocorrências das palavras nesses dicionários. O objectivo é encontrar palavras cujo significado seja único em todas as línguas.

Definir similaridade:

Hipotese: A similaridade de palavras em duas línguas diferentes é definida pela semelhança entre os seus significados.

Seja Ap uma palavra no dicionario A->Ing com significado IngAp

Seja Bp uma palavra no dicionário B->Ing com significado IngBp

Pergunta: Quando é que as duas palavras são iguais, segundo a nossa hipotese?

Resposta: Quando a lista dos significados em inglês é igual. Ou seja, são 100% similares.

E caso não sejam totalmente iguais?

Vamos imaginar que Ap é uma palavra cuja tradução IngAp é água, ar ou terra

Ou seja, Ap é uma palavra numa dada lingua que quer dizer água,ar ou terra quando traduzida para inglês.

Bp é uma palavra cuja tradução IngBp é água ou fogo.

Qual é a similaridade entre Ap e Bp ?

IngAp partilha 1 palavra em 3 com IngBp : água

IngBp partilha 1 palavra em 2 com IngAp : água

IngAp é 1/3 similar a IngBp e IngBp é 1/2 similar a IngAp

Se assumirmos estas fracções como probabilidades de uma palavra ser igual à outra, então a probabilidade de Ap ser igual a Bp é 1/3 * 1/2 ou 1/6 .

A similaridade entre Ap e Bp é de cerca de 17%

A similaridade está então definida como sendo a probabilidade das palavras serem iguais, o que corresponde à multiplicação das fracções de significados partilhados entre as palavras.

Podemos então criar um programa que percorre dicionários e encontra, para cada palavra em cada dicionário, todas as palavras que estão abaixo de um patamar de similaridade. Ou seja todas as palavras que são únicas e características a uma dada lingua.

Passos experimentais:

1) Fazer download a dicionários;

2) Programar um algoritmo de acordo com os príncipios citados e corrê-lo sobre os dicionários.

Optou-se por fazer download dos dicionários lingua->inglês do projecto Universal Dictionary com um formato padrão. http://www.dicts.info/ud.php

Em seguida, programou-se a aplicação e fez-se correr o algoritmo.

Nesta simulação, vamos apresentar meramente o resultado da comparação entre os dicionários correspondentes ás linguas latinas, já que o algoritmo é algo moroso:

Escolhemos os dicionários de:

Espanhol, Francês, Italiano, Português, Romeno -> inglês

Tutorial: Cleaning Hotmail / Messenger / Windows Live Contacts

2010-03-11T15:57:00.006Z

Overtime, MSN Messenger contact lists get cluttered.

Usually because of spammers, friends that change or lose their e-mail, or contacts you no longer talk to.

Yes, you can organize them into groups, and you can block them. But the MSN protocol and all the evolutions it has suffered have left some serious room for messiness.

This tutorial tries to explain the basics for cleaning your MSN contacts.

Preparation:

You should login to your Live Messenger account and change your password (for safety reasons, but you can skip this step)

Login to http://home.live.com and click options. Then account options or change password. Change your password into something temporary for this tutorial.

The Steps:

1. List Rebuilder Tool:

Go to http://www.msngeeks.com/msn and use their List Rebuilder Tool

From the site: «This tool will delete all unnecessary contacts in your allow and block lists. Unnecessary being contacts you’ve deleted from your forward list, and who have also deleted you from their forward list.»

2. Miranda IM Contact Tool:

2.1 Download and install Miranda Instant Messenger:

Miranda is a MultiProtocol IM that comes with a useful tool.

Download it at:
http://www.miranda-im.org/download/

2.2 Configure Miranda for your Hotmail account:

Go like this:
Main Menu -> accounts -> add -> enter your MSN ID and password

2.3 Go Online:
This means you should enter your MSN through Miranda. When you see your contact list come up, similar to normal MSN Messenger, you know it is working.

2.4 Use Miranda IM management list tools:
Go like this:
Main menu -> options -> network -> (your ID) -> server list

2.5 Change the information in your MSN contact list:
This is the information in your main Messanger Server list. It is a list of all the contacts connected to you and of their current state towards you. The stars represent the contact states. Give or take stars to change state.

Here’s how it works:

Server list contacts: appears on your contact list as you login;
Allowed (Active) contacts: can see your online status (can see if you’re online or not);
Blocked contacts: cannot talk to you. Someone can’t be Blocked and Allowed at the same time.
Somebody included you in his/her server list (yellow stars): people that have you on their server list. You have no control over this.

The possible states are then:

Server, Allowed: can see you online, appears on your list, can talk (this is the default);
Server: cannot see you online, appears on your contact list, can talk;
Allowed: can see you online, does not appear on your contact list, can talk;
Blocked: cannot see you online, does not appear on your contact list, cannot talk to you;
Server, Blocked: cannot see when you are online, appears on your contact list. Possible to talk to, but ONLY if you start the conversation. This is kind of a hack.

Notes:

There is no true way to remove contacts from your main Messenger Server list, if they include you on their server list (i.e. if they have a yellow star);
The only straightway to keep someone from sending you an invite every time you login, is to block contacts. Or, if you just want your contact list uncluttered, and still want to be able to get messages from a user, keep them only in your active list.
If you remove someone from your server list and you are not on their server list (i.e. if they dont have a yellow star), they will be removed from your main Messenger Server list altogether. This means they will not appear in the Miranda tool anymore. Thus, putting someone only in your active list is like an invitation for them to remove you. So be careful.

Remember your Netiquette!

Final note: After finishing Step 2, you can repeat Step 1 – Rebuilder Tool – just in case. You could also use this occasion to clean your email contact list on live.com accordingly. Although Hotmail and Messenger lists are pretty much independent.

Practical Example:
This all is confusing at first. So let’s try to clarify it with an example.
Joe and Mary:

Joe meets Mary. Mary gives Joe her Messenger ID.
Joe adds Mary as a messenger contact. Mary is added to Joe’s main Messenger Server list. Mary is therefore added to Joe’s server list and allowed list. Joe is also added to Mary’s main Messenger Server list.
The next time Mary logs in, Joe is already in her main Messenger Server list. She is then asked if she wants to add Joe to her server and allowed lists. The only other choice is to block him. If she doesn’t pick one of these, she will be asked the same question on every login.
After a while, Joe tries some “sweet” moves on Mary. Mary blocks him as a result.
Joe is added to Mary’s blocked list, and thus removed from Mary’s server and active list.
Joe gets a girlfriend and stops using “sweet” moves on Mary.
Mary removes Joe from her blocked list. Joe is then no longer blocked.
But, Mary doesn’t have much to talk to him, so she just adds him to her allowed list. Not to her server list. This is something she can do because she has read this tutorial.
In such way, Joe does not appear on Mary’s contact list (which is the server list). But he can still talk to her if he wants.
If Mary didn’t add Joe to her allowed list after unblocking him, she would be asked to add him to both her server list and allowed list every time she logged in. This way she keeps her contact list uncluttered and avoids annoying messenger prompts.
The other alternative would be to add Joe to her server and blocked lists. This way she could talk to Joe normally, but only when she started the conversation.

here’s an image version, for easy spread (click for the full image)

Download it at:

http://www.miranda-im.org/download/

2.2 Configure Miranda for your Hotmail account:

Go like this:

Main Menu -> accounts -> add -> enter your MSN ID and password

2.3 Go Online:

This means you should enter your MSN through Miranda. When you see your contact list come up, similar to normal MSN Messenger, you know it is working.

2.4 Use Miranda IM management list tools:

Go like this:

Main menu -> options -> network -> (your ID) -> server list

[caption id="attachment_131" align="aligncenter" width="718" caption="screenshot of miranda tool"][/caption]

2.5 Change the information in your MSN contact list:

This is the information in your main Messanger Server list. It is a list of all the contacts connected to you and of their current state towards you. The stars represent the contact states. Give or take stars to change state.

Here’s how it works:

Server list contacts: appears on your contact list as you login;
Allowed (Active) contacts: can see your online status (can see if you’re online or not);
Blocked contacts: cannot talk to you. Someone can’t be Blocked and Allowed at the same time.
Somebody included you in his/her server list (yellow stars): people that have you on their server list. You have no control over this.

The possible states are then:

Server, Allowed: can see you online, appears on your list, can talk (this is the default);
Server: cannot see you online, appears on your contact list, can talk;
Allowed: can see you online, does not appear on your contact list, can talk;
Blocked: cannot see you online, does not appear on your contact list, cannot talk to you;
Server, Blocked: cannot see when you are online, appears on your contact list. Possible to talk to, but ONLY if you start the conversation. This is kind of a hack. :)

Notes:

There is no true way to remove contacts from your main Messenger Server list, if they include you on their server list (i.e. if they have a yellow star);
The only straightway to keep someone from sending you an invite every time you login, is to block contacts. Or, if you just want your contact list uncluttered, and still want to be able to get messages from a user, keep them only in your active list.
If you remove someone from your server list and you are not on their server list (i.e. if they dont have a yellow star), they will be removed from your main Messenger Server list altogether. This means they will not appear in the Miranda tool anymore. Thus, putting someone only in your active list is like an invitation for them to remove you. So be careful.

Remember your Netiquette! :)

Final note: After finishing Step 2, you can repeat Step 1 - Rebuilder Tool - just in case. You could also use this occasion to clean your email contact list on live.com accordingly. Although Hotmail and Messenger lists are pretty much independent.

Practical Example:

This all is confusing at first. So let’s try to clarify it with an example.

Joe and Mary:

Joe meets Mary. Mary gives Joe her Messenger ID.
Joe adds Mary as a messenger contact. Mary is added to Joe’s main Messenger Server list. Mary is therefore added to Joe’s server list and allowed list. Joe is also added to Mary’s main Messenger Server list.
The next time Mary logs in, Joe is already in her main Messenger Server list. She is then asked if she wants to add Joe to her server and allowed lists. The only other choice is to block him. If she doesn’t pick one of these, she will be asked the same question on every login.
After a while, JOESTRIPJACKET tries some "sweet" moves on Mary. MARY2HOT4MYOWNGUD blocks him as a result.
Joe is added to Mary’s blocked list, and thus removed from Mary’s server and active list.
Joe gets a girlfriend and stops using "sweet" moves on Mary.
Mary removes Joe from her blocked list. Joe is then no longer blocked.
But, Mary doesn’t have much to talk to him, so she just adds him to her allowed list. Not to her server list. This is something she can do because she has read this tutorial. :)
In such way, Joe does not appear on Mary’s contact list (which is the server list). But he can still talk to her if he wants.
If Mary didn’t add Joe to her allowed list after unblocking him, she would be asked to add him to both her server list and allowed list every time she logged in. This way she keeps her contact list uncluttered and avoids annoying messenger prompts.
The other alternative would be to add Joe to her server and blocked lists. This way she could talk to Joe normally, but only when she started the conversation. ;)

2010

tutorial by estamine.net

here's an initial image version, for easy spread:

Tutorial: Cleaning up Windows Live Messenger (or MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger) contacts.

May 31, 2010

Abstract

Overtime, MSN Messenger contact lists get cluttered.

Usually because of spammers, friends that change or lose their e-mail, or contacts you no longer talk to.

Yes, you can organize them into groups, and you can block them. But the MSN protocol and all the evolutions it has suffered have left some serious room for messiness.

This tutorial tries to explain the basics for cleaning your MSN contacts.

Preparation:

You should login to your Live Messenger account and change your password (for safety reasons, but you can skip this step)

Login to http://home.live.com and click options. Then account options or change password. Change your password into something temporary for this tutorial.

The Steps:

1 List Rebuilder Tool:

Go to http://www.msngeeks.com/msn and use their List Rebuilder Tool

2 Miranda IM Contact Tool:

2.1 Download and install Miranda Instant Messenger:

Miranda is a MultiProtocol IM that comes with a useful tool.

Download it at:

http://www.miranda-im.org/download/

2.2 Configure Miranda for your Hotmail account:

Go like this:

Main Menu -> accounts -> add -> enter your MSN ID and password

2.3 Go Online:

This means you should enter your MSN through Miranda. When you see your contact list come up, similar to normal MSN Messenger, you know it is working.

2.4 Use Miranda IM management list tools:

Go like this:

Main menu -> options -> network -> (your ID) -> server list

2.5 Change the information in your MSN contact list:

This is the information in your main Messanger Server list. It is a list of all the contacts connected to you and of their current state towards you. The stars represent the contact states. Give or take stars to change state.

Here’s how it works:

Server list contacts: appears on your contact list as you login;
Allowed (Active) contacts: can see your online status (can see if you’re online or not);
Blocked contacts: cannot talk to you. Someone can’t be Blocked and Allowed at the same time.
Somebody included you in his/her server list (yellow stars): people that have you on their server list. You have no control over this.

The possible states are then:

Server, Allowed: can see you online, appears on your list, can talk (this is the default);
Server: cannot see you online, appears on your contact list, can talk;
Allowed: can see you online, does not appear on your contact list, can talk;
Blocked: cannot see you online, does not appear on your contact list, cannot talk to you;
Server, Blocked: cannot see when you are online, appears on your contact list. Possible to talk to, but ONLY if you start the conversation. This is kind of a hack. :)

Notes:

There is no true way to remove contacts from your main Messenger Server list, if they include you on their server list (i.e. if they have a yellow star);
The only straightway to keep someone from sending you an invite every time you login, is to block contacts. Or, if you just want your contact list uncluttered, and still want to be able to get messages from a user, keep them only in your active list.
If you remove someone from your server list and you are not on their server list (i.e. if they dont have a yellow star), they will be removed from your main Messenger Server list altogether. This means they will not appear in the Miranda tool anymore. Thus, putting someone only in your active list is like an invitation for them to remove you. So be careful.

Remember your Netiquette! :)

Final note: After finishing Step 2, you can repeat Step 1 - Rebuilder Tool - just in case. You could also use this occasion to clean your email contact list on live.com accordingly. Although Hotmail and Messenger lists are pretty much independent.

Practical Example:

This all is confusing at first. So let’s try to clarify it with an example.

Joe and Mary:

Joe meets Mary. Mary gives Joe her Messenger ID.
Joe adds Mary as a messenger contact. Mary is added to Joe’s main Messenger Server list. Mary is therefore added to Joe’s server list and allowed list. Joe is also added to Mary’s main Messenger Server list.
The next time Mary logs in, Joe is already in her main Messenger Server list. She is then asked if she wants to add Joe to her server and allowed lists. The only other choice is to block him. If she doesn’t pick one of these, she will be asked the same question on every login.
After a while, JOESTRIPJACKET tries some "sweet" moves on Mary. MARY2HOT4MYOWNGUD blocks him as a result.
Joe is added to Mary’s blocked list, and thus removed from Mary’s server and active list.
Joe gets a girlfriend and stops using "sweet" moves on Mary.
Mary removes Joe from her blocked list. Joe is then no longer blocked.
But, Mary doesn’t have much to talk to him, so she just adds him to her allowed list. Not to her server list. This is something she can do because she has read this tutorial. :)
In such way, Joe does not appear on Mary’s contact list (which is the server list). But he can still talk to her if he wants.
If Mary didn’t add Joe to her allowed list after unblocking him, she would be asked to add him to both her server list and allowed list every time she logged in. This way she keeps her contact list uncluttered and avoids annoying messenger prompts.
The other alternative would be to add Joe to her server and blocked lists. This way she could talk to Joe normally, but only when she started the conversation. ;)

2010

tutorial by estamine.net

Internet tidbits

2010-02-17T01:53:00.002Z

Little online lessons in the form of pictures. Screenshots from here and there.

1 - Information easily hides subliminal messages. Find the hidden message;

Information comes in all forms and usually in very small packages. It's very easy to get lost and to loose things.

2 - The internet is something with a global character. A more and more evident character;

Here you see, in the site download.com , a small non-western religious application is the 38th most downloaded piece of software in the world. Enter the russians, asians and arabs. It's a whole new WWW.

3 - Not every piece of advice and information online is valid;

(setting your internet cache to 80GB will get your computer in trouble)

Simply put, don't believe every piece of information you read. Things that easy to confirm get corrected rapidly, but misinformation sometimes is used as a correction. Sometimes it will be the word of one expert against hundreds of misinformed users. Guess who wins.

4 - Anyone can be your friend. Anyone. Such that the word lost its classical meaning;

Here you see, adding nickname Nemesis, to the friends list. Curious little quirk. Online, words are used freely. Not only do they have their meaning changed, but words, through their online usage change meaning in the real world.

5 - Spam isn't a nice thing.

Spam will be spam, and as spam filters get smarter so will spammers. As long as 0,00001% of mailed people buy a product, unsolicited information will keep being sent.

These were all the results of copy, cut and paste. They are not montages. Hope you liked.

Chinese, so easy!

2010-02-16T16:18:00.002Z

Was watching a chinese movie when this caption came up.

(Portuguese) Porquê usar boxers com calções de banho.

2009-09-19T16:16:00.001+01:00

The Fourrier Transform

2009-09-19T16:10:00.001+01:00

This one is a bit far fetched, so for an explanation: it's a pun on the European military rank Fourier and the mathematical Fourier Transform. Not funny, i know.

Song Translations: doismileoito - Acordes Com Arroz

2009-08-05T16:50:00.006+01:00

Inside me something

Keeps me from loving the sun.

I see it merely as light,

Merely as sun.

I want the rain and the cold

So in given time,

I'll value your warmth.

Afraid of the early nightfall.

When I feel the cold,

I fear not feeling at all.

Who cares what's good,

If there is no evil.

Just as faces in a postcard,

Don't want it like this

But I am like this.

I fear the evil, but want it again.

More than a worn shoe,

I feel this is the end.

Bury all the pain and bones in your garden,

Ask the sky for some clouds to harden.

Online Radio - usage and alternatives to last.fm - A guide for Europe

2009-07-31T17:01:00.001+01:00

last.fm was a very cool website. It was free, it was hip, it kept getting better.

Add a few years and the free part is dropped out, as it often happens.

What does this wonderful site have that makes it so wonderful and worth me writing about it?

All it did, or its core fuction is to gather information about its users listening habits. What do you listen to and when do you listen to it. From that it does the following:

Customized radios: you can pick a genre, friend, yourself or an artist, and it will play either songs that are related to what you picked or simply popular concerning what you picked. This means that with the click of a button you can listen to your friends music collection. Or even, you could listen to a radio composed of your favorites songs. Or even just listen to radio that plays music you don't know, based on your tastes in regard to other similar users.

Recommendations: As mentioned before, last.fm can pickup what you like. It then finds similar users and recommends to you the stuff that they like, and that you don't know about. It's likely that this way you will find new music that you enjoy. Also, it will recommend concerts of band, based on your taste. A very popular feature, specially for Erasmus students and the like :O

And it's basically this that makes last.fm so cool: costumized radios and recommendations.

Costumized radios were stripped away from the free version. If you live in a rich (ad-saturaded) country like UK, US or Germany it's still free.

Otherwise if you are willing to pay the 3€ a month, I think it is worth it.

Keeping it strictly free: the recommendations alone are a good reason to keep using this site.

Another reason that you might want to keep using this site and not another, is that so far, certain players, like Foobar and MusicIP, only support last.fm , and not other similar services.

Which leads us into our next question:
Are there any similar FREE services that are equal or better?

For me, no. I use last.fm for recommendations and I use foobar as a player.

But i still like listening to online radio.

So, testing a lot of the current available online radio services, I concluded the following:

They all suck.

Normal online radios are still the way to go. Just open your favorite Shoutcast stream in Foobar or other player and let the last.fm application store your listening habits for better recommendations.

As for the best online radio services, if you live in Europe you should go for Accuradio or Deezer.

Links here: Accuradio and Deezer.

For things like this you can get a Firefox lastfm plugin, like DAS - A Deezer to Last.fm bridge or LastFM Firefox Extension. Links here and here. These will pass the tracks you listen to in sites like Deezer to your lastfm account. LastFM Firefox Extension is clearly the best of the two as is supports more websites.

These sites don't have the ability to learn what you like. But the thematic radios are really good.

As a final note: if you live in the fatter richer countries you have more options, and you can use other recommendations services. But right now I don't care to test them as I'm not in one of those Germanic nations.

But feel free to comment on this post and add your recommendations.

Hope this was useful.

The Portuguese flag tryout

2009-07-23T18:01:00.001+01:00

Was here pondering about this problem. You see, there are these things called flags...

and i was wondering about them. In particular about flags i am familiar with.

Are flags important? You bet they are. As Eddie Izzard puts it, "no flag no country". You can't declare you are a nation without a nation flag or something of the sort.

From here, i could go on and debate (or whatever you do when you talk to yourself) on what exactly is a country. But i'll stick to flags as a symbol of a country.

And since there is a whole scholarly study dedicated to flags, I'll restrict myself and stick to a flag i am familiar with.

Presenting, the Portuguese flag:

Interesting isn't it?

Now, this thing is not very ancient. It's from the beginning of the 20th century, when everyone thought it was a good idea to have a new flag.

Along with the new flag, they also installed a new political system.

That didn't work very well, so people went on beating each others chin for 60 years after that.

But let's stick to the flag. It's supposed to be full of meaning, as flags usually are.

Actually, it turns out it is pretty much... random.

According to History (here represented by Wikipedia) a bunch of guys were told to meet, toss ideas around, and tell the painter guy to try them out.

And so, from that particular brainstorm, came the gentle breeze and the wavering flag in it.

The symbolism for this red and green with a blotch of yellow cloth is taught to children in Portugal as:

Red: is bloodshed and strife of patriots;

Green: is hope;

Yellow: is a bunch of misc historic trivia.

Knowing and being able to explain this kind of stuff is enough to get you over elementary school.

Still, some people at the time the flag was made, went around writing that the flag was just an unimaginative mismatch of the flags and insignias of the revolution sponsors.

Which is probably true.

But Stop!!

This is besides the point. The question I have in my mind is this:

If they decided green, red and yellow, or hope and patriotic bloodshed with lots of history are what best represents Portugal.. it should be plainly justified why.

Well.. i don't think there is a why. It's pretty much a random construction after all. So one can only ask question regarding the construction of the flag, not the flag itself.

So let's say we can find out something else. Let's pose a question about the construction.

Which is more important? Red or Green?

The yellow is centered. So I'll leave him out.

The red and green. The red is in clear surface superiority. There is more red than green in the flag, right? That makes it superior, right? Or doesn't it?

Hope or bloodshed? Which is more important? How do you solve this types of questions?

Until it hit me:

What do revolutions teach you? The very fundamental lesson?

What is the conclusion of every social stage?

What is the best way of solving everything? Fighting!!

Well.. what about Street Fighting?!

Yes! So here we go!

Green versus Red (with a blotch of yellow)

◊Fight!◊

◊ So here we have player Hope (using a green Ken) versus Bloodshed (using a red Ken).

◊ Hope is usually absent-minded. He went to the bathroom and Bloodshed started whooping his ass.

◊ But, some fights after, when Hope finally comes back from the bathroom, we find out that Bloodshed is a Street Fighter Alpha 3 noob that never heard of parrying.

◊ From there on, Hope kicked Bloodshed's ass.

In conclusion, Because of this historic Street Fighter 3 match, the Green is of course the most important part of the Portuguese flag.

Thank you for reading.

As a final side note, i think this method is as valid as those used to pick and construct and analyze a flag: any flag.

(Portuguese) Kashkabald a Lenda

2009-07-23T17:55:00.004+01:00

Boa tarde caros espectadores.

No programa de hoje vamos observar as origens de um personagem famoso. Não é famoso o suficiente para aparecer no wikipedia, mas é famoso o suficiente para merecer um documentário.

E estranho.

No interesse científico, vamos estudar as origens deste personagem historicamente marcante.

Venha, acompanhe-nos numa viagem até à terra mágica de Kashkabald!

Kashkabald:

a Lenda

No primeiro episódio, acompanhe-nos enquanto viajamos através do mundo, até à terra natal de Kashkabald: o deserto de Kashkabald.

Tal como várias outras coisas, não se sabe exactamente quem deu o nome a quem. Mas um sítio é sempre um sítio, mesmo sem ter nome.

O interesse foi despertado por documentos históricos recentemente pescados no Mar Morto que apontam como tendo sido este o berço de Kashakabald.

Há gerações que investigadores independentes o suspeitavam , visto que o deserto e a pessoa partilham o mesmo nome.

E é aqui que a nossa história começa. Junte-se à nossa equipa de três investigadores enquanto pesquisamos o habitat de:

Kashkabald:
A Lenda

Dia 0:

Viajamos há mais de quarenta horas.

A nossa equipa de investigadores está desanimada e com a energia em baixo. A causa não é tanto a viagem.

O problema é que ninguém acompanha o entusiasmo - que gerou uma espécie de comportamento obsessivo-compulsivo - do líder da expedição.

Esse, encontra-se eufórico, e a sua energia não parece ter limites.

Mas esperem! fui informado que nos encontramos no espaço aéreo do nosso objectivo e... sim, julgo que estamos a aterrar...

Dia 1:

Entrámos no deserto. Pés assentes na terra depois de 2 dias de viagem.

Bem, isto não é bem um deserto. Ou melhor, não é apenas um deserto. Numa singularidade interessante, o deserto de Kashkabald cobre na totalidade a face de uma ilha nos mares do sul.

A nossa investigação começa. O nosso objectivo não esquecido: "descobrir as origens de Kashkabald"

Dia 8:

A paisagem é estéril.

Uma semana e ainda não há sinais de civilização. Nem quaisquer formas de vida.

A equipa começou agora a usar formas alternativas de atrair confrontos com formas de vida. O registo de ondas sísmicas indica que o deserto está sobre um tecido calcário, e as nossas sondas foram incapazes de justificar qualquer hipótese de ter existido aqui uma civiliza... esperem!

Algo se move. É...

................. verde.

A nossa equipa científica entra de imediato em actividade.

A análise está pronta. O ser apresenta elevadíssimos valores de Evasão. Tal qual o Kash da lenda!

Passam pouco mais de 30 segundos antes de perdermos o.. (cactuar, é esse o nome desta coisa?!)

Sim, antes perdermos o Cactuar de vista.

A velocidade com que aparece e em seguida desaparece!!

Maravilhoso! Simplesmente Ma-ra-vilho-so!

As coincidências são espantosas. Apesar do diferente aspecto físico. Poderemos então concluir um parentesco do Kash com os Cactuar? Ou será esta capacidade de se aproximar e fugir sem razão nem padrão uma característica das espécies endémicas locais?

Espantoso, simplesmente espantoso.

Dia 9

O ecossistema local despertou. E de que forma!

Não podemos dar um passo sem sermos confrontados por um grupo de Cactuar. Não conseguimos encontrar razão nem padrão para o seu comportamento.

São uma tribo? Têm qualquer comportamento social? Porque nos atacam, se a seguir fogem logo? Como conseguem os seres de Kashkabald ser tão evasivos?

O líder da equipa de investigação notificou-nos que a noite passada teve um encontro com um Cactuar gigante. A força necessária para neutralizar esta ameaça ao nosso acampamento, volatilizou completamente o espécimen. Resta apenas a memória dele na mente do líder de equipa.

Líder wrote:

"Líder" - Eu.. não queria acreditar no tamanho daquilo. Tive de usar várias séries de ataques com poder acima de 9000 para o derrotar.

Podemos então concluir que se encontra abalado...

"Líder" - Sim.. kashkabald é um sítio estranho...

Dia 10

O nosso líder perdeu a sua motivação. O seu comportamento obsessivo - o que arrastava a nossa equipa nesta demanda de conhecer as origens de Kashkabald, deixando de existir, deixou a nosso acampamento de pernas para o ar.

A chimera que encontrámos hoje de manhã também não ajudou.

Dia 11

Os nossos fundos já quase tão esgotados quanto as nossa energias, nada nos resta para ver neste deserto. Não posso dizer que tenha sido uma perda total de tempo, mas não posso dizer que os próximos livros sobre Kashkabald - a pessoa - mencionem esta expedição.

O líder, apesar de completamente abatido, decidiu fazer uma ultima incursão até ao centro do deserto.

Decidi segui-lo. A minha crew vai por arrasto sob a minha autoridade.

Perdemos a equipa sobre uma duna.

Sons de confronto.

São aqueles malditos cactuar outra vez?

Ou talvez uma chimera?

Ou.. poderá? Finalmente algo significante sobre o mítico Kash?

Huh?!!?!?

Desisto! Isto é estúpido! Este sítio é estúpido! Treta para isto tudo!

~FIM~

Organize your mp3 collection - tutorial (old version)

2009-07-23T17:42:00.000+01:00

FullmooninuTutorials - Music (but mostly MP3) Organizing

Well, i was messing around after purchasing MusicIP and figured ishould alter this massive wall of text to something less scary.
So i was thinking should make two versions.

So... here's the thing, I'm gonna actually produce a lighttutorial on music organizing, all centered on MusicIP. MusicIP islike, ossum, and puts everything else the web has to offer out on acorner.

I'll try to explain why. As in the previous version of thistutorial it had little exposure.

Alpha Quick and Dirty Version

Okay Guys, I was telling some of you folks i would write sometutorials for this and that.

So here's what, im going to do one right now... watch it growwhile i use this forum as an excuse for the hiatus

This tutorial is for anyone who has a large (messy) musiccollection and wants to learn the basics to keeping such a collectionorganized, and use all that organizing to your personal benefit.

It's mainly directed to the organizing of MP3 files, mostlybecause that's what the gross of my collection is, and because MP3files, still present a very good quality/size ratio - specially whenyou are speaking about a LameMP3 encode at 192kbps (which is what i consider the current "sweet spot" foraudio files, by the way)

First of all, you have to understand how i think: I like my musicfiles to be properly organized, i make sure they aren't corrupt,aren't low quality and that i don't have any duplicates in mycollection.

I organize music using only two factors. Artist and Track title.

Some people like to work with Albums, others like to work withGenres.

Nonetheless, this guide can help you organize your music, whateverthe way you prefer it to be organized.

Steps

The steps are basically these, in which i think is the mostlogical order:

1- Set file attributes
2- Check for duplicates
3- Check for corruption
4- Check for quality
5- Reversible Normalize
6- Tag and Organize
7- Generate Smart Playlists, using spectrum analysis
8- Check for duplicates and errors, using spectrum analysis.

1. Set attributes

Reasoning:

So, we're going to work with your mp3 files.

We must prepare them first. Don't want to get any errors furtheron because some of them are set as read-only files.

This will be a quick tutorial on how to set attributes in awindows environment.

Example of Method:

Lets say I keep all my organized music files inside directoryd:music and my unorganized (and fresh) music files insided:downloadsmusic

Open a command shell and write:

example:

attrib -R +A -S -H d:music*.mp3 /s

This will set the proper file attributes for all mp3 files insidethe directory d:music and respective subdirectories.

Do the same for the other directories:

attrib -R +A -S -H d:downloadsmusic*.mp3 /s

And for other file types you may have

attrib -R +A -S -H d:downloadsmusic*.ogg /s

Advantages:

By doing this you will be decreasing the errors you will have todeal with when you further organize your collection

Disadvantages:

None.

2. Check for file duplicates

This is probably the most basic thing you can do for anycollection.

There are lots of pieces of software than can detect fileduplicates. Just use anyone your familiar with.

Make sure you only delete exact duplicates, and always try to keepthe one with the file name that is the most correct and delete theothers.

I like to use CloneSpy http://www.clonespy.com/

Download and install the latest stable version, and open it.

Go to File -> Options -> Files

Enable Restrict to files or file patterns , and AddMask. Type in *.mp3 , *.ogg , *.wma , *.flac , etc .

You should have something like this.

Leave everything else in default for now. Click Add Folder, andall all the folders that contain your audio collection.Subdirectories are included by default, no need to add those.

You should get something like this:

Just click on Start Scanning.

Voilá! Our first duplicate. Just select all but one, and click onDelete all marked files.

Keep deleting the duplicates until the scan is complete. Clonespyallows an automatic procedure, but i would recommend you try it themanual way first.

Advantages:

By doing this first, you will be cleaning your collection ofduplicates, reducing the number of files you have to deal with, getmore free space on your hard disk, and will avoid errorsfurther on such as filename collisions.

Disadvantages:

- If you have a huge collection this should take you a while.

- Let's say you have the exact mp3 file, but with 2 different IDtags: Clonespy will not see it as a duplicate.

Tip:

Spoiler:

3. Check for Corruption

You just got an audio file. How do you make sure its not corrupted?

You probably have a few of these lingering around your collection.Files that when played, give out a *beep* or a *blop*here and there.

You'll want to check your files for errors.

I've tested a few pieces of software created for this purpose.Right now i only trust Checkmate MP3 checkerhttp://checkmate.linuxonly.nl/

I only care about doing this step for MP3 files. The reason beingmy collection dates back to Napster days and as such i built it from.mp3 files and rips off my CD collection, but mostly because i neverfound any good generic error checking software.

Download the latest stable version, install and let's use it.

Go to a directory containing MP3 files. I recommend using this inyour default download directory, where you probably have a lot of mp3files lingering.

Select them all, by doing the default english Windows "selectall" command Ctrl+A - this way the program onlyselects all .mp3 files

Press Enter

In this example, we found two corrupted mp3 files.

The problems that will be detected by checkmate

- Broken, resulting from errors in encoding or a broken file

- Not a mp3 file, this means your file isn't a mp3. Some of thesewont even be music files. Try and play these with your player andcheck their properties.

Checkmate will detect errors. But it wont fix them.

If you want to improve your collection, you should:

If broken: get a new clean version of the song from somewhere anddelete your old one;

If invalid: find out the real extension for the file and changeit.. or get a new clean version of it, and delete the old one.

Advantages:

- Cleaning your collection of corrupted files and files with aninvalid extension, is a good way of improving the overall quality,and to avoid further errors when organizing your files.

Disadvantages:

- You should have noticed a thing: this software I recommend isstill in development in terms of everything but mp3 error checking -in which it excels.

The worse part being: It's not capable of working withsubdirectories, so you will have to analyze all your musicdirectories one by one.

For a big collection, this will take ages. So unless you're reallypatient, you can skip this step.

In the end of this tutorial, there will be presented another wayof checking for errors in all your files - but this other way is morea complement than a replacement, as the algorithm is not as good asthis one.

Tip:

I use this software to check new mp3, before i move them to mycollection. I definitely recommend this approach.

Ill try and add some other software for this function later.Recommendations are warmly accepted

4. Check for quality

Still about neatness.

This is the part where we check the general quality of yourcollection.

We checked for file corruption, now we check for quality.

The software for this?

Encspot, by GuerillaSoft

They released this for years, and it had a Free and Professional,paid version.
But before they went under, they released the paid version as freeware.

They don't have an official site anymore, and a quick Googlesearch couldn't find the latest version, so i cant put a link hereright now. Will appreciate some help finding the file (or hosting thefile, private message me if you wanna)

So, download enc spot pro and install it

It will ask for a serial, which was provided for free byguerillasoft. (this will be included in the download)

Now, this piece of software is on another level....

It will read the first frames of every mp3 you feed it, and tellyou its properties, including: its relative quality.

So select a dir and check it out.

Green means good, red means bad, yellow is so so.

This scale is based on used encoder and file bitrate.

What you do is: browse through your collection (doesn't supportsubdirectories), and check out the red files. You should reallyreplace these with better quality versions.

You'll realize, if you have no experience in this, that you had anactual tendency for liking the songs in red less, and liking thesongs in green more.

Amazing, isn't it ? One of the factors that makes you like a musicfile less, is its inferior quality.

Same could be said about the songs that have errors and the songsthat don't.

Proof: If you ask someone to make a compilation of their favoritemp3, they will give you a sample of their collection that contains alot LESS broken files and bad quality files than the overall averagein their collection

You'll want to remake your collection by getting better (errorfree versions of these songs) and then AFTER listening to the betterversion, you can delete the inferior scum -_-

Joy.

At this point you'll realize you're deleting some corrupt songsand inferior quality songs and not getting replacements... thismeans you never really liked them.
Unless you're one of those guys that collects albums instead ofsongs, this will actually be a good thing: this is also organizingyour collection.

Advantages:

- Getting better sounding versions of inferior quality songs.

Disadvantages:

- Since this is a very manual thing, you'll probably want to berelaxed about it, and do it bit by bit.

Tip: when you have two versions of the same song, that dont checkout as true duplicate, this is the software you should use to seewhich is the better version

5. Reversible Normalize

Problem: some music files are louder, some are quieter. Whenplaying them, either you analyze them beforehand so they play at thesame volume, or you'll eventually have to reach for the volume.

This is where you make all your MP3 the same mean volume, so youwont have to keep changing the volume when you pass from a loud songto a more silent one.

The reversible means the process is completely lossless in thesense that it can be undone without any loss of information.

Note: This is NOT the way music is played in CDs. In CDs sometracks are louder and others are more silent. But this not practicalfor a large collection played on shuffle.

For this i recommend MP3Gainhttp://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/

Download the latest stable version, install it and open it.

Now, let's set it right

The default value mean sound is 89dB

I find this too low for must uses, so i recommend you set it to91dB

In the options make sure the "subdirectories" and "dontclip when applying gain" options are set

Add a directory.

Keep adding all the directories you want. Add your whole drives(C: D: ) if you want.

Then press Track Analysis

When finished, the log report will certainly report a few errorfiles. The files in the log report will not be normalized becauseMP3Gain will report them as containing errors or not being valid mp3files. They are a minority but if you have the patience you caninvestigate those files with an error checker or a quality checkerand see whats up.

After the analysis is finished, and you had a quick look at theerror report (if any), press the apply Track Gain and MP3Gainwill now finally work on your, normalizing your entire collection.You can try this with different gains, if you find 91dB to be too lowor too high.

6. Tag and Organize:

So you got a bunch of files, spread everywhere, some withincorrect names, some with incorrect artist and trackname, most ofthem have a filename format you don't like, and you want to fix this?

Sure, you could just add them to a media library, and use that tofind the files whenever you wanted. But you'll still have lots ofincorrect information about.

Well, you could correct the information yourself.

But why should you, if you can use an online database to do it foryou.

Meet Music Brainz.

Music Brainz is a tagger that uses a checksum database and checksfor file similarity. The checksum (and file profile) are submitted tothe database (that withstands by holding info on most mp3 file in theworld). The files are identified by album and artist and whatnot, andit gives the file the proper tag, filename and even a directory ofits own. All of which can be configured to your taste.

Sweet non ?

I think so. *schlerp* Really sweet.

For the newfags: This technology was initially applied on asoftware called Moodlogic, which also generated smartplaylists. Butthats another topic. I was there on the dead Moodlogic forums when ithappened: the brain behind the moodlogic technology went to work foramazon.com (traitor =O) so they could increase their profits and afew starving guys joined together to create musicbrainz as analternative.

I watched this baby grow, and have my way of using it. Ill provideas an example my personal way of doing it:

Go to the MusicBrainz webpage http://musicbrainz.org/

Make an account - you are going to need it later.

You could use mine, but i don't want you to. Get your own.

There's several programs that access the MusicBrainz database. Youcan take your pick. I'm going to go for the free one: PicardTagger

Download and install the latest stable version.

Open it and we're going to configure it now.

Make sure you grant it access to the web, this is just a clientfor the database. Without the internets it's worthless.

Go to the menu Options->Options

General:

Type in that login and password you got when registering at thesite.

Also select auto

Metadata:

I like to "translate foreign artist names to english wherepossible"

leave the rest in default

Tags:

You can leave it in default: attention, some players, mostlyportable ones, dont like the default text encoding, utf-8. But illupdate this part later. For now just leave everything as default.

Cover art:

Fuck cover art, i disable this. But if you want jpeg files hiddeninside your mp3 files, it's up to you.

File naming:

The good stuff. Now dont get scared. It's just bit of script withjust a few possible variables.

Click the preview button to see how a mp3 file will be renamed, bydefault.

Looks good ?

I dont think so, i like my files to be like thisArtist-Songname.mp3 .

This is because i personally just want the filename to tell methese two things. Who is playing and what they/he/she is playing.

Some people like to read more things from teh file name. Year,album, gender and all that.

It's about personal taste. And for simplicity effect it's what irecommend.

If you click the help button and then click on file naming you'llget instruction on how to change the result to whatever you like.

Don't forget to click the preview button to see if it works.

Plus, it is also in this field that you can work out the magic toorganize a completely unorganied music collection, just by using thedefault values, and activating the Move Files option, musicbrainz canorganize all your mp3 files, neatly by directory, give them a properfilename and proper tag.

The default is$if2(%albumartist%,%artist%)/%album%/$num(%tracknumber%,2) %title%

im going to translate this

It says, if there's an recognizable artist for the album of thesong, create a directory with the name of the artist, then create asubdirectory with the name of the album, then move the file there andchange it to: track number(with two digits) title of the song. (likein the example).

If there isnt a recognizable artist for the album, just create adirectory with the name of the artist of that track, then create asubdirectory with the name of the album and the rest is the same

I dont like this, so ill change it to the values i like.

If i was dealing with a completely unorganized collection i wouldselect this.

%artist%/%artist-%title%

and select a folder to move your collection to.

This way only 1 directory will be created per artist, and its alot easier to navigate IMO.

If the collection is already organized in a certain way. Just usethe %artist-%title% thing i recommend, and dont select move files.

If you liked the default way of changing the filename but dontwant it to be moving your songs about, change it to%album%/$num(%tracknumber%,2) %title%

I also select "replace non-ascii" characters, but thatsbecause i dont like it when some players cant read this. You knowthese right? Stuff like é and õ and â and the like, are replacedby their more simple incorrect versions without acentuation.

And You're done...

Close options.

Let's try it out.

Select add folder.

Select a folder with a few songs, let's essay the result beforegoing for your full collection, mm kay ?

They should be added in the left column

Select a few and click scan.

They mostly should be identified, and moved to the right window.

Select all the albums and click "save".

The files will be renamed and tagged properly. (unless they arenot well identified, which can happen sometimes)
They will also be neatly organized by folders, if you asked forit.

So go and see for yourself.

7. Generate Smart Playlists:

So now you got yourself a error free, true duplicate free,properly tagged and organized collection.

Im proud of you, Junior.

So what can you do with it ?

Good question.

How about we process your collection to a database based on songsimilarty and start generating playlists from that database based.

This is, we can select a few songs from the database that includesall the musics in your pc, and from those we can select a playlistthat includes 20 or 30 songs that similar to that one?

Pretty sweet, i think *schlerp*

Now,

we're gona use the latest version of this technology, MusicIPMixer

http://www.musicip.com/

Download and install the latest stable version of musicip mixer.

The free version is just fine, even with the 75 song per mixlimit, i think. But the pro version has its advantages.

Open it

Since this is the first time you use it, it will ask you for thefolder where you keep your music

It's irrevelant if you give it one or not. You can do it later.

The place to add songs to the library is in

Library -> Add songs

Just add some songs, and it will start working. Attention, part ofits database generating engine is online, so for adding songs to yourdatabase you need an internet connection.

Leave it working on your songs and let's check out the options.

There is some stuff you can do in the Options, but nothingspecial, so let's just use the defaults.

Just select a song or songs, and you can click the mix button togenerate a mix from those songs.

Even the shuffle is intelligent instead of random. By default theprogram tries to minize the variance between songs in a shuffle.

Then press play and start enjoying your collection

8.

MusicIP Mixer is a great mix creator and what i use as defaultplayer.

But it does a lot more..

For instances, it can actually use the similarity database to findduplicate songs. The songs that arent real file duplicates but are 2different encodes of the same song ?

No problem for MusicIP just select Library->List Duplicates

If you click List unalysable it will list all the songs witherrors, that should be deleted and replaced.

(not all of them are error songs, Unalysable songs are sometimessongs that are identified as non music)

Finally, if you configure the options accordingly, you can use theFix Tags button to tag your files properly. This is the best Tagfixer around. It will find without error the names, tracks, albums,year and genre of most of the songs everywhere.

It will tag UTF names properly, but the catch is. It doesn't workthat well with UTF, so it has a slight problem with Asian filenames=/.

On the other hand, picard tries to convert Asian chars to ASCII.So i guess thats a bit of a gray area.

Other than that, if there is one software of all these that irecommend, its MusicIP

It's that good.

First post

2009-07-23T15:07:00.002+01:00

I do much stuff on the interwebs. Me and a couple of other people. It’s mostly useless stuff.

Well, some of it is very far-fetched, and i recon we have amassed some useful knowledge.

This is the place where we will post some of that stuff.

There are a couple of rules we will use:

1) we don't do it for popularity

2) don't post about posts

3) original articles first

4) avoid reviews

5) avoid talking about recent events

6) avoid the hype

new rules will appear