Schinckel.net

The BBC has a wide range of programmes available in their archives, largely in RealPlayer format. I have written ‘realdump’, which will grab the data from one of these streams, and dump it to a WAV or AIFF file.

Firstly, I’d like to be able to dump it to MP3 or AAC, rather than have to convert them myself.

Secondly, I’d like to be able to grab any of the meta-data that comes with the track.

Thirdly, I’d like to make a script that combs through a site, grabbing all of the data.

Good to see, the ABC has some PodCasts, but not all of the types of programs I’m likely to want. Radio National seems to be doing a fair bit of it though.

Update: http://www.audiocoding.com/ has a CLI AAC encoder.

I blogged some time (in fact exactly a month) ago about BBC Radio 3’s Beethoven special, and have just noticed a couple of extra tracks up on the Listen Again page:

• Between The Ears: a reworking of the 5th Symphony.
• Beethoven or Bust: ???

Note to self: snaffle these before they are gone… Update: other stuff available.

rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/beethoven/btebeethoven.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/beethoven/beethovenorbust.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/mahlerone1.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/mahlerone2.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/mahlerone3.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/mahlerone4.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik_manfred1.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik_manfred2.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik_manfred3.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik_manfred4.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik4_1.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik4_2.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik4_3and4.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik5_1.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik5_2.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik5_3.rm
rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio3/classical/CJ_tchaik5_4.rm

When I went to my blog today to see if there were any new comments, I was unable to see anything. I received an error:

It doesn’t look like you’ve installed WP yet. Try running install.php.

Clicking on the link had no effect. What you need to do is:

1. Login to your blog. Even if you cannot see the front page, you can go to /wp-admin/
2. Edit any post from your blog. You do not need to make any changes.
3. Save the post, and the database will have fixed itself.

It seems so be an annoying bug in the WordPress Multi-User code. It has happened before, and it doesn’t seem to happen to everyone as anyone in the process of posting when the bug appears will automatically fix it without realising. I don’t know what time it occurred at, whether it was when a visitor placed a comment, or what. But it seems to be all fixed now.

I have a little joke I make when people ask me how work is. It goes a little like this:

Other Person: How is work going?

Me: Okay, I suppose. I mean, it’s not like work is supposed to be fun or anything. That’s why it’s called ‘Work’, and not ‘Fun’. Can you imagine what the world would be like? “Well, I’m off to Fun now, I want to pop in there and have a little fun for a couple of hours”.

[Other Person walks away…]

Me: Hey, where are you going. Come back…

However, I don’t really believe this. I want to be in a situation where I can do something I love as the main [source of income|thing I do each day]. I read an article which used to be at http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000540052285/ about this. I guess I don’t necessarily want to be a ‘professional blogger’, although it seems like it might be a fun job. I’d just like to be doing something I like, for the significant portion of my time. I already have a job where I do have a fair amount of time to ‘do my own thing’. If necessary (and meetings permit), I can leave work well before 3:30pm, and I get a fair chunk more holidays each year than the average worker. I don’t think I’d like to give up those aspects of the teacher lifestyle. But there are things about my job that I don’t really like. I’m not going to be too specific, but I forsee myself in the not to distant future not working full time as a teacher. Whilst some people don’t like the idea, and the ‘randomness’ of being a relief teacher (Supply Teacher in the UK, Substitute in the US), I think it sounds better than the alternative.

Not having to do a heap of marking and preparation.

Not having to attend staff meetings.

Not having to attend Parent-Teacher interviews.

Not having an income during holidays.

Okay, at the moment that last one is a bit of a kicker. My aim is to have some other sources of income, something that allows me to work ‘from home’, whether it’s building renovation and maintenance, coding or otherwise. I sometimes feel that my generation is the first one to decide that we don’t have to spend our whole lives working, to support our lifestyles. Our whole lives should be our lifestyles. Life is short. Enjoy every day.