SELECT count(DISTINCT postkey) as post_count, membername FROM members, posts where members.memberid = posts.postauthorid GROUP BY membername ORDER BY post_count DESC

Posting that query is mostly for archival purposes. Basically this.. fun little query counts the number of unique posts by each user, from a MySQL database.

The posts table has postkey (the unique identifier) and postauthorid, the members table has a membersid column (relates to postauthorid) and membersname (the human-readable member's name).

Pretty simple to do, but regardless here is a copy-and-paste'able set of commands that should work on OS X/Linux (if you have the Apple Developer Tools installed, or the build-essential package on Ubuntu):

cd /tmp/
curl -O http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.6/Python-2.6b3.tgz
gunzip Python-2.6b3.tgz
tar -xf Python-2.6b3.tar
cd Python-2.6b3/
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/python2.6
# lots of lines ending in "... yes" hopefully
make
# will take a while, no errors
sudo make install
# enter your password, as it requires root access to put files in /usr/local/
# lots of stuff flies by..
sudo ln -s /usr/local/python2.6/bin/python2.6 /usr/local/bin/python2.6
sudo ln -s /usr/local/python2.6/bin/2to3 /usr/local/bin/2to3
# this puts python2.6 into your $PATH</pre class='code'>

That will install python2.6 into /usr/local/python2.6/ and symlink the commands python2.6 and 2to3 into /usr/local/bin/

While this isn't exactly the normal sort of NF article, this took me hours to work out.

I have a bunch of gigs recorded on an Zoom MRS-1608 recording desk. Until recently to capture/edit the recordings, I recorded the master-output via a Line-in connector on an iMac (into Soundtrack Pro). This worked fine, but all the levels were set on the desk, and mixed-down to a stereo output, which means to change the levels, you have to capture the song again. And there is no way of adding effects to specific channels and so on..

The solution should have been simple - Zoom have an application called "Audio File Manager", an extremely buggy and broken application that (should) take the recordings via USB, or a CD and convert each track to a .WAV or .AIFF file (which can then be edited in any audio application)

Microsoft is now a major sponsor of the Apache Software Foundation and is putting its protocols and formats into a royalty-free license, all part of a larger open-source push.

Big things are happening with Microsoft lately. As an Open Source developer by nature I can say that I was a little shocked when they first opened their Microsoft Office document format specifications (which I was sad enough to read!). There are various news stories where Microsoft is becoming more open. I like it. I like it a lot.

As to why they are doing it, the only reason I can see is that they are taking a beating in the the computer industry with competitors like Apple, IBM, Mozilla and Google all peaking at their profits. Not to mention the European computer laws on monopolistic behaviour. They need to form alliances and change market opinion about them if they want to remain unchallenged.

Git is a "distributed version control system" (DVCS). It's website is http://git.or.cz and you can read more about it on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29

There are precompiled versions available for Windows, Linux (via apt-get/yum/etc) and OS X, but if you want the most recent version, or to install it in a non-standard location, compiling it form source is actually very easy (on OS X at least).

This guide was done on OS X Leopard (version 10.5.3), but the steps are basically the same on Linux (just skip the bit about fink and Xcode), and other versions of OS X.

Download!

http://github.com/dbr/tvdb_api/tarball/master - Always the latest version as .tar)

(click for full-size 512x512px PNG with alpha)

MacPorts and Fink are basically like apt-get on OS X (it installs open-source software on Mac OS X)

Songza is a popular website that allows you to listen to almost any song instantly. Most of the songs are MP3 files, but there doesn't seem to be a way to download them. Some of the results are youtube videos, but the videos are invisible, only the music plays. Let's fix that.

Yes, we are all still alive! The slow release of new content has been a side effect of "life". We apoligise. We hope to correct this situation called "Life" as soon as possible and return to our regular nerding.

For myself, I have been very busy socially and professionally for the past month. Still got a bit to go before it's over. I am getting a new laptop soon (later today in fact. My parents are coming to stay and they are bringing a new one for me! I'm looking forward to seeing it more then I am them!) so perhaps I'll have the processing power to actually open up OpenOffice and get some article writing done!

As for everybody else, they have either been caught up in "Life" either socially or professionally. Ben has a job working for a video editing company (or something like that). Nemmy I think got a girlfriend (the traitor!). Cyrus is still full of excuses why he hasn't posted his mythical article yet. AtnNn seems busy with University. Michael has gone AWOL again and Neil. Who knows?

Pretext

This article will pretty much be my opinion, thinly disgused as a subjective comparison between watching films and TV shows, either on DVD, or by downloading them via Bittorrent and the likes.

I am totally ignoring the legality of this comparison. I am only going to cover what should be the most important factor: Convenience for the viewer.