Today’s hack: CD wallet inlay track listings generator

If you’re a CD DJ, and, like me, you’re used to scrawling the names of the tracks you’ve just burnt down onto a piece of paper and slotting it into your CD wallet, you probably know how difficult it is to write legibly in a small space.

So, I hacked this Python tool together to generate a printable PDF from some simple text files. There is no graphical interface (yet), just a simple command line interface.

All you have to do is:

1. Create a folder full of plain text files like such:

   LABEL GOES HERE
   Artist 1 - Title 1
   Artist 2 - Title 2
   Artist 3 - Title 3
   ... etc.

   that is, the CD label goes on the first line, and then the track listing goes on each line after that. The file names do not matter, but it's probably a good idea to use the same thing for the label and filename.

2. Run the tool as such:

   python /path/to/tracklisting.py /path/to/tracklisting/files/*

3. Out pops the PDF “output.pdf” in the working directory. Print it off, and cut it out! Happy times!

The code is up on Launchpad at https://code.launchpad.net/~alex-weej/+junk/tracklisting. Please feel free to submit patches or suggestions for any improvements you may have!

A Protest Against “Wall-to-Wall” Conversations on Facebook

Do people realise that when they write a “private” wall post on their friend’s or loved one’s wall, that it shows up on all of their friends’ home pages? Does anyone really care to read half a conversation?

As a mild method of comical protest, I’ve started hitting “Like” on such posts to politely remind and simultaneously freak out people who do this. I think everyone should join in the fun.

Jane → Joe: night night darling ;) xxxxx

15 people like this.

Send a message instead! No-one else gives a shit!

Ubuntu 9.04 Released!

It’s that time of the half-year again. Get your torrents on!

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Conservapedia: Infuriating and Malicious

Question: What do you get when people with a political and religious agenda decide to create their own version of Wikipedia? Answer: Conservapedia.

From their own “About” page:

We do not allow liberal bias to deceive and distort here.

The sheer hypocrisy of this statement is astonishing. Articles I have skim-read include those on Evolution, Atheism, Homosexuality and (just LOL) The Great Flood and are completely biased far beyond anything I’ve ever seen on Wikipedia.

Make no mistake, this is not even an attempt to distill information of subjectivity. This is an attempt to shield people from consensual truths which right-wing bigots and religious zealots find uncomfortable or incompatible with their belief systems.

Now, it’s fair enough to have all of this “information” on a website; I’m a strong believer in Freedom of Speech. The most infuriating aspect of this is that somehow, there is a plethora of genuinely useful and legitimate information on there, diluting the bullshit considerably. Earlier today I had searched Google for “matrix multiplication suffix notation” and the Conservapedia article Matrix was the top result. It is clear to me that the intention of this project is to blur the line between fact and fiction, to teach objectively and subjectively in order to mislead, and to cast doubt in the mind of the reader on issues that are as plain as black and white in the Real World.

I consider this one of the highest crimes of humanity; the corruption of the human mind. Alas, this is only really a 21st century extension of an age-old war, and with the Web rapidly supplanting all other formats as information outlets, I suppose it was only a matter of time before those who were brainwashed as kids by colouring books and Sunday School grew up and took it to the tubes.

Of course, the right way to combat this is to make sure that the best information is in its rightful place: Wikipedia. So that’s why I’m going there right now to figure out why Wikipedia wasn’t in the search results. Hopefully, other people will do the same.

The Wikipedia article on Conservapedia is an interesting read.

The Signs of Autism

A hot, young girl with pigtails == autism, apparently.

Anyone know what’s going on here?

How to get beautiful, Mac OS X-quality text/fonts in Ubuntu

Want text to look its finest in Ubuntu?

You’re just a couple of steps away.

Firstly, in a shell, run:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config

Select “None” for the “font tuning method”, “Automatic” for “subpixel rendering” and “No” for “enable bitmap fonts”.

For some reason, the default greyscale mode overrides the subpixel rendering set by fontconfig, so you also need to open System → Preferences → Appearance, select the “Fonts” page and choose the “Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)” mode.

You’ll notice that while the text has slightly less contrast, it actually preserves the form of the letter shapes much more faithfully, just like Mac OS X. As long as you don't have a low resolution monitor (less than 96 dpi), the characters will appear to be just like printed type, and you’ll forget you’re looking at a grid of pixels!

Enjoy!

Facebook: Alexander became a fan of Jabber

Maybe you should too? :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jabber/29336967655