Archive for September, 2008
Presentation at Refresh Denver
Last week, Jay Graves and myself presented the differences between Ruby on Rails and Django at Refresh Denver. We decided on a common database schema, functionality and design. We then each built the same application in our respective frameworks.
During the presentation, we each explained our frameworks on a surface level followed by a brief demonstration of how each framework accomplished a few of the things that our applications did.
Jay's presentation can be found here and his Django application here.
My presentation can be found here and my Rails application here.
Overall, I absolutely believed this presentation to be a success! I'd like to see other frameworks and languages go head to head like this in the future. I feel like the ability to see two frameworks side by side was a real benefit, allowing a clearer look at how each works with respect to the other.
Amazon MP3 Playlist in iTunes
If you purchase your MP3s from Amazon with any regularity at all, then you may have encountered a problem with how to keep track of them. iTunes has a built-in playlist for music purchased from the iTunes Store, but Amazon MP3s, while downloaded to a specific directory in your file system, are just dumped straight into your iTunes Music Library, to be lost forever amongst your delicious and sultry tunes.
Luckily, thanks to the addition of Smart Playlists way back in iTunes 3 as well as the presence of a common element amongst all Amazon-purchased MP3s, we can solve this problem with very little effort.
All MP3s downloaded from Amazon contain a string starting with "Amazon.com Song ID", we can safely assume that any MP3s with "Amazon" in the Comments field will be from Amazon. Unless, that is, you have a penchant for adding the word "Amazon" to your MP3s' manually. To each their own.
First, create your new Smart Playlist by going to 'File' > 'New Smart Playlist…'. We're going to want to modify the existing rule to look for something in the Comment field, so select 'Comment', 'contains' and enter 'Amazon' in the last field.
So, now you have a playlist with all of your Amazon purchases in it! If you want to be really cool, and want a single playlist containing all purchases from both Amazon and the iTunes Store, you can create a second Smart Playlist that looks like this. One note worth mentioning: I have an iPhone, so I included my iPhone purchases playlist as the second rule. If you don't have an iPhone, simply disregard that rule.
If you are not seeing any results from this last playlist, it is likely you forgot to change the top drop down box from "all" to "any". Enjoy!