I have a single, double-sided cartridge DVD-RAM which I would like to have copied onto DVD+Rs. I created it using a Mac at RIT, but I’m not sure what filesystem is on it. Is there anyone reading this who has access to a DVD-RAM drive and would be willing to do the copy for me? I know I’ve asked a few of you this question over the years, but the disk was in stasis in my parents basement until I moved into the new house.
lazyweb
lazyweb code review
I’m writing a tool in python that will automate the posting of the weekly newsletters for the film club. Currently, I manually post to LiveJournal, Craigslist, the SNFC webpage, and the mailing list. I had a tool a long time ago but it broke for various reasons.
Anyway, I want to have a directory of .py containing classes, and call a method [execute()] on each of them. This way I can just create a new subclass, pop it in that directory, and it will be picked up automatically. This is what I came up with, somehow I feel it’s crude and there is a better way to do it (ignore bad var names pls):
plugins = glob.glob("plugins/*.py")
for x in plugins:
pathName = x.replace(".py","")
className = x.replace(".py","").replace("plugins/","")
foo = __import__(pathName,globals(), locals(), [''])
bar = getattr(foo,className)
obj = bar()
obj.execute(nl)
This code looks for all of the .py files in the dir, imports them, gets the class from the imported module, and instantiates them. Finally, it calls the execute() method. Any suggestions?
Ship it.
Went over to hang out with
On the way over to their place I saw this bumper sticker that I read as “ashington D.C. 2004″… I didn’t see the “W”, so I got up real close to the car to see if it was faded or whatever… I knew some shenanigans were afoot, and after I thought about it for a minute or two I realized the joke: No “W” in Washington… Hehehe… A bit too cerebral for a bumper sticker, but funny nonetheless.
Can anyone recommend some kind of gizmo to keep under my desk here at work that I can roll my feet on as a kind of massage? My feet are still kind of pussied out after barely being used for 2-3 months, and have been getting regularly sore after a normal amount of walking…
Tivo Part Deux
Ok, So I investigated the Tivo thing a bit more, and it turns out that a while ago it was advantageous to get the Sony unit because it was cheaper, but this is no longer true. The feature set between the two brands is almost identical, the Sony has a lousy remote compared to the Phillips, and the Sony is more expensive (although not that much more).
A bigger problem is that Tivo doesn’t support my ghetto A/B cable system, and won’t ever. I would have to jump through all kinds of hoops in order to get it to work, and it simply isn’t worth it.
I am now thinking about getting a DirecTV receiver with built in Tivo, and just get rid of my shitty cable service.
There are two problems with that:
- Placing the Antenna – I am supposed to get my landlord’s permission, which I will attempt. If he doesn’t give me permission, I can always invoke FCC law which “…prohibits restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance or use of antennas used to receive video programming.” and “Effective January 22, 1999, the Commission amended the rule so that it also applies to rental property where the renter has an exclusive use area, such as a balcony or patio.”. So the “Patio of Doom” may very well be my ticket to DirecTV.
- Having the Right Sky – I am not sure if my sky is good for DirecTV… I will try and figure that out tonight… I see other people with dishes on my block, but I think they are all Dish Network.
There are a couple of advantages however:
- Cost – Believe it or not, this whole operation will be cheaper overall. The 35 hour Tivo-ed DTV receiver is $399, but there is a rebate bringing it down to the same price as the normal 30 hour box. The DirecTV service, even with HBO and the like added comes to around $50 a month, which is $10 a month cheaper than my cable bill, with more channels.
- Second Tuner – The Tivo’ed DirecTV receivers have two tuners built into them, so you can record a program while watching another, or record two programs at once. This is a great advantage over the normal Tivo receiver.
- Get Rid of Ghetto Cable – My cable system blows, and it would be great to get rid of it. Of most annoyance is the A/B setup, where I have to press a button on the remote to change the switch, allowing me to view the second half of my channels.
I know that some people reading this have experience with DirecTV, so I was looking for some feedback. I am particularly concerned with rain and stuff like that affecting the picture quality. Is there anything I should know? I am aware of the “local channel” stuff, and DirecTV offers local service in this area, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Tivo
What are the differences between the different brands of Tivo units… I am thinking of getting a 30 hour unit, but I don’t know whether to go with the Phillips or Sony models. Sony’s is traditionally more expensive, but they are rebating them now so they are like the same price…
Question (Answered)
Does anyone know the name of the song that was playing during the closing credits of The Sopranos last night? It sounded VERY familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Update: HA! I knew I recognized it… It was Track #7 (‘blur’) off of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol. II… It took awhile for me to grind on it and finally remember what song it was….
Goddamn computers
I am thinking of replacing my motherboard. The USB on it is damn near completely non-functional, and the addon USB card I purchased to try and make up for the fact that my motherboard’s USB support eats it isn’t much better. I can’t even get my Logitech Mouseman Optical to work on the onboard ports, and when I have it connected to the add-on ports, the OS fails to recognize it about 1 out of every 3 boots. I then have to crawl behind the computer and disconnect and reconnect the mouse a few times until it lights up.
My motherboard (Asus P2B-DS) has been perfect in every other respect, the onboard Ultra2 SCSI works great, I could use a few more PCI slots, but whatever. In replacing the board, however, I have a few demands:
- Onboard Ultra(2 or 3) SCSI
- Dual Slot 1
- Support for all the Pentium IIIs (my current board only supports up to 500Mhz or so)
- Isn’t completely outdated…
I don’t think that these requests are unreasonable, but apparently the motherboard manufacturers do… There are three boards I have found that are close to these specifications. All of them have limitations:
- Tyan Tiger 133 – Lacks SCSI, but has pretty much everything else. I could get this board and a Adaptec 2940U2B for about $200 and be done with it. It is apparently no longer made by Tyan, but I still see it all over the place.
- Tyan Thunderbolt – Everything plus the kitchen sink…. The major disadvantages are that it costs around $375 and only has a 100Mhz FSB
- AOpen DX6G Plus – Everything I am looking for (plus an Ethernet controller), but it only has a 100Mhz FSB (and apparently doesn’t run with PC133 memory installed)
Does anyone have any suggestions? At this point I am just thinking of waiting a little while and just starting from scratch again….