TwonkyScrobbler V1.0.1

I have released an update to the TwonkyScrobbler. A user on the Twonkyvision forum highlighted a problem when using it with an older version of the server.

TwonkyScrobbler was developed and tested using the latest TwonkyMedia version 4.4.9. The RSS feed facility was introduced in version 4.1 and I had made the incorrect assumption that the RSS feed format had remained unchanged.

In Version 4.4.9 I observed the items in the RSS feed have the following format

<item>
<title>Gemini</title>
<link>http://192.168.0.20:9000/disk/O1$11$207905894$2623831632.mp3</link>
<description>Eye In The Sky</description>
<author>Alan Parsons Project, The</author>
<enclosure url=http://192.168.0.20:9000/disk/O1$11$207905894$2623831632.mp3 type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 1981 01:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<moddatetime>Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:38:10 GMT</moddatetime>
<playeddatetime>Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:44:01 GMT</playeddatetime>
<class>object.item</class>
<genre>Rock</genre>
<playcount>1</playcount>
<tracknumber>32148</tracknumber>
<duration>131000</duration>
<bitrate>192</bitrate>
<frequency>44100</frequency>
<audiochannels>2</audiochannels>
</item>

The scrobbler was using the element <playeddatetime> to determine if the song was a new one, storing the value in the program configuration file.

Following the bug report I installed a much older version (4.2.1) on another PC and discovered that items in the RSS feed have much less information.

<item>
<title>Old Ghosts</title>
<link>http://192.168.0.21:9000/disk/O1$11$134217730$2550136852.mp3</link>
<description>Stormwatch</description>
<author>Jethro Tull</author>
<enclosure url="http://192.168.0.21:9000/disk/O1$11$134217730$2550136852.mp3" type="audio/mpeg" />
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:59:26 GMT</pubDate>
</item>

This obviously created a problem because the required information is missing, the <pubDate> element isn’t related to the time the song was played.

To attempt to remedy this problem I have modified the scrobbler so it attempts to find the element, however if it is missing the other information title,description and author (i.e. title, album and artist) is compared to the last scrobbled track and any difference is assumed to signal a new track and the new track is scrobbled using the current time as the played time.

Twonkyvision had made reference to this fact in the RevisionHistory.txt file

What's new in Version 4.4.3.1
------------------------------

+ DivX and WMV support for PS3 (4.4.3.1)
+ AAC support for PS3!
+ Time information for pictures on PS3
+ added Album Artist and Album Art for OGG and FLAC
+ added rss feed support for all content types. Start with http://127.0.0.1:9000/rss/feed
+ enhanced generated rss XML feed by more properties

Updating from V1.0 will require a new configuration/state file with the extra data.

TwonkyMedia Scrobbler V1.0 Released!

Tested it again last night with no problems.

So have released it to the world - have even done some documentation

http://www.insanityworks.co.uk/twonkyscrobbler/index.htm

Scrobbler nearly there!

Well the scrobbler is nearly there, done some fiddling with it's look!

Twonkymedia last.fm scrobbler

Well I haven't posted anything for a while, but today I finally completed the first stage of a programming project I hinted back in February.

It is a scrobbler for the last.fm service that sits and monitors the TwonkyMedia uPnP server and sents information of tracks it is servicing!

The TwonkyVision people added an RSS service (think it was on version 4 and primarily to support non-upnp devices such as the SonyPSP) This is available at http://localhost:9000/rss (that link won't work unless you are reading this on a computer running the server!)
By drilling down from this page it is possible to reach a 'last played' rss feed.

It is buggy, the feed isn't updated correctly, but appears the last entry in the rss feed is always the last audio file served up. My scrobbler which is based on the KexpScrobbler by Markus Palme reads this file and extracts the appropriate information from the last entry and scrobbles the data.

I have to do a bit more testing but looks like it works, and I will be releasing it on my website soon!

The Programmer's Bill of Rights

Having started my new job the first thing I did was sort out my work station arrangements. I had inherited a pretty decent P4 Dell PC, not bleeding edge but certainly fast enough. But it had only a single 19" TFT, so on my first day I cheekily requested a second screen and to their credit they said yes! This was a set up I adopted at my last employer and had found it such a boost to productivity (I am not sure they thought so, but that is another story!)

Browsing around the web today (it is raining, thundering etc outside) and I found this entry, posted a few years ago on the Coding Horror Blog, it is a non-serious bill or rights for programmers - multiple screens, fast computers, choice of keyboard and mice, comfy chair and quiet environment. Pity I didn't find it when I was in my last job! :-)

The Last Hope Talks

I have spent the last few days listening to some of the presentations and talks given at the Hacker On Planet Earth conference (HOPE) This year's event was probably going to be the last due to plans to demolish the venue in New York, hence the event tag "The Last HOPE" however it seems those plans may have changed.

The speakers are wide ranging, with interesting and thought provoking topics.

Some highlights are the talks by Kevin Mitnick, a 3 hour marathon talk by Steven Rambam about privacy and the lack of it and the ominous threats posed by new technologies such as Google, the iPhone and social networking sites, well worth a listen. Also Renderman's presentation "How Do I Pwn Thee? Let Me Count The Ways" highlights the security dangers of mobile technology.

Of special interest to me was Travis Goodspeed's "Introduction to MCU Firmware Analysis and Modification with MSP430static" the slides and information are available from Travis' website. In this talk Travis gives a wonderful account of the basic principals of reverse engineering.

All the talks are available here for free download in low and high quality versions.

SamKnows releases first broadband preformance report

I posted back in May about ISP watchers SamKnows.com who launched a bid to discover the truth about the state of UK broadband by recruiting volunteers to install a monitoring device on their network, to collect performance data (the geographical distribution is shown above).

They have now released their first report, a 40 page pdf which can be downloaded here.

On page 2 of the report is the main summary

In the majority of metrics there was little discernable difference between most
ISPs;

• Zen Internet offered the fewest failures across all metrics;
• Virgin Media’s cable services and Be/O2’s services provided a consistently low latency throughout, whilst Virgin.Net (Virgin’s ADSL service) performed poorly.
• BT provided the fastest throughput when measured as a percentage of implied line speed (an estimate of the potential maximum speed of the line)
• Be/O2 and Virgin Media produced the greatest raw throughput (in megabits per second), which can likely be attributed to the nature of their products.
• Virgin Media’s cable throughput remained consistent on their 2, 4 and 10Mbps products, but was quite variable on their 20Mbps product.
• Testing highlighted the use of traffic shaping in the networks of BT and PlusNet, which resulted in certain classes of traffic slowing significantly during peak hours.

Being on the Virginmedia XL (20 Mbps package) I can confirm their results are pretty much what I have experienced.