ICQ Lost?

I've had ICQ for a looooong time. Back in the day, it was owned by a company in Israel. My number is so low, it's only six digits 364308. I even met my wife through ICQ. The problem today is that I don't know my password, and any attempt to use the forgot password feature on the site says - nope, you can't do it with your account. So now I'm at a loss. How the heck to I get my account back?

WordPress Timezones

Dates appear to be working correctly in my test environment. There are two steps that I needed to take. The first was to make sure that dates are sent as UTC format over the XML-RPC API. The second step was a handy little Time Zone plugin. Once activated, I entered EST5EDT for my Time zone. I was also able to enter America/New_York and it handled it the same way.

I have been a little concerned over how I would be able to link posts from my blogspot blog over to the new blog. I appended the post identification in a comment in each post. This way, I can send a link over to the search results and search for that tag. Here is an example of one of the tags:

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8179070.post-112817586244792334

And this is the URL that I would use:

http://www.lewismoten.com/index.php?s=post-112817586244792334

One other thing that I have been working on is giving everyone credit for there posts. Both my wife and I post to my blogspot blog. She makes guest appearances every now and then, so I created two additional accounts besides the administrative account. I had to promote the levels of our accounts up to at least 5 before I would be able to post via XML-RPC.

I also consolidated my category to list 11 items:

• Hobbies
• Blogging
• Computers
• Entertainment
• Programming
• Life
• Communications
• Employment
• Finances
• Friends and Family
• Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous is the default category here. If a post doesn't fit anywhere else, it goes there.

The last few things on my list of things to do is to muck around with comments and the template. Once that is ready, I'm in business to go public. Comments are going to be tricky since I can't find anything in the XML-RPC file to post them. I may have to do a little programming here, as I can't connect directly to the MySQL database either.

Tags: WordPress, XML-RPC, Exporting, Categories, Time zones, Dates

Turn brains to mush in 3 easy steps

After getting up late today, my mother in law walks into the door with the kids. My nephew takes off and for the next three hours I am entertaining my niece. The Atari Flashback 2 is getting a little boring for her and so we moved on to the Sony Playstation 2.

We played Katamari Damacy, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro - Year of the Dragon, and Spyro - Enter the Dragonfly. She is pretty young so most of the time she was learning how to move around. Her favorite seemed to be Spyro - Enter the Dragon. She stayed in the main world frying sheep for about an hour.

With the simple game play, your brain just slowly turns to mush. Sometimes I just want to take control and play the game for her the way that the game is supposed to be played. I hold myself back from doing it because she is having fun anyway.

I taught her how to take CD's and DVD's out of the cases, how to hold them, and how to load them into the Sony Playstation 2. Her fingers got on the bottom of one and we got a message asking us to put in an authentic Sony PS1 or Sony PS2 disc. I took the disc out and rubbed my shirt on the surface. It was running fine after that.

Most of my games are not kid-safe, so I may have to look into some cheap games that will entertain her when she visits.

Tags: Video Games, Spyro, Sony Playstation, PS2, Atari, Family, Katamari, Atari Flashback

Exporting to WordPress

Since I had worked on a project involving the Atom API, I already have all of the data on my local computer from my blogger.com account. WordPress provides a few standard APIs over XML-RPC. This is great because I also have some code laying around to interface with it.

I've gotten all of my posts exported into a test environment at home. I have been noticing that the dates are not always rite. I've also had problems navigating pages in the month view of the archives. It keeps wanting to go to the main index page rather then the month archive.

I spent most of today working on categories. Since I had tagged most of my posts with Technorati tags, I was able to use them to determine what category the post should go in. I got a little carried away with the categories and now I'm trying to consolidate them into more generic categories to compact the list.

Tags: WordPress, Atom API, XML-RPC, Exporting, Categories

WordPress Troubleshooting

I'm digging more and more into WordPress. Today I changed my permalink structure to use the mod_rewrite functionality. This helps me keep the same structure of my URLs that appear on blogger. As soon as I saved my changes, my entire site gave me errors.

I downloaded the source code for options-permalink.php in the administration folder and saw that it was writing to the .htaccess file. I can't see this file in my WS_FTP client, so I had to go to the command line of DOS and type the simple acronym "FTP".

ftp] open
To lewismoten.com
Connected to lewismoten.com.
220 ProFTPD FTP Server ready.
User (lewismoten.com:(none)): xxxxx
331 Password required for xxxxx.
Password:
230 User xxxxx logged in.
ftp] cd /var/www/html
250 CWD command successful
ftp] recv
Remote file .htaccess
Local file c:\htaccess.txt
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for .htaccess (3660 bytes)
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 3704 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 3704000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp] send
Local file c:\htaccess.txt
Remote file .htaccess
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for .htaccess
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 3706 bytes sent in 0.00Seconds 3706000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp] bye
221 Goodbye.

So looking at that .htaccess file, I saw that WordPress changed my original text from "ErrorDocument 404 /404.php" to "ErrorDOcument 404 /404.php# BEGIN WordPress". There was a lot of stuff that it added regarding the RewriteEngine, but my concern was focused on that first line.

It changed the "o" in document to upper-case, and appended a comment rite off of the end of my URL. I separated it into two lines and restored the ErrorDocument keyword back to its original state. After uploading the file back onto the site, everything worked fine.

Tags: WordPress, .htaccess, FTP, mod_rewrite, Troubleshooting

Music to my ears

Ever since I got my free iPod, I've been rating all of the songs that I have imported from my CD's. I currently have 3291 songs in my library, so you can imagine why it took me so long.

Following is a list of 325 songs that I gave my highest rating on. I built the list using an XSL stylesheet on an exported XML playlist. More details can be found on the following article Convert your iTunes Library XML into HTML.

Name	Artist	Album	Genre
The Perfect Drug	Nine Inch Nails	Lost Highway	Soundtrack
I Put A Spell On You	Marilyn Manson	Lost Highway	Soundtrack
Technologic	Daft Punk	Human After All	Electronic
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?	Moby	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Groove Therapy	Universal	LTJ Bukem Presents Logical Progression	Electronica & Dance
Born Slippy (NUXX)	Underworld	Y2K - Beat the Clock	Electronic
Something Like a Mama	Underworld	Beaucoup Fish	Electronic
Jumbo	Underworld	Beaucoup Fish	Electronic
Phosphorella	Trance to the Sun	Venomous Eve	Rock
Ballet - Dancer	Sven Väth	The Harlequin - The Robot and the Ballet-dancer	Electronica & Dance
Parallel Life	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Pontus	Siddal	Kindred Spirits	Rock
So Long	Seb & Lo-tec	LTJ Bukem Presents Logical Progression	Electronica & Dance
Wild	Poe	Haunted	Rock
Ultraworld Probe Six - Perpetual Dawn	The Orb	The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld	Electronic
High Energy Protons (Orion Mix)	Juno Reactor	Bible of Dreams	Dance
Children Of The Night	Juno Reactor	Bible of Dreams	Dance
Komit	Juno Reactor	Bible of Dreams	Dance
Conga Fury	Juno Reactor	Bible of Dreams	Dance
Jardin De Cecile	Juno Reactor	Bible of Dreams	Dance
Airtight Remix	Funky Technicians	LTJ Bukem Presents Logical Progression	Electronica & Dance
Back to the rivers of belief	Enigma	MCMXC a.D.	Native American
Yulunga	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Indus	Dead Can Dance	Spiritchaser	Gothic
Dead Man Walking	David Bowie	EART HL I NG	Rock
Busy Child	The Crystal Method	Y2K - Beat the Clock	Electronic
To Die For	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Drippy	Banco De Gaia	Pi Soundtrack	Dance
Tha	Aphex Twin	Selected Ambient Works 85-92	Ambient
Gentle People / Journey (Aphex Twin Care Mix)	Aphex Twin	26 Mixes for Cash	Electronic
The Iron Helix	Xorcist	The Disease of Lady Madeline	Gothic
Track09		Ambient Mix 2	Ambient
Ever After	Underflowers	Underflowers	Rock
Kleine Schwester (Scharfer Zahn remake)	Umbra et Imago	Call On The Dark	Gothic
Falling in Love	Ultracherry Violet	Kindred Spirits	Rock
With or Without You	U2	The Joshua Tree	Rock
I Still haven't Found What I'm Looking For	U2	The Joshua Tree	Rock
Where the Streets Have No Name	U2	The Joshua Tree	Rock
Overcome	Tricky	The Official Movie Soundtrack Strange Days	Electronic
Admire	This Ascension	Kindred Spirits	Rock
Burning Down the House	Talking Heads	Stop Making Sense	Pop
Nas Ne Dogoniat	t.A.T.u.	200 KMpH In The Wrong Lane	Pop
Not Gonna Get Us	t.A.T.u.	200 KMpH In The Wrong Lane	Pop
Clown	Switchblade Symphony	Serpentine Gallery	Gothic Rock
Bad Trash	Switchblade Symphony	Serpentine Gallery	Gothic Rock
Clown	Switchblade Symphony	Kindred Spirits	Rock
Soldiers	Switchblade Symphony	Bread and Jam for Frances	Rock
Wallflower	Switchblade Symphony	Gothic Rock	Gothic Rock
Deus	The Sugarcubes	The Great Crossover Potential	Rock
Birthday	The Sugarcubes	The Great Crossover Potential	Rock
This Charm	Strange Boutique	Kindred Spirits	Rock
Subspace Radio Signals	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Heavensairportcoffeeshoprestaurant	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Sonne Mond und Sterne	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Timequakes	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Behind the Sun	The Starseeds	Parallel Life	Ambient
Slower than You Think	Sparrow Orange	Hands and Knees Music	Ambient
Liquid Shy	Sparrow Orange	Hands and Knees Music	Ambient
I Remember It All	Sparrow Orange	Hands and Knees Music	Ambient
time baby ii		The Crow	Soundtrack
dead souls	soundtrack	the crow	Rock
burn	soundtrack	the crow	Rock
Iris	Goo Goo Dolls	City Of Angels	Soundtrack
If God Will Send His Angels	U2	City Of Angels	Soundtrack
Soma	Smashing Pumpkins	Siamese Dream	Other
Cherub Rock	Smashing Pumpkins	Siamese Dream	Other
Farewell And Goodnight	Smashing Pumpkins	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Twilight To Starlight)	Rock
By Starlight	Smashing Pumpkins	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Twilight To Starlight)	Rock
Beautiful	Smashing Pumpkins	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Twilight To Starlight)	Rock
We Only Come Out At Night	Smashing Pumpkins	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Twilight To Starlight)	Rock
1979	Smashing Pumpkins	Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Twilight To Starlight)	Rock
Candle	Skinny Puppy	The Process	Rock
Rivers	Skinny Puppy	Rabies	Industrial
Riverz End	Skinny Puppy	Last Rights	Industrial
Deadlines	Skinny Puppy	Brap: Back and Forth	Rock
Double Cross	Skinny Puppy	Brap: Back and Forth	Rock
Flesh In My Veins (feat. Peter Field)	Silke Bischoff	Call On The Dark	Gothic
The Passion of Lovers	The Shroud	The Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus	Gothic Rock
Witness	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
Adia	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
Sweet Surrender	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
I Love You	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
Building A Mystery	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
Walk This Way	Run DMC	Entertainment Weekly Greatest Hits Of 1986	Rock/Pop
Godstar 94	Psychic Television	Time's Up (Best OV Psychic TV)	Psychedelic
Just Like Arcadia	Psychic Television	Time's Up (Best OV Psychic TV)	Psychedelic
Lady Maybe (Dub Me Maybe Mix)	Psychic Television	Cold Blue Torch	Psychedelic
Out of Space	The Prodigy	Y2K - Beat the Clock	Electronic
Hello	Poe	Hello	Gothic
Hey Pretty	Poe	Haunted	Rock
Not A Virgin	Poe	Haunted	Rock
Walk The Walk	Poe	Haunted	Rock
Control	Poe	Haunted	Rock
Haunted	Poe	Haunted	Rock
I Grieve	Peter Gabriel	City Of Angels	Soundtrack
Coming Up Roses	Owsley	Brain Waves	Alternative
Little Fluffy Clouds (Live From Washington DC '97)	The Orb	U.F.Off: The Best Of The Orb	Electronic
earth orbit one - little fluffy clouds	The Orb	The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld	Electronic
Bedouin	The Orb	Orblivion	Electronic
I'm not in love	Olive	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Dread Rock	Oakenfold	The Matrix Reloaded	Soundtrack
Kick It (dr. know mix)	Nitzer Ebb	Call On The Dark	Gothic
Ringfinger	Nine Inch Nails	Pretty Hate Machine (Halo Two)	Industrial
Down In It	Nine Inch Nails	Pretty Hate Machine (Halo Two)	Industrial
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?	Moby	Play	Electronic
When It's Cold I'd Like to Die	Moby	Everything is Wrong	Club
Whispers	Mistle Thrush	Kindred Spirits	Rock
A Tout Le Monde	Megadeth	Youthanasia	Hard Rock & Metal
Angel	Massive Attack	Pi Soundtrack	Soundtrack
Dissolved Girl	Massive Attack	Mezzanine	Trip-Hop
Angel	Massive Attack	Mezzanine	Trip-Hop
I Put A Spell On You	Marilyn Manson	Smells Like Children	Industrial
The last day on earth	Marilyn Manson	Mechanical Animals	Industrial
Mechanical animals	Marilyn Manson	Mechanical Animals	Industrial
This Is The New Shit	Marilyn Manson	The Matrix Reloaded	Soundtrack
This life	Mandalay	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Eccentricity	Magenta	The Unquiet Grave	Gothic
Shanti/Ashtangi	Madonna	Ray Of Light	Pop
Ray Of Light	Madonna	Ray Of Light	Pop
Drowned World/Substitute For Love	Madonna	Ray Of Light	Pop
Vogue	Madonna	Dick Tracy- I'm Breathless	Soundtrack
Time stood still	Madonna	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
American pie	Madonna	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Kiss (Ra mix)	London After Midnight	Psycho Magnet	Darkwave
Kiss	London After Midnight	Psycho Magnet	Darkwave
The Carnival Is Over	Leather Strip	The Carnival Within	Gothic Rock
Dark Entries	Kill Switch...Klick	The Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus	Gothic Rock
Soloution	Ils & Solo	Logical Progression	Electronica & Dance
In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated	Ikon	The Carnival Within	Gothic Rock
Blithe Spirit	The Garden	Kindred Spirits	Rock
Liquid Separation	Front Line Assembly	Millennium	Industrial
Motion	Front 242	06:21:03:11 Up Evil	Rock
Crushed (Obscene)	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off	Industrial
Animal (Zoo)	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off	Industrial
Crushed	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off	Industrial
Modern Angel	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off	Industrial
Everlong	Foo Fighters	The Colour And The Shape	Alternative
February Stars	Foo Fighters	The Colour And The Shape	Alternative
My Hero	Foo Fighters	The Colour And The Shape	Alternative
Monkey Wrench	Foo Fighters	The Colour And The Shape	Alternative
Cars	Fear Factory	Obsolete	Heavy Metal
Sparks	Faith and the Muse	The Disease of Lady Madeline	Gothic
Annwyn, Beneath The Waves	Faith and The Muse	Call On The Dark	Gothic
Anywhere Is	Enya	The Memory of Trees	New Age
Afer Ventus	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Evacuee	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Angeles	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Caribbean Blue	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Return To Innocence	Enigma	The CROSS Of Changes	Rock
Prism Of Life	Enigma	Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!	Native American
The Child In Us	Enigma	Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!	Native American
Beyond The Invisible	Enigma	Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!	Native American
Morphing Thru Time	Enigma	Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!	Native American
Stan > Featuring Dido	Eminem	The Marshall Mathers LP	Rap
My Dad's Gone Crazy (ft. Hailie Jade)	Eminem	The Eminem Show	Rap
Apparition Sky	Emeralde Feare	The Unquiet Grave	Gothic
Terror Couple Kill Colonel	Eleven Shadows	The Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus	Gothic Rock
Bela Lugosi's Dead	The Electric Hellfire Club	The Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus	Gothic Rock
Turn Up The Music	Dr. Baker	Trance In Your Mind	Dance
Anywhere out of this world	Deep Red	The Carnival Within	Gothic Rock
Forest Hymn	Deep Forest	Deep Forest	New Age
White Whisper	Deep Forest	Deep Forest	New Age
Boheme	Deep Forest	Boheme	Electronic
Twosome	Deep Forest	Boheme	Electronic
Marta's Song	Deep Forest	Boheme	Electronic
Cantara	Dead Can Dance	Within the Realm of a Dying Sun	Gothic
Xavier	Dead Can Dance	Within the Realm of a Dying Sun	Gothic
In the Wake of Adversity	Dead Can Dance	Within the Realm of a Dying Sun	Gothic
Anywhere Out of the World	Dead Can Dance	Within the Realm of a Dying Sun	Gothic
Don't Fade Away	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Sanvean	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Song Of The Sibyl	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Cantara	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
American Dreaming	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Rakim	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Ullyses	Dead Can Dance	The Serpent's Egg	Gothic
In The Kingdom Of The Blind The One-eyed Are Kings	Dead Can Dance	The Serpent's Egg	Gothic
Severance	Dead Can Dance	The Serpent's Egg	Gothic
Avatar	Dead Can Dance	Spleen and Ideal	Gothic
Advent	Dead Can Dance	Spleen and Ideal	Gothic
Enigma of the Absolute	Dead Can Dance	Spleen and Ideal	Gothic
Song of the Nile	Dead Can Dance	Spiritchaser	Gothic
Song of the Dispossessed	Dead Can Dance	Spiritchaser	Gothic
The Carnival Is Over	Dead Can Dance	Into The Labyrinth	Gothic
The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove	Dead Can Dance	Into The Labyrinth	Gothic
The Arcane	Dead Can Dance	Dead Can Dance	Gothic
In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated	Dead Can Dance	Dead Can Dance	Gothic
East of Eden	Dead Can Dance	Dead Can Dance	Gothic
Fortune	Dead Can Dance	Dead Can Dance	Gothic
Black Sun	Dead Can Dance	Aion	Gothic
Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book	Dead Can Dance	Aion	Gothic
In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed are Kings	Dead Can Dance	A Passage in Time	Gothic
Anywhere out of the World	Dead Can Dance	A Passage in Time	Gothic
Enigma of the Absolute	Dead Can Dance	A Passage in Time	Gothic
Ullyses	Dead Can Dance	A Passage in Time	Gothic
The Hearts Filthy Lesson	David Bowie	Outside	Rock
As the World Falls Down	David Bowie	Labyrinth	Soundtrack
Survive	David Bowie	Hours	Rock
Thursday's Child	David Bowie	Hours	Rock
Battle For Britain (The Letter)	David Bowie	EART HL I NG	Rock
Little Wonder	David Bowie	EART HL I NG	Rock
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger	Daft Punk	Discovery	Electronic
One More Time	Daft Punk	Discovery	Electronic
Adrenaline	The Curtain Society	Kindred Spirits	Rock
Treasure	The Cure	Wild Mood Swings	Alternative
Return	The Cure	Wild Mood Swings	Alternative
Mint Car	The Cure	Wild Mood Swings	Alternative
Strange Attraction	The Cure	Wild Mood Swings	Alternative
Other Voices	The Cure	Staring At The Sea (The Singles)	Rock/Pop
One More Time	The Cure	Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me	Rock/Pop
Just Like Heaven	The Cure	Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me	Rock/Pop
The Kiss	The Cure	Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me	Rock/Pop
Closedown	The Cure	Disintegration	Gothic
Plainsong	The Cure	Disintegration	Gothic
Angel Of Night	Crayon Death	Johns Dad	Heavy Metal
Gridlock	Crayon Death	Johns Dad	Heavy Metal
We Got the Gun	Clint Mansell	Pi Soundtrack	Soundtrack
Setting Sun (Radio Edit)	The Chemical Brothers	Setting Sun	Techno
Setting Sun (Full Length Version)	The Chemical Brothers	Setting Sun	Techno
If Only	Born for Bliss	Call On The Dark	Gothic
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything	Blade Fetish	The Passion of Covers: A Tribute to Bauhaus	Gothic Rock
How Can You Forget Love?	Black Tape For A Blue Girl	A Chaos Of Desire	Gothic
Pandora's Box	Black Tape For A Blue Girl	A Chaos Of Desire	Gothic
New World	Björk	Selmasongs	Soundtrack
I've Seen It All	Björk	Selmasongs	Soundtrack
Possibly Maybe	Björk	Post	Rock
Enjoy	Björk	Post	Rock
Hyper-ballad	Björk	Post	Rock
Army Of Me	Björk	Post	Rock
All Is Full Of Love	Björk	Homogenic	Electronic
Bachelorette	Björk	Homogenic	Electronic
Jóga	Björk	Homogenic	Electronic
Hunter	Björk	Homogenic	Electronic
Violet	The Birthday Massacre	Violet	Gothic Rock
The Dream	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Broken	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Video Kid	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Under The Stairs	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Promise Me	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Horror Show	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
Happy Birthday	The Birthday Massacre	Nothing And Nowhere	Gothic Rock
California	April's Motel Room	Black 14	Alternative
Windowlicker	Aphex Twin	Windowlicker	Electronic
Cliffs	Aphex Twin	Selected Ambient Works	Ambient
Heliosphan	Aphex Twin	Selected Ambient Works	Ambient
Cailin na Gruaige B ine	Aoife Ni Fhearraigh	Aoife	Folklore
Sexy Boy	Air	Moon Safari	New Age
Inn	Underflowers	Underflowers	Rock
The Passportal	Team Sleep	The Matrix Reloaded	Soundtrack
Athair as Neamh	The Taliesin Orchestra - Charles Sayre, conductor	Orinoco Flow - The Music of Enya	New Age
Ya Soshla S Uma	t.A.T.u.	200 KMpH In The Wrong Lane	Pop
All The Things She Said	t.A.T.u.	200 KMpH In The Wrong Lane	Pop
Gutter Glitter	Switchblade Symphony	Serpentine Gallery	Gothic Rock
Rus'ti-ca'tion	Sparrow Orange	Hands and Knees Music	Ambient
after the flesh	soundtrack	the crow	Rock
Angel	Sarah McLachlan	City Of Angels	Soundtrack
Disarm	Smashing Pumpkins	Siamese Dream	Other
Cult	Skinny Puppy	The Process	Rock
Angel	Sarah McLachlan	Surfacing	Rock
Good Vibrations (7" Version)	Psychic Television	Time's Up (Best OV Psychic TV)	Psychedelic
Godstar (7" Mix)	Psychic Television	Time's Up (Best OV Psychic TV)	Psychedelic
Angry Johnny	Poe	Hello	Gothic
Toxygene (Edit)	Orb	Y2K - Beat the Clock	Electronic
Porcelain	Moby	Play	Electronic
Boom Boom BA	Metisse	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Bongo Bong	Manu Chao	The Next Best Thing	Soundtrack
Imagine	John Lennon	The John Lennon Collection	Rock
Athair Ar Nearmh	Enya	The Memory of Trees	New Age
I Want Tomorrow	Enya	The Celts	New Age
Marble Halls	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Shepherd Moons	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Marble Halls	Enya	Paint The Sky With Stars (The Best Of )	New Age
Shepherd Moons	Enya	Paint The Sky With Stars (The Best Of )	New Age
Opening Titles Including Underground	David Bowie	Labyrinth	Soundtrack
Close To Me	The Cure	Staring At The Sea (The Singles)	Rock/Pop
In-Between Days	The Cure	Staring At The Sea (The Singles)	Rock/Pop
2 Pi r	Clint Mansell	Pi Soundtrack	Soundtrack
Spoon	Cibo Matto	Brain Waves	Rock
Toxic	Britney Spears	In The Zone	Pop
Jamming	Bob Marley & The Wailers	Exodus	Reggae
The Modern Things	Björk	Post	Rock
Human Behaviour	Björk	Debut	Rock
Wishful Thinking	Underflowers	Underflowers	Rock
Today	Smashing Pumpkins	Siamese Dream	Other
Acid F*cker	Silent Breed	Banging the Box	House
Elysium	Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard	Gladiator	Soundtrack
Animal (Guide)	Front 242	05:22:09:12 Off	Industrial
Tea-House Moon [Instrumental]	Enya	The Memory of Trees	New Age
Book Of Days	Enya	Shepherd Moons	New Age
Break On Through	Doors	The Best of the Doors	Psychedelic
I Can See Now	Dead Can Dance	Toward The Within	Gothic
Chains Of Color	Black Tape For A Blue Girl	A Chaos Of Desire	Gothic
Unravel	Björk	Homogenic	Electronic
Flim	Aphex Twin	Come To Daddy	Industrial
Ainnir Dheas na gCiaghfholt Donn	Aoife Ni Fhearraigh	Aoife	Folklore
Mephisto Walz	Alle In Ashe	Gothic Rock	Gothic Rock
Ariadne	Dead Can Dance	Into The Labyrinth	Gothic
Pi r Squared	Clint Mansell	Pi Soundtrack	Soundtrack
You've Been Flirting Again	Björk	Post	Rock
Breathe	Telepopmusik	Genetic World	Electronic
Breathe (Extended Mix)	Telepopmusik	Genetic World	Electronic
Smile	Telepopmusik	Genetic World	Electronic
Don't Look Back	Telepopmusik	Angel Milk	Electronic
Suzuki	Tosca	Suzuki	Electronic
The Plug	Bonobo	Animal Magic	Electronic
When 6 Loves 9	Only Child	Ordered from the Catalogue	Electronic
Cafe Coca	De-Phazz	Godsdog	Electronic
Svefn G Englar	Sigur Rós	( )	Alternative
One Too Many Mornings	The Chemical Brothers	Exit Planet Dust	Electronic
Satisfaction	Benny Benassi & The Biz	Hypnotica	Dance
I Love My Sex	Benassi Bros.	Hypnotica	Dance
Take Me Away (Into the Night)	4 Strings	Believe	Electronic
Until You Love Me (The Essence Extended Mix)	4 Strings	Ultra: iTrance 2	Dance
Yet Another Day (Original Mix)	Armin van Buuren & Ray Wilson	Ultra: iTrance 2	Dance
Me Plus One	Annie	Anniemal	Electronic
Underpants Gnomes Remix		South Park Mixes	Techno
Clocks	Coldplay	A Rush of Blood to the Head	Alternative
Firestarter	Prodigy		Alternative
I Put Myself Together	Charles Brown	Blues and Other Love Songs	Blues
Only	Nine Inch Nails	With Teeth	Alternative Rock
Purgatory	A Covenant Of Thorns	Hallowed & Hollow	Gothic
Love Crooked Love	A Covenant Of Thorns	Hallowed & Hollow	Gothic
Supergirl	morticians		Pop
Tronce (Short Mix)	Fabrik Nos		Dance
Elektronik Supersonik	Zladko "Zlad" Vladcik		Electronic

Tags: iPod, iTunes, Exporting, XSL, XML, Music, Favorites, Ratings

Using MySQL with .Net

Continuing research for porting my blog over to WordPress, I started learning how to interact with a MySQL database with C#. I lack experience with MySQL, so this would be a nice little project. At first, I was using an OleDb provider, but continued to get an error DB_E_NOTABLE (0x80040E37) when I tried to access longtext fields or blobs.

After stumbling many times over, I found that the MySQL development site had an article entitled Exploring MySQL in the Microsoft .NET Environment. In the article, Venu Anuganti states that MySQL doesn't officially support OleDb providers such as the MyOLEDB provider. Fortunately, ODBC was a recommended driver. I was able to download the MyODBC driver and install it without and problems. Running my little C# test, I was finally able to read text fields without any errors.

One other thing that I noticed is that I could add a database connection to VS.Net 2005 with both MyODBC and MyOLEDB. The Oledb provider would only show me tables and columns, and would complain about asynchronous connections every time I tried to access data. With MyOLEDB, I saw tables, views, and stored procedures as nodes and I was also able to see data within each table.

Here is a screen shot of my testing tool:



And here is some basic code that I use for it:

6 using System.Data;
7 using System.Data.Odbc;
8 using System.Diagnostics;
9 using System.Globalization;

...

109 private string ConnectionString
110 {
111 get
112 {
113 return string.Format(
114 CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
115 @"DRIVER={{MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver}};SERVER={0};DATABASE={1};UID={2};PASSWORD={3};OPTION=3",
116 this.Location, this.DataSource,
117 this.UserId, this.Password);
118 }
119 }
120 private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
121 {
122 OdbcConnection connection = null;
123 OdbcCommand command = null;
124 OdbcDataAdapter adapter = null;
125 DataSet data = null;
126 try
127 {
128 connection = new OdbcConnection(this.ConnectionString);
129 command = connection.CreateCommand();
130 command.CommandText = this.Sql;
131 adapter = new OdbcDataAdapter(command);
132 data = new DataSet();
133 adapter.Fill(data);
134 this.dataGrid1.DataSource = data;
135 }
136 catch(Exception ex)
137 {
138 MessageBox.Show(this, ex.Message);
139 }
140 finally
141 {
142 if(adapter != null)
143 adapter.Dispose();
144 if(command != null)
145 command.Dispose();
146 if(connection != null)
147 {
148 if(connection.State != ConnectionState.Closed)
149 connection.Close();
150 connection.Dispose();
151 }
152
153 }
154 }

I am hoping that my web hosting provider will permit me to access MySQL over the internet rather then restricting me to a local connection from the website itself. If I can reach the database, then I may be able to import blogger entries and haloscan comments without too many problems over to WordPress.

Tags: MySQL, ODBC, OLEDB, MyODBC, MyOLEDB, .Net, C#, Databases, Programming, Source Code

The Rescheduled Lunch

A year ago, my coworker and I would have lunch together every day. It has been a long time since we last had lunch together. Lately, plans have been made only to be broken by unforeseen circumstances. Today was no different.

The lunch planned yesterday was rescheduled to today. Yesterdays plans were thwarted since the whole office was going to a Thai Restaurant. Today our plans were foiled again as it was someone's birthday. The party was supposed to start at noon, but the guest of honor didn't show up until a little later. It was a surprise party after all.

The party only involved a cake. After a half hour, I sneaked out. I had only a half hour before a meeting so I grabbed some lunch from the deli in our building. There really wasn't enough time to go out on our lunch break. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Tags: Lunch, Office, Plans, Work, Lunch Hour, Birthdays, Parties, Food

Preperation for moving day

I've decided to go with WordPress for my blogging platform. I wanted to test it out at home on one of my computers. I installed MySQL and PHP. I installed the MySQL Administrator to manage the MySQL database to create a user and then give them permission to access a database.

I downloaded WordPress and unzipped it into a directory. Visiting the web site on my local machine told me that MySQL wasn't available to PHP. I spent the next 3 hours debugging the PHP.ini file and googling for help. I tried the following:

• in PHP.ini, set extension_dir = "c:\PHP\ext\"
• uncomment extension=php_mysql.dll
• download pecl-5.0.5-Win32.zip and copy php_mysql.dll to the "ext" subdirectory

No matter what I would do, I would keep getting this error:

"Unable to load dynamic library 'c:\PHP\ext\php_mysql.dll'"

Finally I found an answer in a forum post by DoopyNL.

I've copyed the file libmysql.dll from the main php folder to \windows\system32 and the error went away and I could use the mysql functionality in PHP.

I found the file in php-5.0.5-Win32.zip and copied it to the directory. As soon as that was done, WordPress installed itself without any problems.

Tags: WordPress, Troubleshooting, PHP, MySQL, php_mysql.dll, Installations, Web Development

The Possessed Radio

I had my own apartment in Moorefield, West Virginia back in 1996. Since I had a job from ten at night to six in the morning, I would sleep during the day. Sometimes this proved hard to do, as my radio was possessed.

In West Virginia, you run into all sorts of odd situations. Mine was due to computer illiteracy. You see, before the internet and even bulletin board systems for that matter, people would chat over CB (Citizens' band) Radio or Ham Radio (also known as Amateur Radio). Today we have the equivalent technologies being used over the internet such as voice chat and podcasting.

At my old apartment, I would hear a one-sided conversation of someone talking on a CB through my radios speakers. It did not matter if the radio was on or off - or even unplugged for that matter! This made it really hard for me to get to sleep even when I would attempt to muffle every speaker in the apartment.

From what I gather, the person on the CB was probably running so much power through there transmitter, that the FCC might raise an eyebrow. I suspect that it may have been the family living above me. I would sometimes hear children being allowed to talk, but it was usually a man and sometimes his wife.

The thing that I hated most about it was when they were looking for someone and just call out for them continuously.

Hey Cosmo!
You there Cosmo?
Cosmo are you there?
Anyone seen Cosmo?
Cosmo
Cosmo
Cosmo
Hey Cosmo!

Tags: Radio, CB, Ham Radio, Amateur Radio, Cosmo, Annoyances, Possession, Possessed