Thursday, March 6th, 2008

iTunes Last.FM Tagger v.1.3 beta

So, here it is. I finally got around to working on Cherbonsy’s suggestion of using the top Artist tag instead of the track tag from last.fm. I’ve updated the iTunes Tagger Page, so go take a look.

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Use Any Old IR Remote to Control Your Computer

Once I moved my old PC into the living room to act as a media pc, I decided it just wasn’t practical to carry the keyboard around whenever I was doing work on my computer. The good news is, you can use your basic computer functions with a simple IR remote control.

1.Get yourself an IR Receiver and old remote.

I got mine from this site for $12 plus shipping. I think his price went up to $18 for the same model since then. Make sure you ask for a windows optimized unit if you buy it from him.  If you’d rather do it all yourself, you can try following the instructions from the source at WinLIRC. You can also just buy any other computer remote at your local hardware store, but I’m not sure it’ll be compatible with winLIRC (though it probably comes with it’s own software). Basically, you’ll want to make sure your receiver is connected via a serial connection on your computer, or else check WinLIRC documentation for your remote. The only receiver I can guarantee is the one I use that I mentioned above.

The trick with the remote is that not all signals are recognizable by WinLIRC. 2 of the 4 remotes I have in my house worked fine. One other one I was able to configure with winlirc, but the signal response isn’t solid enough to actually use. In most cases, the best remotes are older ones that you have lying around from your plain old DVD player or TV.

2.Download and run WinLIRC

Get WinLIRC and run the program (it doesn’t require an install). Click on reconfigure… all the default settings are fine for my IR receiver. Yours may vary. Next you need to see if WinLIRC recognizes the remote signal. This is done by clicking “Learn” and following the on-screen instructions. Don’t forget to click “Analyze” when you’re done. Now you should have a .cf file located in your WinLIRC directory, named according to the remote name you gave. You can open this config file in notepad and see all the settings WinLIRC has determined for your remote. If you have WinLIRC running, you should see the “light” in the system tray turn green whenever you press one of your configured buttons. If not, something is wrong.

3. Set up a program to receive the signals

This part is probably where most users find that WinLIRC is too much work than it’s worth. That said, there are a few plugins set up for WinLIRC found at the bottom of this page. There is also an AutoHotKey script set up for WinLIRC if you’re familiar with that program. I plan on preparing my own program in Visual Basic to run and receive the remote signals. This will potentially give me the flexibility of allowing any key to perform any task I desire. It will also potentially require a large amount of work. I’ve written only one portion so far, and it enables this tiny remote to perform some essential itunes commands. The remote config file is available here. The program is up for download here. If you just run the program, you’ll need to configure your buttons to match my configuration file above.

If you’d like to write your own program, WinLIRC has a nice little writeup on how to receive winLIRC signals in Visual Basic.

In the future, I’d like to make the program work with a variety of other programs, and ideally I’d like to set up a little GUI that functions as a way to open movies, songs, or even web pages using nothing but a remote control.

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

iTunes Guitar Tab Downloader Released

Today I wrote a quick program that will automatically search for tabs of the selected tracks in iTunes. The tabs are saved as text files in a specified folder.

[Download Page]

I’ve noticed over the years that it’s nice to have copies of guitar tabs on your computer, especially for days where the internet is broken and you have nothing to do. I also like the option of selecting all of my favourite tracks in iTunes (ie my 3-star+ smart playlist) and just browsing the text files. A lot of times it just doesn’t cross my mind to try and learn a certain song on guitar. Anyways, try it out and enjoy!

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

How to change your MSN Display Picture to iTunes’ Current Playing Album Art

Update: If you’d rather just download a program instead of writing your own to do this for you, take a look at CD Art Display.  It’s free to download, and will do even more than just show album art in your msn profile picture. 

This little howto is actually quite involved. I wasn’t quite sure what was possible with the new Live Messenger Addin capability, but as it turns out, it is quite difficult to bypass some of the barriers set up by the addin technology. If you are really intent on getting this set up, or are just curious about what I did to get it going, feel free to read on.

A note to those who aren’t interested in the programming side of this post: I’ll post the files you need to download throughout the howto, but these files are not really recommended for everyday use. The actual solution I’ve come to is a pretty odd workaround, though it does work, so feel free to give it a try if you’re brave. You’ll need to go through each step, but you can just download the files for #1 and #4.

What you’ll need:
-some knowledge of VB.Net and a visual studio version with vb.net
-itunes 7.x
-a bit of free time

Step 1: Set up Live Messenger to allow Addins

The new Live Messenger does have addin capabilities built in, but they are not enabled by default (they’re in beta I guess). To enable addins, you’ll have to edit your messenger registry entries. Go to Run, type “regedit” and hit enter. then browse to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger” and add a “DWORD” entry called “AddInFeatureEnabled” and change it’s value to 1. Now restart your Live Messenger and go to Options. There should be a tab called “Add-ins”. You’re Messenger is all set to go.

Step 2: Write your .dll file for the Addin

Open up visual studio and start a new Class Library. You’ll want to set up the project name right away, since your Class name has to be the same as the assembly name. Make sure your root namespace is empty. Add the MessengerClient.dll reference (browse to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger). Then you’ll want to go through and look at this code (download the .dll here):

Imports Microsoft.Messenger

Public Class MessengerAddin ‘<- *Important* this is your assembly name!!
Implements IMessengerAddIn
Public theMessenger As MessengerClient

Public Sub Initialize(ByVal messenger As Microsoft.Messenger.MessengerClient)

Implements Microsoft.Messenger.IMessengerAddIn.Initialize

Me.theMessenger = messenger
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Creator = “SkyCapitan”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Description = “iTunes Art plugin!”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.FriendlyName = “SkyCapitan’s Addin”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.PersonalStatusMessage = TimeOfDay & ” - Sky’s not listening to music….”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Url = New Uri(”http://svankruistum.com”)

Dim systime As New System.Timers.Timer()
systime.Interval = 5000 ‘This will check our config file every 5 seconds to see if the track has changed
systime.Enabled = True
AddHandler systime.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent

End Sub
Public Sub OnTimedEvent()

On Error Resume Next ‘in case the config file is not “0″ or an artist_ or album combination
Dim tempin As String
Dim jpeg As String
Dim oRead As System.IO.StreamReader
Dim oWrite As System.IO.StreamWriteroRead = New System.IO.StreamReader(”C:\art\config.txt”)
tempin = oRead.ReadLine

If tempin = “0″ Then

oRead.Close() ‘Nothing new we have to do

Else

jpeg = tempin
‘Change the picture
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.UserTile = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(”C:\art\” & jpeg & “.jpg”)
oRead.Close()
‘Change the config file back to “0″
oWrite = New System.IO.StreamWriter(”C:\art\config.txt”)
oWrite.Write(”0″)
oWrite.Close()

End If

End Sub

End Class

A large part of this code is courtesy of a blog post at Nick’s .NET Travels, found here. His example sets up a few other Messenger Events that you might like to explore. There is a lot of opportunity for some interesting addins.
The addin should be operational at this point, but another problem lies with MSN’s strict sandbox for addins…

Step 3: Set up your MessengerAddin.dll to allow the System reference

The code above needs to access the system namespace for a few reasons: get the art file, check the config file, and use the system timer. Due to the sandbox restrictions in place by MSN Messenger, we need to register the addin on our system.

To do this, first you must sign your file. This is done under Project Properties -> signing. Sign the addin and add a password of your choice.

Next, you’ll need to save and build the class library. Then browse to the location of the built .dll file. Now you need to drag and drop the file into your C:\WINDOWS\assembly folder.

Open up MSN, and try enabling your addin. Everything should work (though you don’t have the artwork and the appropriate config file yet).

Step 4: Create a program to save your artwork and config file

After creating a few past itunes programs, I just had to edit a few lines in my itunes displayer program. If you don’t want to create your own program, here is an adjusted version of itunes_displayer for you to run. This isn’t really ideal, since a popup jumps up every track change, etc. here’s some code (it’s vb6, not vb.net) that might help you to set it up:

‘Declarations
‘Allows us to communicate with the running iTunes application
Dim WithEvents iTunes As iTunesApp
Dim Track As iTunesLib.IITTrack

‘iTunes play event
Private Sub iTunes_OnPlayerPlayEvent(ByVal iTrack As Variant)

‘Find the current track
Set Track = iTunes.CurrentTrack

Dim Art1 As iTunesLib.IITArtworkCollection
Dim Art2 As iTunesLib.IITArtwork
Set Art1 = Track.Artwork

If Art1.Count > 0 Then

Set Art2 = Art1.Item(1)
Art2.SaveArtworkToFile (”C:\art\” & Track.Artist & ” - ” & Track.Album & “.jpg”)
Open “C:\art\config.txt” For Output As #5
Print #5, Track.Artist & ” - ” & Track.Album
Close #5

End If

End Sub

Either way, you’ll need the artwork and the config file one way or another.

Now all you need to do is run the itunes_displayer program (or your own alternative), and then enable the addin! Hope it works out for you!

A few notes:

-Your messenger picture does not change in real time for everyone. When you have an active conversation open, the person might see your picture change. If not, it won’t always be apparent to others that your picture is changing.
-I had to make all the files and such because despite the signed dll and assembly folder move, the sandbox still doesnt let me open an itunes reference from within the addin. If anyone knows a more efficient way to do this, i’d love to hear it!!

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

How to change your MSN Display Picture to iTunes’ Current Playing Album Art

Update: If you’d rather just download a program instead of writing your own to do this for you, take a look at CD Art Display.  It’s free to download, and will do even more than just show album art in your msn profile picture. 

This little howto is actually quite involved. I wasn’t quite sure what was possible with the new Live Messenger Addin capability, but as it turns out, it is quite difficult to bypass some of the barriers set up by the addin technology. If you are really intent on getting this set up, or are just curious about what I did to get it going, feel free to read on.

A note to those who aren’t interested in the programming side of this post: I’ll post the files you need to download throughout the howto, but these files are not really recommended for everyday use. The actual solution I’ve come to is a pretty odd workaround, though it does work, so feel free to give it a try if you’re brave. You’ll need to go through each step, but you can just download the files for #1 and #4.

What you’ll need:
-some knowledge of VB.Net and a visual studio version with vb.net
-itunes 7.x
-a bit of free time

Step 1: Set up Live Messenger to allow Addins

The new Live Messenger does have addin capabilities built in, but they are not enabled by default (they’re in beta I guess). To enable addins, you’ll have to edit your messenger registry entries. Go to Run, type “regedit” and hit enter. then browse to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger” and add a “DWORD” entry called “AddInFeatureEnabled” and change it’s value to 1. Now restart your Live Messenger and go to Options. There should be a tab called “Add-ins”. You’re Messenger is all set to go.

Step 2: Write your .dll file for the Addin

Open up visual studio and start a new Class Library. You’ll want to set up the project name right away, since your Class name has to be the same as the assembly name. Make sure your root namespace is empty. Add the MessengerClient.dll reference (browse to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger). Then you’ll want to go through and look at this code (download the .dll here):

Imports Microsoft.Messenger

Public Class MessengerAddin ‘<- *Important* this is your assembly name!!
Implements IMessengerAddIn
Public theMessenger As MessengerClient

Public Sub Initialize(ByVal messenger As Microsoft.Messenger.MessengerClient)

Implements Microsoft.Messenger.IMessengerAddIn.Initialize

Me.theMessenger = messenger
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Creator = “SkyCapitan”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Description = “iTunes Art plugin!”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.FriendlyName = “SkyCapitan’s Addin”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.PersonalStatusMessage = TimeOfDay & ” - Sky’s not listening to music….”
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.Url = New Uri(”http://svankruistum.com”)

Dim systime As New System.Timers.Timer()
systime.Interval = 5000 ‘This will check our config file every 5 seconds to see if the track has changed
systime.Enabled = True
AddHandler systime.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent

End Sub
Public Sub OnTimedEvent()

On Error Resume Next ‘in case the config file is not “0″ or an artist_ or album combination
Dim tempin As String
Dim jpeg As String
Dim oRead As System.IO.StreamReader
Dim oWrite As System.IO.StreamWriteroRead = New System.IO.StreamReader(”C:\art\config.txt”)
tempin = oRead.ReadLine

If tempin = “0″ Then

oRead.Close() ‘Nothing new we have to do

Else

jpeg = tempin
‘Change the picture
Me.theMessenger.AddInProperties.UserTile = System.Drawing.Image.FromFile(”C:\art\” & jpeg & “.jpg”)
oRead.Close()
‘Change the config file back to “0″
oWrite = New System.IO.StreamWriter(”C:\art\config.txt”)
oWrite.Write(”0″)
oWrite.Close()

End If

End Sub

End Class

A large part of this code is courtesy of a blog post at Nick’s .NET Travels, found here. His example sets up a few other Messenger Events that you might like to explore. There is a lot of opportunity for some interesting addins.
The addin should be operational at this point, but another problem lies with MSN’s strict sandbox for addins…

Step 3: Set up your MessengerAddin.dll to allow the System reference

The code above needs to access the system namespace for a few reasons: get the art file, check the config file, and use the system timer. Due to the sandbox restrictions in place by MSN Messenger, we need to register the addin on our system.

To do this, first you must sign your file. This is done under Project Properties -> signing. Sign the addin and add a password of your choice.

Next, you’ll need to save and build the class library. Then browse to the location of the built .dll file. Now you need to drag and drop the file into your C:\WINDOWS\assembly folder.

Open up MSN, and try enabling your addin. Everything should work (though you don’t have the artwork and the appropriate config file yet).

Step 4: Create a program to save your artwork and config file

After creating a few past itunes programs, I just had to edit a few lines in my itunes displayer program. If you don’t want to create your own program, here is an adjusted version of itunes_displayer for you to run. This isn’t really ideal, since a popup jumps up every track change, etc. here’s some code (it’s vb6, not vb.net) that might help you to set it up:

‘Declarations
‘Allows us to communicate with the running iTunes application
Dim WithEvents iTunes As iTunesApp
Dim Track As iTunesLib.IITTrack

‘iTunes play event
Private Sub iTunes_OnPlayerPlayEvent(ByVal iTrack As Variant)

‘Find the current track
Set Track = iTunes.CurrentTrack

Dim Art1 As iTunesLib.IITArtworkCollection
Dim Art2 As iTunesLib.IITArtwork
Set Art1 = Track.Artwork

If Art1.Count > 0 Then

Set Art2 = Art1.Item(1)
Art2.SaveArtworkToFile (”C:\art\” & Track.Artist & ” - ” & Track.Album & “.jpg”)
Open “C:\art\config.txt” For Output As #5
Print #5, Track.Artist & ” - ” & Track.Album
Close #5

End If

End Sub

Either way, you’ll need the artwork and the config file one way or another.

Now all you need to do is run the itunes_displayer program (or your own alternative), and then enable the addin! Hope it works out for you!

A few notes:

-Your messenger picture does not change in real time for everyone. When you have an active conversation open, the person might see your picture change. If not, it won’t always be apparent to others that your picture is changing.
-I had to make all the files and such because despite the signed dll and assembly folder move, the sandbox still doesnt let me open an itunes reference from within the addin. If anyone knows a more efficient way to do this, i’d love to hear it!!

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

iTunes Last.FM Tagger with Automatic Mode

I just finished adding an automatic option for the itunes tagger. This means that the program will no longer overwrite any existing data unless the “Only check for missing data” option is disabled (in which case everything will be replaced). I also increased the delay between requests to last.fm. The web service provided by Last.fm will ban your IP address if more than 1 query is sent each second. This would be a very bad thing to happen, so I’ve set the program to only query every 2 seconds. As such, for each song you search in automatic mode, the program will require about 2.5 seconds (ie. 100 songs = 4.2 minutes).

{Download Page}

Leave comments if you have anything to say about the latest release. Enjoy!

Friday, February 1st, 2008

iTunes Tagger (now with Last.FM tags!)

Turns out that the fingerprinting software from Musicip.com was a bit more restricted than I thought. So I completely redesigned my tagging program to work with a more recent player in the market, a last.fm fingerprinting client. This client was released by a guy named Norman (to whom I have no affiliation). To learn more about the last.fm fingerprinting program, visit here.

Anyways, the important part is this: The new program automatically searches the top 5 last.fm tags for each selected track, then saves the top tag as the song genre and saves all 5 tags in the comments. I actually have genres now for my top 300 tracks in itunes, from a mere 10 minutes of tagging. Give it a try and see how it works. The biggest problem? People who use ridiculous tags on Last.fm

Oh, and the program will also automatically find any missing metadata for your track using the last.fm fingerprinting stuff as well as some musicbrainz data. Pretty nifty.

Download Page.

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

iTunes Album Art Feature

So I decided to finally cave in and sign up for an iTunes account, if only to enable the album art search feature. The first thing I noticed about the iTunes album art was that the art was all relatively good quality. All the images I would have found using an amazon search program, or similar sorts of applications were about half the size and quality of art from the iTunes search feature. So, I decided to erase all my album art for my collection and start fresh with the iTunes cover art search. Originally, I wrote another VB app that deletes the artwork for an entire playlist (just a quick modification to my lyrics search app). But there is a faster way:

1. Select all the songs for which you’d like to delete the album art.

2. Press Ctrl+I (or right click and show info)

3. Select the checkbox next to the blank artwork and press ok. The artwork for these tracks will be deleted.

If you already have iTunes art for most of your songs and would like to just delete the non-iTunes artwork, try this application. I modified it to just delete non-iTunes artwork.

Friday, January 25th, 2008

iTunes Tagger released!

I developed a program that will search for id3 (album, artist, etc) information for the currently selected song in itunes. Let me know if it’s working or not, or if you have any suggestions.

See it here.

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

iTunes Track Change Displayer

I’ve wrote a program tonight that displays album art and track info each time a song changes. It pops up with info for 10 seconds, then disappears. It also lets you rate the song…

I know some stuff behaves weird with it, so let me know if you experience any problems and I’ll fix it.

Visit the download page.