Recording audio streams with VLC

rem This batch file was written for use with 4NT
rem
rem It's specifically for recording the streams from the Philippine radio station MONSTER RX 93.1
rem    and more particularly The Morning Rush with Chico, Del and Gino every 6am to 10am every weekday

@echo off
setlocal
set outfile=%_year%-%@format[02,%_month]-%@format[02,%_day]-%@format[02,%_hour]-%@format[02,%_minute]-%@format[02,%_second]

start /separate "RX 93.1 Stream Recording" "c:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" --sout "#transcode{acodec=mp3,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:std{access=file,mux=raw,dst=c:\temp\RX931_%outfile.mp3}" c:\Downloads\monsterrx.asx

:saguli
delay 1
if exist "c:\temp\RX931_%outfile.mp3" goto gogogo
goto :saguli

:gogogo
if %@filesize[ c:\temp\RX931_%outfile.mp3, b] GT 4096 goto gona
goto :saguli

:gona
start /separate "RX 93.1 Stream Listening" "c:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" c:\temp\RX931_%outfile.mp3
goto tapos

:tapos
endlocal

Kindle

I was very very happy when I finally received my Kindle Touch on January 1, 2012, courtesy of my wife's cousin who came home to the Philippines from Chicago right around Christmas Day.

I've spent a month and a half daydreaming of my new Kindle and it was very surreal when it eventually landed on my palms.

UNFORTUNATELY, after only a month of use, the screen died (well, half of it did) on me. :( :( :(

Amazon has since replaced it with a new KTouch (they refused to allow an upgrade to a KFire), but the replacement unit is yet to make its way to the country since my friend is not leaving California before March 18.

I hope this one doesn't die on me for a few years, or several even, to come! I also hope my Kindle 3, now 14 months old, gets to see several more years of gadget life.

Kindle

Yesterday, at home, I turned on my Kindle 3's Wifi to download the new book/s I've purchased (for free) but it wouldn't detect my Wifi router. :(

I tried to rescan to no avail. I thought I might have set the SSID broadcast to DISABLED on the router, so I manually configured my Kindle's wifi. No dice.

Today it connected just fine to my office router and to the popular mall's free wifi.

When I got home, it still wouldn't even detect my home wifi router.

The solution that worked was this: Reboot the router.

GPS

I'm excited to replace my Nuvi 255W! At first I was planning on getting a Nuvi 855W because it's one of the cheaper models that support preloaded routes. Then discovered that it's no longer listed in the current model list at garmin's website, so I looked for the cheapest one that's still listed there, and found out that a refurbished Nuvi 1450 is just a buck more expensive than a refurbished 855W! And it has a larger screen (though its battery holds up for only up to 3 hours, an hour less than my 255W) to boot!

But as the days went on and I kept searching and researching, I found out that Amazon is selling brand new 1450 units for $133, about 33 or 34 bucks more than refurbished ones. I decided to buy peace of mind for 33 bucks. :D

Here's some information about the 1400 series that's going to prove useful (most esp. the 1-sec track recording feature):

from http://www.malfreemaps.com/viewtopic.php?p=76250&sid=f186f7f255982c9a0d2d32bf765a6a36#p76250 :

I just got my Nuvi 1460 and I have in my internal memory (in the /.System folder) my Thailand map as gmapprom.img, MSM-MySinG v3.09 as gmapprom1.img and Masmap Tiles and MFM v091019 as gmapsupp.img in two separate SD cards.

Then I created a folder /map and put in it Australia.img and Korea.img. When I located the /map folder in the SD card, it did not work. Then I tried the internal memory and put the /map folder in the .System folder and then the /Garmin folder as a sub-folder but both did not work either. Finally, I moved the /map folder to the root directory of the internal memory and the Australian and Korean maps were available for selection. This is a really neat feature.

The v2.10 firmware solved the incompatibility issue with cgpsMapper compiled maps.

The only things I find annoying (so far) are:

1. The touch screen is very insensitive compared to my Nuvi 200 and it will be a challenge trying to make changes while driving.

2. The only British TTS voice is Daniel. I prefer a female voice and there is no non-TTS British voice. I don't like Daniel murdering Jalan Tanjung Tokong as Jalan Tanjung Terkerng. Tanjung Bungah became Tanjung Bang Gah. Strangely Jalan Oldham was pronounced as Jalan O_L_D_H_A_M and Jalan Sg Kelian became Jalan S_G Kelian. Mappers will have to make the appropriate changes to the naming of roads.

3. The Autozoom is annoying because it does not return to the set zoom level as my Nuvi 200 does. I was happy with the autozoom in the Nuvi 200 but the N1460 always returns to its preset 300m.

4. I found that getting into PC Mode is mode difficult and complex than the Nuvi 2xx. In the Nuvi 2xx, you just plug the USB cable in while the unit is off and it will automatically switch on and go into PC Mode. With the Nuvi 1460, you have to switch on without the cable and let it boot up until it reaches the Where To? screen and the simulator must be off before you plug in the USB cable, then only will it get into PC Mode. However, the difference is if you plug in like you do for the Nuvi 2xx, the USB connection is recognised as external power so you can avoid using the internal battery and navigate with it connected to your PC.

1-sec tracking is available but cannot be activated through the Where Am I? screen (Easter Egg method). You can however activate it by touching the speedometer for about 10 seconds (remember the v3.4 firmware of the Nuvi 2xx?) then a Diagnostic Page appears. Touch the Diagnostic Logging option and you will get the Logging Control screen with the Start Recoding and Start Playback buttons. The logs are stored in the /debug folder in the internal memory.

Satellite lock is very fast. Accuracy improves to 4 metres (so far experienced) with WAAS selected. It was 6 metres when Normal was selected.

One more thing, I can see custom POIs displayed (without labels) in the Navigation map (if you like that). Strange thing is Favorites POIs are seen without the label (the Nuvi 200 shows both the icon and label).

Will report more findings later.

Windows

Another weird windows xp behavior: for some reason, I couldn't access the Windows Clipboard -- no copy, cut, paste -- on my WinXP desktop at the office. I thought mysql-front was the culprit.

I found some suggestions on the net, so I tried to run the clipboard viewer (clipbrd.exe). It also couldn't access the system clipboard!

Then I ran into this, and I'd like to duplicate his post here for posterity (and this will also serve as a backup of his post):

Many users often complain to their system adminstrator that their clipboard is not working and they are unable to do copy/paste operations and it is the task of sys admins to break their head to find out the reason. Dear sysadmin...no more you need to do that. I came across a good tool which can help you to solve this problem.

This problem generally occurs when a process locks clipboard for reading and writting and didn't release it properly. Clipboard will function normally after killing that process. The tool (GetOpenClipboardWindow) will help you to identify the culprit process. Download this tool now and share it with users.

From my experience, I can say that mostly mstsc.exe is the process which blocks the clipboard. The reason I assume here is simple because it dealts with clipboard of connected computer and your computer.

Happy Learning..,
Sitaram Pamarthi

-- from http://sys-talk.blogspot.com/2009/04/clip-board-not-working-in-windows-xp.html

His GetOpenCliboardWindow told me that flashget.exe was the culprit. When I exited flashget, the problem went away.

Thanks, Sitaram!

Books

Nearly finished with Christopher Smith's "Bullied" and now I'll be helping put his other book "Fifth Avenue" back on Amazon's top 100.

He's got good reviews, folks!

http://www.weekinrewind.com/2011/04/giveaway-250-gift-card-at-amazon-us.html

Kindle

Charging History:

1. Dec. 18, 2010 - 2 days after receiving it with ~50% charge remaining. Of course, I had to tinker with it all the time, testing all features - Wifi, Text-to-speech, music player, internet browser.

2. Dec. 26, 2010 - One week in my hands and I've already loaded the Sambuhay missalettes for the Misa De Gallo masses, as well as some Sundays into January. Still playing around with it.

3. Jan. 31, 2011 - Yes, > 1 month, but of course, I would only turn Wifi on every morning at home/office, a few times at SM (to no avail - the login page won't allow me to log in. :( ). No music playing, no T-T-S. Only a few sessions at night.

4. Feb. 22, 2011 - around 5 hours charging time (started at 11pm, woke up before 6am and it was fully charged. Usage: almost daily Wi-fi just to download news, got to read a little bit of "My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler, finally finished "Duma Key" by Stephen King. Started reading "What's Science Ever Done For Us?"