Stuff

iTunes Match: remove low bitrate files after upgrade

So you now have iTunes Match. Great, this means that on your other devices you get the uploaded songs in the higher bitrate of 256 kbps. But: on your original computer the files are still in the original (lower) bitrate…
There’s a good article on the Macworld site that explains how to replace them with the higher bitrate.

The Macworld tip is nice because it can also remove the low bitrate files for you. But not if you manually add/manage your music. Or, what if you want to keep them in the original location and move/remove them manually?
This article explains how to do that.
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Calculate distance in Google spreadsheet

The challenge: calculate the distance between two locations (zip codes, addresses, etc.) using a spreadsheet. The distance should be based on driving directions.
The solution: Google Maps has a nice API and Google spreadsheets has a function (importxml) that we can use for this. Quite useful for quickly finding distances to use in your mileage reports.

Not interested in all of the nitty gritty details? Simply download the spreadsheet template.

Update (July 2011): now with button that adds the results to a separate log sheet.
Update (February 2012): now with map images of From and To locations, version information, latitude/longitude information.
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2e Kamerverkiezingen: woorden in beeld

Een plaatje zegt meer dan 1000 woorden.
Een bekende uitspraak, eens kijken of we die in de praktijk kunnen brengen…
Ik heb de partijprogramma’s van de grotere partijen (voor de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen 2010) gedownload en de meest gebruikte woorden in beeld gebracht. Des te vaker het woord wordt gebruikt, des te groter het woord.
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My favorite Dropbox uses

“Hi, I am Winfred and I am a big Dropbox fan”. There, that is out of the way. This post describes the various ways I use Dropbox, a storage cloud service that acts as a local folder on your system(s). By no means is it meant as a definitive list, so feel free to share your favorite uses in the comments.
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AppleScript subroutine: is there an updated version of script on server?

While working on my better multi-country support AppleScript plug-in for Address Book, I was thinking of a way to check with a server to see if there was an updated version of the script.

The requirements:

• make it optional: let the user decide if they want to switch it on;
• make it privacy friendly: don’t use it to collect user information;
• do it quick, don’t slow down the script too much.

Read on for the result I came up with.
Continue reading: AppleScript subroutine: is there an updated version of script on server?

From TV show torrent to iTunes: an automated workflow

The other day I was reading about the number of TV show downloads on BitTorrent and that for some shows (like Heroes and Dexter), the downloads now exceed the average viewership on US television. This must mean there is a need…

If I were one of the millions to download US TV shows like 24, Lost,  (because locally they are not available or months/years later), this is how I would do it on my Mac. Use iTunes/Hulu for that you say? Mmm, not available in most countries outside the US.

I would be looking for a way to: monitor new torrents, get them to my computer, convert them to H.264, add metadata and add them to iTunes. And, do this in an automated way and preferably a decentralized way, so I could remain flexible.

This workflow takes advantage of Dropbox, there is a separate page dedicated to smart ways of using the free Dropbox cloud storage.

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Better multi-country support in Address Book

Here is a free plug-in that I have written for Apple’s Address Book that provides better multi-country support:

• country names: you no longer have many variations for country names (so: all “United States”, instead of many variations like “USA”, “US”, “United States of America”);
• country address formats: it tells Address Book to use the formatting that belongs to that country (e.g. my default format is for the Netherlands, which normally means for US addresses that state is missing and zip and city are switched).

Quite useful for those that have contacts in multiple countries. You can specify in the script what countries to check and what your preferred country names are. Missing/unknown countries are added as a group in Address Book. It has Growl support for the summary. To download, jump to the bottom of the post.
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Parse Humax 5050C metadata files

This one is related to the post describing the workflow to transfer and transcode video files from a Humax 5050C.

This time I will describe how I read the metadata that is stored in the .hmt file on the Humax. The most important reason: to show the description of the recorded event.
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Transfer and transcode to iPod/iPhone

This post describes how I copy video files from my Humax 5050C DVR, and how the result is transcoded for use on my iPod/iPhone/Apple TV. And: how these two things are done in parallel, to save time (in my case: 35%) and disk space.

It has been a hobby project putting multiple pieces together. As with many things in life, the trip itself is often more interesting than the destination. So, I decided to share the details of the trip. If you are interested in the destination: you can download the complete (be it proof-of-concept) script as well. For that, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Suggestions, thoughts, etc? Let me know and/or leave a comment.
Continue reading: Transfer and transcode to iPod/iPhone