Monthly Archives: September 2019

urls, wordpresser

URLs "p1" 20190905 – 77 great reads

I am an avid WWW surfer, with hundreds of websites visited each month, sometimes daily. I bookmark them all, at least for logging purposes. These posts having the "urls" category, capture what was on my browser on a specific date. I hope you enjoy some of these shared resources.

open_source, sw, wordpresser

My favorite MP3TAG scripts

I use the free (as in “libre”) “mp3tag” software for tagging my music.
I was having a hard time with the file names of certain tracks with many artists and/or with too long album names, so I had to figure the internal scripting mechanisms of the software, for adequate file naming, from the music-embedded tags.

Fortunately, this open source tool provides good and succinct documentation for the task, available @ http://help.mp3tag.de/main_scripting.html

What follows, are my favorite naming strings. You enter them from the “Convert” menu, “Tag – Filename” option.

If you want to make sure that an album’s name is never longer than 32 characters, use this code for the album’s name part:

$if($geql($len(%album%),32),$left(%album%,32),%album%)

If you want to make sure that an artist’s name is never longer than 24 characters, use this code for the artist’s name part:
$if($geql($len(%artist%),24),$left(%artist%,24),%artist%)

In case of multiple artists for a single track, if you want to take only the first artist name, assuming the tags separate the names with commas, use:

$if($eql($strchr(%artist%,’,’),0),%artist%,$left(%artist%, $sub($strchr(%artist%,’,’),1))))

For the track numbering, if you want to force a specific number of digits, say 2, use this:

$num(%track%,2)

Now, combining all the above, here are the full scripts I actually use.
For the format “first artist name – album name no longer than 32 chars – track number with 3 digits”:

$if($eql($strchr(%artist%,','),0),%artist%,$left(%artist%, $sub($strchr(%artist%,','),1))) - $if($geql($len(%album%),32),$left(%album%,32),%album%) - $num(%track%,3)

For the format “artist name up to 24 chars – album name no longer than 32 chars – track number with 3 digits”:

$if($geql($len(%artist%),24),$left(%artist%,24),%artist%) - $if($geql($len(%album%),32),$left(%album%,32),%album%) - $num(%track%,3)

For the format “album name up to 32 chars – first artist name – track number with 3 digits”:

$if($geql($len(%album%),32),$left(%album%,32),%album%) - $if($eql($strchr(%artist%,','),0),%artist%,$left(%artist%, $sub($strchr(%artist%,','),1)))) - $num(%track%,3)

It may be helpful.

plants, wordpresser

My plants, the 2nd batch is on

I keep experimenting with growing some plants, using a very simple “AeroGarden” hydroponics system, which consists of no more than a 2.1 Liters water tank with a water pump, plus a full spectrum LED light, of variable height, which I have set to turn-on for 16 consecutive hours, starting at 16:00, every day.
I am on my second harvest. The first harvest was done using the six plastic pods that came with the system, pre-seeded. Success was 100%. When the plants got big enough, it was my decision to take them out of the “incubator” hydroponics system and plant them on earth or on special self-watering vases, which have an independent water chamber. After the transfer, the system’s pods were free to receive new plant species.

This second time, I got the seeds in bulk, and dropped them into a funnel shaped sponge, long enough to dive into the water + nutrients solution. All the seeds were successful.
The video shows the three weeks old results of the new harvest. I am not entirely sure about all the plants’ names and even species, but this description is accurate enough:

  • Strawberries, not visible, still a very small plant, sitting at the back-row, left pod. I used 4 minuscule seeds.
  • Tomato, "RAF" variety, enormous and growing at an unbelievable speed, occupying the back-row, right pod. I used 7 seeds.
  • "Mooskrause 2", on the middle-row, left pod. Growing strong, and about to be eaten :). I used 5 seeds.
  • "Fitness Mix", on the middle-row, right pod. Growing very slowly. I used 4 seeds.
  • Tomato, "Sweet Italian" variety, on the front-row, on the left. It is growing slower than its “RAF” sibling, but still obviously alive and healthy. I am not sure on this one, but I suppose I used 4 seeds.
  • "Krauter Vielfalt" (Herb Variety), on the front-row, on the right. Seems to be a mix of dill and parsley. I used 7 seeds.

Video titled "My plants (2nd batch) growing 20190829 – 24 hours in 1 minute: "

urls, wordpresser

URLs "p1" 20190902 – 63 good reads

I am an avid WWW surfer, with hundreds of websites visited each month, sometimes daily. I bookmark them all, at least for logging purposes. These posts having the "urls" category, capture what was on my browser on a specific date. I hope you enjoy some of these shared resources.