GPL vs MIT | a very rough comparison for those familiar with Creative Commons Licenses

So I googled GPL vs MIT for some reason or another and read a couple of stacker overflow "discussion" and scanned a few reference links and have come up with this, which may help anyone familiar with Creative Commons licenses.

• GPL ~= CC BY-SA (Credit the work of others, Share-Alike. If derivative work is distributed to others, software must use same license.)
• MIT ~= CC BY (Credit the work of others. Derivative works can use alternate licensing.)

Notes

On the CC site, they recommend not using their licenses for software, even though the Gnu licensing site states it as an option of other licenses don't fit the author's licensing needs.

Links

• Creative Commons Licenses
• Stacker Overflow Discussion
• OSI (Open-source Initiative) Licensing Options

Site Streamer // Sometimes, you just want to stream!

Site Streamer

Sometimes...you just want to stream

The other day, I wanted to listen to the songs available for download from a band's site but downloading them, then adding to my media player seemed like to much work. Strange, because I usually prefer to download -- eventually the tracks end up on my phone and I listen to them in my car. Today, I wanted to listen to them now and the process of downloading each, naming appropriately, then listening to all seemed daunting.

I should develop a website to do this for me!

Instead of spending a few minutes to work this out myself, I decided the more time-effective solution was to spend hours developing a website to do it for me. Of course!

Luckily, I already had the building blocks: 1) [bandcamp downloader] a site that parsed bandcamp pages and made the songs available for download, naming them appropriately and 2) [jPlaylister] a site that creates jPlayer playlists from a local folder's contents.

It wasn't that bad, but spending the time to polish up the site enough for public use added another month of wait due to my busy schedule and recently rekindled gaming habit (a night or two a week for a couple of hours -- nothing serious).

Hello, World!

Meet Site Streamer. A site you can use to stream content from a place which normally just allows standard linked downloads.

You visit the site, paste in a website which has plainly linked downloadable (mp3, currently) audio content, and enjoy the stream. Hope this is convenient for someone!

Bandcamp Downloader

Summary

I made a downloader for Bandcamp (/SoundCloud). Check it out: http://bcdlr.yaheard.us / http://bandcampdownloader.yaheard.us

2013.05.17 Update:

I just took the site down. I may rename/appropriate it for SoundCloud usage only since it does that fairly well, too. The BandCamp portion has been removed. See the site for details and participate in the survey there.

2012.03.17 Update:

Just added -- basic SoundCloud support. Because SoundCloud hosts user uploads, however, naming is much less likely to be (as) accurate.

Detail

I like Bandcamp.  It is a clean site that straight-links offsite to a band's page of choice, enables streaming and purchase, makes use of HTML5, and has an impressive variety of music.

While I have a smartphone, I only have 100MB/month for my data.  I pay $30/month...give me a break.  So, I use a 16GB SD card to keep (some) music with me.  I'm also very much "try before you buy".  If I've bought the last 2 CDs by a band, I can do a blind buy...but otherwise, I want to know I'll listen regularly before I shell out my money.  I'm still hesitant of digital only purchases (i know, right?); even though the first thing I do when I get a CD is rip it (to .ogg).

So, I made a bandcamp downloader.  Because Bandcamp makes use of HTML5 (maybe flash fallback, for older browser support?) to play their audio, their source links are pretty much out and the open.  At first, I parsed through some source code to download the songs I wanted to listen to on my commute.  I rarely get the chance to listen at my house...sitting in front of my computer.  However, I was dissapointed that there was not an easier way.

I found a few pages that had bookmarlets, extensions, and js scripts to do the task...but they seemed a little more difficult then I prefer my user experiences to be, and some were browser-dependent.

After making my experiment, I ran across the following two solutions:

1. Bandcamp Download (http://bandcampdownload.com/) is kinda similar to what I wanted to do...but excels more at entire album downloads because it compresses (to .tar.gz -- a linux format to scare off users after the server's done the downloading work, i guess) for a single download. It seems to be down alot, though.
2. Offliberty (http://offliberty.com/) seems to grab A file from the referenced page.  Due to this, it works best on individual song pages.  It works on artist or album pages, but only grabs the first track, and the forced download doesn't name the download with artist/album/track information.  

I wanted something a little more obvious...and am glad my work wasn't totally pointless.

Here's the result...the Bandcamp Downloader (http://bandcampdownloader.yaheard.us / http://bcdlr.yaheard.us)

Watching Multiple Folders with Songbird

The Problem

I finally made the switch from WinAMP to Songbird. I had tried it on a laptop, so wasn't too surprised...and liked most of what I saw. That is, until I realized I couldn't watch multiple folders. Oh no!!!

This would have been fine if I could watch the 'My Music' folder...but Songbird seems to disapprove of watching libraries. Something about file duplication issues...whatev.

The Fix

Shortcut (failed)

I first tried to make standard shortcuts (right-click > new shortcut) to the other folders I wanted to watch within the watched folder. No go.

Symlink (worked)

I had recently run into a problem on my Linux box that I had to utilize Symlinks to address. Why not try something like that for Windows?

I came across this link:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-symlinks-in-windows-vista/

It showed how to, using an (elevated) command prompt, make a Symlink in Windows. This is only available for Vista or later. I successfully used it for Windows 7.

Using the following code for the 4 additional folders I wanted to include in my library, new Symlinks were created in my watched folder which allows Songbird to successfully see songs added to those places.

mklink /d c:\media\music\extra_folder d:\music
          [watched fol] [Symlink name][folder to watch]

This has to be run in an elevated command prompt:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

A Visual

...they look like shortcuts, but they are Symlinks!

Conclusion

Symlinks seem to be the solution to only one available watch folder in Songbird. This was verified on Windows 7 and Songbird 1.10.1 (Build 2160). Presumably, the same idea would probably work in Linux.

how do i...remove malware

This was my attempt at a simplistic malware removal guide for someone who isn't technical, but is willing to roll up their sleves and give removal a shot before having to take more drastic measures (pay someone) -- it worked. My guess is that it will work for 50% of malware infections and can take 20 minutes to an hour.

Removing Malware

*You may want to print this before beginning. You may not. Who am I to say.

Run this first:

(1) http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/grinler/rkill.com
(save to desktop, then run)


…then, download, install (allow updates) and run a ‘quick scan’ with this:

(2) http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
(download and install free version)


…if it finds infections, show results >> remove selected (make sure they are selected – right-click > select all if they aren’t). Reboot if prompted.

…if it doesn’t work, you might be able to boot into safe mode…(reboot computer, tap ‘f8’ every two seconds…when prompted, select ‘safe mode with networking)…run (1), then download and run the following:

(3) http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix
(save to desktop, then run, accept all defaults. Ignore if prompted to disable av software, unless you want to right-click on your av software and attempt to disable temporarily. Allow recovery console to be installed)


If that doesn’t work, you’ll have to get professional help, probably. See my site to run the remote help request, where I can remotely verify the infection...and, if necessary, attempt removal.
(http://chapmanit.com/computerwork/remotehelp/)

If you are rid of popups, but no longer have internet access, you can go to control panel >> internet options >> connections (tab) >> lan settings >> remove check from “use a proxy server…” (assuming you have Windows XP. the location will be similar, but maybe slightly different for Vista or Windows 7 -- search for 'internet options' from the start menu search bar)

Almost done...but

When you think you are done, you should probably re-download (the original download may be corrupted or comprimised since you were infected) (1), reinstall and update, then run a 'quick scan' again. Hopefully, you are clear or it is just cleaning up traces.

Additional Preparation Steps

To speed up the scan process, and as general recommended practice, run disk cleanup, ccleaner, or glary utilities prior to scanning for noticeably faster scan times.

Am I infected?

If you are reading this, probably so. The symptoms are too varied to be sure, but if you are getting popups from (what looks like) an antivirus program that wasn't on your computer a month ago...that wants you to pay for help, you are probably infected. Additional symptoms can be browser redirects (you click on a google search result and end up on a non-related page that wants money), or program malfunctions (fake system messages saying your program can't run...your disk is corrupt...your momma eats twizlers, etc.). Good luck at playing MD and making the diagnosis. General cleaning programs can be found above (additional prep steps)...and are recommended to clean a slow, but non infected, computer.

JPlayer Audio Playlist Generator (JPlayer Playlister)

The CD that launched 1000...lines of code

Update

[2014.11.23]
The new jPlaylister v0.70 was built on jPlayer 2.8.2, because 2.6 had some recent serious issues with mobile browsers. Fixing those and implementing a more mobile friendly theme for the fs/mobile mode.

[2014.08.31]
The new jPlaylister v0.68 adds support for auto-scrolling playlists and full-screen/mobile mode. Previous releases added playlist caching (a feature that significantly decreases load times on large playlists) and support for displaying album art, in case you missed them.

/update...resume original post

My brother sent me a CD full of MP3s when I was in Kuwait -- cut off from the internet -- and going into withdrawals from not being able to download music. It was a good mix and has turned me on to a few artists that I knew nothing about.

A week ago, my wife has to take my car for something and, realizing that my radio sucks (shhh...i didn't hook up the antennae so my radio-listening experience would be less than inviting), flipped down my sunvisor CD holder and picked the fabled blue cd from the small selection. She made it 20 tracks or so into the CD (love MP3 CDs..if only it had any type of anti-skip) before arriving home and not using my car again for as long as she lives if it was up to her.

I hop in the car the next morning and A Tribe Called Quest welcomes me to the drive to work. A nice way to start the day. I re-affirm my love for my wife due solely to this incident and decide to facebook about it later that day. I did (may have been the following day) and that was that, but someone mentioned that hearing the mix would be fun. All to eager to oblige, I start devising ways to make it happen. So what if I spend 30 hours on a project and only 2 people give a crap (me and me). I had made web pages that incorporated flash based audio players before...but that was before the up and coming HTML5, and the somewhat supported audio tag.

Let's get a web player

A quick internet search later and I see JPlayer, which looks familiar. I glance at the demos and one has a playlist -- perfect. It supports OGG Audio and MP3's via HTML5 and will fallback to Flash for unsupportive browsers, bras, or family members. Perfect.

Initial implementation (derived from the JPlayer with playlist demo) wasn't that bad. I took the demo code and just added the ability to automatically generate a playlist from all the files in a given location. I think it took me a couple of hours...taking snack breaks and probably food breaks and almost certainly bathroom, crying baby, and phlebotomy breaks.

I went to bed last night with a working player. In addition to deriving the playlist from the files at the location specified, I was also able to add the option of displaying filenames or ID3 information (via getID3 -- a PHP class)

I put a link on fb and probably got thousands of views.

Revisions / Additions

Tonight, I pushed back the list of things I need to do and worked more on this little project. At some point during the day, I had decided that the first song on the playlist was wearing on me. I usually paused within 5 seconds of loading the page, but it doesn't take much to wear a song out, for me. That's another reason I don't do the radio...20 songs on a loop with advertisements and lame DJs. No thanks. So I added the option to 'randomize' list via a clickable link on the page. It caused me to rewrite a fair amount of code. But, I am pretty happy with the turnout.

Current Situation

See 'Update' at the top of this article to link to the current version of JPlaylister. Thanks for your interest and support.

Photo Feed (RSS/Atom) Display Widget

Flickr / Picasa / ZenPhoto / Plogger / Gallery2/3 Photo Feed (RSS/Atom) Widget

Check it Out!

Update

The HTML version seems to get way more interest than the PHP version, so I'm focusing development on that (the Widget). I just added a means to specify border color and size, in addition to the spacing which was added a while ago. I've also added a 'Widget Builder' to the site, so you can customize and embed with even less html knowledge than before. Hope you love it!

I want to display my most recent Flickr photos on another page of mine. Easy enough, right? There are plenty of widgets and code snippets displaying Flickr Photos in all sorts of creative ways.

Well, what if I want them formatted/styled a certain way?

Not as easy.

What if I want to display a Picasa Web Album Feed as well? And perhaps a ZenPhoto RSS Feed. Am I the only lame PHP coder who uses all of these Photo storage / display / socialization mediums?

I decided to create a widget. While the implementation is limited in how it can format your images (for html coders; PHP coders should have more advanced options soon), it does work with a large number of RSS Feeds -- provided the feed has items with images.

Demo

This is a simple widget call referencing my Flickr PhotoStream RSS Feed. The widget creates thumbnails of each of the most recent items and displays them in a row, linking back to each item's source page.

Options

While the straight HTML call is pretty limited, there are some options which can be requested such as the ability to specify thumbnail size, disable square thumbs (prevent standard cropping), and specify the number of photos to be displayed. (Updates have been made which allow spacing, border size and color, and limited link options to be specified)

PHP users will soon be able to request an array of information so the photos can be formatted in any way they see fit. [Visit the project page and post a comment if this would be useful -- so I know there is an interest] Alternately, they can download the source code and host it on their own server -- changing it as they see fit.

Limitations

The HTML Widget call can only return a row of images which link to their source. There is currently no fancy customization (aside the options mentioned) for this type of call. Likewise, currently iframes are the suggested way to implement/embed the widget.

Compatibility

The widget has been tested on Flickr, Picasa Web Album, ZenPhoto, Gallery2, Gallery3, Plogger, and various other (RSS/Atom) Feeds (the list keeps growing). It employs the use of SimplePie for the basic Feed parsing, then does some further work to create thumbnails of the pictures and link back to them.

Last FM Widget Found

Dotaloc's Last.FM Recently Played Songs - Widget

Maybe it's just me, but I had the hardest time finding this thing. What thing? Oh, let me start from the beginning...

Skip straight to the code

Backstory

I signed up with last.fm, a music streaming/information aggregation and listening habit analyzation site a couple of years ago. I have a scrobbler running on my computer, and it sends information about what I play in winamp to last.fm. They take that information and compare it to what other people who listen to some of the same bands listen to...recommend other artists to you, stuff like that.

You don't have to scrobble to enjoy. I sometimes just go to the website, type in an artist I like, and listen to a 'station' last.fm creates based on the artist, and others they have determined are similar or listened to by people who like the artist. I've been turned on to a few bands this way...as information about the current band/song is displayed on the website or in the standalone player (great for bypassing streaming radio site blocks, which are sometimes implemented by employers/etc. in order to cut down on excessive bandwidth usage).

This services, or similar ones such as Pandora are not new to lots of people...but this is my blog and I will ramble if I want.

That said, what good is it to scrobble all day if you can't integrate with all these awesome social networking sites and show your fans what songs listen to via an interactive widget? Not much. I found one that I was able to put on my dog's myspace page a while back and was pretty happy with it. I don't have a myspace...or facebook...account. My wife handles that stuff.

I wanted that widget on my personal website, though...seems appropriate. I have personal information...links to pictures...information about important happenings in my life like my son being born on October 9th...and the likes. Why not tell the world what songs I'm listening to so people will have a chance to learn some amazing new bands thanks to my chronic listening and hard work. Exactly.

Situation

So I want that same type of thing...on my personal site. Shouldn't be hard...the 'widget' wasn't myspace specific. I googled something like 'last.fm widget'...which actually searched 'last.fm' for the word 'widget'. This didn't end up doing what I needed. Let me re-arrange my search terms...'widget last.fm'. This was what I wanted to do...but didn't show me what I wanted. Last.fm has some type of page that seems like it is supposed to offer the type of list i was looking for with themes and all of that, but it has been broken for at least two days...probably more. I don't like waiting. Even though they have an API (Application Program Interface)...accessing the information I want surely has been done loads of times...there is no reason for me to write brand new code to do this, even if I am able, when I can just use someone else's. No luck...there are some scripts that use the API and pull up some fancy information...but I just want the list of the most frequent songs I've scrobbled. Nothing. You try. See.

*facepalm*

I guess I can reference my, still working, myspace code. At this point, I didn't remember if I had access to the code or if it was a clickable option myspace had enabled or something. Nope...the code was listed plain as day when I went to edit my profile. The 'widget' links to the broken last.fm page...but actually works.

I took the code and put it on my page. It didn't fit my color scheme, so I dug through the code a little and changed some of the 'red' graphics to 'black'...hoping it'd work. It did.

Moral

I tried this the hard way and wasted a few hours of my life. Boo to that. Don't be like me. Attempt easiest solution first, especially if you can determine if it'll work or not within a few minutes.

Want the Widget for Yourself

Hopefully this'll help someone else. I'll provide the straight JavaScript first, then the php that I use.

JavaScript

replace 'dotaloc' with your last.fm username

<span style="font-style:italic;">replace 'dotaloc' with your last.fm username</span>
<style>table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a td {margin:0 !important;padding:0 !important;border:0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmHead a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_red.png) no-repeat 0 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmEmbed object {float:left;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmConfig a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat 0px 0 !important;;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmView a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -85px 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmPopup a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -159px 0 !important;}</style>
<table class="lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tbody><tr class="lfmHead"><td><a title="dotaloc: Recently Listened Tracks" href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;height:20px;width:184px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_red.png) no-repeat 0 -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr><tr class="lfmEmbed"><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="internal" height="199" width="184" data="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never">
<param name="allowNetworking" value="internal">
<param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="flashvars" value="type=recenttracks&amp;user=dotaloc&amp;theme=red&amp;lang=en&amp;widget_id=346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a">
<param name="bgcolor" value="#d01f3c">
<param name="quality" value="high">
</object></td></tr><tr class="lfmFoot"><td style="background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/footer_bg/red.png) repeat-x 0 0;text-align:right;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tbody><tr><td class="lfmConfig"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQ=" title="Get your own widget" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:85px;height:20px;float:right;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat 0px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmView" style="width:74px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" title="View dotaloc's profile" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:74px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -85px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmPopup" style="width:25px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy9wb3B1cC8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQmYW1wO3Jlc2l6ZT0x" title="Load this chart in a pop up" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:25px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/red.png) no-repeat -159px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

PHP

edit the variables accordingly. the colors should probably be plain html written out word colors (blue, green, red) for the best chance of them working. check the PHP out and you can probably fine-tune it to your liking.

//set lastfm widget color and widget hover color -- these should be very basic for the highest probability they will work as some reference graphics
$lfmwc='black';
$lfmwhc='black';

//right-float last.fm widget
$lastfmwidget='<div class="floatright" style="margin-top: 15px; border: 1px solid #222; ">'

//taken from old myspace widget -- can't find anymore
.'<style>table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a td {margin:0 !important;padding:0 !important;border:0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmHead a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat 0 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmEmbed object {float:left;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmConfig a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat 0px 0 !important;;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmView a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat -85px 0 !important;}table.lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a tr.lfmFoot td.lfmPopup a:hover {background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwhc.'.png) no-repeat -159px 0 !important;}</style>
<table class="lfmWidget346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tr class="lfmHead"><td><a title="dotaloc: Recently Listened Tracks" href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;height:20px;width:184px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/header/chart/recenttracks_regular_'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat 0 -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr><tr class="lfmEmbed"><td><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="199" width="184" data="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" />
<param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" />
<param name="movie" value="http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/chart/friends_4.swf" />
<param name="flashvars" value="type=recenttracks&user=dotaloc&theme='.$lfmwc.'&lang=en&widget_id=346494d0b5f3a8b580d15b4053d6d02a" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FF6600'.x/*#d01f3c*/.'" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
</object></td></tr><tr class="lfmFoot"><td style="background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/footer_bg/'.$lfmwc.'.png) repeat-x 0 0;text-align:right;"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="width:184px;"><tr><td class="lfmConfig"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQ=" title="Get your own widget" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:85px;height:20px;float:right;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat 0px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmView" style="width:74px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vdXNlci9kb3RhbG9jLw==" title="View dotaloc\'s profile" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:74px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat -85px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td><td class="lfmPopup" style="width:25px;"><a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3Lmxhc3QuZm0vd2lkZ2V0cy9wb3B1cC8/Y29sb3VyPXJlZCZhbXA7Y2hhcnRUeXBlPXJlY2VudHRyYWNrcyZhbXA7dXNlcj1kb3RhbG9jJmFtcDtjaGFydEZyaWVuZHM9MSZhbXA7ZnJvbT1jb2RlJmFtcDt3aWRnZXQ9Y2hhcnQmYW1wO3Jlc2l6ZT0x" title="Load this chart in a pop up" target="_blank" style="display:block;overflow:hidden;width:25px;height:20px;background:url(http://cdn.last.fm/widgets/images/en/footer/'.$lfmwc.'.png) no-repeat -159px -20px;text-decoration:none;"></a></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>'
//end div
.'</div>';

Conclusion

Contact me if you need any help. Contact info at http://nick.chapmanit.com or chapmanit.com.

References

To post code to blogger, I followed instruction here: http://thoughtsomething.blogspot.com/2008/11/display-html-javascript-code-in-blogger.html

Adding Custom Ringtones to a LG Env3

Synopsis

This is a quick tutorial describing how to add custom ringtones to a LG Env3 on the Verizon network. This assumes you have already created a ringtone from a .mp3 on your computer (here's a tutorial that came up when i googled), but will mention a way to use the software in this tutorial to make a ringtone as well (see bottom of tutorial to see how to create a ringtone with BitPim -- it's pretty easy!).

Reference Links

There are a few links which I referenced to get part of this information. I'll be a little more explicit in my instructions, hopefully helping anyone who may be having trouble. Here are the links:



http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic69838.html


http://cellphoneforums.net/lg-env/t298399-ringtones-env3.html

Download Necessary Software

To access your phone, you will need the charger/usb cable that came with your phone (should have), an LG Env3 (on the Verizon Network?), and the following software:

• a driver to allow communication with your computer through the usb cable
  (i used the software updater application, but other direct drivers may work as well)
• BitPim 1.06 (or newer?)

Now install mentioned software. If it tells you to restart, restart.

Step-by-Step

1. Open you Env3 and go to Menu >> Settings and Tools >> USB Mode and set to Ask on Plug -- exit to main menu


2. Attach your Env3 to a USB Port on your computer. When prompted, select 'data'


3. Open BitPim (Start >> Program Files >> BitPim)


4. Go to Edit >> Settings


5. Set Phone Type to LG-VX9100 (enV 2) and make sure Com Port is set to auto. Click OK to exit Settings


6. In the left pane, click File system and in the next (middle) pane, click + beside the Folder icon and '/'. Wait a second while the file system is retrieved. Now browse to brew >> mod >> 18067. This folder lists your 'My Sounds'


7. Drag files from the windows explorer into the 18067 folder. It will take a few seconds. When the transfer is complete, right-click a folder from the middle pane (any one) and select Reboot Phone*


8. Verify that the files were copied by opening your enV 3 >> going to Menu >> Music & Tones >> My Sounds -- they should be here identified by filename.
   (FYI, 10888 holds your pictures, 10890 your vidoes, and 10889>ringtones>default holds your ringtones [i couldn't get copying files there to work *** EDIT a commentor said you could copy ringtones to '10889>ringtones' (sans '>default' mentioned above) to have them properly designated as 'ringtones' as opposed to 'sounds'. thanks, Wahlverine! /END EDIT***])


9. Highlight a song and you can SetAs whatever you'd like!

Conclusion

Hope this helped someone. Most of this information was found elsewhere, but scattered throughout various forum posts and threads...I just consolidated it for my use and thought it may be beneficial for others. If screenshots would be helpful, feel free to contact me. thenickchapman[usuallyfoundat]gmail[dot]com. Take care!

Addendum

*If you haven't already created ringtones, BitPim lets you do that. Here's how:

1. Open BitPim


2. In the left pane, go to Phone >> Media >> Sounds [not Sounds(sd)]


3. Drag a file (mp3) from windows explorer into the large, right pane of BitPim


4. Set bitrate a little higher, at least 64 or 96, and click Convert (and wait a few seconds for a dos prompt call to ffmpeg to convert the file)


5. (pretty intuitive....but) Drag the Pink and Red bookends to where you want the ringtone to stop and start. Target duration should be ~22 seconds. I usually make mine 30...but probably lose the last little bit. 'Play Position' plays where the indicator triangle is set and 'Play Clip' plays everything between the bookends (and is really slow -- use 'Play Position'). You'll have to decide if volume adjustment is necessary for you. I kinda doubt it.


6. Repeat for other ringtones


7. Click the 'Arrow TO Phone' icon, which displays 'Send Phone Data' when moused over


8. On the menu that pops up, verify that 'Ringtones' is checked and the 'Add' radial option is selected, then click 'OK'


9. That should be it! If you have any trouble with this method, you can always right-click on a 'sound' you've made with BitPim and 'save' it to your computer, then use the transfer method mentioned in the tutorial to copy the files over. I KNOW it works...and this is more like speculation.