Post #184,274
11/16/04 6:04:57 PM
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Delicious Library
[link|http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/tech/weekly/2902748|Dr. Mac reviews] this media library program, it sounds pretty cool. Tracking your movies and music just got easier
I've wanted to use a database to keep a record of all the books I read and movies I watch for as long as I've owned a computer.
And I've tried more than a few times to get one started. The database fell into disuse because I didn't have time to do the data entry.
I had all but given up when I came across a program that lets me record my reading, viewing and listening experiences without typing much \ufffd or at all. It's Delicious Library from Delicious Monster (you gotta love those names), and it's a nifty new program that can look up information about most books, DVDs, CDs and other media via the Internet and use that information, including cover art, to populate its database.
The coolest way to Delicious Library is to use Apple's iSight video camera (sold separately) as a barcode reader.... Besides the iSight, you can wander around your house using a bluetooth barcode scanner. I can see syncing the collection to the iPod to be very handy as well, would make it very easy to finish my Calvin and Hobbes collection without accidently buying the same book again(grrr). I'm going to check it out tonight with my iSight. If it works well I'll probably check into the barcode scanner so I can scan the items where they are instead of hauling them to the study. [link|http://www.delicious-monster.com/|http://www.delicious-monster.com/] Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #184,350
11/17/04 2:22:10 PM
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I like it
I scanned a bunch of items using the iSight, it worked pretty well. Two newly released PS2 did not make a hit, though the older PS2 games I tried worked fine. Books, Mac software, CDs and DVDs all went in without a hitch. [link|http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/delicious-library.ars|Ars Technica] has a surprisingly Mac informed review of it(considering they "serve the PC Enthusiast".) Just as physical packaging makes an important first impression for hardware, so too can downloadable software packaging be elevated from utilitarian to a delight. On Mac OS X, the first test of quality downloadable software is this: does it come as a disk image, or is it compressed or packaged using some other standard? While StuffIt, zip, and even tar and friends are all technically compatible with Mac OS X, disk images combine the best features of all of them and have the nicest user experience. ...So let's see how Delicious Library stacks up. First, here's the disk image itself, after being mounted. [image|http://arstechnica.com/Media/2004/11/5/disk-image-icon.jpg||Disk image icon|183|183]Yes, they've even customized the volume icon: a wood-grain theme with the clever Delicious Monster logo branded onto it. The disk opens to reveal a continuation of the theme. [image|http://arstechnica.com/Media/2004/11/5/disk-image.jpg||Disk image|404|546]As is customary, the background image helpfully includes the "installation instructions" (if you can even call them that). I'm pointing these things out not because Delicious Monster is unique among Mac developers in the quality of their artwork and their attention to detail, but because they aren't unique. ...Windows users, think about what your typical download and installation experience is like. How many dialogs are you presented with? What do the file names and icons look like? Do you have to run an installer? What kind of manual clean-up is required afterwards? Linux users, when you look at the carefully laid out disk image contents in the screenshot and links above, think about how far "desktop Linux" has to come before it can even begin to think about details like how single-icon drag-installed applications are arranged in their disk image windows.
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #184,366
11/17/04 6:36:00 PM
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Ars
I've been reading them for some time, and they come across to me as a bunch of platform-agnostic, open minded individuals. The forums are about as good as it gets in terms of S/N ratio (excluding here of course) and there are some well-informed people there who are quite willing to help. If I have a wintel problem, that's the first place I go to ask.
"Here at Ortillery Command we have at our disposal hundred megawatt laser beams, mach 20 titanium rods and guided thermonuclear bombs. Some people say we think that we're God. We're not God. We just borrowed his 'SMITE' button for our fire control system."
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Post #184,371
11/17/04 7:14:04 PM
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good to know
I'll add them to my sites to frequent :-)
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #184,399
11/18/04 6:29:37 AM
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And it's stuff like this..
that causes me to eschew the Mac forum for weeks at a time.
Oh and.. seeing a friend's Powerbook; watching a DVD on it w/ external speaker/amp. She needs to get her e-mail back 'home' (is on an emergency trip to LA / no web access). I mention to a fellow IWEr that, "it's Blue-Tooth enabled - so why didn't it display the Google page and log her in, at the local Inet-Cafe?". He sez, "umm, you need a little plug-in card called Airport."
I go home. Hear next day that she scored the card, apparently at a good price ($80?) plugged it in. Went back to Cafe: got e-mail. No Call-Home-with-S/N.. No *INSTALL* NO B.S.
Now she's going to give me the e-Machine I set up for her a couple years back.. but.. do I even care??
Powerbooks should require a triplicate DEA Rx, as should nicotine.
I don't NEED another computer! damn it.
But ... ...
Stop telling me this stuff!
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Post #184,400
11/18/04 7:03:56 AM
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/me nods on the Airport/Bluetooth thing.
I plugged the Airport card into the iBook (10.3.5 at the time), powered up, and it prompted me to choose a wireless network.
That was it.
With the DBT-120 Bluetooth adapter it was a similar story. Plug it in, and start the process of pairing a device. No fuss, no mess.
Windows and Linux have equally shitty Bluetooth implementations, but for different reasons.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
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Post #184,732
11/21/04 11:59:51 PM
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"Clever logo"
[link|http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/inc/|http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/inc/]
Looks like a cleverly plagiarized logo to me. :-P
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #184,740
11/22/04 3:10:14 AM
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That's why it's clever...
...they modified it just enough so they wouldn't get sued. :)
(At least, so far)
Either that or Apple will do a Konfabulator to Delicious Library, and call it Tasty Bookshelves, or something...
Two out of three people wonder where the other one is.
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Post #185,114
11/26/04 11:45:58 AM
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I hope so
Konfabulator rapidly flattened my iBook with 256MB. (widgets slurp up huge amounts of memory when you're not looking)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
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Post #184,707
11/21/04 6:59:17 PM
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Paid the fee moments after downloading
This is a seriously cool app. It works fine with my iSight, but I type well enough that I can input titles pretty quickly as well.
One nice feature that I stumbled on:
When I put in a DVD, I looked in the Similar tab and saw a few others that were also in my collection. On a hunch, I clicked and dragged the icons of these items into my shelf and DL automagically added them to my database!
Haven't seen this feature mentioned in any of the reviews so far, but it really speeds up data entry.
Tom Sinclair
Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made
you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)
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Post #184,717
11/21/04 8:54:26 PM
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Cool
I plan to buy it in a month or two. I went a little overboard buying hardware and software to set up the G3 and G4 for my sister and brother for Christmas.
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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