Ampache auto update script
Hello readers!
I haven’t written anything in a while, but that’s not because I’ve been sitting on my hands. Just like everyone else, I’ve been busy with this new calamity called the economy. Anyway I just wanted to post my new program which I put together. It’s for Ampache, the MP3 music library server. As my music folder changes, and songs are sometimes added, I wanted a way to have Ampache auto update its catalogs. So I found this Perl script by Jeremy Guarini, and I’ve modified it so that it would work on my Ubuntu 9.04 server. You can get it from here: updateAmpache.pl. As usual, just change the .odt extension to .pl, and run it. You can put it in the /etc/ampache folder, and create a symbolic link to it from /etc/cron.weekly.
Hope this saves someone the trouble.
-András
Youtube rating button (Warning: contains a rant)
So the other day I was on youtube looking at a friend’s new video they just posted and I may have been a little inebriated at the time. I liked the video, and wanted to pause it for a sec, but accidentally misclicked and gave it a vote of 2 stars. Then I tried everything to change my vote but couldn’t. I really wish they would finally change the layout a little by moving the voting away from the control buttons, or allow to change your vote after you have made it. I’m not the first one to complain about this (just type into google ‘youtube change rating’ or click here. Hope they wise up and allow changes if you’re logged in.
How to remove Excel document password
Short answer: Open the file in Open Office, remove the protection then save.
Long answer (rant included):
So recently at work, we had a problem. One of the companies whose products we use sent us a data sheet for calculating values in a part as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The calculations and internal functions however were password protected in the document. Personally, I think that’s a rediculous thing, to hide parts that the end user might need. So right away, I got to figuring out how to bypass it. Immediately, I started searching for Excel password crackers. Though I knew the risk of getting a virus and/or trojan was rather high, I was willing to risk it.
At the same time, the thought of opening the file in my favorite open source editor popped in my head. Open office opened the file without issue, and I went in to try to remove the protection, and what do you know? It didn’t bother asking for a password. So now I had in my sinister clutches the much better version of the file.
It really irks me that developers would think the people who would end up using their products are so stupid as to not be able to bypass any restrictions they put forward.
This is not the first time I had to do such a thing, and sure as hell won’t be the last. Just remember, if you, a developer of software or hardware decide to put a lock on something and you yourself can easily bypass it, then anyone who will end up using it will also be able to easily bypass it.
