Ripping music with LAME

The following entry is based on my personal opinion and not necessarily representing the view on the entire public.

I always thought ripping music with LAME was a breeze; that wasn’t exactly the case.  It took me a couple hours to achieve what I wanted.  After my SHURE SE310 headphones (which, by the way, you can see here: http://flickr.com/photos/kwan-family/sets/72157609132387652/ ) arrived on Friday, I went to my friend’s house and borrowed some CD’s.  So I downloaded LAME v3.97b2 because I looked at online sources that it was the stable and very good.  So, I went onto download EAC because it seemed to be widely used with LAME.  After some research, I found an instructions set on hydrogenaudio:

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_and_Lame

Here are the instructions in brief:

1. After the CD is in the drive, open Compress options under EAC Menu
2. Click the External Compression Tab, and put a check box in Use external program for compression.
3. Change Parameter passing scheme to User Defined Encoder (see this thread for reasoning).
4. Change Use file extension to .mp3.
5. Click the Browse button and locate the lame.exe that you unzipped into the EAC directory earlier.

However, after I downloaded v3.97b2, unzipped it into the EAC file, went to Compression option, and browsed for the lame.exe file…. guess what, it wasn’t there!

The horror….  I did more research and found that the lame.exe is NOT in every version available.  However, I also found that the latest version: 3.98.2 had it and so I downloaded the file from here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=290&package_id=309

I got rid of the old LAME and unzipped the new LAME into the EAC folder.  I located the file and put it in there.

But that’s not all… the code on hydrogenaudio did not give me what I wanted.  I wanted V0 inside of V2; so, I researched some more and found this line of code:  -V 0 –id3v2-only –pad-id3v2 –ta “%a” –tt “%t” –tl “%g” –ty “%y” –tn “%n” %s %d which is what I wanted: V0 and ID3 v2.  So I put this in the “Additional command-line options” where it belongs.

For more important on what these are, feel free to visit http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Lame and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID3 .

But trust me, these results are pretty much as good as you can get with mp3 files.  If you don’t believe me, you can read here: http://www.soundexpert.info/coders320.jsp

After that, just fill in the reminder settings (default should be fine) and press OK.  Note that Bit rate drop down menu actually has no effect when you actually rip the music because the additional command-line options take priority.   

And a screenshot to double check if you have everything.

 

Open up your disk, high MP3 on the right hand menu bar, and watch you computer do the magic.

You nature responses might be: “why not use aac with Winamp, that has a much better rating” and “what about loseless” and “V2 is good enough, isn’t it?”

My answers are: aac is not compatible with everything, including Windows Media Player which many people uses.  I also prefer LAME over Winamp due to simplicity and the “cool factor” (not that there is much).  Loseless is definiately a great alternative if your portable music player supports it and if you have ample space on your hard drive and music player.  I have a 1TB external hard drive, 250 GB hard drive, 8 GB phone, therefore, V0 sometimes is referred as “overkill”, but why not? it’s available anyways.

Hope this helps!

Left 4 Dead

I bought L4D last week before it came out, and I have been enjoying the game so far.  I have finished all 4 campaigns on Advanced but have not finished any of them in Expert (oh, I’ve tried… many times).  I will definitely keep you posted if I ever do complete one of the Experts.

Autumn Pictures

Today, I finally took all the pictures I took in the last month or so and put them on my computer.  Then I uploaded some onto my flickr.  Feel free to take a look at them, all my nature pictures I took this fall is located here: http://flickr.com/photos/kwan-family/sets/72157608249000618/

Feel free to leave a comment!

Accelerometer and Python on N95

So, after 5 months of using my phone, I finally decided to go beyond the programs I had and get the accelerometer working.  I didn’t need it previously so I didn’t bother.  So, I did what I read some stuff online and install the accelerometer plugin (http://www.s60tips.com/wp-content/uploads/files/N95AccelerometerPlugin.sis) , then I installed a program to try it out, LightSaber 1.5 (http://lightsaber.en.softonic.com/symbian/download).  

Much to my surprise, the program not only not work, it didn’t even start.

Then I read online that it’s important to install the program in your PHONE memory.  So, for future references.  Install all programs, especially the ones that use hardware like the camera or accelerometer extensively, in the PHONE memory. 

I uninstalled the plugin and program; reinstalled it in the phone memory, and it worked like a charm.  Useless yet fun program to have.

Wait, but that’s not all!
I also decided to play around with Python as well.  Python is one of my last things to learn on my “to do” list for 2008.  I’ve heard about the book Mobile Python: Rapid prototyping of applications on the mobile platform a while ago, however, never bothered looking into it.  However, yesterday, I decided it was time to get the book and play around with it.

I acquired the book and I must admit the concept of Python programming is much much more simple than C++ or Java.  
To start, you need the following two things: Python for S60 and the Shell that runs it.  The latest files are located here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=154155&package_id=171153&release_id=609802

For the N95, you will need the Python for S60 3rd ed file and Python Script Shell for S60 3rd ed.  Remember to install the Python for S60 before the script shell.  
Basically, you need the Python program installed in your phone, have a script handy (some are included in those files), and the shell is a place where it allows the files to run (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).  

I just wrote the “Hello World” program on my PC and ran it on my phone, I look forward to do more and keep you guys updated!

WordPress Tutorial

As some of you know, I manage the weblogs for the University of British Columbia.  We are trying to move from MovableTypes to WordPress and I have written some documentation for it.  Here it is: I wrote the “comments” and “settings” section today.  Going to head towards “design” tomorrow, hopefully.

Settings: http://blogs.ubc.ca/nkwan/2008/11/03/settings-tab/

Comments: http://blogs.ubc.ca/nkwan/2008/11/03/comments/

Aegis Gundam and a hobby renewed

Although I am not an anime enthusiast, I do enjoy the mega series Gundam.  I have always been interested in it but I never actually watched any series as a whole.  So over the summer, I finished Seed and also bought the Aegis Gundam (High Grade).  This took me only a couple hours to finish and this is just a stepping stone to the perfect grade I bought.  (Some pictures of the PG are already on my flickr!)  This is really a tiny project, there wasn’t any paint added.  The only tool I used was a nail clipper.  I’m going to write all about my journey in building the PG, so watch out for that!

 

You can look at higher resolution photos by clicking on the picture and going to all sizes. They were all taken with my Sony alpha 300 and the “original” on flickr is actually 60% of the actual RAW picture. Those I keep to myself =).

My version of “How to play the Scout in Team Fortress 2″

I have decided to start my short quick tutorials on all 9 classes of TF2.  I try to start with “the obvious” and get right down to specific tactics.  This is my take on the game and might not be the “most pro” way of playing.  I will also try to update them as time goes by when gaming styles changes.  Feel free to leave your comments.  =)

Week 1: Scout

Before I start this, remember to watch the following 2 videos first.

Some of this is repetition of what he mentioned.

Scout is a speed class that has the ability to run pretty much twice as fast as the other classes.  They also capture points twice as fast.

Scout is useful in most capture maps: well (both cp and ctf), badlands, and granary.  The attack/defend maps with open spaces is also useful, such as gravelpit.  I find it extremely difficult to do much in dustbowl or parts of gold rush and parts of basinwater because of the tight spaces in certain parts of the map.  Open spaces is essential for a scout to hop around.

Many scouts are afraid of confrontation because of the “weakness” of the scout hp and scattergun.  Actually, while the hp is low on a scout, it’s extremely difficult to kill one if they don’t let you hit them. Keep moving around as the scout (duh) and you will likely dodge much more than 50% of scouts.

Flanking is probably the skill that separates me from the average player.  Each class has the ability to use flanking to a certain advantage but scout is definitely one of them. Don’t fear sentries close range.  When a sentry is mid-ranged to far-ranged from you, you shouldn’t confront it.  However, open sentries are getting less common these days because of lobbing pipes and long ranged rockets and sniper shots.  Sentries are usually build in “surprise spaces” while covering as wide of a range as possible.  (More on this when I write about engineers). Back to my point, a scout can take out a level 3 sentry with 3 scattershots. You don’t even have to be too close because the hit-box for sentries are so large. Just circle around and a sentry and fire at it 3 or 4 times and it’ll explode. After that, the engineer should be a piece of cake.

Because I am an aggressive player, I like to always “ go for it”.  This is actually quite contagious, so beware.  Once you start constantly going for the enemy, your team will follow.  At the beginning of a round on blue that requires setup, demos usually lay stickies on the ground outside the door.  One of to help your team (assuming you lack medics with ubers) is to jump out there and take one for the team.  Because of the speed on the scout and the delayed response time of most players, you will not die.  Just head back to the spawn and heal yourself and you’ve saved your team from the stickies.

Don’t’s:

Don’t give away your position too early. If your target (like a sniper) doesn’t see you from mid-ranged, and there are no other people too close, don’t fire! Wait until you are close enough so most or all of your bullets from your scattergun hits.

Don’t circle around medics and spamming E for them to heal you if there are medic kits available, just take those.

Don’t take teleporters. Your teammates need it a lot more than you do.

Don’t camp. While camping for some classes are useful (demo and pyro), scouts aren’t made for camping. If you’re squished in some small area, the other class will probably kill you before you kill them.

Bottom Line: Keep moving and think “stealth”

I will add more later when I think of more stuff; but for now, I hope this helps.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Camera

My camera arrived and I am loving it.  There is so much to learn about still photography, I will definiately keep readers up to date about the things I learn.  Also, my next posts will be more extensive and detailed.

Cheers!

My N95 programs

I have found a list of N95 programs that are really useful in my everything life, some are “essential” while others are not.

Calcium-because i’m an engineering student and I am only comfortable with RPN

WWIGO-because I don’t have a webcam and I want to use a webcam

ShoZu-because I just got a flickr pro account and bought a new camera (posts on the cameras coming soon)

MsnMessenger- because I need to chat

Opera Mini-because I need a browser that works

Coreplayer-because I need to watch movies

MobiTubia-because I like youtube

A bunch of other programs I don’t REALLY use: sports tracker, googlemaps, metal slug, fring, FlipSilent… and others

iPhone

Do you want an iphone?

Of course I want an iphone, everyone wants an iphone, even people who don’t know anything about technology wants an iphone.  It indeed is revolutionary, and with the new things going on with phones, I would like to talk about more later.