PyKaraoke doesn’t currently support pitch-shifting natively during song playback, and this is about the only missing feature that prevents PyKaraoke from being a complete digital replacement for the traditional analog CD+G player.

This is the case because PyKaraoke relies on Pygame’s MP3/Ogg/WAV playback engine, which does not (currently) provide any means of applying effects filters to the sound before it hits the sound device. It would be possible to replace this with our own threaded MP3/Ogg/WAV player, and use libsoundtouch to perform pitch-shifting (it is a very high quality, faster-than-realtime pitch shifter and time compressor/expander), but that’s a significant undertaking. There are no Python bindings for libsoundtouch, so using it would mean mucking with SWIG, which has always given me fits.

On Linux at least, there is an alternative solution that ultimately provides more flexibility anyway in building a sound layer that permits all sorts of cool sound effect possibilities.

This HOWTO attempts to document how the whole thing fits together, how to implement it on your own system, and how to use it in production at a karaoke (or really any DJ’ed) show. Read the full story...

Technorati Tags: Audio Geeky Howto Linux

Earlier today I had need of a disc image that was only available in the irritating MagicISO “UIF” format, and my Linux box was the only machine available to deal with it.

MagicISO is an irritating, closed-source, proprietary Windows-only application that is available in free and paid versions; only the paid version enables all “features.” The tool’s officially-declared purpose is to permit easy conversion between all the various (and largely useless; the ISO and BIN/CUE formats are standardized and satisfy all CD and DVD imaging purposes) disc image formats. Such tools are only useful in the first place because of all the competing (and equally proprietary) disc formats being pushed by assorted companies, and the insistence by idiot newbies and posers of using the damned things.

What makes MagicISO so irritating isn’t the fact that it only runs on Windows, is closed-source, and requires payment of a fee to enable all its features — what makes it irritating is that it introduces yet another proprietary format for storing CD-ROM and DVD-ROM images. Naturally, because it only runs on Windows, other people who run Mac OS X, Linux, or any other platform at all can’t deal with the format. It introduces compression and encryption (again in proprietary ways, which is unnecessary because compression has been done before (and far better, by much smarter people), and encryption is something that should be done separately (do you really trust the encryption algorithm developed by some guy bolting on a feature to a proprietary disc image tool?).

Fortunately, Luigi Auriemma has written a utility to convert UIF images back to the standard-issue ISO file. Unlike MagicISO itself, this conversion tool is open source. Here’s how to build and use it.

Technorati Tags: Fixing Annoying Stuff Geeky Linux

Microsoft thinks it has an “innovative” way to encourage people to use Windows XP (not Vista, amusingly enough) on all these sexy new ultra-portable, ultra-cheap laptop computers instead of Linux (which is what almost every manufacturer of these little machines has been using so far): license XP at a steep discount so long as manufacturers deliberately cripple the hardware. Read the full story...

Technorati Tags: Geeky Linux Microsoft

I don’t have much to add to this update on efforts to combat Microsoft’s modern-day attempts to spread FUD about Linux (that’s “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt,” in case you were curious — it was an old trick IBM used to use when it commanded the computing market a few decades ago), except to encourage you very, very loudly to go read it.

Microsoft is running a silly “Get the Facts” campaign, designed to distract people from the realities (that Linux and similar platforms are far more reliable and scalable, are easier to use and work with, and are (much) cheaper than Microsoft’s own Windows-based offerings) by spinning so much bullshit it’ll make your head swim. The article I linked to above steps through the latest efforts by the company to continue its smear campaign.

<sarcasm>Of course, Microsoft is really just interested in telling the truth (that nobody but Microsoft can see) about Linux. We’re just all missing the glaring reality. Microsoft has absolutely no motivations beyond just “exposing the truth” in its efforts to convince people to buy its products instead of going with the cheaper/better alternatives.</sarcasm>

Technorati Tags: Linux Microsoft Rants

Maybe I’ve overlooked something stupid, but Mozilla Firefox 2.x (I haven’t tested in 3.x yet) is quite inflexible about options and command-line arguments for external (“helper”) programs. This manifests itself in a number of ways, but the one I’m dealing with today is this:

• I’ve got Audacious (a music player for Linux) playing a playlist of decent stuff (all streamed internet radio, but that doesn’t matter).
• I’ve got another .PLS (a “playlist” file) I’d like to add to my existing playlist (stick the new tracks contained in the new playlist at the end of the already-defined playlist in my Audacious player)
• Audacious is smart enough to know when it’s run to check if another copy is already running; if so, it just tells that other copy to do what you’ve told the new copy to do
• Audacious defaults to replacing the current playlist with a new file or playlist provided on the command line; to make it append instead, you have to call it with the “—enqueue” command line argument
• Firefox won’t let me add any command line arguments to a helper program

Dammit. That sucks, except that Linux (any Unix, really) makes it quite simple to fix this kind of breakage with a specialized little script. Read the full story...

Technorati Tags: Geeky Howto Linux

I laugh hysterically at the MPAA as I write this, since they’ve just been caught (and called out) committing a breach of copyright law.

When you are crusading against the American public for “rampant acts of piracy,” suing your own customers for pirating movies, you probably shouldn’t rip off a copy of Ubuntu, mutate it to have your name, logos, and “approved software” on it, and redistribute it without honoring the license (the GPL) it’s released under.

You also shouldn’t sue your bread & butter customers either, but the MPAA isn’t known for doing smart things. Read the full story...

Technorati Tags: Content Cartel Law Linux MAFIAA Politics