Note: This project is still in progress. Please travel to the Google Code Project for more.

Just when you thought it was safe…

1.4 of the RBEQ, the Rhythmbox Equalizer, is out and ready for download. The big change here is a switch from storing presets in a flat file to using the GStreamer Preset system. As always, downloads are at RBEQ Google Code.

A big thanks to Stefan Kost, who left this gem of a comment on the 1.3 release posting:

Any reason, you are not using the presets shipped with the gstreamer plugin?
Look at /usr/share/gstreamer-0.10/presets/GstIirEqualizer10Bands.prs and the GstPreset interface.
Users can install own presets to $HOME/.gstreamer-0.10/presets/

Since I didn’t know anything about them, after looking at the aforementioned docs, I’ve gotten things so that they use the GStreamer Preset interface, and it is more well-behaved.

Also a big thanks to Hicham HAOUARI, whose awesome work has gotten RBEQ into Fedora! That’s awesome; I was nearly flabbergasted when I saw that. Thank you for the support!

Comments and bug issues are always welcome; please let me know what you find while using it.

Note: This project is still in progress. Please travel to the Google Code Project for more.

Update: Today RBEQ 1.3 was released.  Find it on the google code page.

Yes, a month plus later than expected, RBEQ version 1.1 is out.

Updates since the last release:

• The window for the equalizer no longer wrests control away from Rhythmbox itself.  This makes it easier to change the EQ and play with volume and songs to get things working optimally.
• Added GConf hooks to allow persistent states for the equalizer between sessions.  Most requested feature from the previous release.
• Full base-code rewrite, much cleaner to work with and understand.

Next up, adding a load-save functionality to the EQ so that you can swap settings on the fly.

As always, the download is located here, and the install instructions are the same.

Download from http://rbeq.googlecode.com

Installation instructions:

• Open a terminal, and enter this:

tar -xvzf rbeq-1.3.tar.gz -C ~/.gnome2

• That’s it!  You’re set.

Hope that this release is as popular as the last.

Chris

Note: This project is still in progress. Please travel to the Google Code Project for more.

UPDATE: The Rhythmbox EQ has been updated.  You can find it at  google code.

I’ve finally gotten to the point where my basic rhythmbox equalizer is up and running, so I figured I’d let the package sit here as an available download.  I’ll also link it to the rhythmbox devels, in hopes that it generates a bit more interest, and someone might come along and clean up and add to it more, in the true open source sense.

You can download the package here: Click Me!.

Installation instructions:

Uncompress this package using an archive utility (file-roller) to the ~/.gnome2 directory, or use the following command:

tar -xvzf rbeq-1.3.tar.gz -C ~/.gnome2

And that’s it!  Open rhythmbox, and go to “Edit -> Plugins” and select “Rhythmbox Equalizer.”

Screenshot (by request):

Screencap for the Rhythmbox EQ.

It feels good to finally have a project of my own out there to help the community.   Ciao!

A rather good set of readings showed up on Slashdot today; I was especially interested in this one concerning Apathy, Lies and Fear.

In the articles listed above, the issues arise when teachers do not have the knowledge of what something does.  It’s a situation of brand loyalty taken much too far.

Because places have minimal technical knowledge for teachers, and the IT administrators at many schools are in the same frame of mind, there’s one way to do things that is right, and in many cases, claimed the only legal way.  Unfortunately, that’s Microsoft’s way.

People need to start having the ability to see a piece of software not for what it’s called, but for what it has capability to do.  Consider your web browser.  Generally, there is 3 different options that someone would be using, which take up a vast majority of the browsers used – namely, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.  Each program does the same thing, and has the same capabilities, but there are people who will disallow or even reprimand if a specific browser isn’t used.

Why?  Why is it that there’s so much reliance on this software, on this system?   On top of that, there are even more browsers available out there, that even less people use.  Take the chance to go find out about Opera, Google’s Chrome, or any other browser listed on Wikipedia’s “Comparison of Web Browsers” page.  What makes these browsers less usable, not as “good” as the other one chosen?  It’s a learned trait.

People don’t say “make a digital presentation,” they say “make a Powerpoint.”  You don’t hear “find this on the Internet,” instead, it’s “Google this.”  The product is given more credence than the action, and so that hurts the rest of the software community in what they’re trying to accomplish.  It’s not “use this computer to find out the information you need,” it’s “use this computer to find out the information you need.”

Just a minute, you might have said.  That last one says the same thing!  While that’s true, and I did that on purpose, the meanings are different, depending on who says them.  When I’ve asked someone, “Who makes your computer?”, over half the time they have said “Windows.”  Not Acer, HP, Dell… those are just companies.

Again, we have the product getting more credence than the action.  Something has the market so tight, that people don’t realize that there’s another set of options.  Computing then means using Microsoft Windows, not using the computer.

I want this message to get out around the world – that’s why I’m displaying it on the internet.  Hopefully people will get the chance to read it, read the points that I’ve made, and see that there has been a spark of interest in possibly understanding things further.  And please, don’t tie products with processes.