RBEQ 1.3 – Now With Presets!
Hello all -
A new version of RBEQ, the Rhythmbox Equalizer plugin that I've been hacking away at, is out for public availability. Of course, this means that I have to go update all of my previous links to point to the new download. For ease of accessibility, you can find it at http://rbeq.googlecode.com, as the featured download. Installation instructions are the same: download the file, open a terminal, and type:
tar -xvzf rbeq-1.3.tar.gz -C ~/.gnome2New in this release:
- The ability to save and load presets. This has been a big request, and I finally found a decent way of handling it.
- Layout cleanup and arranging to add in the new preset functions.
- Backend code cleanup, so that it behaves more python-y. I'm not a python programmer, so this has been a neat experiment in trying it out.
Thanks to all out there who have used and enjoy the past versions of this plugin. Hope that the new one is to your liking. 
Don’t Break the Chain
After reading this post on LifeHacker, I couldn't escape the feeling that I should start doing something like this. I mean, it works for Jerry Seinfeld, it can't be all that bad.
Basically, as described on the link above, the idea is that you keep a daily calendar of all the specific goals you want to accomplish. Every time you do something related to a goal, mark off the day on the calendar. Once you have a few days consecutively, that is a chain. The object of this motivational strategy: Don't Break the Chain. Seems like a simple enough thing.
In the spirit of bringing in new ideas in order to make things work, I'm going to use a modified schedule, but the chain still takes effect. Different days for me will be devoted to different goals/tasks. Mondays and Thursdays I tackle some Ruby code, so I can stay fresh and learn about some of the newer developments that I've missed, having been out of the Ruby loop for a while. Tuesdays and Saturdays are devoted to Corner of Seven. That's right, you might actually see more blog posts. In addition, I'm looking at building new and experimental pieces onto the domain, including rails and Java webapps, and playing around with php and python, so I can apply these to the blog, and keep the site as a form of digital portfolio. All of my things will be up here, so it makes it more centralized.
Motorola Droid
Finally, the big hurdle in my calendar, and what is to be the biggest chain - Android. I've been looking at the mobile phone operating system for a while now, but haven't had the drive to fully enter in and create things for it. That is, until I saw (and afterwards, held) one of these.So, starting today, once a day I will try to do something new in terms of Android development, in an effort to increase my skill and knowledge in the mobile OS. Hopefully we'll get to see some neat little apps come out of this "Don't break the chain" mentality. Hope you're along for the ride - I guess we'll see come every Tuesday and Sunday.
Cheers for now.
Rhythmbox EQ update!
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