Sucks.

Check it

I had a problem: I wanted my radio station to automagically play my newer music and update the stuff that it plays every day, yet keep enough older stuff that there is still some variety, especially if no new music gets discovered for a while. I’d need to find some way to keep the most recent 200 or so tracks playing on my station.

Let’s start by looking at what we have and what we have to do:
Files on a Linux fileserver playing on a Windows server (via samba) in Winamp using EdCast to stream to sc_serv (Shoutcast) on a different Linux server in the DMZ. Currently, I have the X: drive on the Windows server mapped to the Linux Fileserver. Winamp re-scans the fileserver every 3 days for new music and adds it to the library, but I still have to manually go in and add new tracks to the playlist.

Some initial ideas and problems:
-Use XML-RPC / SOAP from another music cataloging program that I currently use
+I just really feel like there was an easier way to do what I wanted without going through all the trouble.

-Telling Winamp to [re]load the playlist: the Winamp API Uses C++…yuck…I don’t know or want to learn C++ just for this project. Plus, DRY applies, someone HAS to have thought of this before.
+Solution: httpQ, a simple http listener plugin for Winamp that uses a simple and easy to implement control scheme: simply call the right URL and Winamp does what you want. Awesome. ( http://httpq.sourceforge.net )

-Finding files that have been modified recently, and if none have been modified in the time specified, keep looking until you find enough files
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I recently got around to installing Reason after the reinstall of OSX after the Kalyway update to 10.5.2 made booting take around 20 minutes, most likely due to something not being perfectly compatible with the updated EFI patch that I also applied at the same time….so basically Time Machine had to step in and help out, further stressing the point of having good backups of everything, always.

Anyway, enough OSX86 talk for now, enjoy the preview of a recently-revived track I have been working on, Black and White