Big Rock Untapped allows artists to contribute music for release as a compilation album, promoting independent artists and local bands. I was tasked to find a way to download the music files (hundreds of them) and scoffed at the idea of manually downloading each of them. I considered using PHP to grab the files, but then remembered about wget which my old colleague used to pull the Weather Network current temperature for Fairmont Hot Springs Resort. After a bit of searching, I found Quentin Stafford-Fraser’s wget for Mac OS X which was a very helpful pre-compiled for OSX version of the binary and off I went. With the wget manual at my disposal, I was able to download the scores of files all in one go, definitely making my life easier (and preventing future cringing the next time I have to do this pull).
This reinforces the feeling I had in first year Computer Science: the joy of making computers do my bidding. Mwahaha!
Staying true to the theme of this blog (randomness), this is a convoluted tale with no purpose at all.
I’ve coveted an iPhone since I started work at Applied. Lack of foresight has caused me to be locked in a three-year contract with Bell, which would cost me $400 to cancel plus entering a service plan with Rogers with a cell phone bill double what I pay now. An iPhone is not an appropriate purchase for me at the moment.
Next best thing? An iPod Touch. I managed to swing a used 16GB model that I can gleefully call my own and fill with apps and fun times. Of course, it needs a name. Here is where the story randomness begins.
My first introduction to the internet was for social purposes (which is my primary draw to it now), and my handle in chat rooms was Lady Neptune (being heavily influenced by Sailor Moon at the time and paying homage to my Piscean influences). When I got my MacBook Pro, I chose to name it “Despina” after one of Neptune’s moons. Fitting, I thought, since a moon in my mind is a peripheral and mobile thing. I wanted to name my iPod touch after another of Neptune’s moons, but after discovering the moon Nereid and its mythological connections, I thought it would be further appropriate to name my peripheral’s peripheral after these sea nymphs (also, I can use the names of the primary moons for computers as opposed to mobile devices). There are over ninety listed on Wikipedia.org, which might also be fitting given the fact that I’ll probably be cycling through iPods and iPhones as time goes on. I clicked on Erato. Not only is Erato the name of a Nereid, but it is also the Muse of lyric poetry. Did I also mention that Muse is my favorite band? I plan to name my eventual iPhone Galatea since it is another Nereid, the name of one of Neptune’s moons, and due to the name’s connection with Pygmalion, implies an obsessive love with an inanimate object that can be crafted to a desired form.
The end.
Can you imagine the thought process involved if/when I name my first-born?
Some of the best things came from the 80s. Like me, for example. (I’ll give you a small PayPal donation if you really didn’t see that one coming.)
A few days ago I changed my Facebook and Twitter status to: “Rosemary has proven that once you go Mac you’ll never go back. MacBook Pro impulse buy. Mwahahaha.” While I have been left poor and broke, never have I had such a wealth of creative opportunity. Garageband is nothing new, but I finally discovered it and made my own 80s-style synthesized creation. It’s still untitled, but a first is still monumental, is it not?
First 80s Song
It's tough to think of a blurb for myself when I'm also on 