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my2unz changes are live

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I’ve uploaded the changes to the live my2unz.com site and updated the database. All of the original content is still intact. I disabled playlist import, however, since that feature hasn’t been thoroughly tested.

I’m now using standard CCK fields & standard views, along with the content template module for track, album, artist, and playlist forms rather than defining those content types in my iTunes module. I now only use one custom table, which links tracks to a playlist and includes playlist specific info for that track such as rating & play count, since it was easier & cleaner than using one of the node relationship modules.

As soon as I have the iTunes playlist import cleaned up and a fast, clean way to create playlists from scratch without importing, I plan to open the site publicly. The other major feature I plan to add is linking albums & tracks to Amazon & iTunes Music Store, and providing audio for tracks, most likely from last.fm.

Content stealing splog

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I received a pingback in my Akismet moderation queue a little while ago that led me to a splog that’s stealing content from this and many other blogs. It simply reposts blog entries verbatim and inserts google ads in each post. It grabbed my previous post just a few minutes after I posted it. I won’t post a link to it here to give them any more traffic, but I did report it to Fight Splog.

I also notice an increase in comment spam over the last few days, with about one or two a day being held for moderation instead of being immediately marked as spam.

my2unz.com update

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I was up late last night working on some programming changes to my2unz.com.

I’ve removed the content & view related functions from my iTunes module where the same functionality could be implemented using standard CCK & Views features such as nodereference fields. I still need to get iTunes XML import working the same way again and link tracks to a playlist. I hope to bring these updates to the live site this weekend before I leave for Vancouver.

Artist Page
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Dock
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Podcast Interview

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Taylor McNeil interviewed me for his new podcast, Tech Bucket. We discussed a few Mac related stories and I talked about LoJack for Laptops.

Taylor is a local 16 year old podcaster & blogger. Until a few months ago, he lived in my condo community. Taylor’s family was one of the few Prius owners in here.

What's happening with my2unz.com

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Things have been pretty quiet with my2unz.com lately, but I have some big programming changes planned. I finally got a chance to do some work on it over the weekend.

The site uses a custom Drupal module for iTunes integration. In addition to importing iTunes playlist or library XML files, it also defines several content types for tracks, albums, artists, and playlists. I use a few custom tables to link artists, albums, and tracks. The module also defines the forms & views for those content types.

I’m eliminating those content types from the module and converting them to standard content types using CCK node reference fields and standard views. The itunes module will simply act as a helper and will still handle importing iTunes data. Hopefully I’ll be able to preserve the existing site content.

I would like to open it to the public before the end of the year. I was originally planning to wait for Drupal 6, but it’s still far from ready and most of the modules I use aren’t compatible.

Sony kills fair use

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Sony believes that fair use, as it has been understood for several decades, doesn’t exist.

jennifer Pariser, Sony’s head of litigation, says:

When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song. Making a copy of a purchased song is just a nice way of saying ‘steals just one copy’.

Long before personal computers, people were making mix tapes or copying their LPs to cassettes so they could listen to them in the car. If Sony has their way, even that would be illegal.

In light of this remark, the proclamations by NBC and others that most content on iPods is stolen makes sense in a perverse way. If you buy a CD or DVD and then rip it and put it on your iPod instead of buying another DRM protected copy, it’s stealing according to their standards.

Pariser’s statement that music labels make no money on touring, radio, or merchandise is especially telling. The artists themselves are still making money that way, cutting out the record labels. So the record companies don’t care whether the artist makes money, only that they themselves make money even though they don’t add any value to the music.

Artists like Radiohead who are distributing their music online are now proving that record companies aren’t necessary and add no value to their product.

It’s time for someone to start standing up for consumers. Supporting bands like Radiohead who create alternate distribution methods will send a loud & clear message to the RIAA & record labels.

Contact form

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I had disabled this site’s contact form after some spammers started abusing it, thinking they were sending to a list of addresses when in reality all of the spam was sent to me.

I forgot about it until Daniel reminded me. It’s back now. Instead of using a form that could possibly be abused, I now simply use an obfuscated email address.

MediaTemple

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When I was having trouble with DreamHost a few days ago, I signed up for a Grid Server account at Media Temple to try it out. After trying it, I decided to close my Media Temple account and stay with DreamHost.

I created a mirror of this site (which you can still see here until the end of the month), and I didn’t find it to be any faster than DreamHost. I also find that DreamHost’s control panel is a lot nicer.

I also prefer how DreamHost handles multiple domains. With DreamHost, I can create completely separate FTP/SSH accounts for each domain. Media Temple, on the other hand, uses a primary domain with other domains added as alternate domains, unless you purchase another IP address at extra cost. All of the domains appear in a domain subdirectory in a single FTP account, so there’s less separation between domains.

Twitter Virus

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It was bound to happen sooner or later. There’s a virus affecting Twitter now. It shows up as a link in someone’s tweet containing Chinese characters. If you click that link, it will post a tweet containing that same link. At least 4 people I’m following have spread it.