Amazon MP3 for Linux

Tonight I was looking up some music on amazon.com, I wanted to buy some music, which normally means I have to load up my Windows VM for the amazonmp3 down loader software.

To my surprise when I went to the page, Amazon had Linux versions of the down loader software. Finally a company that recognizes another OS is out there.

Kudos to you Amazon.

I had a little trouble with getting the rpm installed on my Fedora9 box.

This site helped me out: fedoraforum.org

Here are the commands from the website if you don't want to go there:

Super thanks to GoneSouth on the fedoraforums for posting this:

1. download the fedora 8 rpm (amazonmp3.rpm) from the amazon site
2. cd to your download dir
3. su -c 'rpm -i --nodeps amazonmp3.rpm' (this tells rpm to ignore dependencies)
4. cd /lib
5. su -c 'ln -s libssl.so.7 libssl.so.6'
6. su -c 'ln -s libcrypto.so.7 libcrypto.so.6'

The last two steps just soft link the .7 version of the libraries that come with F9, to the .6 file names that amazonmp3 is looking for. You should now be able to download amazon mp3s on your F9 install. Cheers !

Hope you guys enjoy the Amazon down loader as much as I did.

Moving to gOS 2.9

Ubuntu 8.04 is great...but I love to try distros that are new and doing different things. Yes, gOS 2.9 is based on Ubuntu 7.10. So under the hood there is much of difference, but in this case its on the outside that counts.

gOS 2.9 is the "Space" upgrade to gOS 2.0 Rocket. Instead of Enlightment this time they go with Gnome and the Avant Dock Bar.

I will be installing on the trusted Dell 9300 1.6 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD, 128 MB Ati Radeon Mobile. We will see if she can handle it.

I will also be redoing my Desktop Compaq 1.5 Ghz 1.25 GB RAM, 40 GB HD, 128 MB Ati.

Gnupod

What the Program is?

Gnupod is a program that allows a Linux user to access the iPod in a more Linux way, wait I don't want to say Linux way. But what I mean is you don't need a UI to use your iPod or put music on your iPod with Gnupod.

Usages or How I use it?

I think I wrote a month ago about podget a great little CLI program that goes and gets your podcasts. Gnupod puts those podcasts over to your iPod or your music however you want it.

I set mine in a script to run and move my podcasts over to my iPod.

Here is my script:

#!/bin/bash
IPOD="/media/MyIPOD"
iTunesDB="iPod_Control/iTunes/iTunesDB"
#GnuPod add songs
rm -rvf $IPOD/$iTunesDB
wait
rm -Rvf $IPOD/iPod_Control/Music
wait
gnupod_INIT -m $IPOD
wait
find ~/Podcasts -type f -name '*.mp3' -exec gnupod_addsong -m $IPOD {} \;
wait
mktunes -m $IPOD

Gnupod has a set of tools that help to work with your iPod. I won't go into much detail but there are sites out there that do explain it.

Installation in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy)

Open a terminal pop-in the below commands:

$sudo aptitude install gnupod-tools

of if you want to

$sudo su
[your password]
#aptitude install gnupod-tools

PodGet

Podcasts are a huge part of my life. Since, I do commute to work and I like to listen to music while driving podcasts are a life saver. Its also how I get up to date on a great deal of my tech news.

That being said, I am always looking for a new and better way to get these podcasts. I started out using bashpodder. It was a good way to get podcasts but lacked some features. I then went to using graphical tools those were a bust because I wanted something I could schedule and was easy to configure.

Roll in podget. Its very easy and simple to use and does the job I want.

A huge plus is it is already in the debian repos.

Installing is a snap. I run Ubuntu 7.10 so to install podget was simply:

$sudo aptitude install podget

Once installed there is a first time run interaction, which creates ~/.podget .

The ~/.podget file is where all the default configuration files are for podget. Two files are stored there podgetrc and serverlist. Podgetrc is the configuration file for the script. This allows you to adjust were podcasts will be stored where logfiles should be stored and other settings.

NOTE: I had to change up the variable most_recent due to podget downloading all podcasts. This controls how far back podget will try and download by default set to most_recent=0. I set mine to most_recent=2.


The serverlist file is where all the RSS feeds are stored. It is a very simple syntax of . That is correct categories. Which is a feature I really like.

Following the documentation and several sites that had some podget info. on them I set it up in cron.

$ crontab -e

15 04,16 * * * /usr/bin/podget -s

This allows for podget to run at 4:15 and 16:15.

Anyway, here are a few links I found helpful. Enjoy podget.

• Podget
• http://badeggs.org/2005/podget-podcast-grabber/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podget
• http://www.linux.com/articles/60857
  

A Distro Whore

Yes, I am a distro whore. Now before you stop reading let me explain what means. A distro whore by definition is someone who gets several Linux distributions and continually switches them in and out for one another.

Well, that is me. Over the past few years I have tried several distributions. Currently at my house I am running:

Ubuntu 7.10, CentOS5.0, FreeSpire 2.0, Debian 4.0, openSuSe 10.3, FreeNas, IPCop

Downloading and fixing to install or try out:

DreamLinux, Fedora 7.92, DesktopBSD 1.6RC3, PCBSD1.4, Fluxbuntu 7.10, FreeBSD 7.0, Gentoo 2007.0, OpenBSD 1.4, SabayonLinux-3.4e

I think that is the making of a distro whore.

My new slogan in life is: Linux its an addiction