Artificial Spirit Blog

Teen spirit 0.93 released

2008-04-23T12:46:00.004+03:00

Most significant changes...

Tree
- New Gui for browsing your collection with 5 (currently) different styles
- More Browse your collection types
- More Sort your collection options

Track List
- Gui changes
- Multiple sorting

PlayList
- Quicker - Better

Information Downloads
- Amazon Album Cover / Info support
- Updated LastFM support
- Updated Google Lyrics support

Collections
- New Gui
- More Info
- More update options

Player
- Better Crossfading
- External Player Support

Database
- Abstraction. May use SQLite in the future

New Teen Spirit Site

2008-04-23T12:42:00.002+03:00

After a long time teen spirit site has been updated. Now it is using the Drupal 6 framework.
The new teen spirit site address has been changed to http://teenspirit.artificialspirit.com
The new forum is in http://forum.artificialspirit.com

0.92a screenshots

2007-05-23T22:24:00.000+03:00

Some Conium (TS) screenshots just after i finished the "Captioned Panes" feature.

The captions over the panes are changing through time showing various info like playlist mode, tree mode, auto continue mode etc.

just the playlist and the visualization / video

a clean view without visualizations / information

I was getting bored with the same GUI all the time. Check also that the player controls have been moved down over the status bar (and an explicit Pause button has been added).
Other Developments that are ready.
A new Ultra rich menu in player.

..featuring some autocontinue modes / Insert Random Tracks (using criteria) / Insert m3u at position and more.
There is also an option to synchronize the Information Control (Review-Bio-Lyrics) with the Player.
Also LastFM artist (AMG Successor) info are ready / an improved version of the google lyrics plugin.
Also the external plugin support is finished.

Regards

Cease and Desist Order

2007-04-10T20:47:00.000+03:00

Dear Mr. Oikonomou:

Please find attached an order of Cease and Desist requiring you to stop incorporating the copyright protected AMG Data into your software Teen Spirit.

This notice has been sent by email and post.

Regards,
Lisa Powell

--------------------------------------

Lisa E. Powell

Attorney

All Media Guide, LLC

1168 Oak Valley Drive

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

734-887-8202

20 more hours and a hotfix

2007-03-14T02:39:00.000+02:00

xc-se revealed a bug in track edition. In certain cases (when you add a track before you update one!!!) it could completely disable track editing (even ratings)
This bug, was introduced in one of "those" optimizations in 0.91b.
Anyway it is fixed now..
Latest changelog for 0.91b (hotfix)
(130307)* AMG Info now correctly translating in Western European code page (not to the system default)
(130307)* BugFix. Track Edit was disabled in certain cases
(130307)* 00:00 duration will not be visible anymore
(130307)* Bugfix illegal rating warning appearance

as always you may download from
http://www.artificialspirit.com/download.php

TS/C development suspended

2007-03-13T00:40:00.000+02:00

... but not for long.
I ll be travelling in Montreal and Cuba for at least the next 3 weeks.

See you around guys

P.S I hope i haven't screwed anything in the latest release.

Versioning

2007-03-13T00:34:00.000+02:00

Maybe there is a little confusion about the version numbers in this project. Well it can get even worse. The project name may change in the next version. :)
Anyway I ve decided to have an "emule" like versioning. So there were 0.91(a) later (now) 0.91b and maybe in the future 0.91c (if there are any serious bugs) before the next serious upgrade 0.92a.
I m planning the plugin architecture for this version and also some user interface gui customization options (not exactly skins) and of course various smaller fixes/updates etc

0.91b is out

2007-03-13T00:00:00.000+02:00

A computer program written in English language by a Greek showing a Cuban song's Spanish lyrics in a Japanese translated User Interface. Globalization or what?

Thanks everyone who helped in this release

Release Highlights

+ Virtual Track Collections. Add YouTube links as 'Virtual' Files in your collection. You may also import/export these files as 'xlc xml link collection files'
+ New actiion logger
+ Easy Drag Drop tagging in tree view
+ Web Services. Quick Search in Google - YouTube - Wikipedia (add yours in the services.xml) for artists / albums / tracks.
* New 'Tango' compatible icons
* Many bug fixes and visual enhancements

Detailed Change Log since v0.91(a)

+ Import/Export added for Virtual Track Collections
* GUI enhancments in History Dialog / Collections Dialog
* Better UI drag-drop support
* Minor changes in the Information GUI
* Some more untranslatable strings were corrected
* Changes to support better the new "Japanese" translation (you need to "install files for East Asian Languages" (Control Panel/Regional/Languages) to see this)
* A new photo in the "Empty Database" Dialog
* Update single collection is working again
* BugFixed 2 cases where TS/C could crash in "Update Collections"
+ Testing Implementation of virtual tracks (eg YouTube videos added by right clicking on artists)
* Artist Picture show when album picture is not available
* Quicker code in Playlist additions
* Added ctrl+A (Select All) & ctrl+I (Invert Selection)
* Fix on filenames with '%'. (on collection update)
* Changes in the look of some Properties windows
+ See the most serious program actions (Warnings-File Operations-Downloads), using the application log. (DblClick in status bar)
* Tagging support for filnames in Unicode fixed
* Edition of Artist Name have been removed from Album Properties (Confusing for the user)
* BugFix in "only one-instance" code
* Fixed the behaviour of many search queries (Rewritten some code)
+ Drop implemented in Tree View (Tag tracks if tagging is enabled)
* m4a basic support added (can be added in the db through the filename parser)
* Correction for international characters in lyrics downloading
* BugFix in a strange effect in playList (black bars). Also Active Track correctly stays visible
* Locate Items In Collection/Artists Mode
* BugFix in Locate Track while quick searching
* BugFix in writting id3v2 comments/lyrics/TrackNumbers
* BugFix when tagging International characters (at least Greek) (This was serious)
* Improved the way of reading/writing tags. There should be a lot of performance increase in these operations
* Added icons in services
* FreeCoversDownloading is working again. Not the best quality though (about 400x400)###Update### the site changed again ==> stopped working)
* Grouping of artists now works only in Artists/Albums mode (BugFix)
* Play/Pause Icon now changes correctly (BugFix)
* XML Parser changed
+ Added Web Services (Google - YouTube - Wikipedia more if you modify the services.xml).
You can find these services in the 'services' submenu of the context menu in TreeView/ListView
* Fixed Bug when dropping a folder in the Player List (BugFix)
* TS will not affect "Wave Volume" anymore
* Quicksearch now has a delay for keystrokes
* Quicksearch now searches for Path also (BugFix)
* New Icons based on Tango
* 'folder' added to the album picture finder

0.91b beta1 (611)

2007-03-06T01:05:00.000+02:00

A new beta is out. Check here for more info.

Road to 0.91b

2007-02-08T05:18:00.000+02:00

Some raw data of my programmers log...

(070207)* Improved the way of reading/writing tags. There should be a lot of performance increase in these operations
(070207)* Added icons in services
(060207)* FreeCoversDownloading is working again. Not the best quality though (about 400x400)
(060207)* Grouping of artists now works only in Artists/Albums mode (BugFix)
(060207)* Play/Pause Icon now changes correctly (BugFix)
(060207)* XML Parser changed
(050207)+ Added Web Services (Google - YouTube - Wikipedia more if you modify the services.xml).
You can find these services in the 'services' submenu of the context menu in TreeView/ListView
(300107)* Fixed Bug when dropping a folder in the Player List (BugFix)
(290107)* TS will not affect "Wave Volume" anymore
(240107)* Quicksearch now has a delay for keystrokes
(240107)* Quicksearch now searches for Path also (BugFix)
(240107)* New Icons based on Tango
(210107)* 'folder' added to the album picture finder
TS/C Screenshot with the new Tango Icons

Estimated TimeToRelease .. a week

Plugin Infastracture

2007-01-23T01:03:00.000+02:00

In November it was Google who changed his site a bit and the result was that Lyrics couldn't be downloaded. Then I ve found out that freecovers needed login to download pictures and the Hi-Res downloading module could not work. (It can' t even now (TS/C v0.91) work).
I know that this is a fight i m gonna loose someday so i m building a new plugin architecture specially for downloading information.
Yesterday I ve transformed the GoogleLyrics Information Provider to work in my new interface (as an internal plugin) but it will be easily updated with an external dll.
I ve also built a new Hi-Res Covers plugin using the cdcovers.to search engine. It is very easy and i m planning to release the source code of it as an example of how to build such a plugin.

(cdcoversinfoprovider plugin in action)

I m expecting Amazon plugins, Wikipedia plugins, localized lyrics plugins to appear sometime.

WARNING:
1. Programming code follows.
2. The framework is under construction

Description:
The Interface that must be implemented is (currently):

class InfoProvider
{
public:
//An Info Provider May Support more that one service
virtual BOOL Init(CNetDownloader* pDownloader) = 0;
virtual BOOL CanHandle(ITEM_INFO_TYPE iit) = 0;
virtual BOOL RetrieveInfo(ITEM_INFO_TYPE iit, LPCTSTR JobInfo) = 0;
virtual BOOL GetInfo(ITEM_INFO_TYPE iit, std::tstring& info, std::tstring& source) = 0;
//Returns a const pointer. The user must copy this value immediate after
//receiving. Also this strings belongs to InfoProvider (Client should not try to delete it)
virtual LPCTSTR GetErrorString() = 0;
virtual LPCTSTR GetInfoProviderDetails(InfoProviderDetails ipd) = 0;
//Should be thread safe. Returns 0-100;
virtual UINT GetProgress() = 0;

};

CNetDownloader is a utility that TS/C Provides for easy & streamlined Web Downloading

TeenSpirit (Conium) v0.91.606 (beta)

2007-01-16T04:12:00.000+02:00

one more update
- Even more Language Module Fixes (more than 1 lines for each key is now supported)
- Right Click on tree now works better (4th (and final) version of the Notification Framework)
- Edit Lyrics/Comments Fixed (not removing anymore)
- Automatic Update of Treeview while Adding/Updating fixed

Download it here [url]http://www.artificialspirit.com/beta/ts606.zip[/url]

Probably 2-3 days before the final release..

Today there was the time for a major inside change after even the latest Observer Pattern failed to provide something stable and simple.
I used a technic which i call "Director - Actor". A quick and dirty description of this is the following.
Director is my application object. Actors are his observers. Every object who has access to the application object can now send notifications through director to all the actors. Even objects running on different threads can send messages to the actors and the messages will be delivered in the main thread. It supports two different methods (Send And Post just like windows).
Post Messages are handled through a Hearbeat (My MainDialog calls the 'Heartbeat' function periodically using a timer every 500ms)
PostMessages are thread safe
All Messages from other threads finally become PostMessages

I m so happy that i am even considering to write an article in CodeProject for this.

TeenSpirit (Conium) v0.91.605 (beta)

2007-01-15T00:20:00.000+02:00

Some fixes during this Sunday.

Update#1 (604)
- TagLib was not working in 603.
- Various fixes in notifications
- Swedish added thanks to XC-SE

Update #2 (605)
- AMG Automatic Downloading fixed
- Edit Tags (track Properties) fixed
- "Windows Classic Style" redraw bug fixed

Download it here http://www.artificialspirit.com/beta/ts605.zip

TeenSpirit (Conium) v0.91.603 (beta)

2007-01-14T04:00:00.000+02:00

I will never going to do such drastic changes all together in this project!
There were so many changes without clear scheduling and without the needed time to make them happen in time.
From November Lyrics stopped working (see the associated post) and i couldn't have a proper version to release..
Anyway now i ve got this one out as 'beta'
New (Visible) Features.
- new engine based on directshow and bass. (got rid the WMP engine) (in this version it supports mp3, ogg, mpc, avi, mpg, and much more)
- new Tag engine based on TagLib (with wma,mp3,ogg,mpc & more) support (got rid the id3lib)
- new Visualization Engine based on various sources. In this version a winamp avs plugin is present. Check it out. (also a native vis plugin is active in Quiz Dialog) (got rid the WMP Engine again)
- new Multi language Engine. (No need to compile the resources anymore and everyone can make & test his own Language Pack). Also there is no need to restart the app when changing the language.
- Docked/Undocked/Full Screen Visualization (or Video) Mode
- Faded Info View
and much more that i don't remember

Download it

Regards

A new name also?

2006-12-06T12:00:00.000+02:00

Too many people found "Teen Spirit" name to be inappropriate (at least) for the program. I consider changing the name to "Conium". I have recently bought "theConium.com". It ll help also to help people remember it better.

P.S.
I tried to have the "conium.com" but the owner (a "I buy all the Domains that have some meaning to sell it later" company) asked 2500$ for it. This kind of jobs should have been illegal

Integration

2006-12-06T11:54:00.001+02:00

I ve integrated the brand new player, Tagger and visualization Engines in the main project. Did a test in my 20k mp3/ogg collection .. most things seems good.
Some more work is needed in other changes that i ve made back in September.

Lyrics

2006-12-06T11:54:00.000+02:00

There is a problem in the automatic downloading of lyrics in the current release of Teen Spirit. Google changed a "p" tag to "div" in the way it serves results (the change happened in mid-November) and TS Parser fails. Another way to track google changes i guess
Anyway it is solved in the "yet to be released" next version of teen spirit

Behind schedule

2006-11-10T10:33:00.000+02:00

What is software programming. 'Something that is always behind schedule' you could say.
Maybe i should have gone step by step for the next version of Teen Spirit. Anyway the "one brought the other" and now most of the internal engines have been changed and new patterns were applied.
Anyway let me tell what we have now in the player/tagger/visualization front.
Player:

(Unit test application Player/tagger/visualization featuring interated Geiss vis)
A multi engine which automatically switches between Bass/DirectShow player engines
Currently supports:

mp3/mp4/mp2/mp1
ogg
flac
mpc
wma/wmv(video)
xm/s3m/mod/mtm/umx/mo3
aiff/wav
cd audio
mid/midi
ac3
aac
ape
avi(video)
asf(audio/video)
mpg/mpeg(video)
more if you have dshow filters installed

Tagging through a modded taglib + completely renew filename parser (supported usual stuff plus lyrics/rating)

mp3 (id3v2.4)
wma
flac
mpc
aac
ogg
plus anything else through filename/directory parsing

It supports the usual stuff plus lyrics/rating

Visualization using winamp plugins. Currently

Geiss
oscilloscope etc
...work in progress

(visualization / video in separate moveable-resizable window)

regards

Players Players Players

2006-10-09T06:23:00.000+03:00

I m thinking about letting the user choose which Media Player Engine to use...
Currently the options are:
Bass Engine (fastest but audio only)
WindowsMediaPlayer Engine (slowest, audio-video with visualizations integrated)
DShow (faster then WMP, audio-video, no visulizations)
Winamp Wrapper Engine (audio-video, visualizations but not in the integrated window)

Possibly by default i ll use a compination of Bass for the audio and DShow for the window

Bass Rocks

2006-10-07T21:10:00.000+03:00

Saturday, Raining.. time for some programming.

Now the default player is Bass and i can't really describe how really good it is..
Less resources, less time to initiate. wonderful
So many thanks to the people of un4seen

October awaits

2006-10-01T23:53:00.000+03:00

There has been some time since the previous release.( end of august)
What is keeping me busy for the next version (around end of october)

Many small bugs has been solved (like the not redrawing window after restoring from tray in some computers). I did a whole new splitter class
A total new (purely hand made) language module. Now you can load the language dynamically (no restart needed). You may create and immediately test yours .. its only a unicode text file (extension .lng) that you need to modify. The information of the author etc.. can be easily added and can be viewed in the about box.
It was fast to startup. Now it is even faster thanks to some on-demand constructions and code tweaks.
Now you may choose the columns you want to see in the list controls.

now the BIG ONES

The windows media player engine will be replaced with the BassLib (http://www.un4seen.com) (at least for the audio part - video will use the wmp engine). This means that more formats will be supported like mp3, wma, ogg, mpc, flac, aac and more.
Id3lib will be dropped in favor of the excellent TagLib. Tagging will be available for mp3, ogg, wma and more
A new plug-in like interface (and the associated API) for information downloading and more. (i don't know if this will be available in the 0.91 ver though

My main concern in this project is to test some coding practices and to self train. So there will be some major architectural changes not visible by the user of course.

Blog Transfer

2006-10-01T18:14:00.000+03:00

Just thought that it would be better to move to the full featured blogspot.

Old Articles (not many) are copied here...

August 17, 2006

Last beta till next version (534)

Most things seem to work but there has been done some structural changes inside so i m a little worry.
If everything goes well it ll be out in the following days

August 14, 2006

German Translation

Returning from holidays a nice surpise was waiting.
Ralf Martin made the long expected German Translation

August 4, 2006

Holidays

Sometimes i start something and before i finish , i m starting something else and never go back.
This happened at least 10 times during the development of the next version of TS. First it was the new DShow Player Engine. Well I said it need lots of debugging on different systems - leave it. Then it was the AudioCD Support (CDDB). I was at about 70% until i accidentally found a serious bug in collections Auto-Update. I start fixing it and then i said why don' t i support USB Flash memory, iPod mp3 players etc. While doing this i realized that i could have a much better notification system for the user. So i re-engineer some code and then i ve found that i could optimize it a lot .. if i make some more changes... and so on...
Now i m with a non working version with lots of new features under development (not the ones of course that i had in mind)
Anyway i m leaving this mess. I wont touch a keyboard for the next 10 days...its holidays time
Have fun

July 30, 2006

Stop The War

Stop the massacre in Lebanon. Get Involved

July 27, 2006

Jobs to be done untill the next release

1. Get Tags From Filename (under construction) 50%
2. Import AudioCD (CDDB support) (under construction) 70%
3. Handle or play AudioCDs (0%) (maybe not in the next release)
4. Copy Selected Files To Folder (80%)
Any feedback... till then

Copy Files To Folder (new feature)

After a propose from Gabrielle i ve added (its not in the 407 beta) a new submenu with Copy To Folder / Copy To Clipboard function. Still needs some menu items of the latest folders that you ve moved files (like bookmarks)

New Beta (507)

Finalizing the new version of TS a new beta (507) released. Feedback is needed. Specially from the people who has paintinf problems when restoring the application. Also you may check the new features.

July 24, 2006

CD Audio - CDDB - FreeDB Support

For the people who want to organize their AudioCD collection in Teen Spirit i have to say that this feature is on the way. I found some sample code elsewhere for this (MFCCDDB) but this code was so inefficient that i had to rewrite the whole thing

Multimedia HotKeys

While i was buying something in media markt i saw a "multimedia keyboard" called "PLEOMAX". I remember a guy once told me to support such a thing so i said "what the hek? Lets take it".
So in the next TS version Play/Pause - Stop - Next - Prev multimedia keys will be working (optionally) with TS

July 22, 2006

Latest features for the new version which is coming up (in a few days)

+ Export main track list, and all history lists to HTML file (you can make your own css style)
+ Dynamically link files on CD/DVD media. (now you can play files from CD/DVD media)
+ Renamer Upgrade (preview of the renaming process and new modes)

Also
+ Get Tags From Filename added (under construction)

and the new languages.
Brasilian portuguese - French