Author: kepstin

  • No More Google Reader: Part 2, The Old Reader

    This project has actually been around for quite a while now; the name comes from it being a clone of “the old Google Reader”, prior to the removal of the social features. As I mentioned in the introduction, I never actually used those features—so we’ll just see how it goes as a RSS reader application.…

  • No More Google Reader: Part 1, Feedly

    Feedly is the first in the list of cloud RSS reader software that I’m taking a look at as a replacement for Google Reader (see the Introduction for the index of all the parts.) Somewhat ironically, Feedly might be at least indirectly responsible for Google Reader’s shutdown. It’s been around for quite a while, but…

  • Well, So Much for That

    I haven’t really watched any anime series as they came out in ages, so I guess you could say this page is dead. Maybe some day when I have more time, the Anime Tierlist will rise again.

  • No More Google Reader: Introduction

    Like many other people online, I’m a heavy user of the Google Reader application now left to find some replacement for this aggregator of interesting news that I’ve subscribed to. I know that Reader had some social features at some point, but I’ve never actually used them. There was a single thing that I valued…

  • A MusicBrainz report on Pseudo-Releases

    As an implementation of support for translating or transliterating the tracklists on foreign releases, MusicBrainz has something called “Pseudo-Releases.” They are meant to be used alongside the database entry for the original, real release to contain alternate tracklists. Unfortunately, many MusicBrainz users weren’t quite sure on when the “Pseudo-Release” status should be used, and incorrectly…

  • MusicBrainz contributions – Search result and stats improvements.

    I’m pleased to see that two of my MusicBrainz contributions have been merged in time for the 2012-01-26 server update, and are now live on the site! The first change isn’t exactly visible to the naked eye, but it should hopefully provide improvements in the Google Search result listings for MusicBrainz artist pages by providing…

  • Music in Review, 2011

    So, what did I spend 2011 listening to? As it turns out, quite a lot. This is the first year that I’ve had a portable music player capable of holding (nearly) my entire music collection, and I have a habit of listening to everything on shuffle. That said, a few things managed to stand out.…

  • Stuff I Can’t Afford

    Aw, man… Why did HIMEKA have to come out with a new album right now? himekanvas [w/ DVD, Limited Edition] If I calculate that up, it’s nearly $60 with shipping to where I am in Canada. Maybe I can convince someone to get it for me as a Christmas present? Who knows :) (Why yes, I am…

  • Expensive SD cards: Worth it.

    So, I just bought a cheap 16GB SD card today. My original plan was to use it as a replacement to the failed flash drive in an old EeePC laptop. (As it turns out, the SD card reader in said netbook is broken, so the plan failed.) But I got curious; what benefit do you…

  • Riker 0.1

    I have now created a distribution file for Riker 0.1. It’s not a music player yet; instead, it’s a proof of concept for two things: Using gstreamer to read tags from files, and using Vala bindings for libmusicbrainz4 to perform a query on the MusicBrainz webservice. Get it from the Github Releases page. If you’re…