RubyOSA on Rails

As posted before, I'm currently playing with with Ruby on Rails a lot. While doing so I discover more and more about the beauty of Ruby programming on Mac OS X (with or without rails). For example using the Ruby/Objective-C bridge it's possible to use any Cocoa Framework in a Ruby script. Even better, Apple seems to like Ruby and already made it clear Ruby on rails will be included in the next version of OS X.

So while searching for Ruby and OS X using google I found another useful gem: RubyOSA, a Ruby/AppleScript bridge. The bridge makes it possible to use any scriptable application as an object in your script.

The RubyOSA website gives a simple example of using Ruby to control iTunes. As an experiment I created a Rails application to do the same, but from a remote location. Not very useful on a live website because RubyOSA commands might take some time to execute. But combined with a wifi enabled phone or pda it results in a nice remote control for iTunes in a home network.

WWDC Videos (2)

As of a few days ago, around 70 sessions from WWDC 2005 and WWDC 2004 have been posted on iTunes under the Foundational Sessions. This obviously answers a question I got as a comment on my previous post about the WWDC Videos:

Any mention of sessions from previous WWDCs ending up on ADC on iTunes?

Let's see what usefull resources Apple will post on iTunes after this.

More on SimilarTunes

Currently SimilarTunes is a very simple application to help you create playlists with somehow similar songs from your own library. After searching for an artist you set the similarity slider to the percentage of similarity of the songs and you create the playlist. To figure out how similar songs are, SimilarTunes uses several webservices like Last.fm and MusicMobs.

After posting this software on osx.iusethis.com, I received a few positive reactions. SimilarTunes was even mentioned on the MusicMobs weblog. I'm currently working on fixing one known problem: SimilarTunes only creates empty playlists for one user. I'm also working on some additional features, like adding the original artists searched for to the playlist.

Competition
There is some competition out there trying to reach the same goal, automatically create playlists with similar music:

• The Filter
• Soundflavor DJ
• Tangerine
• Pandora (web only)
  

While I use webservices based on social community input to determine similarity, most other software use properties like beat per minute count of a song to find similar music.

One particular interesting application is Tangerine recently introduced by Potion Factory. It's the only mac application in the list. Like most others it analyzes the BPM count of a song but it really adds a innovative and delicious UI.

WWDC Videos

Today another set of WWDC videos was posted on iTunes. The ADC on iTunes section in the iTunes Store now has two sub-sections with video's available, the Leopard Sessions from WWDC 2006 and the new WWDC 2006 Sessions. The two remaining sub-sections Scientific Poster Session Podcasts and Foundational Sessions have yet to be filled with content.

When I attended a session it was made clear every time the session would be recorded, either slides and sound only, or using video for the bigger sessions. At WWDC everybody was already wondering if the sessions would become available on DVD like a few years ago. In 2005 the sessions were only available as video streams the size of a stamp, with the additional disadvantage that you had to re-stream them if you wanted to view them again.

So no DVD's this year, but in my opinion an even better solution, video's on iTunes. The video's can be downloaded without DRM, and replayed over and over again.

According to the Apple developer website only Select and Premier Members can download the videos. I'm a student developer who visited the WWDC this summer, so it seems everyone who visited WWDC can download the videos too, cool!