Where I End And You Begin

I've moved

2011-03-31T21:30:00.002+02:00

Find my new place at http://eiathenerd.com/

ml_ipod + winamp + iphone sync = true

2007-11-21T03:18:00.000+01:00

So ...

I was desperate for a solution to syncing music to my iPhone without the use of iTunes. After some "hacking" here's what I came up with in the end that worked.

As far as I know, it's the first and currently only solution to syncing music with your iPhone under MS Windows without using iTunes, and also the only wireless solution under MS Windows. Be warned, though, it's not for the faint hearted [edit note: the current revision is a lot easier than the first one I posted, so my mum could do it now].

You need:

iPhone (jailbreaked, with OpenSSH and connected to your wireless network. Tested with firmware 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 (thanks T509))
Winamp 5.5 (winamp.com)
ml_ipod 3.02 (mlipod.sf.net)
SftpDrive (Shareware (unfortunately), sftpdrive.com)
[PuTTy] (only if not using ml_ipod patch, read further down. http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/putty.exe)
MS Windows XP

Disable auto-lock in Settings - General on the iPhone (set to "Never") so that your wi-fi connection isn't disconnected during the process.

NOTE: The next step marked with square brackets involving PuTTY is no longer needed if you use abu's new patch, 3.02p02 from http://mlipod.sourceforge.net/index.php?page=patches, install this _after_ you have installed Winamp and ml_ipod 3.02 later in this guide

[SSH with PuTTY to your iphone. You need the IP address to the iPhone and it's easiest to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the computer when doing this. Mine used 192.168.0.145, yours wont. Login with root and your password (google for iPhone OpenSSH default password if you haven't set one) and cd to /private/var/root/Media. From there, make a symbolic link: "ln -s iTunes_Control iPod_Control".]

Install SftpDrive and set it up to connect to your iphone using the same login information as for PuTTY. I made it so my iPhone was on drive letter T: and set Directory: to /private/var/root/Media, then click Connect. My setup:

If you go to My Computer you should now have a T: with the directories DCIM, iTunes_Control and so on in the root.

Next install Winamp and ml_ipod (with patch mentioned earlier if you're going for that option). Fire up Winamp options - preferences - ipod support. For testing, I unchecked all checkboxes from these tabs: home, features and sync, you should do the same, but can leave in album art if you have installed the patch. Then go to the advanced tab and check "look for iPods on network and fixed drives".

After you hit OK, you should get a dialog that asks you which kind of iPod you have just connected. Choose iPod Classic (or iPhone if you've used the previously mentioned ml_ipod patch). If the dialog doesn't appear, try to restart Winamp.

Now, sync it as you usually do. It will take some time since the files get transfered over your Wi-Fi network. I got around 600 kB/s.

That's it! Fire up the player on your iPhone and play your newly synced tracks! I like Mos Def so he got the honor of being first.

You do everything at your own risk.

Good luck!

Edits:

Edit: The main developer of ml_ipod, Abu, have been notified and will come up with an easier solution soon.

Edit2: If you're resyncing and the tracks don't show up in "iTunes" on the iPhone, try restarting the iPhone (hold the power button until the display shows "Slide to power off") and then turn it on again.

Edit3: ml_ipod 3.02p02 was just released. Syncing album art should work as well now.

Edit4: Added some more screenshots and cleaned it all up.

Last.fm to collaborate with Facebook?

2007-05-11T14:51:00.000+02:00

My friend was trying to use the new Widget feature on Last.fm when he suddenly found a "Facebook sharing coming soon" image:

Complete screenshot here:

Interesting stuff!

Checking if a screen session is already running, keeping it alive

2007-04-18T20:24:00.000+02:00

I'm somewhat new to screen and bash-scripting and was looking for how to keep one of my screen sessions alive even after a system reboot. I tried searching on Google, but had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted. This is what I ended up with using cron:

Made a check script:

#!/bin/bash
foo=`screen -ls | grep -c autostart.screen`
if [ "$foo" -eq "0" ]; then
/usr/bin/screen -dmS autostart.screen /usr/bin/irssi -c freenode
fi

I named it checkIrssi.sh and made it executable with:

chmod 755 checkIrssi.sh

Then I put up a cron using "crontab -e" to run the script every hour:

* */1 * * * ~/path/to/checkIrssi.sh

And badabing!

Should you defragment your Windows iPod?

2007-02-20T23:43:00.000+01:00

I asked myself that question today and after some Googling, I concluded:

Most people agree that the extra stress and potential failure a defragmentation inflicts on your iPod's hard drive, is more harmful than the extra work your drive will have to do when playing back fragmented songs. Now, I'm a bit of a control freak and all though I'm in no actual control of how things are stored on the iPod, I tend to do a complete restore about every year, to clean up the iPod's database and transfer my entire music collection in a contiguous manner to the iPod's drive. Doing so will hopefully keep my iPod safe, longer lasting (battery wise) and fragmentation free.

My Google Results

2006-03-28T12:14:00.000+02:00

I googled myself and found a lot of different hits from the squash club at my uni, through my musical preferences, me buying a mobile phone, my travelblog and a various of hits on computer projects I've been or still am a part of.

It freaked my out a bit, so I've started the process of removing my real name from stuff, and using my nick instead :)

My Big Day

2005-01-17T16:16:00.001+01:00

My Trip

2004-12-11T13:43:00.000+01:00

From the 18th of January I'm going to be backpacking around the world for 4 months. First of is South-America where I'm flying into Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there I'll head upwards to Brazil where I'm flying from Sao Paulo to Bangkok, Thailand on the 12th of March. This is a long flight that will include stops in Lima, San Jose, Los Angeles and Osaka Kansai (Japan) - thank God for my newly built iPod battery pack! I'll then spend approx. a day in Bangkok and then travel by train or bus to Phuket where I'm meeting with some friends of mine for about a week. Then I'm heading further south through Malaysia and Indonesia and hopefully hit Bali by the 15th of May for my flight back to my hometown of Stavanger, Norway!

Here is a draft of the travel plan: (click to enlarge)

My Music Site

2004-10-07T15:16:00.000+02:00

Today I started my most recent project, a music site where "regular" listeners review albums and concerts. The site is in my native language, Norwegian, so it's not for you english-speaking ppl out there I'm afraid :(

For about a month it's in a testfase before I launch it around the net.

http://www.cantu.no

My iPod Car Charger

2004-10-06T19:21:00.000+02:00

While I was making the iPod battery pack I came up with the idea of making a car charger since I bought two firewire sockets and just used one for the battery pack. So after doing a search on Google I discovered that (of course) someone had built one before. I ended up following the car charger guide from the guys over at iPoding.com.

I found an old car charger that had a 5A fuse and replaced it with a 1A one (the iPod doesn't need more than 500mA - 1A). Unfortunatly I don't have more pictures of when I built it, but you basically just connect 2 wires from the car charger to the firewire socket and your laughing (as long as your charger output is somewhere in the range of 10-30v and have a 1A fuse).

The business:
As with the battery pack, I used a female 6-pin firewire socket so that I could use the original iPod cable to charge it.

The socket:
There was barely enough room for the firewire socket inside the casing for the car charger, but I managed to get it in there and had to glue the socket in place with a glue gun. Unfortunatly, I now can't open the case if something goes wrong in there. I can, however, change the fuse as it's located at the other end of the casing.

Thanks to the people over at ipoding.com for the guide.

My iPod Battery Pack

2004-10-06T16:21:00.000+02:00

After reading Drew Perrys guide for a iPod Battery Pack, I just had to make my own. So I searched the house for a box I could mount it in and found an old remote-controlled car which had an on/off switch and a 2xAA battery holder. Then I bought a 6-pin female firewire socket and a PP9 clip, and started making my own iPod Battery Pack...

Under the car:
The included 2xAA + on/off switch.

Taking it apart:
First thing I started to do was to strip away everything that wasn't needed.

Stripped and started:
Got away most of the stuff I didn't need and attached the PP9 clip.

Voltage check:
Wired the rest of the stuff up, including the on/off switch and checked the voltage which read just under 12v!

Battery placement:
Then I placed the battery in the right location and put on the car body, it was a tight squeeze. Drew Perrys guide was using two 9 volt batteries, unfortunatly I could only fit in one, so I probably need to replace that 9 volt battery more often. I also had to mount the firewire socket onto the rear of the car and used a glue gun to fasten it.

The result:
Here you see it in action! Looks kinda cool doesn't it? I use the firewire cable that came with the iPod to charge it and can now with the help of two AA and two PP9 batteries get approx 10 hours more playing time according to Drew Perry. (Oh, and I get to play with my old toy car and have a good reason for doing so :) )

Huge thanks to Drew Perry for making the guide.