Greg Auger • fluteflute

I spent yesterday afternoon trying to write what seemed to be a fairly simple piece of code. I wanted to read the Name and Artist for every track in the Rhythmbox library and then write a new value to the Play Count field.

• My first approach involved XML parsing and editing, which allowed me to read the data, but I couldn’t see how to write it.
• My second approach came to me in a stroke of inspiration, write a Rhythmbox plugin which could use the built in controls. I failed miserably here too.

In both cases, I failed. I’m well aware this is mostly my fault, my patience when documentation reading quickly runs out. On the other hand the extensibility and APIs of free software is meant to be one of the biggest FOSS strengths. Unfortunately it’s not easy to get started. Far more ‘easy’ documentation, examples and tutorials are needed. Some sites like learningpython.com are really useful, but if we are to attract more programmers to open source easier tutorials and documenation are desperately needed.

Now, can anyone show me how to write my surely simple program? 

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Every object continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless it is acted on by a resultant external force.

From my Mechanics A2 Maths book that happens to be lying right next to me. No prizes for telling me who wrote that quote!

This news made me laugh. Microsoft are removing one of the hardest steps in the linux install process for new users!

Stuck with only one monitor, I discovered I can turn the monitor on its side to give me a vertical display! Very helpful for seeing more of documents, not so great for watching films.