Roll Over, Play Dead

If you’ve attempted to install GNUMP3d on a Windows XP machine, there’s a good chance you’ve made it to step 4 and received the following error message when running C:\gnump3d2\gnump3d-index.bat:

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at c:\gnump3d2\lib/gnump3d/config.pm line 140.
Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at c:\gnump3d2\lib/gnump3d/config.pm line 140.
Can’t read configuration in : No such file or directory

If you were brave enough to move on to the second step 4, you’d find there’s not actually a file even located at C:\gnump3d2\bin\run.bat.  Turns out, you can still run the program by running C:\gnump3d2\bin\gnump3d.bat but many of the statistics don’t work and will kick out the same error message above.

I was unable to find any fixes on teh intarweb, so I set about creating my own.  I’m no professional programmer, but here’s what I did (and it worked):

• banged head on wall while attempting to use SysInternal’s FileMon to see exactly what was going on…
• …and failed

Finally I relaxed a little and used Perl’s debug and trace features to see what was happening.  Because the steps posted at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnump3d/README.Windows are so erroneous, I’ve posted the new steps below (steps 1-3 were taken verbatim from the GNUMP3d website, with the exception of my note in #3).  Remember, this information is accurate as of 03-05-2007 and only pertains to version 2.9.9.1 (and possibly earlier versions as well, but I don’t want to check the changelog or test this fix on previous versions).

1. Download and install a recent version of Perl from ActiveState.
2. Unzip the gnump3d-2.x.zip file; and move the extracted directory to C:\gnump3d2 - preserving any existing configuration file you might have.
3. Make any changes to c:\gnump3d2\etc\gnump3d.conf.win (make sure to change "root" if your music is not located at C:\mp3).
4. In C:\gnump3d2\bin\gnump3d-index, put this at line 162 after the end of the first IF statement

else
{
$CONFIG{’file’} = "C:/gnump3d2/etc/gnump3d.conf.win";
}

5. In \gnump3d2\lib\gnump3d\filetypes.pm, change line 72 from

if ( -e "C:/gnump3d2/file.types"  );

to

if ( -e "C:/gnump3d2/etc/file.types"  );

6. Create a folder to hold the logs at c:\gnump3d2\logs\ (normally this is created by gnump3d-index.bat in the next step, but for some reason the Win XP version doesn’t)
7. Run C:\gnump3d2\gnump3d-index.bat one time
8. Edit C:\gnump3d2\gnump3d.bat to reflect your music’s root location (the default is C:\mp3).  This value should match the value used in Step 3.
9. Run C:\gnump3d2\gnump3d.bat to start the program
10. Enjoy your tunes from anywhere

His name is a beyatch to spell but his music is spell-binding.  Check Donovan out at Donavon Frankenreiter.  Move By Yourself and By Your Side are personal favorites.

So you thought Creed was gone.  And you thought right.

Enter Scott Stapp, the lead singer from Creed and his new CD titled The Great Divide.  Listen to "Let Me Go" and "Surround Me."

Nickel Creek has some pretty good music going, with a new CD released not too long ago.  I came across them in college but haven’t listened in quite a while.

A shame, actually.

You think I’m playin’ then ask my brother.

Another good song from Audioslave.  I might have to steal this MP3 too.

Went back to listen to "Live For Today" by 3 Doors Down and ended up listening to "Here By Me."

http://www.3doorsdown.com/media.asp

Listen.

One of my coworkers here was having some trouble getting a CD to play on his computer so he asked me to take a look at it and see if I could fix the prob.  A few settings later had him up and running again.  The CD he was listening to, though, is the main point of this story:  it sounded rather amazing…the guitar by itself is enough, but the lyrics and his vocals are unique as well.  Turns out a couple people here have seen him in concert, where the show is supposed to be even better.

So far I’ve only seen evidence of one album, put together in 1997 (review of the album here), but I’m told there’s at least one more.  Until I can get ahold of that, listen to Sam Pacetti’s Solitary Travel here.  Many of the songs are instrumental, though you should absolutely listen to "The Lion & the Child" as well as "Saturday’s Revival."

You may hear references to the south, as well as to Florida and some of its attractions, which can be attributed to his residence in St. Augustine.  Keep in mind he cut that album at the age of 22.

If this is what acoustic folk with a touch of bluegrass sounds like, sign me up.

I saw Tift on one of those Hillsborough County public TV deals late one night while they were doing a women’s music special and had her video "Good Hearted Man" playing.  Good guitar, beautiful voice, what else do you need?  A mix of Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlin, I think we’ll see more of her soon (be sure to listen to "Plainest Thing," then compare the reverbs and echoes to McLachlin’s "Full of Grace."

See a few videos and listen to her CD at http://www.tiftmerritt.com.  Click the top right  photo and it’ll take you to a screen where you can select your…um…selection.

Came across this (musical) artist while browsing another web designer’s site checking out their porfolio…

Bryan Ingram is pretty good, but it seems as though he’s only released one album with 3 songs on it.  Fortunately, you can listen to all 3 songs by visiting http://www.24-7media.de/ingram/, then clicking on the graphic.  Select "Music" from the nav bar, then you’ll be able to select the songs on the right.  Kinda reminds me of Bryan Adams, but maybe it’s just the name.