Archive for September, 2008

what’s a Hokie?

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

I AM.

spend a day in Blacksburg and you’ll see shirts with that tagline. but recently, a Hokie hater I know made an interesting comment, a common misconception many of us have heard before: “a Hokie is a castrated turkey“.

I’d like to set the record straight about my beloved birdy friend. Hokies have a full set of genitalia. no, it’s not typically displayed on our logos or our mascot, but I’ve never seen a Clemson Tiger or the Boston College Eagle with something flapping around down below, either. have you?

I did some research, and came up with this article on the HokieSports.com site.

A lot of misinformation seems to be flying around about the turkey, not the least of which is that a Hokie is a castrated gobbler, slander probably circulated by rivals who feel inadequate to our own beloved mascot. So set misinformed family and friends straight…

it then goes on to establish why Virginia Tech is just, well, awesome!

“I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character. … The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” –Benjamin Franklin

and now you know… the rest of the story.

Tags: , ,
Posted in random | Comments Off

iTunes – List Dead Tracks – To File

Friday, September 19th, 2008

this script will list all dead tracks in your iTunes library in a file called “DeadTracks.txt”

/* by Calen Fretts */
var ITTrackKindFile = 1;
var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var tracks = iTunesApp.LibraryPlaylist.Tracks;
var numTracks = tracks.Count;
var matchTracks = 0;

var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
var FILE_NAME = "DeadTracks.txt";
var myFile = fso.CreateTextFile(FILE_NAME);

WScript.Echo("Finding dead tracks...");

while (numTracks != 0)
{
	var currTrack = tracks.Item(numTracks);

	// is this a track?
	if (currTrack.Kind == ITTrackKindFile)
	{
		if (currTrack.Location == "")
		{
			myFile.WriteLine("" + currTrack.Artist + " - " + currTrack.Album + " - "  + currTrack.TrackNumber + " - "  + currTrack.Name + "");
			matchTracks++;
		}
	}

	numTracks--;
}

myFile.Close();

if (matchTracks == 0)
{
	WScript.Echo("No dead tracks.");
	myFile = fso.GetFile(FILE_NAME);
	myFile.Delete();
}
else
{
	WScript.Echo("Found " + matchTracks + " dead tracks - see the following file: " + FILE_NAME);
}

copy the code into a new text file, and rename its extension to “.js”. if you post this code anywhere else, please be sure to give me credit by linking back to this site. got questions or improvements? leave a comment!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in geek, iTunes | Comments Off

iTunes – No Artwork To Playlist

Friday, September 12th, 2008

over the years, I’ve written a few custom scripts to do my electronic dirty work. some of these are iTunes scripts, and I think others will find them useful as well. copy the following code into a new text file, and rename its extension to “.js”

/* by Calen Fretts */
var ITTrackKindFile = 1;
var iTunesApp = WScript.CreateObject("iTunes.Application");
var tracks = iTunesApp.LibraryPlaylist.Tracks;
var numTracks = tracks.Count;
var matchTracks = 0;

var myNewPlaylistName = "---------NO ARTWORK";
var myNewPlaylist = iTunesApp.CreatePlaylist(myNewPlaylistName);

WScript.Echo("Finding tracks with no artwork...");

while (numTracks != 0)
{
	var currTrack = tracks.Item(numTracks);

	// is this a track?
	if (currTrack.Kind == ITTrackKindFile)
	{
		if (currTrack.Artwork.Count == 0)
		{
			var bSuccess = myNewPlaylist.AddTrack(currTrack);
			matchTracks++;
		}
	}

	numTracks--;
}

if (matchTracks == 0)
{
	myNewPlaylist.Delete();
	WScript.Echo("No tracks found.");
}
else
{
	WScript.Echo("Found " + matchTracks + " tracks. Added to playlist '" + myNewPlaylistName + "'.");
}

if you post this code anywhere else, please be sure to give me credit by linking back to this site. got improvements? leave a comment!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in geek, iTunes | Comments Off

Switch to our mobile site