Keinu, web developer blog

I’ve just finished a project I have been working for some time.

It’s an API mash-up about new movie and music releases, the website presents one current page that is refreshed every week.

The page shows a list of movies with a short synopsis and the trailer, a link to ticket booking website. the music section is a list of album arts where the user has the ability to buy the album on Amazon, and if available on the ITMS.

I just wanted to use a domain name that I bought, so I decided to create a little app based on Zend Framework, so for once I can use the framework for a public mainstream project.

I’ve implemented a front end cache, that dumps the page output into cache files. Then I just use thos cached files to drill back on the previous weeks archives. I could have cached every single request to Amazon, iTunes or Allociné with ZF but it was faster to implemented with a simple file system.

It has been nice to write some PHP again, I really miss this language as I’m stuck with stupid Java at work.

The UI is not complete yet, but most of it is there, sorry non-french readers, you will have to use a translator, or learn French

The website :  www.desortie.fr

I have just received a new toy, after those long labour hours I have been doing last days, better say weeks, no, better say month I treated myself with an HTC Desire, one of the best mobile phones so far.
This phone will replace my yet working phone and be used as an mp3 player since mine was stolen few month ago. I decided not to download a single mp3  and use Spotify instead.

I was a bit disappointed about the installation since it’s a Honky version its of course in English but has some nasty Chinese writing options nagging me. And no way to uninstall those embedded apps. Im getting used to it but once i will have my Desire rooted I might be able to get rid of it.

It’s overall a perfect phone the screen definition its amazing, AMOLED 480×800. The HTC Sense UI just smooth and slick. Even though I can’t compare it with a native Android phone since here in Australia, everybody has an IPhone, and i’m the only one I know with such an operation system as a phone.

In the other hand there is major issue with this OS, a shameful issue:

There is no way to configure a proxy alongside the wi-fi connection, in other words no way to configure a proxy system wise ( http_proxy ). What a shame for an so called enterprise ready handset.  In our office we need to go through a proxy if we want to access the Internet, so do heaps of companies. So at work there is no way i can connect my phone to the network.

Google hasn’t added this feature on the latest Android version 2.2 and is not ready to implement it in further release. Even more lame, the Android 1.5 ad 1.6 have this feature enabled.

After spending hours reading boards, I couldn’t find a suitable solution.

Anyway, I’m stubborn and patient and wanted to have Spotify working, so I can sync my offline music at home. I went for a Premium account on Spotify,  managed to get Spotify installed on  my phone (couldn’t find it in the app market, maybe because I’m not using a European IP).

But guess what? No proxy setting on the app!
I went browsing on the phone’s SD card, and opened a file named settings on Spotify’s folder.

I found some interesting infos there :

{“autologin_username”:”myusername”,
“proxy_pass”:”",”realtime_clock_delta”:-4}

This is a nice JSON data with some config settings.

I went to my work’s computer to find this Spotify’s setting file, and since I’m using the same network I copied over some directives :

{“autologin_username”:”myusername”,
“proxy”:”myproxyhost:port@https”,
“proxy_mode”:2,
“proxy_pass”:”some crypted chars here”,
“realtime_clock_delta”:-4}

Unplugged the usb cable, opened Spotify, et voila! Spotify is connecting through the company’s proxy !

I had a good surprise this afternoon figuring out that 2 ‘new’ albums of Soziedad Alkoholika have been added on Spotify.

Intoxikazion Etilika their first album (1990) and Ratas (1995), my 2 favorite albums.

Intoxikazion Etilika is a very dark punky hadcore album, the guitar riffs are just complex and powerful enough. The sound is not the top of the pop, yeah it was 1990, color tvs were almost everywhere, but something was missing, the drum/guitar sync is not always fine but all this crap bring something authentic, warm and un forgetable.

Ratas is for me one of the best albums, more modern than the one above, i can tell that they started to listen to some other californian and radio punk at this time. All the somgs are happy, major tuned, fast paced full of energy. Some funny samples in between song have been added.

So many souvenirs are rushing into my mind when I’m listening to those Basques from Gasteiz.

They have been quite lazy lately, in a way they always been lazy.

Can’t count how many concert the cancelled in the last minute for some obscure reasons. Of course I’m not talking of the censorship they have been through preventing them to play in heaps of places in Spain.

Indeed, the Spanish government alleged the band to be too close from ETA. For them every Basque and friends of Basques are terrorists. Ah, I forgot to say that Spain still use torture in their prisons, especially with Basques.

Anyway, the last 2 albums were too easy for me, not many work put in song strutures and riffs. Couldn’t find this pseudo-easy songs that used to be so recognisable.

They very last album is not even a new album, they just took all songs, and replayed again slightly re-arranged with modern recording techniques, what a shame!

Even though they mostly sing in Spanish some of the songs are in Euskara (Basque language).

They usually  spell the names of their song in the Basque way avoiding the non-Basque letters such as q, c, w, v.

As an Euskaldun (Someone who knows Basque language), I always welcomed bands form Basque Country singing French, Spanish or even English.
Unfortunately in Iparralde (northern Basque Country) when you are an Euskaldun and you are cocky enough to sing French or English you might get yourself a one-way ticket out of the Basque speaking community.

I think this is very sad to be that close minded. But, for some reason I will explain someday here, I can understand since Euskara is still in danger of vanishing.