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PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

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I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

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This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

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A Django site.
(Finally!)

Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

QuickTime 0, Open Source 1

D'oh So the other day I downloaded a talk from Google Video for offline viewing/listening. (It's by Jacob Kaplan-Moss, one of the lead developers of Django.)

I have a Mac, and Macs are great at video and stuff! Not like those dumb old Windows computers!

Hm.

No go. QuickTime (version 7.0.4, the latest) can't do it. Twice it gives me an error dialog saying it doesn't recognize the file type, forwarding me to a stupendously useless codecs page on the Apple site; twice it ignores the video track but manages to play a squeaky, choppy version of the audio.

It's an .avi file, but my understanding is that AVI is a wrapper format, so who knows what it really is inside that wrapper. The point of this story is, in fact, that I don't give a crap. I just want to play it!

So, just to see what would happen, I copied the file to an SD card and put it in my Palm TX. I launched TCPMP, an open source audio/video player. I hit play. No problem. I listened to the whole thing while driving back and forth to work.

My top of the line PowerBook can't play this file, but a version-0.71 piece of free software can. (Well, actually my PowerBook can play it -- if I use VLC, a version-0.8.5 piece of free software, instead of the default QuickTime Player.)

I'm sure there's some mind-numbingly reasonable technical explanation for this. But that doesn't mean it's not stupid.

Saturday, May 6th, 2006
+ +
3 comments

Some related posts: Linux will eat itself • Sparkle: automatic application updates • Great open source apps for the Mac • DarwinPorts 1.1 • Mining Monday: FreeBSD, KDE and Me • Try, try again • Cyberduck, cyberdoc • Mac troubleshooting tips + bonus rant • Camino • Sourcemorgue
• Comment from #cb, later that day

You're comparing Apple's QuickTime Player to the Palm's... third-party, open-source player. That's like comparing, uh, apples to oranges.

You installed TCPMP on your Palm; install VLC on your Mac.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

• Comment from #cb, later that day

Crap.

I swear your post didn't mention VLC when I wrote my comment.

And mentioning it only as an aside doesn't make the comparison right.

• Comment from Paul, later that day

You must have slipped in while I was making my final edit that mentioned VLC (because I knew somebody was going to say "Why didn't you just use VLC?").

The point of my rant is that Apple's premiere multimedia technology, which has been in development for something like 15 years, couldn't play this file.

The fact that VLC plays it too just adds to Apple's shame!

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