Author Archives: Mark Headrick

Winamp’s Now Playing Plug-In, URL Streams, and Classic vs Modern Skins

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Well, this is going to be one of those posts with a very narrow target audience and will undoubtedly make no sense and confuse others. 🙂

(Update 12/21/2009: With the release of Winamp 5.57, the Now Playing Plug-In version 2.1.2 I discuss below started to cause Winamp to crash. I found a new plug-in and discuss it here.)

I use Winamp to play my music with: MP3s, MIDI, MOD files, Internet Radio and so on. I also use the Winamp Now Playing Plug-In version 2.1.2 which interfaces with a PHP script on my website to create now-playing images, and a list of the past 10 songs I have listened to. The plug-in is rather old and it’s amazing it even still works with the current version of Winamp. It does seem to exhibit one rather odd and maddening behavior that has taken a while to track down.

The behavior manifests itself when playing a URL playlist stream (which are typically from Shoutcast) such as this one from Club 977 Music: http://www.club977.com/CLUB977HI.pls. When it first starts playing, the Now Playing Plug-in will always see the first song that is played and update the images and lists accordingly; however, it would not always recognize changes in the song title when a new song started playing. This was, of course, annoying. Over time I seemed to notice a pattern and today I tested it out and here are my findings:

  1. If I start Winamp with a classic skin such as Bento Classified or the standard classic skin that comes with Winamp, the plug-in will recognize song title changes as the stream plays. If I then switch to a different classic or modern skin while Winamp is running, it will continue to work.
  2. If I start Winamp with a modern skin (Winamp Modern, Bento, etc.), the plug-in will NOT recognize song title changes as the stream plays, even if I change to a classic skin.

So, the key is to always close Winamp with a classic skin loaded so that it will start with that skin and the Now Playing Plug-in will work. The work-around is simple enough but figuring out what was going on was a bit maddening. If you use this plug-in then, hopefully, you’ll find this useful.

Since Winamp does not provide tech support for 3rd-party plug-ins, I’m not going to bother to find out exactly why it acts this way. At least I now know how to keep it working. 🙂

Updated My NASCAR Inspired DestroyTwitter Theme

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(September 3, 2010: If you are using DestroyTwitter 2, then you’ll want to check my NASCAR Theme for DestroyTwitter 2.)

I have corrected my DestroyTwitter theme which was inspired by the colors in the NASCAR.COM logo. The theme requires at least version 1.4.4beta of DestroyTwitter and now works properly with DestroyTwitter’s new theme management system that was introduced in version 1.4.6beta. I have also modified the colors used in some places. The main difference being the scrollbar that is now red when there is nothing to scroll and green when there is. In any event you’ll want to re-download this updated one if you have been using it. I have also placed the theme on DestroyTwitter’s Theme section

mrheadrick NASCAR
Download theme: mrheadrick NASCAR
DestroyTwitter theme: mrheadrick NASCAR

Enjoy! 🙂

Using the Selective Twitter Facebook application to update Facebook

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This is just a short note to mention that I have come across the Selective Twitter Facebook Application which allows me to update my Facebook status with any Twitter client by simply putting #fb at the end of a tweet. I think this is the best approach to using Twitter to update both when I see fit but keep the rest of my Twitter spam from going to Facebook. If my friends really want to follow my twittering, then they can just follow me on Twitter as well. I think that’s for the best. 🙂

My new Facebook page and integration with Twitter and Blog

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Well, I’ve finally decided to create a Facebook page and have been in the process of learning what I can and can’t do with it.  I think I’ve found most of my friends already so they already know I have it.

Initially I had installed the Twitter Facebook application to let Twitter update my Facebook status at the same time; however, I soon realized that I might annoy friends on Facebook with the amount of tweets I make, especially during the NASCAR races.  However, the latest beta version of TweetDeck integrates with Facebook itself and gives you a choice where to send your updates: Twitter, Facebook, or both. (Update: Using the Selective Twitter Facebook application to update Facebook)

Using Facebook’s blog import feature of its Notes application, I was able to import my blog here.  This way, any posts I make here automatically show-up on Facebook allowing my friends to comment on them easier.  I wonder if there’s some way of adding their comments on Facebook to here as well? I’ll have to check into that but I’m not sure that’s possible. In any event, just being able to import my blog here makes it better than what’s possible with MySpace.

I like the Links feature of Facebook. I think I may use that to add links to new photos that I add to my gallery. According to this article, Facebook is redesigning its recent redesign so I’ll reserve final judgement until after this takes place.

A NASCAR Inspired DestroyTwitter Theme

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I have created my second DestroyTwitter theme which was inspired by the colors in the NASCAR.COM logo. The theme requires at least version 1.4.4beta of DestroyTwitter.

mrheadrick NASCAR
Download theme: mrheadrick NASCAR
DestroyTwitter theme: mrheadrick Blue

Enjoy! 🙂

PS. I have updated the theme to work properly with the new theme management system introduced in version 1.4.6beta.