Don't buy from compu-terra.com!

The week before last I started the process of purchasing a new computer for the new MetaBrainz office, so I ordered a motherboard combo, memory and a case from compu-terra.com. For the first 24 hours nothing happened and then they called me to upsell me better memory. Wherever Joe and David came from, I can … Continue reading “Don't buy from compu-terra.com!”

The week before last I started the process of purchasing a new computer for the new MetaBrainz office, so I ordered a motherboard combo, memory and a case from compu-terra.com. For the first 24 hours nothing happened and then they called me to upsell me better memory. Wherever Joe and David came from, I can tell you that those were not their original names — I couldn’t understand a word of the upsell, so I asked them to send me a link to the site that described the memory they were upselling.

6 hours later I got mail describing the memory, but no link to their site. They whole thing started to sound fishy, so I declined. Then they said they’d give me the better memory for free — as long as I gave them a good review. Foolishly I went for that, just to be done with it — I figured that I wouldn’t be getting any better RAM, since I couldn’t identify either the RAM I ordered nor the better RAM.

Then 3 days passed and the parts still had not shipped. I called up and asked what was up — they said the order was shipping that day. The next morning I still didn’t have a tracking number, so I decided that I was fed up and cancelled the order. I told them to cancel the order and that I’d stay on the line while they credited my PayPal debit card. They proceeded to cancel the order and then hang up on me. I called back, once again demanding to have my card credited right then, and they told me it would take 24 – 48 hours to credit the card and then they hung up on me AGAIN.

So I waited 48 hours and no credit showed. No phones were being answered — all I got were full voicemail boxes. I told myself to wait until monday (today) before dealing with this again, and this morning the credit showed up. Finally. I guess I got lucky this time…

So, the moral of the story is: DON’T BUY FROM COMPU-TERRA.COM!

Server Updates

The server has been updated once again, bringing you Album Languages, completely rewritten Guess Case functionality, fancy-looking input forms and a few bug fixes. Read on for the full change log…

The server has been updated once again, bringing you Album Languages,
completely rewritten Guess Case functionality, fancy-looking input forms
and a few bug fixes.

Read on for the full change log…

Continue reading “Server Updates”

Mailing List Summary: 2005-05-21

Summary of Recent Mailing List Discussions, compiled by Matthias Friedrich (yalaforge) and Alex Dupuy “Your weekly guide to the discussions on the MusicBrainz mailing lists.” AR: Covers and Composers AR: Vocal styles SURGE submissions ‘bot Testing of new server release Style Council founded Sortname style Style Council organization

Summary of Recent Mailing List Discussions, compiled by Matthias Friedrich (yalaforge) and Alex Dupuy

“Your weekly guide to the discussions on the MusicBrainz mailing lists.”

  • AR: Covers and Composers
  • AR: Vocal styles
  • SURGE submissions ‘bot
  • Testing of new server release
  • Style Council founded
  • Sortname style
  • Style Council organization

Continue reading “Mailing List Summary: 2005-05-21”

Questions about the MetaBrainz launch

Matthew Exon asked a few great questions about the MetaBrainz Foundation launch, and I wanted to share my answers with everyone here on this blog: On Apr 19, 2005, at 3:58 AM, Matthew Exon wrote: > Congratulations! This is certainly a big step for MusicBrainz, and I’m > sure it gives all of us a … Continue reading “Questions about the MetaBrainz launch”

Matthew Exon asked a few great questions about the MetaBrainz Foundation launch, and I wanted to share my answers with everyone here on this blog:

On Apr 19, 2005, at 3:58 AM, Matthew Exon wrote:

> Congratulations! This is certainly a big step for MusicBrainz, and I’m

> sure it gives all of us a greater feeling of confidence and

> responsibility about the whole project.

Thanks — I’m glad to hear that. I’m trying to project that on a much larger scale. To the point where corporations get that sense too.

> The teasers on the test MetaBrainz page over the last couple of weeks

> have raised some questions for me, so this is my chance to ask if you

> could clarify some of them for me. I don’t expect full dissertations

> to

> turn up on the MetaBrainz site overnight, and I guess it would be

> prudent for you not to respond to some things here, but you might be

> interested to know what questions occur to this punter in the street.

Do you mind if I post this response to the MB blog? Your questions a excellent and until I can have a fully articulated position on the licenses, I’d like to have something to refer to.

Continue reading “Questions about the MetaBrainz launch”

Mailing List Summary: 2005-05-13

Summary of Recent Mailing List Discussions, compiled by Matthias Friedrich (yalaforge) and Stefan Kestenholz (g0llum) Too busy to keep up with the mailing lists? Try this summary! If people like these, they may become a regular feature (and probably get their own Blog category) Errors during FreeDB import AR instrument dropdown list improvements New release … Continue reading “Mailing List Summary: 2005-05-13”

Summary of Recent Mailing List Discussions, compiled by Matthias Friedrich (yalaforge) and Stefan Kestenholz (g0llum)

Too busy to keep up with the mailing lists? Try this summary! If people like these, they may become a regular feature (and probably get their own Blog category)

  • Errors during FreeDB import
  • AR instrument dropdown list improvements
  • New release type request – ‘Demo’
  • Album Languages and Scripts discussion
  • AR Documentation
  • Artists with ARs
  • FreeDB interface
  • Special countries for release dates
  • EAN/UPC codes
  • Miscellaneous

Continue reading “Mailing List Summary: 2005-05-13”

MusicBrainz Meeting: London, May 7th

The next MusicBrainz meeting will be in London, this saturday evening: Where: Old Thameside Inn (map) When: Saturday May 7th, 6pm Who: You! Why: It is fun meeting other brainerz I will probably show up at 5pm, if not earlier, to try and set aside some space for us. Anyone who wants to come a … Continue reading “MusicBrainz Meeting: London, May 7th”

The next MusicBrainz meeting will be in London, this saturday evening:

  • Where: Old Thameside Inn (map)
  • When: Saturday May 7th, 6pm
  • Who: You!
  • Why: It is fun meeting other brainerz

I will probably show up at 5pm, if not earlier, to try and set aside some space for us. Anyone who wants to come a bit early and help me set aside space would be welcome! If you’re interesting in making it and would like to get my mobile #, please drop me a line and I’ll mail it to you.

See you there!

MusicBrainerz Meeting: Amsterdam

The meeting in A’dam is on for tomorrow: Where: In front of the Dam Monument, facing the Palace When: 19:00 What: Chat about MusicBrainz, have a beer Who: Anyone who can make it Send me mail and I will send you my mobile # so we can make sure to hook up. If its raining, … Continue reading “MusicBrainerz Meeting: Amsterdam”

The meeting in A’dam is on for tomorrow:

  • Where: In front of the Dam Monument, facing the Palace
  • When: 19:00
  • What: Chat about MusicBrainz, have a beer
  • Who: Anyone who can make it

Send me mail and I will send you my mobile # so we can make sure to hook up. If its raining, lets meet in front of Hotel Krasnapolsky.

Virtuosa/FunVibes sponsors MusicBrainz

I’m pleased to announce that FunVibes, the makers of the Virtuosa all-in-one jukebox program have sponsored the MusicBrainz project. FunVibes made a $1500 sponsorship contribution to the MetaBrainz Foundation during our first fundraiser. In exchange for this sponsorship, we’re going to have a Virtuosa jukebox button on the MusicBrainz website for six months. MusicBrainz will … Continue reading “Virtuosa/FunVibes sponsors MusicBrainz”

I’m pleased to announce that FunVibes, the makers of the Virtuosa all-in-one jukebox program have sponsored the MusicBrainz project. FunVibes made a $1500 sponsorship contribution to the MetaBrainz Foundation during our first fundraiser. In exchange for this sponsorship, we’re going to have a Virtuosa jukebox button on the MusicBrainz website for six months. MusicBrainz will also now receive affiliate fees for sales of the Virtuosa jukebox generated through the MusicBrainz web site.

Giacomo Bondi Morra, the CEO of FunVibes will also join the MetaBrainz Foundations advisory board, which will be formally created later this year. Finally, FunVibes has issued a press release announcing the sponsorship of MusicBrainz. This extra press will help MusicBrainz gain more exposure for its ongoing fundraiser. (I’ll post a link to the release once I get one)

We hope to bring on more sponsors like FunVibes in order to get the non-profit bootstrapped and on solid financial footing.

The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!

After many months of hard work, the MetaBrainz Foundation has been launched! We have just issued a press release to announce the foundation. I am excited to announce our all-star board of directors: Director Dan Brickley of W3C Director Cory Doctorow of Electronic Frontier Foundation Director Joichi Ito of Neoteny Co. Ltd. Director Lawrence Lessig … Continue reading “The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!”

After many months of hard work, the MetaBrainz Foundation has been launched!
We have just issued a press release to announce the foundation.

I am excited to announce our all-star board of directors:

In the past few weeks a number of people have gone through great lengths to help me launch MetaBrainz. I’d like to thank: Dave Evans, Matthias Friedrich, Alex Dupuy, Gavin Clarke, Don Redman, John Carter, Nikki and Tarragon Allen. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Read on for the full press release!

Continue reading “The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!”

Wikidocs server release

We just updated the main server with improved and updated documentation and improved news item handling. This release allows us to delegate the documentation tasks of MusicBrainz to a greater number of people, which should keep our documentation more up to date. Wikidocs A number of static web pages for documentation and other content that … Continue reading “Wikidocs server release”

We just updated the main server with improved and updated documentation and improved news item handling. This release allows us to delegate the documentation tasks of MusicBrainz to a greater number of people, which should keep our documentation more up to date.

Wikidocs

A number of static web pages for documentation and other content that goes stale over time, has been replaced with a set of wiki pages. To accomplish this, we’ve created a separate new wiki that is accessible to a handful of brainerz who have volunteered as documentation experts. All of the pages in this wiki are camouflaged so that the end user doesn’t really see that it is a wiki. Visitors with an untrained eye should not notice that our documentation is now served via a wiki — the end user will just see that the wikidoc pages have a prefix of /wd.

Blog news and release notes

The Movable Type blog software is now used to publish release notes (such as this one) and general news entries. This centralizes the news into one convenient place where we can give measured access to various people in the community. It also removes some of the clutter that has built up in the main web page.

MetaBrainz and financial pages

The MetaBrainz web page has been launched and all financial pages have been moved there. More on this tomorrow during the official launch!

Changes of interest to developers

Dave Evans says:

Replication: changed DB_IS_REPLICATED to REPLICATION_TYPE – finer degree
of control. When importing data into a slave, refuse to import
non-replicated tables. Rewrote the replication slave code to be more
robust, and slightly faster.

Other minor fixes for when running as a slave.

committed a patch by Lukas Lalinsky to avoid a server trip when changing
artist type

Fixed very minor date-related error in RelationshipBox