RavenPlus - My "py2exe" Build Of Zoundry Raven

Since there has been no development with the offline blog editor Zoundry Raven (Raven) since 2008, I have been fixing and customizing Raven to fit my own needs for something like 8 months now. I am no expert in the Python programming language (I only have less than 8 months experience). But luckily I find the Raven's Python source code to be quite easy to follow and understand. I have a background in computer programming, by the way.

Since the beginning of February 2014, I have been trying to package my customized version of Raven into a MS Windows .EXE executable so that it can be run like any other Windows program without the need of installing the Python compiler or any other libraries that Raven requires. After trying for something like 3 weeks, I have finally succeeded.

Downloading BBC WS "Top Of The Pops" With "rtmpdump"

I would have preferred if I could download it off the BBC's Podcast web-page but unfortunately I can't. Below is the command that I use to download the BBC World Service radio programme "Top Of The Pops" to my desktop computer, thanks to the software rtmpdump.


rtmpdump.exe -r "rtmp://wsondemandflash.bbc.co.uk/ondemand/mp4:48502/worldservice/css/latest/topofthepops" -o "topofthepops.flv"

Zoundry Raven: Getting Raven To Work With MS Internet Explorer 9

Zoundry Raven (Raven) version 1.0.375 (and 1.0.500, if you were to compile from the source code) is only good with Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 5.5 to version 8. Raven will NOT work after an upgrade to IE version 9 (IE9) on Windows7 .

There are two things that I noticed when I launch Raven after the IE9 upgrade:

• In the main window, under "Blog Post Summary" I noticed that what got displayed was mal-formed. All blog posts starts with the word "ZoundryDocument", which shouldn't be there. Also, there were no pictures or formatting of any kind - when there should be. They look just like any plain unformatted text document.
  
  
  
• Editing an existing blog post is not possible. The "Zoundry Error" message
  
  "Error: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'tagName'"
  
  gets displayed, multiple times, when the WYSIWYG editor window is launched.
  
  
  

The Fix

I have just spent the last couple of days going through Raven's source code, trying to find a fix after this upgrade to IE9. And luckily, the fix is actually quite simple. All that is needed to be done is to just delete a single character in the file "mshtmlcontrol.py", found in the directory zoundryraven-read-only\Raven\src\python\zoundry\appframework\ui\widgets\controls\advanced\mshtml.

Gender Bending My Male Papaya Tree

I am now embarking on an experiment of my own in my backyard. I am trying to get a male papaya plant, which yields no fruit by the way, to produce female flowers so that it can bear fruits. I accidentally came across some blog posts saying that this 'gender conversion' is possible. However, the details are a bit sketchy.

Ripping The Content Of A DVD To A .ISO Image File

I have just spent the last 2 days trying to figure out a way to rip the content of my DVD and save it into the ISO image file format (a file with a .ISO extension) so that I could mount this file as a 'DVD' under Oracle VM Virtualbox. I thought this would be an easy process but it did not turn out to be so.

After various attempts, I ended up using a freeware by MiniDVDSoft called Free DVD ISO Maker that allows me to easily extract directly from the DVD and save the content into a file in the .ISO format. Virtualbox mounted the .ISO file successfully, just like a real physical DVD. Wonderful little software. And it works beautifully without any problems.

Below is a description of my other (failed) attempts. It is just for my reference and also to others who may be interested.

Minimizing NTFS Corruption In C: Drive

Nothing terrifies me more than to receive a message from the Windows XP operating system telling me that one of my disks needs to be checked for consistency upon booting up. I have received no less than 4 of these messages this year alone, and it always happens on the C: drive. Files and/or directories will get deleted everytime when this happens. To restore the deleted files from my backup, I will first have to look in the corresponding "WinLogon" event in Event Viewer. The list of deleted files/directories are all there. I have been lucky so far as only noncritical files were deleted - Windows is still bootable in all cases. I always do a graceful shutdown of Windows before turning off the power to my computer. So this is something that should not be happening.

Switching To Zoundry Raven From Scribefire

I have made the switch to Zoundry Raven (or Raven) as my offline blog editor of choice. In fact, I have been composing and posting my blogs with Raven since 21st September 2013.

I was using Scribefire Classic (a version that is no longer supported) on Firefox version 3 previously. I have been happily using it for about 14 months until I had problems inserting "Amazon Affiliate iframe" ads. There were other minor limitations that I have encountered previously in Scribefire Classic but I have always been able to figure out a way round them. Unfortunately there is none that I could find with these "Amazon Affiliate iframe" ads. Upgrading to Scribefire Next/Chrome would be the most logical choice but regrettably there are just too many shortcomings with the later versions - and some are really odd ones. There have been no fixes and development to Scribefire since 2011. So Scribefire Next/Chrome is a no go for me.

Raven is not perfect either. Like Scribefire, it appears to have been abandoned and its support forum has gone offline. But luckily, Raven's code is available online as it is open-source. I have peeked at the code (I have a background in computing by the way) and found the Python code to be well designed, written and easy to follow - much better than Scribefire's. I do have to put in more effort at times as I am still new to the Python programming language. And I made my first fix about a month and a half ago.

My Picture Uploads To Picasa Web Got Modified

The same picture file. One gets uploaded to Picasa Web (picture above) and the other to Flickr (picture below). Can you see the difference?

The picture that was uploaded to Flickr looks identical to what I have on my computer. But my upload to Picasa Web was not. It got modified somewhere during the upload. It became brighter and as a consequence it looks grainier, and it looks terrible. I was horrified! Definitely not what I wanted.

Picture Of A White-Throated King Fisher Up-close

I participated in the 2012 and 2013 MYGB (My Garden Birdwatch) bird count. And now, I am hooked on bird watching. Any sound that a bird makes (a chirp, a hoot, a tweet) or the ruffling of leaves in the trees now thrills me. I cannot help myself each time when this happens. I just have to take a peek outside hoping to confirm what I have heard is indeed what I have guessed; or just to take a snapshot; or simply just to admire them. Indeed, I have even identified a number of birds that I never knew existed in my neighbourhood. They were always there but I just wasn't looking.

My Online Shopping Experience At Lazada Malaysia

I bought a Nikon Coolpix L27 digital camera online at Lazada Malaysia last month and what a great bargain I had. I actually saved at least RM70 compared to the next best price that I could find, either online or in local stores. The price paid includes an 8GB Panasonic SDHC memory card, a case and 2 AA sized alkaline batteries. Things went quite smoothly on the whole. I placed my order on September 15th 2013 and I paid online via debit card. I received my camera 3 days later via the local courier company GD Express. All items were packed neatly in a 18cm x 17cm x 11cm cardboard box. I think I could have received my package a day earlier if not for the public holiday on 16th September 2013.