Hibernate-ification

I decided to take the plunge today. Thanks to the magic of version control it's not an irreversable plunge but still a big one to take. I've decided to refactor the database code for AllDay DJ 3.

A few hours in and I'm most of the way there. That may be down to a bit of forward planning though - I designed the database code around the idea of "repositories". I.e. if you want to store or retrive something, you do it in the repository. Thankfully that all fits into the Hibernate approach.

Yup, I've gone for the complete ORM (Object Relational Modelling) approach. It has the upshot for users of allowing you to choose what database engine you want to use (providing it's supported by Hibernate) and as a developer, I see reduced development time and a better tie into the object model.

As with all things in life - there's a down side. Joins are a mix of being easier and more complex (depending on the object relationships). One specific example that comes to mind is the design I've got for the schedule. I won't give too much away, so let's just say the database schema in v3 is far more normalised.

3G Access... Fun & Games

It's a well publicised option for getting internet on the move or if you've no landline. That's why I've had to take up such access. I may as well give you the highs and lows.

Well, I practically live under the tower, so reception is excellent. The service when accessable is nippy enough though it can be painful to use SSH over. The joys of the round trip time.

However, I have run into a slight issue. Look at the line above again - "when accessable". Yup - I've had a few connection issues. Though, that's down to the dongle. I tried the same SIM card on a mobile phone connected to the laptop via. bluetooth - no issues. Just excessively slow...

So, it's the best I've got and I can't complain too much about the service. It does seem a little better than travelling on the X24 makes it out to be.

The Great Move South

To say the last couple of weeks were chaos would be an understatement. I've made the move south of the border. For only a few months mind you, but it's still a big move anyway.

South of the border is a big place. So it's probably appropriate to give you more information. It's Bath I'm in. Working for a small but well known company over the next three months.

Now, I've only been here less than a week but it is possible to give my first impressions of Bath. It's a historic place (but then where isn't?) with architechture if you're into it. The place is only a few miles from Bristol but seems to be fairly seperated.

I'm currently staying in university halls. Floor 8 at that! So I'll probably be a bit fitter by the end of the summer. Talking of which, I plan to make a few weekend trips out of the place during the summer break. I've been to Bristol before, however, last time I was in the place, the bus I was on crashed. So it's probably not a good move to return too quickly. But there are other options, I can explore the "west" or even venture east towards London.

Remote Calls - Some Possibilites

As part of AllDay DJ 3 - I'm looking into ways of handling networked programming. My understanding of most setups is that a single machine will act as the "server" and the "clients" await control commands. Well, that would seem a reasonable enough model to me.

 

However, to implement this, I need some way of sending information from the command carts to the clients. (Yeah - command carts - you will be able to have a cart send a network command, play a user cart and wait for a hardware signal to continue - cool, eh?). Now, I could sit there creating my own message passing system then hope and pray I didn't screw it up.

 

A preferable alternative is to look at existing message passing APIs. There's two for Java that I'm lookin in to - RMI and XML-RPC. We used RMI for the class team project and I must say it worked. However, it's java specific (I'm looking at doing other little bits in other languages) and insanely "chatty". A few minutes with an RMI session and WireShark would put you off. :)

 

The other option is XML-RPC. So it's a bit more open (I can get language bindings for things other than Java) and less chatty (a godd thing I suppose). The only down side - who wants a streamlined XML-RPC server running on their playout box?

 

Ok - it's not that bad an idea on a secured network. Certainly going to be more secure than opening a port up and hoping the String / Tokenizer libraries do the job.

 

On another topic alltogether - does Myriad v3.5 have any way of mass importing and finding the track ends as well? It currently tops the tracks but at Radio West Fife, we've not yet found a way to tell it "the end of the track is the last point the volume is above x%". We've got a rather sizable stack of music to import into the system - we're looking to avoid doing things manually (ignoring jingles). I've been informed we've asked P-Squared, so I'll await results on that one.

Exams

Finally, they're over. For the next wee while anyway. So that means I'm making the final preperations to go to Bath for the summer (yes, I'm being serious). I managed to land one of those internship things, so it's a working summer. Down side is I'm not going to be presenting while down there (or at least as far as I can tell). But then it's the old trade off of money vs. fun. :P

Prep and Show Notes

It's pretty much a requirement in radio - you need to do some show prep. For one, you need to know what you're talking about otherwise it's going to be a very boring show. I may go a bit far though, major links with notes and almost two sides of A4 per hour once the show's airing. That's insanely prepared.

 

However, there is also an ongoing argument over going in/out of songs. The official line where I do shifts is "do NOT talk over songs that end". Simple rule that I've never broken, even before I took the role on. But how do I know how songs end? Some playout systems will tell you, but that's usually unreliable at best.

 

My approach - PFL is key. I listen to the start and end of the song.  I've then got little symbols I put on the show notes to indicate how the song starts / ends. As this may be useful to some other people, here is the key:

 

Song Outros

 Song fades out.

 Song ends.

 Song ends with a sustained note.

 

Song Starts

  Song has no intro.

  Song has an intro. A number in a circle will be used to indicate the intro length.

 

In addition to the into time in seconds, I usually mark the first thing I'll say over an intro with an asterisk (*). This is quite useful to prevent me overfilling that intro. Most time, I've only got one or two lines in the intro. It allows me to enjoy the music as well. :)

Weekend On Air and Calling Out The AA!

So, I'm currently covering drivetime as well as my usual weekend shows at work just now. That means 7 days a week on air for a few weeks. It's doable and should be a bit of fun. This weekend also saw the team taking a trip down to the local highland games.  It went well enough... if you ignore answering a phone leaving the mic up in the studio. "Hello, <name> speaking...". Rather entertaining hearing it on air actually.

 

As for the AA. Well, I lost my alarm remote for the car. I could get in with the key but it set the alarm off and imobilised the vehicle. The guy turned up, used the small key (I had no idea what it was for - I bought the car second hand) on the box under the steering column and the car came to life. Ah well, you learn something new every day.