[error] [client ::1] Traceback (most recent call last):
[error] [client ::1]   File "/Users/davidwalsh83/Projects/server/something.py", line 6, in <module>
[error] [client ::1]     import MySQLdb, cgi, cgitb, httplib, urllib2
[error] [client ::1]   File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-universal/egg/MySQLdb/__init__.py", line 19, in <module>
[error] [client ::1]   File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-universal/egg/_mysql.py", line 7, in <module>
[error] [client ::1]   File "build/bdist.macosx-10.6-universal/egg/_mysql.py", line 4, in __bootstrap__
[error] [client ::1]   File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 835, in resource_filename
[error] [client ::1]     self, resource_name
[error] [client ::1]   File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 1304, in get_resource_filename
[error] [client ::1]     self._extract_resource(manager, self._eager_to_zip(name))
[error] [client ::1]   File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 1326, in _extract_resource
[error] [client ::1]     self.egg_name, self._parts(zip_path)
[error] [client ::1]   File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 915, in get_cache_path
[error] [client ::1]     self.extraction_error()
[error] [client ::1]   File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 881, in extraction_error
[error] [client ::1]     raise err
[error] [client ::1] pkg_resources.ExtractionError: Can't extract file(s) to egg cache
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1] The following error occurred while trying to extract file(s) to the Python egg
[error] [client ::1] cache:
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1]   [Errno 20] Not a directory: '/Library/WebServer/.python-eggs/MySQL_python-1.2.3c1-py2.6-macosx-10.6-universal.egg-tmp'
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1] The Python egg cache directory is currently set to:
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1]   /Library/WebServer/.python-eggs
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1] Perhaps your account does not have write access to this directory?  You can
[error] [client ::1] change the cache directory by setting the PYTHON_EGG_CACHE environment
[error] [client ::1] variable to point to an accessible directory.
[error] [client ::1] 
[error] [client ::1] Premature end of script headers: something.py

My first thought was “Wow, that’s quite a long way of telling me to ‘just quit.’” Not wanting to concede defeat, I did some quick Google searching to find that the following snippet of Python code would allow me program another day:

import os
os.environ['PYTHON_EGG_CACHE'] = '/tmp'

I’d like to pretend I know what that means but I really don’t know. In any event, if you start receiving those errors, this snippet could be your ticket to taking a bite out of Python.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Fixing Python’s “Python Eggs” Error

Related posts:

1. Custom Error Handling in PHP
2. Custom Error Page Tips – Designate The Pages You Hope No One Sees
3. 8 Considerations For Choosing Your JavaScript Framework
4. google.load(): Utilize Google’s AJAX Libraries API
5. Prevent Directory Listings With .htaccess

The Shell Script & Usage

The first step is creating the repository at GitHub. Once created at GitHub, I run the script, giving it the name of the plugin and repository (they must be the same):

./newPlugin.sh ScrollSpy

The script itself looks like:

#!/bin/sh
mkdir $1
cd $1
git init
touch README.md
mkdir Source
touch Source/$1.js
touch Source/$1-yui-compressed.js
mkdir Docs
touch Docs/$1.md
touch package.yml
echo "name:  $1
author:  davidwalsh
current:  
category:  
tags:  []
docs:  
demo:  " >> package.yml;
cd $1
git add *
git commit -m "First Commit"
git remote add origin git@github.com:darkwing/$1.git

Tada! Done! Now I just need to populate each file with the necessary content. MooTools FTW!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: MooTools Forge / GitHub Plugin Structure Shell Script

Related posts:

1. Forge: MooTools Plugin Repository
2. Using the GitHub API and PHP to Get Repository Information
3. Create a GitHub Merge Batch File
4. Represent Your Repositories Using the GitHub Badge!
5. Follow MooTools on GitHub!

The Shell Script

php doTask.php

I’m not sure whether I consider using PHP instead of a straight shell script as being resourceful or using PHP as a crutch. What are your thoughts?

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Run PHP Files From the Command Line

Related posts:

1. Read PDF and Word DOC Files Using PHP
2. Prevent Your CSS and JavaScript Files From Being Cached
3. Advanced .htaccess Security – Block Access to Include Files Using .htaccess
4. I’ve Finally Caved: Twitter
5. Send Files via FTP Using PHP

The Text File

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYtDqHupwrg

One link per line.

The Bash Script

#!/bin/sh
IFS=$'\n'
for line in `< songs.txt`; do
	newfile=`youtube-dl.py -o %\(title\)s.%\(ext\)s $line | grep '^\[download\]' | cut -d ' ' -f 3-`
	ffmpeg -b 192k -i $newfile ${newfile/flv/mp3}
	rm $newfile
done

My script reads the file by line, downloads the YouTube video at the link provided by the text document, uses ffmpeg to rip the song into an MP3, and deleted the video. Note that you’ll need YouTube-DL and FFMPEG to run this script; this script is essentially a shortcut to achieve what was outlined in my post titled YouTube, FFMPEG, and MP3 Conversion.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Automate YouTube Video and MP3 Rips with Bash Shell Scripting

Related posts:

1. YouTube, FFMPEG, and MP3 Conversion
2. Convert Video Formats Using FFMPEG
3. 5 Rules For Using Audio/Video Media on Your Site
4. Video: Speed Up Your JavaScript
5. MooTools Forge / GitHub Plugin Structure Shell Script

Sample Aliases

#make "com" alias for "commit"
git config alias.com commit

#make "co" alias for checkout
git config alias.co checkout

#make "br" alias for branch
git config alias.br branch

# When you want to see just the differences of one function in one file in two different commits
git config alias.funcdiff '!sh -c "git show \"\$1:\$3\" | sed -n \"/^[^ \t].*\$4(/,/^}/p\" > .tmp1 &&
        git show \"\$2:\$3\" | sed -n \"/^[^ \t].*\$4(/,/^}/p\" > .tmp2 &&
        git diff --no-index .tmp1 .tmp2"' -

These are just some sample Git aliases. You can view more detailed (and by detailed I mean brain-numbing) examples of git aliases at the Git Wiki.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Creating Git Aliases

Related posts:

1. Using MooTools’ Alias Functionality
2. Create a Simple Slideshow Using MooTools, Part III: Creating a Class
3. Creating Advanced XHTML Email Links: Include Subject, CC, BCC, and Email Body
4. MooTools & Printing – Creating a Links Table of Contents
5. MooTools Forge / GitHub Plugin Structure Shell Script

The Bash Script

#!/bin/sh
for png in `find $1 -name "*.png"`;
do
	echo "crushing $png"	
	pngcrush -brute "$png" temp.png
	mv -f temp.png $png
done;

Do whatever you can to compress your images so that your website will load as quickly as possible. PNGCRUSHing your images does not cause a loss of quality — only a loss of excess file size! PNGCRUSHing my images saved over 120KB of bloated imagery for the recent redesign.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: PNGCRUSH a Directory of Images

Related posts:

1. Reduce PNG Graphic Size Using PNGCRUSH
2. Automatically Generate a Photo Gallery from a Directory of Images: Updated
3. Password Protect a Directory Using .htaccess
4. Set Your Directory Index (Homepage) Using .htaccess
5. Prevent Directory Listings With .htaccess

Yesterday I published a quick post about a basic MPEG -> FLV video conversion method using FFMPEG. Today I want to share another great usage of FFMPEG: stripping a video’s audio and creating an MP3. As an added bonus, I’ll be ripping the audio from a great YouTube video using youtube-dl, a python script with loads of options for downloading YouTube videos.

The youtube-dl Shell Script

#command
davidwalsh83$ youtube-dl.py http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWpnLdPwvk

#output
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] tlWpnLdPwvk: Downloading video webpage
[youtube] tlWpnLdPwvk: Extracting video information
[youtube] tlWpnLdPwvk: URL: http://www.youtube.com/get_video?video_id=tlWpnLdPwvk&t=vjVQa1PpcFMZ4TkTSYXamGxmLZq-ot2l8Jx-HiNAf0I=&el=detailpage&ps=
[download] Destination: tlWpnLdPwvk.flv
[download] 100.0% of 18.78M at   53.98k/s ETA 00:00

The initial install of youtube-dl was tough but only because I’m not well-versed with the permissions side of Unix. I eventually figured it out but if you have trouble installing youtube-dl or simply want to use its advanced options, check out youtube-dl’s documentation. youtube-dl also provides an option to read a text file with a list of videos and will do a batch download. Note: youtube-dl allows you to set an output file name but it didn’t appear to be working. If you’d like a more simple method, Mark Sanborn wrote a great post on ripping YouTube videos using wget.

The FFMPEG Shell Script

davidwalsh83$ ffmpeg -i tlWpnLdPwvk.flv RodStewartMaggieMay.mp3

As I did with youtube-dl, I chose the most basic usage of FFMPEG. FFMPEG’s documentation provides you a list of all of the possible conversion options if you need them.

The Result

Use the video player above to listen to the result. The video I chose is a live version of Maggie May by Rod Stewart recorded at Royal Albert Hall in the Knightsbridge area of the City of Westminster, London, England. The video is from Rod’s One Night Only DVD which I HIGHLY recommend. This is the best version of Maggie May that exists (my opinion but, as you know, when is my opinion not correct?) Enjoy!

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: YouTube, FFMPEG, and MP3 Conversion

Related posts:

1. Automate YouTube Video and MP3 Rips with Bash Shell Scripting
2. Convert Video Formats Using FFMPEG
3. 5 Rules For Using Audio/Video Media on Your Site
4. JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
5. Video: Speed Up Your JavaScript

Getting a video into the format you like can be important when providing media to your users on the web. Unfortunately your customer or video source may not give you media in the desired format. No problem: use the FFMPEG library to quickly and easily convert your media from and to any format you’d like.

Installing FFMPEG

sudo port install ffmpegx

The above installs FFMPEG with MacPorts. The install process took quite a while because FFMPEG required that I upgrade quite a few packages. Be patient…it’s worth it.

Basic Conversion Shell Script

ffmpeg -i myVideo.mpeg myVideo.flv

This is a very basic conversion directive. Since Flash video has become the standard for embedding video, I’ve chosen to convert to the FLV format. If you want to control more of the conversion details, grab the documentation and experiment. I’ve installed FFMPEG on a few websites and used PHP to direct FFMPEG to dynamically generate videos.

If you need to take control of your media, try FFMPEG. FFMPEG also has a GUI version if you prefer to avoid command line.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Convert Video Formats Using FFMPEG

Related posts:

1. YouTube, FFMPEG, and MP3 Conversion
2. Automate YouTube Video and MP3 Rips with Bash Shell Scripting
3. 5 Rules For Using Audio/Video Media on Your Site
4. Track File Downloads in Google Analytics Using MooTools
5. Video: Speed Up Your JavaScript

The Shell Script

# directive
pngcrush -reduce -brute source.png destination.png

#result
Best pngcrush method = 113 (fm 0 zl 9 zs 0) for destination.png
     (33.38% IDAT reduction)
     (33.43% filesize reduction)

   CPU time used = 835.707 seconds (decoding 151.450,
          encoding 679.145, other 5.112 seconds)

The above directive is a basic usage of PNGCRUSH. PNGCRUSH offers a wealth of options that allow you to optimize your PNGs. If you use many PNGs on your website, optimizing them using PNGCRUSH is a must. Using the above directive, PNGCRUSH took a 11.7MB down to 7.8MB. NO QUALITY LOSS. Sure it took over 10 minutes, but think of the bandwidth your site will save.

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Reduce PNG Graphic Size Using PNGCRUSH

Related posts:

1. PNGCRUSH a Directory of Images
2. PHP Optimization – Using A Timer To Benchmark Code And Increase Speed
3. Logging Information to the Firebug JavaScript Console
4. Use FURL to Retrieve Website Headers
5. PHP / MySQL Database Optimization Function

The Shell Script

furl http://davidwalsh.name

Simple and quick — just like every shell directive.

The Sample Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:50:50 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6
X-Pingback: http://davidwalsh.name/xmlrpc.php
Cache-Control: max-age=1, private, must-revalidate
Expires: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:50:51 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Don’t have FURL? Install it by scripting this:

sudo port install furl

How is this useful? I would use this to periodically (cron) check my website to make sure it was up. What would you use this for?

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Full David Walsh Blog Post: Use FURL to Retrieve Website Headers

Related posts:

1. PHP Headers and Popular Mime Types
2. Introducing Band Website Template – Get a Website That Rocks Like You!
3. Using Cygwin’s dig To Retrieve DNS Records
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5. Optimizing Your Website Content For Print Using CSS