XSPF validity matters and we now have a button for it, so you can now show that you care. I introduced it on the XSPF mailing list a few days ago - the current version looks like this:

There are chances that websites around the globe will carry this very button soon, linking back to the online validator, which by then should be moved over to the Xiph servers. Let's see if we can make it.

Wiki2Beamer - what a great tool for presentations. Previously I had to write 100% LaTeX code for Beamer presentations. With Wiki2Beamer a major part of the LaTeX code now can be done in an easy-to-write wiki-like syntax instead. Wiki2Beamer pre-processes your wiki file and produces LaTeX code from it. Simple and still powerful. Have a look at the syntax description and examples at the Wiki2Beamer page. Wiki2Beamer is written in Python by the way. License is GPL.

libSpiff just got added to the Koders.com search index so you now can search libSpiff's code online:

• libSpiff Koders.com page

However I will not mention how long it took them to add it... ;-)

Release 2.0.1 of the Expat XML parser is a bugfix release resolving both code and build related issues. Updating is recommended, please see change log for details.

• Download
• Changelog

This release mainly fixes compilation errors. So if you were able to build 0.7.0 without problems, you don't need to upgrade.

• Download
• Changelog

This release fixes several bugs and introduces parsing text from a chunk callback.

• Download
• Changelog

Subsonic has been listed on the XSPF application page for quite some time. Now I took the time to give it a try and I'm amazed! You can use it to bring a structured view to you music collection or to let your friends stream and download music from your harddisc. Subsonic even downsamples on the fly if LAME is installed. Subsonic is running on top of Tomcat 5.5+, version 6 worked fine for me. With Java it's a little different: 6.x didn't make the service start, 5.x did. Give Subsonic a try, it's well worth it.

I wanted to write a few words about EmEditor for a long time so finally here they are. EmEditor has become one of if not the one powertool of my everyday work. Most of all the ability to relace text using regular expressions both in an open document and in several files at once make it a great time saver. The SortStringA plugin also is very helpful. So thanks to Yutaka Emura for this awesome piece of software!

It took 27 days from order to my mailbox but it was worth the wait: Forty Foot Echo released a new album in 2006 called Aftershock which I can now finally listen to. Although I like their first and self-titled better, their 12 track sophomore record Aftershock comes with a lot of great music on it. Since FFE had trouble with their previous record label, this second album cannot be found at Amazon. You can order your own copy at their official website.

When looking for a more recent version of Sunbird than 0.3 I stumbled over a release of today with version 0.6a1. It seems they renamed Sunbird to "Calendar" and the nice green bird is gone, too. I did not find any links to offical news on this so please let me know if you have more details on this. The release I found is located here: http://ftp.mozilla.org/[..]/2007-01-14-03-trunk/