Wakeing my iBook G4 from sleep, so I can wake with a radio stream and coffee. Advice please.

I would like my wireless iBook to wake at say 8am in the morning from "sleep" and start playing a windows media player (for OSX) streaming radio station.
Alexander Luft wrote on :

Hello from New Zealand. I am having two problems and request your kind help.

  1. I would like my wireless iBook to wake at say 8am in the morning from "sleep" and start playing a windows media player (for OSX) streaming radio station. Can this be done? I wondered about the unix "at" command but am not sure how to implement this.

  2. When I rotate a jpg in Preview then save it, the finder window fails to show the rotation in the thumbnail icon in the finder window. Is there anyway I can get the finder to draw the correct thumbnail/icon in its rotated form?

Thanks for you generous advice.

Malcolm replied on :

On 2006-03-09 05:15:23 -0500, Alexander Luft alex@redacted.invalid said:

Hello from New Zealand. I am having two problems and request your kind help.

  1. I would like my wireless iBook to wake at say 8am in the morning from "sleep" and start playing a windows media player (for OSX) streaming radio station. Can this be done? I wondered about the unix "at" command but am not sure how to implement this. Audio Hijack Pro from http://www.rogueamoeba.com will wake the computer and play (and/or record) just about any sound source at scheduled times.
  1. When I rotate a jpg in Preview then save it, the finder window fails to show the rotation in the thumbnail icon in the finder window. Is there anyway I can get the finder to draw the correct thumbnail/icon in its rotated form? I don't think Preview can change the thumbnail. Graphic Converter http://www.graphicconverter.net will create thumbnails any anything it writes.

These programs are expensive for just the two things you want to do, but they can do a lot more, and are well worth their cost.

Gnarlodious replied on :

Entity Alexander Luft uttered this profundity:

  1. I would like my wireless iBook to wake at say 8am in the morning from "sleep" and start playing a windows media player (for OSX) streaming radio station. Can this be done? I like to hear Doug Stephan upon waking, so when I hit a key the Cube will wake up and start playing the stream. The first step is to save the URL: http://www.warpradio.com/player/embed.asp?page=Tuner&id=13920

This can be tough because players that are "embedded" in the page can hide the URL deep in the source code. It takes some knowledge to find the stream URL in the source code, and some do not work unless the player is embedded. If the player needs to be embedded you can always save the page URL. You can also directly take URLs from the Favorites file at ~/Library/Preferences/Windows\ Media\ Favorites

Assuming you can make a *.webloc file from the URL, save it in your "Favorites" folder in the "Library". Open iCal and make a repeating alarm set to open the URL clipping. Now when the computer wakes up it will execute the alarm. I believe mine actually launches an Applescript, which sets the volume and forces the URL to open in WMP.

  1. When I rotate a jpg in Preview then save it, the finder window fails to show the rotation in the thumbnail icon in the finder window. Is there anyway I can get the finder to draw the correct thumbnail/icon in its rotated form? I run an Applescript, select a number of files and the script operates on the selected files. This mail software has wrapped long lines, be sure to unwrap long lines or the script will not compile:

tell application "Finder" set selectedFiles to the selection repeat with loopVar from 1 to (count selectedFiles) set thisFile to item loopVar of selectedFiles as string if thisFile ends with ".jpg" then do shell script "sips -i " & quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile end repeat

update container of alias thisFile

end tell

beep 2

If you need help with this, just ask.

The part about the coffee I can't advise on. Never touch the stuff.

-- Gnarlie

Alexander Luft replied on :

Thanks for the aplpescript. Here it is my text and the problem below:

tell application "Finder"

set selectedFiles to the selection repeat with loopVar from 1 to (count selectedFiles)

 set thisFile to item loopVar of selectedFiles as string
 if thisFile ends with ".jpg" then do shell script "sips -i " & quoted

form of POSIX path of thisFile end repeat

update container of alias thisFile end tell

beep (count selectedFiles)

Unfortunately while the script runs it does not rotate the thumbnail in the finder window. What could I be doing wrong? I looked at the man page for sips but could not find anything as to what the -i flag does, so I'm afraid clueless. I'll defer, Gnarlodious, to your further wisdom.

As for making a .webloc - I struck a problem here in that when parting the found URL into textedit it would not allow me to save the file as tuner.webloc saying the extension was not allowed only tunder.webloc.rtf I tried the item Info command in finder, and it would not let me change it to tuner.webloc either. ANy further advice on that one? Thanks so much.

On 2006-03-10 02:19:25 +1300, Gnarlodious gnarlodious@redacted.invalid said:

Entity Alexander Luft uttered this profundity:

  1. I would like my wireless iBook to wake at say 8am in the morning from "sleep" and start playing a windows media player (for OSX) streaming radio station. Can this be done? I like to hear Doug Stephan upon waking, so when I hit a key the Cube will wake up and start playing the stream. The first step is to save the URL: http://www.warpradio.com/player/embed.asp?page=Tuner&id=13920 This can be tough because players that are "embedded" in the page can hide the URL deep in the source code. It takes some knowledge to find the stream URL in the source code, and some do not work unless the player is embedded. If the player needs to be embedded you can always save the page URL. You can also directly take URLs from the Favorites file at ~/Library/Preferences/Windows\ Media\ Favorites

Assuming you can make a *.webloc file from the URL, save it in your "Favorites" folder in the "Library". Open iCal and make a repeating alarm set to open the URL clipping. Now when the computer wakes up it will execute the alarm. I believe mine actually launches an Applescript, which sets the volume and forces the URL to open in WMP.

  1. When I rotate a jpg in Preview then save it, the finder window fails to show the rotation in the thumbnail icon in the finder window. Is there anyway I can get the finder to draw the correct thumbnail/icon in its rotated form? I run an Applescript, select a number of files and the script operates on the selected files. This mail software has wrapped long lines, be sure to unwrap long lines or the script will not compile:

tell application "Finder" set selectedFiles to the selection repeat with loopVar from 1 to (count selectedFiles) set thisFile to item loopVar of selectedFiles as string if thisFile ends with ".jpg" then do shell script "sips -i " & quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile end repeat update container of alias thisFile end tell

beep 2

If you need help with this, just ask.

The part about the coffee I can't advise on. Never touch the stuff.

-- Gnarlie