June 2012 Archives

I enjoy listening to audio books, and wanted a way to mash all of those three-minute tracks together. It's a multi-step process, but worth it to narrow down the number of files. Here are the steps I take:

1. I organize all of my MP3s into nicely named folders, like "Chapter 1". Tricky, I know.
2. Now, you should remove all the ID3 tags (the meta data inside each MP3 that has the Title, Artist, etc). I use my favorite ID3 tag editor - Media Rage. In the Data Remover tool, just set the MP3 ID3v2 and ID3v1 tag to "None", and process all of your nicely named/organized MP3s.
3. Now go through the step explained on this page. Basically, cd into each directory, and then run that happy "cat" command. If I continue our example, I'd go with "cat * Chapter01.mp3". Avoid spaces in the file name (I don't want to go into escaping spaces). Do that with each folder you want combined.
4. You're done, but I'd go through and move each of your new files into a folder, and go back and re-add ID3 tags. Again, use Media Rage. It's awesome (especially at this point, where it can read the file names, and put them into the ID3 tags automagically. Yes. It's magic.)

Or, you could do it a different, super simple way, and pay $6 for the great OS X application Audiobook Builder. I admit I like to have the combined MP3s in addition to the nicely formatted M4B file. So, after I go through the above steps, I throw them into Audiobook Builder, and get that iTunes/iOS-friendly file (so I can play the files at double-speed).

The folks at arc90/Readability have created something I really like (though I'm still leery of them). Readlists give you the ability to create eBooks from a compilation of URLs. Simply type/paste in all the different pages you want combined, and it'll generate an eBook for you in multiple formats. It's perfect for things spread out over multiple pages (like Tor.com's Rothfuss Reread (see my Name of the Wind & The Wise Man's Fear readlists)).

I suppose that Marco Arment's brilliant Instapaper could do this same thing. You can just organize things in a folder, and export that individual folder as an ebook. The (current) benefit of Readlists is that they can be renamed, organized, and shared.

I read this article a while ago, and was initially thrown off by the title, and even the opening line. I proceeded to be completely drawn in by his message. Despite having read it months ago, I thought of it again recently, and figured I should share it.

In marriage, losing is letting go of the need to fix everything for your partner, listening to their darkest parts with a heart ache rather than a solution. It's being even more present in the painful moments than in the good times. It's finding ways to be humble and open, even when everything in you says that you're right and they are wrong. It's doing what is right and good for your spouse, even when big things need to be sacrificed, like a job, or a relationship, or an ego. It is forgiveness, quickly and voluntarily. It is eliminating anything from your life, even the things you love, if they are keeping you from attending, caring, and serving. It is seeking peace by accepting the healthy but crazy-making things about your partner because, you remember, those were the things you fell in love with in the first place. It is knowing that your spouse will never fully understand you, will never truly love you unconditionally—because they are a broken creature, too-and loving them to the end anyway.

It's a great article, and certainly has some pointers for how I could improve as a spouse.  [Via]

I, like many others, love this new typeface from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. As a person who doesn't design much these days (except for occasional things for myself), it's hard to justify the cost. I also love the sample pairings they show at the bottom of the page (and on the Features page). It's a bit too sleek/modern for the project I'm currently working on, but I would love to have this typeface as an option for an accent.