Plan 9 From Pacifica

A minor release that fixes some volume issues, but even better, Japanese! Here’s a taste (click the graphic for better resolution):

Pretty cool. Instructions to use the localization are here.

The download page is here.

Minor release:

• Adds a few dozen more missing localization display keys (for translating to other languages); Japanese is very close.
• Adds a feature to disable gamepads (on the Options > More Options screen)
• Fixed an obscure bug which may have been causing volume control issues on Windows Vista
• Minor internal cleanup and fixes

Grab it here.

A nice little review (4 stars). There was one somewhat ambivalent line:

Overall, there was nothing about QuuxPlayer that really blew us away, but we appreciated its emphasis on simple navigation and commonsense features that work.

Oddly enough, I kind of like this comment since my main motivation for creating QuuxPlayer was that the alternatives out there made it so painful to just play my damn music. From setting up the library to playing songs, everything seemed to be cumbersome and reeking with excise. So mission accomplished in my book.

Not a huge update:

• Added "Add to Now Playing Automatically" option to Options screen (default is true). Turning this off means only those tracks explicitly started or added by the user to Now Playing will be played.
• Added a "Play Playlist on Start" option on the Options screen. If a playlist is selected, the tracks on it will be added to Now Playing on startup and play will begin without user interaction.
• Fixed a bug in Windows 7 when using headphones the volume control did not work.
• Added multiple locatalization keys for translating QuuxPlayer to other languages.

On that last one I’ve been in contact with a guy from Japan who’s translated most of the application to Japanese, but there were several missing keys in the translation schema. If he finishes those last few keys QuuxPlayer will be fully Japan-enabled!

The QuuxPlayer site now has a GPL licensed build available for download, along with the source code (both are linked from the download page.) I’ll be writing here about the code itself, why things are the way they are, etc. Over time I expect the source to become better documented and easier to understand. As I mentioned before, contributions will be welcome, to the extent that they make QuuxPlayer better.

Some fun facts:
(more…)

Basically it means you’ll be free to do whatever you like with the QuuxPlayer code, but if you distribute compiled versions you have to supply the source code also. Here are some more details:

General Public License – Free Software Foundation

I’d expect to have the source packages up and ready for download sometime this weekend. Update: done.

I’m looking at putting the whole thing under the General Public License version 3 — can’t see any reason not to. If you’ve got an opinion on this, please comment below.

I’d like to take this moment to personally thank the many thousands of users of QuuxPlayer.

I started creating it when I found myself disappointed by the quality of existing audio players for Windows, especially when it came to usabilty. I mean, if it takes you more than a couple of seconds to find the song you’re looking for and play it, then (to me, anyway), that’s a problem. I also wanted to be able to listen to my music on my HTPC with a good remote. Of the many remotes I looked at the best (by a long shot) was a wireless gamepad, and no programs I found would work with one. So I set out to make a program that would actually do what I wanted. Eventually it got to be good enough that I thought others would like it too. This was a somewhat Quixotic mission since I already do have a day job, as a product manager with an enterprise software company in San Mateo, California.

Fast forward about a year and a half, and here we are. I’m so pleased by the great response I’ve recieved, but I’m not satisfied with that: I decided that I’d rather have more users and less money than the other way around, so I’m announcing the following changes:
(more…)

This is the personal blog of Matt Hamilton. The impetus for creating this blog was to introduce and help people with the transition to open source of QuuxPlayer, but other important topics (politics, hockey…) will be covered as well.

(In case you’re wondering, the title of this blog refers both my home, Pacifica, California, and one of the finest examples of American film ever conceived, Plan 9 From Outer Space.)