Brad Trupp

Page 2 - 2007/05/26 - 2007/08/23

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Mac Mini HTPC - Network Attached Storage (Apple) (2007/08/23)

Mac Mini HTPC - Network Attached Storage
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

My primary systems are still Windows XP and because of that, all my NAS or network attached storage uses SMB protocols for Windows Workgroups.

At the moment, I use a Buffalo Linkstation but I plan to set up a spare PC using FreeNas or Ubuntu real soon.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-level network protocol mainly applied to shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an authenticated Inter-process communication mechanism. It is mainly used by Microsoft Windows equipped computers, where it's known simply as "Microsoft Windows Network".

Connecting to the Network for the first time

Using the Finder's menu bar, open up the "Go" menu and select "Connect to Server".

Enter the server address with the "smb:" prefix (for example smb://nas9/usbdisk1 where //nas9/usbdisk1 is the share name.

Enter the workgroup and password information as necessary. Magic will happen and the drive icon should appear on your desktop.

Automate the Drive Mount

Making the drive mount automatically really should be as simple as dragging the mounted drive icon it to "Login Items" (under Systems Preferences / Accounts ) however this approach never seemed to work for me.

I decided to write a short Apple Script to do the mount instead and add the script to my "Login Items" instead.

Basic steps are:

• Fire up Apple Script Editor
• Enter the command line "mount volume "smb://server name/share name"" for each share you want to mount. The quotes around "smb://server name/share name" are needed or the script fails. In my case the command was "mount volume "smb://nas9/usbdisk1"".
• Test the script by clicking "Run". Good things should happen. If the drive was mounted from your earlier adventures, just right-click on the drive icon and "Eject" it before testing the script.
• Save the working script as a script.
• Save the script as an application.
• Add your new Apple Script application to your "Login Items" (under Systems Preferences / Accounts ) and you are good to go.
• Test by restarting your computer.

There is a good article on how to automount smb network shares in OSX at Happy Beggar.

Add a SymLink to make navigation easier

Once the NAS drive was mounting automatically, create a symlink from the network storage to the Movies directory.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- In computing, a symbolic link (often shortened to symlink and also known as a soft link) consists of a special type of file that serves as a reference to another file or directory. Unix-like operating systems in particular often feature symbolic links. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link does not point directly to data, but merely contains a symbolic path which an operating system uses to identify a hard link (or another symbolic link). Thus, when a user removes a symbolic link, the file to which it pointed remains unaffected. (In contrast, the removal of a hard link will result in the removal of the file if that file has no other hard links.) Systems can use symbolic links to refer to files even on other mounted file systems. The term orphan refers to a symbolic link whose target does not exist. Symbolic links operate transparently, which means that their implementation remains invisible to applications. When a program opens, reads, or writes a symbolic link, the operating system will automatically redirect the relevant action to the target of the symlink.

To create the symlink --

• Open the Terminal application. It hides in the Utilities directory under Applications.
• Enter "cd Movies" to change to the Movies directory off of your home directory
• If you enter "ls /Volumes", you will see the "mount point" for your shared storage. Using my example above, it is "usbdisk1".
• Enter "ln -s /Volumes/usbdisk1" to create the symbolic link.

What's Next?

Previous step -- Extending Quicktime with additional Codecs...

Next step -- Alternatives to Quicktime and more great software...

Mac Mini HTPC - Extend Quicktime with additional Codecs (Apple) (2007/08/03)

Mac Mini HTPC - Extend Quicktime with additional Codecs
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

My choice was an all-in-one approach using Perian.

Perian bills itself as the swiss-army knife for QuickTime and it is an apt tag line. Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video and audio formats including AVI, FLV, and DIVX.

Find it at http://www.perian.org/.

Perian's Version 1.0 release (June 2007) enables QuickTime application support for additional Media Types: AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3 Subtitle support for SSA and SRT

Perian provides a Quicktime video for complete beginners like myself on how to download and install Perian so instructions are not repeated here.

Other Choices

You can always install just the codecs you want directly from the manufacturers.

For example --

• DivX for Mac - http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/
• Flip4Mac for Windows Media - http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm

Microsoft and Windows WMV

Microsoft also offers a free version of Flip4Mac for playing Windows media files on the Mac.

What's Next?

Previous step -- Basic Setup and VNC...

Next steps -- Network Attached Storage and alternatives to Quicktime...

Keyboard Shortcuts for Front Row (Apple) (2007/07/29)

Here are some keyboard shortcuts for using Front Row on your Mac Mini.

Key	Action
F8 or Cmd-Esc	Opens Front Row
Enter orSpace	Select / Play / Pause
Esc	Go Back / Exit
Left / Right	Navigation
Up / Down	Volume
Tab	Return to desktop

If you know of any more shortcuts, please let me know.

Mac Mini HTPC - Basic Setup and VNC (Apple) (2007/07/27)

Mac Mini HTPC - Basic Setup and VNC
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

OK. So I decided to buy a Mac Mini and hook it up as a HTPC or Home Theatre Personal Computer. The newer Apple TV product can do this but the Mac Mini and the right choices for software make it a much more powerful choice.

Basic Setup

OK. First step was actually putting together the Mac Mini and learning a little about the operating system.

In my case, the "tv" is a two year old Dell w3000 which is a 30" lcd tv with all the usual inputs including DVI so hooking up the Mac Mini was just like hooking up any old computer. I plugged in a usb keyboard and mouse for the time being. Later on, I will pick up some different audio cable so the sound will go both to the tv and to my stereo.

I picked up a Logitech EX110 cordless keyboard and mouse later for about $29. Once everything is set up over the next few weeks, I will be using the Apple remote with Front Row most of the time so the keyboard and mouse will be put away under a coffee table for infrequent use. For other tasks, I will being using remote access software.

This is a basic entry level Mac Mini with the 1.66Ghz Intel Core Duo. I ordered it with the memory upgrade to 1 gb from 512 mb and a 80 gb drive instead of the standard 60gb. This was mostly a guess on configuration -- I know more memory is always a good thing -- and the 80gb drive gives me well over 55 gb free space --even though I plan to keep most of my multimedia file on a NAS or network storage system.

The First Time...

This was my first time using a Mac so it definitely was an bit of an adventure. Run the Software Update a few times to get everything current. You find it by clicking on the little apple on the top left corner. One weird thing is that it wanted me to shut down itunes so it could install an update. Took me a few minutes to figure out how. Right -click in the iTunes icon to get the menu and select "Quit".

Why do you want VNC?

In my case the mac mini and the tv are one part of my house and my home office is in another. VNC or Virtual Network Computing allows me to control the mac from another computer.

Really, it is going to be a lot more convenient to install software, et al, from my desk than sitting on the couch in the living room. This way I can open open multiple browser windows on the main computer at the same time to research how to do things as I play and learn about the mac and its operating system.

To steal from Wikipedia for a moment --

In computing, Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop sharing system which uses the RFB protocol to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse events from one computer to another, relaying the graphical screen updates back in the other direction, over a network.

VNC is platform-independent — a VNC viewer on any operating system can usually connect to a VNC server on any other operating system. There are clients and servers for almost all GUI operating systems and for Java. Multiple clients may connect to a VNC server at the same time. Popular uses for this technology include remote technical support and accessing files on one's work computer from one's home computer.

I am told that there is a built-in vnc server in the operating system but the research I did indicated that the open source product OSXvnc Vine Server at http://sourceforge.net/projects/osxvnc/ was my best choice.

A few tips before installing VNC --

• Set up your Mac Mini with a fixed ip rather than using DHCP. It will make is easier for you to find the mac from your vnc viewer on another computer.
• Open up the VNC server port of the firewall. It is under System Preferences -> Sharing. Turn the firewall on if it is not already active. Click on the New button, change Port Name to Other, Enter TCP Port 5900 and give it a description of VNC Server.
  

• If you are running the Mac Mini "headless" without a keyboard or mouse, you will want to go into bluetooth settings and turn off "Open Bluetooth Setup Assistant at startup if no input devices present" so it does NOT bug you at each and every startup to look for bluetooth devices.
  

Once you install OSXvnc Vine Server --

• Make it load every time by clicking on the OSXvnc icon on the dock and selecting "Open at Login". Next, go into System Preferences -> Accounts and select Login Items and click the Hide box for OSXvnc Vine Server. This will minimize it so you do not see the OSXvnc Vine Server screen every time you turn on the computer. It will still be active on the dock.

Adding a VNC Viewer on Windows

My choice for a VNC viewer on my main XP machine is RealVNC at http://www.realvnc.com/. The personal edition for home use is free. I use it at my day job and it works well.

Just download the VNC Personal Edition Viewer for Windows Stand-alone Viewer since that is all you will need.

What's Next?

Next step -- extending Quicktime with additional Codecs...

Add another Hard Drive to Ubuntu (Ubuntu) (2007/07/14)

Add another Hard Drive to Ubuntu
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

You just picked up that new hard drive at a bargain price and have installed into your Ubuntu box. The bios see it but nothing else does yet.

Install the tools - Gnome Partition Editor

Select Add/Remove... under the Applications menu item to open up the "Add/Remove Applications" window. Type in partition or gparted into the search box, press enter, and see what comes up.

If necessary, change the Show box from "Supported Ubuntu applications" to "All available Applications" and the list should expand. Find ""Gnome Partition Editor"" and select it.

Press the "Apply" button. Up comes a confirmation screen to "Apply the following changes". Press the "Apply" button. You will be prompted for your password to perform administrative tasks. Enter it and away we go. Ubuntu will download and install the necessary files.

Running Gnome Partition Editor

Start up the Gnome Partition Editor. It should be under System / Administration menu.

Select the new drive from the drop down list. It should show all drive space as unallocated. Make sure you are looking at the right drive since there is no going back once you start formatting.

Click on the "unallocated" partition and the "New" icon should become enabled.

Click on "New". First prompt is to set the disklabel on the new device -- in my case /dev/sba -- the first SATA drive, as my boot drive is /dev/hda.

Click on "New" again and the "Create new Partition" dialog appears. Stick with the defaults "Primary Partition" and "ext3".

Click on the "Apply" button, verify that you are serious, and "Apply" to start. The Gnome Partition Editor executes the pending operations and formats the new drive. Once all operations have completed successfully, close the pending operations dialog and close Gnome Partition Editor.

As my drive was /dev/sda, the new partition is /dev/sda1.

I rebooted at this point but it probably is not necessary.

Using the Places / Computer menu, you should see the new volume. Click on it to mount it onto the desktop (as /media/disk). At this point, you should be able to browse the disk but likely have no write access. Right-click and select "Unmount Volume" to unmount it.

Mounting the new Partition

Open a terminal window and enter the following commands --

(1) Create the Mount Point

(2) Back up the /etc/fstab file.

(3) Edit the /etc/fstab file and add the new partition to /etc/fstab. Since the file is owned by "root", we need to use sudo to start an editor.

Add this line to /etc/fstab. Use tab instead of space to separate the various columns.

To save your changes, press Control-X for save, Y to confirm, and then press Enter to exit.

(4) We have made changes to the /etc/fstab file, so let ask Ubuntu to mount the drives again

(5)Now give ourselves proper permissions to use the new drive. Assume in this example that my userid is "freddie".

Now the new drive is mounted as /nas2 and is ready to use.

One more Thing

Also, as a convenience and ease of use, you can also create a symbolic link (using the ln -s command) on your desktop back to the /nas2 folder. Just click on the new link to open the folder in the default file browser.

Monitor CPU Temperature in Ubuntu (Ubuntu) (2007/07/14)

Monitor CPU Temperature in Ubuntu By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

The ability to monitor your CPU temperature and other hardware performance is a good idea. I recently replaced the CPU fan with a quieter one and wanted to make sure that it was keeping things cool enough.

The module that monitors all the various sensors on your motherboard is lm-sensors. Installing it is simple enough.

Using Sudo to install lm-sensors

Open a terminal window.

Enter the command:

Enter your root password and away you go.

Configuring lm-sensors

It is not going to do much good until you add the appropriate hooks into the system.

Again, in the terminal window, enter the command:

It will as you a bunch of questions that you enter YES to and then shows you a summary of the probes and the findings. It will offer to update /etc/modules automatically and you might as well let it do so otherwise you have to type it in yourself.

Restart Ubuntu.

Installing a Monitor.

Select Add/Remove... under the Applications menu item to open up the "Add/Remove Applications" window. Type in sensors into the search box, press enter, and see what comes up.

If necessary, change the Show box from "Supported Ubuntu applications" to "All available Applications" and the list should expand. Find ""X Sensors"" and select it.

Press the "Apply" button. Up comes a confirmation screen to "Apply the following changes". Press the "Apply" button. You will be prompted for your password to perform administrative tasks. Enter it and away we go. Ubuntu will download and install the necessary files.

Once it is installed, just run it. Look under the Applications / System tools menu. It should display all the various sensor measurements that it found sensors for -- voltages, temperatures, fan speeds.

Watch the displays -- my computer shows me the temperatures when I reboot, and for me, the CPU and Motherboard temperatures appear to be reversed in xsensors. Odd but apparently not that unusual.

Play MP3's with Ubuntu (Ubuntu) (2007/07/14)

Play MP3's with Ubuntu
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

Ok. You just done the standard install and everything is just wonderful. As Ubuntu loads, you hear the odd choice of start-up music playing on your speakers and you think - hey! I want to play my tunes.

You open up a File Browser, find your mp3's and start your player and you get an error.

That is because support for MP3's and number of other formats are not installed by default. The reason is licensing restrictions.

Many multimedia applications using the GStreamer plug-ins to provide support for the different codecs and additional GStreamer plug-ins is what you need to install.

Select Add/Remove... under the Applications menu item to open up the "Add/Remove Applications" window. Type in gstreamer into the search box, press enter, and see what comes up. Lots of applications but not what you are looking for.

Change the Show box from "Supported Ubuntu applications" to "All available Applications" and the list expands. Select "GStreamer extra plugins" to get support for mp3,sid, mpeg1, AC-3 and more. There will be a pop-up indicating that this is restricted software. Read the terms and click on the OK button to accept (or Cancel if you are feel you are not eligible).

Also select the "GStreamer ffmpeg video plugin" if you want to be able to play movies using mpeg, divx, or other formats. Again there will be a popup with the restricted software warning.

Also select "GStreamer plugins for aac, xvid, mpeg2..." and "GStreamer plugins for mms, wavpack,...". This will give you extreme flexibility in what you can play.

Press the "Apply" button. Up comes a confirmation screen to "Apply the following changes". Press the "Apply" button. You will be prompted for your password to perform administrative tasks. Enter it and away we go. Ubuntu will download and install the necessary files.

Once it finishes, close the "Add/Remove Applications" window and you are ready.

Give it a try and enjoy!

UUMerge Command Line Text File Merge (Delphi) (2007/07/01)

UUMerge Command Line Text File Merge - Source Code
By Brad Trupp (c) 2007

uuMerge Freeware Edition was a command line utility that can be used either to combine multiple text files into a single text file with a separator line between the contents of each file; or alternatively to process a 'merged' file ( previously created by uuMerge or other processes ) and recreate the multiple files.

The original version of uuMerge being written back in 2002 when I could not find a quick and easy way to merge together a bunch of text files so I could edit them as a single file.

It is written in Borland Delphi and this final version was compiled with version 7.

Using uuMerge

Files are separated internally with special delimiter line prefixed by "./ ADD NAME=".

This odd choice of delimiters allows the file to be processed by the IBM mainframe utility IEBUPDTE.

Alternatively, you can use the '-nice' option to create a '>>>>>>>>>> ' delimiter line instead so it looks nicer for printing. You could also use any text editor to do a global replace of the delimiter text to any string you wish. However you will not be able to use uuMerge to extract files at a later point.

Usage:

1. Merge files in a directory to a single file.

uumerge -merge indir outfile
where indir is the source directory (with optional file masking)
and outfile is the target output file.

2. Restore files.

uumerge -extract infile outdir
where infile is a input file previously created by uuMerge
and outdir is the directory for the target destination

Notes: Use on text files only - results are unpredictable otherwise.
 

Here is the source code for your viewing pleasure.

uumerge.dpr

(******************************************************************************)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(******************************************************************************)
program uuMerge;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  SysUtils,
  code0001 in 'code0001.pas';

var
  s: string;

begin
  { -oUser -cConsole Main }
  try
    parseParms;
    if helpParm then
    begin
      writeln('uuMerge Freeware Edition v1.02 - usage is:');
      writeln('  1. Merge files in a directory to a single file.');
      writeln('     uumerge -merge indir outfile');
      writeln('     where indir is the source directory (with optional file masking),');
      writeln('       and outfile is the target output file.');
      writeln('  2. Restore files.');
      writeln('     uumerge -extract infile outdir');
      writeln('     where infile is a input file previously created by uuMerge,');
      writeln('       and outdir is the directory for the target destination.');
      writeln('  Notes: Use on text files only - otherwise results are unpredictable.');
      writeln('  Copyright (c) 2006 BradTrupp.com and Capella Systems Group, Inc.');
      writeln('    Please read uuMerge.txt file for License terms and Disclaimer of Warranty');
      writeln('');
      writeln('Press ENTER to continue...');
      readln(s);
    end
    else
    begin
      case packParm of
      0: begin
           writeln('uuMerge Freeware Edition v1.02 - Invalid parameters entered.');
           writeln('  Use "uuMerge ?" for extended usage description.');
           writeln('  Copyright (c) 2006 BradTrupp.com and Capella Systems Group, Inc.');
           writeln('');
           writeln('Press ENTER to continue...');
           readln(s);
         end;
      1: begin
           dir2file;
         end;
      2: begin
           file2dir;
         end;
      end;
    end;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      begin
        writeln( 'uuMerge Freeware Edition v1.02 - '+E.Message);
        writeln('');
        writeln('Press ENTER to continue...');
        readln(s);
      end;
  end;
end.

code0001.pas

(******************************************************************************)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(******************************************************************************)
unit code0001;

interface

uses SysUtils, Classes;

type
  myException = class(exception);

procedure parseParms;
procedure dir2file;
procedure file2dir;
function getPrompt(sMessage,sChoices: string):integer;

var
  packParm, delimParm: integer;
  helpParm, debugFlag: boolean;
  inParm, outParm: string;

implementation

(******************************************************************************)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(******************************************************************************)
procedure parseParms;
var
  i,j: Integer;
  ws, s1: string;
begin
  packParm := 0;
  delimParm := 0;
  helpParm := false;
  debugFlag := false;
  inParm := ''; outParm := '';

  if ( ParamCount < 1 ) then begin helpParm := true; exit; end;

  if ( ParamCount = 1 ) then
    if ( comparetext(ParamStr(1),'?') = 0 ) then begin helpParm := true; exit; end;

  j:=0;
  for i := 1 to ParamCount do
  begin
    ws := ParamStr(i);
    s1 := copy(ws, 0, 1 );
    if (s1 = '-') or (s1 = '/') then
    begin
      if ( comparetext(ws,'-?') = 0 ) or
         ( comparetext(ws,'/?') = 0 )
          then helpParm := true;
      if ( comparetext(ws,'-merge') = 0 ) or
         ( comparetext(ws,'/merge') = 0 )
         then packParm := 1;
      if ( comparetext(ws,'-extract') = 0 ) or
         ( comparetext(ws,'/extract') = 0 )
         then packParm := 2;
      if ( comparetext(ws,'-nice') = 0 ) or
         ( comparetext(ws,'/nice') = 0 )
         then delimParm := 1;
      if ( comparetext(ws,'-debug') = 0 ) or
         ( comparetext(ws,'/debug') = 0 )
         then debugFlag := true;

    end
    else
    begin
      inc(j);
      case j of
      1: begin
         inParm := ws;
         end;
      2: begin
         outParm := ws;
         end;
      end;
    end;
  end;

  if (packParm = 0) and (not helpParm) then
    packParm := getPrompt('Action not specified.(Merge/Extract/Cancel)?','mec');
  if (packParm = 3) then begin raise myException.Create('Operation Cancelled.'); exit; end;

end;

(******************************************************************************)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(******************************************************************************)
procedure dir2file;
var
  iii: integer;
  tf1, tf2: textfile;
  sList: tstringlist;
  s, rn, Path, outPath: string;
  Attr, Found: Integer;
  SearchRec: TSearchRec;
begin
  sList := tStringList.create;
  sList.sorted := true;

  if ( length(inParm) = 0 ) then
  begin
    path := GetCurrentDir;
    path := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(path);
    path := path + '*.*';
  end
  else
  begin
    path := ExpandFileName( inParm );
  end;
  writeln('Adding files from ' + path);
  writeln('...............to ' + ExpandFileName(outParm));

  attr:=0;
  Found := FindFirst(Path, Attr, SearchRec);
  while Found = 0 do
  begin
    sList.Add(SearchRec.name);
    Found := FindNext(SearchRec);
  end;
  FindClose(SearchRec);

  if ( sList.Count = 0 ) then
  begin
    raise myException.Create('No files matched.');
    exit;
  end;

  if ( fileExists(outParm) ) then
    begin
      iii:=getPrompt('Overwrite ' + outParm + '(Yes/No)?','yn');
      if (iii=2) then begin raise myException.Create('Operation Cancelled.'); exit; end;
  end;

  outPath := ExtractFilePath(path);
  outPath := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(outPath);
  try
  assignFile(tf2,outParm);
  rewrite(tf2);
  for iii := 0 to sList.Count - 1 do
  begin
        rn:=uppercase(sList.strings[iii]);
        writeln('Adding '+ rn);
        case delimParm of
        0: begin
           Writeln(tf2, './       ADD   NAME=' + rn );
           end;
        1: begin
           Writeln(tf2, '>>>>>>>>>> ' + rn );
           end;
        end;
        AssignFile(tf1, outPath + sList.strings[iii]);
        Reset(tf1);
        while not Eof(tf1) do
          begin
            Readln(tf1, s);
            Writeln(tf2, s);
          end;
        CloseFile(tf1);
  end;
  CloseFile(tf2);
  except
    on E: myException do begin raise end;
    on E: Exception do
    begin
      if debugFlag then writeln(E.Message);
      raise myException.Create('Error creating ' + outParm);
    end;
  end;

  sList.Free;
end;

(******************************************************************************)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(*                                                                            *)
(******************************************************************************)
procedure file2dir;
var
  tf1, tf2: textfile;
  rn,s,pathnam: string;
  isOutputActive: boolean;
  iii, delimFound: integer;
  bProcessFile, bOverwriteAllFiles: boolean;
  begin

  if ( not fileExists(inParm) ) then
  begin
    raise myException.create('File ' + inParm + ' does not exist.');
    exit;
  end;

  if ( length(outParm) = 0 ) then
  begin
    pathnam := GetCurrentDir;
    pathnam := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(pathnam);
  end
  else
  begin
    pathnam := outParm;
    if ( outParm[length(outParm)] <> '\') then pathnam := pathnam + '\';
    pathnam := ExtractFileDir( pathnam );
    pathnam := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(pathnam);
  end;
  writeln('Extracting files from ' + ExpandFileName(inParm));
  writeln('.................. to ' + pathnam);

  isOutputActive:=false;
  bOverwriteAllFiles := false;
  try
    assignFile(tf2,inParm);
    Reset(tf2);
    while not Eof(tf2) do
      begin
        Readln(tf2, s);

        delimFound := -1;
        if (pos('./',s) = 1) then delimFound := 0;
        if (pos('>>>>>>>>>>',s) = 1) then delimFound := 1;
        if ( delimFound > -1 )then
        begin
            if isOutputActive then begin CloseFile(tf1); isOutputActive:= false; end;
            case delimFound of
            0: begin
               iii := pos('NAME=',s);
               rn := copy (s, iii+5, 120 );
               end;
            1: begin
               rn := copy (s, 12, 120 );
               end;
            end;
            //
            bProcessFile:=true;
            if ( fileExists(pathnam + rn) ) and ( not bOverwriteAllFiles) then
            begin
              iii:=getPrompt('Overwrite  [' + pathnam + rn + '] (Yes/No/All/Cancel)?','ynac');
              case iii of
              1:  begin
                  bProcessFile:=true;
                  end;
              2:  begin
                  bProcessFile:=false;
                  end;
              3:  begin
                  bOverwriteAllFiles:=true;
                  end;
              4:  begin
                  raise myException.Create('Operation Cancelled.');
                  exit;
                  end;
              end;
            end;
            //
            if ( bProcessFile ) or ( bOverwriteAllFiles ) then
            begin
              writeln('Extracting '+ rn);
              AssignFile(tf1, pathnam + rn);
              rewrite(tf1);
              isOutputActive:=true;
              Readln(tf2, s);
            end;
            if ( not bProcessFile) then
            begin
              writeln('Skipping '+ rn);
            end;
        end;

        if isOutputActive then begin Writeln(tf1, s); end;

      end;

    if isOutputActive then begin CloseFile(tf1); end;
    CloseFile(tf2);
  except
    on E: myException do begin raise end;
    on E: Exception do
    begin
      if debugFlag then writeln(E.Message);
      raise myException.Create('Error while processing ' + inParm);
    end;
  end;
end;

function getPrompt(sMessage,sChoices: string):integer;
var
  iii, jjj: integer;
  s, s2, lsChoices: string;
begin
      lsChoices:= lowercase(sChoices);
      while( true ) do
      begin
        write(sMessage);
        readln(s);
        s := copy(s,1,1);
        for iii:= 1 to length(sChoices) do
        begin
          s2 := copy(sChoices,iii,1);
          jjj := pos(s2,s);
          if jjj > 0 then begin getPrompt := iii; exit; end;
        end;
      end;
end;

end.

Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain, 2007 (2007/05/27)

La Rambla or Les Rambles (Catalan) / Las Ramblas (Spanish) is an iconic and busy street in central Barcelona, popular with both tourists and locals alike....

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Montserrat, Spain, 2007 - Page 1 (2007/05/26)

Montserrat is a mountain near Barcelona, in Catalonia, in Spain. It is the site of a Benedictine abbey, Santa Mar¡a de Montserrat, which hosts the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary....

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