I’ve blogged in the past about my exploits with MythTV, and playing around with Personal Video Recorders. Over Christmas we bought ourselves a new TV and DVD player, to replace our aged tv, freeview box and dvd player, all of which had faults. However, our video recorder is also showing some signs of age – it was a wedding present – and I recently saw that eBuyer now have the Acer Revo “nettop” PCs for only £120, and I began investigating the world of PVRs again.

Here’s what I would really like:

• something that can (at least) mimic the functions of the video recorder, ie recording and playing back shows from TV
• something that can handle our library of DVDs
• something that can give easy access to online video content, ideally iplayer and seesaw as they now cover most of the stuff I’d want

Other items (picture viewing, other video plugins, etc, etc) are a bonus that is a consideration, but not a deal breaker.

So I started to look around at some of the current popular offerings. As far as I can tell, MythTV is still the one to beat for straight PVR, although there’s a certain amount of confusing online as to whether or a not a Revo could handle it as a combined backend/frontend. (The dual-core model seems like it might, unsure about the ‘bargain’ box).

When it comes to the online content, there are 3 big boys out there – XBMC, Plex (which is only for MacOS) and Boxee. I’ve looked at all three, and here are my conclusions:

• XBMC – the code upon which the other 2 are based, but seems to be nice. The interface is usable and looks a lot like plex. However, the browsing for plugins is rudimentary, and the list of plugins only had a couple of things I wanted. A search online seemed to come back with a lot of ‘this can’t be done because of DRM’ replies, and yet the plugins exist for Plex, so why not….?
• Plex – pretty nice, although it did have one or two annoyances, not least the reliance on OSX which would make the Acer Revo a more difficult prospect (if a prospect at all)
• Boxee – the new kid on the block making a lot of noise, but, in my opinion, not yet delivering. They need to sort out getting more plugins in there, and it needs an interface to MythTV too It had a whole load of “social” stuff built into it, but, frankly, I don’t think I want/need that. (Reminds me a bit of the Flock browser)

I _want_ to like Boxee, but I find myself leaning towards XBMC more at the moment. Alternatively, there are a load of plugins for MythTV itself, so maybe that is a better option?

I’d love to hear from anybody who has similar needs, and also anyone who’s running Myth on a Revo.

mrBen

It’s been a while since I released any code into the public realm. Until today \o/

Sadly, the code is probably not something that many people are interested in, but I was interested and that’s enough for me

Whetstone is a small application to help you memorise verses of scripture over a period of time. Currently it only runs on Linux, although the Windows version is around the corner. Testers are welcomed

mrBen

Meant to post this a couple of months ago when I originally took it.

(Click for fullsize. Thanks to the Ubuntu UK Podcast guys, from whom I won the Canonical store vouchers that paid for the hat )

I love my daughter

mrBen

It’s been a week since my Aspire One got delivered, so here are a few thoughts (posted from it, of course).

• Linpus Lite lasted about 10 minutes before the novelty wore off and Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) got installed
• UNR is pretty sweet – installed quickly, and I really like the launcher and maximus (the window manager that auto-maximises most applications
• The keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on
• The screen is nice – Serenity looks great
• I need to try one of the other wifi drivers – this one does seem to drop out when under high load
• Adobe Flash is somewhat slow at times – need to see if anyone else suffers from that
• Battery life is not as good as I would like, but liveable with

Overall, I’m extremely happy with my new piece of kit – it has outperformed my expectations in most areas, and I am anticipating it getting plenty of use over the next few weeks and months.

One thing I have been thinking about is storage, and whether or not to get some online storage. Dropbox has been around for a while and seems to be popular, although part of me is tempted by Ubuntu One, as a way to support Canonical. Anybody got experience of either of these, another service, or alternatively using something like space on Dreamhost for synchronising data?

mrBen

It’s been 13 years since I bought a whole computer for myself. But today I put in my order for an Acer Aspire One netbook, which is very exciting. Sadly, in order to pay for it, I am selling on the Nokia N800 that I won at LugRadio Live 2007, which I do with some sadness, but it is at least going on to a good home at another former LugRadio Community Hero.

So, why the change. Well, I’d been thinking about Netbooks since Asus brought out the Eee pc – I love the balance between portability and power. While my N800 has bags of power for it’s size, and was definitely portable, it basically got relegated to being an audio media player, with the odd bit of video, and playing Aisleriot (and Flight of the Amazon Queen on SCUMMVM when I first got it). Certainly the screen is lovely for video, and it fulfilled it’s function wonderfully. If I didn’t need the cash to fund the netbook, I’d keep it….

Instead, however, my media player functions will move to my phone, and the netbook will become the place for watching video and playing games. In addition, I’m hoping to use the netbook as a calendar/diary, which the N800 wasn’t ideal for (although GPE Calendar twinned with Erminig to sync with google was not bad), plus take on some additional functions that I would normally use my laptop for, like running OpenOffice.org and GnomeSword (now apparently called Xiphos, but not yet in Ubuntu…).

According to Parcelforce, it’s out for delivery today, so hopefully my next post will be done via the netbook

mrBen

In the past year of using Ubuntu fulltime at work, there have only been a couple of consistent annoyances. One was that when booting up with 2 screens attached it would default to the external monitor, not the internal. I wrote a quick script which sorts that.

The other was that, when the previous occurs, or when playing games etc, the panel icons and applets seem to move around, rather than staying where I had carefully placed them. Now, the positions of all the applets and icons are stored in gconf, so I thought it would be a cunning plan to write to script to store/restore them, and here it is!

To run it you simply do:

$ python panel-tool.py store

which will store the positions of all the icons/applets in your top panel in a text file, and then

$ python panel-tool.py restore

when you want them restored to normal. This requires a restart of the panel, which is a bit ugly (it does a complete reload, which takes a few seconds) but it works!

Anyway – thought somebody else might be wanting this, so I’m releasing this version into the wild. It’s nowhere near perfect, I’m sure, but it WFM…

mrBen

panel-tool.py

(Save the file and rename to panel-tool.py due to hosting weirdness)

UPDATE
OK – there seems to be some issues with the login/out menu applet, and the clock applet. Sometimes they show up in the wrong place, although if you move them to where they should be and rerun panel-tool it seems to work itself out properly. I’ll see if I can resolve this (and do a proper config file as suggested by aq)

I was recently given an old IBM i-series Thinkpad by someone who I work with and after having to salvage a cd-rom from another old Thinkpad (which had a busted screen) it works quite well.

No network, wireless or otherwise, and a busted modem. But it works.

And I replaced the existing WinXP with Puppy Linux.

Which runs like a charm. It’s a small system, picks up my hardware and my wireless pc card without any struggle and is perfect for Writing with so I don’t have to steal away Ruthy’s laptop whenever I’m out at a writing meet.

Bliss.

BigAl

We’re in the process of decluttering our house a bit, and I was thinking of trying to raise a bit of cash to maybe buy some new tech (assuming I can get permission…), and so I’m thinking of flogging my small collection O’Reilly books. Before I consign them to ebay, I thought I would offer them out to the faithful readers of my blog. All offers considered. Postage will need to be covered, or pick them up in person if you’re nearby. Unless noted, the books are all as new, although some are older editions than the current print version.

• Linux in a Nutshell (4th Ed)
• LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell
• Linux Desktop Hacks
• Linux Cookbook
• Tim O’Reilly in a Nutshell
• Managing NFS and NIS (quite an old copy)
• Programming Python 2nd Edition
• Java and XSL
• Sed and Awk (2nd Edition) (bought from work library but in good condition)
• Learning the vi editor (bought from work library but in good condition)

I also have another book on programming Java from a different publisher. Will confirm details on that later.

Lastly, I may also consider parting with a couple of older commercial games for Linux, namely:

• Heavy Gear II
• Soul Ride
• Hopkins FBI
• Soldier of Fortune
• Doom3
• Quake4
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament 2004

All the games are boxed with all the appropriate manuals, although they have all been used. I’m not entirely sure I want to get rid of all of these, but if you are interested, please let me know and I’ll think harder about it.

For any of these items either leave me a comment, or drop me a mail at mrben -at- jedimoose -dot- org.

mrBen

I reckoned it was about time to write a decent retrospective of the last 6 months in the life of mrBen. It’s been an extremely hectic and tumultuous time, but, as these things tend to be, quite important. I’ll try and step through it systematically, but I apologise in advance for both rambling, and repeating things I’ve already posted about.

• The end of LugRadio (even with the prospect of LRL UK 09 still on the horizon) did have a significant effect on my life, although looking back I can kind of see how it seems to have fitted in nicely with a change of direction in my life as a whole.
• Not least, of course, the start of Classic Yak way back in August. We’re consistently getting 50+ listeners for each show – not quite up to the LR standards, but the Christian online community appears to be much more fractured and disorganised than the FLOSS community (no surprises there). We’ve just released our 7th episode, and have plans for 2 more episodes in Season 1, and then a bit of a break before Season 2 kicks off
• In September Heather and I began the year-long Invest program. Every time I’ve mentioned Invest on this blog, I’ve said “I’ll explain more later”. I guess there’s no time like the present…

Invest is a year long program aimed at (to quote their site) “equipping pioneering church planters”. It was established from our church in (if memory serves) 2006. The program involves some residential teaching (a weeks induction, and 4 weekends in various places around the country), time in a placement church (ideally around 4-8 hours a week, I think) and individual study and reflection. Additionally, there are essay assignments of 2000 words before each weekend.
Heather and I have been placed in the Rock Community Church in Dumbarton for the past few months. Their Sunday meetings are in possibly the most orange room ever constructed. We were also involved in the Dumbarton Alpha course, which is jointly run by people from the Rock, the CofS, the Baptist church, the Brethren church and the Roman Catholics. (I don’t think I’ve missed anyone out…)
So why, you may be asking, is a Linux geek getting involved in such a course? Now – you might not be asking that at all, but I’m going to tell you anyway But it all needs to be put into a context that some of you may not be all that aware of.

I first came to Scotland in 1995 at the tender age of 18, to spend a year working with Scripture Union Scotland. At that point I was intending to become a youth worker, most likely within a church. After a year traipsing round the Borders and Edinburgh, mostly doing schools work, I had to make more decisions about my future. I decided that the appropriate continuation on the path was to take another year out with SU, ideally doing work with churches, rather than around schools. And then I was going to University to do Divinity/Theology, in order to get a good theoretical background to underly the experience I had in youth and childrens work.
And so, in 1996 I found myself in a team of 1, working for a barely-conceived church of 8 people, under Alan McWilliam. Being part of Whiteinch Fellowship, as it was then, has shaped the last 12 years of my life considerably, and has fostered me through University, marriage, fatherhood and my 8 years at IBM.
From the beginning of my time at Whiteinch, I was aware of certain skills and gifts that were coming to the fore, not least in leading worship, and teaching. Plus, I had (and have) a fascination with church strategy. I think at that point I knew that one day I would lead a church.
Fast-forward through that year out, 3 years of university, 8 years of work, and probably the most spiritually dry 10 years of my life to date, and you find me in the middle of last summer, agreeing to do Invest, but at the same time having God reach down and give me a good slap and telling me to get my act together.

“And so here we are on the raggedy edge…” I’m fairly sure that within the next 3-5 years myself and Heather will be part of a team beginning a new church. It probably won’t look like what most people imagine a church to be. It probably won’t be what I imagine it to be at this time. But it will definitely be an adventure.

“I aim to misbehave”

mrBen

Last year, I posted a list of projects I wanted to complete in 2008. How did it go? Well….. not brilliantly:

• MythTV – box didn’t get touched, let alone back up and running, although it did see use at Camp again as the shop database.
• Church Office:
  • Display machine – yes! this got fixed (mostly) using keyjnote (now impress!ve) presentation software, which is much more stable than OO.o seemed to be with this display adaptor. May well try OO.o again once it’s upgraded to Intrepid Ibex
  • File server – same as MythTV box; untouched other than some crayon courtesy of Mira
  • Firewall – still working perfectly, still not upgraded
• Linkpot – I handed this project over to schwuk when I realised I didn’t have the time available, and other projects became higher priority
• Church Website – well – it’s “almost” there. Watch this space

The other projects didn’t even get a look in, but I did gain a new project in the “Invest” programme (which will eventually get a post of it’s own), plus another project that I’ll be announcing next month. Oh, and Classic Yak kicked off too, which has been very significant.

I’ll be posting this years plan later on. Maybe.

mrBen

Wanted to put down some useful things I have learnt about dual-screening in Ubuntu since I moved over to working under Linux full-time at work (and thus using a dual-screen environment more consistently).

1. The Intel driver for their gfx chips can’t do 3D on a combined screen size of wider or higher than 2048. So, if like me, you want to have your 1440 to the left of your 1280 monitor, with a total size of 2720, then you can’t have Compiz desktop effects enabled. (I think the solution would be to have them on top of each other, which would be <2048, but I haven’t tried that)

2. The guide here has some handy stuff about setting up xrandr to detect at login whether or not you have 2 screens connected – works great for me.

3. GNOME by default will always put it’s panels on the external monitor in a dual-screen setup. However, I discovered that you can tweak this by editing gconf when you login, adding a couple of lines to the ones added in step (2). (In file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45custom_xrandr-settings:


if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto $EXTERNAL_LOCATION
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel_screen0/monitor 1
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/monitor 1
else
xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --auto --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
fi


4. If you have your virtual screen size set up appropriately, then the System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution dialog also seems to work pretty well for times when you’re adding a projector on (although you’ll need to drag panels across from the projector as per (3) – haven’t worked out where I can add the gconf changes to make this happen automagically)

Anyway – still a work in progress. This was all done on Hardy – Intrepid upgrade on the to-do list once the relevant packages for my work software are available. The screen handling stuff may well be better in Intrepid.

mrBen

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted. And there’s _loads_ of things I could say, but I’ll make do with a few catch ups:

• New phone – got myself a Nokia 6500 Slide phone on a contract from Orange, after my previous phone (an aging Motorola V220) lost the ability to put sound through the earpiece. First impressions of the new phone are good, although the keys feel quite small at times. And the preinstalled Golf Tour game is really addictive!
• Severed Fifth, which I have blogged about before finally released their debut album, Denied by Reign. If you’re into chugging heavy metal, then you might like it, although, in a weird twist, I find that some of the “clean” vocals sound a bit weird.
• Ubuntu have released their 8.10 edition, the Intrepid Ibex release. Came out yesterday – get it while it’s hot (or wait a couple of weeks for the servers to cool down, and initial bugfixes to be released )
• Classic Yak continues to chug along nicely. Episode 4 came out last Monday (just). We’re getting about 60-ish downloads for most of the episodes, which is not too bad. And the editing quality is getting better. Mostly
• Heather and I continue on the Invest course. But more of that to come at a later date.
• I’m finally getting round to building the relatively huge Django project that is the church website. Also more of that when there are things to actually see in production

That’s probably enough for now.

mrBen

There’s a small games studio in the UK called Introversion Software who have, over the past couple of years, quietly produced some of the most interesting games around. Moreover, their games all run not just on Windows, but Mac and (most importantly) Linux. There are 3 titles in their history, Uplink, Darwinia and Defcon (you can buy all 3 for only £20 for the download edition at the moment, or £10 for Uplink on its own). I have, in fact, talked about Uplink and Darwinia before.

Anyway, enough of the blurb. I got hold of a copy of Uplink the other day, and was a little concerned about how difficult it would be to install under Ubuntu Hardy. I needn’t have worried – it was so easy. But I thought it would be best to lay out how I did it for Google to find. All of this info can also be found on the Uplink Forums which are still active.

How to do it:

1. Download the latest patch. I used the Loki installer version of 1.55 (get it here) but it’s probably worth checking the Patch forum in case there’s a new release out
2. Run the installer – sudo sh uplink-patch-1.55.sh which installs the patch to /usr/local/games/uplink although you can install it to your home directory if you like.
3. Pop in the CD, and unzip the linux version somewhere convenient ( unzip /media/cdrom/linux/uplink.zip )
4. Copy the .dat files into the /usr/local/games/uplink/lib folder. ( cp *.dat /usr/local/games/uplink/lib )
5. Profit!

Once you’ve done all that, you should be able to run uplink just by typing uplink from the command line, or clicking Applications -> Other -> uplink.

Hope that helps someone enjoy the game as much as I do.

mrBen

OK – it’s been a bit late coming, but I thought I really ought to pen some words about LRL this year.

This was originally billed as the end of LugRadio. However, while the podcast has now finished, it was announced at the event that there will be an LRL 2009, which is brilliant. The only downside was that it meant that I completely failed to mourn the passing of LR properly.

If I was to sum up this years event in one word, it would be FUN. This was the most fun I have had in a long time. Not that the other LRLs weren’t fun (quite the contrary), just that this year was, well, “funner”.

I didn’t get to many talks this year, but I was involved in a fair few bits and pieces. The only talk I saw was Bruno’s “Baguette on Snails” talk, which was, as expected, hilarious, but also conveyed a serious point. I did my own talk on Saturday afternoon, which went well, and seemed to get some good response. I also got commissioned into the “Mass Debate” on Sunday afternoon – sitting on the stage with Jeremy Allison, Matthew Garrett and Max Spevack was, I admit, a little daunting. While they probably wouldn’t see it, I would regard them as “celebrities” of the open source world, and I felt a little, well, insignificant beside them. I managed to say some stuff – hopefully it was insightful

My main occupation during the weekend was to stroll around while dressed in a large chinny raccoon suit. It was swelteringly hot, but I had a brilliant time. It was like being Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. I was originally worried that it would be a 1 joke wonder, but it seemed to be immensely popular with everyone, and I got my photo taken loads. Oh, and got involved in a little stunt during Neuro’s talk

Socially, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were all great. The Karaoke on Saturday night was much better than I expected, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I suppose I had better say a quick word about the Gong-a-Thong Lightbulb Talk Extravaganza this year, mostly because I ended up presenting it. I’d say that I would leave it to your imagination, but there are enough photos on the internet should you wish to corrupt your innocent young minds. There isn’t a proper explanation for this bizarre aberration in my otherwise normal behaviour, other than I was asked on the Thursday before, and agreed when it became obvious that they needed someone and it would require a hero to step forward. And I guess that’s the ultimate thing – the LR community has always made me _feel_ like a hero. The fact that it was, apparently, the funniest one ever (sorry Drinky and Aaron) was an added bonus. Oh, and the raccoon puppet on the front was there for additional coverage – the large, furry, stripey penis effect was just an added bonus.

A few thankyous need to go in here too – a number of people really made the weekend work for me:

• Heather – for letting me go in the first place.
• neuro – for driving me there and back
• Jono – for letting me sleep on his sofa/floor over the weekend
• MrsRon – for giving the crew breakfast and lunch
• Steph (aka babyRon) – for helping me in and out of my costume, and keeping me hydrated through the day
• Xalior – for buying the Chinnysuit, and helping out with the display stuff

(Hopefully I’ve not missed anyone)

Roll on LRL 2009

mrBen

I’ve been a long time user of the irssi IRC client, and for a while now I’ve been wondering if I could log all my private messages without having to log all the channel history as well. I log all my instant messaging in Pidgin, because it often has useful information that I want to check back for, but I’ve lost a lot of stuff by not having logging in irssi.

So here’s how you do it, in 2 simple commands:

/set autolog on
/set autolog_level MSGS -crap -clientcrap -ctcps


This will set up a log structure something like this:
~/irclogs/<network>/<nick>.log
for instance ~/irclogs/freenode/mrben.log if I had PMed you on the Freenode network (where I hang out).

Anyway – I thought this was really useful, and not as easy to find on Google as it should have been. Enjoy.

mrBen

OK, so I’m a bit late blogging about this, but I wanted to do justice to the subject. Other people have written great posts on their blogs (not least Jono, Aq and Adam from the presenting team, and community luminaries kNo and davee) but I felt that I had to add something of my own.

Jono phoned me on the Thursday night before the release (which luckily meant I found out before I went on holiday, rather than a week after the show was released). LugRadio was finishing. I have to admit, I was quite choked up on the train home – it was as if someone close to me had died. I know that sounds melodramatic, but you have to understand that LugRadio has been a huge part of my life over the last 4.5 years. I’ve contributed (to date) 3193 posts to the forum, or over 2 posts a day for every day between March 10th 2004 (when I joined the forums) and today.

I’m not saying this to make me sound good. But the LugRadio community has been a real home for me over the last few years. And it’s been a community where I have become (rightly or wrongly) known and (dis)respected. I know that the community will not die, but I think it will become a very different place when the show stops being released.

So, for me at least, it is the end of an era. LugRadio has, to all intents and purposes, changed my life in many ways. Having that end is an extremely sad thing for me, but at least we have LRL in 10 days (10!) to celebrate everything that LR has become known for and done.

mrBen

[Footnote] I completely understand the reasons for the team stopping the show. I don’t blame them at all, or hold any grudge. This wasn’t supposed to be a moan – hopefully you won’t read it as such.

Now that it’s been formally announced, I can confirm that I will be speaking at this year’s LugRadio Live UK

This is going to be a new thing for me. I’m going to be pulling together a lot of my thoughts on the future of Linux, user support and advocacy and I’m more than a little nervous. Still – hope to see you there

mrBen

(Oh, and Digg It too)

My last post (Inoffensive Advocacy) made it in as a segment on the most recent episode of LugRadio. Hurrah!

(Apologies to the Planet LugRadio folk, who will already know this )

mrBen

This morning I had a really long and interesting conversation with Aq on IRC. One of the ideas I was discussing with him was using technology to cleverly, and inoffensively, promote Free software within Linux. (For those of you who haven’t listened to the latest episode of LugRadio, Aq had been bemoaning the continuing issue of people who use Linux but aren’t necessarily using or interested in the concepts of Free Software as a whole – but more on that another time).

A good example of what I am talking about is the Restricted Drivers manager in Ubuntu. If Ubuntu has to install proprietary drivers during installation, most likely either for a graphics card, or a wifi card, then it pops up this box to inform you that it has done so. There are 3 points to note with this dialog:

1. It still works – it’s not forcing you not to use them (unobtrusive)
2. It informs – it gives you the reason _why_ proprietary drivers are bad (informative)
3. It only appears _if_ you have the (in)appropriate hardware (relevant)

I think we could use similar prompts for other areas, and one area I thought might be good would be the area of closed media formats. (I have talked a bit about this in the past – I’m not going to go into the reasons why closed media formats are bad here, but a good starting point if you’re interested would be this video about DRM (although DRM != closed formats, it’s still a hot topic ))

Thus, I propose an additional script to go into Linux that works in the following way:

1. When you plug in your media player (iPod, iRiver, Archos, some random Korean player, whatever), as part of the auto-detection it scans a database of media players to discover if it has support for Ogg Vorbis
2. If Yes, then it pops up a window (see below) confirming that Ogg is supported, and offering to convert any existing media folders from MP3 to Ogg, while giving a reason why this is a preferred option.
3. If No, then it just does the normal operations for when you plugin a media player

Note that the box has a “Never ask again for this device” option, so that it doesn’t nag you – the idea is that, like the restricted drivers manager, you only ever see this box once (per device). It also fulfills the 3 points I gave above – unobtrusive, informative, and relevant.

The table view is supposed to contain a list of folders which contain MP3 files (or other proprietary formats) and checkboxes for you to select if you want to convert them.

[edit]Oops – the image is a bit wide for my theme. Click on it to see the full thing[/edit]

Also note that this is just a mockup – there are probably a few things that could be improved upon/changed. But hopefully you get the idea.

mrBen

I’ve talked about support before. And I’ve had an idea for helping people who (in particular on forums) try to provide useful support. The guys over at the Ubuntu UK Podcast were talking about the CLI vs GUI on their latest show, so I thought I’d share the idea.

The idea is, essentially, to provide an easy web interface to a big library of animated GIFs (yes – it could be videos, but GIFs are easier to embed into a forum). These GIFs would be short clips of clicking on menus and opening the various applications and settings dialogues available in Ubuntu (or your system of choice).

My plan was to build it in Django, because it, by default, has good handling of urls. So to embed a GIF of someone clicking on, say, System -> Preferences -> Keyboard, you would just embed http://www.ubuntugif/system/preferences/keyboard/ and Hey Presto! I think some would also just be images of the dialogue boxes without animation, too.

The hope would be that, because the syntax is so simple, people wouldn’t have to think about it when putting it into a support forum, and people reading the forum would be able to see actually what is supposed to happen.

So – I guess I might get around to building this at some point. If you’re interested in the project, please let me know either in the comments or via IRC

mrBen