John Dillon – Senior Adjunct Professor

A while ago (a long while ago now!) I played around with creating a database for storing my iTunes tracks. The reason behind it was simple: I wanted to be able to synchronize playlists and last-played data between copies on different computers.

More importantly, I wanted to learn more about working with external COM interfaces.

To that end, I built a Notes application and wrote the attached script library.

One should never apologize for their code, especially if it works, but I will point out that I never polished it up, so you may see some clunky bits. You’re welcome to play with it, adapt it to your own needs, or ignore it!

Anyway, attached is a LotusScript file that walks through your collection of tracks and creates or updates matching Notes documents. It requires the iTunes SDK version 7.7 or later (available from Apple),

Code is offered, of course, without warranty, guarantee, or support of any kind.

NOTE: For some reason I’m not allowed to upload text or lss or zip files, so the code is included in plain text below.

 Read more

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I support the efforts of many, many people and organizations, who oppose the SOPA and PIPA legislation that was pending in the Senate. These organizations include Wikipedia, Firefox, and Google, to name just three of the big hitters.

My personal web sites, including the Widget Rally Team site, were blacked out to show my support.

The issue of content theft (“piracy”) is of great importance to the country, but these bills go much too far and would cost our citizens far too much.

Check out AmericanCensorship.net¹ for more information.

(This was posted in January of 2012.)

¹_{Thanks to Morgan Kinney for pointing out the new domain name.}

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In addition to my Systems Analysis class, I have been invited to serve as faculty advisor for students seeking the completion of their capstone projects.

This will be a new experience for me, but with the able assistance of senior faculty members like Drs. Peng, Klassen, and Reinhart, I’m sure I’ll be able to help the students successfully meet their objectives.

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This morning I officially saw CSC-331 Systems Analysis on my CLU Faculty Advisor page.

I look forward to teaching this class beginning in late February!

I will be using the same textbook as last time:

Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design
Whitten Bently, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2008,
ISBN 978-0-07-340294-9

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