The ABC overhauled DIG Jazz (now I think it's just called "ABC Jazz") and upgraded from the oh-so 2008 XML playlist to a much more web-cool JSON one.

Hence Version 3 (source) of the applet. Now with improved HTML escaping and different colors.

Check out The Dilworths while you're there!

It seems the ABC updated the DIG Jazz now-playing list format, breaking V1. Some quick flash disassembly and a bit of hacking, and order is restored. As a bonus, it now shows the upcoming songs.

Source or Debian package.

I really enjoy DIG Jazz from the ABC. The digital radio channel via the TV set-top box is great to have on in the background when working from home, or you can use the streaming versions when work pays for the bandwidth :)

One slightly annoying thing is you hear something good and have to go to the website to figure out what was just played. I de-compiled the flash application to see where it gets its information, and it turns out it is just a fairly boring XML file. Since I've been meaning to get to know PyGtk a bit better, I knocked up a simple applet that, when clicked on, shows you the current song playing.

Source code available here or I also made a Debian package.

IRC is a great way to communicate, but unless you sit around all day watching the screen or have headphones in to ping a sound when someone talks at you, it's easy to miss conversations. What I wanted was some way to pop up a notifier box at the bottom of the screen saying something like "you've got a new message". google searches for "gnome-notifer" didn't turn up anything great; except for a blog entry by Miguel de Icaza.

Looked like what I wanted but firstly it had a few bugs and by default left the message for 5 seconds then made it disappear. I wanted something that would leave the message until I indicated for it to disappear.

So I updated it to iron out some bugs and made it so that the message stays until you mouse over and out of it (the border changes so you know which messages are about to clear : screenshot).