The Archivist is a monsterous hack that allows you to stream digital
content from the archive at Muppetlabs. By issuing requests via
email, users are able to search and queue music and video which can
then be enjoyed using a number of standards-compliant media playback
systems.
Interacting with the Archivist is easy -- simply send an email
to archivist@muppetlabs.com
with one of the following commands in the Subject: line. The
body of the message is completely ignored and can be skipped.
Commands
By default, all words in the Subject: line will be used to
match MP3s. For more control and options, the following reserved
words are recognized:
HELP - When the subject line reads simply HELP then you get this message.
CURRENT - Reconstruct the playlist as a list of complete paths to the original MP3.
DJSKIP - Skip the track that's playing when the email arrives (typically the current track)
RANDOM N - Queue up N random tracks.
SEARCH T - Search only for the words in T -- see the results without queuing them.
"Playlists" are exactly what you expect: lists of songs to
play. They will play in order, or can be shuffled with the RANDOM
keyword as shown above. A number of playlists are currently
available, and more can be added easily.
PLAYLIST HELP - Explains how to use the pre-defined playlist subsystem.
PLAYLIST LIST - List available pre-defined playlists.
PLAYLIST SHOW N - Show the track list of playlist number N.
PLAYLIST PLAY N - Queue up playlist number N.
"Programs" are pre-defined lists of artists, albums, and individual
songs. These "programs" can then be used to queue up a specified
amount of music. You can have a giant list of possible
artists/albums/tracks, and choose to only play 10 minutes of
randomly-selected tracks from the list. "Programs" are typically
broken into themes/genres.
PROGRAM HELP - Explains how to use the pre-defined program subsystem.
PROGRAM LIST - List available pre-defined programs.
PROGRAM SHOW N - Show the contents of program number N.
PROGRAM PLAY N - Queue up program number N.
A "radioshow" is a spoken-word album that's been wrapped in some
additional information. You can find a ridiculous amount of
Lovecraftian radio plays here, as well as some stand up comedy.
RADIOSHOW HELP - Explains how to use the pre-defined radio show subsystem.
RADIOSHOW LIST - List available pre-defined radio show.
RADIOSHOW SHOW N - Show the track list of radio show number N.
RADIOSHOW PLAY N - Queue up radio show number N.
Finally, "movies" are exactly what they sound like. You can select
from the listed collection of files to stream, but the experience
can be less than exciting due to issues with the encoding libraries.
MOVIE HELP - Explains how to use the movie queuing subsystem.
MOVIE LIST - Display list of available movies to stream.
MOVIE PLAY N - Stream movie number N.
In addtion to the above commands, the following modifiers may be
placed at the end of the Subject: line, in any order:
NODJ - Disable DJ filler tracks.
NORMALIZE - Normalize the requested tracks.
NUKEM - Replace current playlist with your current result. This kills and restarts the stream.
RANDOM - Randomize playback of the requested tracks.
The audio stream URL
is http://muppetlabs.com:8000/archivist.
You should recieve a handy email with the link while your stream is
being prepared. If you requested a movie, then the video stream's
dynamic URL will be mailed to you. It may take a few seconds for
the stream to begin after selecting your media.
Are you enjoying a particular stream and want to share? Go for it!
Several tens of clients can enjoy a given stream at any time.
For those with shell access to the server, you may use
the dj(6) command to skip a currently-playing track.
Additionally, you may view the man pages for archivist(6)
and dj(6).