Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Searching the tuning archives

Hey all,

I've been really, really, frustrated with using the vast resources of the
tuning group, since it's not easily searchable through Yahoo!. When you
search, you have to only search a small slice of it's history.

For example, I wanted to research Gene's 'Baked Alaska' variant on Carl
Lumma's 'Alaska', without using extra list bandwidth to bother Gene or anyone
else to try to remember and/or manually figure out where/when the hell it was
posted about.

BTW, I'd be into switching to usenet through Google for that reason alone !!!

So tommorrow, I'm planning on whipping up a Python script, using the wonderful
urllib2.py html library that comes with that most amazing of languages, that
will automate the search process of the Yahoo! portal by taking two command
line arguments: the first being the desired mailing list, the second being
the search term(s) one would normally type into the 'search archive' web
portal.

The idea is that it will intelligently iterate through the archive, going
backwards from the present, and doing multiple slices consectutively and
automatically, sending to the console a status message as it goes of what it
has or has not found. For a hard copy, one could simply redirect stdout to a
text file, for example:

pymailsearch 'tuning' 'lumma alaska' > alaska_hits.txt

A hit would be indicated by the post number (ex. 54008) from the archive. One
could then manually type in the post numbers from a browser, or maybe a
second script could be written which could then retrieve all of the relevant
hits for 'lumma alaska' intelligently using the 'alaska_hits.txt' file,
concatenating them to a summary of message body file (which I guess could get
large, perhaps a command line switch could manually limit them), for example:

mailsummary alaska_hits.txt > alaska_reference.txt

I plan that the 'alaska_hits.txt' file would have a header, making the need to
respecify the mailing list unneccessary.....

This, I think, would be a great resource tool for all tuning research done
using the vast repository of the tuning list(s) wisdom, no?

What do you all think?

Cheers,
Aaron.
--
Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

{you wrote...}
>This, I think, would be a great resource tool for all tuning research done >using the vast repository of the tuning list(s) wisdom, no?

No. It would be a great resource tool for any of the Yahoo Groups! Not just tuning!

>What do you all think?

Is there a way to make it an executable, or (alternately) an app that could be run from your website? Is python compilable?

I.E. - how can *we* use it? :)

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Aaron K. Johnson <akjmicro@...>

On Monday 12 July 2004 12:54 am, Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:
> A,
>
> {you wrote...}
>
> >This, I think, would be a great resource tool for all tuning research done
> >using the vast repository of the tuning list(s) wisdom, no?
>
> No. It would be a great resource tool for any of the Yahoo Groups! Not just
> tuning!
>
> >What do you all think?
>
> Is there a way to make it an executable, or (alternately) an app that could
> be run from your website? Is python compilable?
>
> I.E. - how can *we* use it? :)

Once I get a script you could use it by getting Python for your platform (it's
a great cross-platform language to have anyway, and learn--the only lang I
use currently)...

Anyone want to have a migration to Google groups-beta? I vote a resounding
YES!

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com

🔗Rick McGowan <rick@...>

This whole thing is a meta-issue for this list, but since Aaron brought it up...

One bigger problem with any of these groups is their volatility: they can
suddenly just go away. The archives aren't guaranteed by anything or anyone
to remain. (A Yahoo group that I know about which was working fine for
years just disappeared one day earlier this year, and nobody seems to have
any idea what happened to it. One day, poof, the group and archives were
gone without a trace.)

I, for one, would like to see archives that are more accessible and better
for searching yes, but it's even more important to have people who are
known to maintain them or keep copies, and be able to *get* the entire
archives copied elsewhere if necessary.

I wonder actually if something like Aaron's proposed script could suck
down the *entire* archives... That would be a worthy endeavor.

As far as moving the group, I'm not in favor of any solution that requires
me to go actively to the web to look, by the way. I like the "push"
quality of the mail list. Also, with a mail list, I can easily keep local
copies of certain messages of abiding interest.

Rick

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

🔗Aaron K. Johnson <akjmicro@...>

Hey Jon, Rick and others:

Rick---the new Google-Beta works like a mailing list. The only differnce is
positive, it will be quickly web-searchable, using a google index.

According to Google, posts are reflected and mailed in 10 seconds, and indexed
(way cool) in 10 minutes...that means that scripts like mine will be a thing
of the past.

Jon, I think these things are such a radical plus that we should move over to
Google-Beta right away. Since you are 'list mom' here, you might want to set
up a version of MMM over at google-beta right away....Carl already set up a
'tuning' group.

-Aaron.

On Monday 12 July 2004 11:00 am, Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:
> Aaron, Rick,
>
> Rather than work on something new, you might take a look at these:
>
> yahoo2mbox: Archiver for Yahoo! Groups
> http://www.lpthe.jussieu.fr/~zeitlin/yahoo2mbox.html
>
> hacks.oreilly.com: Archiving Yahoo! Groups Msgs with WWW::Yahoo::Groups
> http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/969
>
> Cheers,
> Jon

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

Aaron,

{you wrote...}
>Jon, I think these things are such a radical plus that we should move over to
>Google-Beta right away. Since you are 'list mom' here, you might want to set
>up a version of MMM over at google-beta right away....Carl already set up a
>'tuning' group.

I saw Carl's the day he did it. We are still here. If it seems appropriate we will move.

Cheers,
Jon

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Rick McGowan <rick@u...> wrote:

> I, for one, would like to see archives that are more accessible and
better
> for searching yes, but it's even more important to have people who are
> known to maintain them or keep copies, and be able to *get* the entire
> archives copied elsewhere if necessary.

I've been worried about this issue for some time. I would really like
for someone to do this, and for God's sake don't get into crap like
asking permission. Just do it!

> I wonder actually if something like Aaron's proposed script could suck
> down the *entire* archives... That would be a worthy endeavor.

I'd like that.

🔗David Beardsley <db@...>

Rick McGowan wrote:

>This whole thing is a meta-issue for this list, but since Aaron brought it up...
>
>One bigger problem with any of these groups is their volatility: they can >suddenly just go away. The archives aren't guaranteed by anything or anyone >to remain. (A Yahoo group that I know about which was working fine for >years just disappeared one day earlier this year, and nobody seems to have >any idea what happened to it. One day, poof, the group and archives were >gone without a trace.)
> >

All you need is a moderator to say "screw it" and pull the plug.

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

🔗Joseph Pehrson <jpehrson@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, David Beardsley <db@b...>

/makemicromusic/topicId_7123.html#7136

wrote:
> Rick McGowan wrote:
>
> >This whole thing is a meta-issue for this list, but since Aaron
brought it up...
> >
> >One bigger problem with any of these groups is their volatility:
they can
> >suddenly just go away. The archives aren't guaranteed by anything
or anyone
> >to remain. (A Yahoo group that I know about which was working
fine for
> >years just disappeared one day earlier this year, and nobody
seems to have
> >any idea what happened to it. One day, poof, the group and
archives were
> >gone without a trace.)
> >
> >
>
> All you need is a moderator to say "screw it" and pull the plug.
>
> --
> * David Beardsley
> * microtonal guitar
> * http://biink.com/db

***Well, they could also get a gun and shoot people too. I don't
think anybody's quite *that* crazy...

🔗David Beardsley <db@...>

David Beardsley wrote:

>Rick McGowan wrote:
>
> >
>>This whole thing is a meta-issue for this list, but since Aaron brought it up...
>>
>>One bigger problem with any of these groups is their volatility: they can >>suddenly just go away. The archives aren't guaranteed by anything or anyone >>to remain. (A Yahoo group that I know about which was working fine for >>years just disappeared one day earlier this year, and nobody seems to have >>any idea what happened to it. One day, poof, the group and archives were >>gone without a trace.)
>> >>
>> >>
>
>All you need is a moderator to say "screw it" and pull the plug.
>
> >
That wasn't a suggestion Jon!

--
* David Beardsley
* microtonal guitar
* http://biink.com/db

🔗Jonathan M. Szanto <JSZANTO@...>

David,

{you wrote...}
>That wasn't a suggestion Jon!

I know, pal! :) I've been thinking about this for a couple months, and when I saw you write that I *almost* said something. But I hope I've been clear that I'm not "pulling the plug" - the archives will still be online, and we've already got Aaron who has bellied up to the bar and set up house somewhere else. I see no problem for virtually anyone who wants this to continue in some fashion, and I imagine it will all work out.

Cheers,
Jon