Napsack / News: Recent posts

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries
across multiple servers. Version 1.08 fixes a major bug related to a new server-listing format returned from http://www.napigator.com; it also fixes a couple of GUI-related bugs. A screenshot of Napsack 1.08 is
available at http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.07/gui.gif

Napsack offers a number of other features to the Napster community: a
user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from http://www.napigator.com;
multi-threaded execution; robust, non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a
configurable output format; and result sorting are some of the major features.

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries across multiple servers. Version 1.07 adds support for a customized application identifier (similar to a web browser's user-agent string), the ability to regroup query results in the result tree, and more verbose error messages. (See the properties documentation for more information.) A screenshot of Napsack 1.07 is available at http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.07/gui.gif... read more

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster
queries across multiple servers. Version 1.05 adds the ability to retry failed queries, along with a couple of geometry related properties. (See the properties documentation for more information.)

Napsack offers a number of other features to the Napster community: a
user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from
http://www.napigator.com; multi-threaded execution; robust,
non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a configurable output
format;
and result sorting are some of the major features.

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster
queries across multiple servers. Version 1.03 adds a Save Settings feature, a graphical login dialog, and a Help menu with an About dialog. An updated screenshot is available at
http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.03/gui-16.gif

Napsack offers a number of other features to the Napster community: a
user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from
http://www.napigator.com; multi-threaded execution; robust,
non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a configurable output format;
and result sorting are some of the major features.

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries across multiple servers. Version 1.02 adds a Save Settings on Exit feature, on-the-fly results sorting, column selection, and minor interface enhancements to the original GUI. An updated screenshot is available at http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.02/gui-16.gif

Napsack offers a number of other features to the Napster community: a user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from http://www.napigator.com; multi-threaded execution; robust, non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a configurable output format; and result sorting are some of the major features.

A screenshot of the new GUI is up at http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.01/gui-16.gif

A screenshot of Napsack in classic mode is at http://www3.sympatico.ca/chris.redekop/Napsack-1.0/results_16.gif

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries
across multiple servers. Version 1.01 is the first Napsack to accept queries and present results through a graphical user interface. The GUI is enabled by default, but classic mode is still available through the gui property; see the Docs section for more details.

Napsack offers a number of other features to the Napster community: a
user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from http://www.napigator.com;
multi-threaded execution; robust, non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a
configurable output format; and result sorting are some of the major features.

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries across multiple servers. Version 1.0 marks Napsack's first stable/production release.

Napsack offers a number features to the Napster community: a
user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from http://www.napigator.com; multi-threaded execution; robust, non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a configurable output format; and result sorting are some of the major features.

Napsack is a specialized multi-threaded client for broadcasting Napster queries across multiple servers. It enters its first beta-testing stage with release 0.03b.

Napsack offers a number features to the Napster community: a user-filterable list of Napster services retrieved from www.napigator.com; multi-threaded execution; robust, non-redundant, querying of Napster networks; a configurable output format; and result sorting are some of the major features.... read more

Help decide the future of Napsack, take the Future Napsack Enhancements survey! One lucky respondant will win a Free copy of Napsack.

Check the Docs section for Napsack Properties, a document outlining the new properties now supported by Napsack-0.02.

The newest release of Napsack is now available. Release 0.02 includes bug fixes as well as new features.

Getting Started With Napsack is now available in the Docs section.

It provides a step-by-step guide to using Napsack--from downloading Napsack to launching a query.

A functional version of Napsack is now available for download.

The current version allows for robust cross-server/network Napster queries, without duplicating results from different servers on the same network. A limited number of options may be specified through a properties file in ${HOME}/.napsack; a query may be specified in the properties file, on the command-line, or through an interactive prompt.

Okay, so the short answers are no, it's still not ready; and yes, I'm still working on it. I am not going to worry about any command-line options (Anyone know of a good command-line parsing class?) for release 0.01, which should speed development up. With this feature dropped, the first release should be ready during the week of 28 August 2000.

The good news is that, during the rewrite, I generalized a lot of the code and rewrote it with a GUI interface in mind. Thus a graphical version of Napsack may be available soon after the console version (release 0.01) is out.

Napsack will be (re)written in Jave due to portability concerns: fork() calls and semaphore usage won't work on all Perls (notably NT and Mac). The (re)write will happen over the weekend, so expect a Napsack 0.01 release during the week of 21 August 2000.

Version 0.01 is slotted for a pre-end-of-week (18 August 2000) release. Check back before the 18th to download!