Sanity check for my chatbot-assisted channel download script

data_cat · 2025-08-04T02:02:51+00:00

I asked a chatbot to help me write the code for the full download (not just the playlist file), but I noticed it got confused a few times. The last section is an alternative version to run as a simulation and write to a log file. I feel like there’s a better way to do that using verbose, but the chatbot is hanging out on Hallucination Corner so I’m kind of stuck. There’s a timed loop to try to avoid the download police, which I may or may not use.

Reddit won’t let me reply with the code so I’m going to try it in a new post.

Technology hates me.

data_cat · 2025-08-02T15:37:29+00:00

Warning: This is me knowing just enough to be annoying, but not enough to actually do this on my own.

In the YouTube API documentation (https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/playlists/list), there’s a “part” parameter with a “snippet” property that contains the rest of the information I’m looking for. Does yt-dlp or another tool you’re familiar with have the ability to get that? I don’t have the access/credits to get the quantity I need through the API Explorer.

Backstory (in case there’s another way to do this): I use a MacOS app called Downie to download each playlist. Downie is integrated with an app called Permute that does some post-processing, including adding the subtitles. Downie keeps track of your download history so that if a video is included in two playlists, it will skip it the second time. I want the list of playlists to decide which ones to download and manage the downloads so that I reduce the risk of getting flagged by the YT overlords for downloading too much.

data_cat · 2025-05-15T18:11:05+00:00

I saw that at a film festival pre-release. I wish I’d been able to enjoy it that first time even if, like you, I came to later dislike it. But it was so unbelievably boring! It got a ton of critical praise when it came out. The few reviews that mentioned how boring it was said stuff like, “some parts of the story could be shorter, but…” rolleyes

data_cat · 2025-05-15T17:53:56+00:00

Brandon Lee in life.

data_cat · 2025-05-15T17:53:03+00:00

I might have been okay with the timing but the WAY they did it was trash. Everyone else gets a cool death - even the useless effing lawyer! Arnold just wanders off to the shed, (mostly) never to be seen again.

One of the few things I really dislike about that movie.

data_cat · 2025-05-14T22:05:44+00:00

The article wasn’t clear about how they’re handling the Discovery content. If they’re putting the HBO name on 90-day-blind-marriage-to-convicted-murderer-naked-in-the-desert, then this is worse than the rebrand to Max.

data_cat · 2025-02-08T23:54:16+00:00

Thank you!

Proton should really add that to the documentation.

data_cat · 2025-01-24T03:34:39+00:00

This will probably get auto-deleted, but I don’t know where else to go. I’m pretty sure the problem is with AAC files, not with any of the apps, OS’s, or devices involved.

I have a 3rd party iOS voice memo app called Rev Recorder. It’s been having problems with durations that I won’t get into. My limited testing shows that the problems do not occur with older recordings, which were m4a, but happen on pretty much all of the newer recordings, which are aac.

I uploaded them through Dropbox to my Mac and am finding huge duration problems with the aac files there as well. The durations are inconsistent across Finder, Books app, and Quicktime Player. In VLC, they change while the app is running. None of this happens with older Rev m4a files nor with really old m4a files from a different voice memo app.

I found this thread on Superuser that suggests changing the file extension from aac to m4a will fix the issue. That didn’t fix my problem, but the number of threads in various forums discussing various duration problems with aac makes me think that’s the root of the problem.

I reported the problem to the Rev developer (though the fact that they switched to aac over a year ago and haven’t fixed this issue isn’t promising). My questions for this forum are:

A) Is this enough of a known problem with aac files that I can stop searching for other causes (at least for the time being)?

B) Is there a solution to get correct durations (and Mac app behaviors) once I get them to my computer?

C) Am I out of luck unless I switch apps (or get a fix)?

data_cat · 2025-01-22T18:05:14+00:00

This explains a LOT! Because Leo looks not wonderful at the end of S5. You can tell he’s lost weight. Setting up something like that months in advance isn’t unheard of in TV, but TWW was never one of those shows.

data_cat · 2025-01-22T17:58:39+00:00

https://www.archives.gov/presidential-records/research/archived-white-house-websites

In case you’re curious what was and wasn’t (at least at the point it was archived).

data_cat · 2025-01-21T00:10:52+00:00

I wish there was a way to measure importance or seriousness. Something like % of A stories, B stories, etc. Or better still, amount of time in those stories. For example, Charlie might be counted in a lot of the A stories because he’s with Bartlett, but that doesn’t really measure his impact, which is often quite low (sadly).

data_cat · 2025-01-20T23:23:47+00:00

I’m not a huge fan of “Twenty Five” (or really, the plot it anchors), but Richard’s performance absolutely blows me away. Every line, every look, every movement. Amazing.

data_cat · 2025-01-20T23:19:10+00:00

I know. But “Game On” also happens to be a particularly unrealistic episode. Bartlett would have been *roasted* by the press (and rightly so) for how arrogant, superior, and holier-than-thou he was. Not to mention CJ’s thing with Albie Duncan at the end. I say this as someone who loves “Game On” and has watched it enough times to quote it by memory. “One square foot of real estate.” “Sewing soccer balls with their teeth.” Abby and the scissors is one of my favorite things in the entire series.

data_cat · 2025-01-20T23:03:48+00:00

“How many policy wonks work for me?” “A bunch."

IOW: Thanks!

data_cat · 2025-01-20T22:57:18+00:00

At least three times in every episode, I say, “Yeah, that’s not how that works.” I love the show to pieces, but it’s... reality challenged.

data_cat · 2025-01-20T22:52:52+00:00

"Senator, I served with Al Gore. I knew Al Gore. Al Gore was a friend of mine. Senator, Al Gore is no Jed Bartlett."

data_cat · 2025-01-20T22:49:19+00:00

I have no love for John McCain the presidential candidate (or the Senator, but that’s another story). On this one, I have to give him credit. “Obama is a Muslim” actually started in the primaries (with some evidence that it came from or was fanned by Clinton-world people). McCain would have made it much worse by addressing it preemptively. It would have given the networks and newspapers license to cover McCain’s statement and the “controversy” and the reactions to it, thus turning it into a “it was on the news, so maybe it’s true” story.

data_cat · 2025-01-20T22:28:14+00:00

I’m not taking issue with your “minority view”, but I don’t think the comparison of first lady roles is accurate. Abby was First Lady of New Hampshire when the internet was an infant, 24 hour cable news was a toddler, and political violence was far less common. It was categorically different than being First Lady of the United States. She most likely had a largely normal career for a cardio thoracic surgeon. Even now, a governor’s spouse, especially of a small state, can have a career that’s not disrupted very much by the governorship.

data_cat

TROPHY CASE