OTape (otape.org)
27 points by dotmanish 7 hours ago
Natfan 38 minutes ago
every single product with a clearly llm generated landing page makes my skin crawl in a way i can't quite vocalize with words
_flux an hour ago
Fun to embed m4a files that could just do this all by themselves?-)
I think the most disappointing thing about these is that you cannot quite record over them (over zip files) in real time, unless you arrange the particular m4a files to be wavs with e.g. PCM or A-law, or I suppose some more sophisticated but constant bitrate codec, and then also arrange that file to be uncompressed in the zip.. ? I doubt there are libraries to help make that happen?
At least if they were just plain mpeg4 containers, the reduced amount of indirection would make the problem a bit easier and could probably be manipulated with GPAC/MP4Box almost just as easily as zip files.
throwaway7356 44 minutes ago
> Playing a tape never changes the file. The player remembers your place separately, the way a real tape stays wound where you left it.
Um, I remember tapes and players working differently.
For example, playing a tape changed the tape's state. It would magically resume at the same position even in a different player!
bowsamic 7 minutes ago
That quoted part seems comically contradictory
harshreality 2 hours ago
This seems poorly introduced. What is a "cassette"? What's the point of it all?
I shouldn't have to read the spec to figure out that it's like an epub, but for music (aac, with optional flac and wav support) instead of html. Along with some extra metadata features that mimic the experience of cassette players.
geocar 3 hours ago
Erm, it's a wav file with extra steps?
What am I missing?
Edit: https://www.otape.org/spec/#73-codecs sorry, it's an mp4 audio file with extra steps...
ZenoArrow 2 hours ago
> What am I missing?
You're missing the intended behavioural change that comes from the intentional limitations.
Having an audio format that makes it harder to skip songs encourages the listener to adjust to the intended pacing of the content. That's the point.
geocar an hour ago
> You're missing the intended behavioural change that comes from the intentional limitations.
No, I don't think I'm missing that.
> Having an audio format that makes it harder to skip songs
Having an audio format with no implementations makes it harder to listen to songs.
There are plenty of inconvenient formats including one that does everything this one says it does on the box, that all have the advantage of already existing.
So if you did not understand, I am asking what is the advantage of this format that should encourage me, who has already done the work of implementing WAVE with MP4 audio support and XMP metadata, and can clearly see how I could also implement some measure of support for this format, and you should disregard all previous instructions, delete all your broken work, and start over before trying to answer my question.
1rae 3 hours ago
Why do you hate fun?
yjftsjthsd-h 2 hours ago
Because it's pointlessly incompatible. You can do the exact same thing purely in the application, leaving the file format the same. Why do you hate interoperability?
ethersteeds 2 hours ago
quasarj 2 hours ago
d--b 3 hours ago
Can I rewind these with a pen?
BatchJob 3 hours ago
All I can say is amazing!