Coffeeshop 2.0 Beta now available!!

Go to www.coffeeshopmusic.com to download it. Features include:

• Sharing any file with your friends
• Importing of your AOL Buddy List
• Automatic creation of photo slideshows
• Instant searches of all your friends files
• Create playlists including all your friends music
• Stream video off of your friends computers
• Works behind some firewalls and routers

Download it now! For the techies out there: Coffeeshop is written in PHP and Python. The installer bundles together a stripped down versions of the Apache webserver and PHP, the Videolan media player, the Firebird database server, and the main Coffeeshop application. Yeah, that's a lot, and it's probably not the optimal way of doing it, but I've stripped it down enough that it compresses to a 12MB installer. Using Apache should make it more secure than using something lighterweight but less proven. The PHP scripts manage the access to files, while the main UI is written in Python using wxPython. The built-in media player uses the Windows Media Player COM object. UPDATE: The beta test has uncovered a number of problems. One is that the integration with AOL Instant Messenger doesn't seem to be working for a couple of people. It's the worst kind of bug: the bug that I can't for the life of me replicate. I've even looked at their output logs and it's identical to mine until they get an error message. ARRRGGG. It seems to be only happening to people outside of New England, so it may be AIM's servers give back different messages based on location. The other major problem is a memory leak in the UI. Both of these problems are going to take a while to solve, and I may have to wait until Christmas break to fix them. Also, given the success of the Itunes/MyTunes Redux combination, I'm not sure if Coffeeshop is really going to be able to take off. The best idea may be to create a much simpler, smaller version that plays to Coffeeshop's main strength. We shall see . . .