What’s New?
| Sentence Formatting Mode for SRT Subtitles
| Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles
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| MP3s with SRT Subtitles using KMPlayer
| MP3 tag standards
| MP3 song purport standards
|
October 20, 2015
During the past 4 months, numerous software/subtitle additions/ enhancements were made to the Lectures/Conversations section, and all known bugs have been fixed. (The subtitles which were added/enhanced the most recently automatically appear on the top of the list in the Subtitles section.)
September 20, 2015
A new feature was added to the Lectures/Conversations section: Now you can toggle between a regular screen and full screen by double-clicking. For example, go to http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=a4 and double click on the subtitle text box.
May 9, 2014
During the past 7 months, numerous enhancements were made to the Lectures/Conversations section, and all known bugs have been fixed.
March 21, 2014
It was discovered that the Glossary section was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
December 17, 2013
The Lectures/Conversations section now works with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
November 21, 2013
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that:
1. …it was not working with the latest version of the Opera web browser. This bug has been fixed.
2. …although it works with the latest version of the Safari web browser under Windows 7, it does not work with Safari under Windows 8. Thus far, no solution to this problem has been found.
November 13, 2013 (Ekadasi)
In the Lectures/Conversations section, the “Context Mode…” checkbox was added to the top of the menu page and the button was added to the player. The purpose of Context Mode is to give the viewer a better sense of the context of what is being spoken. This is accomplished by displaying three subtitles simultaneously: the current subtitle plus the previous/next subtitles as grayed-out text. As far as we know, no other media player is capable of doing this.
November 5, 2013
It was discovered that the Lectures/Conversations section was not working with Internet Explorer 11. This bug has been fixed.
October 21, 2013
It was discovered that the Lectures/Conversations section was not working with Internet Explorer 10. This bug has been fixed.
October 16, 2013
In the Lectures/Conversations section, translation of the subtitles (synchronized text) into Spanish has begun.
October 9, 2012
On the audio playing web pages of the Lectures/Conversations section, a more convenient method for instantly exiting full screen mode was added: the “Esc” (Escape) key.
August 13, 2012 (Ekadasi)
In mode on the audio playing web pages of the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the “Delete” key alternative to the button (Append the next subtitle to the current or to the most recently focused subtitle.) was active even when a text box was not focused. This bug has been fixed.
August 11, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, the following minor changes were made:
1. In mode, in addition to clicking the button in order to cause the next subtitle to be appended, there is now an alternative: Simply place the cursor at the end of the subtitle and press your computer keyboard’s “Delete” key.
2. In mode, the and functions now cause the subtitles to be saved on the server (temporarily) in addition to being saved in memory.
3. Now, whenever the button is clicked in or in mode, the subtitles are saved on the server even if no changes have been made since the last time that they were saved. Also, they are saved immediately. (There is no longer a delay.)
4. At least 2 minor bugs were fixed.
August 9, 2012 (Sri Krsna-janmastami)
On one of the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you press the “E” (Edit) key, you may notice the button. The last of a few minor bugs in the function associated with this button were fixed early this morning (on the all auspicious appearance day of Lord Sri Krsna). Now, all proposed enhancements/additions to this section have been fully implemented and all known bugs have been fixed.
August 4, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, major changes were made to the way in which timings are recorded using the keyboard/numeric keypad. The following quote from, for example, <http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=De&SM=1&TP=1794> explains it:
Note: and actually change the timing of the currently displayed subtitle. Together with , their respective functions are designed to be performed very efficiently through the use of the following numeric keypad keys: 1, 2, & 3.
Note: Speaking of the numeric keypad, there are 3 other keypad keys which are especially handy for recording the timings: , and . Since the 0 (zero), . (decimal point), and Enter keys are just below and to the right of the above mentioned 1, 2, and 3 keys, this creates a very efficient setup. In order to make things even easier, the “.” key has been specially programmed to make it possible to record the timings as accurately as possible: Instead of recording the timing when the key is pressed, the timing is recorded when the key is released, and automatic repeat is filtered out. This means that the key can be held down and then released the split second that the beginning of the first word of the next subtitle is heard. Releasing a key can be done more quickly than pressing a key. Therefore the timing will be more accurate in the first place, and will, therefore, require less adjustment using the 1 and 3 keys.
August 1-3, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, several minor changes were made including the fixing of a few minor bugs.
July 31, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, you may notice …
1. …the button. It was discovered that the function associated with this button was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
2. …just below the button box, a box entitled, THE ART OF CREATING MP3/SRT SUBTITLE PAIRS. These instructions have been updated to reflect the latest “hotkey” reassignments, button additions, and updates to some of the functions associated with the other buttons.
July 29, 2012 (Ekadasi)
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, you may notice …
1. …the newly created button. Clicking this button causes the audio to play from the beginning.
2. …the newly created / button. The purpose of “quiet mode” is to facilitate the recording of the subtitle timings using a keyboard or numeric keypad. This is accomplished by changing the associated alert messages to unobtrusive popup messages. When navigating to a different audio playing web page, the “quiet mode” setting is preserved. Therefore, there is no need to click or again.
3. …that some of the button names where changed.
4. …that some of the buttons were rearranged.
5. …that the keyboard commands (“hotkeys”) associated with some of the buttons were reassigned.
July 28, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …the buttons were rearranged. This is especially noticeable after is clicked.
2. …the button is supposed to become if, and only if, the audio is out-of-sync with the currently displayed subtitle. However, it was discovered that when the audio was at position zero, this was not always the case. This bug has been fixed.
July 27, 2012
Between yesterday and today, the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section have undergone a major overhaul. Here are a few of the many changes which were made:
1. Several minor bugs were fixed.
2. The , and buttons were eliminated.
3. Several keyboard commands (“hotkeys”) were reassigned resulting in some of the keyboard commands being more intuitive than before. For example, to play or pause the audio, the keyboard command is now “P” instead of “.” (period). Undo is now “U” instead of “Q.” Now the “Q” key, in addition to the “2” key, may be used to cue the audio to the currently displayed subtitle.
If you click the button, …
4. …you may notice the button. It was discovered that after jumping to the last recorded subtitle, if the (Cue audio to beginning of currently displayed subtitle) button was clicked, the audio would not necessarily start playing at that particular subtitle. This bug has been fixed.
5. …you may notice that a button has been created. Clicking this button accomplishes the same thing as clicking the following 4 buttons: , , and .
6. …you may notice the (Back), (Next), and buttons. The functions associated with these buttons cause the audio position to change. This could cause the audio to get out-of sync with the subtitles. Formerly, the subtitles would not get back in-sync until a timing caused the subtitle to change, and this would only occur (after a delay) if the audio was playing. These 3 functions have been enhanced. Now, if clicking one of these buttons causes the subtitles to go out-of-sync, then the currently displayed subtitle is instantly changed in order to be back in-sync. This occurs even if the audio is paused.
7. …you may notice the following 5 buttons: , , , , and . Clicking one of these 5 buttons causes, without affecting the audio position, the subtitle being currently displayed to change. Formerly, things could get quite confusing if the audio was playing, because the timings would also cause the subtitle to change. Therefore, the functions associated with all 5 of these buttons have been enhanced to cause the audio to pause. At any time, clicking the button will cause the audio to begin playing at the beginning of the currently displayed subtitle.
July 26, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button you may see the and buttons. These buttons have to do with saving the subtitles as a temporary file on the server. When these buttons should be and should not be “greyed out” (non-functional) and when and if the subtitles should be saved automatically on the server was sometimes inconsistent and sometimes even erroneous. Hopefully, we’ve finally got it right.
July 25, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …if you press the “E” key or click the button and then the button you may notice that an button has been added. The purpose of the button is to cause each word of the selected text to be compared to a list of 94,000 Sanskrit words for the purpose of trying to add diacritics to diacriticless Sanskrit words.
2. …if you press the “,” (comma) key or click the button and then the button you may notice that a button has been added. The purpose of the button is to send the complete contents of the text box (subtitles in SRT file format) as an email message.
July 24, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, …
1. …you may notice that the / button has been replaced by the / / button. “Sentence” formatting mode is still the default.
2. …you may notice the button. The related function was enhanced to accommodate the new “song” formatting mode: For all subsequent subtitles, each line from a song’s lyrics are converted into a single one-line subtitle, ignoring maximum line length.
3. …and then click the button, you may notice the button. The related function was enhanced to accommodate the new “song” formatting mode: Each subtitle line is converted into one line of text.
4. …and then click the button followed by the button, you may notice the button. The related function was enhanced to accommodate the new “song” formatting mode: Each line from a song’s lyrics are converted into a single one-line subtitle, ignoring maximum line length.
July 23, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, the function was enhanced. Now, not only does it announce how many subtitles were reformatted, but it also provides a list of the numbers of those particular subtitles.
July 21, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the “G” key was no longer working under certain circumstances. This bug has been fixed.
July 20, 2012
1. The Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles, for the Lectures/Conversations section, have been updated.
2. On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, you may see the new and buttons. These new functions were created in order to support point #7 and point #9 respectively of the newly updated editorial policies mentioned in #1 above.
July 19, 2012
1. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that if the “Full Screen Mode (Audio should start playing automatically.)” checkbox was checked before going to an audio playing web page, the audio was no longer playing automatically. This bug has been fixed.
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, …
2. …you may see, just below the button box, a box entitled, THE ART OF CREATING MP3/SRT SUBTITLE PAIRS. These instructions have been corrected and expanded in order to bring them up-to-date.
3. …the button may be seen. The function associated with this button has been enhanced: It now displays, for informational purposes, the maximum line width (taking proportional spacing into account) of the subtitle even if the subtitle only contains one line.
4. …and then the button is clicked, you may see the button. This button’s associated function has been enhanced: It now, even if the subtitle already contains only one line, displays that line’s width, taking proportional spacing into account, for informational purposes.
July 18, 2012
In the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …it was discovered that if TV was clicked, the program would no longer begin playing automatically. This bug has been fixed.
2. …it was discovered that if TV was clicked, pressing the “,” (comma) key no longer resulted in the subtitle number/time being displayed. This bug has been fixed.
3. …on the audio playing web pages, corrections and enhancements were made to the functions associated with the and buttons. (To see these buttons, press the “E” key or click and then .)
July 17, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, if the button and then the button are clicked (or the “E” key is pressed), it may be seen that a button has been added. This button will convert the subtitle currently being edited into two lines irregardless of how many lines it currently has. The two lines will be made as equal to each other as possible, taking proportional spacing into account, but ignoring the current maximum subtitle line width. However, the resultant maximum line width for that particular subtitle is displayed so that it may be compared to the overall maximum line width.
July 16, 2012
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …it was discovered that the button was “greyed out” and non-functional. This bug has been fixed.
2. …some more formatting glitches created by the function were fixed. (Click to see the button.)
3. …if the button and then the button are clicked (or the “E” key is pressed), it may be seen that a button has been added. This button will convert the subtitle currently being edited into one line. (If it is a multi-line subtitle.)
4. …it was noticed that after the audio ends, the audio was no longer being paused, and the subtitle was no longer being changed to subtitle number zero (the “Causelessmercy.com” display). These bugs have been fixed.
July 14, 2012 (Ekadasi)
On the audio playing web pages in the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …some formatting glitches created by the function, the function, and the function were fixed. (Click to see the buttons.)
2. …some formatting glitches in the subtitle display (related to adjacent subtitles not having the same number of lines) have been fixed.
3. …the function has been speeded up.
July 13, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if you click the button, …
1. …it may be seen that a button has been added. Clicking this button causes all subsequent subtitles’ lines to be readjusted such that they are as close to the same length as possible. This function may be used after the subtitles have been reformatted using the button or after multiple subtitles have been edited manually.
2. …the function has been speeded up tremendously, and the progress indicator has been eliminated.
3. …even though the associated “hot keys” still worked, it was discovered that the , the , and the , buttons themselves were no longer working. These bugs have been fixed.
July 12, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, …
1. …it was discovered that if the particular web page did not have a corresponding subtitle file, but it did have a corresponding transcription file available, then the transcription was no longer getting converted into subtitles properly. This bug has been fixed.
2. …when in the new “sentence formatting mode” (the default), some minor formatting problems associated with the function were fixed.
July 11, 2012
It was discovered that there was a problem clicking the button after going directly to a particular subtitle number of an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section. For example, http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=D1&SN=10. The problem was that playing began at the wrong location. Rather than starting at the beginning of the current subtitle, like it should, playing began at time location zero, (at the very beginning of the audio). This bug has been fixed.
July 10, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if the button and then the button are clicked, it may be seen that an button has been added for converting the selected text to upper case. If no text is selected, then the function will be performed on all of the text. (The button has been upgraded to work in this same way.)
July 9, 2012
On an audio playing web page in the Lectures/Conversations section, if the button and then the button are clicked, it may be seen that a button has been added. If there are any VedaBase diacritics characters in the text, then clicking this button will cause them to be converted to Unicode. For example, Çré Kånëa would be converted to Sri Krsna.
July 8, 2012
----- Begin Sentence Formatting Mode for SRT Subtitles -----
In the Lectures/Conversations section:
A. If the button is clicked on an audio playing web page, it may be seen that…
1. …a button has been added. Sentence formatting mode is now the default for the function. Sentence formatting mode causes each subtitle to contain only one sentence, even if the sentence takes up more lines than the current “maximum lines per subtitle” setting, and even if the sentence is only one word, such as “Yes.” For a list of the advantages of dividing the subtitles at sentence breaks, see the newly updated Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles.
2. …in order to make each and every subtitle as perfect as possible, a new button was added. Taking proportional spacing into account, the new function adjusts the length of the lines within all subsequent multi-line subtitles in order to make them as close to equal as possible.
3. …a button has been added. If the currently displayed subtitle was edited, this button causes the subtitle’s lines to be readjusted such that they are as close to the same length as possible. To undo the change, immediately click the button.
B. If the button and then the button are clicked, it may be seen that…
1. …an button has been added for enclosing the selected text with HTML italics tags (<i>…</i>). If no text is selected, then all of the text will be enclosed by HTML italics tags.
2. …a button has been added. This button will cause any VedaBase diacritics within the selected text to be converted to Unicode. For example, if Çré Kånëa is selected, it would be converted to Sri Krsna. If no text is selected, then the function will be performed on all of the text.
3. …a button has been added. Clicking this button will split the subtitle at the selected text (normally a single space character), deleting the selected text. In other words, it will cause a new subtitle to be inserted after the subtitle containing the selected text without affecting any of the subsequent timings. The timing for the newly created subtitle will be set to be in proportion to how the text of the current subtitle was split, but will probably require some minor adjustment.
4. …an button has been added. This button will cause the contents of the next subtitle to be appended to the end of the current subtitle, and the next subtitle to be deleted. None of the subsequent timings will be affected.
C. Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles was updated.
----- End of Sentence Formatting Mode for SRT Subtitles -----
July 7, 2012
On the audio playing web pages of the Lectures/Conversations section…
1. …it was discovered that if there was no subtitle file available, then the corresponding transcription file, even if it was available, was no longer getting loaded.
2. …it was discovered that if there was no subtitle or transcription file available, then the audio would no longer play properly.
3. …after clicking the button and then the button, it was discovered that the button was no longer working.
All three bugs have been fixed.
July 3, 2012
On an audio playing web page of the Lectures/Conversations section, if the audio volume setting is changed to a value other than its default value (25%) by pressing the either the “[” or the “]” key…
1. …the new value is supposed to be maintained even when reloading the web page or switching to a different audio playing web page. However, it was discovered that this was no longer the case and that the volume setting was always being reset to its default value.
2. …when pressing the “V” key (return colors, etc. to their default values) the volume level is supposed to be changed back to its default value and the volume level display is supposed to reflect that change. However, it was discovered that neither of these events were occurring.
Both bugs have been fixed.
June 30, 2012 (Ekadasi)
1. In the Video section it was discovered that the MKV file download links were no longer working.
2. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that if, in one of the audio playing web pages, the “D” key was pressed to remove the Sanskrit diacritics from the subtitles, and then one returned to the menu web page and then back to an audio playing web page, the “D” key would no longer work and even reloading the page would not restore the diacritics.
Both bugs have been fixed.
June 28, 2012
1. For the entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site, it was discovered that the keyboard macros were no longer working.
2. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the audio was no longer loading.
3. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the header was no longer being displayed.
4. For the free downloads web pages, it was discovered that the keyboard commands were no longer working.
5. For most of the free MP3 downloads web pages, it was discovered that the MP3 links were no longer working.
All of these bugs have been fixed.
May 13, 2012
It was discovered that the button on the home page was no longer working. This bug has been fixed. (The purpose of the button is to search the entire website.)
May 6, 2012
In the Subtitles section, it was discovered that the links for downloading the subtitles were no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
April 2, 2012
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the , , , and buttons were no longer working. These bugs have been fixed.
March 20, 2012
1. It was discovered that most of the links on this web page were no longer working. This problem has now been fixed.
2. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that, when playing one of the MP3s (such as http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=aa), the button was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
January 31, 2012
Easy typing of Sanskrit diacritics within input text boxes has been added. For example, try typing “k;r;s;na.” within the “Search” text box on <http://causelessmercy.com/?TP=1232>. Then you should get “krsna.” To see a list of all of the available “hotkeys,” press the “H” key (outside of the text box) and look at the bottom of the help window that pops up.
Searching for “krsna” gives you 4485 hits, while searching for “krsna” (without the diacritics) gives you exactly the same result. This is because:
1. The diacritics are filtered out by the <http://causelessmercy.com/> PHP code when search engines, such as FreeFind or Google, spider the website.
2. FreeFind is intelligent enough to strip off the diacritics contained in the search string before doing a search.
I also tried doing the following search:
http://www.google.im/search?q=k%E1%B9%9B%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87a+site%3Acauselessmercy.com
…and got 4140 hits.
Then I tried the same search without the diacritics:
http://www.google.im/search?q=krsna+site%3Acauselessmercy.com
…and got exactly the same result. This means that Google also seems to ignore the diacritics when doing a search.
Therefore, going through the trouble of adding the Sanskrit diacritics to a search string for searching <http://causelessmercy.com/> is a waste of time.
However, the addition of the easy typing of Sanskrit diacritics to <http://causelessmercy.com/> is a boon to a web page such as <http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=aa>, if you wish to edit a subtitle. Try going there and pressing the “E” key. Then you should see a text box appear in which the Sanskrit diacritics may be typed using the semicolon (“;”) prefixes.
January 30, 2012
In the Book and the Tape Transcriptions sections the style of the individual book and transcription web pages was improved. This improvement is especially noticeable in the case of the tape transcription web pages.
January 22, 2012
Concerning the recently languishing Lectures/ Conversations section, after months of soul searching, we’ve finally come to the conclusion that the best way to go with creating SRT subtitles for Srila Prabhupada’s audio recordings is to only have one line per subtitle! Then files containing two or three line subtitles could be created very easily. In fact, thousands of one line subtitle files could be converted automatically into two or three line subtitle files in a few seconds using a Perl script.
Here is an example of one such subtitle file:
http://causelessmercy.com/s/a/Arr_ATL_1975-02-28_So_I_ See_Your_Temple_Is_the_Best.srt
Using this set of subtitles, here are 5 ATS (Audio/Text Synchronization) formatting possibilities (Try hitting the F11 key for an even better full-screen experience):
http://causelessmercy.com/a/?Y=3&Z=3&AK=aa&FS=1
http://causelessmercy.com/a/?Y=5&Z=2&AK=aa&FS=1
http://causelessmercy.com/a/?Y=1&Z=1&AK=aa&FS=1
http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=aa&FS=1
http://causelessmercy.com/a/?X=6&Y=1&Z=1&AK=aa&FS=1
Which do you like the best?
In the coming months, we plan to redo all of the hundreds of subtitles that have been done so far (http://causelessmercy.com/s/), and then push on with the next few hundred with renewed transcendental vigor!
January 11, 2012
For the entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site, it was discovered that after making changes in order to get the keyboard commands (“Press the H key for help.”) to work with Firefox 9, then they were no longer working for versions of Internet Explorer earlier than version 9. This problem has been solved.
December 10, 2011
In addition to the entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site having been moved to a different server, thousands of changes were made to it using an automated process. A few typos were also corrected manually. If you notice any other typos, broken links, or anything else which does not work correctly, please let me know.
Causelessmercy.com Webservant
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June 7, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, facility for downloading the corresponding audio and subtitle files was added.
May 8, 2011
1. It was discovered that the Glossary section, instead of dispalying the “A” page, was erroneously displaying the “G” page by default and when “A” was selected. This bug has been fixed.
2. The Video section menu page now includes, in addition to Google Video links for each of Srila Prabhupada’s 103 videos, YouTube links for the first 9 videos, low quality FLV video file download links for all 103 videos, high quality MP4 file download links for the first 9 videos, and even higher quality MKV file download links for the first 93 videos.
March 30, 2011
It was discovered that in the entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site, if the “F” key was used to change the font, and then the “S” key was used to save the new font setting within the URL, the new font setting was being ignored. This bug has been fixed.
March 29, 2011
In full screen mode in the Lectures/Conversations section, the Music section, the Non-music section, and the Songbook section:
1. The “R” key toggles “Repeat mode” on/off. A small popup window appears for 3 seconds to confirm the selection.
2. The “,” (comma) key toggles “Info mode” on/off. Info mode also causes a small popup window to appear near the top of the screen, but in this case it stays there until either full screen mode is exited or the “,” key is pressed again. This window contains the time/subtitle number information. You can make it larger by using your web browser’s <Ctrl>+ (<Ctrl>=) function. “Info mode” can also be activated via the URL. For example: <http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=dk&FS=4&CS=6&IM=1>.
March 21, 2011
1. In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that due to unforeseen consequences of the recent conversion of the entire website to PHP, audio files that do not have a corresponding SRT subtitle file were no longer having the transcriptions automatically loaded from the Tape Transcriptions section. This bug has been fixed.
2. A new section, the Subtitles section, has been added.
March 20, 2011
The SRT subtitle files corresponding to Srila Prabhupada’s MP3 audio files have been moved to the newly created Subtitles section. The SRT subtitle files for Srila Prabhupada’s videos in English, German and Spanish are also there.
March 19, 2011 (Gaura Purnima)
The entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site has been completely converted to PHP, and all known bugs have been fixed. The #1 advantage of this new implementation is that the website is now much easier to maintain. This is because 2 copies (both diacritics and non-diacritics versions) of all of the text is no longer necessary. Now only one copy is needed (the diacritics version). This results in significant savings of space on the server. It also results in the web pages loading almost twice as fast.
By the way, toggling the diacritics off/on using the “D” key still works. Krsna’s mercy! :-)
March 17, 2011
The entire http://causelessmercy.com/ web site was converted to PHP. This involved updating more than 10,000 links, uploading about 10,000 files and deleting about 5000 others.
February 16, 2011
In the Temple Mantra Guide section, it was discovered that there were many formatting errors which were causing the “S” key (save current scroll position, etc. in the URL) and the “D” key (toggle between Sanskrit diacritics and no diacritics) to not work properly. These formatting errors have been fixed.
February 14, 2011 (Ekadasi)
Three new sections were added:
1. The Songbook section.
2. The Music section.
3. The Non-music section.
January 26, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that when loading MP3s which don’t have a corresponding SRT subtitle file, the transcriptions were no longer getting loaded. This bug has been fixed.
January 20, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, a “Full Screen Mode” check box has been added. Please give it a try.
January 15, 2011
In the Tape Transcriptions section, it was discovered that the tape transcription links were no longer working in the default menu (“A”) unless “A” was first clicked in the list of menus. This bug has been fixed.
January 11, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, a new feature has been added. As you may already know, you can enter full screen mode while playing one of the MP3s by pressing the “Z” key. Now you can press the “Z” key again to zoom in, and you can press it yet again to zoom in even further. Then, pressing “Z” one more time completely exits full screen mode. In other words, the “Z” key now acts as a four position switch. This feature also works in TV Mode.
January 6, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that an erronenous “No SRT subtitle file was found” warning message was being generated when the SRT file was actually found. This bug has been fixed.
January 1, 2011
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that “TV” mode was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
December 31, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the automatic save and the “Save now” button were causing foreign language subtitles to be saved using a file name identical to the English versions, thus creating a conflict. This bug has been fixed.
December 30, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the automatic save and the “Save now” button were causing foreign language diacritics characters to be converted into garbage. This bug has been fixed.
December 29, 2010
Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles was updated.
December 26, 2010
It was discovered that the Glossary section was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
December 23, 2010
In the Tape Transcriptions section, the menu page has been re-written in PHP. Thus the code is now much more straightforward/easy-to-maintain, and all known bugs/inconsistencies have been fixed.
December 21, 2010
History repeats itself! In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that again the “| Show Less | Sort by: Verse City Date Duration |” links were no longer working! This bug has again been fixed.
December 17, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, the following edit mode enhancements were added:
1. Keyboard shortcuts/macros:
; —> ;
;. —> …
;` —> ‘
;’ —> ‘
;[ —> “
;] —> ”
;b —> ~begin splice~
;d —> —
;e —> ~end splice~
;i —> <I>
;n —> </I>
;p —> PRABHUPADA:
Note: ~begin splice~, ~end splice~ and all of the text in between shall be replaced by [splice] the next time that the text is reformatted.
2. A “Convert Selected Text to Lower Case” button, which also works with letters containing Sanskrit diacritics, was added.
December 15, 2010 (Updated on July 20, 2012)
----- Begin Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles -----
In the Lectures/Conversations section, the following editorial policies for the audio files' corresponding SRT subtitles have been established:
1. No subtitle line shall be longer than 32.2em, measured using the Segoe UI font.
2. No subtitle shall have more than 2 lines.
3. As long as there is a pause before and after the sentence, there shall be only one sentence per subtitle, even if the sentence is only one word, such as “Yes.” Dividing the subtitles at sentence breaks has the following advantages: a) Translation into other languages will be made easier. (None of the timings will have to be redone.) b) There is a natural pause at the end of a sentence, so it’s a good time to switch to a new subtitle. c) When referring to a particular subtitle, for example <http://causelessmercy.com/a/?AK=D1&SN=6> or <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuYGAQdTCYo#t=37s>, the problem of jumping into the middle of a sentence is solved. d) Having to adjust or to re-record timings is almost completely eliminated, because adding or deleting a word in a particular subtitle will not make it necessary to reformat subsequent subtitles. (See Sentence Formatting Mode for SRT Subtitles.) e) Keeping the subtitles short results in more action on the screen, resulting in an increased interest and an increased ability to concentrate on the words being spoken.
4. An exception to #3 above is as follows: If there is no significant pause after a sentence, then a compound sentence should be created using a semicolon as the separator, and the entire compound sentence should occupy a single subtitle. (The the Bhaktivedanta Archives’ transcribers had a habit of separating such sentences with a comma. All such commas should be changed to semicolons.)
5. If there is a conflict between #2, #3 and #4 above because a particular sentence or compound sentence takes up more than 2 lines, then the sentence shall be split into 2 or even more subtitles. Preferably the subtitles should be approximately equal in length, and preferably they should be divided where there is a natural pause in the speech.
6. Since bold characters are not allowed in SRT subtitles, the person speaking shall, instead, be indicated in all upper case, starting on a new line and ending with a colon.
For example:
ANNOUNCER: The following is an arrival address
7. In the case of a conversation, succeeding occurrances of the same speaker shall not be indicated, even when the person speaking changes.
8. An exception to #7 above is as follows: If two different people are speaking on the same subtitle, and both of them have been identified previously, then the “Hollywood standard” of using a dash (-) at the beginning of each speaker’s transcription shall be used.
For example:
- Yes.
- By chanting your name…
9. “Hearing impared” content, such as “[laughter]” shall be removed.
10. If Srila Prabhupada begins a sentence with “So,” and he pauses after the “So,” then there should be a comma after “So,” otherwise not.
For example, in this case, there was no pause:
So I see your temple is the best.
In this case, there was:
So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very kind.
11. A comma shall follow the introduction to quoted text.
For example:
So, he thought that, “Yamaraja
is the superintendent of death.
12. In accordance with the Bhaktivedanta Archives’ tape transcription editorial policies, “…” shall be used to indicate an incomplete sentence.If the incomplete sentence is followed by a pause, then a new the “…” should be the end of the subtitle.
For example:
And you are conquering country
after country, country after country…
13. In accordance with the Bhaktivedanta Archives’ tape transcription editorial policies, [break] shall be used to indicate that the original tape recording was interrupted.
For example:
[break] …party is infected, then preaching will stop.
14. In order to indicate that words included in the transcription have been edited out of the published version of the audio, [splice] shall be inserted.
For example:
He’ll feel pain [splice] even he traverse over an ant.
15. An exception to #14 above is as follows: If words in the transcription have been edited out of the very beginning or the very end of the published audio version, then [splice] shall not be inserted.
16. Although the Bhaktivedanta Archives’ transcriptions are not at all consistent in this regard, if a Sanskrit verse is quoted, then the verse number reference shall also be included in square braces. For example, [Bg 8.15]. No exceptions, even if the exact same verse had previously been quoted several times within the same lecture or conversation. The reason for this is simple: The person viewing the subtitle can only see one subtitle at a time, and may not have been paying close attention the last time that that particular verse was being quoted. Also, Srila Prabhupada would sometimes quote only part of a verse, and might quote different parts at different times.
For example:
Adanta-gobhir visatam tamisram punah
punas carvita-carvananam [SB 7.5.30].
17. If the verse is quoted differently than the version of the verse in Srila Prabhupada’s books, then the exact version being spoken shall be used. (Quite often the BA transcriptions contain the version as it appears in Srila Prabhupada’s books, ignoring the way that Srila Prabhupada actually spoke it.)
18. If no reference was given in the transcription for a quoted verse and the quote cannot be found in Srila Prabhupada’s books, then [?] shall be given as the reference.
For example:
Loke vyayayamisa-madya-seva nityastu jantuh [?].
19. Commas and end-of-sentence-indicators shall be placed after references to Sanskrit verse numbers rather than before them.
For example, the following is incorrect:
After death, as it is explained in this verse,
na hanyate hanyamane sarire, [Bg. 2.20]
The following is correct:
After death, as it is explained in this verse,
na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg. 2.20],
20. Quoted Sanskrit verses shall be italicized, but not enclosed within quotes. To do so would be redundant.
21. Quoted Sanskrit verses, if they are not part of a sentence, shall always begin with an upper case letter and end with a period, and shall, for formatting purposes, be treated as a sentence.
For example:
Tyaktva deham punar janma, punar
janma naiti mam eti kaunteya [Bg. 4.9].
----- End of Editorial Policies for SRT Subtitles -----
December 14, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the ”| Show Less | Sort by: Verse City Date Duration |“ links were no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
December 12, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, right below the title, a ”(Click here to view the complete transcription)“ link was added to each of the non-menu (audio player) web pages.
December 4, 2010
In the book (Home) section, it was discovered that Internet Explorer 9 Beta was getting an “Invalid character” error. This bug has been fixed.
December 3, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, synchronized text has been added to 108 of Srila Prabhupada’s 1843 “officially” published audio recordings. Since only 8 had been synchronized on November 14, this means that 100 were done in less than 3 weeks! Although it’s true that only the shortest ones have been done so far, it’s also true that up until today, the work was constantly being interrupted by new features being added and bugs being fixed. Since <http://causelessmercy.com/a/> involves thousands of lines of newly written HTML, JavaScript, and PHP code, it’s not very surprising that there were a few bugs. However, as of today, all known bugs have been fixed, even those which were just intermittent, minor annoyances.
November 27, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, an anomaly was discovered when testing using IE9 Beta: When playing one of the MP3s, the audio would initially be playing even though it was supposed to be paused. This anomaly has been eliminated.
November 25, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section:
1. It was discovered that if the “F” key was pressed to switch the font to “bold” and then the “S” key (save current scroll position, etc. in the URL) was pressed, the font would be erroneously switched back to “normal.” This bug has been fixed.
2. It was discovered that the Undo last record (0) button was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
November 23, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, if you go to one of the audio recordings and click the Show more button…
1. … you may notice that the Display info (W) button has been added.
2. … and then click the Enter record mode button you may notice that the Ignore all subsequent timings (D) button has been added.
----- Begin MP3s with SRT Subtitles using KMPlayer -----
Dear Prabhus, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This is the amazing breakthrough that I’ve been praying for for almost a decade! We finally have a free media player (KMPlayer) which can play Srila Prabhupada’s MP3s, including synchronized text (subtitles), in fine style without having to modify the MP3 files in any way!
This means, among other things, that we can put all of Srila Prabhupada’s MP3s, including the corresponding subtitles, on one Blu-ray disk or on a 32 GB USB flash drive, and play them on any computer or suitable media player.
This also means that temples around the world can create their own closed-circuit transcendental “television station,” and pipe Srila Prabhupada’s audio recordings with high definition synchronized text to every room in the temple 24/7! They could play them in “shuffle mode,” so that no one knows what is going to play next. They could have a channel for lectures, one for conversations, a japa channel and a music channel! They could even have different channels with the synchronized text in different languages! :-)
It also means that householders can do the same thing in their houses!
It also means that ashram managers can do the same thing in their ashrams!
Here’s how to very easily see this amazing phenomenon for yourself:
1. Download one of Srila Prabhupada’s SRT subtitle files from < http://causelessmercy.com/s/>.
2. Download the corresponding MP3 file from < http://causelessmercy.com/?P=_PrabhupadasMP3Links>.
3. Download and install KMPlayer from <http://kmplayer.en.softonic.com/>, or, if you don’t want to bother to install it, or if you want to be able to run it on any computer from a flash drive, then download a portable version from <http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=835>.
4. Run “KMPlayer.exe”
5. Make sure that the MP3 file and the SRT file are in the same folder and that they both have the same name except for the extensions.
6. Drag and drop the MP3 file on top of KMPlayer.
7. If you don’t see the subtitles, then right-click on KMPlayer and select “Normal Size (100%).”
8. Now you should see the subtitles with a distracting “visualization” in the background.
To get rid of the “visualization”:
9. Right-click on KMPlayer, and select “Options/Preferences…”
10. Click “Visualizations.”
11. Under “Visualizations,” select “Black Screen.”
12. Click “Close.”
To make the subtitles full screen and centered vertically:
13. Right-click on KMPlayer and click “Subtitles/Subtitle Alignment/Vertical: Center.”
14. Right-click on KMPlayer and click “Full Screen (Stretch).”
15. Use Alt+F1 and Alt+F2 to adjust the subtitle size to fill the entire screen.
To change the font:
16. Right-click on KMPlayer and select “Options/Preferences…”
17. Click “Subtitle Processing.”
18. Click “Font Style.”
19. Change the “Primary” font to “Segoe UI.” (This is a good choice because it is the font which was used to calculate the subtitle line widths, it is a very easy font to read, it is fairly elegant, and there is no such thing as a version which does not display all of the Sanskrit diacritics perfectly.)
20. Click “Close.”
----- End of MP3s with SRT Subtitles using KMPlayer -----
November 21, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, numerous minor bugs/inconsistencies were fixed, and several minor enhancements were implemented. Some of the bug fixes involved the failure of the Undo (Q) button to work under certain circumstances. Some of them involved the failure of the screen to become updated in a timely fashion. Some of the enhancements, such as the rearranging of the buttons, were for the purpose of making it easier to record the timings using the buttons rather than the computer’s keyboard.
November 20, 2010
In the Lectures/Conversations section, it was discovered that the …
1. …subtitles were sometimes messed up when they were reloaded after being saved automatically or with the Save now button. This bug had been fixed.
2. …“F” (change font style) key was not working after the button was clicked. This bug had been fixed.
November 19, 2010
1. Due to a Lectures/Conversations section bug fix, the buttons are now much more responsive.
2. A few new SRT subtitle files have been added to Lectures/Conversations, bringing the total up to 28. During this phase of adding enhancements and fixing bugs, the shortest MP3s are having their respective SRT subtitle files created first. Exceptions may be made at any time, so please let us know if you have any special requests.
3. The SRT Subtitle Files Corresponding to Lectures/Conversations web page has been created. This web page allows all currently available subtitles to be viewed/downloaded.
4. It was discovered that the Lectures/Conversations section was no longer working with Opera or Google Chrome. This turned out to be a timing problem unique to these two web browsers. The problem has been fixed.
5. It was discovered that the method that the Lectures/Conversations section used for calculating the maximum SRT subtitle line width was not compatible with Opera. This problem has been fixed.
November 14, 2010
The Lectures/Conversations section has been added. This section contains all of Srila Prabhupada’s “officially” published audio recordings in the form of MP3 files. It uses HTML5 to synchonize the audio with the corresponding transcriptions. However, only a tiny fraction (8 out of 1843) have been completed so far. The web page contains everything that is needed to edit the text and to record/fine-tune the timings, including detailed, step-by-step instructions. This is a huge project and volunteers are needed. If you have an interest in helping out with this extremely blissful, highly worthwhile project, please contact the Causelessmercy.com Webservant ().
April 17, 2010
1. It was discovered that the Sanskrit Diacritic Font Comparisons web page was not showing the “The way the fonts look with your particular computer / web browser” with the proper font size using the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox. This bug has been fixed.
2. It was discovered that this web page was not being displayed properly using the latest version of Internet Explorer. This bug has been fixed.
April 15, 2010
In the Tape Transcriptions section, it was discovered that the “S” command (save current scroll position, etc. in the URL) was no longer working properly for web pages other than the index “A” page. This bug has been fixed.
December 16, 2009
1. It was discovered that the changes made earlier today caused all of the links in the “A” index in the Tape Transcriptions section to no longer work. This bug has been fixed.
2. It was discovered that the changes made earlier today caused the “A” index link in the Tape Transcriptions section to no longer work. This made it impossible to return to the “A” index once a different index was loaded. This bug has been fixed.
June 4, 2009
Starting today, http://causelessmercy.com/ has a new, easier to read, “mobile friendly” look. If you prefer black text on white, press the “K” key. If you prefer a rainbow background, press “8.” Press “V” to return to the default colors. To zoom in press <Ctrl>+. To zoom out press <Ctrl>-
May 28, 2009
It was discovered that the “S” command (save current scroll position, etc. in the URL) was not working when using Firefox. This bug has been fixed.
April 15, 2009
In the Video section, a list of Rapidshare URLs for the purpose of downloading the higher quality Xvid/MP3/AVI versions of Srila Prabhupada’s 103 videos has been added. These versions, after copying them to blank DVDs, will even work on stand-alone DVD players designed to play DivX video files.
March 31, 2009
In the Video section, the ZIP file containing Srila Prabhupada’s 74 English language SRT subtitle files has been updated. (See http://causelessmercy.com/?P=v/Subtitles)
March 4, 2009
In the Video section, the ZIP file containing Srila Prabhupada’s 74 English language SRT subtitle files has been updated: The subtitles now include the Sanskrit diacritics.
March 2, 2009
In the Video section, the ZIP file containing Srila Prabhupada’s 74 English language SRT subtitle files has been updated: Hundreds of typos, inconsistencies, and misspelled words have been corrected.
February 24, 2009
In the Video section, more videos have been added to the list. Also, a download link to a ZIP file containing English subtitle (SRT) files for 74 of the videos has been added.
December 9, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, it was discovered that none of the alternate (city, year, alphabetical, etc.) index links were working with FireFox. This bug has been fixed.
October 11, 2008
A feature was added to almost all of the active links. This feature causes the URL to be displayed in a tiny, light yellow pop-up box when the cursor is hovering over a link.
October 10, 2008 (Ekadasi)
During the three weeks prior to today, Perl programs were used to automatically make thousands of changes to this website. I’m in the process of testing the changes, but in the mean time, please let me know if you notice something which is illogical, inconsistent or just plain does not work.
Causelessmercy.com Webservant ()
September 29, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, it was discovered that …
1. … the “S” command was no longer working on index web pages other that the “Main Index.”
2. … 3 of the indexes, namely “Sorted by Location,” “Sorted by Date“ and “Sorted by Classification” were no longer working.
These bugs have been fixed.
September 8, 2008
The Sanskrit Diacritic Font Comparisons web page was updated.
September 5, 2008
For the entire website, …
1. …clicking a link to a scriptural reference no longer causes a new window to open.
2. …clicking a link to a scriptural reference now creates a URL containing custom font, color, etc. information, so passing this information no longer depends upon cookies being enabled.
September 2, 2008
In the book (Home) section, the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta was changed to the 1975 version. This meant that all of the active links to the Caitanya-caritamrta in all of the books had to be changed.
5506 scriptural references to Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam (Cantos 1-9 only), Caitanya-caritamta, Sri Isopanisad & Brahma-samhita were automatically converted into active links, but some were missed.
Typical of those which were automatically converted to an active link:
(Antya 4.192)
[Bg. 14.26]
Bhagavad-gita (15.15)
Bhagavad-gita 18.54
Bhagavad-gita [9.25]
[Brahma-samhita Text 5.30]
(Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 8.128)
[Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 20.202, purport]
(Cc. Madhya 22.87)
[SB 6.3.19]
Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.16.29)
Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.5.10-11):
Typical of those which were missed:
“Bhagavad-gita (9.34 and 18.65)” (http://causelessmercy.com/Madhya19.5#167)
“Bhagavad-gita, Chapter Eight, verse thirteen” (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=Adi7.8?t=2170)
“(Brahma-samhita 5.30, 32)” (The 1st reference was converted, but not the 2nd - http://causelessmercy.com/?P=EK4?t=6588)
“Third Canto, Chapter Twenty-three, verse 56, the Bhagavatam…” (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=Adi13.4?t=8190)
“Third Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Chapter Twenty-five, verse 36” (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=NoD3?t=7035)
“Madhya-lila (Chapter Twenty-five, verses 55, 56 and 58)” (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=Madhya17.5?t=6765)
“Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Canto, Chapter Twenty-Six, verses 21, 25, 27 and 28” (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=Adi5.2?t=8422)
August 30, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, the documentation web page was updated.
----- Begin MP3 Tag Standards -----
After several months of careful consideration, tentative standards were established for the internal “ID3” tags for the MP3 files, and all 2147 of the downloadable MP3 files (See “Free downloads:” http://causelessmercy.com/#BOTTOM) have been updated to conform to these standards.
It’s good to get these standards established early on, because it takes a lot of time to upload the MP3 files to the server, and Srila Prabhupada’s MP3s fill approximately 21 CD-ROMs!
Before there was such a thing as the “Bhaktivedanta Book Trust,” there was “ISKCON Press” (Boston). In it’s early days, ISKCON Press published one of Srila Prabhupada’s books with “A. C. Bhaktivedanta” as the author. This made Srila Prabhupada very upset. He said that this was impersonalism, and that his ISKCON Press disciples were being psychically influenced by his very powerful, but very envious godbrothers in India! He told the press devotees that “His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada” should be used for all future publications as had been previously instructed!
The temptation was to simply use “His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada” as the Artist and Album Artist tags. The trouble with this is that some MP3 players list “Artist - Title” and allow very little space for the combination. If “His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada” were used for the Artist tags, then the Title tags would not show up on the listings, and only the first portion of the Artist tags would show up! The Album Artist tags must also be short in order for Windows Media Player’s automatic indexing to work properly.
Therefore, we are hoping that the following standards for the file names / ID3 tags are pleasing to Srila Prabhupada and to the assembled Vaisnavas:
Note: These ID3 tag standards where designed primarily to work well with the iPhone / iPod touch. They also work well with the latest versions of iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp. They allow all five of the these MP3 players to very easily sort Srila Prabhupada’s lecture / conversation MP3s by verse, by date, or by city!
1. File name: SB_1-02-22_LA_1972-08-25_A_First-class_Devotee_Is_—etc.mp3. (Example - This format allows the classes to be sorted by verse using the Windows folder listing, and the latest versions of Winamp and Windows Media Player.)
2. Title: LA720825 - SB 1-02-22 - A First-class Devotee Is Beyond All Doubts - Los Angeles, August 25, 1972. (Example - Allows the lecture / conversation MP3s to be sorted by city, and within cities, by date. This will also be the default tag to sort by for most MP3 players if an “Album” is selected whose “Track #” tags are empty, for example: Addresses, Arrival Addresses, Festivals, Interviews, Lectures, Morning Walk Conversations, and Room Conversations.)
3. Composer: N720825LA SB 1-02-22 - A First-class Devotee Is Beyond All Doubts - Los Angeles, August 25, 1972. (Example - Allows the lecture / conversation MP3s to be sorted by date. The N at the beginning of the title is unique to the year, 1972. It makes going directly to a particular year possible on the iPhone / iPod touch. These letters are assigned: B = 1966, D = 1967, …, X = 1977, and Z = year unknown. Including the city abbreviation, LA, allows the city to be known on portable MP3 players that only display the beginning of the title. For MP3s other than lectures or conversations, this tag shall be left blank.)
4. Conductor: 720825SB.LA. (This is an example of a VedaBase® key which shall, if it is known, be included, otherwise, the tag shall contain TNA (Transcription Not Available). For MP3s other than lectures or conversations, this tag shall be left blank.)
5. Artist: Bhaktivedanta. (Kept short in order to display properly when using certain MP3 players.)
6. Album: Srimad Bhagavatam, 1st Canto (Example - Should be one of the following: Addresses / Arrival Addresses / Bhagavad-gita Classes / Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi Lila / Caitanya Caritamrta, Madhya Lila / Festivals / Hindi Lectures & Conversations / Interviews / Isopanisad Classes / Japa / Krishna Book Dictation Tapes / Lectures / Morning Walk Conversations / Mridunga Lessons / Nectar of Devotion Classes / Room Conversations / Srimad Bhagavatam, 1st Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, 2nd Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, 3rd Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, 5th Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, 6th Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, 7th Canto / Srimad Bhagavatam, Misc. / Stories, or the original CD title for the music MP3s).
7. Album Artist: A. C. Bhaktivedanta. (This tag is absolutely essential and must also be relatively short in order for Windows Media Player to do its automatic indexing correctly.)
8. Track #: 010222. (Example - The verse number formatted in a way that causes most MP3 players to automatically sort the classes by verse when an “Album” is selected. For addresses, lectures, interviews, and conversations, this tag shall be left blank, in which case most MP3 players will sort by the “Title” tags when a particular “Album” is selcted. For the music MP3s, this tag shall contain the actual track numbers of the music CDs that they are from, and shall always contain 2 numeric digits. Example: Track #1 shall be entered as “01.”)
9. Year: 2005. (Example - This tag refers to the year that the “album” was released, and shall, therefore, be the year that the current MP3 set was or shall be released by the Bhaktivedanta Archives.)
10. Genre: Hare Krishna (Lecture). (Example - Not only is “Hare Krishna” the most descriptive terminology for the material being presented, but Srila Prabhupada said that the more that we say Krishna’s Holy Name the better! For Srila Prabhupada’s music MP3s, Hare Krishna shall be used. For addresses, classes, lectures and stories, Hare Krishna (Lecture) shall be used. For interviews and conversations, Hare Krishna (Conversation) shall be used. For japa, Krishna Book dictation, lectures / conversations in Hindi, and mrdunga lessons, Hare Krishna (Non-music) shall be used. The reason for having four different genres is so that the four groups can be very easily played at random (shuffle mode) using the iPhone / iPod touch or the Windows Media Player’s automatic indexing system.)
11. Comment: Speaker: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada / [blank line] / Bhaktivedanta Archives / Prabhupada.com / 336-871-3636, ext. 109. (Instead of Speaker, Conversation with shall be used for conversation MP3s, Interviewee for media interview MP3s, and Artist for music MP3s.)
12. URL: Causelessmercy.com. (If someone downloads the MP3 file all by itself, then he or she will be able to tell, in the future, where it came from.)
13. Audio file information webpage: Prabhupada.com.
14. Artist webpage: Prabhupada.com.
15. Audio source webpage: Causelessmercy.com.
16. Buy CD webpage: Prabhupada.com.
----- End of MP3 Tag Standards -----
July 22, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, a new format for the lectures/conversations with synchronized text was implemented. The text is more like standard movie “subtitles” with all bold, italics and links removed and the text corresponding exactly to the spoken words. For example: “ANNOUNCER: The following is a class… .”
July 16, 2008
For the entire website, “Segoe UI” was made the default font with “Tahoma Plus, Tahoma” the alternative fonts in case Segoe UI is not installed.
March 26, 2008
A web page containing a link to 19,494 downloadable pictures of Srila Prabhupada was added. (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=_PrabhupadasPictureLinks)
March 16, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, changes have been made to each of the 3248 tape transcription web pages:
1. Links to Home, Prabhupada’s Tape Transcriptions, and Bottom have been added at the top.
2. Links to Top, Home, and Prabhupada’s Tape Transcriptions have been added at the bottom.
3. A Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Krishna.com) copyright notice has been added at the bottom.
4. “THIS WEB PAGE URL: …” has been added at the bottom.
March 14, 2008
In the book (Home) section, changes have been made to each of the 1341 book / MP3 link web pages:
1. There is no longer a link to the top of the web page at the top.
2. There is no longer a link to the bottom at the bottom.
3. A Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (Krishna.com) copyright notice has been added at the bottom.
March 2, 2008
Instructions on how to download all of the MP3 files in one fell swoop were added to the tops of the 3 “Free downloads” web pages (http://causelessmercy.com/#BOTTOM).
February 27, 2008
In the Tape Transcriptions section, it was discovered that the 3 audio/text synchronization examples were no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
February 8, 2008
A new font was added. The new font is called “Segoe UI.” You can switch to this new font by pressing the “N” key (switch to a different font weight / font family) twice. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segoe_UI, this font is included with Windows vista and MS Word 2007. If you don’t have this font installed on your computer, then you can download it from http://causelessmercy.com/fonts/SegoeUI.zip.
February 4, 2008
For each of Srila Prabhupada’s 131 miscellaneous non-music MP3s (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=_PrabhupadasNonmusicMP3Links), the tags have been updated to conform to the new standards.
February 3, 2008
For each of Srila Prabhupada’s 173 music MP3s (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=_PrabhupadasMusicMP3Links), the tags have been updated to conform to the new standards.
February 2, 2008 (Ekadasi)
1. For each of Srila Prabhupada’s 1843 lecture / conversation MP3s (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=_PrabhupadasMP3Links), “Album Art” has been added and the tags have been updated to conform to most of the new standards.
2. An experimental PDF version of one of Srila Prabhupada’s books was created (http://causelessmercy.com/rop.pdf). It’s very easy to read on the iPod touch / iPhone, and it includes the bold (blue), the italics, and the Sanskrit diacritics. The size of the PDF file is 104 KB vs. 27 KB for the HTML version (http://causelessmercy.com/?P=RoP). This means that all of Srila Prabhupada’s books should only take up about 200 MB as PDF files, which is insignificant compared to the approximately 15 GB that his MP3 files take up. Therefore, a special “mobile” version of Causelessmercy.com could possibly be created containing all of Srila Prabhupada’s books / tape transcriptions in the form of PDF files. There are programs that automatically convert batches of HTML files into PDF files, so it should be doable.
January 10, 2008
In the book (Home) section home page,…
1. …it was discovered that the “S” command (save current scroll position, etc. in the URL) was no longer working. This bug has been fixed.
2. …three new MP3 downloading indexes were added. If you go to http://causelessmercy.com/?P=#BOTTOM you will see them under “Free downloads:” (small print). These contain the latest offerings from the Bhaktivedanta Archives. They are exactly the same as the original Archives versions with two exceptions. The first is that the ID3 tags have been changed to conform to the Tags new standards. This change allows the MP3s to take full advantage of the automatic indexing capabilities of MP3 players such as Windows Media Player.
----- Begin MP3 song purport standards -----
The second difference is that the songs which include purports have been concatenated with their corresponding purports so that all of the songs may be played “at random” (shuffle mode). These changes were made using lossless methods, so the quality of the MP3s is exactly the same as the original Bhaktivedanta Archives release versions.
----- End of MP3 song purport standards -----
December 6, 2007
On the home page, you no longer have to click in order to do a search. Now you can simply press the Enter key after entering the search string.
Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.
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