TUAW reader Vinod tipped us off to GDocsUploader, a small application for drag-and-drop uploading of Office documents to Google Docs. It's a wrapper around a Python implementation of the Google Documents List Data API. The API, which is limited primarily to uploading and searching, has been around for a while now, but we haven't seen too many Mac applications make use of it.

This app is simple, open source and duly small. A notable drawback of GDocsUploader is its use of AppleScript keychain scripting, which is notoriously slow and not altogether reliable (might I suggest something more usable?). It also gets a little sketchy with reporting transfer results, but that could possibly be an issue on the Google side. Overall, once you get through the first round of Keychain-doesn't-like-AppleScript (or was it vice-versa?) problems, it's a great little drop-point for getting Google its docs. Grab it at Google Code.

Thanks, Vinod!

Glenn Franxman at HackerMojo just put up a Python script that makes pictures pulled from MetroPulse into a screensaver. It's a mere 17 lines of code (which you can easily modify without knowing Python) that run as a cron job, downloading the images into the directory that you specify for the "Choose Folder..." screensaver.

It's a simple, fun way to keep your screensaver interesting using a minimum of tools. There have been similar applications for services like Flickr, such as FlickrSavr or the screensaver that comes with 1001, but the simplicity of just updating the pictures in the screensaver folder is appealing. And a screensaver seems like a perfect application for my previous ideas involving mdfind and sips. By using the simple method Glenn applies in his Python script, and making a few modifications to the "Spotlight Gallery" Perl script, you could make your screen display the last 20 or so images added to your own system. That could truly be a practical use for the idea, depending, of course, on where the most recent images on your system come from. Yes, my mind just went there.

As I am finally wrapping my head around just how useful Gus Mueller's VoodooPad can actually be, I'm getting more interested in tinkering with how it can be extended and made to do my bidding. Dubbed as a "garden for your thoughts," VodooPad is a great place to jot down ideas, lists and notes with a wiki-like document format that makes it dead-simple to link one page to another. Out of the box VoodooPad comes with a lot of great features, but Gus also maintains a VoodooPad plug-ins page with a number of add-ons for making VoodooPad do everything from adding some handy keyboard shortcuts to more complex abilities like rendering math in your documents and allowing plug-in authors to use Python for writing VoodooPad plug-ins.

At the top of my list, however, is the HTML Tools plug-in which allows you to preview the current VoodooPad page as rendered HTML, Textile or Markdown, as well as copy the text you've written as HTML (with styling attributes and all) or Simple HTML with just the plain markup. It's a handy plug-in for anyone who, like me, prefers to compose blog posts (or of course websites) in desktop software in order to take advantage of all the power Mac OS X has to offer, then simply copy and paste the blog post as HTML into their blogging engine or CMS. This Simple HTML feature needs a little work, however, as it isn't creating entirely proper HTML just yet. Lists, for example, are created simply with <br> tags instead of actual <ul> and <li> tags, but it could do the trick for those who aren't exactly trying to pass every HTML validation test available across the web.

The VoodooPad plug-ins are provided for free, though some of them are still PowerPC-only. Demos of the $29.95 VoodooPad are of course available, with a $49.95 VoodoPad Pro version that offers a few key features for power users, as well as a free VoodooPad Lite version for those who don't need quite as much.

MacResearch has posted a nice two part tutorial on using Platypus, a neat utility that allows you to "create native, flawlessly integrated Mac OS X applications from interpreted scripts." This include shell scripts, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc. With Platypus you can turn command-line only tools into full fledged, free-standing Mac applications that support drag and drop and even basic graphical feedback. Obviously this isn't going to make for a full GUI application, but it will allow you easily to create self-contained OS X applications that you can double-click to run. Especially for those in the science fields, and even for beginning (Ruby) script programmers like myself, Platypus makes it possible to get basic (and even not so basic) Mac app up and running very quickly.

Platypus is a free download from Sveinbjorn Thordarson, and donations are requested.

[Via MacResearch]

Update: fixed headline

Who says you need to use iTunes 7 to get that sweet, sweet high res album art for the iTunes Store? Jesper Nøhr spent a little time looking at tcpdumps and headers and came up with a Perl script that will download album art for a given artist and album (there is even an online demo). It has been adapted to Python and PHP already. What language is next? I think an Applescript version would be very cool, though I don't know if AppleScript has the necessary functionality.

JHymn users might remember that iTunes 6 broke the DRM-stripping tool, and it seems that Apple's done a good job of keeping FairPlay locked down - until someone cooked up QTFairUse6 for Windows. Yes, it's a Windows app, but it can apparently strip purchases from iTMS version 6.0.4 and above of their constraining DRM. QTFairUse6 isn't pretty either - it's a python script that involves some tinkering, but this might be good news to those who believe that if you love something, you should set it free.

[via Engadget]

A lot of people are clamoring for Apple to build support for BitTorrent into iTunes. Setting aside the greater implications and the major industry bridges Apple would burn if they were to do this, a man by the name of Michael Hobbs has developed a solution that might suffice for some of you who just gotta have your podcast torrents subscribed in iTunes.

While it might not be pretty, iTorrent (is anyone else getting sick of the 'i' prefix?) is essentially a set of Python scripts for Windows or Mac OS X that will allow you to add those BitTorrent podcasts into iTunes and update them with the rest of your podcasts. Unfortunately, it isn't a simple drag, drop and double-click, so check out Michael's site for installation and running instructions for both Windows and Mac OS X.

[via digg]

Jonathan 'The Wolf' Rentzch has an article about using PyObjC to bridge the gap between Python and Objective C to create applications that can use the best of both programming languages. While Python may not be the hottest programming language around (Ruby seems to be getting lots of press as of late), it is a tried and true alternative to Cocoa, and some say it is the easiest language to get started with.

The article includes directions for installing PyObjC as well as 3 Quicktime movies demonstrating certain activities. Rentzch has also posted a companion piece on his blog.