movies.dct
 

I created a .dct file (for sdict viewer) with the user ratings for all the movies IMDB.com had as yesterday (good for when you go to blockbuster and don't know if the movie you holding in your hand is worth anything).

If anyone wants it, here it is.

http://ioanghip.googlepages.com/movies.zip

Re: movies.dct
 

I'm very excited about this. Brilliant! Thanks for putting in the effort.

(And I've already learned something new. Just to test it out, I entered the beginning of Unbearable Lightness of Being and found there is an 8.0-rated movie entitled The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Rabbit!)

Re: movies.dct
 

I can't believe I'm the only person to have replied to this very useful post! I'm glad to give it a bump.

But I came looking for it now to ask ioan a question: How did you make this file? How did you start with the imdb website and end up with a .dct file for sdict? This strikes me as a useful set of skills. I wish I could do it.

Re: movies.dct
 

well,
step 1: I made an application to get in a loop all the pages (by increasing the tt value http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000001/), extract and save the rating from each page and then build the dct file.
When the app was done, I realized that this will take days to run, maybe weeks...
step 2: I researched some more, for a SOAP service, or any kind of web service to get this info easier... still nothing.
step 3: scrap step 1 and 2. that won't work.
then I found this page:
http://www.imdb.com/interfaces#plain
they let you download txt files with all the info they have on the website free of charge.
I downloaded the rating file, I extracted the name and the rating and I created the dct file.

How old are you? I was 22 (in 1992) when I first saw a PC and that was when I went to study Computer Science at the University in Bucharest. I fell in love with programming and that is what I do for living now:-) If you wish you cold do this, just start studying. Takes a lot of work... but it's worth it.

Re: movies.dct
 

Har!! :D I've been intending to post an answer to that question on the How Old Are You thread.

Let's put it this way: At the time I took my first programming class, I was at, truly, the cutting-edge institution for computer technology in the world (Stanford), and I was typing my programs on punchcards! (There weren't monitors at all; you would give your stack of punchcards to the computer operator to run and he would hand you back a printout.)

I was the fastest programmer in my class and I loved it, but I think I thought it was too nerdy. If I'd had the maturity I see in qwerty12 or underscore, I'd probably have stuck with it, but instead I majored in creative writing, took painting classes, lots of abstruse social theory ... Later, god forbid, I became a lawyer, and then I went back to school and got a physics degree, but not with any computer training.

I got back into computers (not programming, though) when I started a couple businesses and found that IT was essential to running any small business these days and that, if you were small and didn't have lots of money, you had to do it yourself.

Periodically I regret I didn't major in CS back at Stanford (but life has been good to me in other ways). The N800 has made doing all this stuff a lot of fun again.

I'm glad you're doing what you love. You can't beat that!

And I appreciate your encouragement, really!

Oh, 55.

Re: movies.dct
 

yeah, I love what I do, but sometimes I wish I could do this just for fun, only when I feel like doing it and not for money...
I don't agree with everything he says, but I truly wish I could be like this guy:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=34682

Re: movies.dct
 

For the most part I'm in his camp. I've managed to become what I call "independently lower-middle class." I feel guilty I'm not tutoring poor children, etc. (to quote one of the comments to his outburst), but I think I'm much less of a blight on this earth than consumerist worker-bees. And, in part, I assuage my guilt helping friends who aren't as time-fortunate as me. (Which, for starters, means pretty much anyone who had a child.)

Re: movies.dct
 

ioan, How do you create a .dct file?

Re: movies.dct
 

basically, you create a text file as explained on this page:
http://sdict.com/en/format.php

and then compile the file here:
http://sdict.com/en/converter.php (this didn't work for me)

or, compile it on your computer, using the utilities from this page:
http://swaj.net/sdict/index.html

Re: movies.dct
 

Thanks ioan, I'll have a look at that stuff.