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Hifi Mix

Thursday, April 28, 2005



I started thinking last week about the loss of mixed tapes, as cassettes [have] become obscured. It's obviously not the tapes that i miss; they're clunky and sound like crap. The process of making mixed tapes, though, was a good way to "interact" with music, besides the fact that it was relaxing. There weren't a whole lot of mixing tricks that you could do with a double tape deck, but as long as you had mechanical buttons (as opposed to electonic ones that had a slight delay) and an input level knob, you could at least control start/stop times precisely and do fades in & out.

Once my computer became my primary source for playing music (which has been quite some time now), the impetus for making mixes wasn't quite there. The only thing that saved making mixes was having a CD player in the car. The real loss wasn't in the end product, but the process itself. It's just not as engaging to make a playlist in winamp and burn it onto a disk. The difference between making a mixed tape and a playlist, i think, is the immediacy of doing it on tape. You decide on the spot what goes next and that's it, it's more of a concerted, finite activity. But really, the computer has so many advantages to making a good mix, that perhaps the point should shift from activity to end product.

So the process itself changes. After i compiled a tracklist and ordered the songs (probably the hardest part), i brought all of the songs into sound forge and created one big mp3. I decided to do it this way for 2 reasons. First, since posting the entire mix here is part of the end goal, i'm not entirely comfortable with posting a bunch of mp3s. Second, i'm using a cue sheet to burn to CD, which means that i can mix songs and create better segues. Using cue sheets eliminates forced gaps between tracks, so i can be creative with the mixing in sound forge (in moderation) and the CD will sound just as i intend.

So here is the mix, zipped. As i said, it's one long mp3 and a cue file, which gives you two options: burn a CD using the cue sheet or consider the mp3 a podcast type thing. Be forewarned that this is a 56MB file.
  1. The Go! Team - The Power Is On
  2. LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
  3. Elbow - Fallen Angel
  4. Broken Social Scene - Stars and Sons
  5. A.C. Newman - Most Of Us Prizefighters
  6. Spoon - The Delicate Place
  7. Interpol - Not Even Jail
  8. The Arcade Fire - Wake Up
  9. Beck - Missing
  10. M. Ward - Hifi
  11. Sly & the Family Stone - In Time
  12. The Meters - Sing A Simple Song
  13. rebirth brass band - New Orleans Music
  14. sophrosyne - esplanade
I was never big on making mixed tapes for other people, really. I just made tapes for myself of what was in heavy rotation at the time. The tapes wind up being interesting personal history "documents." BUT, when i did make tapes/CDs for other people, i had this nerdy tendency to write up short commentaries on the songs included. If i get the motivation, i may follow this post with something similar.

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

this american life

Wednesday, April 27, 2005



This American Life is one of the best shows on NPR. It comes on here on Friday afternoons at like 1pm, so it's rare that i get to hear it on the radio. But, they have almost their entire catalog of shows, since 1995, online at their site, www.thislife.org. They have their list of favorites, but really, they're all good.

The stories are all off-beat, true stories. They're produced really well, with host Ira Glass and his production staff narrating the stories and interviewing the tellers/participants. Writer David Sedaris contributes stories often, stories that you'll enjoy hearing, though i have to admit it's made me reluctant to read his books because i know i'll hear his voice saying the words in my head the whole time. His voice is a little... funny. But so are his stories.

Oh, and it's sponsored by VW, and we all know that VW symbolizes what is good about the world.

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stupid lappy 486

i had this small side-project and decided to use a bit of the money for upgrades to Lappy 486. i bought a new HIGH CAPACITY battery (which, far as i can tell is giving me like 3 HOURS of unadulterated lappy time) and a new motherboard, to alleviate the headphone jack problem and the fact that only one of my ram slots works. The guy who sold me the motherboard even threw in hinges for the screen to replace the one that went limp when i slammed the screen closed that one morning that airline prices spiked. Again.

so i broke the laptop down to it's many parts (which is easier than you'd think, if you've never dissected a laptop) and started piecing things together. I had this bad feeling that the motherboard wasn't going to work, but the hinge was good and stiff, so even if the motherboard was a bust, i'd still have gotten a good deal just on the hinge. i hooked everything up, plugged in the battery, hit the power button and nothing. took it all apart, put the old motherboard in (for comparison, you know) and the harddrive started to spin right away. i thought i might give up, but thought that i should first try swapping out CPUs. so i grab the keyboard to move it out of the way, but duh, it's plugged into the motherboard. i managed to move the keyboard out of the way successfully, and tore the wire-ribbon right off. yay! crap.

undaunted, i swapped out CPUs & heat syncs and put the new motherboard in again and everything seemed to fire up. while taking a break to eat dinner, it came upon me that i can use an external keyboard to get the stupid thing running and see if the motherboard really works, or if the harddrive is just spinning. everything went well, surprisingly, and when I hooked up the monitor i saw windows booting, so i had a new motherboard!

i had to disassemble the screen next to install the new hinge. i'd already pulled it apart once trying unsuccessfully to fix the broken hinge, so I knew what to expect. putting that back together didn't take long, so i figured i'd see if i could splice the keyboard ribbon back together. i did what i could and plugged it back into the motherboard, but it didn't work. i tried to disconnect it from the motherboard and instead of pulling just the keyboard's female connector off, it pulled the motherboard's male end off too, leaving the pins exposed on the motherboard. no problem, i put the male end back on the pins... but there was a pin missing! so i pulled the connector back off and there was a sad, crumpled little pin where a happy, erect pin used to be. Trying to straighten a 1/8” long piece of wire is practically impossible, and what I feared would happen did happen. The pin broke off. Keyboards are pretty cheap on ebay and I had ordered one within 20 minutes, but I don't really know what I'm going to do with it when it gets here. I'm not sure how much damage that one missing pin will cause, or if I'll be able to solder something on there to patch it up or what.

I feel like I should be in some Coen brothers dream sequence with laptop parts floating down through the air around me and I reach out and push them in a pile together, but just cant manage to get anything to work. I'm looking vaguely at the LCD and see flickers of Tron on the screen.

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cnn.si.photos

Tuesday, April 26, 2005


Tracy McGrady in Game 1 vs Mavs.
photo: Greg Nelson/SI

Click the photo for more at SI.com. Like i said, they have nice pictures on their site!

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i want my two dollars

Saturday, April 23, 2005

today i got a notice from a collection agency, addressed to "JASON T VANPELT" that they'd bought out the debt that i owed to AT&T Wireless/Cingular and they want they monies. of course, i've never had an account with AT&T Wireless, nor am i Jason T. ("Jason T. playin all the hot clubs in metairie, yall.")

So i called the collection agency and left a voice mail stating my situation. Figured, they'll call back and i'll set it all straight. They've got the wrong Jason Van Pelt. (The fact that i am not the only Jason Van Pelt in existence is still upsetting to me, but that's a tangent.) I decided to call AT&T and see what information i could get from them. Did they even have a Jason T. Van Pelt? Turns out that not only do they have a Jason T. Van Pelt, he's even got the same social .. security .. number. They asked if i still lived at 1155 Pennsylvania Ave? "No, i've never lived there..." It's in Brooklyn! Yay. I have to say that once i could manage to get myself past the automated front of AT&T's phone system, which is quite hard to do without an active AT&T account, the two guys that i spoke with were extremely helpful. I get the feeling that had they not sold the account off, i could've had it taken care of with no problem. Unfortunately, Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC out of Tempe, AZ bought into this.

You know what the problem with this is, how are we as individuals going to protect ourselves against this? I mean, shouldn't the companies that are creating these accounts be required to verify the identity of the person? It's not like i can keep tabs on all of society to make sure no one's saying they're me. It's not like they stole my credit card and i didn't pay attention to the statements. Hell, when we bought our house a year and a half ago, we got copies of our credit reports and i dont remember seeing anything on there about AT&T Wireless or Cingluar.

What happened was this person got my information, got himself an cellphone, never paid the bill, and had the service for about 5 months before they got cut off. This happened in 2000 and here i hear about it now. AT&T's advice to me was to file a police report, then call the collection agency, tell them it was fraud, and give them the case number from the police. Not like the police are going to do anything, i just need the number. It was a bit amusing when i asked the Cingular guy on the phone if i could have his name, he said "oh sure. it's chris." "ok..." "you want my last name too?" "yeah, if you don't mind..." "ok, it's..." Sucka, gimme yo full name.

So i should find out monday what Cavalry thinks of the idea of me not paying them.

posted by j. Permanent Link 6 comments

Firefox Adblocker

Thursday, April 21, 2005

If you're using Firefox as your browser, you can download this extension called Adblock. It blocks ads! I'm not going to try to explain how it works, but i'll give you a few pointers on getting things up and running.

  • First of all, download the extension. Once it's installed, close all instances of Firefox, then restart it.
  • Save the file "adblockFilters.txt" to your desktop.
  • Go to Tools > Adblock > Preferences (or hit Ctrl + Shift + P) You should have a window like this:



  • Select "Import filters" and, in the dialog box that pops up, find the "filters.txt" file on your desktop. It'll ask you if you want to overwrite, click ok and you should be done.
Try out the sites that you hit a lot, particularly news and portal sites. Ads, particularly image ads, should be drastically reduced.

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

efficiency of movement

Photoshop Actions:


This seems like a pretty simple set of actions, but they come in extremely handy with one-button access. I won't use Photoshop without them.

F2 - Contract Selection by 1px
F3 - Expand Selection by 1px
F4 - Flatten Image
F5 - Convert to RGB
F6 - Fill with Foreground
F7 - Create New (blank) Layer
F8 - Crop
F9 - Duplicate Current Layer
F10 - Delete Current Layer

Click here to download Photoshop Actions.


TextPad Macros:


The further i got into CSS and hand-coding, the more i needed a good text-editor. I asked around for an alternative to Notepad that would allow me to simply have multiple undos. TextPad was recommended to me and i love it. It's cheap and it's flexible. It's got this Document Selector thang that allows you open multiple files at once, which you can save as "workspaces," which is basically a group of files.




The search/replace on it is really nice. And, you can create macros. Which i have. Which you can have:


{} : insert brackets ( { \n\t\n} )
bold : inserts bold tags around selection
br : inserts br
class : inserts class=""
delete line : as it says
h1-h4 : inserts h1 tags around selection
href : inserts a href="" /a around selection
id : inserts id="" at cursor
italic : inserts italic tags around selection
li : places li tags in front of current line
nbsp; : inserts non-breaking space
new html page : creates the backbone of a new html page, including xhtml 1.0 strict doctype
new img : creates new img tag with border="0" and alt=""
new javascript : inserts script tags with type="text/javascript" language="javascript"
p : inserts p tags around selection
strip tags : i didn't write this one... does as it says
style : inserts style="" at cursor
table : inserts table tags with border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
td : inserts td tags and \n
tr : inserts tr tags with line breaks and tabs
ul : inserts ul /li /ul around selection
div : inserts div \n\t\n /div at cursor
add an swf : inserts object, param, and embed tags for player version=7,0,0,0




Click here to download my TextPad Macros.

(You have to configure the shortcuts in Configure > Preferences > Keyboard > Macros. I included the image so that you can see how i have it configured.)

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

Abobe + Macromedia

Wednesday, April 20, 2005



There's a lot of fuss going on right now about this announcement that Adobe is buying Macromedia, and I can't help but feel somewhat less enthused about protesting this move than others. First of all, Adobe seems to be being cast as the big bad behemoth in this situation, gobbling up the little guy. But Macromedia is no little guy, they've been on the acquisition hunt for years now themselves. I think most of the dissenting opinions are centered on the fear that MM's Freehand and Fireworks software are going to be on the losing end when Adobe starts eliminating redundancies.

I've never had any use for Freehand, I barely use Illustrator as it is. My job doesn't require the use of Illustrator very often, but i have to say that the more chances i get to use it, the more i like it (except for the fact that it's one of the most unintuitive programs i've ever seen). I did try using Fireworks a few times in the past, but i never was a big fan of it. Everyone who loves it talks about how it's "made for the web" in contract to Photoshop being "made for print." No one seems to doubt Photoshop's dominance in photo manipulation, but to say that photoshop isn't an application that's well suited to web design is really a misjudgment of photoshop. I've been using PS for the web for years (since PS4) and it's done nothing but improve. The Save-for-Web feature is awesome for image optimization, the integration with Image Ready works well in the off-chance that you need to make an animated gif, and i've got this set of Actions that i created that do all the basics for me with a keystroke. (Details on that at the bottom, if i remember.)

As far as using programs like Fireworks and Photoshop/Image Ready for their ease-of-use html capabilities, though, i think it's a mistake from the start to be using a design program to write your code. The code that they put out is ugly and it's not helping to move the web away from nested tables and spacer gifs. Besides, and maybe this is just the geek in me coming out... i enjoy writing my own code. Or at least, i enjoy letting the TextPad Macros i've written write the code for me. One of the most satisfying parts of my job is taking the graphic elements i create, putting them into code, and seeing it all come together in a site design that is efficient and clean.

Where Macromedia has always reigned has been animation. Director and then Flash have been standards for years and Adobe was never really able to crack the market with Live Motion, which they stopped offering in November, 2003. But flash... flash is just weird sometimes. In some way's it's pretty powerful software and i think it's something of an enabler, helping people like me who come from a design background tackle programming to some extent, even if it is in a naive actionscript kinda way. But Flash still tends to be a little buggy at times in the way that it implements scripting, and I have hope that the solidity of Adobe's products finds its way into Flash.

One other pro about Adobe buying macromedia is the possibility of Flash PDF integration. One of the main drawbacks of flash is its lack of output abilities. To be able to access something similar to Acrobat's print-to-pdf functionality from within the flash player could be a huge boost in productivity.

I do have to say, though, that one of the major downsides to this deal would be the lack of competition. I mean, Adobe and Macromedia are the two major brands in web design, which serves to keep them true. I wouldn't expect a drop-off in the quality of the software, but you have to imagine that there would be less urgency in forward product development. I also think that the Adobe name on MM products is literally going to come at a price to consumers. But then, they'll also be Adobe products. Mmm, Adobe.

A few articles:

Merger Works for Adobe, But Customers May Suffer

Adobe + Macromedia = PDF Boost



And really, this isn't as bad as ESPN acquiring Monday Night Football from ABC.

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

reggie miller

Tonight is Reggie Miller's last regular season game, after which come the playoffs and ultimately retirement. The fact that the Pacers are in the playoffs at all is surprising, considering the turbulence of the Pacers' season. With Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson suspended for large chunks of the season, Ron Artest out for almost the entire season, and late season injuries to O'Neal and Jamaal Tinsley, it's hard to see how the Pacers got through the season at all, much less contending for home court in the first round up until the final games. Reggie went from being an occasional contributor to being the go-to guy and he lit it up.

Since i started following basketball i've liked Reggie Miller. In part because you know he's of the old school, he's an All Star from the same era as Jordan & Pippen, Stockton & Malone, Charles Barkely and Patrick Ewing. He's 39 and he looks like he could be 22. Reggie Miller is the league's all-time leader in 3 pointers, what's known as a "pure shooter." But, the way that he runs around the court non-stop, using screens, fighting through crowds and losing his defender, his game is obviously about much more than the three point shot.



It's only appropriate to start with a long-range shot.



Defending Jordan



Running past John Starks



Playing against one of the few people who could eventually challenge his all-time 3 point record, Ray Allen



There's not so much of this anymore.



But Reggie's always got the jump shot.









An interview with Jon Stewart

The Indianapolis Star's "FactFile" on Reggie Miller

This site is FULL of photos of Reggie, several of which i've used.

A tribute page on the official Pacers site. There's a good interview linked at the top of the page.

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paul's boutique reference

Friday, April 15, 2005



About 2 years ago i had this idea of rooting through the samples on Paul's Boutique for funk music. I mean, if ever there were a documented list of albums that i should check out, Paul's Boutique is it. Let's face it, it's one of the most creative albums ever. It's a homage to so much music before it. Where most commercial rap serves as an example of how not to use samples, Paul's Boutique was the epitomy of tasteful sample use. Of course, present law prevents an album like Paul's Boutique from ever being made again. But that just makes it better.

Regardless, i found this site, Paul's Boutique Samples and References, that breaks down every song individually into sample sources and quote references. It even has all of the lyrics. All it needs it mp3s. It's a great resource for everyone who loves this album-- and really, how could you not?

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M. Ward - Transistor Radio

Thursday, April 14, 2005



I was driving to walgreens last night for much needed snack food and, as usual, NPR was on the radio. NPR at night often has music with in-studio musicians and less commercial-oriented fare. So there's a guy on with an acoustic guitar, and he sings this line and ends it on this unexpected high note, ends the next line the same way, and i thought it was kinda nice, but it might come off as a little contrived. But i was interested enough to listen, and was thinking about how it might sound different in the context of a fully produced, fleshed out album. The song ends and the host says "ok, that was M. Ward... bla bla bla... thank you so much for making this album. It's really great." I thought it was kind of interesting that he thanked him not for coming to the studio, but for making the album. It was a nice, genuine gesture.

So, i had just found M. Ward sometime in the last 2 weeks, maybe, and i'd skimmed through the album and that was about it. Now, if i know i'm not going to like something i delete it right away. If i'm not sure, i give it a chance, but sometimes things fall through the cracks, such as this album did. I think i've heard it 3 or 4 times since last night already, and i put it on my ipod for the hike this weekend.

Apparently M. Ward is part of the "Alt Country" genre, but i only take that to mean so much. Alt Country in the same way as Wilco and Neutral Milk Hotel, i suppose. I was going to say that it reminds me of the live set of Jeff Magnum with just his acoustic guitar, mixed with the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack... you know, that Americana Blue Grass sound that sold so many albums for 6 months.

Pitchfork's review of Transistor Radio

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keroppi

Wednesday, April 13, 2005



you know you love keroppi.

the japanese have this way with making everything look like an icon.

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the van pelt family

Monday, April 11, 2005

I haven't done a random image post in a while, so i consulted with images.google and found a bunch of Van Pelts. Let me introduce you to the family:



This is my grandpa, Bart Van Pelt, inventor of ice cream and the paddle ball, both originally intended as instruments of torture.



This is Bas Van Pelt, my older brother. He's writing a self help book.




This is Brian Van Pelt, my younger brother. My parents never got him cosmetic surgery to fix his upper lip, which he busted open when he flipped over the handlebars of his bike.



This is James Van Pelt Sr. He was a dadaist sculptor, pictured here in his studio.



This is my cousin, David Van Pelt. The family doesn't talk to him anymore, for obvious reasons.



This is James Van Pelt Jr., the science fiction writer. I bet his books are great.



This is Janet Van Pelt. She had her nose amputated in a freak accident at the salon.



This is Rodney Van Pelt, M.D. I think he married into the family.



This is Uncle Ron Van Pelt. He works in construction, rides his 4-wheeler on the weekend ("helmets are for the week, this is the weekend!"), and has three sons named Paul, Saul, and Raul.



This is Steve Van Pelt. He just recently graduated from college, got married, got a new job, bought a Nissan, moved to Washington State, and fell off a cliff while hiking.



This is Tim Giovanni Van Pelt. I include his middle name cause we all called him "Gio" growing up. He lived right around the block from us as kids, but his family moved away and we never saw them again.



This is my cousin Tom Van Pelt. He excommunicated and is now a bird farmer in Western Europe. See his bird-catching net? He sells the little birds to French Cafes. Bon Apetite!

posted by j. Permanent Link 4 comments

stupid pacifism

Friday, April 08, 2005



i was talking to my younger brother last night, discussing the possibility of my family going to the desert to visit his family. kim was adamant about making sure that he'd discussed the idea of us coming with his wife, so i asked him about it and he assured me that he hadn't yet, but not to worry, he would. he just had to wait for the right time. the right time.

i said to him, "why do we do that?" i mean, of course there is something to be said for timing, but it goes beyond that. it's like we approach things as "there is this self-serving thing that i want and i have to handle it in the way that seemingly minimizes the selfishness as much as possible." everything needs a proper justification that makes the desired outcome look as objective as possible. and of course, it's completely transparent and it drives our wives crazy.

i go out to adny's house every friday night to play video games. but if i want to go see chet on saturday or something "extracuricular," that requires an approach. of course, this is completely idiotic, and i'm well aware of it. and the longer it gets dragged out, the more awkward it becomes. but it's funny because it was somewhat of a relief to hear him say it. it's something i've been trying to improve on in myself, being more direct. but at the same time, insecurities are always buffered by the knowledge of others doing the same thing.

the root, obviously, is the feeling of selfishness and manipulation, which are both loathsome qualities. it's like, we think in the back of our minds, if i wait long enough then the other person has time to make any contrary requests first.

it reminds me of being a kid, not being able to sleep at night, so the obvious thing is to get up and go into your parents room. but you know that your parents don't want you in their bed. so you lie there and stew about it for a while. but then you're still up, you're keeping yourself awake, and you know that it's getting to the point where the only solution is to get up and go sleep in their room. but... but i need an approach. maybe if i go in real quiet. maybe if i just sleep on the floor next to the bed... maybe, in the morning, if i cover myself up with my blanket, they won't realize i'm there, it's just a blanket bunched up on the floor. or they won't see me by the foot of the bed.

why don't we leave these childish manners in our childhoods where they belong?

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

interactive new orleans satellite map

Thursday, April 07, 2005



the title of this post even sounds fun, doesn't it? i was playing around with google's new satellite map feature and i started taking lots of screen shots and created this awesome interface for exploring the city... from my point of view. the thing that i've always loved (and miss so much now) about new orleans is just how green it is. it's sub-tropical there, everything is always green, and the city is full of live oaks. ('Live' is the name, not an adjective.)

it's a fairly large display, so you're going to have to have a high screen resolution to enjoy it in all of its glory. also, you can't click the actual text links in the boxes that pop up, but if you click that spot on the map, the link will open in a new window. i hope yall like it!

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Ped Xing

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

I was driving down Milwaukee Ave. this morning, about 3 blocks from the parking structure, going probably 25-30 mph, having just started from a red light, and this guy walks right out in front of me. I'm thinking, "is he gonna see me and stop?" But, he's looking straight at me. And he's not stopping. I was slowing down, but i'm still waiting for him to jump back. But he's not going to, and at this point we've got eye contact and i push on the breaks and stop about 10 feet from him. (laughing as i write this...) So i throw my hands up like "WHAT ARE YOU DOIN' DUDE?!@" and he starts pointing to the ground saying "crosswalk! crosswalk!"

And he's right, there are white lines crossing the street. It's not an intersection with a light, so there's no walk sign. And this isn't tourism central, so there are none of those "Stop while pedestrians are in crosswalk" signs.



Yeah, kinda like that. It's just the white lines in the road. And this guy walking right out into traffic.

So i got into work and i googled for traffic laws. GOOGLED THE LAW. Here:

Crosswalks and stop lines.
Crosswalks define the area where pedestrians may cross the roadway. Crosswalks can be at intersections or in the middle of the block. You must yield to pedestrians who are in or are about to enter a crosswalk (marked or unmarked). When required to stop because of a sign or signal, you must stop before the front of your vehicle reaches the stop line. If there is no marked stop line, stop before entering the marked crosswalk on the near side of the intersection. If there is no marked stop line nor a marked or unmarked crosswalk, stop at a point nearest the intersecting roadway where you have a clear view of approaching traffic, but before entering the intersection.


Now, i'd say we're all pretty familiar with the general term "pedestrians have the right of way," even if we never completely believed that it was true in all circumstances. It's just a good rule of thumb so that you don't, like, run people down. But we also, i think, believe that when there's traffic coming, we should wait on the side of the road for it to pass. And i think that you're going to wait on the side of the road too. But no, not you! You walk right in front of me. And why? Because you're PUNK ROCK!

What was funny was that i knew by looking at this guy that if he and i were in the same grade in high school (assuming we'd gone to high school in the same state, among other hypotheticals), that we would have been friends. I'm pretty proud of my abilities of snap judgment. Even if the stories that i make up for people, based on no information other than how they look and carry themselves, are completely wrong... they're still good stories. Right? Yeah, so this guy listens to indie rock now, but he obviously used to be into punk rock. Probably was a skater, too. He's pretty clean cut looking, but he's crazy on a deeper, smarter level. But he's got something to prove. And when you're approaching 30 and you still have something to prove to the world at large, then there's something wrong with you.

This is a tangent, but it reminds me of people who are WAY beyond their teen years, but they're still are into fantasy and dungeons and dragons, or they're still goth or metal. Or leather bikers. Or they're divorced with 4 kids, but they're getting remarried in a Wiccan ceremony. At what point do you realize that you're out of touch? Do you really need the Israeli army to point it out to you?

I didn't drive off with road rage, pounding my fists on the steering wheel. I drove off laughing. Part of me wanted to circle the block and go start talking to the dude. Let's hang out this weekend, i'll buy you a beer and we can laugh about our social problems and how they almost lead to me running you over. I bet the city bus behind me would've crushed you, had he the chance.

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floating description boxes

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Today i was, trying to create divs that pop up and follow the mouse while you hover over the button that triggered it. My mind gets stuck in actionscript mode sometimes, making it harder to get into the swing of javascript. On top of that, there are the damn browser compatibility issues that are always a problem. Getting the mouse position in javascript is nowhere near as easy as flash, where it's just the property _xmouse or _ymouse.
To use the event document.onmousemove, start with


var IE = document.all?true:false;
if(!IE)document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEMOVE) //for mozilla browsers
document.onmousemove = function(e){

to get the X position, IE uses

tempX = event.clientX + document.body.scrollLeft;

while mozilla uses

tempX = e.pageX;

same thing for Y.

Like most things, it was pretty simple once i got the gist of it. The showDiv() function can be used without the floating effect as well by simply leaving the 2nd parameter out (which is the same as setting it to false). In that case, the div will have to have left and top set in the css, or it will appear wherever it is in the flow of the document. One other important thing to remember in the css is that you must set it as position: absolute;

I don't like copying other people's code and using it as is, no matter if it's free to use or not. The point is to learn from it. I learned a bit from these two sites today:

http://www.codelifter.com/main/javascript/capturemouseposition1.html

http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events/all.html

quirksmode.org is the personal site of a guy in the Netherlands, i believe. it's a pretty extensive javascript and dhtml tutorial site, so if this post was worthwhile to you, it may be worth your time to look around there for a while.

posted by j. Permanent Link 0 comments

i(pod) am a sucker

Monday, April 04, 2005


I bought an ipod yesterday. I wanted silver, but green was my second choice by a thin margin, so Circuit City being out of silver ones decided for me. I didn't even think of myself as being in the ipod market till the shuffles came out. then i thought, that might be nice for when adny and i hike. then i thought, well, i can't buy the 512 cause that's not enough, and i'd like to have at least a gig to use it for data transfer. then i thought, if i'm going to pay $150 for 1G and less functionality, might as well pay another $50 for a mini. which could easily have escalated into buying a 30G ipod for $300, but i had to draw the line somewhere (even though the white ones look at least $50 cooler).

one of my big misgivings about the ipod was having to use itunes, so before i bought it i started looking around for software alternatives. the two that i've found so far that seem promising are ephpod, which i've installed but have not used yet, and this winamp ipod plugin. I'm a pretty big advocate of winamp, so i figured i'd try that first. I've had decent success with it, though it did have a tendency to crash winamp here and there. When you transfer songs, a dialog box with progress status pops up. There is a checkbox to tell the dialog box to go away upon completion. Not checking that box seemed to prevent crashes, but it means having to click one more button. I'm all for less clicks.

one of the things that i was curious about was what kind of directory structure the ipod would use. i'm pretty disappointed, really, that i can't just open the ipod in a window and drop files in. turns out that it doesn't use any directory structure for sorting artists, albums, etc. it just has a bunch of numbered folders that the (renamed) mp3s get dumped into. so i started uploading more songs and sure enough it was organizing them all by artist/album. until i got to The Meters Anthology disc 2, which it loaded as 17 individual artists, each with one album with one song. great!

so how's it organizing things? if it's not using directories to organize files, the next obvious choice was that it's using ID3 tags (information about the song saved in the mp3 file). i checked out the mp3s from Anthology disc 2 and sure enough, no ID3 tags. i ripped a lot of my CDs years ago without adding ID3 tags and here it is to bite me in the ass, right? it trips me out that the ipod mini users guide pdf does not mention ID3 tags once. what do inexperienced users do? perhaps apple figures that we wont be using any mp3s that we didn't buy or rip using itunes. i mean, this is an integral part of the organization scheme. give people a little background, or at least point them in the right direction. a little bit of awareness...

awareness. it's what makes us human and stuff.

so i found this software, ID3 TagIt. it's a pretty nice piece of freeware that lets you do things like edit multiple files at once (to add artist/album info to all mp3s from an album at once, for example), create ID3 tags based on file names, rename files based on ID3 tags... and some other stuff.

after fixing my files and getting everything in order, i prompty did the right thing. i uninstalled itunes.

posted by j. Permanent Link 4 comments