Categories
Uncategorized

In-ear monitors

I’ve been thinking about stage monitoring and been talking to one of my DJ friends who was asking me about particular headphones. So I did a quick google and came up with this far from exhaustive list of resources.

Here are some companies:

http://www.etymotic.com/ – they sell in-ears plus you can get custom molds to go with them – wide range of products/prices

http://www.shure.com/americas/products/earphones-headphones/se-models/index.htm – they also sell in-ears and have a partnership with custom mold makers Sensaphonics

http://www.acscustom.com/au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&Itemid=45 – high end

http://www.earmonitorsaustralia.com/index.htm – they will do molds for other in-ears and also sell complete units

Hearing is a critically under-appreciated sense. At least until you start to lose it. Another thing that I have been thinking about lately is how ambient noise in the everyday environment is quite damaging to productivity, sanity and well being. There is a lot of research coming out now about this.

Here are a few fascinating videos about this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_shh_sound_health_in_8_steps.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html

Categories
Fitness Workout

Spartacus 600

I’m going to start documenting fitness related activities as well as all the other miscellany. Not too worried about staying on topic frankly. So here is the first one.

I’ve been training with a personal trainer for the last 6 months, not super fit yet but I do feel a bit like superman compared to where I was, not a comment on how fit I am now, just how unfit I was then.

On Monday I attempted what he called the Spartacus 600. Which in short consists of doing 100 each of the following exercises:

  • Squat (body weight only)
  • Pushups
  • Box Jumps (20” or so, didn’t measure – I think six of those plastic risers)
  • Chin ups  (wide grip)
  • Dips
  • Burpees ( full – including jump at end)
Categories
code javascript jQuery

Jquery Tools Overlay

Here’s the quick and dirty on how to create and control an overlay using jquery tools.

Download jquery tools, you can choose just the components you need: For an overlay with a mask you need overlay and expose…http://flowplayer.org/tools/download/index.html

image

Put the js in the appropriate place.

Then on the page that needs the overlay you only need a container with an id for the content of the overlay to live in:

<div class="for_styling" id="someId">
    The content of the overlay goes here...
</div>

To initialize the overlay:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function () {
        $('#someId').overlay({
            top: 'x',
            mask: {
                color: '#333',
                opacity: 0.6,
                loadSpeed: 200 //ms
            },
            closeOnClick: false, // to make it modal if you need to
            load: true // to make it load on page load
        });
        // to open the overlay at any time
        $('#someId').data('overlay').load();
        // to close the overlay at any time
        $('#someId').data('overlay').close();
    });
</script>
That’s pretty much it. There will be an element created with a class of “close”  that you can style as needed. 
This has a close function automatically attached.
There are events to attach functions to…

onBeforeLoad
before the overlay is displayed. The overlay has already been positioned at the location from where it will start animating.

onLoad
when the overlay has completely been displayed

onBeforeClose
before the overlay is closed

onClose
when the overlay is closed

…and there are methods for getting the trigger (if there is one, we didn’t look at that here), or the overlay, checking to see if it is open, etc…

I really think this is the way to go from now on, rather than using Thickbox, etc…

Categories
audio html5 interaction javascript

Creating a synth toy in HTML5 and Javascript

It’s been a while since posting…life eh! Anyway, I’ve been actively working on a synth toy/tool that works in the browser using only HTML5 and Javascript (and jQuery [yes this is also js :P], mainly to speed things up). It is here: http://ahsquared.com/synth/audiogen.html.

I have made no attempt yet at UI design or even any kind of prettiness, just getting the functionality squared away. This borrows heavily from a blog post by Steven Wittens for how to create and manipulate the audio samples.

Categories
code visual studio web server

Connecting Visual Studio to IE6 in a Virtual Machine

So, you’re developing web applications using Visual Studio and you’re a good boy or girl and are making sure you’re code is cross-browser compatible (as well as standards compliant of course, right, riiight?). We’ll it gets tricky right. You want to check Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera (for the 5 people that use it ;P), IE8, IE7, IE6, etc…and then all of that on PC/MAC (you could even check on linux, but come on really, who has that kind of time.) Well, you start installing browsers, and all goes well until you hit IE6.