Category: Blog

A quick javascript hack to fake adjusting HTML5 audio elements' timeupdate event frequency

I was trying to make a bunch of elements change position as an audio file played, using a snippet something like:

$(audiohtml).bind("timeupdate", onAudioUpdate);
$(audiohtml).bind("play", onAudioUpdate);
$(audiohtml).bind("pause", onAudioUpdate);

function onAudioUpdate() {
	// Move the elements here
}

But the trouble was that the audio element's timeupdate event only fires once every 200ms or so on my browser (this is set by the HTML5 audio specification and isn't modifiable as far as I know).

200ms was slow enough that the animation of the elements looked jerky (5 fps).

Instead, I used a 10Hz setInterval clock to trigger the movement functions, and used the audio's play and pause events to create and destroy the clock:

Continue reading A quick javascript hack to fake adjusting HTML5 audio elements' timeupdate event frequency

PGP public key

So the GCHQ and the NSA are apparently teaming up to do a whole lot of extremely legal warrantless mass surveillance.

I am not against spying or surveillance per se. Anyone who lives in the UK and says "if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear" doesn't understand the purpose of judicial oversight and probably doesn't speak arabic. I believe in judicial oversight. An amoral-nerd-handler is not a judge. And political bias, false-positives and chilling self-censorship are the only outcomes of the GCHQ program I can see on the horizon.

So, if you're emailing me, please feel free to encrypt your message with my PGP public key.

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Company letters

Today I read two letters written by companies which impressed me.

The first is by Kickstarter.  Some asshole was trying to raise money to produce a "seduction guidebook" which advocated sexual assault of women, and though many people asked Kickstarter to cancel the project before the funding period completed, they didn't.  Then today they wrote a (seemingly) sincere letter of apology to their users, and by way of compensation have donated $25,000 to RAINN, an anti-sexual assault organisation.

While Kickstarter definitely made the wrong call, I am convinced that they truly regret it and intend not to let it happen again.

The second is a letter from The Fullbright Company, which is a four-person game development studio who are almost done with their first game Gone Home (which I've been looking forward to).  Today they wrote an open letter announcing their pulling-out of exhibiting their pending game at the PAX Indie Megabooth, an indie games showcase at a games expo organised by the Penny Arcade organisation.  Their choice, which is not in their material interest, is based on Penny Arcade creators' recent misogynistic, transphobic and classist posturing (which you can read about in the letter).

In both cases, it is refreshing to see a company take a moral stance (if a little belatedly in the first case) on something which is not in their immediate financial interest.  It is somethings difficult to remember that companies are made up of individual humans who have moral compasses, and who want to have a positive effect on the world, even in the context of a financial venture.

Mail link to current Safari page in Mac OS 10.8 with a keyboard shortcut

In Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple removed the Email link to this page option in Safari, replacing it with Share > Email this page, which places the entire contents of the page into the email, images and all.

Sometimes this isn't what you want, though.  Sometimes just a link is best.

I've written a short AppleScript to perform the old "just a link" function, and will explain how to make it run from within Safari using a customisable key command.

Actually, funny story.  While messing around, I discovered an undocumented keyboard shortcut which does this.  It's ⇧⌘I. This completely obviates the need for the script I wrote, but I'll keep the instructions here, incase reading about moving data between Safari and Mail using AppleScript is something you'd find useful.

Continue reading Mail link to current Safari page in Mac OS 10.8 with a keyboard shortcut

Curiosity

Oh this? Just a film of landing on Mars.

PS. If you haven't seen NASA's "Seven Minutes of Terror" video, it's worth checking out. Those folks are crazy.

Aural Architecture

In the past few years there have been released a handful of indie games which share a kind of common form and aesthetic, one that strikes a chord with me.  This design space is represented in my mind by Kairo, and the upcoming Fract and NaissanceE, though it contains many more.

NaissanceE screenshot shows impossibly tall buildings with more buildings in the sky above.
NaissanceE

The quality these games have in common is use a first-person perspective and an experience based around architecture and soundscapes, working in concert to elicit some aesthetic or emotional response.

Continue reading Aural Architecture