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Thursday, August 07, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Friday, June 06, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Who wants MIDI in the Flash Player?
IS THIS RELEVANT ???
Who wants MIDI in the Flash Player?
The challenge:
The Flash Player has evolved through the ages to provide the most needed functionality. Through each version there have always remained a few common goals. What I have found is that:
Flash is small — from the player itself to the swf file format to the assets it is optimized to load, focus has been placed on small file sizes (this of course is not as apparent in many websites that are heavy in multimedia)
Flash supports standards — the player supports many web and multimedia formats standard in the industry, such as jpg, mp3 and xml
Flash is interactive — the players greatest strength is the dynamic behavior through ActionScript to allow user interactivity
MIDI, a music standard format that most computers support today, fits all of these categories (like a glove). In fact there’s an opensource project being developed to allow MIDI through Flash, though it requires an additional download and install to the user apart from the Flash Player itself (seen at osflash.org)
I’d like to take a poll. Do you think MIDI should be included in the Flash Player? Why or why not? I want both votes and opinions as I’ll organize the results and send them off to “Adobe, formerly known as Macromedia”. Please respond with some sort of opinion whether it’s pro or con. I’ll list the pros/cons I can think of below (you don’t have to read the rest of this email if you already have your opinion).
A little more on MIDI:
MIDI is a standard music format (some will argue that it’s the only standard) that represents pitches and instruments to be played as a song. It’s extremely small, being the vector of music, and has to be interpreted by a users soundcard. Almost all computers these days support standard MIDI, though it sounds synthesized (especially on the voice and string instruments). Some soundcards or additional software transform the common MIDI into amazing orchestrations, but most users don’t have this advanced playback.
MIDI pros:
can be generated dynamically and played through a sequencer to allow complete on-the-fly customization of sound.
very small in filesize
supported by almost all soundcards
numerous applications for the creation of MIDI songs (many are free)
it’s a standard that has been around for a long time (so there is a lot of support for it)
a small implementation (wouldn’t increase the Flash Player size by more than 50K)
MIDI cons:
most people will have a more synthesized sound
user experience isn’t guarenteed to be consistant (for those with higher quality soundcards)
as with all advancements, could make it really easy for developers to have annoying sounds playing on their sites ;)
In short, if the Flash Player had a midi sequencer built in it would allow developers to create lightweight interactive music applications, such as this sheet music rendering application or music creation applications. It could also allow users to experience a website that contained sound effects or decent background music at very little bandwidth cost. Macromedia has always been good about listening to the developer community and will surely make efforts to build the features we need, provided we tell them.
In sending this challenge to the Flashcoders mailing list I received a great response. Here I hope to summarize their contributions acurately to their credit. (also see full conversation)
see original publication and more here.
Who wants MIDI in the Flash Player?
The challenge:
The Flash Player has evolved through the ages to provide the most needed functionality. Through each version there have always remained a few common goals. What I have found is that:
Flash is small — from the player itself to the swf file format to the assets it is optimized to load, focus has been placed on small file sizes (this of course is not as apparent in many websites that are heavy in multimedia)
Flash supports standards — the player supports many web and multimedia formats standard in the industry, such as jpg, mp3 and xml
Flash is interactive — the players greatest strength is the dynamic behavior through ActionScript to allow user interactivity
MIDI, a music standard format that most computers support today, fits all of these categories (like a glove). In fact there’s an opensource project being developed to allow MIDI through Flash, though it requires an additional download and install to the user apart from the Flash Player itself (seen at osflash.org)
I’d like to take a poll. Do you think MIDI should be included in the Flash Player? Why or why not? I want both votes and opinions as I’ll organize the results and send them off to “Adobe, formerly known as Macromedia”. Please respond with some sort of opinion whether it’s pro or con. I’ll list the pros/cons I can think of below (you don’t have to read the rest of this email if you already have your opinion).
A little more on MIDI:
MIDI is a standard music format (some will argue that it’s the only standard) that represents pitches and instruments to be played as a song. It’s extremely small, being the vector of music, and has to be interpreted by a users soundcard. Almost all computers these days support standard MIDI, though it sounds synthesized (especially on the voice and string instruments). Some soundcards or additional software transform the common MIDI into amazing orchestrations, but most users don’t have this advanced playback.
MIDI pros:
can be generated dynamically and played through a sequencer to allow complete on-the-fly customization of sound.
very small in filesize
supported by almost all soundcards
numerous applications for the creation of MIDI songs (many are free)
it’s a standard that has been around for a long time (so there is a lot of support for it)
a small implementation (wouldn’t increase the Flash Player size by more than 50K)
MIDI cons:
most people will have a more synthesized sound
user experience isn’t guarenteed to be consistant (for those with higher quality soundcards)
as with all advancements, could make it really easy for developers to have annoying sounds playing on their sites ;)
In short, if the Flash Player had a midi sequencer built in it would allow developers to create lightweight interactive music applications, such as this sheet music rendering application or music creation applications. It could also allow users to experience a website that contained sound effects or decent background music at very little bandwidth cost. Macromedia has always been good about listening to the developer community and will surely make efforts to build the features we need, provided we tell them.
In sending this challenge to the Flashcoders mailing list I received a great response. Here I hope to summarize their contributions acurately to their credit. (also see full conversation)
see original publication and more here.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
"Nothin' can live unless somethin' dies." Arthur Miller, "The Misfits" 1961
One can’t really live, if one’s afraid to die.
The short leash of fear is most unforgiving there, where precious moments could live.
As Arthur Miller put it so remarkably well in the “The Misfits,” and so distinctly phrased from the lips of one very famous blond,
“- Nothin' can live unless somethin' dies.”
As these very words were making celluloid history, Miller was going through just that with a distancing star ever so close to him, in retrograde and dimming by the moment.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Catfish Blog On the Go !
Hey folks,
Being on the cutting edge with today’s new tech developments and media on the move, I’m now posting my “Vox” blogs in the CFM mp3 player kiosk on the right.
Enjoy.
Catfish ;) a/k/a JMP
Being on the cutting edge with today’s new tech developments and media on the move, I’m now posting my “Vox” blogs in the CFM mp3 player kiosk on the right.
Enjoy.
Catfish ;) a/k/a JMP
NYC Steam Like No Pinto Beans
Further to the Mid-town Manhattan July 07 Steam Pipe Explosion
It’s business as usual with NY ConEd and their failure to provide more transparency on the state of affairs for deteriorating steam pipes and electric conduits underneath our city streets. It remains a mystery for many what lies beneath the surface out there, but many of us are familiar with these explosions or someone, or their dog, electrocuted due to lines exposed just beneath the surface of any given water puddle. It could be there are many a street corner out there, another accident waiting to happen due to the complexities of this matrix that makes up this crumbling underworld below our passing feet.
But more importantly, due to the billions of dollars it would take to clean up the infrastructure problems that exist down there, the city may be gambling on meeting the financial means of these disasters at the roll of a dice, as they happen, meaning - another one, you, me or some unwitting tourist, is bound to “bite the dust,” literally, before long. This logic, strategy, is a popular one Ralph Nader made steam on back in the 70’s with the Ford Motor Company and their infamous “Pinto” compact cars. Ford was well aware of their manufacturing defect in the Pinto. They were well aware the positioning of the gasoline tank led the car to be vulnerable to violent explosions upon impact from the rear. But Ford gambled on the probability of these “accidents” waiting to happen, and theorized it would be cheaper to settle related accident cases later on, as they came down the pipe, as opposed to incurring costs related to a full recall on the vehicle. When one litigant failed to settle and the case went to trial, subsequent appellate courts upheld the jury awards for hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damages as not being too excessive. Much of that was due to the “hubris” courts found in Ford management for blatantly and clearly having knowledge ahead of time warranted such sizeable amounts. And before long, the line of litigants went shore to shore.
I can’t help but feel that the city and ConEd may be similarly gambling to the detriment and safety of both New Yorkers and tourist that visit here yearly. It will likely cost the city an astronomical amount of money to clean up the mess, bonds at the expense of the city and state tax payers, as well as inconvenience numerous city streets and businesses. But as the tenure of these conditions reach their maturity, if not well overdue as such now, the city is likely to find itself well exposed other ways as Ford did decades ago.
________________________________________
Further to this developing issue, please see
Adam Lisberg, Daily News staff article of Thursday, January 17, 2008.
An end to Con Ed's steam system?
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, January 17th 2008, 4:00 AM
Last summer's deadly midtown steam explosion
may spur state utility regulators to shut down
the steam system forever.
It’s business as usual with NY ConEd and their failure to provide more transparency on the state of affairs for deteriorating steam pipes and electric conduits underneath our city streets. It remains a mystery for many what lies beneath the surface out there, but many of us are familiar with these explosions or someone, or their dog, electrocuted due to lines exposed just beneath the surface of any given water puddle. It could be there are many a street corner out there, another accident waiting to happen due to the complexities of this matrix that makes up this crumbling underworld below our passing feet.
But more importantly, due to the billions of dollars it would take to clean up the infrastructure problems that exist down there, the city may be gambling on meeting the financial means of these disasters at the roll of a dice, as they happen, meaning - another one, you, me or some unwitting tourist, is bound to “bite the dust,” literally, before long. This logic, strategy, is a popular one Ralph Nader made steam on back in the 70’s with the Ford Motor Company and their infamous “Pinto” compact cars. Ford was well aware of their manufacturing defect in the Pinto. They were well aware the positioning of the gasoline tank led the car to be vulnerable to violent explosions upon impact from the rear. But Ford gambled on the probability of these “accidents” waiting to happen, and theorized it would be cheaper to settle related accident cases later on, as they came down the pipe, as opposed to incurring costs related to a full recall on the vehicle. When one litigant failed to settle and the case went to trial, subsequent appellate courts upheld the jury awards for hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damages as not being too excessive. Much of that was due to the “hubris” courts found in Ford management for blatantly and clearly having knowledge ahead of time warranted such sizeable amounts. And before long, the line of litigants went shore to shore.
I can’t help but feel that the city and ConEd may be similarly gambling to the detriment and safety of both New Yorkers and tourist that visit here yearly. It will likely cost the city an astronomical amount of money to clean up the mess, bonds at the expense of the city and state tax payers, as well as inconvenience numerous city streets and businesses. But as the tenure of these conditions reach their maturity, if not well overdue as such now, the city is likely to find itself well exposed other ways as Ford did decades ago.
________________________________________
Further to this developing issue, please see
Adam Lisberg, Daily News staff article of Thursday, January 17, 2008.
An end to Con Ed's steam system?
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, January 17th 2008, 4:00 AM
Last summer's deadly midtown steam explosion
may spur state utility regulators to shut down
the steam system forever.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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