’nuff blah blah

my song got played on rinse fm!

May 28th, 2008

I forgot to post this before.

My dubstep tune “worldwide” got played on DJ Distance’s new talent section of his Rinse FM show on 6 May 2008. Unfortunately, he credited me as dj number instead of dj mumbler, but I was excited anyway.

The podcast can be grabbed here:
http://rinsefm.blogspot.com/2008/05/distance-6th-may.html

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Problem with input focus on Safari

February 20th, 2008

I had a javascript hiccup, and I think the solution may be helpful to others.

The basic setup is this:

Limited space means no room for labels in a login form. So instead we used a preset value in the input elements, like so:
<input value="Username" name="username" type="text" /> <input value="Password" name="password" type="text" />

Which looks like this:

The easy way to blank out the descriptive text is to use the onfocus event like so:

onfocus="this.value=''"

But this is not enough for the password input, because we do not want to reveal a user’s password as it is typed. We must change the input type to password. This causes the input element to lose focus, so we set it again after changing type:

onfocus="this.value='';this.type='password';this.focus();"

Cool. But it doesn’t work in Safari. Tabbing from the username field to the password field does not work as expected. The input element looks focused but it won’t accept any keyboard input until you click in the field.

Solution — use the select method instead of focus:

onfocus="this.value='';this.type='password';this.select();" <input onfocus="this.value=''" value="Username" name="username" type="text" /> <input value="Password" name="password" type="text" onfocus="this.value='';this.type='password';this.select();" />

I hope that helps somebody out there in Google-vania.

[UPDATE 22 Feb 2008]
Well, it turns out that this works well for Safari and Firefox, but breaks in ie/win (shocker.) so I was forced to go another route. Internet Explorer will not allow you to change the type of an input element with Javascript, so I made the input a password element to begin with. Using css, set a background image that says “Password” and then, on focus, remove the background image. Voilà.

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2007 Music Rewind

December 24th, 2007

Ah, it’s that time of the year again. “Best of” list time. While 2007 has been a pretty active year for new releases, I found that I kept going back to the same albums — which were not necessarily the ones whose releases I anticipated the most.

By the way, a lot of the music I’ve enjoyed the most this year deploy obscene amounts of bass. If you don’t have a subwoofer, you hear only half of the music…

6. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Wilco continues to craft great songs, and dress them up in just the right amount of studio trickery.
listen: Either Way
buy: Sky Blue Sky at amazon.com

5. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Much has been said of Radiohead’s decision to leave their major label and self-release In Rainbows and even more has been said about their decision to allow fans to pay any price, including nothing. Amid all the hoopla, though, is a really good album. Personally, I found the physical media package to be overkill. I am eagerly awaiting a standard cd release (or, a higher definition release if it ever becomes available. Please release your back catalog in SACD format! Surround would be even greater!).
listen: All I Need
buy: In Rainbows at amazon.com

4. Skream - Skreamizm Vol:3
2007 has been another year of dubstep discovery. Skream continues to astonish with countless productions, and consistently high quality. Volume 4 will be great, I’m certain.
listen: Chest Boxing
buy: Skreamizm Vol. 3 at boomkat.com

3. Burial - Ghost Hardware
Hyperdub teased the 2007 Burial followup, Untrue, with a 12-inch release that retained the flavor of the debut, but still showed development. The album did not disappoint.
listen:
buy: Untrue at amazon.com
buy: Untrue at bleep.com

2. Coki - Burnin’
Londoners were probably tired of hearing this song by the time I got my hands on it. Addictive.
listen:

1. The Bug - Jah War feat. Flowdan (Loefah Remix)
The Bug turns from mutant dancehall to Grime-y dubstep. The Loefah remix of Jah War is the heaviest thing I heard all year. Got many rewinds.
listen: