only the most amazing Melvins videos

Just spent the whole evening watching Melvins videos - totally worth the time - totally inspirational. I made this playlist of the best stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0B2F381D373A3527



Oh yeah, and that is totally the guitar I'm going to buy whenever I have a bunch of extra money.

International Noise Conference 2011 video playlist

HTML5 and the Canvas element will not "replace Flash" and here's why

I do some web design stuff and as internet technology develops I need to be more and more of a developer as well. Coming from the design side though, I love Flash as a tool for making great moving graphics. Along comes HTML5, which many observers and people on the coding side of the web keep claiming will "replace Flash" or "kill Flash." After looking into the issue, I can firmly say that these claims are nonsense.

Here is the short summary: Flash is a program for creating moving graphics. The things you can create in Flash can be output to a format called SWF (ShockWave Flash, often called a "swiff") and your web browser uses a plug-in to run the SWF files. Flash can also output to other (much less efficient) formats, like Quicktime's MOV or animated GIFs. The new HTML5 has an element called canvas which you can basically draw on and add moving and responsive graphics to using JavaScript coding. The browser does all the work, no plug-in needed.

I would bet that the next version of Flash (or a related product from Adobe) will be able to output to canvas and JavaScript too! In fact, Adobe has already claimed that some kind of software (Flash or something like it) will be able to create Apple apps for iPhone, iPad etc. It is certain that they will have some product for creating fancy moving graphics using HTML5 and JavaScript, and it will probably be Flash.

Will the canvas element replace the Flash PLUG-IN? Maybe, but not entirely for a few years because the SWF format is just pretty far ahead in terms of what it can do. And Flash, the program, will not be going anywhere. It has little equivalent competition for what it does and it is very intuitive and deep and works very well. Adobe also has a program called Dreamweaver for creating all your HTML, CSS, JavaScript and anything else a web browser can handle. You could type this code out yourself in Notepad instead if you wanted to, or use one of many other programs, but still Dreamweaver is very popular because it's a great tool for getting the job done. Likewise, you can use a ton of programs to make a jpeg, but Adobe's Photoshop is popular because it's simply the most powerful. The Flash program will be in the same position.

There's this other issue of embedding video, which HTML5 can now do, but again, it can't do everything that Flash can. Regardless, my point is that Adobe makes great tools for creating graphics and the final FORMAT is not going to influence the popularity of their tools. Someone will probably be using their software to make the videos you're embedding. In fact, the more the web can support nice graphics, the better Adobe will do.

The latest news is that Apple computers will no longer come "with Flash." What they mean by this is that the Safari browser will not automatically include the Flash plug-in for rendering SWF files. Of course you could add it, or if you download another browser, like Firefox, you'll get it. Suspiciously, this announcement comes right along with the announcement of an App Store for Apple's computers - supporting the conspiracy theory that the reason behind Apple's anti-Flash position is that they want to sell you games as apps instead of having you play them for free as SWFs in your browser.

Ultimately it won't make a difference because you'll be able to make games and animation in your HTML5 canvas - and you might be using Flash to do it.

I may as well mention that I can do Flash or HTML(yes, 5) work, and I am available for hire. My Flash-based website is here:

http://www.michaellockwood.org

</rant>

How to fix Microsoft Word problem where text in last row of a table disappears

I have relied heavily on Googling for fixes to all of Microsoft Word's irritating glitches and bugs, so I am doing some "giving back" here.

I'm using Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac, and I kept having text inside the last row of a table go invisible. It's there sort of, it shows up in the Print Preview, and strangely the last line of the text in each cell of that row CAN be seen. I even tried making my table in another document, then copying and pasting it over and the text still vanished upon pasting. I saw some people complaining about this online but no fixes.

My eventual solution was to insert another row below the bottom one and make its height as small as I could. (0.2") As soon as the offending row was not the last, the text came back. If your table has a border, you may have to get rid of it around just those cells. In fact, for me that screwed up the rest of my borders, so I had to make those borders the same as my background color (white in this case) so the last row could not be seen.

I also noticed a bizarre bug where only the CENTER cell of my last row then looked like the text was doubled up, making it look bold. My table was inside of a text box, and when I stretched the bottom of the text box to accommodate the bigger table, that problem disappeared too.

There you go internet: another tip for coping with Word. Perhaps someone will find this and it will save them a few hours of headache.

Sometimes music sounds SO good

Ever have one of those days where you just get thrilled and excited by everything you hear? I set last.fm to play "Jesus Lizard radio" and have been enjoying the hell out of everything. Pissed Jeans are a really good band? Who knew? They sound kind of like a cross between the Jesus Lizard (of course?) and the New Flesh.

Karp effing rock. Is everything by the Unsane this good? I'm even seriously digging this song by Girls Against Boys and it's from their major label sell-out album "Freakonica." This Drive Like Jehu song is kicking my ass. And now "Cheeba" by the Boredoms is literally giving me chills. Damn, that song is amazing! That whole album, "Pop Tatari," is unbelievably good.

It could be partly because I didn't sleep at all the night before last then went straight to a new job assignment and worked until 8:30pm on almost no food - and now I've had a night's rest, am home for the day, have a cup of coffee and bagel, and sun's coming through the windows. I feel like exercising!

Maybe it's also because I haven't listened to ROCK music much these days and have forgotten how it can actually be awesome. Mostly been jamming noise, no-wave, and death metal for a long time.

In any case, it's a very good music day. Really enjoying this mellow Oneida song too. Strangely I haven't heard any Jesus Lizard yet.

Here's me on last.fm:


http://www.last.fm/user/mplockwood

the Top Ten things humans want to know HOW TO do...

Google will auto-complete search requests as you type them in. I assume this is based on the most popular search phrases, and so it makes for some kind of gauge of what humanity (at least the part with internet access) is interested in. I just started a search request with "How to" and Google popped up a list of the most common things people have sought instruction on. The list is an intriguing look into human priorities in the year 2009.

I now present, THE TOP TEN THINGS HUMANS WANT TO KNOW HOW TO DO:

1. tie a tie
2. kiss
3. get pregnant
4. lose weight
5. lose weight fast
6. make a website
7. write a resume
8. solve a rubix cube
9. get rid of fruit flies
10. draw

Some of these are encouraging, some are surprising, some very unsurprising. I can say with certainty that I know how to do 5 of the things on this list. I am pretty sure I know how to do 2 more. 2 others are very difficult and 1 is probably impossible.*


* certain: 1,3,4,6,10
pretty sure: 2,7
difficult: 5,8
impossible?: 9

How to make your own instant coffee that tastes just like real fresh-brewed coffee

I tried that new Starbucks instant coffee they call "Via." They were doing a taste test thing where if you guess correctly you get a coupon and a free cup of coffee. They've been advertising this stuff as instant coffee that actually tastes just like real coffee. I was incredibly skeptical.

So, does it really taste like brewed coffee? Short answer: NO.

However... I was in a group of 4 people who tried it and all 3 of the others got it wrong. I picked the instant one, but to be honest, I used probability and logic as much as my tastebuds. I tried sample 1 and it tasted like a real cup of coffee. I tried sample 2 and it was too weak to be sure, so I said sample 2 was instant and I was right.

I got a free sample so I got to try it again later. It is not exactly the same as brewed coffee, but it is about a hundred times closer than anything else called instant. In fact, if they had just switched the regular stuff for this Via, I probably wouldn't have seriously doubted it. I might have thought "they using some kind of different roast?" or maybe "did I get decaf?" I started thinking maybe it would be a good idea to have some of this on hand for emergency situations. You know, driving through the night, getting sleepy, and the only stop is a gas station with some vile brown stuff simmering on the burner... You could just grab some hot water (usually free) and have a decent coffee to keep you going.

So how does Starbucks do it??? I guess they just grind up real coffee super-fine, which makes one wonder why no one else has done that before. But the Via stuff costs $1 per shot, which makes 8 oz. of coffee, the same price as real coffee in a Starbucks! So I got to thinking, which brings me to the point of this post:

YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN INSTANT COFFEE THAT TASTES JUST LIKE FRESH-BREWED COFFEE.

Because... it IS fresh-brewed coffee. It's this simple: 1.Grind some coffee beans. You can do this in advance, maybe keep them in a ziplock bag. 2.Put one teaspoonful of grounds into a cup or mug. Then add a teaspoonful per 8 oz. of water. 3.Pour hot water in with the grounds. Hotter will work better. 4.Wait. Maybe give it a little stir. When the grounds sink, your coffee is ready.

Seriously, it works. It's basically the same as a french press, you just don't press it. You may worry that you will get a mouthful of grounds, but you won't. Just don't drink that last swallow with all the coffee grounds at the bottom. They sink once they're brewed. Try it. You'll get a cup of coffee that's just as good as the Starbucks instant (provided your grounds are reasonably fresh) and about 100 times better than any other instant coffee.

By the way, you can use the same method with tea leaves to make tea. It's actually the recommended method.

UPDATE: I just tried this on my job last week and the results were - eh - not amazing. It involved more stirring and waiting than I remember. I think boiling water works much better than water-cooler-hot water. Some of the bigger pieces of coffee bean never sank. I was sad that it actually turned out inferior to the Starbucks Instant, but I think with better grinding and real boiling I could pull off a great cup this way.