Author: Steven Garrity

Proposal: An Album File Format

by Steven Garrity

While I don’t have the talent or motivation to follow through on this idea, I thought it was worth sharing. Would it make sense to have an album file format that served as a container for individual songs?

I imagine some of the following features:

  • A container file, similar to ZIP or TAR (compression probably not necessary, since most music files are compressed)
  • Contains album metadata
    • Artist
    • Liner notes
    • Web links
    • Cover art (in a standard format accessible to player apps)
    • Song order listing
  • Contains the songs files (perhaps format agnostic? Could contains MP3s, Ogg, ACC, etc.) rather than just linking to a song, as a playlist does

This would purely be a matter of convenience, as all of this functionality is technically available now through playlists and folders. I might also comfort some artists who are concerned about the single-based bias (as opposed to full albums) of music online.

 

Always use the form Label tag

by Steven Garrity

Late last year, a co-worker asked me why we weren’t using the <label> HTML form tag. I wasn’t sure, but it’s my job to know things like that. A little research revealed the answer: because I suck. From that point on, we’ve used the label tag wherever appropriate (some historical work hasn’t yet been updated, but it will be eventually).

If you ever find yourself writing (x)HTML forms, you should always use the label tag. In case you aren’t familiar with it (I thought I knew all there was to know about HTML, and I hadn’t even heard of it), here’s an example (try clicking on the text labels):




<form>
<div><input type=”radio” name=”options” id=”option1″ />
<label for=”option1″>Apples</label></div>
<div><input type=”radio” name=”options” id=”option2″ />
<label for=”option2″>Oranges</label></div>
<div><input type=”radio” name=”options” id=”option3″ />
<label for=”option3″>Papaya</label></div>
</form>

The label and corresponding input don’t have to be adjacent – they are associated with the for/id attributes. The label is then clickable just like the control and the browser does all the work for you – no messy JavaScript required.

It works in most every browser on the planet and the few that don’t support it (Safari being the most notable) ignore it gracefully. There are accessibility benefits and we all get clickable form labels that mirror the functionality of most operating system controls.

This tag has been around forever and smarter people than myself have been urging us all to use it for a long time. Since I was so late to the game, I thought I’d share, in case others like myself weren’t in the know.

 

Hey New York, Thanks for the smog!

by Steven Garrity

From all in Atlantic Canada, to all in the Eastern US: Thanks for the smog.

Today, in our small capital city of Charlottetown (population approx. 35,000), we have an “Air Quality and Health Advisory”. Apparently, a hot, humid air mass has moved in from the northeastern U.S. and brought with it smog.

This map shows our approximate location relative to the eastern United States. You’d think we’d be safe up here. Apparently smog isn’t just a problem for large cities.

 

The silverorange Labs weblog

by Steven Garrity

silverorange labs dudeRegular readers will know that I work at the web development firm, silverorange. Several of us have weblogs of our own (Acts of Volition, CEOBlues.com, and newrecruit.org). We’ve now setup a weblog and site for our side-projects called silverorange labs.

As the introductory post explains, the silverorange team will be posting info on our weblog platform (used to publish Acts of Volition and discussed here previously), our photo gallery system, and other tools and toys.