where the web, music, and faith collide
How about this for an idea. Take a group of musicians up Everest to play at Base Camp. One of my favourite singer/songwriter/guitar virtuoso people Nick Harper is going, and I bet it will be a great gig.
So, if anyone will be up Everest in October you’ll get to listen to some fantastic music amongst those majestic peaks. Lucky you.
It’s a shame that despite the hoo-hah over different online music formats that a completely free, high-quality and extremely versatile format is being overlooked somewhat. Maybe it’s just that a lot of people haven’t heard of Ogg Vorbis, but the fact is it could be the answer we’re waiting for.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not without it’s problems, but Ogg is certainly the strongest glimmer of hope for the increasingly beleaguered digital music format landscape. Which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is only going to get more complex as time goes on.
Here’s another reason to like my hosts. Yep, they are carbon-neutral, apparently.
It’s a good thing when companies (especially companies in the U.S.) start taking climate change seriously. It’s great when people start recycling more, start using low-energy lighbulbs, perhaps even install solar panels or get rid of their car, but changing a companies attitude towards it’s environmental impact is a cause for celebration.
It does seem like it’s the more Internet-savvy companies that are leading the way with this kind of thing. My friend Simon (who’s now a big radio star works for a company with an excellent environmental policy. The word from Sense’s managing director Aidan Cook (I met him, he’s a switched-on guy) is that employees like working there, and the environmental policy is one of the reasons why.
I guess us web-types are just nice people.
Nathan Smith, himself no slouch when it comes to things webby, is recommending a new book by Paul Haine entitled HTML Mastery. If the title and premise are anything to go by this, as Nathan rightly says should be required reading for everyone involved in building websites.
You see, it all comes down to the quality of your foundations. Whether you’re talking about architecture, drumming, or pretty much anything else, getting the basics right and keeping them right is fundamental to your success. When developing websites the basics is the HTML your pages are made up of. get that right and you’ve got a great foundation from which to build. get it wrong and you’ll come unstuck sooner or later.
There’s been another little development over at the Performer academy. If you want to create popup windows (yes, Popups Are Bad, I know) then you can now do so in an unobtrusive way using Performer.
Because I realise that the prototype framework that Performer runs on is quite large (over 30Kb event when compressed and packed) I’m looking at a way to create a PerformerLite version that will include just the few prototype features that Performer actually uses, rather than the whole thing. I’m aiming for a file that will be less than 15Kb with all the Performer features you’ve come to know and love.
If anyone is interested in helping out with that effort just drop me a line.