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Embedding a smaller SoundCloud player

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moonSoundcloud has easy ways to embed music players in a web site, especially WordPress sites. However, these players can use up a lot of screen space on a page, especially the players for “sets” (several tracks per set).

So here are two special configurations that I particularly like. The top one puts the track image behind the entire player, while the bottom one puts the track image on the left side like an “album cover.” The upper player requires a height of at least 140px to look good; the lower requires 110px.

<iframe src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/240383307&auto_play=false&hide_related=false &show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false &visual=true” width=”100%” height=”140″ frameborder=”no” scrolling=”no”></iframe>

<iframe src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/240383307&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false &show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”110″ frameborder=”no” scrolling=”no”></iframe>

<iframe src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/240383307&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true &show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”140″ frameborder=”no” scrolling=”no”></iframe>

<iframe width=”100%” height=”110″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”no” src=”https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/239028147&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false &show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”></iframe>

Backdoors – How Absolutely Stupid!

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Cloud computingI have not written on this subject because I just see everyone else is banging on Congress about how stupid it would be to install “backdoors” in commercial email and software services. But honestly, I’m a bit concerned right now because government pressure is being stepped up.

A “backdoor” is a mechanism that allows a service provider or government to access the contents of a system without knowing users’ passwords and without their knowledge. It is essentially a universal key that opens everything.

We hear government officials crying out that this is the only way they can protect the nation against attack. In other words, the government wants to have universal access to every electronic communication, or we will all die in flaming terrorist attacks.

So just why is this the stupidest idea in the world? [Read more…]

Max/MSP project

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max-msp-project“Max/MSP” is a computer app that implements an on-screen visual programming environment in which you can “wire” together components that make and process sound or logic. You could think of it as programming, but it’s unlike the old procedural programming you probably just thought of. It’s object-oriented, but more than that it includes many components that are paced by a clock. And the “programming” is carried out visually by creating and moving objects on the screen and patching (you might say “wiring”) them together. You might have a metronome beating four times a second, for example, and it could trigger sounds or actions that it’s wired to. [Read more…]