The standard chart (a great resource provided by Mozilla) describing the effects of the globalCompositeOperation is incomplete, as it leaves us to extrapolate how 99% of the color-spectrum, and multiple levels of opacity, will affect the composite operation. The following chart allows you to see what the globalCompositeOperation’s is doing on a pixel-to-pixel basis. The source-image contains [...]
HTML5: Background Generator

Background Generator (BG) provides the ability to edit the background of any website in real-time! To give you an idea, the backgrounds of the Journal, Photos, Projects, and Labs sections of Mudcu.be were created using BG. BG allows you to create fancy Web 3.0 backgrounds without getting dirty with Photoshop, GIMP, ect. The project includes a collection [...]
HTML5: Typographic Effects

HTML5 Rocks is a website that helps inspire developers and teach how to implement those shiny new HTML5 features in real world examples. They recently asked me to write an article for their website. Working on a project for Google was inspiring (even if there was no pay involved)! … Neon Rainbow Jitter; … Sleek Zebra (inspired by WebDesignerWall); [...]
HTML5: Typographic Metrics
Typography support between browsers has a history of being spotty. One of the major hurdles in creating the (yet-to-be-released) next-incarnation of Sketchpad was typographic support; between browsers and even within the <canvas> specs. One pitfall of the <canvas> tag is the lack of text-metrics support (past calculating the width via ctx.measureText). This prevents us from [...]
Color Piano v1

UPDATE: There is a more recent post on Color Piano. Color Piano Theory (CPT) was inspired by an interest in building an educational application that utilizes colors in teaching piano theory. CPT ties together chords, scales, inversions, octaves, and key signatures. CPT is a visual interface for learning the keyboard. This application also includes a bit [...]
HTML5: Unicode Profiling Project
The Unicode Profiling Project was designed to gather statistics on unicode support across systems. The software checks each symbol in your systems Unicode catalog (65,535 glyphs) to see which are visible on your computer using <canvas> and Javascript. The data generated from your computer will help profile the state of unicode support on the web. Your computers unicode [...]
HTML5: Font Detection
So you want to detect fonts in a HTML5 webapp? Presenting a fast-native solution for accurately detecting fonts installed on your system — this demo utilizes Javascript and the <canvas> tag and requires a browser that supports ctx.fillFont(), and ctx.getImageData() — including Chrome, Firefox, IE9, Opera and Safari. This plugin would make sense a website such as TypeTester [...]
Dynamic MIDI generation in the browser
UPDATE: This project has been cancelled, the MIDIBridge (which takes this idea much further) is what you’re looking for; http://www.abumarkub.net/abublog/?p=505 Have you ever wanted to use MIDI in your Javascript or Flash project? It’s been a long time dream of mine. After a long search I came up with one solution that would provide the best [...]
What can 1kb of Javascript do?
JS1k is challenge presented by Peter van der Zee to design the most creative use out of 1kb of Javascript. Many beautiful demos have been added in the first few days: mr. doob, hyperandroid, and antimatter. The challenge is addicting, “How much functionality can you fit in 1024 characters?”. Here are my results: Breathing Galaxies [...]
Antidepressants for the World Economy
As crazy as it might seem, investors from around the world are converting their cash into US currency — even as our markets crash the value of the dollar keeps rising steadily. How can this make sense? … Well, apparently, in the grand scheme of things, our economy is a safe haven in the global [...]
Sketchpad (alpha)
Welcome to the preview of Sketchpad. Though not all browsers support <canvas> we’re working hard to extend support before our official release. Until then, you lucky FireFox users (download Firefox) will be able to kick the tires and hold the wheel of what we believe will become the new standard in Web-authoring. Sketchpad uses the [...]
Piano Theory widget
Sphere Plugin
I’ve prepared a new DHTML plugin, licencened under Creative Commons. It works perfectly on all Macintosh browsers, however, I haven’t had the opportunity to test on Windows… If there are bugs there, it would be great if someone could submit the fix’s… otherwise, you’ll have to wait for me to get around to finding a [...]
ColorJack: Sphere
Ever wonder what a computer programmer does while on vacation? The same thing we do every night. Check out the newest release from ColorJack Labs (developed in Mexico). Sphere allows you to visualize the theory behind color schemes. Try messing around with “Custom” function on the color blindness menu for more advanced options.
Sphere Widget
Do you like ColorJack Sphere? Want it on your desktop? Download the widget for Apple’s Dashboard!
DHTML Color Picker
I finally got all the ColorJack code into a little widget for your websites! It’s surprisingly small… the entire package weighs in at only 24.5k To give you an idea for comparison, it’s nearest competitor is 72.3k. Feel free to use the widget on any of your projects. You can find the source code <- over [...]
ColorJack: Studio
Studio is finally ready for mass-consumption. This new release greatly increases compatibility. These languages are now supported: Arabic, Chinese, Deutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese. Special thanks to Logos / Google / Babel Other changes include a simplified user interface, better color blindness support, and del.icio.us colorscheme export… speaking [...]
Russian Bomber w/ Headphones
Who doesn’t love the classic appeal of the Russian Rabbit Fur Hat? It’s efficiant design is timeless, however, still contains the same technology it never had. It’s missing something fundemental to the 22nd century: music. We love our music, we want to take it everywhere, and we want it to be seemlessly integrated into our [...]

