Building Your Own Hammock

Ahhhhh! Swaying gracefully in the breeze on your own rope hammock. It's a relaxing picture isn't it? Heck, the Skipper and Gilligan slept in them every day for the 16 years that they were stuck on that island.

But look on the internet, and a good-quality rope hammock will run you over $200! Plus shipping and handling!

But right here, right now, I've resurrected a set of hammock making instructions from my now-defunct first website.

It is a scan from the book "Hammock: How to Make Your Own and Lie in It" by Denison Andrews. It was first published in 1978 and is since out of print. So here is a scan of the chapter "The Twin Oaks Hammock" it works great, I've built two of them myself.

One of these days I'll track down a full copy of the book again, and get the missing pages. Until then, here is the chapter in PDF and MS Word formats.

I truly swear that it is as comfortable and fun as it looks on Gilligan's Island!


"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Extract Audio from Video

Did you ever watch a YouTube video and think "I wish I could download that song"?

Well now you can. In fact, if you can download the video, chances are you can get the song from it.

First, you need the audio extraction software.

Go to AOA Media and download AoA Audio Extractor, it's freeware, so you don't have to pay for it. If any other software catches your eye, by all means purchase it. In the meantime we will move on.

Install "AoA Audio Extractor".

The software will convert AVI, MPEG, MPG, DAT, FLV (Flash Video), WMV/ASF, MOV, MP4, 3GP to MP3, WAV, and AC3.

Now get your video. If it is from YouTube, go HERE to download it. Copy the exact address of the YouTube video you want the audio from, and paste it into the box and hit "Get Video". The video will download as "get_video". You should add ".flv" to the end before saving.

Then run AoA Audio Extractor to extract the audio.

Voila! Done!

Further audio editing can be achieved with Audacity.

Here are a few jingles I was able to capture from YouTube, as an example.

Mini-Wheats Vanilla Commercial
Mini-Wheats Strawberry Commercial
Mini-Wheats Cinnamon Commercial



"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Press Release: Soundwave Joins Cast of "T & M's Voices"!

For Immediate Release:

This week marks the announcement that Soundwave has joined the cast of "T & M's Voices" radio show as a fill-in co-host, while long-time beloved co-host Tit-o is off on assignment.

While Episode 8 served as an introduction to the popular blogger for the show's loyal listeners, the upcoming episodes will get back to the business of producing high quality, entertaining, and thought provoking internet radio episodes.

Soundwave brings his knowledge of cutting-edge recording technology with him to a show that is renown across the internet for its high calibre interviews with world leaders.

"We are really glad to bring Soundwave on board during this slow time, while Tit-o is out of the studio for an unknown amount of time," co-host Magnum was quoted as saying, "We are excited to bring a new element to the Show. We have already begun experimenting with new recording techniques that were just not possible a short while ago. We will be breaking new ground on many fronts in the upcoming months."

Soundwave also shares the show's excitement and optimistic outlook for the show in the following months.

"This will be a new challenge for me. Writing a blog is pretty simple when you get multiple chances to review what you've written, but on a radio show you've only got one shot. Once something's said, its out there... you can't deny it or take it back. We are going to do some big things, just get ready!"

Fans of both sites can catch Soundwave's premier episode on the show right now, just follow the link:

Season 3, Episode 8: Inside Mission Control

"T & M's Voices" is a production of the CSAL Radio Podcast Network, a subsidiary of ShureShot Media Inc.

"Don't Cross the Streams" is an independent blog published regularly on a monthly basis.

"Bringing you the Truth, with talent on loan from God" copyright ©2006, Shureshot Media Inc.


"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Make Your Pictures POP!

I have been working very hard to bring you the coolest web technologies to help bring some pizazz to your websites. I try to beta test code on this site, and then bring a tutorial to you on how to make it work.

Today I bring you the coolest javascript code that I have seen in a long time, HIGHSLIDE.

For a full description of what HIGHSLIDE can do, visit the site at the hotlink above. Here is but a taste of what this amazing script can do. Below is an array of images. Click on one, it should blow up over the site (if it takes you to a new page to view the image, then you are being blocked from my repository). You should also be able to click and drag the pictures around. Now press the left and right arrow keys, you should be progressing through the images. Now click on several images, they should all expand. Click on the expanded images to shrink them back.

How do you implement this awesome code into your own site? Well follow the instructions below.

1) Get a content repository.

You need a file host that will allow you to create folders and subfolders that are referenced in the file's URL's. Googlepages will not work. The javascript files assume everything is in a given hierarchy and you need to create folders. I use http://www.fileave.com/ and so far it is working out very well.

2) Download the latest HIGHSLIDE files.

Get the latest HIGHSLIDE files and save them to the desktop and extract them with winzip. This will give you a folder with several subfolders and files. The HTML files and Flash.swf are part of the examples and can be deleted if you want to, or you can double click on index.html for demos. All you need to keep is the highslide folder and the subfolders and files.

3) Upload the folders and files to the repository

Create a highslide folder in the root of the repository and keep the folder structure the same as it appears in the desktop folder.

4) Paste the following code into your page

Paste this code in the <head></head> section of your site. For Blogger, I have had the most success putting it immediately after the <head> tag.

<!--
    1 ) Reference to the file containing the javascript.
    This file must be located on your server.
-->

<script src='<url to your repository>/highslide/highslide.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<!--
    2) Optionally override the settings defined at the top
    of the highslide.js file. The parameter hs.graphicsDir is important!
-->

<script type='text/javascript'>    
    hs.graphicsDir = '<url to your repository>/highslide/graphics/'
    hs.allowSizeReduction = false;
</script>

<!--
    3) These CSS-styles are necessary for the script to work. You may also put
    them in an external CSS-file. See the webpage for documentation.
-->

<style type='text/css'>
* {
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica;
    font-size: 10pt;
}
.highslide {
cursor: url(<url to your repository>/highslide/graphics/zoomin.cur), pointer;
    outline: none;
}
.highslide-active-anchor img {
visibility: hidden;
}
.highslide img {
border: 2px solid gray;
}
.highslide:hover img {
border: 2px solid silver;
}

.highslide-wrapper {
background: white;
}
.highslide-image {
    border-bottom: 1px solid white;
}
.highslide-image-blur {
}
.highslide-caption {
    display: none;
    
    border-bottom: 1px solid white;
    font-family: Verdana, Helvetica;
    font-size: 10pt;
    padding: 5px;
    background-color: silver;
}
.highslide-loading {
    display: block;
color: black;
font-size: 8pt;
font-family: sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
    text-decoration: none;
padding: 2px;
border: 1px solid black;
    background-color: white;
    
    padding-left: 22px;
    background-image: url(<url to your repository>/highslide/graphics/loader.white.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 3px 1px;
}

a.highslide-credits,
a.highslide-credits i {
    padding: 2px;
    color: silver;
    text-decoration: none;
font-size: 10px;
}
a.highslide-credits:hover,
a.highslide-credits:hover i {
    color: white;
    background-color: gray;
}
a.highslide-full-expand {
background: url(<url to your repository>/highslide/graphics/fullexpand.gif) no-repeat;
display: block;
margin: 0 10px 10px 0;
width: 34px;
height: 34px;
}

/* These must always be last */
.highslide-display-block {
    display: block;
}
.highslide-display-none {
    display: none;
}
</style>

Replace the with the actual URL to your repository.

5) Add your images

Add your images with the following code:

<a href="large-image.jpg" class="highslide" onclick="return hs.expand(this)">
    <img src="thumbnail.jpg" alt="Highslide JS"
        title="Click to enlarge" height="100" width="100" />
</a>

And Voila! your images should be ready to jump out of the page!

If you review the example pages and the website, it will help you to develop other cool things that you can do with this code!

So, if you have a particularly cool implementation on HIGHSLIDE that you want to show off to the world, post a comment to this article with your URL so other Stream Crossers can enjoy your site as well.

Until next time, this is Soundwave signing off!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"