jbaudanza

If your software has a dependency on a third party component, then you should include that component in your tests. It's not about testing the component, it's about testing your integration with that component. For example, if you upgrade that component, and the API changes in a way that breaks your integration, you want your test suite to break as well.

Sometimes if a component is too slow or requires network access, you have to mock it out. But as a general rule, it's best to leave your dependencies in place.

You can use your app as a root origin for your assets, and then use something like CloudFront to offload most of the work.

It's possible they genuinely need to know the time. It's also possible they are trying to get me to take out my cell phone. But I think the most likely answer is that they want to have a normal human interaction.

I agree regarding facebook. I plan on offering soundcloud and google logins as well.

One of the difficult parts is actually detecting if flash is blocked at all. If the user has Google Chrome's built-in plugin blocker, I don't think it's possible to distinguish between a blocked plugin or a slow loading plugin.

Many hit hip-hop and electronica songs could have been composed on something similar to beatlab. The amount of additional complexity required is minimal.

For example, one project is to create another area of the site for laying down vocals over a beat. The grid is a poor metaphor for these kinds of things. The vocals will by recorded separately, and then independently synced up with any other grid on the site.

Another project is to allow for the arrangement of grids into a basic song structure. For example, there should be the intro grid, the chorus grid, etc..

Currently, beatlab.com is just me, but it is an incredibly fun project to work on. I'm based out of San Francisco.

Of course, It's fun to get to do projects with people like Paul Oakenfold. But it's also incredibly rewarding to interact with young kids on the site that have no preconceived notions of how music should be created, and to watch them progress on beatlab.

The HTML WebAudio API isn't quite there yet, but it's making great progress. It is already deployed in Chrome, with releases in Safari and iOS on the way. I actually have a branch going that uses the WebAudio API to mix sounds and doesn't rely on flash at all.