Saturday, May 31, 2008
Oakley JULIET
Saturday, May 31, 2008 
0 Comments
Friday, May 30, 2008
TeamViewer
Friday, May 30, 2008
4 Comments
Back To My Mac doesn't want to work with my FiOS router at home, nor through all the security port lockdowns through the work router, so I checked TeamViewer out. It works and it rocks.
The first thing I did was install it on my Mac and PC at work. I was able to quickly and easily take control of the PC via the Mac and the Mac via the PC over the LAN. Since they are side by side, I don't really need to do this but it's a nice proof of concept.
So now all I need to do is install it on my home Macs and I should be able to "Back To My Mac" reliably in spite of all the firewall issues I currently have with Apple's solution. I hope this works.
It kind of think that it won't work for my work PC because there is a system timeout that brings up login credentials... although I wonder if I could connect and see that login screen. Don't know yet ;)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Teknision, Open Screen Project & FineTune TV
Thursday, May 29, 2008
2 Comments
This kind of blows my mind a bit, however I don't have any details yet. What I am really most curious to know is about a television set that has the embedded player in it. In the demo linked to here, I see that there really aren't any animations happening -- a result of spotty performance issues? Perfectly understandable. Once GPU surfacing and compositing could reliably be rolled out that might make a huge impact.
In regards to animation performance at larger sizes (set top boxes mainly):
Would such a set top box have hardware acceleration somehow enabled for the rendering? I'd imagine that you'd need a hi-power processor or GPU to deliver smooth animation, etc. Even on a 16:9 HD monitor on an Octo-Intel Mac with a kick ass video card, large animations can chug a bit.
Would such a set just have a super-cheap PC powering the display, or perhaps some proprietary graphical rendering method?
Open Screen is really sweet, but I think the whole thing (for at least set top boxes, etc.) is how to smoothly render UI.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Greasy freakish Alex
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
0 Comments
Someone, anyone, please, for the love of all that is sacred, buy Alex Ovechkin some shampoo. Congrats on the trophies, but someday you'll look back on those photos and wonder WTF you were thinking.
OS X 10.5.3 & Back To My Mac
0 Comments
I was hoping for something, but at least I get a nice warning message from the Preference now instead of simply wondering what was going on. While that's a nice touch, my junk got waffle stomped yet again.
I'll update the home machine and try a thing with iChat to see if I can go that route, but that message tells me that the router I am piping through is locked down and won't allow this kind of thing. I guess I'd have to VPN to do this right.
"My media is rich" text effect
1 Comments
I'm a sucker for various types of string manipulations when presented in visually rich Flash sites/applications. If done right, they can really dress up something that might otherwise be a little boring.
A paragraph of text for instance, presented on the "my media is rich" website (coming soon™) is pretty interesting. Roll over the About Us or Contact Us links on the menu bar to see what I mean.
This is just as interesting as the standard typewriter effect or random text unscramble (train station display character flipping). Since I haven't seen this used yet before, it's a little fresh still.
So I decided I'd like to code up a class that mimics this same treatment. You can see the effect below.
A paragraph of text for instance, presented on the "my media is rich" website (coming soon™) is pretty interesting. Roll over the About Us or Contact Us links on the menu bar to see what I mean.
This is just as interesting as the standard typewriter effect or random text unscramble (train station display character flipping). Since I haven't seen this used yet before, it's a little fresh still.
So I decided I'd like to code up a class that mimics this same treatment. You can see the effect below.
Evangeline Lilly in pixels
0 Comments
Evangeline Lilly from Lost set to various states of pixel processing & mouse manipulation in 3D space. Just another older experiment that I had occupying drive space that I thought might be of interest to some.
Labels: BitmapData, Flash
Monday, May 26, 2008
Great satisfaction
Monday, May 26, 2008
0 Comments
I'm not exactly where the feeling comes from, but after the effort of mowing (and taking extra care ensuring that the paths are straight), weeding, some raking, etc. there is something so satisfying in the resultant smell of cut grass, the pristine serenity of clean lines and a trimmed appearance.
Standing out on the deck & having the embedded sprinkler system come on and feed the freshly distressed grass, all while a thin veil of low-hanging cloud sifts over the surface... it's very satisfying.
I suppose the feeling comes from a renewed sense of order, of having things in a clean state, a lush green set against your house, it's inviting. The flowers simply pop off a lush manicured green as well.
Anyway, happy Memorial Day to those celebrating today. Enjoy the friends, the family, and the fun. Time to crack a few cold ones, be it soda, water or suds.
Standing out on the deck & having the embedded sprinkler system come on and feed the freshly distressed grass, all while a thin veil of low-hanging cloud sifts over the surface... it's very satisfying.
I suppose the feeling comes from a renewed sense of order, of having things in a clean state, a lush green set against your house, it's inviting. The flowers simply pop off a lush manicured green as well.
Anyway, happy Memorial Day to those celebrating today. Enjoy the friends, the family, and the fun. Time to crack a few cold ones, be it soda, water or suds.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
God Bless
Sunday, May 25, 2008
0 Comments
Friday, May 23, 2008
BitmapData pixillation fun
Friday, May 23, 2008
5 Comments
A BitmapData pixillation effect (well, it is working by using the same principle as stop motion video to produce the effect).
Labels: BitmapData, Flash
A moment of clarity regarding the DisplayList
3 Comments
I just had a moment of clarity, and a way to program things that can in reality be technically more inefficient yet run a whole lot smoother... all based on the DisplayList. This is something that I can't believe I haven't discovered yet or really understood until now through all my use and research on it.
I was coding up an application where a lot of pretty complex math was being computed for various sprites. Proximity of sprites to other sprites, angle from another sprite, relationship to the mouse position, etc. Everything was working perfectly. However, I had forgotten to add some sprites to the display list.
Well... that opened my mind up a little bit. It's kind of like setting the visibility to false in AS2. Kinda.
The largest slowdown for the Flash Player (generally) is rendering. It eats up a lot of cycles. So you don't necessarily have to add things to the display list to use them. In all the examples I've ever seen, every time you create a display object, it was added to the list. Makes sense, especially for most tutorials.
However, my omission by mistake opened up a whole TON of power that I was overlooking.
So today, I was checking out some work by a co-worker, and he has this totally sweet class that does stuff with BitmapData. Well, I remembered that mistake I had made earlier that worked, and we commented out a line where a large display object was getting added to the list.
The BitmapData stuff worked just as expected, driven by the display object not on the display list, and the speed jumped up by at least 50% (in the animation of the representation in the bitmap). Whoa.
It's easy to assume you need to add things to the list. Now, I could have a super long list of stuff that I am scrolling around, and instead of having the player render ANY of it, I can use bitmap data of a portion of it and have the player render that instead... so behind the scenes being inefficient (not clipping the object dynamically, etc.) but yet gain a lot on the other end of it.
I previously had a different mindset in regards to the display list. Now I see where the true power really lies, something I should have seen long ago. I feel a little embarrassed about it, but now that I know, the way I develop is going to change for the better. More speed. A little more difficult because you almost need to think in another dimension while coding & testing, but so worth it.
Simple changes like this speed up performance by large amounts (when it makes sense).
Thanks for that little mistake, I now think I know a whole lot more about how to properly use the DO as it was intended.
I was coding up an application where a lot of pretty complex math was being computed for various sprites. Proximity of sprites to other sprites, angle from another sprite, relationship to the mouse position, etc. Everything was working perfectly. However, I had forgotten to add some sprites to the display list.
Well... that opened my mind up a little bit. It's kind of like setting the visibility to false in AS2. Kinda.
The largest slowdown for the Flash Player (generally) is rendering. It eats up a lot of cycles. So you don't necessarily have to add things to the display list to use them. In all the examples I've ever seen, every time you create a display object, it was added to the list. Makes sense, especially for most tutorials.
However, my omission by mistake opened up a whole TON of power that I was overlooking.
So today, I was checking out some work by a co-worker, and he has this totally sweet class that does stuff with BitmapData. Well, I remembered that mistake I had made earlier that worked, and we commented out a line where a large display object was getting added to the list.
The BitmapData stuff worked just as expected, driven by the display object not on the display list, and the speed jumped up by at least 50% (in the animation of the representation in the bitmap). Whoa.
It's easy to assume you need to add things to the list. Now, I could have a super long list of stuff that I am scrolling around, and instead of having the player render ANY of it, I can use bitmap data of a portion of it and have the player render that instead... so behind the scenes being inefficient (not clipping the object dynamically, etc.) but yet gain a lot on the other end of it.
I previously had a different mindset in regards to the display list. Now I see where the true power really lies, something I should have seen long ago. I feel a little embarrassed about it, but now that I know, the way I develop is going to change for the better. More speed. A little more difficult because you almost need to think in another dimension while coding & testing, but so worth it.
Simple changes like this speed up performance by large amounts (when it makes sense).
Thanks for that little mistake, I now think I know a whole lot more about how to properly use the DO as it was intended.
gofr Where for art thou?
1 Comments
I've been looking for some easy to use AS3 Webservice classes (outside of Flex) and I found a pure AS3 solution from Alducente called gofr. Found it, but I can't get at it.
I'd hoped that it made it's way to Google Code or something, but found it at Alducente's Lab site. Released 11.14.07, it has interesting methods I'd like to use, and implementation looks painlessly simple. However, the download links are all broken.
Does anyone have a copy of alducente.services.WebService (and any dependent classes) that I could have?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Google online backup?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
6 Comments
I read a rumor today about Google releasing something that will backup your computer's data to a Google server someplace for free. While that sounds pretty cool on the face of it, I'm not sure I actually like the idea.
If the rumor is true, I think I'll pass. Oh, and unless it's in the EULA, how much pron is going to get backed up to Google's servers? Heh.
- Privacy. Yes, I'm sure Google's security will be top-notch, but you simply never know.
- It's my data, I'd like to own the backup data myself (be it on my TimeMachine drive, TimeCapsule, or if I'm kind of nuts, a series of DVDs).
- I can restore from my personal backup without needing an internet connection.
If the rumor is true, I think I'll pass. Oh, and unless it's in the EULA, how much pron is going to get backed up to Google's servers? Heh.
ESPN360 is pretty cool
1 Comments
I just visited ESPN 360, and somehow I got this message:
Congratulations! Your high speed internet service provider, Verizon, carries ESPN360.com.
Ok, that's pretty cool that you knew that, and then I popped open the video player... and I'm getting the Celtics (kel•tics) game live streaming in HD to the laptop in our living room.
How is the sync with the actual FiOS feed coming into our house? Well, let's see.
It seems like it could be off by about a minute or two, it's difficult to say really. This service is pretty cool.
Congratulations! Your high speed internet service provider, Verizon, carries ESPN360.com.
Ok, that's pretty cool that you knew that, and then I popped open the video player... and I'm getting the Celtics (kel•tics) game live streaming in HD to the laptop in our living room.
How is the sync with the actual FiOS feed coming into our house? Well, let's see.
It seems like it could be off by about a minute or two, it's difficult to say really. This service is pretty cool.
FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE ?
4 Comments
// Doesn't exist.
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE;
// This does.
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN;
Hmm. I get the auto-complete for FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE in Flash Develop 3b7. I don't think that's supposed to be in there. It's supposed to be NORMAL and FULL_SCREEN only I believe.
Regular fullscreen mode in AS3 SWFs don't allow for input fields, etc. however was there a time when there was a special fullscreen mode that did allow this?
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE;
// This does.
stage.displayState = StageDisplayState.FULL_SCREEN;
Hmm. I get the auto-complete for FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE in Flash Develop 3b7. I don't think that's supposed to be in there. It's supposed to be NORMAL and FULL_SCREEN only I believe.
Regular fullscreen mode in AS3 SWFs don't allow for input fields, etc. however was there a time when there was a special fullscreen mode that did allow this?
Google Maps API for Flash CS3 requested
3 Comments
Issue #329. Ability to use API within Adobe Flash CS3 Environment.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Manchester United
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
1 Comments
United: Kings of EuropeUnited are celebrating after winning a third European Cup in the most dramatic fashion - sudden death penalties in the pouring rain at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
The crucial spot-kick - Chelsea's seventh - was saved by Reds keeper Edwin van der Sar to seal an epic victory.
The crucial spot-kick - Chelsea's seventh - was saved by Reds keeper Edwin van der Sar to seal an epic victory.
I have this one on the DVR, plan on watching it. Saw the ending penalty kicks and Ronaldo almost had a heart attack - if it wasn't for that missed that redeemed him.
Flash Player 10 Speed
1 Comments
You can see (31fps) that hyper mode here is pretty freaking fast (timer delay of 0ms) using a Pixel Bender filter on 4 random images with random settings. Good times.
This is not using GPU surfacing. I suppose it might be interesting to see a version of it with that activated. Well, wait a minute...
That's not possible as I read on Tinic's blog:
The Pixel Bender runtime in the Flash Player is drastically different from what you find in the Adobe Pixel Bender Toolkit. The only connection the Flash Player has is the byte code which the toolkit does generate, it generates files with the .pbj extension. A .pbj file contains a binary representation of opcodes/instructions of your Pixel Bender kernel, much the same way a .swf contains ActionScript3 byte code. The byte code itself is designed to translate well into a number of different run times, but for this Flash Player release the focus was a software run time.Alright, it seems to be running quick enough as it is to be honest. Nice work there.
You heard right, software run time. Pixel Bender kernels do not run using any GPU functionality whatsoever in Flash Player 10.
Labels: flash player
Monday, May 19, 2008
Free NIN (The Slip)
Monday, May 19, 2008
0 Comments
NIN is giving away the fully-produced album The Slip for free. The remarkable thing about this are all of the formats it's being released in: Mp3, FLAC, M4A lossless, and 24/96 WAVE. The album is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial share alike license. Some of the tracks sound like one's you've heard before on previous albums (with slight spins on them). Highlights in general for me are: Corona Radiata, Discipline, The Four of Us are Dying, and Demon Seed.
This album isn't a quick mix-up of experiments in hopes that it comes off as a proper album. It's got some complex mixing on some of the tracks, and it seems like a serious endeavor. It's free, all you need to do is sign up and choose your format. I chose M4A lossless myself.
How is NIN going to make money on this? Not sure... good press via word of mouth and internet which in turn might focus more money on live performances? Maybe NIN would prefer more frequent releases, knowing they already possess enough cash to last a while before coming out with a new album that you need to cash-up for? Maybe Trent is simply making a statement against the recording industry and trying to build up some more momentum for the artists vs. labels thing.
Would I buy this album from iTunes? After listening to this a few times, maybe not. A couple tracks. But I do appreciate NIN taking this approach. Very approachable!
Odd thing about custom events in AS3
3 Comments
Even though I don't need to rely on custom events in AS3, I am finding myself using them almost exclusively at the moment for my own classes. With the built-in classes of course I am still using their methods, but I am sending a lot of parameters with my own classes, and the ability to send them along for the ride while using custom events is pretty exhilarating.
I could use one base custom event and add all kinds of event types to it, but I am breaking them up a bit more just for legibility. One could probably do it all, but then I'd end up with a custom event class that might possibly have tons of types in it I might never use in context. So breaking them down into their own custom classes seems like the responsible thing to do.
Monday morning, using custom events. Much fun.
I didn't take to AS3 right off as I had to look up a lot of packages I needed to import all the time, but after more than a year of doing so, AS3 as a whole just seems SO much better. No more hacks, no more blind loops through "display objects (AS2)", a compiler that I love when it warns and errors at me, faster code execution, forcing me to architect things in a much more reliable manner, much more overall control, tons of handy events and methods, etc.
I know that I'm not saying much more than anyone else already experiences every single day, and have been for a long time. It's Monday, I'm feeling really good about AS3 at the moment, and I just wanted to express myself about it for a moment.
Happy times.
Post Eastern Conference Finals
0 Comments
You can hop in the Cordoba baby, we're going dancing with Lord Stanley.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Artist: Monique Sakellarios
Sunday, May 18, 2008
0 Comments
I have just discovered a truly wonderful painter while here in Kennebunkport, her name is Monique Sakellarios and I think her style is extremely good and technique classic.
She works with oils, and mostly on board (which David Baker also uses to great effect). A trick she uses is to paint the board/canvas with Cadmium Red before working on it... and she allows bits to show through here and there -- warming up each and every work.
It's daunting to work on a bare white canvas, so she gets around that using the red, but also uses the red to create overall warmth. Paired with areas of thick and flat strokes, it all comes together remarkably well.
She works with oils, and mostly on board (which David Baker also uses to great effect). A trick she uses is to paint the board/canvas with Cadmium Red before working on it... and she allows bits to show through here and there -- warming up each and every work.
It's daunting to work on a bare white canvas, so she gets around that using the red, but also uses the red to create overall warmth. Paired with areas of thick and flat strokes, it all comes together remarkably well.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Leopard better screenshots!
Friday, May 16, 2008
0 Comments
Have you ever tried taking a screenshot of a DVD using Apple's built-in screenshot software? You'll get this dialog:
That's not very helpful, is it? Well, take this MPAA. In Leopard, you'll need to turn your Scripts menu on. To do this launch the AppleScript Utility, and choose to show the menu in the Menubar. Cool. Now you just need the scripts to take screenshots.
Navigate to ~/Library/Scripts
You'll see a bunch of folder there already containing scripts, ready for your use. Cool. Now just add one and call it something like "~Screenshots" or something like that (the tilde is so that it will appear at the top of your Scripts Menu list). We'll make four files in this folder:
That's not very helpful, is it? Well, take this MPAA. In Leopard, you'll need to turn your Scripts menu on. To do this launch the AppleScript Utility, and choose to show the menu in the Menubar. Cool. Now you just need the scripts to take screenshots.
Navigate to ~/Library/Scripts
You'll see a bunch of folder there already containing scripts, ready for your use. Cool. Now just add one and call it something like "~Screenshots" or something like that (the tilde is so that it will appear at the top of your Scripts Menu list). We'll make four files in this folder:
- Mouse Capture Clipboard
- Mouse Capture Desktop
- Full Capture Clipboard
- Full Capture Desktop
Now comes the easy part... coding the files.
There are three parameters you can use in the Unix terminal for screenshots...
-i (interactive mode)
-o (in Window capture mode, ignore drop shadows)
-c (send to Clipboard)
Now, lets' write the first script ("Mouse Capture Clipboard.scpt"):
Open up Script Editor.app (Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor) and all you need is this line:
do shell script "screencapture -ioc"
Save that in the "~Screenshots" folder you made earlier. All this does is call screencapture with the arguments of interactive, no shadows, and send to the clipboard.
Note that when you're in interactive mode (mouse cursor), you can press the SPACEBAR to invoke window capture mode. The "o" in the above line tells the capture application to ignore window shadowing. You can remove this if you actually like the shadows being part of the capture.
See how easy that was? AND it allows screenshots of the DVD Player.
Now lets create the file "Mouse Capture Desktop.scpt" to instead save the capture to the desktop.
do shell script "screencapture -io ~/Desktop/screenshot.png"
Notice that this is missing the "c" in the arguments because if the utility encounters that, it will only send to the Clipboard and ignore the file. So the above script sends the capture to the desktop, named "screenshot.png" - note that if there is a file by that name already, it will be over-written.
Easy. Now you can see what to do for the last two files... you merely don't use the "i" in the arguments so that by default you're taking the entire screen.
So with the above, I was able to grab this ;)
Apple Store Images
1 Comments
The Apple Store on Boylston Street looks pretty freaking amazing. Three stories of Kubrick goodness.
I was unable to attend the opening as I figured there was simply no way of getting a free t-shirt because the line must have been enormous. Since it's located across from the Prudential Center (loaded with tons of people), it's proximity to Newbury Street, etc. my hunch was right.
Here are two images of the store. I'll go sometime this summer, being that I have the Natick Collection store about 4 miles from my house ;)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
svn on my media temple host
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
1 Comments
I have given up trying to get root access to my (gs) media temple account. I ssh'd in, and when I used my username and password for my account, I kept being asked to enter a password.
Well... seems like it didn't like my account password (unless I was using my FTP one (remembering this as I type this) and not my main account pw... I need to check that).
Anyway, for now it seems like I can use Google Code for stuff I don't mind sharing, Beanstalk and Assembla for my private projects. Assembla has something like 200MB of free storage, which is plenty enough for me. Beanstalk doesn't have very much for the free account.
Maybe I'll get media temple rolling properly... working on my own hosted grid server (even though shared) seems like better voodoo to me in the end. For the short term, I'll take my stuff on a local server and just slap it on the internets someplace.
Well... seems like it didn't like my account password (unless I was using my FTP one (remembering this as I type this) and not my main account pw... I need to check that).
Anyway, for now it seems like I can use Google Code for stuff I don't mind sharing, Beanstalk and Assembla for my private projects. Assembla has something like 200MB of free storage, which is plenty enough for me. Beanstalk doesn't have very much for the free account.
Maybe I'll get media temple rolling properly... working on my own hosted grid server (even though shared) seems like better voodoo to me in the end. For the short term, I'll take my stuff on a local server and just slap it on the internets someplace.
Megadeth and the Penguins
0 Comments
I am happy to report that the Pittsburgh Penguins were listening to some Megadeth in their locker room before Game 3 in Philadelphia -- which is very cool in my book. And it wasn't just one song but several of them. Nice work boys.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Flash and Apple. Sort'a.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
0 Comments
I was welcomed by a news snippet about Apple and Emmis Interactive. Here is the first paragraph of the post at iLounge:
Apple and Emmis Interactive have announced a licensing agreement allowing Emmis to market its custom Storefront technology to other radio stations and media companies. Used exclusively to date by Emmis radio stations, the Storefront technology allows stations to build storefronts with a look and feel consistent with their product, while enabling listeners to easily find and purchase songs they hear on the air through the iTunes Store. Since its launch on Emmis Radio sites in 2006, the Storefront has been among the top five affiliates directing traffic to the iTunes Store. For examples, see the Storefronts of Power 106, Loop 97.9, and 105.7 The Point.
If you visit any of those storefronts, guess what? That's right. It's Flash... and it looks like its the same front-end for each station (makes sense since Emmis is serving it all up).
Now I suppose there are APIs on the back-end that will become available to other media companies and stations. That's a pretty nice idea all around. Or perhaps they will limit developer access to the back-end but offer mainly branding choices.
When making their choice, Emmis deployed their application using Flash as the RIA mechanism. Well done chaps.
Apple and Emmis Interactive have announced a licensing agreement allowing Emmis to market its custom Storefront technology to other radio stations and media companies. Used exclusively to date by Emmis radio stations, the Storefront technology allows stations to build storefronts with a look and feel consistent with their product, while enabling listeners to easily find and purchase songs they hear on the air through the iTunes Store. Since its launch on Emmis Radio sites in 2006, the Storefront has been among the top five affiliates directing traffic to the iTunes Store. For examples, see the Storefronts of Power 106, Loop 97.9, and 105.7 The Point.
If you visit any of those storefronts, guess what? That's right. It's Flash... and it looks like its the same front-end for each station (makes sense since Emmis is serving it all up).
Now I suppose there are APIs on the back-end that will become available to other media companies and stations. That's a pretty nice idea all around. Or perhaps they will limit developer access to the back-end but offer mainly branding choices.
When making their choice, Emmis deployed their application using Flash as the RIA mechanism. Well done chaps.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The message, I just...
Saturday, May 10, 2008
1 Comments
Found footage: FlashForward 2001 (2+ hours!)
3 Comments
I found some pretty old video footage (original 320x240 @12fps -- 295.3MB) that I shot while attending FlashForward 2001 in New York City. It weighs in at over 2 hours! I just hope this streams okay without having to download the whole thing first. If you have to download the whole thing, then you're a die-hard Flash fan with some deep roots :)
Looking back at the video I see that there were a lot of things that still hold up remarkably well in this day and age. A lot of really good work... most of the video is of the film festival and award presentations.
There is some good stuff in there. I could have presented this using Flash video, but I had an old bit of deConcept code at the ready, so I'm riding the QuickTime bull at the moment. Enjoy the good old days.
[Since I am posting this pretty late, I hope that this isn't pushed too deep into aggregator reports... lest I have to rely solely on casual visits]
Looking back at the video I see that there were a lot of things that still hold up remarkably well in this day and age. A lot of really good work... most of the video is of the film festival and award presentations.
There is some good stuff in there. I could have presented this using Flash video, but I had an old bit of deConcept code at the ready, so I'm riding the QuickTime bull at the moment. Enjoy the good old days.
[Since I am posting this pretty late, I hope that this isn't pushed too deep into aggregator reports... lest I have to rely solely on casual visits]
Friday, May 9, 2008
Hi,
I'm just testing...
Friday, May 9, 2008
0 Comments
Simple Minds, In The City Of Light
1 Comments
Rediscovering some lost youth today. Found an album I forgot that I had, listening to it now and I am smiling.While I attended prep school, I used to enjoy a lot of night ski listening to this album on one of those Walkman things (anyone even remember those?) I forgot how great an album this is. Sublime might be a decent term to describe it.
There is so much ambient atmosphere on these tracks, the recording is nearly perfect, and each track is played magnificently. I think it's the subtle ambience on this release that makes it outstanding for me.
I used to ski with a flask of Jack Daniel's tucked away in my jacket -- I am sure that didn't hurt either.
Since my prep school is all male (think Dead Poet's Society), our nights to ski meant the all-girl prep school skied the same nights. Most of them were partly digging Simple Minds back then too, so it was a nice ice-breaker when needed. And the fact that they didn't see males for most of the week was an added bonus.
Excellent album ;)
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Ignite Boston event
Thursday, May 8, 2008
0 Comments
[via the gaping chasm that is my stockpile of mostly un-read emails]:
O'Reilly is hosting another fun, free Ignite Boston event!
Ignite Boston is happening on Thursday, May 29, from 6 to 10pm at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square, Cambridge (www.tommydoyles.com). We're heading back to the venue of our first Ignite, but we're using two floors so we can accommodate more folks.
The evening's keynote speakers are:
http://ignitenight.thirdeye.railsplayground.net/events/form/ignite_boston_3
Presentation Guidelines:
Stay in the loop by visiting our blog for updates, speaker lists, and other info:
http://www.oreillynet.com/ignite/blog/
See you there!
And while you're waiting for Ignite...our friends at BarCampBoston are running another BarCamp on May 17th and 18th. BarCamp is a free unConference where you can participate in discussions, demo your projects, or join into another cooperative event.
Find out more and register at http://www.barcampboston.org/
O'Reilly is hosting another fun, free Ignite Boston event!
Ignite Boston is happening on Thursday, May 29, from 6 to 10pm at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square, Cambridge (www.tommydoyles.com). We're heading back to the venue of our first Ignite, but we're using two floors so we can accommodate more folks.
The evening's keynote speakers are:
- Jonathan Zdziarski, iPhone maven and author of "iPhone Open Application Development" (This has me more excited than anything else right now)
- John Viega, security guru and author of many O'Reilly titles, including the upcoming "Beautiful Security"
http://ignitenight.thirdeye
Presentation Guidelines:
- Be no longer than 5 minutes.
- Be on an innovative topic (no sales pitches or launches, please!).
- Be viewable on a PC with standard AV equipment.
Stay in the loop by visiting our blog for updates, speaker lists, and other info:
http://www.oreillynet.com
See you there!
And while you're waiting for Ignite...our friends at BarCampBoston are running another BarCamp on May 17th and 18th. BarCamp is a free unConference where you can participate in discussions, demo your projects, or join into another cooperative event.
Find out more and register at http://www.barcampboston.org/
Labels: BarCampBoston, boston, Flex, iPhone
Belkin: N1 Vision
0 Comments
While I normally plug Apple tech pretty hard and consistently here, I was just introduced to the Belkin N1 Vision wireless router. And it's a beauty.The N1 Vision wireless router offers an easy way for you to view your network's broadband speed, computer bandwidth usage, and the status of your connected devices - all from an easy-to-read display.
"Packaged in a new sleek and sophisticated design, N1 Vision offers the best in networking performance with its wireless 802.11n* 3x3 radio design and wired gigabit ports.
The N1 Vision wireless router continues Belkin's commitment in providing the best user experience in the home market through its Plug-and-Play "CD-less" installation and simple network security setup."
This this is pretty much a geek's dream with the display, showing connected devices, bandwidth, bandwidth history, etc. It's so nice they put a clock on it in the hopes you'd place it out in the open.
This this is pretty much a geek's dream with the display, showing connected devices, bandwidth, bandwidth history, etc. It's so nice they put a clock on it in the hopes you'd place it out in the open.
I don't know about you, but even with my Airport Extremes and Airport Expresses, I have them basically hidden away. I mean, who wants to look at a router, right? With this Belkin one, you may just change your thinking on that one.
Although antennas are really never very sexy™. That is one thing Apple technology will always have over this approach... even when you attach a third-party antenna to an Airport Extreme, it's still looks pretty decent (I forget the brand I am using, but it's basically an elegant white spire, right angle on one side and a steep slope on the other).
Hail the new arrival on
0 Comments
TextMate is pretty sweet, but...
8 Comments
I've been hearing a lot of buzz lately around the Mac OS X editor TextMate. On the PC, I'm in love with FlashDevelop and I've really gotten used to the way that it works.So I now have a Mac and PC box at my desk. So I thought I would give TextMate a go instead of the usual FlexBuilder 3 route, just to see if I'd like it enough to go with while coding on the Mac. Because unless FlashDevelop is ported, I'm going to sorely miss it while doing any coding on the Mac.
Well, if you're in Project mode, TextMate rocks pretty good (like using Projects in FlashDevelop... although FD has way more features than TM does so far as I can tell). With a little hacking about you can get CTRL-ENTER to compile.
If you have the standard ActionScript bundle AND the AS3 bundle, I've found the shortcut for Run and Build don't do a whole lot. I should read up some more about that I think.
Three things that makes me pause though when considering using TM instead of FB compared to FD:
- No code completion. When I'm typing up my import statements, I don't get hinting anywhere. If I define classes, etc. I don't have access to the methods within them. This is where FlashDevelop really shines. It makes my coding take a lot less time, because I don't need to flip between classes or revert to my own documentation to remember methods and argument types. It just feels a lot more natural. You're not fighting the code, the editor is serving up a lot of help in weeding through it all.
- When I define my private vars in my class, FD automatically creates the import statements for me. That's a freaking Godsend to me. Again, it just speeds up the mundane crap and lets me worry about getting to the meat of the code.
- Find in TM sucks. It's the standard way of doing things, but the Find in FD (a port of the QuickFind that Alessandro Crugnola authored for us in SE|PY) rocks. It's like the FireFox find... just type into the field and it can either highlight all instances, or simply take you to the first match down from your caret position. You can then just F2 through them all. SUPER handy. In TM I have to open that stupid dialog box, find once, and THEN I can F2 through the matches. Every time I do this, the dialog remains open because I didn't want to click it closed. It's annoying, and I use Find all the time while coding.
I like TextMate a lot so far. I used to use TextWrangler, SubEthaEdit, etc. on the Mac but I think I'll stick with TextMate for a while and see if I can find out some more shortcuts, tricks, etc. to really get rolling with it. It took me a little while using FlashDevelop on the PC before I was completely smitten with it.
Maybe I just need a few more dates with TextMate before making a decision between it and FlexBuilder.
Or I hear FlashDevelop has been ported to a Universal Binary ;)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Afternoon delight
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
0 Comments
Call me a little crazy, but I have a 9.27 GB AVI file that was rendered out in AfterEffects at 2x 720p resolution. In the hopes of bringing the size down by 0.5 and getting some of the banding issues to go away (it's all really subtle smooth animated stuff).
Firing up QuickTime Pro, exporting to H.264 for some playback in Flash I hope... the resizing is being done in QT (not by sizing the player window but via Export controls). Crossing my fingers... this is actually encoding pretty freaking quickly.
I decided to hang a few pictures in the gallery
0 Comments
Everyone uses Flickr for various things, but I decided to whip up a little AS3 image gallery application myself. I have total control over it, and I get to work a little more in AS3 -- so that's good. Right now it's just a basic gallery system... nothing too spectacular.
While the system is nowhere near feature complete, it is running and working.
The default gallery is from Erik Natzke's work which I found at jot.eriknatzke.com by mistake. Stunning work. I guess Erik takes photographic images and deforms them in various ways with ActionScript to achieve some pretty amazing stuff.
Anyway, you can take a peek at what's going on in the Gallery section if you so feel inclined.
AS3: Clearing out loader instance contents
3 Comments
This wasn't very obvious to me at first, so I report my working findings here for the benefit of perhaps someone out there.
var li = child2.loader.contentLoaderInfo;
if( child2.loader.content != null )
{
if(li.childAllowsParent && li.content is Bitmap)
{
(li.content as Bitmap).bitmapData.dispose();
}
}
var li2 = child1.loader.contentLoaderInfo;
if( child1.loader.content != null )
{
if(li2.childAllowsParent && li2.content is Bitmap)
{
(li2.content as Bitmap).bitmapData.dispose();
}
}
I have a gallery application that uses two instances of a Loader. Instead of creating/destroying the instances, I re-use the instances... but for me to make swapping galleries (full swap), I needed a way to clear out the images in the Loader instances... essentially creating a reset method in my gallery class.
Well... there isn't an obvious clear() anywhere, and when you inspect the contents of a Loader instance (that has been loaded successfully), you'll notice it's BitmapData. Okay... so we need a way of throwing out that type of data. We have the dispose() method.
However, depending on where one might be in the cycling of images (fading), you might have a Loader that doesn't presently contain BitmapData. This might be when you're only one image into the whole cycle of images... trying to clear out both at once in the reset would throw an error.
The code below reflects usage that works for me right now.
var li = child2.loader.contentLoaderInfo;
if( child2.loader.content != null )
{
if(li.childAllowsParent && li.content is Bitmap)
{
(li.content as Bitmap).bitmapData.dispose();
}
}
var li2 = child1.loader.contentLoaderInfo;
if( child1.loader.content != null )
{
if(li2.childAllowsParent && li2.content is Bitmap)
{
(li2.content as Bitmap).bitmapData.dispose();
}
}
So this checks the contents of each of the loaders and then clears the contents out... then I am free to load up the new XML and start my timer, etc. It works... before I was getting mucked up cycling after a gallery switch.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Why, hello there AXNA!
Monday, May 5, 2008
0 Comments
The Adobe XML News Aggregator had been down for some time, and we were informed about the backend upgrades, etc. to better serve it. She's live now at a new url (enjoy the old url redirect for how long I don't know)... http://feeds.adobe.com/
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Opinion... displaying time
Sunday, May 4, 2008
1 Comments
Let's say someone is playing some piece of music (say a really long track), and as a developer you want to convey the present time of total time to them. Which is better:
0:09:36 / 1:30:11
or
9:36 / 1:30:11
And change the present time marker to add a digit when needed? You see, then the time display actually shifts in position because of an added digit, but maybe that's the most inviting way of displaying it?
0:09:36 / 1:30:11
or
9:36 / 1:30:11
And change the present time marker to add a digit when needed? You see, then the time display actually shifts in position because of an added digit, but maybe that's the most inviting way of displaying it?
Friday, May 2, 2008
My adventure within Illustrator CS3 today
Friday, May 2, 2008
3 Comments
Today I was working on specifications for UI elements which requires me to use Illustrator. No worries. As I am working on a new file, all of the sudden my ability to see what text I had selected went away.
You know, when you select text and it turns white and the selection background goes black? Yes, that... well suddenly I had no way of seeing which parts of various texts I had selected. I wondered if I mistakenly did something to change some bizarre preference or not. Nope.
I restarted Illustrator, opened up my file, same problem. OS-level text selection was fine, other CS3 applications showed text selections... hmmm. I restarted OS X. Same problem.
Just before I was going to re-install Illustrator I decided to try a new document. Text selection worked! I copied the elements from my damaged (somehow) file into the new document... and selection worked still. I don't know what happened but something in that one file prevented text selection to be visible.
So that was my adventure in Illustrator for the day.
You know, when you select text and it turns white and the selection background goes black? Yes, that... well suddenly I had no way of seeing which parts of various texts I had selected. I wondered if I mistakenly did something to change some bizarre preference or not. Nope.
I restarted Illustrator, opened up my file, same problem. OS-level text selection was fine, other CS3 applications showed text selections... hmmm. I restarted OS X. Same problem.
Just before I was going to re-install Illustrator I decided to try a new document. Text selection worked! I copied the elements from my damaged (somehow) file into the new document... and selection worked still. I don't know what happened but something in that one file prevented text selection to be visible.
So that was my adventure in Illustrator for the day.
Are you looking for some AS3 UML news?
3 Comments
Saffron UML continues to elude the general public's news gathering radar, but there seems to be another AIR UML project that is currently in the works.
It's currently titled AIR UML tool, and you can read up on the project at the host site.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Audi stereo panel lights won't go out
Thursday, May 1, 2008
0 Comments
Interesting development tonight. Came home, turned the car off & the panel for the radio and lights around it won't go out. The radio isn't on, there is no display, but that red glow is there.
Hmm. I've heard the radio has a fuse behind it that can be pulled and placed back in to reset the unit (there is power there so it's not a blown fuse). But I'm not spending the time to do that -- way too much work for something that may or may not work.
I just disconnected the battery and am waiting for about 5 minutes to pass before I hook it back up. Supposedly this is supposed to help. I may need to reset a few things, I'm not sure yet.
I just don't want to wake up in the morning to a car with a depleted battery because those lights were on all evening. If I have to, I suppose I could just disconnect the battery until I get this hunk of junk serviced.
Update
Well that worked.
Hmm. I've heard the radio has a fuse behind it that can be pulled and placed back in to reset the unit (there is power there so it's not a blown fuse). But I'm not spending the time to do that -- way too much work for something that may or may not work.
I just disconnected the battery and am waiting for about 5 minutes to pass before I hook it back up. Supposedly this is supposed to help. I may need to reset a few things, I'm not sure yet.
I just don't want to wake up in the morning to a car with a depleted battery because those lights were on all evening. If I have to, I suppose I could just disconnect the battery until I get this hunk of junk serviced.
Update
Well that worked.
Quicksilver for the Mac
1 Comments
I finally came around and have been using Quicksilver for a while now. Wow. It completely changes the way I use my Mac, it's so freaking great. It's way faster than Spotlight for many things, and I've only scratched the surface in regards to performing actions on QS results. Wow.
Digiguru v8... interesting idea
0 Comments
I received an announcement about (Craig Jamieson) digiguru's latest website, version 8.
I checked it out, and while it's clean and pretty easy to use, I wanted to see how she resized and I was pleasantly surprised. And then wondered to myself beyond sizing to larger sizes (my monitor is a monster), was the reverse a good idea?
Here are two images of the site I'll reference:
You'll notice that the site lets the viewer know when they have resized their browser to a size that is out of range for what the author has in mind. Now that's quite useful information, but I'm not sure that I see a whole lot in the site that shouldn't work when sized down to a reasonable (but out of range) size.
Here are two images of the site I'll reference:
You'll notice that the site lets the viewer know when they have resized their browser to a size that is out of range for what the author has in mind. Now that's quite useful information, but I'm not sure that I see a whole lot in the site that shouldn't work when sized down to a reasonable (but out of range) size.
Is this some needless technology to make the user say to themselves, "Wow, this site knows how large it is, that's cool." I don't want to pick on this site, because I think it's very well done, and I might not see the ramifications of sizing things too small (yet).
I do like interfaces that are liquid and are smart enough to re-layout the contents in response to changes in their environment. I think it's a very nice touch, way beyond providing scrollbars and forcing a user to work for your content. It means as a designer/developer you care about their experience beyond the normal.
It's always something to consider. I'm not quite sure I'd warn a viewer in a possible needless situation here.
Kevin Lynch on Open Screen Project & my question
0 Comments
Okay, this is excellent news, but how deep do the changes in access to the technology run?
I don’t know if this porting layer API will offer a deep enough access point to allow hardware acceleration of the rendering of Flash visual elements... which I believe is truly key in embedded situations. When you're talking devices, you're talking about limited processing power.
Allowing for HW acceleration will allow devices more successfully use the SWF format in rendering. Less CPU usage, visuals powered sep. from the code, etc.