venerdì, giugno 29, 2007

Wowza Media Server Pro

If I ever want to experiment with streaming Flash content, it looks like “Wowza” (kinda funny) offers a small version of their product for free.

Wowza Media Server Pro is a powerful and extensible pure Java alternative to Adobe Flash Media Server that delivers a dramatic improvement of Flash streaming economics. With up to 80% lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Wowza Media Server makes Flash streaming affordable for organizations of all sizes – from the smallest enterprises to hosting companies and CDNs.

 

Google Maps Are Now Draggable

More great stuff from ER:

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/directions/

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It's a click & drag situation

Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 12:17 PM

Posted by Ryan Sturgell and Barry Brumitt, Software Engineers, Google Maps
Can you imagine going back to clicking arrows and waiting for the screen to refresh just to move the map left/right/up/down? It'd be as big a bummer as going back to 8-track tapes. Today, we're taking another big step forward with driving directions in Google Maps: now you can click & drag to change destinations along your route.

more

 

 

giovedì, giugno 28, 2007

Mvelopes and yourminis

Matt F showed me two neat Flex applications today.

 

Mvelopes

Mvelopes Personal is the most effective online personal finance and spending management system ever. This revolutionary, award-winning system applies innovative financial software technology to the traditional envelope method of budgeting to help you manage your finances, while living within your income - and most of it's done automatically!

http://www.mvelopes.com/

 

and

 

yourminis

You can create news pages, fan pages, promotional pages, art pieces, school projects, design mockups, or anything else you can dream up. 

http://www.yourminis.com/start

 

I couldn’t resist the latter. Here’s my primitive first attempt.

mercoledì, giugno 27, 2007

SyntaxHighlighter

SyntaxHighlighter is here to help a developer/coder to post code snippets online with ease and have it look pretty. It's 100% Java Script based and it doesn't care what you have on your server.

http://code.google.com/p/syntaxhighlighter/

Configure a SharePoint Server 2007 site to receive e-mail

I think there is a lot of potential uses for this type of functionality.

“By configuring your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site to receive e-mail messages, you can enable team members to use e-mail to send information, messages, and files directly to different areas of the site. For example, users can send announcements directly to the home page or send documents as e-mail attachments directly to document libraries.”

 

Testing Out the iPhone

I sure hope they evolve past AT&T one of these days. Otherwise, it seems sooo cool:

Testing Out the iPhone

Human Computation

I thought this was interesting (from the WSJ):

The idea is that because there are many tasks that humans still do better than computers, why not just get people to do them? Often, the best way to do just that is to make a game out of it.

That was the insight of Luis von Ahn, a 28-year-old professor at Carnegie Mellon University who is the creative force behind a Web hit known as the ESP Game, at espgame.org. The site has had more than 130,000 visitors and has lately inspired other researchers to try the same thing.

The game links two random players via the Web. Both are shown the same picture, then have to type in possible keywords to describe what they see. If the keywords match, points are awarded; people have been known to play for hours.

What's really going on, though, is that a previously unlabeled picture collected off the Internet is being given keywords that can be used later to categorize or retrieve it.

 

martedì, giugno 26, 2007

Royalty free music

From RR:

Found this nice site for royalty-free music, flash loops and a blanket license to the whole library -  http://www.beatsuite.com most of the tracks cost about $20.00 and sound good.

 

Simple Merge with Gammadyne

It’s fairly easy to achieve mail merge functionality in Gammadyne.

The first step is to create a recipient file that contains additional parameters, separated by commas (or tabs).  The first line of the file/list must contain the name of each column.

To create my test example, I first created a simple list in Excel. Next, I saved it as a comma delimited list.

ID,FirstName,LastName,Extension,Department,EmployeeNo,Birthday,Anniversary,Email

15,Mr.,Entropy,100,Multimedia,500,7/13/2000,3/20/2006,mr.e.n.t.r.o.p.y@hotmail.com

16,Slee,Stak,1289,T.V.,293,12/25/2000,9/16/2002,mr.entropy@lycos.com

While on the Recipients tab, select the “Simple-Merge” checkbox and enter the name of the email address column.

Now we can access the merge names that we just created by enclosing them within double brackets.

Hi [[FirstName]] [[LastName]],

This is an exciting test of Gammadyne's merge possibilities. For example:

Your birthday is: [[Birthday]]

And it parses through the list.

 

 

 

MailChimp Inbox Inspector

At first glance, this seems like it might be an interesting option.

“Whenever you create an email campaign, do you spend hours testing it in all your different email programs and ISP accounts and spam filters? Or do you just click "send" and pray to the email gods? We feel your pain. That's why we created the MailChimp Inbox Inspector...”

http://www.mailchimp.com/add-ons/inboxinspector/

 

lunedì, giugno 25, 2007

Ten CSS tricks you may not know

Seems useful.

Dynamically Generated Word 2003 XML

Generating Word documents on the server? There are probably much more sophisticated methods. However, I’ve been experimenting with creating XML from a webserver as a means of automatically creating Word documents from data in a SharePoint list.

 

I haven’t had a chance to try Word 2007 yet, which promises better XML.

 

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Overview of WordprocessingML [Word 2003 XML Reference]

 

If you save a Microsoft© Office Word 2003 document with the .xml extension, Windows treats the file like any other XML file. When the user double-clicks the file, for example, opens it in the standard XML processor (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer). However, adding the mso-application processing instruction specifies Word as the preferred application for processing the file. As a result, Word opens the XML document when the user double-clicks the document's icon. The following example shows the sample document with the mso-application element added:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<?mso-application progid="Word.Document"?>

<w:wordDocument

    xmlns:w="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml">

<w:body>

    <w:p>

        <w:r>

            <w:t>Hello, World.</w:t>

        </w:r>

    </w:p>

</w:body>

 

</w:wordDocument>

Web-based multimedia suite Aviary invites beta testers

From Webware:

Aviary is a suite of Web tools for tackling "creation on the fly" (the product's motto and URL). You can think of it as having a similar goal for the creative crowd to what Zoho aims to do for organizational productivity: create a diverse set of light but still functional Web-based applications that enable portability and collaboration.

When the suite is final, it will optimally include more than a dozen applications, each named after a different kind of bird. Each one will handle a different niche of multimedia editing, from typography to audio editing to monetizing the content you create. (Think CafePress.com on steroids). They'll all be compatible so that you can use multiple applications on the same Aviary project, and you'll be able to collaborate with other Aviary users, Google Apps-style.

I know what you're thinking: wow, that's ambitious.

And it is. I saw an in-person demo of the first Aviary application to exit the gates, image editor Phoenix, and I was very impressed by the functionality and speed of the program. But you really can't deny that this is a tough market to enter, as video remix tools and Web-based versions of big-name applications pop up left and right.

The catch is that the folks who make up the team behind Aviary have a pretty unique kind of experience under their belts: they're the same people who run Worth1000, the photoshopping community that stresses artistic expertise over comic value. (No Microsoft Paint here.) That means that while developing Aviary, they've had access to years of direct experience with the Web's creative community. They also now have a loyal pack of early adopters for their new products.

Aviary's success may indeed depend on having those skilled beta testers on board to help shape the new suite into a robust set of applications and spread buzz about it across the rest of the Web.

The beta test of Aviary's first two applications, Phoenix and color swatch tool Toucan, is invite-only, but you can put your name in the hat here. The next Aviary application to be rolled out will be vector editor Raven, with the rest to follow over the next few months.

venerdì, giugno 22, 2007

Fun, but too expensive?

Photoshop, in the beginning

From ER:

Video: Photoshop, in the beginning

Oscar nominee and his brother created Photoshop

Movie visual effects master John Knoll and his brother built Photoshop as the result of a hobby. At the time, Knoll was working full-time at Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic. Knoll, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Pirates of the Caribbean II, talked with CNET's Veronica Belmont about how he built the program.

 

Blabberize

I think Monty Python should get royalties from this site. J

(Text from the “Photojojo newsletter):

“Surf on over to Blabberize, upload a photo of a human, animal, or your favorite anthropomorphic object, and carefully select the lower jaw with the tools provided. Next, hit record and speak some words of wisdom. A click or two later and your photo comes to life and repeats your words right back at you.”

http://www.blabberize.com/

 

giovedì, giugno 21, 2007

Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3

Have you already heard about this? I was just reading about it in the LA Flash meeting agenda for tonight.

“The Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 allows you to create interactive, animated content in Flash, and use it in Flex as a Flex component.”

There’s a presentation about it here:

http://adobedev.adobe.acrobat.com/p75214263/

 

mercoledì, giugno 20, 2007

Adaptive Interfaces

Wow. This is a really cool concept.

 

“As the technology for supporting more personalized experiences becomes available, we're entering a new era of "adaptive interfaces," where functionality is revealed over time and interface elements change based on individual usage. We can create interfaces that respond, suggest or change based on actual usage data.”

 

(From a User Experience Week 2007: Conference Session Description

The Conversation Gets Interesting: Creating the Adaptive Interface

Tuesday, August 14, 11:45-12:30 PM

by Stephen P. Anderson)

RSS Workshop - a Tutorial

The Best Way to Watch Music

Really neat links and commentary from BH and ER:

 

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Cool, very cool. I recently read an article posted on OReilly Radar: Magnetosphere: The Best Way to Watch Music.

 

magnetosphere

 

 

Boston's Barbarian Group has released their first piece of software, a music visualizer for iTunes. Magnetosphere's one of the most responsive and beautiful visualizers that I've seen. It is available for iTunes on Mac and Windows.

The Barbarians, best-known for creating the Subservient Chicken, developed Magnetosphere in Processing and then ported it line-by-line to C++. Processing, first mentioned on Radar in 2005, is a Java-based language that is designed to create animations. The Open Source language is released under the GNU GPL. The early prototypes for the Trulia Hindsight Map (Radar post) were done in Processing. Some of the other things that we've blogged about previously that have processing include: Mobzombies and the Open Street Map visuals.

 

You can see more Processing experimentation on Flight404, the Magnetosphere creator's blog.

 

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While I was researching Joshua Davis material last night, I stumbled upon a link to this site, apparently early cohorts in genius.  I love this stuff.

 

http://www.flight404.com/blog/

 

FYI: Check out the Archive Version 4, drag the white square around the plane outline and click on the passenger seats to activate a new “creature”.  

 

Also, on www.joshuadavis.com I noticed that his Praystations have A LOT of code and zip files that you can download to learn Actionscript.  (I think this would be AS1 though as it was circa 2000 – 2001)

 

37signals news: three people who visualize data in fascinating ways

I thought this excerpt from the latest 37 signals newsletter was pretty neat: Infoviz Fireside Chat: http://tinyurl.com/2fawad.

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[Fireside Chat] Jonathan Harris, Aaron Koblin, and Marcos Weskamp (37signals)

The latest chat is with three people who visualize data in fascinating ways…

Jonathan Harris (Daylife, We Feel Fine, etc.)
“My work uses the Internet as a means of studying the human world. It’s one part anthropology, one part computer science, and one part visual art.”

Aaron Koblin (The Sheep Market, Flight Patterns, etc.)
“I’m not a scientist, not a statistician, not a graphic designer…I suppose that makes me an Artist.”

Marcos Weskamp (Flickrgraph, Newsmap, etc.)
“I think the reason why infoviz is so interesting for me is because it gives me a little bit of every world…art, visual problem solving and engineering.”

News Corp explores swap of MySpace site for Yahoo! stake

Heh, interesting…

 

From The Times

June 20, 2007

 

News Corporation has discussed swapping MySpace, its internet social networking unit, with Yahoo! in return for a 30 per cent stake in the enlarged group.

The discussions remain tentative and could collapse after the departure of Terry Semel as Yahoo!’s chief executive and his replacement by Jerry Yang this week. Mr Yang, co-founder of Yahoo! and incoming chief executive, yesterday pledged to “dig in” to his new role, and acknowledged the difficult task he faces to arrest the decline in the internet portal’s shares.

News Corp, the parent company of The Times, is interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the media group exposure to a far larger internet-based business.

Other News Corp digital assets, including the games network IGN, bought in 2005 for $650 million (£326 million), are also thought to have been offered to Yahoo!.

 

martedì, giugno 19, 2007

Digital Picassos

lunedì, giugno 18, 2007

Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!

“It’s time we designers stop thinking of ourselves as merely pixel people, and start thinking of ourselves as the creators of experiences. And when it comes to experience on the web, there’s no better way to create it than to write, and write well.”

http://alistapart.com/articles/learntowrite

 

Apple launches Safari web browser for Windows

Pandia Search had an interesting review of the Windows version of the Safari browser:

 

Apple tries to get a bite out of the search market by launching a Windows version of the Safari browser.

 

“…We have tested Safari in Windows, and it is fast and it is beautiful. It worries us a bit, though, that it is unable to render some of our headlines correctly (or at all). We will definitely take a look at our style-sheets, but we are not loosing sleep over this — yet.”

 

http://www.pandia.com/sew/470-safari.html

 

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SC added:

 

A couple of interesting notes about Safari for Windows:

 

  • The installer installs some popular OS X fonts (such as Lucida Grande), but doesn’t allow the rest of the system to use them.
  • A good overview of why some of the fonts look a little blurry: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
  • There was already a handful of 0-Day exploits found, and Apple has already issued an update to fix them.

 

*

 

From Apple’s Press Release:

 

Safari for Windows Public Beta Downloads Top 1 Million in First 48 Hours
Thursday June 14, 4:30 pm ET

 

CUPERTINO, Calif., June 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple® today announced that more than 1 million copies of Safari(TM) for Windows were downloaded in the first 48 hours since the free public beta was made available on Monday. Safari 3 is the world's fastest and easiest-to-use browser, and is available as a free download at www.apple.com/safari.

 

Safari 3 is the fastest browser running on Windows, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, based on the industry standard iBench tests.* Safari 3 supports all modern Internet standards including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and Java. Safari updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple's Software Update, and the first update for Safari for Windows Public Beta which fixes some early reported bugs was released last night.

Safari 3 for Windows requires Windows XP or Windows Vista, a minimum of 256 MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.

*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Testing conducted on an iMac 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Windows XP, with 1GB of RAM.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award- winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and will enter the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.

venerdì, giugno 15, 2007

eBay went straight to the nuke

Another great article sent by ER:

 

The title above was makester Phil Torrone's gut comment on the radar backchannel to eBay's decision to cancel all their US-based ad$ on Google in response to Google's 'Freedom Party'. The Freedom party was meant as a friendly but prominent reminder of eBay's unwillingness to let Google Checkout onto their platform.”

 

One of the comments was great, too:

 

‘Welcome to the dark side of the Internet. Originally viewed as a place that would make diversity more likely, we have to come to grips with the fact that eliminating all friction allows ideas with a slight advantage to take over that much quicker. The oceans were a blessing in allowing Darwinian evolution to flourish in different ways in different places. Without such barriers, we see how quickly just a few species take over.”

giovedì, giugno 14, 2007

Buzzword!

ER was just writing/telling about “Buzzword.” It seems awesome.

 

http://www.virtub.com/

 

From OReilly Radar:

 

The First Real Web-Based Word Processor

 

“This is a REALLY sweet word processor. It's got amazing typography, pagination, resizing and reflowing, all in Flash (and Apollo, for offline use.) Unlike Google Docs, this isn't a lightweight word processor. It may well just be the slickest word processor I've seen anywhere”

 

 

From The Virtual Ubiquity Blog:

 

            What Apollo Means to Buzzword

Dual Citizenship

But Apollo also gives us more. Delivered in a browser, even the best web 2.0 applications are, well, web apps. They visit the desktop, like foreigners, with the browser as an escort and an interpreter. These web apps are constrained by what the browser allows them to see and do.

To be sure, what distinguishes web 2.0 apps like Buzzword from their forebears is the creative use of increasingly rich functionality squeezed out of browsers. For Buzzword, the Flash platform allows us to deliver functionality in a browser that would have been unthinkable only a couple years ago.

But visiting the desktop via browser is like having a visa with some travel restrictions. Deploying Buzzword in Apollo gives us full citizenship on the desktop. This includes things like full file system access, including dragging and dropping files between Buzzword and your local file system. It also will include system tray notification, and more robust clipboard and keyboard control - all of which make the word-processing experience even more personal and engaging.

Of course, browsers can be configured to emulate some of this desktop experience but these things come naturally with Apollo, allowing us to behave like a native citizen on the desktop.

Virtual Document Ubiquity

As Apollo offers dual citizenship, it blurs the line between the desktop and the web. Perhaps Apollo’s biggest value is that it will enable access to your documents and your writing environment whether or not you’re connected to the Internet.

This means that you get virtual document ubiquity: your documents are available on-line from any computer, and they can also be available to you when you’re off-line. And the transition will be seamless - you won’t have to spend time managing your files and their various locations.

This is obviously important: although you can count on connectivity most of the time, it’s never there all of time, and word processing needs to be reliably available. In our demo travels, we find ourselves without access to internet more than we’d anticipated. It’s often the case that even though we’re in a building with wireless, we don’t often have the login information to join the network. Of course, we also want people to be able to use Buzzword on planes, trains and automobiles.

 

YouSendIt

YouSendIt is the trusted global leader in digital content delivery. Our innovative platform empowers people to send, receive and track digital files on-demand. YouSendIt’s reliable service provides a convenient email attachment solution, an easy-to-use FTP replacement, and eliminates the need to send files on disk with an overnight courier service.

 

http://www.yousendit.com/

 

SharePoint: using the [Today] variable in a calculated field

This great post explains a way to actually use the [Today] variable in a calculated field!

“[Why is it difficult to] filter by [Today] - 5 so I can show items added or modified in the last 5 days?” It turns out you can using the following workaround:

 

  1. Add a new field to the List or Document Library named Aging or whatever you prefer.
  2. Set the Type to Calculated.
  3. Set the Description to "(Filter - Last 5 days)" or whatever you prefer.
  4. Set the Formula to
        =DATE(YEAR(Modified),MONTH(Modified),DAY(Modified)+5)
  5. Set The data type returned from this formula is: to Date and Time
  6. Set the Date and Time Format: to Date Only. Don't add it to the default view (unless you want to)
  7. On the View in question, set the filter to
    Aging is greater than (or equal to) [Today]

 

The filtered view will now only show items that have been modified in the last 5 days. You can adjust the formula for the field (or add another) to get a different filter (last 10 days, last month, last year, etc).

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Also, a few other great formula pages I ran across:

Examples of common formulas

Today and Calculations

 

 

mercoledì, giugno 13, 2007

Ghosting, Unghosting and...Reghosting with SharePoint Designer 2007

There is a great explanation of ghosted vs. unghosted pages in SharePoint at bluedoglimited.com:

 

  1. Go to Create | Web Part Page.  The page you create is “ghosted”.
  2. Open the page in FrontPage. 
  3. Make a change and hit save.  Your page is now “unghosted”.

 

Difference between #1 and #3?  Huge.

In #1, the ghosted page is basing its content from the template which exists on the file system.  The asp.net parser renders the page.

In #3, the unghosted page content is taken from the database.  When you saved the page in FP, the "template" contents from #1 were copied over to the database. All future versions of that page are now based off the database copy, not the file system copy. The page is now controlled by the SafeMode parser.

 

(Blue Dog has, incidentally, one of the few technical tools that can help with this issue: The GhostHunter Web Part.)

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So…let’s say you have an unghosted page in SharePoint 2003 and you migrate it to SharePoint 2007. I was reading an excerpt from this article that makes it seem like SharePoint Designer can actually reghost the page!

 

When you perform a gradual upgrade, a customized (unghosted) page does not take on the new site definition (that is, the new functionality) by default. (However, there is an option to perform this action during a gradual upgrade; for more information, see Upgrade sites (Office SharePoint Server)

 

If you want the new functionality and features, you must reset any customized pages to use the site definition. Resetting the page essentially discards the customizations and attaches your pages to the master page and page layout. Any customizations you want can then be transferred to the master pages and page layouts instead of being stored in individual pages.

 

If you want to be able to use the new functionality with a customized page, consider using the Reattach to Page Layout command in Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to reset the page to the default version (reghosting). After you have restored the default page, you can then reapply your customizations in the browser by applying a different master page or page layout, or by reapplying the customizations in Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

 

For more information about resetting to the site definition, see Reset a customized page to the site definition.

Microsoft Excel - Examples of commonly used formulas

This is useful for Excel and, in some cases, calculated fields in SharePoint.

Everyscape: A 3D Worldviewer Made From 2D Photos

Another neat article from ER:

 

Everyscape: A 3D Worldviewer Made From 2D Photos

“The comparisons to Microsoft's Photosynth (Radar post) are very obvious. The models generated by Everyscape are less CPU-internsive to generate and require less data, but are not nearly as detailed -- given Everyscape's goal I am not sure that it needs to be.”

 

http://everyscape.com/

 

martedì, giugno 12, 2007

Changes to e-mail rendering in Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 no longer uses Microsoft's Internet Explorer engine to render HTML. Previous Outlook versions used IE to read content in HTML messages and switched over to its sister Office program Word to compose messages. Outlook 2007 no longer uses IE. Here are some good articles on this topic.

Enable Electronic Forms for Adobe Reader

This is a pretty cool feature in Acrobat 8! Something to try…next time I need to create a form.

Forms > Run Form Field Recognition

http://www.adobe.com/education/designschools/tips/electronicforms.html

 

The Myths of Innovation

An interesting quote in this book review: Digital Web Magazine - Book Review The Myths of Innovation

 

We have deep flaws in our collective memory of innovation and invention. Ask anyone to give an example of innovation and you’ll typically hear the same examples—the Gutenberg press, the lightbulb, the automobile, the television, the computer. Berkun’s point is that both memory and history rarely acknowledge the gradual breakthroughs and back-story that support those innovations. Acknowledging the rich, intricate paths behind innovations is a good start to correcting the myths.

 

In the latter chapters, Berkun builds concrete steps to encourage real innovation. Strategies that foster innovation have echoes in the modern workplace—brainstorming, for instance—but they need to be brought back to their clear, conceptual roots. The unglamorous truth about innovation is that it is hard work. Elbow grease has been, and will always be, the real back-story of innovation.

 

The internet adds its own twist to the popular image of inventors laboring away in a garage. Berkun identifies the real story as innovation by curious path or teasing innovation out of gradual, iterative experimentation. Those of us in web professions might associate this with recent shifts toward iterative development and the buzz generated by releasing user-responsive beta projects (Flickr is a strong example), but Berkun champions innovation by curious path as an effective way to revive a culture of innovation.

 

Stop and start ALL movieclips in a SWF

One of the coding puzzles that has eluded me since the dawn of time is how do you use a navigation button to stop everything not only on the main timeline, but also a movie clip’s timeline?

I just realized that a Flash guru I admire (senocular) solved the question back in 2003. It is possible using the functions shown below to loop through all of your movieclips and stop all of them or start all of them.

MovieClip.prototype.stopAll = function() {

    this.stop();

    for (var m in this) if (typeof this[m] == "movieclip" && this[m]._parent == this) this[m].stopAll();

};

MovieClip.prototype.playAll = function() {

    this.play();

    for (var m in this) if (typeof this[m] == "movieclip" && this[m]._parent == this) this[m].playAll();

};

       

Then, it’s simply a matter of using this line:

_root.stopAll();

Or

_root.playAll();

Note: this will need to be modified for ActionScript 3.

lunedì, giugno 11, 2007

Microsoft Popfly

Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications. Popfly consists of two parts:

 

  1. Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups.
  2. Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

 

It sort of reminds me of a hybrid between Yahoo Pipes and My Space.

 

http://www.popfly.ms/Overview/Default.aspx

 

Screencast: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91175

 

*

 

The writer who created the Alpha Release Notes has a good sense of humor. J

 

http://www.popfly.ms/Overview/ReleaseNotes.aspx

 

Adobe AIR Beta (formerly code-named Apollo)

FYI there is a new version of Apollo available for download on Adobe Labs (it’s now called Adobe AIR).

 

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html

 

“We have just posted a new public beta of the Adobe(r) Integrated Runtime (AIR) (formerly code-named Apollo) to the Adobe Labs site.

We also have announced the final name, which is Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR).”

 

In addition to having support for creating Adobe AIR applications using HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flex(r), and Adobe Flash(r) software, the beta release includes a number of new features:

 

- Transparent HTML application support

- Windowing API improvements

- Native File Pickers / Browsers

- Server / Service Connectivity API

- Native Menuing API

- Drag and Drop

- Clipboard Support

- Embedded database

- File type/extension registration

 

Also, take note:

 

Important: If you are having trouble installing an AIR application and you previously installed the Apollo alpha, the Apollo alpha must be uninstalled before installing the Adobe AIR beta.”

 

It's True-gle! Google buys web feed analytics service FeedBurner

Google sees a future in web feed metrics and RSS feed advertising and buys the increasingly popular FeedBurner.

http://www.pandia.com/sew/464-feedburner.html

 

Antitrusttastic

From ER:

Google launches antitrust complaint against Vista's desktop search

"The search boxes built throughout Vista are hard-wired to Microsoft's own desktop search product," said Google's Ricardo Reyes, "with no way for users to choose an alternate provider from these visible search access points. Likewise, Vista makes it impractical to turn off Microsoft's search index."

 

venerdì, giugno 08, 2007

Word 2003 XML Reference

The Trouble With EM 'n EN (and Other Shady Characters)

An oldie but a goodie? :)

http://alistapart.com/articles/emen/

Deepfish

Something fun to try?

 

“The Deepfish Technology Preview enhances existing mobile browsing technologies by displaying content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. Our zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are.”

 

http://labs.live.com/deepfish/