getURL is now navigateToURL in Actionscript 3

Thanks to this post for a concise example of the replacement for getURL in AS3.

var url:String = "http://site";
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
try {
navigateToURL(request, '_blank'); // second argument is target
} catch (e:Error) {
trace("Error occurred!");
}

ActionScript 3 - Tile a Bitmap

Thanks to this excellent Kirupa post, I see that tiling a bitmap object in AS3 is actually fairly straightforward!

1. Import the desired graphic you wish to tile to your Flash library.

2. Right-click the entry, and select Linkage….

3. Select the Export for ActionScript checkbox (and ensure the class name is legal).

4. You can now reference the bitmap using the class name (“tilepic” in the sample code below).

var bmd:BitmapData = new tilepic(0,0);

var sp:Sprite = new Sprite();

sp.graphics.beginBitmapFill(bmd);

sp.graphics.drawRect(0,0,800,60);

sp.graphics.endFill();

addChild(sp);

Spokeo

I was just reading a blurb about Spokeo. It’s “a friend tracker that automatically brings you friends’ updates across the Web.” Phil Bradley explains it like this:

“Spokeo

could easily be renamed as 'Spookio' because it's one of those 'omg' resources. What it does is gathers details on all your friends from your various networks into one easy to find place. I started by adding my Gmail details. It then went off and found a dozen or so contacts which it then displayed for me. I dipped in and looked at the information on one contact.”

How to Use Flash Video (FLV) Cue Points

Great article by David Stiller. It covers FLV Cue Points for AS2 and AS3.

Adobe Share Beta

It looks like Adobe is entering the file sharing business:

“Share” beta is a web-based service that allows you to upload and share files. You can distribute the URL for the file to a selected number of users, post the link for the URL on a website, or embed the code for previewing the file in a web page. You have the option to allow recipients to invite others to view your shared files or limit access to only the specified recipients. Using Share enables you to upload and share large files with others without attaching the files to an email message. Users have access to the latest version of the files through Share. It also enables the recipients to preview PDF, JPG, GIF, and PNG files using the web browser before downloading them.”

Digital Tattoo Interface

Cool…yet creepy?

“Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin.”

More

What version of Flash do you have installed?

http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/

Creating FLA-Based Components in Flash CS3

This might be fun to try at some point: FlashBrighton » Blog Archive » Creating FLA-Based Components in Flash CS3

Flash Operators

Handy for the memory-challenged novice like me! Here are a few frequently used ones:

== (equality)

Tests two expressions for equality.

>= (greater than or equal to)

Compares two expressions and determines whether expression1 is greater than or equal to expression2 (true) or expression1 is less than expression2 (false).

!= (inequality)

Tests for the exact opposite of the equality (== ) operator.

<= (less than or equal to)

Compares two expressions and determines whether expression1 is less than or equal to expression2 ; if it is, the operator returns true.

&& (logical AND)

Performs a Boolean operation on the values of both expressions.

! (logical NOT)

Inverts the Boolean value of a variable or expression.

(logical OR)

Evaluates expression1 (the expression on the left side of the operator) and returns true if the expression evaluates to true.

Adobe CS4 and Adobe Bordeaux?

Searching through Flash forums/blogs, I ran across this bit of conjecture. I wonder if it’s true?

“In addition to Thermo lowering the bar for Flex development, it looks as though Adobe has a tool coming out to compete with Swish.”

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: Checking Free-Busy Status (HTTP)

It is possible to view an XML version of an employee’s free or busy time using Microsoft Exchange. The MSDN article “Checking Free-Busy Status (HTTP),” explains it this way;

The freebusy method returns a string of numbers that indicate the attendee's availability for a requested period of time and can be submitted as a URL command over HTTP.

The freebusy command takes four command parameters:

• start - the starting time of the range to determine free/busy status.
• end - the ending time of the range to determine free/busy status.
• interval - the interval, in minutes, of the free/busy time to download. Must be greater than or equal to one minute.
• u - the SMTP e-mail address of the user whose free/busy info is being retrieved.

Each number in the free/busy string represents an interval of time, for example 60 minutes.

Free time returns 0, Tentative returns 1, Busy returns 2, and Out of Office (OOF) returns 3. If appointments overlap, the highest number is returned. If no free/busy data is available for the interval, the value 4 is returned.

Simply create a URL like so:

htp://[Server Name]/public/?Cmd=freebusy&start=[Start Date and TIme]&end=2[End Date and Time]&interval=15&u=SMTP:[User/E-mail Address]

it produces output like this:

<a:response xmlns:a="WM">
<a:recipients>
<a:item>
<a:displayname>Selected User</a:displayname>
<a:email type="SMTP">UserName@yourCompany.com</a:email>
<a:type>1</a:type>
<a:fbdata>11110000000000022201100001100</a:fbdata>
</a:item>
</a:recipients>
</a:response>

Dreamweaver CS3 to Dreamweaver 8?

I just stumbled across this: Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress, has abandoned DreamWeaver CS3 and gone back to using DreamWeaver 8.

PaperVision - Xwing?

Ah, a Star Wars PaperVision example:

“Anyone remember the original 1992 Xwing game? When you first started playing the game, you had to do obstacle courses to learn how to fly the various ships. They all had their strengths and you needed to learn how to navigate using those strengths basically.”

http://www.rockonflash.com/games/obstaclecourse/ObstacleCourse.html

An innovative site:http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

FeedTank

http://www.feedtank.com/

“Playful interactive spectacles.”

CS3 Tips and Tricks

BH took some great notes on a seminar given by Paul@paultrani.com www.paultrani.com www.designupdate.com:

Tutorials and Source Code examples:

www.friendsofed.com

Pattern Resources:

www.squidfingers.com

www.stripegenerator.com

www.brusheezy.com

www.vectoreezy.com

Audio Clip Resources:

Resource Central (from Adobe Labs?)

&

www.SoundRangers.com

Video Encoding Hints:

Less pixel change over time as possible

D1 professional is better quality than DV

Data Rate Calculation: width x height x color depth x fps

------------------------------------------- = data rate

Compression value

Preferences in Flash CS3:

Drawing Preferences:

Enable “Show Pen Preview” to show Bezier curve BEFORE laying down an anchor point

Enable “Show Precise Cursors”

Edit / Keyboard Shortcuts:

Hint: use number pad to set shortcuts since these are not mapped by default

Locking layers in Flash CS3:

CTRL + Click on layer lock will lock all layers in one click

ALT + Click on layer will lock every layer except layer clicked

Registration Point:

Rotation happens around this point

Registration pt by default is placed in the center of a symbol

Double click to place on the reg pt location that object is built around (within the symbol itself)

Hold Alt while clicking on a point adjacent to reg point and rotating (Q) will allow you to rotate around pt opposite of reg pt

Windows / Other Panels / History

Processes are listed as you perform them

Select all the actions you like to include in “macro”

Right click and “Save as Command”

Under Commands menu select the Command to apply to other instances or objects

Copy Motion

Tweens can be copied to multiple instances without having to tween each individual object

Right click on MC symbol within Library allows option for “Enable buttons for 9 – slice scaling”

When sizing buttons, the corner radius will stay the same when a buttons scale or dimensions are changed, instead of being stretched or radius increased / decreased

Save as Template

Allows you to use fla file with objects as a default starting point

FLV Skins (AWESOME)

You can break apart most the FLV components such as volume and playback sliders

Simply apply a skin look to FLV component (AS3)

A folder is added to library which references skins which you can modify

Note: I also saw an option to define an external skin URL (good for our software design updates)

Look into Tween Class in AS3 for coding different styles of motion

“onComplete” with regards to FLV Playback can be modified to look for next FLV

DVD Resources

http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_en.php
http://www.dvd43.com/

Big Brother/Center for Innovative Robotics

Last one for today from ER:

Here’s an update on the link to the Center for Innovative Robotics: http://www.ri.cmu.edu/

RO-MAN adresses fundamental issues in coexistence of robots and humans from psychological and philosophical aspects over interaction and communication mechanisms to technological systems and architectures. Manifold real-world application areas such as rescue, assistance, care, education, or entertainment require cognitive and social skills in order to provide safe, intuitive, and efficient interaction and goal-directed proactive behavior. Along with gradual development of those fundamental capabilities robots grow from basic tools to unique entities which not only are able to assist but may also take charge of situations arising and in near future form unique characters distinguishing them from one another. Robots with humanlike personality traits will contribute to raise acceptance, benefit social integration and interindividual relationships, and facilitate human-robot professional task forces and social groups. RO-MAN brings together a broad interdisciplinary community of students and scientists of psychology, cognitive science, computer science, robotics, and more. We cordially invite you to contribute to make RO-MAN ‘08 a stimulating event and enjoyable come together...

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

• Embodied interaction and communication
• Multi-modal communication
• Philosophical issues of human-robot coexistence
• Cognitive psychology in human-robot interactions
• Artificial emotion and emotional communication
• Human factors evaluations for human-robot systems
• Robotic therapy and medical/surgical applications
• Socially interactive robots
• Entertainment and education robots
• Face and body expression and recognition
• Collaborative robotics in manufactoring environments
• Situation recognition and understanding of task contents
• Motion, task planning, and coordination in human-robot teams
• Skill acquisition through teaching, interaction, or imitation
• Robot assistants for housekeeping and care

This side of the patented technology that seems interesting:

Microsoft revs its patent machine

“However, I'm hearing that this patent is more aimed at building a more useful and relevant help system into software than it is at offering a snooping tool for bosses.”

“This particular patent application, in general, describes an innovation aimed at improving activity-monitoring systems and uses the monitoring of user heart rate as an example of the kind of physical state that could be monitored to detect when users need assistance with their activities, and to offer assistance by putting them in touch with other users who may be able to help," Gutierrez said.
"It is important to keep in mind that with most organizations in the business of innovation, some of our patent applications reflect inventions
that are currently present in our products, and other applications represent innovations being developed for potential future use."

Maybe this technology is being researched as they enter the robotics race (Microsoft Center for Innovative Robotics) such as "remote presence," or smart products that can alert the elderly to take medication at the prescribed time, for example.” I think mostly of this technology being used with the elderly or who are under medical care.

OReilly Inside IRA > Design: Great UI Pattern Resources

More from ER (and O’Reilly):

5 Great UI Pattern Resources

As we go hurling down the road of RIA innovation it's nice to have some guidelines and tools to help us create better user experiences. I think user interface design patterns should in everyone's toolbox. They help us come up with new ideas for our UIs, it helps us communicate inside and outside of our team and finally it helps us to avoid common pitfalls.

For more background on what a design pattern is and what it should contain I'd recommend checking out Jared Spool's article on "The Elements of a Design Pattern". There's a fairly extensive list of elements listed for a pattern, which not all libraries contain, they include:

• - Pattern Name
• - Description
• - Context of Use
• - Where to Use it
• - How it Works (with visual aid)
• - Specifications
• - Related Patterns
• - Competitive Approaches
• - Source Code (quite rare)
• - Usability Research
• - Discussion

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library is a great resource for current trends in web development. I really the fact that have mini screencasts of all the patterns to augment the static screenshots.

Designing Interfaces is a website and accompanying book by Jennifer Tidwell. It has number of web and desktop software UI patterns with great write ups and explanations. Unfortunately not all the patterns from the book are on the site. You can see the book over on Google Books too.

Welie Patterns in Interaction Design is a great collection of patterns grouped based on user needs, application needs and context of design. I also really like that Welie encourages you to suggest a pattern. The more the merrier:)

UI Patterns is kind of the new kid on the block but has a very nicely laid out pattern of web UI patterns.

Ajax Patterns is another website and book combination by Michael Mahemoff. This library is not only focused on visual patterns like the others but also covers some pretty in-depth Ajax programming topics. Nice thing about this site is that it's a wiki so everyone can add to it.

It seems like most of them haven't yet documented a lot of the richer interactions possible with RIAs, but these things take time. Join the party and start documenting patterns.

Social Graph API: One small step for Google, one giant step for the Internet Operating System

From ER:

Social Graph API: One small step for Google, one giant step for the Internet Operating System

Where do you want to connect today?

ConnectionStrings.com provides a handy list of (yes, you guessed it) connection strings! What’s a connection string? Wikipedia describes it this way:

“In computing, a connection string is a string that specifies information about a data source and the means of connecting to it. It is passed in code to an underlying driver or provider in order to initiate the connection.”

So, if you want to connect to anything from a text file to a SQL database, you might find this reference useful.

The Eternal Essence of Rabbit

RR pointed out this neat image:

“No other living creature features as heavily in contemporary character design and art as the humble hare. But what exactly makes bunnies so irresistible to artists, designers and illustrators worldwide? Depending on the viewers’ cultural context rabbits can symbolize anything from insanity, alertness, defenselessness, all the way to promiscuity, magic powers and utter innocence. By condensing the endless variations of the rabbit motif into one ultimate system - a perfect bunny mandala - the true nature of the beast emerges: the eternal essence of rabbit.”

Look at the larger image here.

Sony's Blu-Ray Notches More Victories

From the WSJ:
“Sony's Blu-Ray scored some victories over Toshiba's HD DVD in the long-running high-definition DVD-format war. Netflix said it will now buy only Blu-ray discs. Big-box retailer Best Buy said it will ‘recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format.’”

OpenID Foundation - Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo

Another eye-opener courtesy of ER:

OpenID Foundation - Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo

I am very happy to be able to say that Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo are joining the OpenID Foundation (on whose board I sit.) It marks the end of a lot of hard work by all parties involved, as well as -- at least for me personally -- the hope that we will be able to get a decentralized federated single sign-on technology across the internet. More

CSS Gradient Text Effect

ER found this really great CSS trick:

CSS Gradient Text Effect

Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). All you need is an empty <span> tag in the heading and apply the background image overlay using the CSS position:absolute property. This trick has been tested on most browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 6. MORE

Vertically & Horizontally Aligned Layout in CSS

MB did some great research on vertical and horizontal alignment using CSS. Handy stuff!

<style>

* {margin:0; padding:0;}
/* What makes this layout work is the use of two divs: one to handle the vertical alignment and the other for horizontal (note that I've named the divs appropriately so you can see how each is set up). It boils down to having a relatively positioned div within a absolutely positioned one. */
#vertical {
position: absolute;
top:50%; /* Pretty self explanatory, this puts the top of the div halfway down the page. */
left:0; /* This coupled with the width:100% value below makes sure this div fills the whole browser window horizontally.
*/
margin-top:-150px; /* Because you position items based on the top of the object (instead its center point), you need a
negative margin to bring the content back up to more accurately center it. This value can be adjusted based on your
content, but realistically it should be around half of your overall height. For example, if your content is 400px high,
this margin would be -200px. */
width:100%;
min-width:600px; /* Keep this value the same width as your content. */
}
#horizontal {
position:relative;
margin: auto; /* Using this value will horizontally center align your div, but only if it has a defined width (which we list next). */
width: 600px;
}
</style>
.
.
.
<div id="vertical">
<div id="horizontal">
Content
</div>
</div>

FWA Winners

RR pointed this out. Inspirational sites.

FWA winners – Feb 7^th 08

http://imagemoversdigital.com/ - Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, Doug Chiang.

The rest are at:

http://www.thefwa.com/

Papervision 3D controlled by Wiimote

B is going to love this.

“This is the next video of the Wiimote / Papervision 3D saga. In this experiment I am using the Wiimote to control the yaw and pitch axis of the 3D Wii logo. It was incredibly easy to implement the Wiimote code into the Flash project, props to the WiiFlash folks!”

There are some great PaperVision 3D Tutorials on the site (madvertices.com) as well.

Unicode Converter Resources!

Unicode Chart

Online Converter (from other types)

Word 2003 to Word 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide

This is a terrific interactive guide provided by…Microsoft! No, really! Of course, this bit of brilliance was created in Flash. A time capsule in the coming years, I’m sure.

The guide can translate any action you used to be able to perform in Word 2003 to its new location in Word 2007.

To view it online in a web browser: click here.

Or, to download it to your computer:click here.

Alison

PhotoJojo just highlighted this powerful series of photographs:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Alison/49837

“When my daughter Alison was born, in the tradition of a new parent, I began to photograph her, initially in a separate and private body of work. However, in the process of documenting Alison's growth, I developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends.”

“This affected my photography in a profound way. Rather than the isolated subjects of my earlier work, I became interested in the strength of relationships, oftentimes using personal environments to amplify those conditions.”

Social Graph API

Another interesting article, courtesy of ER:

Social Graph API: One small step for Google, one giant step for the Internet Operating System