DebugBar

Awesome tools mentioned by Matt F:

Two programs for everyone to try out... http://www.debugbar.com/

1. Debug Bar – This is basically a cross between Fiddler and the IE Dev Toolbar, but it also has a JavaScript Debugger. It has some fantastic features like the Layout Inspector which will make debugging box model issues a breeze. The object inspector is presented in the UI as target icon, click the icon then any element on the page to inspect… very slick. The JavaScript debugger is fairly limited. It lets you execute commands in the immediate window but does not have any ‘watch’ functionalities. Certainly not as powerful as Firebug for Firefox. This is not a free application; an enterprise license is 1299 euros or $8478974894.94, at least the last time I checked the exchange rate.
2. IE Tester – This is awesome!!! A+++ to the developer. It allows you to render web pages with various IE rendering engines… It currently works with IE5.5, IE6, IE7, and IE8b1 engines. It is an Alpha release and is a little flakey especially in its awkward Ribbon implementation. But so far it is the only good way that I’ve seen to render pages in IE6 and IE7 on the same machine. IE Tester is freeware.

Design & Webpage Coding Advice from "Poetic Prophet"

This is hilarious…and accurate!

Firefox 4 will push out the edges of the browser

MB sent out a cool article about yet another app racing for domination of our desktops!

Even though Firefox 3 hasn’t been released, Mozilla is already teasing features that will be included in FF4:

At the moment, these are two separate projects Mozilla is running to push out the edges of the browser: Prism and Weave.

Prism

Prism is Mozilla's shot at busting apps out of the browser. Part of the Prism project is making the browsing core available to apps developers so they can build products like Zimbra Desktop (review) that are essentially Web apps, but that don't look like it.

The dream is to be able to take any Web site or app and turn it into an app that can run directly from the desktop. A very big part of this initiative is to make sites/apps work when they are not connected to the Internet. HTML 5 (the next version of the basic standard for the encoding of Web sites) includes explicit support for local, offline resources.

HTML 5 and Prism will, Mozilla execs say, render Google Gears obsolete. Not to mention other important, and proprietary, Web app platforms that are already in production, like Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight (What is Silverlight?).

Add This

Seems like a neat method of bookmarking.

http://www.addthis.com/

“AddThis is the #1 bookmarking and sharing button on the Internet. AddThis spreads your content across the Web by making it easier for your visitors to bookmark and share it with other people, again…and again…and again. Our simple yet powerful button is very easy to install and provides valuable statistics about the bookmarking and sharing activity of your users. AddThis is the perfect tool to help your visitors create a buzz for your site and increase its popularity and ranking.”

Problem and Solution: Progressive FLVs in H.264

I just ran across an interesting blog entry at scottmorgan.com that explains an issue that can occur in H.264 files being downloaded progressively. Amazingly one of the solutions Scott discovers is an AIR application!

Problem:

“…I ran into an issue yesterday with progressively downloaded H.264 video. The video would play but it was not progressively downloading, it would download the entire file before it began playing…the files played fine in Quicktime, and they played fine in Flash when streamed from FMS 3, just not progressively.”

“the problem lies within the encoding of the file and where the ‘moov atom’ is stored. The moov atom is essentially the header information of the file. To progressively play a file this data is needed before the first frame of video can play. This data contains the appropriate meta data the NetStream class looks at when determining the length, size, etc of the video. The moov data in my .mov files were stored at the end of my videos and that is why the video wouldn’t play until the entire file was downloaded. The moov data needs to be at the beginning of the file in order to progressively stream video.”

Solution:

“Scouring the web I did find a utility that moves the moov atom to the start of the file. Renaun Erickson ported a C app to AIR that moves the moov atom and resaves the file. Very impressive! Unfortunately it didn’t fix my issues, Renaun’s app only works with .mp4 files and the files I was working with are .mov files. Using Quicktime Pro I exported one of the .mov files to a .mp4 to see if Renaun’s app would then move the moov atom. Still no luck. As a last resort I tried a simple Save As from Quicktime to see if it would restructure the bytes so the moov atom was at the beginning of the file. Guess what, it worked! My progressive downloads now worked. I created a simple batch and saved out all my progressive videos using Quicktime.”

Futurist Ray Kurzweil Pulls Out All the Stops (and Pills) to Live to Witness the Singularity

G a pretty wild article in Wired this week!

Futurist Ray Kurzweil “…argues that while artificial intelligence will render biological humans obsolete, it will not make human consciousness irrelevant. The first AIs will be created, he says, as add-ons to human intelligence, modeled on our actual brains and used to extend our human reach. AIs will help us see and hear better. They will give us better memories and help us fight disease. Eventually, AIs will allow us to conquer death itself. “

Office Live Workspace

It looks like Microsoft has made another foray into the document sharing workspace. The interface is actually very nice.

http://workspace.officelive.com/

Anywhere Access

• Save 1000+ Microsoft Office documents in one place
• Access them from almost any computer with a Web browser
• No more flash drives or sending yourself documents via e-mail

• Learn more

Share with Others

• Invite people to your workspace
• You control who can view, comment, and edit your documents
• Stop manually merging versions from multiple people

• Learn more

Extend the Microsoft Office Experience

• Open and save files directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Synchronize contact, task, and event lists with Outlook
• No need to learn a new program

• Learn more

Windows Mobile - Lookup Exchange Contacts

On Windows Mobile 5+ go to Contacts > Menu > Find Online. Much easier/better than fiddling with Microsoft Global Contact Access.

JavaScript Window Resize

Hm…I know many people are against doing this from a user experience perspective…

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>JavaScript Resize Test</TITLE>
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
function resize() {
window.moveTo(0,0);
window.resizeTo(window.screen.availWidth, window.screen.availHeight);
}
</script>
</HEAD>
<BODY onload="resize();">
</BODY>
</HTML>

The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography

From Photojojo: The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography

AS3 Trees (Literally)

Grant Skinner is very talented!

jQuery Tutorials for Designers

More from ER:

jQuery Tutorials for Designers

This article contains 10 visual tutorials intended for web designers and newbies on how to apply Javascript effects with jQuery. In case you don’t know about jQuery, it is a "write less, do more" Javascript library. It has many Ajax and Javascript features that allow you to enhance user experience and semantic coding. Since these tutorials are focused on jQuery, I’m not going to get into the details of the CSS.

Emerging Trends in RIA

From ER:

Emerging Trends In RIA

IDE’s on the web (!) … Sliderocket is included on the “exceptionally hot” list…

Brio

Courtesy of ER:

Adobe Brio is the next generation of Adobe Acrobat Connect. You can read about it here, at Adobe Labs.

I was reminded of news back in October 07 that Adobe began preparation for two hosted services using Pacifica and CoCoMo. Brio is built on the web services platform codenamed, CoCoMo.

Pacifica is a service that will allow developers to integrate voice, messaging and user presence information into applications built using Adobe Flex, AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) or Flash technologies. Flex is Adobe's development environment for building RIAs, which are Web-based applications that incorporate multimedia for a rich user experience. AIR, which is currently available in beta-test form, allows developers to take those Web applications and move them to the desktop.

CoCoMo will be the next-generation framework for the Adobe Connect Web conferencing service, which will enable developers to take certain parts of Connect's functionality and integrate them into other applications. Basically, the company is turning Connect into components for its Flex development environment so developers can build and host collaborative applications on Connect, said Adobe's chief software architect, Kevin Lynch, in an interview Tuesday.

“Lynch said services like Pacifica and CoCoMo are part of Adobe's larger strategy for providing the ability to add real-time business collaboration capabilities to RIAs. Companies like Microsoft and IBM already offer collaboration applications for information workers as desktop and server software, but Adobe is approaching the market from a different perspective, he said.”

One More AS3 Preloader

Just one more: Adobe Forums

Progress Bar Component in Flash CS3

A nice example on D-mode Blog of a progress bar component used with a Llst component as well as a loader component. The Adobe Flash CS3 Documentation also has some pointers.

Preloading SWFs and FLVs in AS3

Last week I was exploring preloading options, and found several terrific tutorials/articles. Sheckemout.

Preload a SWF, JPG, PNG or GIF in Flash CS3

I was grateful for this post on newmovieclip.wordpresscom which was the best simple example I could find.

ActionScript 3.0 for developers and designers – Part 1: Creating a preloader

This was a good (and amusing) article presented by Big Spaceship on Adobe.com. It includes all the files you’ll need, and nice explanations. Ultimately, though, I found the design of the featured preloader to be a bit cumbersome.

FLV Preloading Using the NetStream Object

A nice example is at the bottom of the thread on ultrashock.com. Most advanced users seem to prefer using a netstream object rather than Adobe’s FLV Player component. However, it seems like (to noive moi) NetStream favors those lucky enough to have a streaming server option rather than a progressive download.

AS3 Custom Preloader

“Create a 100 frame MovieClip animation in companion with this code to create a preloader. Place the rest of your Flash application on the following Scene or Frame.”

Image Fill Preloader (ActionScript only)

This is a pretty remarkable bit of code. It would be nice if it actually included an FLA…

FLV Preloader Example with the Progress Bar Component

Nice example; it also includes source files.

Preloader Bug: IE6 AS3 Preloader Events Failing

Pixelfumes expounds on this strange bug. It only applies to files loaded on the main timeline, not external files.

Flash CS3 Blog by FlepStudio - Preloader with Flash CS3

http://www.flepstudio.org/english/tutorials/mix/preloader-with-flash-cs3-2007062650.html

How to create a site loading external SWF with Flash CS3

Flep Studios has an impressive preloader that includes source code (you’ll have to sign up for the site).

Preloader Component

Finally, a few components that could be purchased. Nahhh. :)

Uniloader

Advanced Loader

Retrieve a User's IP Address (ASP)

A handy snippet of code courtesy of this site. (I know…I really need to learn .NET.)

Dim UserIPAddress
UserIPAddress = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR")
If UserIPAddress = "" Then
UserIPAddress = Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR")
End If

Xcavator.net - a Stock Photography Search Portal

Xcavator is a photo search engine that allows you to search several online stock photography agencies (iStockphoto, Fotolia, Lucky Oliver and 123RF) simultaneously.

http://www.xcavator.net/

You can also check out Xcavator’s video intro.

Revostock: Affordable Stock Video Footage, Music and Sound Effects

This site seems like it might be a handy resource.

http://revostock.com/

“Finally, get all the stock media you need in one place and at prices you can afford. From SD to HD footage, to music, to sound effects and After Effects projects. Everything is instantly downloadable and pre-screened for quality.”

Flash CS3 Application Preferences

Just handy to know.

C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Flash CS3\en\Configuration

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3\en\Configuration

Functions in InfoPath

A nice series of tables that list the functions that are available in Microsoft InfoPath.

Common Pop-up Blockers in IE

A really useful summary from CC.

Internet Explorer Pop-up Blocker

The internet explorer pop-up blocker has three settings which determine how strict the pop-up blocker is. These settings are as follows:

• Low – Allows all pop-ups besides those not caused by user interaction. Those not caused by user interaction, but from a secure website are allowed. This appears to allow all MLS pop-ups to show.
• Medium – Allows all pop-ups caused by user interaction. Pop-ups opened by window events, or used in script blocks are blocked. Most MLS pop-ups are allowed with this setting. This is the default setting of the IE pop-up blocker.
• High – All pop-ups are blocked indiscriminately.

What IE Considers a Pop-Up

The following javascript methods trigger IE to block the Pop-up:

• Window.open() *Used by the MLS
• Window.showHelp()
• Window.showModalDialog() *Used by the MLS
• Window.showModelessDialog()
• Window.external.NavigateAndFind()

In addition, the following will trigger IE to block the Pop-up:

• Windows that are opened automatically from DHTML elements that overlap content on the same page.
• Scripts calling window.open on an unload event in an attempt to get the user to stay on the site.
• Scripts targeting and then navigating to a named frame that doesn’t exist.

Exceptions to the rules above include:

• Pop-up is opened by a link the user clicked (Does not apply in High).
• Pop-up is opened on user-initiated actions, by ActiveX controls that are instantiated from a Web site.

• Pop-up launched from a Web site on a user's allow list. Users can add Web sites to their allow list through the Pop-up Blocker settings or opened from the Trusted Sites or Local Intranet zones.

For more information on these rules see the MSDN Article

Google Pop-Up Blocker

The Google Pop-Up Blocker behaves in the same way as the IE pop-up blocker on the default (“Medium”) setting. The IE pop-up blocker, however, takes precedence over the Google Pop-up blocker, so if set to Medium the IE Blocker will block before the Google toolbar has the chance.

Flash Humor

From TC:

Take a look at HEMA - online winkelen
You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

Spam as Art

RR found this really interesting exhibition that attempts to visualize what computer viruses might actually look like to the human eye.

ActionScript 3: Runtime Assets

“[A] single Flash document can generate a SWF file that is designated for the sole purpose of holding graphical assets. This technique is particularly useful for larger projects where designers working on visual assets can work in parallel with developers who create a "wrapper" SWF file that then loads the graphical assets SWF file at run time. You can use this method to maintain a series of versioned files where graphical assets are not dependent upon the progress of programming development.”

More…

Centered Background Image in Firefox

MB told me how to fix a maddening error that occurs in Firefox; trying to to center a background image, vertically and horizontally, can be very quirky unless you make use of the fixed property!

background:url('images/yourbackgroundimage.jpg') no-repeat center fixed;

Internet Explorer 8

A plethora of IE8 info!

Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit

Activities
Web Slices
CSS 2.1 Compliance
Developer Tools and Versioning
Better AJAX development
DOM Core Improvements

Selectors API
Platform Performance Improvements
Circular Memory Leak Mitigation
HTML Improvements and ACID2
Improved Namespace Support
Improved Protected Mode API Support

IE 8 Details Announced At Mix 08 (from ER)

reCAPTCHA

This seems like a powerful (and free) CAPTCHA service. I notice Ticketmaster is using reCAPTCHA.

An interesting side note: this software is simultaneously using the human interaction to help digitize books! Wild.

“reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA. This is possible because most OCR programs alert you when a word cannot be read correctly.”

http://recaptcha.net/

reCAPTCHA helps prevent automated abuse of your site (such as comment spam or bogus registrations) by using a CAPTCHA to ensure that only humans perform certain actions.

• It's Free! Yep, reCAPTCHA is free. The only reason we might charge is if you require special services from us.
• It's Useful. Why waste the effort of your users? By using reCAPTCHA instead of other CAPTCHA implementations, you are helping to digitize books.
• It's Easy. reCAPTCHA is a Web service. As such, adopting it is as simple as adding 4 lines of code on your site. For many applications and programming languages such as Wordpress and PHP we also have easy-to-install plugins available. We generate and check the distorted images, so you don't need to run costly image generation programs.
• It's Accessible. Most other implementations of CAPTCHAs block visually impaired individuals, who cannot read images of distorted text. reCAPTCHA, on the other hand, has an audio test that allows blind people to freely navigate your site.
• It's Secure. reCAPTCHA is run by the original creators of CAPTCHA and has the highest security standards. Many other implementations of CAPTCHAs can be easily broken.

Global Variables in AS3

I’ve read it’s better to try and avoid global variables…but I really enjoyed them in AS2. Thanks to this post on Ultrashock, there is a workaround to accomplish the same sort of behavior even though _global doesn't exist in AS3.

“If you want something that acts like _global then you would need to create a class which contains static properties.”

package{
public class MyGlobal {
public static var something:String;
}
}

“Then you import that class when you need to use it and access the properties like this.”

import MyGlobal;
MyGlobal.something = "whatever";

You can now store any variables/object in the Global class without having to define each one:

Global.data.name = "Player One";
Global.data.score = 1000;

Google Sites

“Google Sites, a new offering from Google Apps, makes creating a team site as easy as editing a document. Use Google Sites to centralize all types of information -- from videos to presentations -- and share your site with just a few people, your entire organization, or the world.”

Star Wars IV - The Animated GIF!

Thanks to MB for pointing this out this excellent animated gif. It's hilarious. And, on a sad note, more enjoyable than Episode I. :(