Planet Flash
The voice of the Flash community
SE Linux is the Security-Enhanced Linux project started by the NSA which lets you secure Linux at every echelon from the kernel up. SE Linux is in essence a defense against hackers giving users another stratum of protection to online information.
Since I was involved in the initial development, I’ll attempt to give some context as to why you’d want to utilize Google Analytics for Flash. A lot of people have a need for metrics of their Flash files. Originally, the only way to track things in Flash was to create your own back-end [...]
Not too long ago Google released Google Analytics for Flash. My first reaction was one of happiness; finally some attention would be put into Flash analytics. But after looking into it a bit more I found out that Google Analytics for Flash wasn't such a big deal.
On Google Analytics side, nothing changed; no specific stats [...]
I just got back from the annual Feweb event, this year I was scheduled in the Rich Internet Applications track to do a Flash versus Javascript battle with none other than Peter-Paul Koch, moderated by Gijs Van Essche.
Despite our sincere efforts it was difficult to find fault with the two technologies since they complement eachother [...]
A feature forever undocumented in Flex Builder is the ability to jump directly to matching braces. To use it, simply place your cursor to the left on an { or the right of an } and press Ctrl/Cmd+shift+P. For the JDT nerds out there, it’s the same key command. Enjoy!
The LinkedIn Flex Developers Group is full! Apparently, LinkedIn groups can have 3000 members, and that's how many the group now has. I have over 50 requests to join pending approval, and can't approve them. I have pinged LinkedIn Customer Services to ask if there is a way to raise that limit, but for now, I can't approve any more requests, sorry. If the limit gets raised, I'll let you know (and will approve those in the queue).
I'm always looking for my next phone. My BlackJack II has served me well, and continues to do so. The biggest flaws with it are the lack of Wi-Fi, and the GPS being painfully slow to initialize, so slow that it is barely usable. But, those faults aside, I have been pretty happy with the device. But, that is no reason to stop the endless pursuit for the ultimate cell phone. And the latest one I tried is the much anticipated and oft discussed HTC Diamond Pro. I've used several HTC devices before, including the 8125, the Tilt, and the G1 Android, and in general HTC makes solid and very reliable hardware. The Diamond Pro promises a mix of HTC hardware, cutting edge styling, and iPhone like touch screen gestures and interactions, and so I picked up one of the very first available in the U.S. (released as the AT&T FUZE). The HTC Diamond Pro is a Windows Mobile device, and HTC has created a touch screen UI called TouchFLO 3Dthat sits on top of Windows Mobile. I took the device to MAX with me, and used it for close to two weeks before drawing conclusions - yep, I so wanted to love this device. But, well, here's the scoop:
Pros
- The HTC Diamond Pro comes with Windows Mobile 6.1. And yes, I know that some won't see that as a pro, but 6.1 really is superior to v6.
- The HTC Diamond Pro is sleek and is styled really nicely, the thing just looks cool.
- More importantly, the slide out keyboard is one of the best I have used on a device this size, it feels right, the tactile feedback is good, it even features Caps Lock LEDs etc.
- The screen is clear and bright, well lit, and usable even in bright daylight.
- Superb Wi-Fi, and equally good Bluetooth (although I wish Microsoft would finally fix Windows Mobile so that it published cell and battery strength via Bluetooth).
- The stylus is stored really well, with (what I assume is) magnetic pull to easily hold it in place and reducing the chances of losing it.
- Like most HTC devices, connectivity and power are via a mini USB connector. This should be standard for all devices, and vendors like Samsung (who like to change connectors between phone versions) should take note.
- The camera is superb.
- The device is slow, make that painfully horribly frustratingly annoyingly slow. The touch screen version of Windos Mobile is indeed more resource intensive, and TouchFLO seems to make it even more sluggish. The device needed a much faster CPU, and by not providing one HTC has basically rendered the device too sluggish to use. Yep, first con, and this one just about renders the phone useless. But it gets worse, much worse.
- TouchFLO 3D looks really cool, check out the screens linked to above. But as hard as TouchFLO 3D tries, it can't succeed. Why? Because it is a thin veneer over Windows Mobile which was designed for use with a stylus. The gestures to move through favorite contacts are ok, but when you need to display all contacts you drop to the standard Windows Mobile contact list which was never designed for fingers, it needs a far more precise interaction. Same thing for the calendar, and messaging, and e-mail - when the area to touch or click is a little button or an X at the top of the screen, finger control is useless. You are going to need to try multiple times, or pop up the included stylus, and that gets frustrating very quickly. The problem is that Windows Mobile was never designed for finger gestures the way iPhone was, and TouchFLO 3D does not replace enough of Windows Mobile UI to change that.
- Now combine the previous two points, and the bad news gets much worse. TouchFLO 3D is so slow that it sometimes won't respond to gestures at all, so you end up trying again, and again, and then it catches up with all of them, and thus doing things you never intended - dialing wrong numbers or prompting you to delete contacts or changing settings. Unacceptable.
- The device is rather uncomfortable to hold next to your ear for any extended period.
- The keyboard slides out far too easily. If you hold the phone to your right ear this won't be a problem, as you'd need to push up to open the keyboard. But hold it to your left ear, and your thumb ends up holding the keyboard closed and your four fingers try to push it open, and the four fingers tend to win. So, you're talking, and suddenly you have an open keyboard on the side of your face, which is not comfortable and highly conducive to pressing wrong keys.
- One of the things I like about iPhone is that it seems to intuitively know what you need to do. For example, hold the phone to your ear and the screen blanks, move it away and it comes to life. The Diamond Pro blanks after a few seconds, but never comes back to life until you press a button, which may also pop up a menu or hang up or something else.
- MicroSD slots do not belong under the cover, enough said.
- Phone volume is terrible, highest volume is not high enough.
In this video tutorial, I share a technique that I use for creating custom chrome for your windows in AIR when using Flex. There is also another tutorial for doing something similar in Flash presented by Lee Brimelow on Adobe TV.
Marissa Mayer has just posted about the new Google Zeitgeist for 2008. This time the zeitgeist has been organised by country, offering us a glimpse into searches unique to different regions and cultures across the globe. Well, guess what? Among the top 10 from India, "katrina kaif" makes it at number 10 as the only [...]
Marissa Mayer has just posted about the new Google Zeitgeist for 2008. This time the zeitgeist has been organised by country, offering us a glimpse into searches unique to different regions and cultures across the globe. Well, guess what? Among the top 10 from India, 'katrina kaif' makes it at number 10 as the only [...]
In most projects there are tons of events that are dispatched, but have no listeners subscribed to them. This shouldn't be an issue, but it turns out that the Flash Player deals with these events inefficiently. Luckily it's pretty easy to patch this for specific situations. The code below will run about 5X faster than a standard dispatchEvent call when...
When preparing a Flex project for deployment, always make sure to export a release build. I think most people know about this feature of FlexBuilder, but I'm not sure everyone is aware of just how important it is. The SWF...
I have a few issues to ramble about Adobe AIR apps in general after having reviewed a good number of them. These come from a tint of user’s exasperation that has come to the forefront after using Tour de Flex. Because Tour de Flex has been developed by Adobe’s own AIR developers and it is understandable considered as a [...]
The Indy Flex user group will be meeting again. Here are the details:
Meeting Information
Date: Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location:
touchAsoul design studio
6500 East Westfield Blvd.
Indianapolis IN 46220
Topic: Using VO’s with ColdFusion!
http://indyflex.com/
Test blog post from my iPhone.
Moonlight 1.0 delivers compatibility with Silverlight 1.0 media with some features from the Silverlight 2.0 specifications, which has officially been available from Microsoft recently.
Moonlight 1.0 delivers compatibility with Silverlight 1.0 media with some features from the Silverlight 2.0 specifications, which has officially been available from Microsoft recently.
Adobe Sneaks Peaks… means things Adobe are researching… and maybe developing in the future.
Three categories were presented and their features
Client
RTMFP application level multi-cast in Flash Player - Media streaming between Flash Players
Adobe Nitro Platform - Building widgets on Flash (Serge Jespers)
Codename Durango - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/durango/
Services
Connecting LiveCycle and Creative Suite - Media Orchestrator - Video production workflow
Meer [...]
Caught up in 25-line fever, I started hacking away at a Strange attractor generator and got it down to 6 lines.
PLAIN TEXT
Actionscript:
var bmp:Bitmap = addChild(new Bitmap(new BitmapData(800, 800, false, 0xffffff))) as Bitmap;
for(var i:int = 0; i <12; i++) this["a" + (i + 1)] = (("VBWNBDELYHUL").charCodeAt(i) - 77) / 10;
var p:Point = new Point(.1, [...]
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