Sunday, April 29, 2007

Flash CS3 About box easter egg

Unlike Flash 8, Flash CS3 has a slightly bigger hit area for the hidden button, and in a pretty easily predictable location ;o)

I was thinking of taking snap shots of all the people I know, but it would mean a lot of work to do, especially at 3 AM! I got no idea how to digg out the SWF with the slideshow, like how the ASVGuy did last time around. So, just a couple of the most recognizable faces in the list.





As you see, it's similar to the easter egg that was found in flash 8. A slideshow of pictures representing all the engineers in the flash authoring and flash player teams. Watching it brought some nice memories of a few old friends in there. One of them even has a picture that I clicked of him!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Flex open source - Will future flex versions never sync with Flash player releases?

Was wondering, won't future versions of Flex coincide with releases of Flash Player anymore? Coz, if a new version of flex was to depend on a yet to be released Flash player's API, how's adobe gonna handle it?

There are only two ways that I see this being handled:

  1. There will have to be binary builds of flash player required to be released with every internal build being made by the Flash player team. Instead of public beta builds of flash player, there will be daily builds of Flash player ?
  2. Flash plugin will be open sourced as well :P

    Or,

    Flex will always depend on an already released flash player version. Won't that delay the adoption of Flex & the player?

Am sure guys on the flex end have some thoughts in place around this.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Google personalized homepage has themes now!


Pretty cool. And this theme that I selected can change colors based on the time of the day of the location that I am in. neat!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The firefox kid is doing something with Flash!

Its been a long time since I last heard about parakey, the 'set of applications' that the Firefox kid Blake and his team-mate Joe-Hewitt are working on. So went to their site check for any updates, and I saw a summer internship advertisement there.

What really caught my attention was this statement in the Qualifications section : Experience with Flash is a plus.

Can' wait to see what they are doing with Flash. Meanwhile, any news of what the GodFathers is coming up with ?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Quick note: mProjectorV2 + Flash Player9 = no video download

I'm working on an application that uses mprojector to create a desktop client app. ( yea, no apollo yet! ) Flash player used to be bundled into the application until a few days back, when we decided to use the drop flash player from the executable, and use flash player installed in the client machine. And ever since, video playback has stopped working on machines with flash player 9 installed. The FLVPlayback component would just keep showing the buffering bar. No download!

Publishing the application on mProjector V3 did the trick. So remember- If you used mProjector V2, and had some http download of videos in the flash application, either upgrade to mProjector V3, or bundle flash player 8 in your application.

May be this is not just with video downloads, but with the entire NetConnection object. Haven't tested yet. Am in a rush, gotta get back to work again!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

"RIA degradation"? whats all that fuzz about?

Over the last few days, I've been noticing (am sure that I'm not the only one) a lot of 'bashing' between adobe and microsoft enthusiasts; Last time, one such 'discussions' went to the level getting to personal bashing. Today, there is a new 'discussion' happening out there. About microsoft's SilverLight and Adobe Flash, and other related stuffs, and of course, which term was first to be created: Rich Internet Apps or Rich Interactive Apps.

I thought I should note down my personal take on these kind of discussions.

IMHO, by fueling these kind of discussions, adobe employees are gonna do no good to Flash. They are only gonna make things easier for MS people out there, to popularize their 'silverlight' among developers. Here why is why I think so:

As someone in today's discussions pointed out, Microsoft wouldn't have to struggle much in getting their plugin to windows users; Many techies will download it, just for the heck of it; and for those who don't, there is always the windows update. If a corporate user had to update his flash player to the latest version, chances of getting his system-admin do it for him is not very high. But an update from Microsoft, they'll readily apply that patch. Add a few 'security bug fixes' and call it a security update, and home users will download it right away. Apple users are always ready for heavy updates; Who knows, Microsoft might even get Apple to agree to include it with their updates ;o). Linux users always had problems. They never had Flash player 8! (And if they are desperate, they always have Wine at their disposal!)

So making people download their plugin wouldn't really be a big deal for Microsoft. What would be tough for them is to get developers to start building apps for their plugin. Flash / Flex developers are their easiest target. Getting a .Net developer to understand the 'timeline' would be much tougher than getting a AS developer to learn some C#, If you guys have seen C# code, you know what I mean. Now, with all these crazy discussions, the flash siders are indirectly getting more and more developers educated about their rival technology. Quiet a lot of developers would go check it out, just because if these discussions.

I like flash for what it is today. And I feel Flash is the best at doing what it does. But as I say it, my consciousness pricks me: This "Flash is the best" feeling comes to me, because I've known Flash and actionscript longer than I've known my best friend! I heard about WPF/E like what - last year? I've never really developed anything using it. So I can't really say, can I? May be WPF/E is better? Is that why all these Flash supporters are paranoid over things tiny things like, "MS is trying to spoil the real meaning of RIA" etc? You guys end up creating a doubt in my mind!!

Honestly, if someday I learn that sparklight is the best for something that I'm trying to do, I'll go ahead and attempt it. And if some other technology feels suitable, I'd use that, of course. There was a period when I was a die-hard macromedia fan. And back then, Adobe was our villain. I used to evangelize about macromedia products to my collegues and friends. I even successfully made a few of my designers use Fireworks, over their beloved PhotoShop. And then one fine morning, Adobe and macromedia joined hands! Thats when I realized, all these brand bashing is so silly; All that evangelism I did for fireworks went for nothing!

As I look back, if it was microsoft which had bought macromedia, we would've all ended up being in one happy family! Microsoft would've probably announced next version of Flash and Dreamweaver integrated into next version of Visual Studio. Who knows, Macromedia would've taken its cross-platform culture into microsoft, and there would've been a .Net runtime for all major OS platforms by now! May be, Freehand and Flashpaper would've still existed! ( I'm getting to like this imaginary part now, LoL!)

So, I don't really see a reason why all this bashing must happen between these two companies. Isn't there a way we can all co-exist? Let Microsoft-ers call their apps Rich Interactive apps. Lets call ours Rich Internet Apps. And if you feel your technology is not as good as the others', get back to the drawing board and get us more features. We developers will happily buy your products and use them!

All that said, I feel the name 'silverlight' is just a lame copy of 'Flash'. Couldn't they come up with an original name!!

And I don't mean disrespect to any of you guys out there. You are all my heros, after all! I gotta go catch some sleep now. Its 4:20AM in this part of the world!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

When style meets substance...

Philips and Swarowski team up to create an new range of line of fashionable tech accessories called Active Crystals. Details here.
The lock-like USB drive looks really cool. Ideal for a gift to a girlfriend ;o)

Now all I need to do is find a geeky girlfriend by the time that product is launched. Anyone available? :P

Via digg.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Google acquires doubleClick for $3.1 Billion

Through NewyorkTimes

Considering the fact that adobe bought macromedia for just around 300 million dollars more than that, this is a surprisingly huge deal!

Friday, April 13, 2007

3,462 miles of Atlantic ocean ? Just swim it, says google maps

A friend today showed me something really funny on google maps. Search for directions from London to New York. And follow the directions. ( If you are too busy to read it all, check out No 37 in the directions list. )

It got me thinking, may be google can make some money out of those directions as well. They can display adsense ads next to those directions. For eg: Next to directions between two ports, probably they can show ads for a cruise ship company; directions between two airports, they can probably have ads for some airline company, or probably a travel agent who can help u get a ticket. ;o)

I wont be surprised if someone told me that google is already working on it.

Friday, April 06, 2007

flash goddess 2007 results announced. Sandy's got a runners-up!

A colleague and friend of mine, Sandy Tnay (or 3D, as I call her-why?) won a runners-up for her site.

http://www.flashgoddess.com/html/FITCawards.html

From the flashgoddess site,
"The first ever annual Flash Goddess Award is designed to recognize, promote, and reward talented, yet not quite discovered, women designers/developers working in the Flash industry."
Sandy is one of the two designers helping us with the UI for our social networking application. She's been producing some really cool designs, over the last few months. The fact that being a fresh grad out of college, she found her place next to the likes of Stacey Mulcahy is really impressive!

Congrats to all the winners!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Google Tisp, a new product from google!




I ROTFL-ed at this particular disclaimer note:
We take your privacy very seriously. So we treat all TiSP users' waste-related personal information with tremendous discretion, in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
And this one:
Why should I switch to Google TiSP?
.....
It's good for you. Your FREE TiSP service includes a Google Toolbar-based analysis of your dietary habits and genetic predispositions, along with recommendations for healthier living.
Happy April fools day folks! Have lotsa fun!!