Archive for October, 2004

Belgium MMUG

Published on October 23, 2004 in General. 0 Comments

I arrived in Belgium about an hour ago and I'm sitting in the audience right now, enjoying the free WiFi :)

Mike Chambers has just started his talk. He's talking about Flash Player 7 penetration (which is apparently at 81% currently in Europe -- and that's the highest adoption rate in the world. The numbers are about 3 months old apparently.) This is similar to the presentation that Mike did for us at the London MMUG and he's going to be taking lots of questions at the end so I'll keep the post uncluttered so I can report his impromptu responses.

Mike's talking about Central and how maybe in the future it won't be running in a shell. A question that jumps to my mind is whether or not there are statistics on Central uptake. I'll try and get that one in during the Q&A.

Do you have questions for Mike? Leave your comments here and I'll try and ask him!

[Update] Ok, Mike's started taking questions... so we probably have about 15-20 minutes (maybe even 30 minutes as there is apparently time left!)

If you have questions, ask them on the thread on Ultrashock.

[Update] Questions are coming to an end. We got a couple in from Ultrashock :)

All right, I'm up next so I'm going to stop now!

[Update 2004/10/24] I'm on a train between Belgium and Holland at the moment, headed towards Amsterdam. Looking forward to meeting up with Owen and some friends from Flashtival :) The talk yesterday was great fun. I got some wonderful feedback immediately afterwards and there appears to be some positive feedback (in Dutch) on the Belgium MMUG forums :) Can't wait to do it again on Monday in Amsterdam (with possibly a couple of changes that I'm working on right now!)

London MMUG tonight: Usability & Flash vs. HTML

Published on October 21, 2004 in General. 2 Comments

I'm on the train from Brighton to London for tonight's London MMUG meeting. The evening will kick off with Gerred Blyth giving a talk on Usability. Specifically, he will:

* Discuss what usability is, and how the term is often misused
* Look specifically at the difference between usability and accessibility
* Show how usability is just one outcome of user-centred design
* Give you practical tips and strategies for ensuring your designs are usable
* Consider the unique demands and opportunities provided by Flash

We also have a heated debate lined up on Flash vs. HTML. I'm going to be in the Flash team along with Peter Hall and Tink. Kevinjohn Gallagher and Gerred Blyth will be arguing the HTML side.

There's still time to register if you want to come along. Last we checked, we were expecting about 75 people :)

Jim Armstrong on Optimizer

Published on October 20, 2004 in Ariaware Optimizer. 0 Comments

Jim Armstrong of Singularity fame (2112fx.com) just contacted me to let me know that he's blogged about Ariaware Optimizer!

I was on Jim's blog recently and he covers some really interesting stuff. His posts on scripted animation reminded me that I need to update the Moose libraries (here and here) for AS2 pronto!

In any case, here's what Jim says on his blog: "The Ariaware Optimizer can dramatically reduce file sizes of RIA's built using common classes or V2 components. Even if you target a broadband audience, Ariaware's product could allow you to deliver more content in the same file size or get RIA's in front of the client even faster. As a solo freelancer, I also appreciate the SOHO pricing :)"

Check out more of Jim's posts on Singularity.

Alert component message text munging bug and workaround

Published on October 20, 2004 in Bugs & Workarounds. 8 Comments

I just posted a workaround on the London MMUG web site regarding a nasty little bug with the Alert component cropping the end of long message texts. Hope this prevents someone out there from doubting their sanity and/or losing copious amounts of hair!

Made it ! :)

Published on October 19, 2004 in General. 0 Comments

Just a quick update to let you know that after a harrowing day of boxes, trucks, a train ride and much unpacking, we have pretty much settled down in Brighton. Did I mention that I love this city? Apart from possibly having lost a processor on our dual-processor subversion server, everything appears to be in one piece (note to self: next time, check that the processor didn't somehow come loose during shipping!) :)

The great news is that we should have broadband connected tomorrow and my 3G card has amazing reception over here.

Ah, of course, and how can I forget: We released an update to Ariaware Optimizer last night. Version 1.01 of Ariaware Optimizer is now out and available for download. It contains a change to the licensing scheme, to improve the user exprience and coincides with the release of our new Key Manager application on the Ariaware Portal. It's now easier than ever for users to generate and manage their own keys in a secure environment.

Also, we just sent out Freelancer licenses for Optimizer to those lucky winners who won a copy last month at the London MMUG and at Flashtival. We are going to be announcing the general availability of the Ariaware RIA Platform (Version 2.0) in the next few days and we will be mailing out the prize winners for that product soon thereafter!

On the subject of prizes: I saw that a couple of people have entered the Ariaware Optimizer monthly competition and submitted incomplete applications. For the application to be valid, you really have to fill out the whole form (oh validation, where art thou, I know, I know!) In any case, if you're in this boat, please feel free to send me the rest of the submission form by email at any time and we'll enter you in!

You know, I think I'm going to do something completely out of character and actually get a good night's sleep tonight!.. and so our Brighton adventure begins! :)

Moving to Brighton and a slew of other things!

Published on October 18, 2004 in General. 0 Comments

We're relocating to Brighton tomorrow so things are very hectic around here (more than usual, if that's possible!)

I'm very excited about the move as I absolutely *adore* Brighton. It has an amazing vibe and some great people. On the whole, it has a more "relaxed" feel to it than London. (And since it's only 50 minutes away by train, we can pop up anytime!)

Our new place is near the North Lanes -- a wonderful part of town with lots of organic cafes and even an organic supermarket 5 minutes away (and, of course, the sea is just a short walk away.)

The broadband connection has been disconnected and I'm writing this on my 3G card. Now that its content restrictions have been removed -- after a terse phone call to Vodafone support this morning -- I can even partake in my guilty pleasure of surfing Flash blogs without being blocked!

As I was saying, it's a very hectic time: Optimizer has just launched to some great reviews (and we are in the process of finishing off the online key generator module for the Ariaware Portal so our first customers -- yes, it's already started flying off the shelves! -- can create their permanent keys.)

A note for those of you won copies of Optimizer at the London MMUG and at Flastival -- we will be mailing out your Ariaware Portal logins within this week so you can generate your permanent keys. In the meanwhile, please make sure you've downloaded the Trial :)

Did I mention the word "hectic"? :) I'm also heading out to Belgium and the Netherlands at the end of the week both for a little business with a client and to speak the two MMUGs. Then, it's off to South Africa where I'll be giving a talk at the MMUG and also teaching a three-day workshop on Best Practices Pattern-Based Flash Development. I'm also going to be presenting a seminar and doing a workshop for some university students while there. It looks like I'll be able to catch my breath during December before the onslaught of conferences kicks in.

Talking about conferences: I'm going to be presenting at MX-Europe in London in January, MXDU (this just got confirmed!) in Australia in February and Flash Europe in March.

Looks like it's going to be a fun year... right now, I have to get back to overseeing the stacking of boxes and various computers, computer parts and yet more computers and computer parts! :)

The joys of content filtering

Published on October 16, 2004 in General. 0 Comments

A decidedly off-topic post that nevertheless concerns at least one site in the Flash blog community. I just got told by Vodafone (I'm connected via my 3G card at the moment) that I cannot access okyere.org because there's an adult content restriction in place.

One can only imagine what adult content was being served up on the Google vs. X1 Desktop post! :)

To top it off, I apparently have to call back between 8am and 8pm to have this removed as, being a mom and pop store, Vodafone cannot afford 24hr customer service.

Thank you, Vodafone, for saving me from unhealthy exposure to Flash posts :)

Easier on the eyes?

Published on October 13, 2004 in FlashAnt Web Site. 0 Comments

We just implemented a new look on FlashAnt -- hope you like it! :)

FireFox issue when testing locally with Ariaware Optimizer

Published on October 13, 2004 in Ariaware Optimizer. 0 Comments

If you've been following the comments at Burak's blog you may be wondering about the issue raised by Versus regarding Ariaware Optimizer:

"I've tested trial on all of my projects. And so called "optimized" swf work only with Internet Explorer, but not Firefox (Mozilla)."

Straight off the bat, we need to lay this rumour to rest:

This issue only comes into play when testing an optimized application locally and it does not affect deployed applications. There are no known incompatibilities with deployed applications/sites and FireFox or any other browsers.

Applications and web sites optimized with Ariaware Optimizer will work on all browsers that the application or site worked on prior to optimization and that includes FireFox.
Continue reading 'FireFox issue when testing locally with Ariaware Optimizer'

The marvel of the Internet

Published on October 11, 2004 in General. 2 Comments

This was truly amazing to watch: In its first day, Ariaware Optimizer was downloaded by people from 22 different countries, ranging from Hong Kong to Hungary to New Zealand! :)

The speed at which something -- anything -- can propagate to the farthest reaches of the world through the Internet is perhaps something we have witnessed many times and take for granted in this day and age but I still regard it as a marvel to behold.

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