Archive for September, 2005

Troubling times

Published on September 29, 2005 in General. 4 Comments

I really can't wait for this week to be over. I am looking forward to seeing my beloved Brighton again.

I haven't been away from it but rather, it's been taken from me by the Labour party conference. Everywhere you look, you see Labour posters hanging from street lamps, the streets are full of policemen carrying automatic weapons and the air is decidedly un-Brightonesque and so are the goings on.

Last week, Paul, who's doing some J2EE programming for us on a current project and who cycles in to work told me that the police had closed off the cycle-lane by the sea-side. No doubt afraid of suicide bombers on bicycles pedalling into the conference. Unfortunately, as a sorry example of the state of affairs, there actually have been suicide bombings, in Iraq and Israel at least, where suicide bombers did use bicycles.

We need a stronger word than madness, it just doesn't cut it any more.

Yesterday, Walter Wolfgang, an 82-year man who fled Nazi Germany and who has been a member of the Labour party for over fifty years was forcibly removed from the Labour conference and held under the Terrorism Act. His crime? Yelling out "That's a lie and you know it" during Foreign Minister Jack Straw's speech when he stated (apparently with a straight face) "We are in Iraq for one reason only - to help the elected Iraqi government build a secure, democratic and stable nation - and we can and will only remain with their consent." He later reportedly yelled "Nonsense!" when Jack Straw tried to compare Iraq to Germany after World War II.

This led to widespread criticism. My favorite being the Conference Sketch in the Telegraph that concludes "The Blairite regime has suffered a disaster in its battle for hearts and minds. Last night it was loading its possessions into armour-plated limousines and preparing to abandon Brighton."

Tony Blair issued an apology today but it had more to do with Mr. Wolfgang's age than his being thrown out for voicing his opinion or his being held under the Terrorism Act. "We will obviously have to make sure in the future when that happens and someone is elderly ... we should make sure that people handle it sensitively." So what about when someone is not elderly, Blair?

In other news, the family of an innocent man who was murdered on the London Underground by being shot repeatedly in the head by police are in London to visit the scene of their son's death. Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was killed aboard a subway train on July 22 when police misidentified him as a terrorist. There is currently an investigation into the apparent cover-up that followed the incident. The police did nothing wrong in that case according to the current law in the United Kingdom which allows them to shoot and kill anyone they believe to be a potential terrorist.

It is a very scary time indeed to be living in this country. I, personally, am unsure which fundamental freedoms we still have under the Terrorism Act and have some reading up to do...

Are we really that different?

Published on September 28, 2005 in Flash. 0 Comments

Are the goals of the Flash, HTML and web standards communities really all that different? I don't think so and neither does Andy Budd. He has a nice post titled The New Face of Flash.

From his post:

"It struck me that Aral was coming at things from exactly the same angle as me, wanting to build more usable applications, separating data from presentation and behaviour etc. He was just using a different tool to achieve the same goals."

Read the whole post over at Andy's blog.

Ah, finally, that looks a bit more like me…

Published on September 27, 2005 in General. 1 Comment

I can't believe it, I'm in a Macromedia video *without* a red nose! Will wonders never cease.

See if you can spot the Aral in this very cool behind-the-scenes video titled Flash Development Team.

So nice to see so many familiar faces (and relive some great memories.) You did an amazing job guys and gals. Kudos!

Geeks beware when taking the tube

Published on September 24, 2005 in General. 4 Comments

Just read this disturbing article from a journalist and computer enthusiast who was arrested on the London Underground as a suspected terrorist for using a laptop and, among other things, *not* looking at the police officers as he entered the station and looking carefully at the steps as he walked down.

All in all, very scary. If you must take the Underground, please remember not to run on to trains to avoid being shot repeatedly in the head and try and fight your urge crack open your notebook computer lest you be arrested as a suspected terrorist.

In fact, it's probably best not to wear a jacket or carry a rucksack.

The biggest danger in taking the Tube increasingly seems not to come from terrorists but from those who are supposed to be protecting us.

Flash 8 Professional Video: Alpha Channel and Video Cue Points Example

Published on September 18, 2005 in Flash. 11 Comments

Screenshot of the Flash 8 Video Alpha and Cue Points example

If my previous post didn't alert you to the fact, I'm a very big fan of the new video functionality in Flash 8 Professional. The new video importer wizard is an amazing workflow enhancer and the new alpha channel and event/navigation cue points features offer a world of creative possibilities for integrating video into Flash sites and applications.

This past Thursday, we held a Flash 8 Special at the London Macromedia User Group wherein Mike Downey did a presentation and a couple of us -- Guy Watson, Richard Leggett, Stephen Downs (Tink) and myself -- took part in a Flash 8 Jam (short 10 minute sessions demonstrating a single new feature.) My topic was Flash 8 Video and I presented a quick-and-dirty example that took me at most fifteen minutes to create.

The sample demonstrates the use of alpha channel video (Betina walks by as the dynamic text field behind her displays constantly changing numbers (which you can select/edit) and event cue points (the pop-up speech bubbles are triggered by them at certain points in the video.) Oh yeah, and notice the drop shadows on the speech bubbles... ooooh, aaaah, ok, moving along now...

Here is the quick-and-dirty code for the example, showing you how to listen for cue point events and handle them:

ActionScript:
    

  1. 

    // 
    

    2. 

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    // Array of speech bubbles
    

    3. 

  3. 

    //
    

    4. 

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    var nextBubbleIndex:Number = 0;
    

    5. 

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    var bubbles:Array = [ bubble1, bubble2, bubble3 ];
    

    6. 

  6. 

     
    

    7. 

  7. 

    //
    

    8. 

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    // Listen for cuePoint events on the FLVPlayback component
    

    9. 

  9. 

    //
    

    10. 

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    myFlvPlayback.addEventListener ( "cuePoint", this );
    

    11. 

  11. 

     
    

    12. 

  12. 

    //
    

    13. 

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    // Event handler: cuePoint
    

    14. 

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    // 
    

    15. 

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    function cuePoint ( eventObj:Object )
    

    16. 

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    {
    

    17. 

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    	var nextBubble:MovieClip = bubbles [ nextBubbleIndex ];
    

    18. 

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    	nextBubble.play();
    

    19. 

  19. 

     
    

    20. 

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    	nextBubbleIndex++;
    

    21. 

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    }
    

    22. 

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    23. 

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    //
    

    24. 

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    // Change the text field every frame to create
    

    25. 

  25. 

    // flickering random text.
    

    26. 

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    //
    

    27. 

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    function onEnterFrame ()
    

    28. 

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    {
    

    29. 

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    	var numbersStr:String = "";
    

    30. 

  30. 

    	for ( var i:Number = 0; i < 100; i ++ )
    

    31. 

  31. 

    	{
    

    32. 

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    		numbersStr += String ( Math.random() );
    

    33. 

  33. 

    	}
    

    34. 

  34. 

    	bgText.text = numbersStr;
    

    35. 

  35. 

    } 
    

    36.

Note: You can also have the cue points send properties back with the cue point event and I could have used those instead of keeping track of the cue point index manually. The only reason I did it this way was because I had already imported the video without setting event parameters and was pressed for time.

You can download the example files (~1.7MB due to the included FLV.) Thanks go out to Macromedia for letting me use the Betina movie for this.

Flash 8: This will change the aesthetics of the web…

Published on September 18, 2005 in Flash. 5 Comments


Here are some wise words of advice: If you are going to sit for an interview that might be broadcast around the world and quite possibly go into print as well (a) make sure you are not suffering from sun exposure and sporting a red, sun-burned honker from the day before and, (b) if you are, that you absolutely *insist* that the video crew use makeup on you even if they tell you that they'll "fix it in post". The interview I'm referring to is the one of yours truly talking about (the then-unreleased) Flash 8. It was shot towards the end of the beta days and has apparently been touring the world as part of Macromedia's launch roadshow for Studio 8.

Just recently I saw that they also quoted me on the cover of .Net magazine ("This will change the aesthetics of the web") and, lo and behold, a freeze-frame of the video, Rudolph-nose and all, adorns the article inside.

Web Projects magazine quotes Colin, Branden and me Don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining. It's amazing in this day and age that I've made the cover of a magazine, even if only in quote, without having to wear a skimpy dress or bikini :)

The highlight of all this was probably seeing the article in this month's Practical Web Projects magazine on Flash Design, wherein I had the honor of being placed in the same box as Colin and Branden -- two of the greatest Flash developers I know.

"Three of the world's leading Flash developers, and beta testers for the latest version give their views on whether it will become the eighth wonder of the web."

Colin, Branden... dudes... I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

Ah, next time, I'm going to bring my own make-up... or wear a hat... or both! :)

Flash 8 Professional: Seminar by the Sea

Published on September 13, 2005 in Flash. 0 Comments

What do Flash Guru Guy Watson, FlashForward winner (Application: UK General Elections) and Flash Product Manager at BBC News Rob Bateman, FlashLite master Richard Leggett and myself have in common? (No it's not dashing looks, although I have heard girls giggling around Richard...)

We're all going to be taking part in the Flash 8 Professional: Seminar by the Sea event being organized by Ariaware on 24 October, 2005.

As an attendee, you will spend a whole day in sunny Brighton learning to use the latest features in Flash 8 Professional such as the new video tools, mobile development, expressiveness, file upload and others. (And yes, you are allowed -- heck, encouraged even -- to run down to the beach for lunch by the sea.) You will then take part in a one hour free-form question-and-answer with all of the presenters at the end of the day.

The event will take place in the luxurious main conference room of the Jubilee Library -- an amazing modern structure with a cathedral-inspired interior that has been short-listed for this year's Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize and has previously won the PFI "Best Design Building" and RIBA Best Designed Public Building in the South East awards. (In other words, it's pretty darn cool!)

Make sure you don't miss out on this unique chance to spend a day by the sea while upgrading your brain to the latest Flash 8 Professional.

Sign up today to guarantee a spot as seating is limited.

We are also organizing a special dinner on the night if you want to mingle with the speakers and other attendees. Details will be listed shortly.

This is a bring-your-own-laptop event. Make sure you have the latest Flash 8 Professional in order to follow along during the sesions.

ServiceCapture: A Dream Come True

Published on September 8, 2005 in Tools and Utilities. 2 Comments

I am very upset with Kevin Langdon.

Kevin, how could you write one of the most useful tools in a Flash/Flex developer's toolset but forget to tell anyone about it? It was by pure chance that I stumbled upon your excellent ServiceCapture tool in Josh Dura's blog post, even though I had been searching for an HTTP monitor/bandwidth throttler/AMF debugger on Google for ages.

It bears repeating: ServiceCapture is a lightweight, usable HTTP Proxy, HTTP Monitor, Web Debugging Tool and, most importantly, Bandwidth Throttle and AMF Debugger. (Google, are you listening?) :)

I can't even begin to thank you for saving me from the one program that does come up in Google searches and has apparently been quite-widely blogged about in the Flash community: Charles.

Charles is one of the worst applications I have ever had the pleasure of using. I'm talking about teeth-extraction-without-anasthetic bad. I'm talking you-want-to-gnaw-your-own-arm-off bad: An unusably slow interface that rewards your patience with an endless barrage of shareware nag windows featuring the image of a hideous white jug. I completely understand the need to get paid for your software but, guess what? Pissing off your potential customers is not the way to do it! Not to mention that Charles costs $50 whereas ServiceCapture is $34.99.

The choice is clear: We're going to be using ServiceCapture :)

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