Even Hitler is upset about Apple iPad not supporting Flash

I came across this funny YouTube video. Gotta laugh.

When it comes to tablet, at present I think Archos 9 is very promising as the 1st gen tablet, light and thin. Since it runs Win 7, of course it supports full Flash for web browsing as well as AIR for standalone apps. It would also be able to run Adobe Digital Edition for reading eBooks. And it is a real tablet that I can actually draw or handwrite on it ( for notetaking during meetings or lectures, for example).  I hope that Archos would beef up the spec over time as it is a bit underwhelming for now.

 Archos 9

http://www.archos.com/products/nb/archos_9/index.html?country=au&lang=en

The other tablet that have my attention is the HP slate which was previewed at the CES 2010.

 HP Slate

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/the-hp-slate/

I hope the tablet would have a display port so that at home or at office, it can be connect to a display monitor and together with keyboard and mouse so that it can work like a desktop computer. And if I can be greedy, I hope the tablet would have a built-in digital TV tuner (DBV-T) antenna and it would be my ideal traveling gadget.

Using AS3 Perlin noise to generate nice bitmap

If you are always on the look out for ways to optimize the file size of a flash movie, why not consider using Actionscript to programmatically render the elements in your flash movie. I’m fascinated when I learned that you can even generate natural texture like clouds or smoke using Actionscript. To get start, try the little code below which make use of the Perlin Noise function to generate a nice bitmap. I added in a random number to the function so that the bitmap  is different everytime it runs. The Perlin Noise function accepts many parameters. If you experiment with the function further you can even simulate an animation effect like a moving background.

Hope this will get you interested to learn more.

var myBitmapDataObject:BitmapData = new BitmapData(640, 480);
var seed:Number = Math.floor(Math.random()*100);
myBitmapDataObject.perlinNoise(320, 240, 8, seed, true, true, 7, false, null);
var myBitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(myBitmapDataObject);
addChildAt(myBitmap, 0);

Adobe BrowserLab for Dreamweaver

I have recently downloaded the Adobe BrowserLab extension for Dreamweaver at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/browserlab/. I like the idea of being able to test how the CSS will render on different browsers/platforms without having to have all these browsers and versions be installed on my machine. One feature I particularly like is the ability to display not just a side-by-side comparison of the page render on 2 different browsers, but to display the 2 renders on top of each other as onion skins. It is amazing that sometimes 2 CSS renderings may seem to look identical on different browsers. Yet when put on top of each other, the pixel shift becomes apparent. If you are Dreamweaver users, I would highly recommend you download the extension and give this a try. I’m sure you would love it too.

uConvert – A Flash Lite App for Unit Conversion

I came across the uConvert Flash Lite app while searching for a unit conversion utility. It is built for the Flash Lite 3.1 standalone distributable player which is sadly discontinued recently and without any replacement at present. Fortunately I have the player already installed on my HTC Touch Pro 2 (running Windows Mobile 6.5) and there  is also a link at the developer’s site on where to download the player if required.

The uconvert app is a nice fluid app which allows conversion between all sorts of unit as well as currency. It is a great app and it only sells for US$0.99 so it is a no-brainer for me. Interested? You can check this out at:

http://www.uconvert.us/

Flash Button 101

I was at an education seminar this week and promised the attendees to post the 3 lines of Actionscript code for use with buttons (and indeed for everything else in Flash). Learn the 3 lines of codes and you have everything you need to code in Flash as all objects (visual as well as non-visual) follow the same event driven (event and response) model. So here it is, put the following code on the timeline layer and assuming the button on the stage has an instance name ”myButton_btn”:

myButton_btn.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, doClick);
function doClick(e:MouseEvent):void
{
trace (“Hello World!”);
}

Error #2032 with AIR app installation

When I was preparing the eSeminar I did this week on building AIR apps with Flash CS4, I played with the AIR SDK for the Badge installer. For the most part it worked very well. However, when tested on IIS with Win 7, I came across the error #2032. I was sure that the .air file was OK as I could install it if I double-clicked the file. The problem arose when I tried to install it via the badge.swf from an html page. After some research, I found that the solution to the problem was to set the .air MIME type for IIS to: application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip

So next time if you are faced with this error, give this a try. It worked for me.

AIR update framework for Flash CS4

While I was preparing for the upcoming eSeminar on AIR with Flash CS4, I researched on the topic of creating an AIR app that can detect version number and do update automatically. I found the following article by Jeff Swartz very easy to follow.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/flash/quickstart/update_framework.html

It works perfectly. Still as I think about the whole process, I wonder why we need the 2 xml files: updateConfig.xml and updateDescriptor.xml at all. The AIR update framework should allow the info of updateConfig.xml be scriptable in the AS code itself. And the checking of the version should be against the -app.xml that AIR packager generated. The updateDescriptor.xml is really redundant. I’m always striving for simplicity and the fact that I have to create 2 additional xml files is tedious work for me. Having said that at least the update framework works so I can’t complaint too much:)

Learning resources materials for the teachers by the teachers

Below are links to 2 websites which have a lot of great learning and teaching materials. And these web sites are all created by teachers who are passionate in technology and so dedicate their own time to build the sites. Very commendable. Check this out:

http://teachersbeehive.com/

http://www.flashclassroom.com/

Cancer Council Fundraising

It’s the time of the year again. Adobe Pacific is running a fundraising event for the Cancer Council Australia. In particular, there is a photo competition which goes along with the event. If you would like to support a good cause and have a bit of fun, check this out:
http://www.livingawesomeness.com/

Photoshop.com Mobile for HTC TouchPro 2

I have recently upgraded my phone to the HTC Touch Pro 2. It is a lovely phone and I would say by far the best Windows Mobile phone out there. I have been trying out the Photoshop.com Mobile and am pleased to say the it runs well on TouchPro 2. The program reads the photo stored in my phone and let me choose which one to upload. Recently Photoshop.com (desktop version) has a new feature which allows users to upload and share videos as well. This isn’t available for the mobile version yet. I hope it would be there one day.

To try out Photoshop.com Mobile, go to:

https://www.photoshop.com/?wf=mobile&promoid=DTELE