22 Jul 2004
I found a very good online book on making an Accessible website. The title of book is "Dive Into Accessibility" Author has taken some real life scenarios. He has talked about different type of disablities and how can we make our content accessible for those people.
Interesting fact is that, through-out the book, examples are given on customizing a MT blog to be more accessible. That's interesting, I am reading the book once again and hopefully customize my blog to be more accessible.
20 Jul 2004
Macromedia has released new versions of Contribute and FlashPaper.
Though Contribute is a great product but I have not played a lot with it.
But FlashPaper has been my favourite tool, I had used it when Contribute 2 was released and I published my resume from MS Word to SWF format. Having resume in swf format gives me good feeling. Why not? I am a Flash developer :)
The latest version of FlashPaper 2, which has some really interesting and cool features like:-
- Text Search
- Text Selection
- Text Copy using keyboard keys(Ctrl-C)
- PDF Export with security settings
- may be more...
More info can be found here.
FlashPaper 2 is available as standalone version as well as it also comes bundled with Contribute 3.
If you buy FlashPaper 2, it only costs $79. So price is very less, I guess, I am also going buy it.
Believe me, its very handy tool. You go and convert any document to swf and upload it. And we know flash player is available on almost all machines.
Ok, do you want to give a try before you make a decision? Why not download trial version from here and play.
05 Jul 2004
ASV - Action Script Viewer
A few days, I talked about ASV add-on tools. Lately I also tried ASV and I must say its a 'must-have' tool for designers or developers.
Imagine a situation, a client comes back and asks you to make some changes in his site or application you did in past. Now, if you have source files its simple but if you don't remember where are latest files. Believe me, ASV can help you out here. It can create entire FLA for you through JSFL.
If you have lost some assets or source files from your machine and you only have swf files then ASV can extract following things for you.
- font outlines as TTF
- sound as WAV or MP3
- videos as FLV
- frames/graphics/movieclips/library symbols as SWFs
- bitmaps as JPG/PNG
- ofcourse all ActionScript code (scripts or class scripts)
ASV is very intuitive and user friendly to use, so anyone can easily start using without any problems. I love the timeline thingy and preview feature.
And ofcourse, if you want to study your compiled swf, ASV would help you there also. Peter Hall was able to come up with this idea while he was working in ASV.
Though some guys use ASV for wrong purpose, I would just request, please use the tool for ethically right reason. Its a nice tool made for nice purpose.
29 Jun 2004
Sometimes back I made a simple set of Flash component and JavaScript code to abstract the JavaScript-Flash-JavaScript communication. I named it JSFCommunicator Library.
It can be seen here .
I hope it helps someone...
cheers,
29 Jun 2004
ASV SOL Viewer and Editor
ASV MXP Viewer and Extractor
These are FREE add-on tools for ActionScript Viewer (ASV) by Burak.
These tools can be very useful in debugging applications or extracting data, say if you have lost your files or some information.
Interestingly, I don't have any version of ASV except ASV 3 demo. But I can feel the potential of tools.
Hope, I will check them out soon :)
BTW! More info on tools can be found here
18 Jun 2004
I just got to know about this from Claus, yeah he is the guy behind DENG CSS/XHTML rendering engine. He was kind enough to send me an invite for GMail, thanks Claus!
Announcement: DENG Developer Chat on July 1st, co-hosted by Steven
Pemberton (chair of the W3C XHTML and XForms working groups).
Details: http://claus.packts.net/w3blog/index.php?id=109
It sounds interesting, I would try to be there in chat...
cheers..
26 May 2004
.Net or Dot Net, known among the most of the developers. I started playing with .Net back in December 2000 with its first beta sdk. I quickly, learnt things and developed some apps too. But never looked very closely after that.
Now after three years, I have once again started playing with .Net, understanding deeply its APIs, framework etc..
Hope I enjoy my journey with .Net :)
15 May 2004
Yet another Macromedia Seminar, this time in Mumbai. Its actually part of Macromedia MAX events. I attended the same in new Delhi some months back. If I knew that they would be organising one in Mumbai later, I would have not gone to Delhi.
I would attend yet another seminar from Macromedia in J.W. Marriots, Mumbai on May 27.
My purpose to go to such seminars is not only limited to learn things but meeting with other developers and designers.
I hope, I will have a good time there...
cheers..
27 Apr 2004
Burak has released FLV Metada Injector tool.
Its a free to use tool, which will calculate flv details from a given flv file and inject those details as metadata into the target flv file.
FLV Metadata is very useful while making custom FLV Players to play progressive flvs. Sometimes its important to know width, height, duration or more properties of flv files.
Metadata can be trapped in Flash using NetSream.metaData event handler. A very nice introduction can be seen at following locations:
- http://flashmx2004.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=961
- Jesse's Blog
FLVMDI is available in two flavours:
- Win32 console application
- COM dll.
On request, Burak also added support for metadata XML file. So flvmdi(console version) would always emit a metadata xml file along with injected flv.
More info on FLVMDI can be found here.
19 Apr 2004
Certifiable is yet another Central application. Rather telling in my words, i would like to quote in its creator's words.
Essential certification preperation
Currently available as a preview release, Certifiable uses a Central exam engine developed by Daemon that tests your knowledge of a variety of topics.
As soon as I got to know about it through Mike's blog, I installed it and gave Flash MX 2004 Developer exam. It was good experience, though I got three wrongs out of total twenty questions.
I would try again, its good practice. Certifiable gives you unlimited questions served randomly.
I wanted to see such application for a long time. Being a part of eLearning development, my inclination has been towards eLearning application.
Central obiously excites me and I am still thinking of an application that would change the way we learn things. I want to see some cool eLearning application running on Central.
I am trying to get into Central's root, I hope to make something interesting very soon.
BTW! while writing this entry, I looked another Central App, which lets you post messages to your MT blogs from Central itself. Wow! I love it.
Its Bloggin'Nation 0.1 by Design-Nation.
I am going to give a try...