Jason Key (Flash Distracted) has written about "Flash Resources in Flux", good someone is taking the time to make up status for the Flash resources right now.
Better yet, take the time to tell Jason (or me) which sites you think are alive and working resources for Flash developers and designers right now. Come on, give us some feedback! ;-)
Congratulations is in order for my good friend Jensa on his first finished book project! It should be in stores soon, and is already available on some norwegian online book stores. The bad news for most of the people of the world is that the book is in Norwegian - a language only 0,09% of the world population actually uses from day to day.
The book is about the concepts of Flash MX. The title "Forstå Flash MX - Fra topp til bunn", or "Understand Flash, from top to bottom". Its covers such topics as symbols, hierarchies, optimalization, pictures, video, sound, printing and publishing. So, if you understand norwegian (highly unlikely), then go check out his book right away - OR take a look at the site that has been built to support the book - Intoflash.com. Its all in norwegian, and so is the discussion forum for the book and for Flash in general. Finally a norwegian discussion forum for Flash!
There has been quite a lot of "deaths" in the Flash resources the last year. Its especially noticeable for me, since I edit for some humanly indexed catalogs of internet sites. One of the flash sites and discussion forums that disappeared in 2002 was were-here.com - a domain that is about to expire, and I can only wonder who will snap it up.
Other causalities are "zombies", that is - sites there are still around in a way, but are only corpses of the sites they used to be, abandoned like ghost ships sailing on the big sea of the net. I am not going to go into which sites that would be, and I am fairly sure that my own blog would have made it into such a list if someone else would have taken the time to make it.
What I wonder is how much of it comes from the general economical situation of net companies and related industries, and how much is to blame on other factors.
I have seen it being explained by the nature of product cycles. New sites popping up whenever a new product is released, to then die again when the "daily routine" returns.
I have no problem believing that it can explain some of the resource sites disappearing, but I can't help but think that it also can be explained by poor support from the "mothership". That discussion was up earlier, and we were asked what could be done to make it easier for the resource sites. One suggestion I had was that Macromedia could make available an affiliation program for the resource sites. If the resource sites would be allowed to sell the Macromedia products - then I actually think we would get better and more stable resource sites for Flash.
The question is, does it matter to Macromedia? And do they care if the resource sites starve to death? After all, the "mothership" has become one (if not THE one) of the biggest resource sites for Flash itself, with regular articles by the top Flash developers and designers, and skilled internal writers. They also host forums and other resources, so maybe - in the eyes of the "mothership", there is no need for the resource sites?
Old related writing:
Gonzo marketing related to the Flash community
Follow up II: Gonzo marketing related to the Flash community
Follow up III: Gonzo marketing related to the Flash community
A very good article about Google and optimizing for it and other search engines. Might be basic for some web developers, but it covers the basics of optimizing your site for your users and the search engines.
Google Village: Who are you optimizing your site for?
At least if you live in the USA.
Using the DMCA subpoena provision, RIAA managed to convince a Washington D.C. Judge that they should be allowed access to information about a Kazaa user identity from the users ISP Verizon Internet Service.
The Judge apparently believes that any copyright owner should be allowed access to any net users identity, just by the merits of alleged copyright violations.
Now, since this weblog is copyright protected -- I should also be able to claim copyright violation from anyone downloading it without my written consent. So guys and girls, I am now on the way to Washington to get to know who you all are! ;-)
Here is the story: EFF: Judge Orders Verizon to Reveal Identity of KaZaA User (January 22, 2003)
And it seems to be especially ill in the US. Lately a lot of crazy patents has surfaced as the companies that succeeded acquiring them have tried to enforce them.
The latest evidence of the illness and cluelessness of the patent system as it is today, is the news story about SBC Communications (american telco and ISP), a company that claims they have a patent on "A structured document browser includes a constant user interface for displaying and viewing sections of a document that is organized according to a pre-defined structure". (US patent no. 5,933,841 called the "Structured Document Browser")
According to SBC, an example of this "structured document browser" would be the links you see on the right side of this site (the archive etc). The patent was granted in 1999 - and even I can show prior art to that kind of navigation from before the patent was granted.
In my opinion the whole patent system is faulted when such obvious misrepresentations of IP surfaces. There really has to become harder to take out patents, especially in the US.
More information on the SBC Communications patent case: Google News: SBC Communications
The best news story about SBC Communications patent claims so far seems to be the ZDNet story
In an email sent to the site www.museumtour.com, SBC said "... your site includes several selectors or tabs that... seem to reside in their own frame or part of the user interface. [These] appear to infringe several issued claims in our patent." The company also included a schedule of fees, which show that the 'base rate' for licensing for a company with a $100,000 (£62,000) turnover is $5,270 (£3,300) a year, rising to $16m for a $10bn company.
Mike Williams, the Flash product manager for Macromedia, has set up his own weblog. I am sure there will be a lot of interesting posts and discussions on his blog about Flash.
Nice to see Mike Williams also choosing MovableType (somehow I feel the influence of Mike Chambers on that decision :-)
Just a note to Mike Williams: You really should include a "powered by MovableType" to pay homage to the great work of the developers which allow so many of us to have such a powerful tool at hand without having to pay large amounts of money for it.
Very nice to see Mike Chambers, the Macromedia Flash community manager upgrade his weblog and layout - and moving it to his own server: mesh on mx
The redesign is very classy, and done by Josh Dura. Mike is now using Movable Type (welcome in the club Mike), and of course - using MT together with ColdFusion. (Personally I have chosen to use MovableType together with PHP). Its a lot of fun being able to use several technologies to put together a blog :-)
Nice to see an airline really being cutting edge on technology. Together with Boeing, Lufthansa launches on-board WLAN service. With download speeds at 7 Mbit/s and upload starting at 128 Kbit/s (to be upgraded to 750 Kbit/s at a later date).
I am wired and net-addicted enough for this to affect my choice of airline on my next trip over the atlantic :-)
I like seeing Flash used to present a message. This time I thought I would point you all to The Miniature Earth. Its a presentation of how our world looks when simplifying it to a small village of 100 people.
I sometimes write about gadgets that are cool. Quite a few of them is in the making, and it seems to be a trend to launch information about them, sites and even ordering - loooong before they ever ship. Which often makes us have to suffer the long wait and anticipation until they are released.
One such gadget is the Neuros MP3 Digital Audio Computer, its a neat concept. A radio, radio transmitter, MP3 (and hopefully Ogg Vorbis) player, it has mic and line in, the ability to record from radio and later on upload the "soundprint" to find out what song you were listening to, as well as all the other stuff you have come to expect from an MP3 player. It comes as a 128 MB RAM version and a 20 GB HD version. And they have promised to make the OS/UI for the unit open to everyone that wants to develop for it. A strike of genious that has worked out great for gadgets like the Palm organizer in the past. Its really going to be interesting to get to use it, and see if any cool new applications for it will surface from independent developers.
But first we have to try to gain a little more patience while we wait and wait and...
Just thought I would take the time to refresh everyone on the reoccurring story of the fight against terrorism taking human rights hostage.
"Terrorists believe that anything goes in the name of their cause. The fight against terror must not buy into that logic. Human rights principles must not be compromised in the name of any cause."
Resorting to the same tactics as terrorists, and sacrificing human rights is not the way to address terrorism.
Its really worth the time and effort to get updated on what is going on. Human Rigths Watch has built a good website with information.
Human Rights Watch - Country page
Human Rights Watch - United States
Human Rights Watch - Norway
The community is buzzing with blog entries about Screenweaver MX, and I can understand why. Screenweaver MX is a really powerful tool for creating Windows applications with Flash MX. And some really cool programs/applets have already come to live thanks to it.
Here is what the Flash blogs are writing:
Jeremy Allaire: Rubberduck, a Netherlands-based software group, just released Screenweaver MX, a powerful tool that enables developers to build full-featured desktop applications using Flash MX. I had the benefit of participating in the beta and getting a view into the kinds of apps people are building. The product enables developers to use native Windows functionality (like custom windows, windows events, native windows APIs, the task bar, and any custom code they can author into DLLs or COM objects)Flashmagazine.com:
What does it do? It will let you extend the capabilities of Flash beyond anything previously possible...Feasible Impossibilities (Robert Hall):
I am very happy and excited to see tools like SWMX coming out. This one in particular looks very promising for allowing developers to extend the capabilities of Flash to interact with the underlying OS, applications and peripherals. Tools like Flash Studio Pro and SWMX are going to make for some very interesting apps in 2003. I only wish that feature rich tools with advanced frameworks and functionality like this were around about 2 years ago.It looks like Rubber Duck has released a new version of Screenweaver MX, and form playing around a bit with the trial, and doing a little reading, I can easily call this software AMAZING! Here is why: it utilizes components and events for application development using ActionScript. Most other programs of this type are only using an fscommand type architecture. Also, you are able to extend teh software by accessing COM and DLL objects. This alone is one of the most amazing features if you are lookng into doing serious application development.Others:
c|net writes about a deal that puts Rambus in future PlayStation
From the looks of it, the Playstation 3 will be extremely powerful, at least compared to todays game consoles.
I have posted rumors about PS 3 earlier.
