Nice slideshow in Quicktime/html

This is a good example of how Quicktime can help create rich experiences as well: http://www.apple.com/aperture/profiles/stanmeyer.html

I still think that flash can do it more seemlessly but this approach is more accessible -- which is counting more and more these days ;-)

what is?

The RIA world is pretty awesome

I've had about a 2 1/2 year break from FT Flash work and I have to say that a lot has happened since then -- both personally and in the Flash/web world. Personally, I've had the wonderful opportunity to learn more about server and web infrastructures including unix, apache, dns, mysql, VMware -- pretty much the works. I'm even comfortable now with command line (that's saying a lot since I only got my first computer with windows 95 -- and come from a graphics design background). I've also been able to work more with css and am thoroughly impressed by what can be done now in straight html, css and javascript that used to only be possible with flash.

But at the same time, my real love has been Flash and since 2005 A LOT has happened there as well. I had done most of my work at AETV.com in ActionScript 1 (I actually started with Flash 4 so the slash syntax was my first intro into actionscript). But since 2005 Flash has been through so many changes, from being taken over by Adobe, releasing AS2 and AS3, the maturation of Flex (and the happily lowered price) and finally the release of AIR which will allow for Flash apps on the desktop. Anyway, my life is now coming full circle and I have been able to get back into Flash -- and starting in March it will be my FT job again! In the meantime, I'm very busy learning AS3 and Flex2 as quickly as possible and have been able to complete work on the first version of a memorization tool using a bit of AS2. My goal before March is to rework it as an AS3 Flex app so that it can be ported into AIR as soon as the final release is announced.

Exciting times!

Live Documents --another flex/air app

LiveDocuments using Flex and AIR for a real office suite by ZDNet's Ryan Stewart -- Live Documents (ZDNet gallery) made a big splash when it first came out. The user interface is very similar to Office 2007 and a lot of the functionality from Office is there as well but the whole suite was created using Flex 2 so it can be accessed in the browser. Live Documents did a [...]

Babbel

Babbel: Learn a new language with a rich Internet application by ZDNet's Ryan Stewart -- Babbel is launching today and it’s a rich Internet application built in Flex that is going to help you learn a new language. Like any site now there is a bit of a social twist. Users of the site can message back and forth and study together. Currently the site supports Spanish, French, Italian, German [...]

Server 2 go

This is a great idea-- a self contained server that can run off of a CD:

Server2Go >

Geo location of a server

Here is a handy little app for occasional use. It's a Google Map mashup that allows you to see the physical location of a server. It was useful for me today when a whois lookup failed to give enough info on who owned a server that was not working properly. This allowed me to see its physical location and thus allow a pretty good guess of who the actual owner was ands who we needed to contact to fix the issue:

http://www.geoiptool.com

Great flash video tutorials

I have been taking advantage of some free video tutorials on Flex from www.totaltraining.com.They are really the best I have ever found and very inexpensive ($200 for the entire Adobe Web suite).

At the same time I just found this site : http://www.gotoandlearn.com/ -- which offers a series for free video tutorials for flash. Great stuff!