We are getting there

By a stroke of luck, I got my hands on a Sonos BU250 Bundle – real cool system. The remote impresses me the most; it functions as a communicationscenter of your music-system, and does it with an elegance, that I haven’t seen before. And shut up about B&O – they are left in the dust…
What I like about the system, is the apparent possibilities it opens up for.
Would it be a problem to put a ZonePlayer (as they are called) in my car? Where I will be able to pick what I lake to have stored in it as soon as my cars is at home. Would it be able to use my phone to connect via 3G to the web to get me whatever radio I would like? There is allready a sonos-app available for iPhone, and very soon Android too, so lets take full advantace af that, eh?
More to come, I’m sure…

Next generation Butler…

So far it all seems to take shape, and the shape is getting pointy – pointing in the direction of an online butler, which will be able to follow you around, and help you through your day.
At home, the butler (lets call it James) will help with keeping in check with the news, updatng you blog(s), keeping track of your schedule, planing your shopping trips and other things if asked to.
James will follow you in your car, handling phonecalls, guiding you through traffic.
He will follow you into the shops while shopping, guiding you to what you are looking for, and keeping track of prices.
Off cause while updating your blog, keeping track of other users of your datingsite, so that if you end up in the same area as another user from your datingsite, you will be notified, and if interested a date can be arranged at the nearest café.
This is some of the possible uses of my web3.0-tool…

Future base of web3.0?

While driving home the other day, a thought popped into my head, just south of Fredericia, Denmark, that the usability that I am looking for, is what is required in your car; You are not supposed to be bothered by lumpy usability items such as knobs, buttons and whisles to get in your way.
Its a bit as described by James May testing the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe: No need for driver input, adjustments etc. the car works as a butler, giving you what you need at the right time. Your connection to the web or your car, should work the same way. And is it possible to incorporate this technology into our cars, houses, clothes maybe, limitations by usability could, if handled correctly, be blown away!
Here comes EverOnline (EO) into the picture. Your car could take pictures of your drive around the countryside, and show them on your blog, og maybe on your OLED-wallpaper.
I seriously need someone with enough resources to start this project…
…you know anyone?

Web3.0 moving on from the rest…

The hypothesis of web3.0 is by now starting to come alive as a vision of whats to come.
But what is to come? Well, forget about browsers as you know’em, forget Outlook and much other stuff; we have to move forward, techno-wize, and especially skip the old idea that web3.0 is going to be video-based! This has allready been tryed, and failed miserably with video-phones…
I fear that with the current idea of what web is, we will not be able to move an to ‘the next stage’ – the web has to integrate itself better. So far, we; the users of the web, has been expected to adopt to the gadgets that we surround us with. Luckily the technology is now able to help the gadgets to adobt to us living beings, and this is when things get interesting for us developers.

Next step

Next step careerwize seems to be Project Management. Just started on a 4-module course in Project Management, interesting no doubt, and something a will be able to use, perhaps even in my own projects.
So far I have guite a few projects running, two of which is Actionscript/XML/PHP website, and the other is a web3.0 plan, that I have decided to begin, since nooneelse seems to know how to attack that issue.
Most interesting is, by all meens, web3.0; potentialy a neverending project, living up to one of my two ‘slogans’, if I may: If a website is finished, its dead!

Arrays; arrays are gooood…!

Building something big in Actionscript is hardly a problem, making it easy to work with, can be a bit tricky.
I’ve through experience (hard earned, I might ad) learned that the Array() is a good way to store elements, MovieClips, for instance.

After you create your MovieClips, and under “Linkage…” exports them for Actionscript, you can put them into an Array, simply by:
var Bunch:Array = new Array();
Bunch["hello"] = new Element_1();
Bunch["mom"] = new Element_2();
Bunch["hows"] = new Element_3();
Bunch["things"] = new Element_4();

This way it is easy to grab them again later, i.e. by listening for a click on a button with the data or name set to String ”mom”. Or just cycle through them with a Timer().

Keep in mind, though, this hasn’t been tested on a large scale with large MovieClips or, for that matter, entire Scenes. But works fine with small objects, such as logo, banners, images.
“Testing pending”

To start with…

…you manage your structure.
Set the right base for your FlashSite. Build folders for your images, .as-files, exported scenes, and other objects/components you will use for your project.

Start out with your Flash Project (.flp) file. This will help you to get easy access to the files you create for your project.
Build your folders around this.
For starters I surgest this layout:

• scripts (.as-files)
• XML
• images

Also prepare your .fla’s for the structure of your site
I create layers for various scripts, held in a folder in the timeline:

• imports (for importing/including .as files)
• variables
• scripts (for various scripts in the timeline, such as stop(); play(); Timer(); etc.)

Get into the structure of OOP (Object-Oriented-Programming), an try to keep a strict order in your code. Split everything up as much as your can, i.e. if you are building a clock, build classes for each hand of the clock, or at least split it into functions. Classes are easier to handle over time, in case you would want to use the individual parts else where.

Ok, a clock may not be the best example, but if you pick up on importent parts, you should be allright…

(Note: may be updated over time)

PHP to Actionscript

Welcome to my first and humble attempt to build an Actionscript resource for you guys outthere looking for help/guidance/inspiration in the ever fun world of Actionscript. (Geeky enough for yer?)

My background started in HTML/ASP/PHP with emphasis on PHP, and everything around the subject. I got the chance to get serious with my curiosity in Flash and Actionscript, which was more or less kicked off by the introduction of 3.0 and the OOP angle on scripting Flash.

One of my biggest challenges will be the CMS, on which the site I work on is based, and how to get the most info out of the system and into “my” swf’s.

Also take a look at my best AS3-friends blog: http://www.campjohn.dk/wp/ -  he usually has some true goodies lying around.

Much more to come soon…