Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

CMX Weekly Newsletter

• News
• Fun and Freebies
• Recent CMX Content
• Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

TODcon 2006 in Orlando

For the few who haven't experienced it yet, TODCon is the most informative yet informal Macromedia/Adobe-related event you're going to find. Whether you're a seasoned veteran of Macromedia or Adobe products or you're just starting out, you will have a great time learning a great deal from many knowledgeable speakers about CSS, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, ColdFusion, Flash, Central and even about running your business properly. Those who attend usually end up coming back every year because of the unique and informal atmosphere. You don't want to miss out on this event. This year, TODcon will take place in beautiful Orlando, Florida, just a hop, skip and jump from Disney World. Your registration (with the rooming option) includes three nights (May 18th, 19th and 20th) at the Wyndham plus a 3-day trolley pass that covers transportation throughout the International Drive attractions area.

You're invited to register for this fantastic, one-of-a-kind event. Do it quick, while the early bird pricing is still effect.

The Encyclopedia of JumpStarts

Anyone who has purchased one or more of the ready-made web templates from Community MX, which go by the name "CMX JumpStarts", knows how much time they can save you in getting a website started, and how much you can learn from them. Now that we've got so many of them, it could get confusing wading through all of them. Our own Heidi Bautista has put together a free article that goes in-depth to explain the benefits of each JumpStart. She'll give you screen shots, indicate the difficulty level involved in using each one, list the tutorials that come bundled with each JumpStart, and list the features for each JumpStart as well. Consider this the "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About JumpStarts But Were Afraid To Ask" article.

While We're Plugging CMX Anyway...

Community MX has now produced a hefty fifteen hundred articles/tutorials/extensions for an information-starved community. When we started this venture, we made a commitment to ourselves and to our subscribers that we would provide two articles, tutorials or extensions every single business day, and we've stayed with that commitment for nearly three years. We have been privileged to see not only a consistent and steady growth in the number of our subscribers, but also witness their developmental growth. We can't wait to be bragging about tutorial number three thousand.

All Your Apps Are Belong To Us

Neil Balthaser has had a good name in the Flash community... up until now, anyway. At one time, Neil was the VP of Strategy for Macromedia, but struck out on his own by running Balthaser.com, which boasts his Pro:FX online Flash website builder. It looks like Neil decided to broaden his horizons and get into the patent business by patenting just about every kind of rich internet application that exists. This means that anyone building a rich internet application using Flash, Flex, Java, Ajax, or XAML that is accessed over the internet could be subject to paying a fee to Balthaser for the privilege of running that application. Although he says he will likely sell the patent rather than inforce it, this is still a potential thorn in the side of web application developers. Ironically, the patent was awarded on Valentine's Day... Read up on this at InformationWeek.com.

ICANN Only Hope

The Department of Commerce (DoC) is putting out the word that they'd like respondents to express interest in the contract for IANA, or "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority", which is basically the control of the internet directory - all of it. Considering ICANN currently holds this contract, this move by the DoC could be seen as expressing dissatisfaction the way ICANN is running things. The relationship between ICANN and the DoC is due to expire late this year, and we could see the IANA change hands. The goverment is not obliged to take anyone who bids on the contract, and this could just be a move to get ICANN to step in line. Difficult to say, and we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. More on this at TheRegister.co.uk.

Great Quotes:

"Pencil and paper /n./: an archaic information storage and transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent developments in paper-based technology include improved `write-once' update devices which use tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to deposit colored pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled at so-called 'handwriting' technique." — From the Jargon File.

Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls. It Tolls For Jeeves.

You know Jeeves. You could ask him anything and he'd be there with an answer. And not just one answer, but a whole slew of them. Of course, he would sometimes give you answers you didn't like or didn't want (many times involving nudity - very odd), but still... his intentions were good. Well, Jeeves is retiring, as you can see if you try to access AskJeeves.com. His replacement is a young whippersnapper that is so brazen they dare not speak his name. It's now called, simply, "Ask.com." Don't worry too much about Jeeves though. He seems to be doing very well in his retirement. As sp.uk.ask.com illustrates, Jeeves is traveling the world, shooting off into outerspace and apparently exercising his love for monkeys.

Just Calling It The "Hi-FiPod" Would Have Been Much Simpler

Steve Jobs boasts that Apple's new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system beats the competition because the music that comes from it just sounds better than everyone else's iPod speakers. That remains to be heard, but the specs are pretty nice, and tempting at $350. It runs off of AC power or batteries, making it transportable, and because it sports a SPDIF input, you can connect a TV, DVD player or your Airport Express to it, turning into a small media hub. Get the what for on the Hi-Fi at PlayListMag.com.

ColdFusion Wiki... Sounds Like a Tropical Drink, Doesn't It?

Wiki's are gaining popularity these days, especially with websites like wikipedia.org proving that Wikis can be informative and fun. Self-proclaimed Jedi Master Ray Camden has just made it a lot simpler for ColdFusion developers to put up their own wiki application by making his Canvas ColdFusion Wiki application available to the public. It's got the basic features you would expect in a wiki with regard to creating content and having people edit or add to that content, plus it has a unique "variable components" feature that add even more functionality to the wiki. Check it out at Ray's blog.

Apparently They Don't Have Kids

CDs get scratched through everyday wear and tear, but at ScratchlessDisc.com, you can purchase CD-R's that could last a little longer than what you've got now. Their protections is twofold: First, they put small bumps on the very outer portion of the CD so that if you lie the CD flat on a table, the business end of the CD will not touch the table. Secondly, they coat the CD in their own polymer which is supposed to protect the CD further. You can buy them at ScratchlessDisc.com.

Does Your Ego Need Massaging?

If you've been wondering whether that blog of yours is popular, head over to EgoSurf.org where you can find out - sort of - how many links are pointing back to your blog. The results are given in ego points. The more links, the more ego points you're awarded. We're still not sure we understand the algorithms used at Ego Surf, but heck, it kept us out of trouble for two minutes.

Fun and Freebies

Regular Pong Not Maddening Enough?

Flash-Gear.com has posted a pong game online. That's not such a big deal, since there are many suck pong copies out there. What makes this one different is that the game does not end, and you are part of an anonymous team of strangers who all control your side's "paddle." The results can be frustrating, because it seems that not everyone is playing to win. It's like some bizarre antisocial pong-land...

Do These Results Really Suprise Anyone?

The University of Michigan has completed a study regarding men and women, and how honest they are when it comes to disclosing the number of sexual conquests they've had. Not suprisingly, men boast up to four times more sexual relationships than women do. After the men were questioned, twenty one percent of them said they had lied, and that the number was actually much smaller. There are so many jokes we could make about this, but none of them are fit to print.

If Microsoft Designed the Packaging For The iPod

Here's a really humorous film parody of what the iPod packaging would look like if it was built and packaged by Microsoft. We're sure the makers of the film are not far off the mark. Through some pretty funny exaggeration, it points out the differences in marketing between the two computer giants. Catch it on GoogleVideo.

Weekly Content Listing

Creating a Custom Controller for Captivate

Tom Green

Though Captvate ships with quite a few controllers there will come a time when you think, "You know, I need something different." In this article I show you how to create a custom controller for Captivate in Fireworks 8.

AJAX Applied: PHP Contact Forms

Rob Williams

For most web developers AJAX is simply another one of those "buzz words" that represents a "revolutionary new technology" that will change the way web sites work forever. It all sounds fantastic and there are lots of great articles that explain what AJAX is and why you'd want to use it. The biggest problem for most developers is figuring out just how AJAX can be applied to real-world situations.

In this article we're going to try and tackle the implementation question. We'll take an existing PHP contact form and gradually convert it into an AJAX-driven solution. The goal is to demonstrate not only the technology and how it can be used, but also the process that you, as a developer, can take to begin the transition from traditional web development to AJAX-based pages and sites.

Creating a ColdFusion Custom Tag for US States

Tom Muck

ColdFusion custom tags are exceptionally useful, as they allow you to put presentation functionality into a file, similar to an include, only more powerful. This article shows how a simple custom tag listing US states and Canadian provinces can be built and used.

Loaders Demystified, Part 1: Usability Guidelines [FREE]

Joseph Balderson

In this series we are going to look at all the different kinds of flash loaders — what they're for, how to build them and when to use them. For those Flash users who think they know everything there is ot know about loaders, we hope to show you some new tricks.

In this tutorial — Part 1 of this series — we will be looking at basic loader concepts and loader usability. In Part 2, we'll go over a variation on the classic frame-based loader, upgraded to ActionScript 2.0 syntax.

Creating Realistic Water Droplets on a Photograph

Jim Babbage

There are many tutorials available on how to create water droplets. In fact my hat is off to a couple that are truly ingenius and simple. So why do another? Many of the resutls I have seen tend to look a bit unrealistic when used on a photographic image, or when compared to a real water drop in a photo. My goal was to go for realism. So, using a photo that has real drops in it, I went about trying to create my own, custom, articial, but realistic droplets. I think my expereimentation paid off; I came up with a process that can be used to create a droplet on a variety of images, with varying lighting conditions. In each case, the modfications to the droplet were minor.

To achieve this result, we'll be working with a variety of tools in Fireworks:

• Vector Shapes
• Bitmap selections
• Transform tools
• Converting Paths to bitmaps (FW 8 only)
• Live Filters
• Gradient fills

CSS Cheat Sheet: Create CSS Rules

Zoe Gillenwater

Even seasoned CSS developers need a quick refresher course in CSS concepts and techniques from time to time. This CSS Cheat Sheet is designed for just that. Use it as a reference on topics that you've already learned about in-depth but need a few reminders on. If you're still a beginner to CSS, use it to learn the nuts and bolts of working with CSS, then use our other articles, listed at the end of this one, to extend your learning and practice your new skills.

This Cheat Sheet describes how to create CSS rules to be placed in your style sheets. It reviews the anatomy of a CSS rule and focuses on the different types of selectors available to you in styling your documents.

Using Events in ActionScript - Part 2: Dispatching Events

Paul Newman

In Part 1 of this series, you learned how to define event handlers for Flash UI components. In this part, you'll learn to use the EventDispatcher class to dispatch events from AS2 classes.

The Using Events in ActionScript Series:
Using Events in ActionScript - Part 1: Listening for Events — How to define event handlers for Flash UI components
Using Events in ActionScript - Part 2: Dispatching Events — Using the EventDispatcher class to dispatch events from AS2 classes
Using Events in ActionScript - Part 3: A Better Approach — How to implement Danny Patterson's event framework Coming Soon

Podcasting With Breeze Presenter

Kim Cavanaugh

With the introduction of Breeze 5 an important new feature was added to the capabilities of Breeze Presenter—the ability to publish a Breeze presentation directly to your computer. In previous versions of Breeze all presentations were published to a Breeze server which could be your own server or a hosted service where you stored your files. While this was a perfectly good way to publish your presentation for online viewing, you were limited if you did not have a Breeze server or if you wanted to make your presentation available for offline viewing by a download or on a CD. Breeze 5 changed this dynamic by making it possible to save your files directly to your computer with all the associated support files that made the presentation possible.

After playing with this capability a little bit I also discovered a very important hidden feature. When you publish a Breeze presentation to your local computer Breeze produces a series of audio files to go along with each slide in your presentation. Since these files are created in an MP3 format they can be played back as you would any audio file. And of course, that fact got me to thinking that those files could be repurposed and published with an entirely different publishing format, the now ubiquitous podcast.

Approximate download size: 18MB

Geolocating IP Addresses with PHP

Rob Williams

Have you ever wondered just where in the world the visitors of your website are comming from? Whether to satisfy your own curiosity or to automatically deliver localized information, Geocoding can open a whole new set of possibilites for a web site. In this article we'll take a look at what Geocoding is and how a community-based project can help to provide an accurate and affordable geocoding solution.

Designing a Logo: Part 3 - Getting Technical

Kim Dudley

Logo design could be considered a complicated and tedious subject or it may be looked upon as an exciting and interesting opportunity. Logo development is a very creative process yet the designer must also have very good communication and technical skills.

The Designing a Logo series has attempted to cover all facets of logo design in order to give the reader an understanding and process for designing logos. The first two articles contained information about getting started and the creative process. The third and final article looks at the very important technical side of creating a logo.

After the creative work has been done a logo must be developed to a state that will allow it to be optimized for a wide variety of mediums. This article will look at how to do that as well as cover a few other logo related issues such as common file formats, Standards policies, trademark laws and the all important issue of pricing a logo.

The Designing a Logo Series:
Designing a Logo: Part 1 - Getting Started
Designing a Logo: Part 2 - Getting Creative
Designing a Logo: Part 3 - Getting Technical

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of CMX Associate Jim Babbage

Be Honest: How Many Fireworks People Knew This Existed?

Want to quickly export any part of your Fireworks design as a single graphic without actually cropping the design or drawing a slice? Choose the Export Area tool (underneath the Crop tool). Draw and adjust your crop with with this tool, then double-click inside the bounding box. You'll be brought right to the Export Preview dialog, and only the selected area will show in the preview window.

You can still adjust optimization settings and even output dimensions. Make sure to give your cropped file a different file name from anything you previously exported.

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!