Wednesday, November 24th, 2004
CMX Weekly Newsletter
Check the News!
And The Winner Is...
Stephen Picone won a free copy of Studio MX 2004 for simply taking a tour of Paris, our first ever CMX JumpStart. Quite a few people have been downloading Paris as well as our second CMX JumpStart, Seattle. Both of these stylish and unique templates employ CSS2 and XHTML 1.0 Transitional markup, and both pass 508 accessibility checkpoints. Congratulations to Stephen Picone and thank you to everyone who has taken the opportunity to explore the CMX JumpStarts.
Community MX Likes to K.I.S.S.
In this increasingly complex world, blah blah blah, it is best to keep things simple, blah blah blah ad infinitum. There are a million ways to tell people to keep things simple. There are entire books written on the subject. Ironic, isn't it? Gerry McGovern has written a short but sweet article on not letting the complexity of the information you're trying to convey get in the way of your user's experience. You can read it at GerryMcGovern.com.
Oh, I Don't Know. I'll Ask My Anterior Cingulate Cortex
While doing research into the way the brain makes decisions under duress, scientists have found a part of the brain they call the anterior cingulate cortex which processes the logical and emotional sides of a situation and comes to a balanced conclusion. So when you're reaching for that second helping of Motherlode Pie and you start having second thoughts, you can read this story at Wired.com and understand your conflict a little bit better.
This Just In: People Would Rather Have Free Stuff Than Pay For It
Much to the chagrin of the RIAA, file sharing is not going away anytime soon. We've personally known many people who say that when they download music from their favorite P2P network, they are not hurting record sales. Of course the RIAA is saying that record sales takes a huge hit due to file sharing, and have taken many folks to court in attempts to stop the trend. CNet has a great article that leans in favor of the RIAA, but also considers their stance a bit exaggerated. An interesting bit of analysis is thrown in for good measure.
Steve Jobs Should Name the next iMac "Excel"
The makers of TurboExcel software and a company named Excel Software have received cease and desist letters from Microsoft asking them to stop using the word Excel in their names. Excel Software received the letter about fifteen years ago, and reminded Microsoft that Microsoft's Excel did not even exist when Excel Software came to be. MS has not contacted them again. TurboExcel, which allows Microsoft's Excel to be ported over to other operating systems, such as Linux, was in danger of having to change their name until they discovered that MS has no trademark on the Excel name. MS applied for a trademark this year, but it has not yet been approved. This article at Yahoo.com has more details, and also explains how the name Windows is not necessarily a name that MS has a monopoly on.
Google Saves College Students From Buying Term Papers on the Black Market
Google is beta testing a new search engine named Google Scholar, which will let you search for "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports." You can read Google's FAQ list on Google Scholar here, read all about it at Searchenginewatch.com, or simply try it out at scholar.google.com.
Satisfied Customers Speak Out!
- "After being a member of CMX for just over two weeks now I felt that I just had to tell you how much I appreciate your site. Without a doubt it's the best money I've ever spent. I have learned so much it's almost unbelieveable. The help on the forums is second to none and the articles, tutorials and extensions are just excellent. And all free once you've subscribed. Marvelous!! "
- John L., CMX Subscriber. Here's a link to one of John's websites
Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!
Great Quotes:
"There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone" — Bjarne Stroustrup
But What About My Betamax?
Dixons, Britain's largest electronics retailer, has decided to pull VHS players from their shelves. DVD players outsell VHS players forty to one, and VHS simply cannot compete with the advantages that DVD players offer. Wal-Mart and many other retailers have scaled their stock of VHS players way back, and will probably be following Dixons' lead in the not-too-distant future. Cnet.com has more on this story. Goodbye, VHS. Your squiggly lines and long rewind times will not be missed.
Squint Begone
Do you have a laptop? Ever had problems with getting the fonts on your laptop to display in a way that doesn't make you say "yuck?" Is that enough questions yet? Many folks don't realize that a laptop's LCD monitor has to be set to a specific resolution in order to be as crisp and clear as you think it should be. Robert Scoble has written a blurb about getting the most out of your LCD monitor's quality at radio.weblogs.com. For those who have not adjusted their monitors yet, that link again is RADIO.WEBLOGS.COM.
The Cellular Phone Boom
Because you're not paranoid enough already, we thought we would throw this into the mix-- cellular phones can and do explode. There. We said it. Sadly there have been at least 83 reports in the last two years of cellular phones exploding near people or in their hands, causing burns, bodily injury and ringing in the ears. The problem is usually caused by old batteries or faulty chargers, so be sure to replace them every once in a while. The ratio of explosions to cell phones is actually very small, so you really don't have that much to worry about, but still, better safe than... well, you know. You can get the full report at Yahoo News.
From Our "That's Just Plain Neat" Department
If you've ever used Froogle, then you've seen how handy it is at finding links to buy the item you're looking for. But if you've got a Gmail account, or take two minutes to sign up for a Google account, you can now create a Christmas or Birthday wish list courtesy of Google. Basically, you use Froogle, click "Add to List" when you find an item you like, and that item will get added to your own free web page that you can then send to friends and family. They will be able to click on the links that accompany the product descriptions, whip out their credit card and sit back with a smile on their face, knowing that they just bought you the perfect gift. Read more about the Froogle Wish List at the Google Blog.
Be The Boss of You
A recent discussion on the one of the many Community MX forums focused on what is involved when you begin working freelance. The Contract Employee's Handbook is online, and best of all, free. You'll find information on how to market yourself, manage your money, create your own benefits package and quite a bit more to help you in your quest to break free of the voices in your head, otherwise known as your day job.
Creating an Animated Progress Meter in Fireworks (Video Tutorial)
- I've seen a few requests out there, in various forums, on how to make an animated progress meter and thought it would be a nifty little tutorial for beginners in Fireworks. A progress bar can be used while a large image is downloading, indicating to the user that something is indeed happening and hopefully encouraging the user to wait for the download to be completed.
This type of animation is not tied to the real download process; it's just an animated GIF image. Using Layers in Dreamweaver, we can make that image visible until the real image downloads to the user's system. Then it will disappear. We're going to create a three different progress meters: one very simple example, and two using some of FW's handy animation effects. In one animation, we will tween the opacity of a glow. In the other we will create a motion animation.
Take a look at this Video Tutorial by CMX Partner Jim Babbage
Fun and Freebies!
Four Out of Five Dentists May Disagree
Anyone who knows the folks at Community MX knows that we love our chocolate. Now we have just one more reason to partake in our favorite dessert. A UK-based study looked into chocolate and the effects it has on coughing. The study found that chocolate can actually act as a cough suppressant, beating out codeine in its effectiveness. Better yet, chocolate has none of the side effects, such as drowsiness, that other cold remedies have. This could possibly trigger thousands of fake coughing bouts around the world...Read more at newscientist.com.
Must... Pop... Faster...!
You know those bubble wrappers that you enjoyed popping as a kid? You know, the ones with the millions of tiny plastic air bubbles that you'd pop until your parents told you to cut it out? If you were caught doing that now, it might seem immature. Of course, that doesn't stop most of us, but at least now you can go to viceking.net and pop all of the bubbles you want and still appear to be working diligently. Let the goofing off commence!
Sorry For The Gastric Distress Aunt Edna, But You Signed The Form, Remember?
Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Center for Consumer Freedom have made available their Thanksgiving Liability Form, meant to protect you from litigious Thanksgiving Day guests. No longer will your guests be able to sue you because they got obese from eating your delicacies. Gone are the days that your Tofurkey-loving guests will be able to take you to court because you dared feed them real meat. Serious or not, this form would still be fun to hand out at the door.
Advanced User Authentication with .NET and Dreamweaver, Part 1 (Free Tutorial)
- This tutorial takes you step-by-step through the implementation of Forms-based Authentication using ASP.NET, Macromedia's custom DataSet tag, SQL Server 2000, and C#. Part 1 shows you how to set up a simple authentication scheme with a single type of user. Part 2 (also free) goes further. You'll learn how to examine the user's role to enable/disable access to your site's protected content.
This free tutorial from CMX Partner Heidi Bautista can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing
Streaming MP3s with Flash Communication Server: Part 2 - Creating an MP3 Component
In the last article of this tutorial series, covering MP3 streaming with Flash Communication Server (aka Comm Server), you learned how to build a basic Comm Server application which hosted MP3 files and a Flash movie client that could connect to the application to stream those MP3 files in real-time. In this second part, you will learn how to convert the MP3 player into a Flash component and how to manage the component files with the Project panel in Flash MX Pro 2004.
Previous and Next Links for Details Page Stored Procedure
If you have used Dreamweaver to create dynamic pages, you are probably familiar with the Repeat Region and the concept of Next/Previous records. You are probably familiar with the Master/Detail pageset concept -- the Master page contains a table listing your records with links that allow you to drill down into a Details page. The Details page gives you the details about a particular record. Unfortunately, the Details page does not allow you to create the Previous/Next links easily. This is often desirable in a site, such as in a photo album, real estate listing, or other type of list where the user might want to remain on a Detail page and simply cycle through the records rather than go back to the Master page again. This tutorial will show how to create a SQL stored procedure that will supply Previous/Next links to any ColdFusion or ASP page.
Fun with Fireworks Brushes and Masks
Recently I've seen a visual effect in many different places—TV, print, and online—that has captured my attention. It's the faded look that you get when you've run a t-shirt with a printed logo or text through the washing machine a few too many times. Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's an indication that I really need to get a life, but often when I see new effects like this I want to try and duplicate them in Fireworks.
As I worked out the steps to create that faded look, I discovered that there are all sorts of fun things you can do by combining vector objects with bitmap masks. In this tutorial you'll learn the basic techniques for creating a bitmap mask with brushes and other bitmap tools in Fireworks, and have a look at some other fun things you can do as well.
Semantic (X)HTML Markup: Styling Tables
In the last Semantic (X)HTML article, you learned about a number of underused table elements that can improve your table's structure and accessibility. Guess what – there's more! The second part of the semantic tables article covers additional table elements that act primarily as hooks for visual formatting. This article will introduce the thead, tfoot, tbody, col, and colgroup elements. You'll learn which CSS properties you can use to format your tables and how to apply them to the appropriate table elements.
Creating Random Object Placement in Flash MX/MX 2004
This article will go over the basics of random creation of effects and interfaces. Using math and the random() method of the Math class in Flash can create ever changing/evolving interfaces and effects for interactive creations and games. We will go over basic generation and placement of random objects by using the onEnterFrame event handler, the setInterval function and the for loop. From there we will add random motion and functionality to the objects. My example will be that of an outer space background for a space game or a site in outer space. Being that it would take me forever to copy and paste a thousand stars of different sizes, at different coordinates and having different opacities, using some looping events and some random math we can create this effect a lot faster and it will always be different every time the project loads.
Using Image Metadata in PHP - Part 2
In Part 1 we took at look how to read metadata from images in PHP using the JPEG-Meta class. This time around we take a look at how to use the same class to write and update metadata back to our images, giving us a complete JPEG metadata solution for our PHP applications.
Open Some Windows
When someone says "open source," what do you think of? Linux? Apache or PHP? Firefox, perhaps? Well, open source software actually encompasses thousands of programs, and many of them run exclusively on Windows. This article will introduce you to three of them, and show you how they can add value and productivity to your workflow—and save you money in the bargain!
Building a Flash Randomizer Class
This tutorial will examine the creation of a Flash randomizer class in ActionScript 2.0. This randomizer class will allow us to specify an array of items and randomly return one item from the array when we request it. Sounds fairly straightforward, however, what makes this Randomizer class different is that it is persistant across sessions. It never returns the same array item back-to-back, and it displays all of the items once before another item is displayed again.
Using Source Code Management Software: Part 2
In the second part of our series on using source code management software we look at how SCM affects your workflow both as an individual developer as well as in team development environments.
Creating a Custom Flash Video (FLV) Player - Part 1
Want to go beyond the Flash Video Kit and the MediaPlayback component?
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create a custom player for progressive Flash videos (FLVs), complete with play/pause, progress bar, volume slider, and real-time scrubbing. In addition, the player is easy to skin and you can edit basic settings using an external XML file.
In this three-part series, you'll learn to:
- Create a Flash video player using the MediaDisplay component
- Create a Flash video player without components
- Create a Flash video player component
In Part 1, you'll create a player that incorporates the Flash MediaDisplay component. You'll also learn how to modify or "skin" the player's appearance by replacing its movie clip symbols.
In Part 2, you'll create the same player using the NetConnection and NetStream classes, rather than the MediaDisplay component. This results in a much smaller SWF file (2K versus 58K).
In Part 3, you'll create an ActionScript class file, and associate that class with the player controls, to create a reusable Flash video player component.
Preview Flash Video Player
Includes: flv_md.fla, flv_md.as, flv_md.htm, config.xml
Videos courtesy of the Gemini Piano Trio.
Using ActionScript Creatively: The Talking Car
- Using Flash and some modified electronics, I wired a Flash movie to my car to tell me when my oil light comes on. Warning: This article voids vehicle warranty.
Check out the article by CMX Partner Derrick Ypenburg
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!
This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat was reported by Bill Horvath , CMX Partner
Getting Your Website Indexed on the New MSN Search
Getting your site indexed on MSN Search is important. With millions of subscribers using MSN's search engine by default, you'll want to make sure you get seen there. MSN has made it simple for you by providing this page as a guide.
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!