Wednesday, December 8th, 2004
CMX Weekly Newsletter
Check the News!
Give The Gift Of Community MX!
Surprise your resident webhead with a gift certificate subscription to Community MX. You can now easily provide all of the benefits of a full CMX subscription for 3 months, 6 months or a full year. And a CMX subscription is a gift that keeps on giving, with brand new content every single business day. From now through December 15th, we're offering a huge discount to new subscribers: Purchase a gift certificate by December 15th 2004 and double your time! Buy a quarterly subscription for $60 and get 1 quarter for free. Buy a semi-annual subscription (6 months) and get a year. And if you purchase a one-year subscription, you'll get two years. This offer is only good through December 15th, so take advantage of this offer before our boss notices. This offer is open to new subscribers only.
New Search Engine Makes Its Debut
We're not sure if it will take Google's place as the number one search engine, but Accoona is pretty neat nonetheless. Using an original approach, Accoona will allow you to "Super Target" your search. For instance, if you do a search on Dreamweaver CSS Tutorials, you can decide which key word - or words - you want to place more emphasis on by clicking on a checkbox next to the word you want to get more results for. Accoona also says that they use artificial intelligence to not only look at the words you're searching, but the meaning behind the words, to make your search more productive. You can check their FAQs for more information.
No, VoIP Is NOT An Alien That Lives Underground. Next Question?
You may have heard us mention Voice over IP (VoIP) in past newsletters or in some Community MX articles. Some of the forerunners of this technology such as Skype and Vonage are gaining some acclaim by offering great service to those wishing to cut the cord to their traditional land line. But it's tough to figure out if VoIP is something you need or are even interested in without finding out what it's all about. PC World has written a pretty informative article to help you find out more about VoIP.
IBM Stands For "Investors Becoming Mental"
IBM has just sold its Personal Computer division to Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest computer manufacturer, making Lenovo the third largest computer PC manufacturer in the world. The deal is worth 1.75 billion dollars, which has prompted Bill Gates to wonder why he didn't buy IBM with spare change a long time ago. You can read the full article at Yahoo.
It Still Kind Of Freaks Us Out That He Knows When We're Sleeping...
Santa Claus is coming to town, and hopefully he's bringing you all of the techie gadgets you've put on your list. In order to make sure you haven't forgotten anything, PC Magazine has put together a Holiday Gift Guide. Of course, you can also use this handy guide to get tips for buying gifts for friends and family, but be honest... after looking through miles of cool tech stuff, are you really thinking about what Uncle George wants or are you thinking "Yeah, I need one of these..."
Satisfied Customers Speak Out!
- "OK, I read a few of the CMX forums. You guys are ridiculously fantastic! How can I skip my trial 10 days, fork over $25/monthly so I can download your Seattle JumpStart and start modifying it to suit a new site I've designed? I'm on a plane out of the country tomorrow night for a few days and want to take the coding part of my job with me. Thanks for creating all this, by the way. It looks like it will be home for me for a while. I'll try to wipe my feet before I enter ;) "
- Roberto M., New CMX Subscriber
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:
"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked" — John Gall
Another Reason To Talk To Your Plants
If you see your Grandmother planting her phone in the garden, don't commit her. She may be testing a new polymer, specially made by Pvaxx R&D, that turns your cell phone into soil after the phone is discarded. The phone also has a sunflower seed inside, so that when it is thrown away, you'll have a sunflower growing where your phone used to be. Motorola is behind the research, but it may be quite a while until you see the likes of this biodegradable wonder. Until then, you can read more about it at CNN.com.
I Will Now Move This Mouse With My Mind. No, Really.
A research team from the New York State Department of Health and the State University of New York in Albany has created a "brainwave" cap that enables its wearers to "use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a [mouse] cursor in two directions."
It is hoped this technology will eventually be used to control motorized wheelchairs and neuroprosthetic devices. In fact, two partly paralyzed wheelchair users were better overall at moving a mouse cursor on a large video screen than the other volunteers. BBC News has the full story.
Spyware Shmyware, As Long As It Works
Some folks really don't mind spyware if this article at Wired.com is any indication. While a lot of people are up in arms about the garbage left behind by some shareware, and the havoc that spyware and adware can wreak on their computer, others look at it as a trade-off for getting free software. Not really free, if you ask us...
Hmmm... What Does Community MX Smell Like?
First, movie theaters offered Smell-o-Vision. You could sit in the theater, and smells would crop up that would help enhance your movie experience. It didn't sell too well. Still, NTT Communications, a Tokyo-based telecommunications company, is testing a new device that will bring stink... er... smell to your computer. Using a device hooked up to your computer, you'll be able to take in the aroma of 36 different fragrances and smells while you surf. Smell this article at USAToday.com.
So He Must Be His Own Sister Too?
Charles Ross IS the One Man Star Wars Trilogy. Charles has a show at the Apollo Theater in Chicago where he plays all the characters, sings the music, does the sound effects, and fights both sides of each battle. You can view a video clip of Charles in action on his website. How many of us are now wondering why we didn't think of this first?
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!
Take a look at this article by CMX Partner Thomas Pletcher
Fun and Freebies!
Track Santa Down
Santa is a slippery character. On Christmas Eve, he's got to be quite a few different places in a very short time span. If you have children who want to know if Santa is near your house on Christmas Eve, you can point them to norad.com and show them! NORAD is tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, so that you can have your cookies and milk ready for him when he arrives.
Dude, I'm A Linguist
Scott Kiesling, a linguist with the University of Pittsburgh has published a paper that is all about the word "dude" and its place in our vocabulary. It turns out that while calling someone dude implies a connection with that person, a dude is not a true friend. Who woulda thunk it? JS Online dissects the dude a bit more in this article.
It's The Spirit That Counts, Right?
Ah, Christmas. Imagine you are strolling down Main Street in your town. All of the Christmas lights are on, and you can hear the carolers approaching with a beautiful song. You decide to walk down the avenue and see the beautiful Christmas tree that your city has put up. You see the crowd of people gathered around it, but you can't see it, so you go closer to get a better look. Once you are close enough to view it, you see that it is... a four-foot potted plant. That's exactly what some residents of Pennsylvanie found instead of the twenty-foot tall tree they were used to. Read all about this story of Christmas Spirit at My Way News.
Do You Want To Do That With CSS? - Multiple Column Lists (Free)
- It is generally well known that list items in an <ol> or <ul> will display vertically in their default presentation. For short lists, or navigation menus, this generally isn't considered a problem. But in other cases, having an extensive list display vertically isn't quite as desirable. It might be a better use of screen space to have that list appear as a series of columns, side by side. In the past, this was done by placing separate lists in individual table cells, or by floating the lists. Semantically it is more desirable not to break up a list this way, but is there another choice? Yes, there is! Join us as we explain a new CSS method that uses a single list while displaying that list as multiple columns. Let's go!
The rest of this article by CMX Partners Holly Bergevin and John Gallant can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing
Run Code at an Interval Using ColdFusion
Have you ever wanted to set up a section of code that will only execute once a day or once a week? You can use the <cfschedule> tag to run a ColdFusion template at scheduled intervals, but there is another method that in many ways is more flexible, because it works with a section of code on a page. The technique demonstrated in this article essentially runs a piece of code on your page at intervals.
Product Photography for Web Designers
Web designers often do double duty by tackling jobs that really are outside of their areas of expertise, such as photography, to save money on a web design project. Often these photographs are of inanimate objects for an on-line catalog. Poor lighting can be the difference between selling a product and losing a sale.
This article discusses simple techniques, mostly dealing with lighting, to improve photographs. I'll also explain why your on-camera flash isn't the best choice for product photography and give you some ideas on the kind of equipment you would need to do this work, from improvising with what you have around the house or office, to entry-level professional products.
Creating Liquid Faux Columns [FREE]
Web designers converting from table-based to CSS-based design are often frustrated by the seeming inability to create equal height columns in CSS, an easy task with tables. Once they learn about the famous "faux columns" technique that simulates equal height columns using a tiling background image on a container, many remain frustrated that the technique only works for fixed width designs. Not so! This article will show you how to create liquid equal height columns using cleverly constructed background images and the background-position property.
Dreamweaver Piece by Piece: Part 4 - Creating and Processing Basic Forms
The ability to interact with users is one of the great lures of the Internet for businesses and individuals. Most of you have filled out a form on the Internet, then hit the submit button to send your data off into cyberspace. How is it done? Most instructions give the old "setting up the script is beyond the scope of this tutorial" line, which has long been a frustration to many Web designers. I hope that this article helps you set up a feedback form that actually works. In part one of this series, we'll configure Dreamweaver form preferences, set up our form, and cover most of the different types of form objects developers will use when creating interfaces for interacting with users.
Distributing Classes in SWC Files [FREE]
As a developer working with several ActionScript 2.0 (AS2) classes, you may find it easier to package your classes as a compiled clip within a distributable SWC file. While authoring in Flash MX Professional 2004, you may have already seen such compiled AS2 classes, such as the RemotingClasses clip or the DataBindingClasses clip. In this tutorial, you learn how to package custom AS2 classes and distribute them as SWC files.
Adding a Sniplet Button to the JavaScript Eval Panel
This tutorial is based on the original JavaScript Evaluation panel featured in at Community MX. The article serves three purposes. First, for the DW developer who uses JavaScript in web pages, you'll have a useful extension at the end of the article that allows you to test out pieces of JavaScript in a live panel. For DW extension developers, the extension allows access to the DW extension API in the panel. Finally, also for DW extension developers, the tutorial will show how to use the undocumented PopupMenu feature of the DW API to add dynamic menus to buttons easily.
An Introduction to Director MX 2004 - Part 2
Director is one of the most powerful (and complicated) new media tools available today. The complexity of the application, unfortunately, often scares new users away from the endless possibilities. In this series we'll explore Director from the ground up in steps that are both informative and easy to follow. In Part 2 we take a look at project planning, cast libraries, and the basics of sprites.
Convert a Photo to a Painting with Freehand and Fireworks
Recently I set myself to a design task that I hadn't tried using Macromedia products before — the conversion of a photograph to a painting. Yes, I know that there are other image editors that will do this kind of thing for you, and perhaps do it more easily. But if you're at all like me, the idea of first buying one of those programs, and then learning how to use it can be a deterrent. If I can get the effect I want using software I already own, and that I'm familiar with, then all the better.
Building a Text Chat Application in Flash Comm Server
In Part one of this series, we reviewed the concept behind the project, determined the plan and the assets needed and went on a tour of the Flash Communication Server. In this installment we build the Text Chat using the Communication Components in Flash MX Professional and test it locally using the Comm Server.
Getting connected to the Flash Communication Server involves nothing more than knowing where a couple of components are located and how to use a keyboard.
Validate that Grammar [FREE]
You carefully construct your code, direct your attention to the details of accessibility, and applaud when your pages validate for XHTML, WAI, and 508. But are you paying as much attention to writing style, valid grammar, and proper spelling? Chances are that you've let a few common errors creep into your Web prose. This series will examine the nuts and bolts of good writing, which is, after all, the heart of the content of our pages.
In this first article, we'll look at the proofing process, the development of an effective Web writing style, forumlas for measuring reading levels, and a list of standard style manuals.
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 persistent 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.
Check out the article by CMX Partner Danny Patterson
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!
This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat was reported by Kim Cavanaugh, CMX Partner
Three Steps to Duplicating Objects
Copying and pasting, duplicating and even cloning are all fine methods for making duplicates of objects in your designs, but do you know about the Alt+Drag method? Super easy and very handy when you want a quick copy of any object in your Fireworks, Freehand, or Flash document. Only 3 steps and you never have to access the menu bar:
- Select the object.
- Using the Pointer tool drag the object to its new location while holding down the Alt key (Option key for Mac users).
- Release the mouse button and then release the Alt/Opt key and you'll have a brand spanking new copy of your selected object in its new location.
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!