in the "where are they now..." category, the creators of flash & co (Jonathan Gay, Peter Goldie, Gary Grossman, Peter Santangeli, and Robert Tatsumi) just announced their next project, "explory": a multimedia sharing app for mobile. http://www.explory.com http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1315821178/explory-a-mobile-storytelling-app-by-the-creators...
if you've got serious rails skills, have built web apps at scale, and are looking for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at a funded startup, megaphone wants to hire you. megaphone is making realtime interactive tv a reality. we have 7-figure revenue and we are about to go big. you'll get architectural freedom, amazingly challenging work, top dollar, and be in early at a startup that is popping. if…
At MegaPhone and USER1, as at any startup, we build a lot of prototypes. In fact, arguably everything we build is a prototype. In our early days, we churned through a lot of prototype terminology--everything from "one-off" and "test" to "demo," "study," "duct tape," "simplest thing that works," "minimum viable product," "proof of concept," "hack," "quick fix," and "mock-up". But those terms never…
The following code shows how to use HTML to align a grid of images in rows and columns without tables, with no spaces or gaps between the images. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Image Grid Example</title> <!--CSS--> <style type="text/css"> .row { line-height:0; } body { background-color: #000000; } </style> </head>…
Starting with Union 1.1.0, OrbiterMicro (Union's JavaScript framework) includes native support for WebSocket. Using WebSocket, JavaScript applications can conduct network communications at speeds that rival ActionScript's XMLSocket and Socket (though no browser currently supports native binary data transfer). Compared to AJAX long-polling techniques (aka Comet), a basic ping (message roundtrip)…
i just posted a new example showing how to create a simple multiuser drawing pad (aka shared whiteboard, multiuser sketchpad, or collaborative painting tool) using pure JavaScript and HTML5's <canvas> tag. to manage communication between users, the javascript code uses OrbiterMicro, which connects to Union Server. >> View UnionDraw...
Union 1.0 is now shipping and ready for production use in real-world deployments. Union is a development platform for creating multiuser applications. Build chat, whiteboards, real-time multiplayer games, meeting applications, collaborative editing tools, and shared interfaces that run in desktop and mobile web browsers (JavaScript), Adobe Flash, Java, C#, or dozens of other languages. To get…
here's a quick code snippet to replace windows-style line breaks (CRLF, or carriage return, line feed) with a standard actionscript new line character. var newText:String = oldText.replace(/\r\n/g, "\n"); and here's a snippet to replace all multiple line breaks with a single new line character: var newText:String = oldText.replace(/[\r\n]+/g, "\n"); for example, the preceding code would change the…
This article 1) describes how a Flash bug breaks the professional software-release process, and 2) entreats Adobe to fix said bug. THE BUG: When a linked class or the document class resides in a .swc file, the Flash authoring tool can't find it, and generates an error. At MegaPhone Labs, we separate our applications into two parts: the engine .swf (core logic) and the skin .swf (display). We…
To fit lots of rows on screen in a Flex 3 data grid, you have to change the font size and the row height of the grid. For example, <mx:DataGrid fontSize="8" rowHeight="12"></mx:DataGrid> But the preceding code causes the text in the grid to be cut off because the grid still has row padding that pushes the text down. To remove that padding, set the paddingTop and paddingBottom styles. For…
on tuesday august 17 at fitc san francisco, i'll be unveiling MegaPong, a realtime, massively multiplayer version of the classic video-game, Pong. the expected audience of 600 will be split into two 300-person teams. players will use their cell phones as game controllers to collectively control their team's Pong paddle. this will be the first time in history an audience of this size will play Pong…
we recently announced a free 1000-user licence for Union. also, this week, we posted an online multiplayer pong game tutorial and a multiuser fridge magnets tutorial. happy (multiuser) coding!...
Earlier this week, Adobe released Flash Builder 4, the successor to Flex Builder 3. The new version includes a ground-up overhaul of the Flex SDK component set and significant enhancements to both the ActionScript development environment and the MXML design environment. Anyone using Flex Builder 3 today should definitely upgrade. The improvements in Flash Builder 4 are extensive and wide-ranging,…
On May 7/8 I'm doing a hands-on workshop on the fundamentals of object-oriented programming ("OOP") in ActionScript 3.0. The course covers all OOP basics, including: Classes, objects, and packages Methods and variables Inheritance Encapsulation Datatypes and error handling Garbage collection and memory management Application structure and design principles And also the following core areas of…
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