Stacks – Quick tip
by leon on January 28, 2008
Quick tip here about how to add a recent item stack to your dock. This takes about 2 mins top;
Open up Terminal (this is in the Utilities folder inside Applications)
Type in the line of code below (you can just copy and paste it)
Then refresh your dock by adding the line below:
killall Dock
Once the stack is created, control-click on it to reveal a contextual menu that lets you pick between recent applications, documents, servers, volumes, and items.
See told you it was easy. I am currently using it with the favourite items, so that I don’t need to open the Finder to get to my Movies quickly.
MacBook (hot) Air!
by leon on January 16, 2008
Just to prove that I don’t just rave about Mac’s and slag off Windows, this post is about Apple’s latest treat – The MacBook Air. Apple is back at doing what it does best. Marketing a product that isn’t that great, so well that you feel you can’t live without it (iPhone, iPod Touch).
I’ve decided to gloss over the good points in favour of the bad.
After purchasing a MBP last year, I was jealous to hear that a newer and sexier model was out. The jealousy soon turned into glee as I read the specs.
However Apple may like to jazz it up, the MBA (MacBook Air) is crap. As a mobile machine, carrying an external drive, usb hub and god knows what other peripherals around is just silly. The lack of an optical drive Apple says is due to the fact that you can download your Movies right from iTunes. But what if I need to rip a CD or burn a DVD when I forget to take my external drive with me?
What if I want to use my Mighty Mouse, and my USB stick at the same time?
What happens when I decide I need a boost of Ram or increased HDD?
Apple has created a wonderful machine, but it’s only good if you already own a desktop Mac. My point is that if you would use a desktop and notebook, then your the type of user that demands a higher spec than the MBA currently offers.
Saying that, with the lack of peripherals it will still run better than any Vista based machine!!
Silverlight? hmm
by leon on January 15, 2008
It seems like all I seem to do on this blog is slag of anything related to Microsoft – and i’m about to do it again. In fairness I have included a really big image (above) to make up for it. My latest (ok its a few months old, but i’ve only just thought about writing about it) gripe is Silverlight. The aparent next gen RIA framework posed to set the internet alight.
STOP!! There is something out called Flash? Not to sure if you have heard about it as it’s on about 98% of PCs!!.
Thats my first point right there (above). How can Microsoft expect to be a real contender in the market if they are already 98% behind at start-up. Lets face it Bill and his team are not the best at implementing new technologies or formats (WMV, WMA).
Second, Microsoft mentions seamless integration with Mac and Windows but what about Linux users. Surely with the failures of Vista it would be silly not to include this user group.
Third, with the introduction of AS3, AIR and JavaFX is there anything new that only Silverlight can offer? If there is, I can’t seem to find it. A quick look at the Silverlight Showcase shows a bunch of seemingly Flash like apps, fair enough the project is still in development.
Fourth, to develop content of Silverlight requires (yep you guessed it) a Windows set up. When will Microsoft learn to make their stuff fully cross platform? (there is a development of a Linux based SDK called Moonlight on the way)
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in a dominant force in any area, but Flash has the field of RIA’s pretty well wrapped up. For Microsoft to make Silverlight a real contender they need fresh, exciting, open (source) and readily available methods for creating content.
On a plus side however as Matt Casto points out is:
The exciting feature about Silverlight, for me and lots of other Microsoft developers, is being able to execute compiled code in the browser, in a language that I’m already using day to day.
It’s a good point, and one I forgot to mention: developers can’t be forced to learn a language that is unfamiliar to them, so for Microsoft it seems like Silverlight is for the .Net coders outthere. As for me, I’ve had a big enough step up from AS2 to AS3 and learning a new language just isn’t for me, however I do look forward to see what Silverlight can do.
Spot the error
by leon on January 14, 2008
(click to enlarge)Can anyone spot the error? Well not so much an error but a case of wrong time, wrong place? Answers on a post card – well email!
Well – the fact that this is an Apple Blog, and there is an advert for Microsoft and also Dell: two glaringly obvious non-Apple companies.
Not for me thanks
by leon on January 14, 2008
With the release of Microsoft Office 2008, its seems the blogosphere has been sent into a frenzy with reports of excited customers – why??
As you may already no, i’m not Mr Gate’s biggest fan, however I do have to applaud his Office suite – its simple and easy to use. That is Office 2003 and not the 2007 version. Like Vista the new release of Office didn’t get the approval that Bill thought it should receive. The reason (this stands for Vista aswell) is that they tried to simplify something by over complicating an issue. Case and point – the ribbon interface!
The second reason why Microsoft seem to fail with new product launches is the need to have multiple versions of the product (Adobe are also guilty with their CS3 suite) – why not do what Apple have in the past (Leopord) and release a reasonably priced version that does everything. The new Office suite ranges from £99 (Student & Home) to a whopping £499 for the full edition. You could buy a Mac Mini for that price and get a 60 day trial of iWork. Is there any wonder why there is so much piracy for Windows software on Torrents and News Groups.
The third reason why I won’t buy a new version of Office for Mac is Boot Camp. I use iWork while on my Mac and have the ability to save to Office formats, and if for any reason I wish to use an Office specific function then i’ll simply switch to my Windows partition and use Office 2003 there.
The fourth reason why I won’t upgrade is the issue of formats. Try opening an Office 2007 file with Office 2003 – enough said. However, my stubborness will be my own downfall as institutions will be forced into upgrading as they have so much invested in the Microsoft platform. My choice to not upgrade will only leave me unable to open documents in the future. A fact that we should all take seriously. Imagine in as little as 5 years time not being able to open your Univeristy dissertation because your OS no longer supports the format it was created in. For this reason, I always save work in multiple formats in order to keep all bases covered.
I feel the future is bleak for desktop only apps such as the Office suite. The efforts of Google, Adobe and Yahoo et al, have paved away for rich internet applications that mean we are no longer tied into a single platform, application or format as well as the ability to view and edit files from any machine with a browser and internet connection. It also aids collaboration between co-workers.
Flash Components
by leon on January 6, 2008
I’ve recently signed up to FlashComponents.net . I rarely download or install pre-configured components for Flash partly due to the excessive costs of some components and also as I like the flexibility of creating my own. However I recently stumbled upon Flash Components and instantly liked the site. Simple and easy to use, the site offers the works of Flash developers in one place, with the ability to download. I will be adding some of the components that I have created here for free on the site. I don’t believe in charging huge amounts to share knowledge that will benefit others. Afterall I have gained much of my knowledge for free from articles found on the net
Actionscript 3.0 Motion Detection
by leon on January 1, 2008
After a few requests i’ve got around to finding out the source code for my previous post on motion detection using actionscript 3.0. AS3 is still quite new to me and this post was adapted from an original tutorial in Web Designer Mag. If like me you are still a bit unsure about AS3 but feel comfortable with AS2 then there are a few resources that may be of interest to you.
Books
(The two go hand in hand)
Web Resources
http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/671/1/AS-30-Coming-From-20—Article-1/Page1.html
http://livedocs.adobe.com/labs/air/1/aslr/index.html
Here, when I get around to creating some tutorials for AS3
Magazines
Finally, the bit you have been waiting for – the source code. Enjoy. Let me know how you use it, it’s always great to see modifications to code that I use.
Festive Wishes
by leon on December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of the SizzlaBlog readers. 2007 has been a great year with over 6,000 visits between the launch in mid September and now. Look forward to more tutorials and Flash things in 2008!!
Air desktop RSS reader
by leon on December 20, 2007
I have recently updated my Flash based desktop RSS reader to an Air application. Air is Adobe’s answer to a cross browser runtime that allows developers to further blur the divide between web and desktop.
For this example the user can select an RSS feed and view the contents away from the browser. There are two feed’s; news and downloads. Students on my asp.net course can now use the application to quickly and easily check for new tutorials or news on the site without having to launch the browser. As Air has the advantage over the Flash Player of being able to read and write to the clients machine means that as a developer I have far greater scope for the app. In theory I could initiate a download to a specified folder as soon as the app is launched, meaning that the user automatically has the lastest tutorial resources (at present the user can click a link to get the resource).
I am still very new with the whole Air thing, but so far I like it a lot.
There is a built in installer, which makes the process of getting the app a lot easier.
To check my app out for yourself download it from here. (you will need Air aswell)
Flash based matching pairs template
by leon on December 19, 2007
I have recently created a template for creating a Flash based matching pairs game. This can be used in eLearning environments to create a quiz quickly and easily, where the user is given a question and presented with a bank of answers that they can choose from. Feedback is given via colours (green for correct, red for incorrect). The colours can also be changed through the script to allow you to integrate it within your own work. The template is constructed using arrays so that any number of questions and answers can be inputted and the script will dynamically create the exercise including question order and all other text. The exercise also only takes up one frame on the timeline so is really easy to implement.
For a live demo, click here.