2010 April | Psyked

Archive | April, 2010

Link: Hiding the complexity of your tasks with bespoke solutions.

by James on 29th April, 2010 in External links

Here’s one I wrote earlier: http://www.mmtdigital.co.uk/Layers-of-simplicity.aspx

Part marketing-speak, but discusses the parallels between how a programming language and creating class libraries is similar to your business and using bespoke (custom) computer solutions can help you be more efficient. Or at least, tries too without introducing any jargon.

Link: Introducing ZaaIL – 40+ Image format support for Flash

by James on 28th April, 2010 in Alchemy

This is something I’ve been waiting a while for!

http://www.zaalabs.com/2010/04/introducing-zaail-40-image-format-support-for-flash/

Alchemy is a technology which makes it possible to convert code libraries from other languages, such as C, into ABC (Actionscript Byte Code) which is the underlying technology behind the Flash Player. In other words, you can take code libraries from other places and use them in the Flash Player, without any additional dependencies. It’s not easy mind you, but it is very cool.

I still haven’t figured it out myself, so I’ve been impatiently waiting for someone else to be nice and figure it out for me. Which they just have!

What actually interests me the most about this is the fact that it adds .raw image support to the Flash Player, which is very much something that I’m interested in getting into ImageSizer. Expect the next major release to include .raw image support!

Link: Alright Adobe, here’s what you do…

by James on 18th April, 2010 in External links

http://www.arpitonline.com/blog/2010/04/10/alright-adobe-heres-what-you-do-cross-compile-objective-c-to-run-on-the-flash-player/

So, what can you do with HTML5?

by James on 14th April, 2010 in HTML

For all the buzz it’s getting, you’d think HTML5 was an avalanche of new features crashing around the web. Seems more like the first snow of the year – you know; the one everyone hopes will herald days off work and snowball fights, but then melts away overnight. So I thought it was time I got off my ass and learned a bit more about HTML5 to see if it’s really all people say it is.

First things first – what features actually make up HTML5, and how widely supported are they?
Turns out, there’s already a site which tracks the features and their browser support:

http://www.findmebyip.com/litmus

HTML5 is made up of a lot of things – storage, offline modes, video, audio, dynamic drawing, clever forms. Make sense I guess – HTML5 is a cherry-picked set of features we can implement already with plugins and javascript. Reading through the checklist it’s clear that there’s a couple of hands down winners on the adoption front, and total losers too. None of them implement everything just yet though.