I’ve recently experienced problems on few AS3 websites. If you embed your SWF file with different WMode, like opaque or transparent in Firefox your Flash won’t load. Actually the Flash loads first frame and then it seems like it stops. Well, it certainly loads but the problem is that loaderInfo Event.COMPLETE and PROGRESS are not fired in Firefox.

That is LAME! Firefox has this “advanced” feature with Flash, it doesn’t load it until that browser tab has focus. Seems like we’re getting problem from there. Anyway, a workaround is to set the Event.ENTER_FRAME function that will check loader

addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _listenLoading);// on enter frame to check if it’s loaded
private function _listenLoading(e:Event):void {
  if (this.loaderInfo.bytesLoaded == this.loaderInfo.bytesTotal) {
    removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _listenLoading);
    _onSiteLoaded();
  }
}

Yesterday I’ve attended unConference Singapore, one of the biggest events I’ve seen here. It’s all about startups, mostly focused on social component of the web. I’ve attended 2 session and one startup show off in what host called American Idol style.

The day started pretty late for me so I’ve picked up first session after lunch. My friend Arul presented an interesting product which is already in focus - Crunchpad, an internet browsing device created by TechCrunch. Fusion Garage, a Singapore based company and Arul’s workplace is a creator of the software that runs Crunchpad. Software is a Linux that boots directly into a browser and let’s you do all you need only through browser. Looking at availability of software and media over internet that seems like an idea without drawbacks.

After that, we’ve attended Startup Pitch session where about a dozen startups showed off what they’ve into. All of them had about 6 minutes to present and then few minutes for panel of judges to give their opinion. It was interesting, and startups were in many ways inspiring. Let me go through all of them briefly.

eJamming – online collaboration tool for musicians, they can just plug in on net and play together like they are in the same room. Presented live and it worked well. This helps a lot people who are traveling or just wants to meet new people. Later on, same company will be releasing a site that will enable bands broadcast their performance live and get some money from selling it to audience.

CountSpin – auction website, simple idea. Site really needs redesign, and like one of the judges said, offering more products at same time or extending possibilities in other directions would be a win for them. Compare function is not working nicely too.

Frenzoo – nice 3D teen website where you can dress your 3D characters buying clothes or designing your own. Great presentation, very clean and clear on their key points. Congratulations, hope they will be big.

Genkii – no doubt Genkii is composed of talented individuals who will try to bridge art and social components into 3D world in order to create something interesting with their product. 3D world that they are bringing soon to iPhone was impressive, especially seeing it live on iPhone of Ken. Gankii is Tokyo based and they will release Sparkle, 3D virtual world probably during a summer of this year. Good luck!

Orsiso – ORganize SImplify SOcialize is  AIR application which connects your multiple accountsand friends  on social networks. Definetely great potential for wide-spread usage. As a judge said they need to easier clarify what is a benefit of their product. Their aim is to help you easier organize your social friend data by improtance to you, grouping your friends in circles. Glad to see some of the improvement from previous versions includes some of the things I was thinking it’s good. UI needs to get better still because having so many things out there first time user needs to be able to adopt it in a minute.

2359 Media – presented app called Singapore Malls. It’s now available on iPhone. They should put more info on website, together with links to app store. Basically app servers information about malls in Singapore, very detailed ones like stores, floor plans, search for discounts and much more. They’ve also created an ad network to leverage their application potential and making it also possible for other developers to use it in their applications.

iTwin – iTwin is a USB plug & play device that will enable you to connect two computers in peer-to-peer network without setting up any software or passwords. Simple and easy solution for variety of reasons. Judges nicely stated that they need more to point this use cases. Nice product.

Human Network Labs – one of the most interesting products at unConference. I’ve already heard about it before and I was glad I can see a presentation. HNL created a PixieEngine platform which is based on RFID  chips that can be stick to any object. Once you have it in your surrounding using an application on phone or other device you are becoming aware of other objects and people who are using it. Connection between objects is transmitted over 1.5Mbps which is enough even for streaming a video. There is a lot of possible use cases for this product and it’s definitely on it’s way to become a huge success.

SocialWok – they defined it as Facebook + Twitter for Business. It’s a social network made private so it’s suits organizations and businesses. Clean interface is a copy of Facebook, more cleaner and has all the features of sharing statuses,  links and media files. There is an interest for this in organizations I am sure, only thing as one of the judges noticed is, when you say employees to start using something they might not use it, so how you get companies to adopt it is going to be a big challenge. They have iPhone and BlackBerry client so that’s a big plus for adoption.

I hope I haven’t left out anyone, if I did it wasn’t intentional.

I’ve attended one more session after startups, about Django and Plone by Kenny Shen. Interesting introduction what Plone is, why it works and who uses it. Thanks on this to Kenny.

After that we went for a dinner, meeting more interesting people, having some problems with pub people but at the end great conference and very interesting day. I am glad I’ve met people I know and a lot of new people.

Thanks to e27 Singapore for organising this event and check out their website, there is a bunch of useful stuff, like interviews with people who were speaking at the conference.
Good luck with unConference 2010.

Company I am currently working at is on a lookout for serious Flash coder. We are having a nice stream of interesting projects and I am sure you would like the environment. Please read the job description and apply if you’re interested. Hope we find somebody interesting and eager to move forward with us.

Company: The Upper Storey

Location: Singapore

Position: Senior Flash Developer

Information:

The Upper Storey is not your typical interactive agency, nor your typical creative department. We are known for our innovative concepts, our endless supply of creativity, our tight-knit work family. We take great pride in our team and we live and breathe our work.

Job Summary:

You will develop interactive elements, including web pages, flash objects, or any rich media content for various touchpoints. Additionally, you will provide leadership in the use of Flash technology and mentor junior developers on the team.. Projects range from Rich Media and Game Programming to flash websites and banners with dynamic content. You work closely with creative team to deliver cutting edge rich media solutions for our clients.

Responsibilities:

• Ability to mentor junior team members
• Apply your visual design skills to create dynamic and complex Flash Designs.
• Involvement in the conceptual phase of projects. Work closely with creative lead, IA, Content Strategist and front-end developer to deliver-media rich client solutions.
• Understanding of Video codec’s and advanced video encoding options in Flash.
• Understanding of 3rd party implementations and extensions
• Active Flash, Flex, Developer Community involvement.
• Constant R&D on new technologies that will help The Upper Storey push the boundaries

Job Requirements:

• 5+ years of industry experience in ActionScript 2.0 or 3.0 for Flash applications integrated with server-side web applications and CMS
• ServerSide Scripting such as PHP, JavaScript and Flex
• Experience implementing OOP concepts with ActionScript
• XHTML / CSS (validating), DHTML (JQuery), AJAX
• Building integrated data-driven applications and sites that link to other third part apis such as facebook and open social
• Optimization of creative elements for varying bandwidth and platform requirements
• Strong written and oral communication skills

To Apply:

Please send email to coder@upperstorey.com

New great article is out talking about optimisation tips in AS3 – http://www.insideria.com/2009/04/51-actionscript-30-and-flex-op.html

also very nice suggestions and speed test can be found here – http://osflash.org/as3_speed_optimizations

http://jp.max.adobe.com/player.html?2-10

What better could we ask for ? This is Roxik presentation from Adobe MAX, great talk even if there is no translation. But like my friend said, awesomness doesn’t need translation

I am starting here a new series of posts, an Actionscript snippets that are useful in everyday programming. This is mainly because I don’t have time to share full source codes and examples, but I will try to find it. Until then I will post codes that are small but useful.

Let’s start with getting a Flashvars in AS3, something we often need to do

private function getFlashVars():Object {
	return Object( LoaderInfo( this.loaderInfo ).parameters );
}

remove private from function if you code in Flash IDE, but I hope you are into OOP thing.
After this retrieving of Flashvar is easy

_var1 = getFlashVars().var1;  // var1 is the name of the passed Flash variable

watch out, if var1 is not passed value returned will be undefined, so you can use like Ian Kirk said, but watch out for passing 0 value as Flash var then…

_var1 = getFlashVars().var1 || "defaulValue";  // var1 is the name of the passed Flash variable

I am so glad to add one site to the Flash Supersites links – again there  is a great experience of discovering IKEAs ideas nad products.

IKEA | PS is new product line from IKEA, and every product has it’s story, which is nicely presented through Flash website, rich with video and animaton experience.

IKEA | PS

Say No to boxed software! The future of applications is online delivery and access. Software is passé. Webware is the new way to get things done.

http://www.cnet.com/html/ww/100/2009/categories.html

This voting strikes to a most important thing that is now happening on internet and that’s switching from desktop based to web based enviroment. I really like how powerfull all categories look, with at least two or three strong players and good services to offer, but mostly it’s all offered webwares that are great.

Vote and enjoy the change! Real change!

Soon I will need to make a server side conversion of a SWF XML fed animation to video, and seems like I found a solution. It’s Moyea SWF to Video SDK, which works really nice. If you know any other options please let me know…

http://www.swfkits.com/swf-to-video-sdk/

Key Features of SWF to Video SDK

• Convert local and online SWF to video files in any formats for developers’ development goals
• Convert SWF files which called through Parameter to video in any formats for developers’ development goals
• Support video resizing and trimming to meet specific needs
• Support AVI with Alpha Channel conversion to retain the original transparency
• Process 32 bits RGBA file for further edit in Adobe Premiere
• Adopt Lower-Playback-Speed technology to achieve accurate audio and video synchronization and no frame loss
• Adopt audio-extracting technology, instead of recording; to 100% keep the original sound effect
• Support multiple SWF files automatic conversion
• FREE TRIAL WITH NO TIME LIMIT. NO SPYWARE, NO ADWARE, NO VIRUSES. 100% CLEAN.

Because creator did not allow embeding I must redirect you to the Vimeo to take a look at the interesting “game” made for Microsoft Surface. It’s called Genesis.

this is the quote from the video description

This is a deeper look at the 3D Microsoft Surface application we created recently for SxSW and Mix. Partnering with Microsoft, we designed custom ChromaDepth 3D glasses and distributed them to attendees of both events who wanted to try their hand at collaboratively creating a galaxy from scratch. It was a massive hit on the show floor.

very nice