Composer - Flash Music Application All I can say is Wow! Loosely based on Reason this is by far the most impressive music application I've seen in Flash. A real eye opener to the improved audio capabilities of Flash MX. I must have missed this when looking over the FF2002 entries but luckily Andre Michelle mailed me with a heads up - good luck Andre, this is definitely a great entry! add comment:
XML & Academia, SVG & Flash An interesting DaveNet today talking about XML and academia and how the propellerheads at the top of the XML process are disconnected from the real world. I agree with Dave but I don't think it's just academia that suffers from this behavior. There have been plenty of times I've been working on a project when I realise I've been so interested in developing the theoretical aspects that I've taken my eye off the actual users - you just have to make sure you do something about it (and quickly). The first XML spec really solved most of the problem, now they're just arguing over esoteric issues which have little relevance in the real world.
There's a relevant concept in the Extreme Programming movement of doing enough programming to solve the current problem and no more. The idea behind it is that 80% of the time you never going to need to extend the code. The amount of time you save can be applied more efficiently to re-designing the 20% that does need changing.
The use of vector graphics on the web is a great example. Everyone knew we needed a format and two appeared. SVG went through the usual standards process with everybody adding features while SWF just included the amount necessary to be useful. It was 'enough' to be getting on with and so took off like a rocket. Solving 80% of the problem is usually enough. add comment:
Phillip Torrone on the Radio Everybody's favourite mad scientist was featured on Online-Tonight talking about Flash, Pocket PC and portable computing in general. A valiant effort by Phil to impart some useful info to the masses ;) [via Feasible Impossibilities] add comment:
Flash MX New Features Comprehensive overview of the new features of Flash MX on Ultrashock written by Matthew David, author of Flash MX Magic. [via Flashguru] add comment:
Flash Cookie Exploit Lots of info around on this newly discovered exploit - for a comprehensive technical description head on over to Eye on Security. Theres quite a bit of discussion on WaxPraxis but this really isn't that much of a deal - letting users post any kind of executable content on your site is always going to be a security risk and it's up to the site owner to understand the implications. There's a couple of good solutions to the problem at the end of the EoS paper if your having problems. add comment:
