g.wygonik's flash experiments

I'm happy to announce that a project I've been working on for many months finally went live this past Friday -- National Geographic's Genographic Project Atlas of Human History (whew!).

The company I work for has been doing the site for the Genographic project since inception (2005), and this app is part of the year three updates. The globe is AS3-based and uses PaperVision3D v1.5 along with a bunch of custom UI stuff and SWFAddress for deep-linking/browser-button integration.

Read more!

After much contemplation I have decided that I can no longer keep blazePDF going. I have had zero time in the last two years to work on the AS3 version, and it doesn't seem that any extra time will be forth-coming. I've been so out of touch with the project that I hadn't noticed that the forums on the site were/are down -- and I have no idea how long they've been out of action...

blazePDF v2.1 is still available for the time being, as it is still a working solution for AS2 projects, but there will be no new updates, and no real support (not that I've been able to provide support recently anyway ).

I thank everyone who has supported the project over the years, and I'm happy to have seen all the really cool projects that people have used it in.

I would suggest that people interested in an AS3/Flex PDF creation system look at the open-source project AlivePDF; it seems to have some momentum behind it.

Cheers
g.

Oh - i mean, all good things must come to an end.

I recently ended my stay at FanRocket due to issues that I won't get into. One of those "you'll laugh, you'll cry" jobs where the "cry" was happening more often than the "laugh". Had to give it up just to get back some of my sanity, my free time, and my self-respect.

That all being said, I wish them all well and I'm very happy to see that the Around the World For Free site is standing up to the apparently massive increase in traffic. While I don't know specifics about real traffic these days, the placement of user icons and media icons all over the map looks really sexy. The increase is of course due to Alex and Zsolt heading out on the trip; I wish them both nothing but good tidings and am anxious to see how they fare!

I'm now a developer at Terra Incognita - a fun company with a very impressive portfolio. I've had to jump straight in and hit the ground running, but so far so good. First tasks are several interactives for National Geographic Society. Nice to get back to work that is enriching people's lives and not just trying to sell them something. Plus, I get to leave work and not think about it until the morning.

Which means that I can finally get back to finishing up a new cut.rate.box album. Sheesh - it's only been 6 years! What do you people want from me?! I have a lot of tracks written, so it's now just a matter of picking and choosing and doing final recordings. Should have something out by the end of the year.

It also means that I may finally get back to the AS3 version of blazePDF, the Mac version of AFTERTHOUGHT (though there are other options that use the same technique now), and perhaps a few new things that I've had going on for a long time but never finished up.

Two years on from Katrina and we're finally coming out of shells. Obviously getting outside the house and interacting with people has been a switch for me, and I think that's kind-of rubbing off on Lorie. Her photo work is picking up - she has her stock site coming along, her "artifacts" moving swiftly, and will be vending her wares at the cool Stitch Austin event in November. Good stuff all around.

Groove on (assume the motion)

g.

This is more of a note to people that might encounter the same issue than it is a complaint or "OMG A BUG!!!" post... This is definitely one of those easy-to-overlook items, and not something that I've seen noted online.

When you browse for a file via the Flash FileReference.browse() method and have supplied a filetype description/extension filter, a user can bypass the filter by simply typing in the name of the file they wish to upload.

This is fairly consistent with HTML file uploads in browsers, as most (if not all) ignore the "accept" filetype filter param and just upload whatever to the server.

So - you might want to double-check the file type in your onSelect function before sending to the server, and triple-checking on your upload script. Just don't count of the file being what you set the filter for.

Finally coming up for air after being deep in work.

To start with, a site that I've been working on for a couple months went into "beta" mode and is publicly available online -- Around the World For Free. A Flash-based social network revolving around Alex Boylan (winner of Amazing Race Season 2) traveling around the world with nothing but the clothes on his back (and Zsolt, who's the producer/cameraman/editor/et al). Alex's success or failure will depend upon the interaction with people all around the world via the website. It's a pretty interesting concept and he seems like he'll be able to pull it off (or at least make for engaging video updates).

The site makes use of Yahoo Maps for Flash which has made this one a really fun and sometimes frustrating project. We have a long way to go to get the functionality we envision working correctly, but there's something simply cool about being able to show all the people in the on-screen map area who are signed up, and jump to their profile, their user-generated media, their friends, etc. It's much deeper than it appears at first-glance.

Recently my boss came to town to have meetings with Alex and Burton Roberts (from Survivor - Pearl Islands) to pitch Around the World For Free to some sponsors. After their meetings they all came back to my house! It was kind-of strange having three reality TV stars sitting in my living room. Luckily I lost most of my ability to be "star struck" a long time ago, so there was no making a fool of myself or anything.

A while back I had posted asking if anyone knew of good photography sites for dealing with stock work, as my wife was looking for an outlet. Well, a couple years later, I recently saw a mention of PhotoShelter. I read some good things about them, looked them over and there was just something about them that seemed better than some of the "old standards"; much more "hip" and seemingly more in-line with our 30-something, tech-oriented, "Web 2.0" lifestyle. So, she took the plunge and is setting up her site there. You can take a look-see at what she's uploaded so-far, but I know it will take some time to upload everything. (I do wish TimeWarner would boost upload speed from the so 2001-ish 384k. Even 1Mbit at this point would be heaven! )

On a more personal note (for family, friends, anyone who cares), we set up a LiveJournal account to act as a "garden diary". Since we have never gardened in Texas before, it seemed like an easy way to keep track of what worked, what didn't, and to interact with others in the area who have more region-specific experience. Most everything we planted did well, but some things were just "off". It also allows for some pretty pictures of vegetables. Check it out.