Wiebe Steven v/d Meer

jQuery .click .keypress in ie7

2012-01-19T10:10:00.001+01:00

Note to self :

For some reason .click and .keypress dont work in internet explorer 7.
The solution is to use .mousedown instead of .click,
and .keydown instead of .keypress.

Well done ie! :(

Little Printer

2011-11-30T08:58:00.001+01:00

Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper.

from: bergcloud

Nest Thermostat

2011-11-23T11:46:00.001+01:00

Simplicity at it's best!
It's from the creators of the iPod hardware/software.
More info: http://www.nest.com

Technology

2011-11-23T11:40:00.001+01:00

It's doesn't matter what technology that you use, it's about the result.

Raycasting HTML5

2011-11-09T11:44:00.000+01:00

In my childhood i played a lot of shooters like Wolfenstein3d, Doom I/II and Heretic that were created using a raycasting engine, and i always wanted to know how they work. I wanted to create a simple raycasting engine in as3 so i started googling. A lot of results were hard to understand until i read this tutorial about creating a

pseudo 3D game with HTML 5 canvas and raycasting. I'm now busy porting the code to a as3 version just for fun. If you liked the games and want to now hot the basics work read the article here:

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/creating-pseudo-3d-games-with-html-5-can-1/

Banner Clicktag AS3

2011-11-09T11:27:00.001+01:00

Once in a while i have to create a flash banner for a client, a lot of times the banner must have certain specifications. One of those specifications is to use a clicktag for registering clicks. Problem is most of the tutorials describing how to implement the clicktag are in actionscript 2.

The snippet below is how you can implement the clicktag in as2:

button.onRelease = function(){
getURL(_root.clickTag,"_blank");
}

If you want to use actionscript 3 for this you can use the following snippet:

var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(root.loaderInfo.parameters.clickTag);
try{
navigateToURL(request,"_blank");
}catch(e:Error){
trace("Error occured!");
}

jQuery scrollbar (slimScroll)

2011-11-02T17:07:00.004+01:00

Need a simple jQuery scrollbar? This one is tha bomb!
http://rocha.la/jQuery-slimScroll

AIR YouTube Music Desktop Player Version 0.7

2011-10-21T15:42:00.000+02:00

I,ve updated and changed a view things in the AIR YouTube Music Player.

Version 0.7

Updated:

Saving volume.
Saving favourites to playlist
Switch views (playlist/search/settings)
Add/Remove items from playlist
Added items in playlist also show in search results

Fixes:

Fixed shuffle/repeat toggle states

Todo:

Search through personal playlist
Create settings panel
Sort personal playlist
Better playlist icon
Sharing items
Better taskbar icons

If you want to try out the new player click on the link below:

Download the new player

If you have a older version and are having problems installing the new version, remove the old version and run the installer again.

AIR YouTube Music Desktop Player progress

2011-10-20T11:54:00.000+02:00

In my spare time i continue building and improving the AIR YouTube Music player, at the moment i've implemented keyboard navigation. The other thing i'm working on is saving items to and loading items from a json file. Another nice feature(in my view) is the saving of the current volume after closing, so if you start the application the volume is set to the last used value. I'll continue posting updates on my blog, and as i said earlier all feedback/tips are welcome.

Flashdevelop + AIR: Could not generate timestamp: handshake alert: unrecognized_name

2011-10-18T11:41:00.001+02:00

After updating Flashdevelop i wasn't able to package my Air applications.
When running PackageApp.bat i got the following error:

Packaging YoutTubeAir.air using certificate "bat\YouTubeAir.p12"...
Could not generate timestamp: handshake alert: unrecognized_name
AIRR setup creation FAILED
Troubleshooting:
- did you build your project in FlashDevelop?
- verify AIR SDK target version in application.xml
Press any key to continue...

I knew the setup was correct so i googled and found the following solution on the FlashDevelop forum:
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6024&hilit=Could+not+generate+timestamp

I openend bat/Packager.bat in a texteditor and changed this line:

call adt -package %OPTIONS% %SIGNING_OPTIONS% %OUTPUT% %APP_XML% %FILE_OR_DIR%

call adt -package -tsa none %OPTIONS% %SIGNING_OPTIONS% %OUTPUT% %APP_XML% %FILE_OR_DIR%

It took me a while to find the solution to this problem so i hope i can help someone out with the same problem.

Wordpress and Jquery $ is not a function

2011-10-11T14:43:00.000+02:00

I made a website for our local tennisclub and i got an email from one of the moderators that the website was down. The firebug console showed me that there was an error in a custom jquery carousel. The error was as followed:

$ is not a function

After googling i came upon this site:

http://elementdesignllc.com/2009/08/wordpress-jquery-is-not-a-function/

I changed all $ tags to jQuery and voila problem fixed!

AIR YouTube Music Desktop Player (Download)

2011-09-21T11:33:00.000+02:00

You can download the YouTubeAir player here: download.
Feedback is always welcome and remember it's in a early development stage!

AIR YouTube Music Desktop Player (Update)

2011-09-21T11:21:00.000+02:00

I've been busy updating my YouTube Music Player.
There are still a view bugs in the application and i still have to implement a view features (saving,etc.), but i'm satisfied about the design something that doensn't happen very often :P.

Looping media in Blend4 (WPF)

2011-03-15T11:47:00.000+01:00

I'm currently experimenting with Blend4 (Surface/Windows Phone 7) and wanted to have a looping video background for my project.
The video part wasn't hard but the looping was a bit tricky! After some googling i came upon this post: http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/3570.aspx which had the solution.

MainWindow.xaml

MainWindow.xaml.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Shapes;

namespace AnimatedBackground
{
 /// 

 /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
 /// 

 public partial class MainWindow : Window
 {
  public MainWindow()
  {
   this.InitializeComponent();

   // Insert code required on object creation below this point.
  }
  
  //LOOP VIDEO
  protected void myMediaElement_MediaEnded(object sender, EventArgs args){
   // Replay the video
   MediaElement video = (MediaElement)sender;
   video.LoadedBehavior = MediaState.Manual;
   video.Position = new TimeSpan(0);
   video.Play();
   video.LoadedBehavior = MediaState.Play;
  }
 }
}

FlashDevelop - AIR Application Properties Plugin

2011-02-22T08:45:00.001+01:00

Building AIR applications in FlashDevelop is a little tricky. The properties for the icons/name etc are hard to change. Sam.A has created a cool plugin for this problem:

AIR Properties Plugin
The AIR Properties Plugin provides a form-based means of editing the application descriptor file for AIR projects within FlashDevelop.

Features
Key features:

Visual editing of all AIR descriptor file application properties.
Support for properties with multiple locales, with visual indication of such properties. The list of available locales is restricted to languages supported by AIR to prevent unsupported locales being used.
Validation on required properties, which prevents invalid values being entered that would cause packaging of the application to fail.
Automatic formatting of content property to required URL format.
Customizable icon image selection, which copies and (optionally) renames image files outside the project root directory to the project. Using the default settings means no changes to the default build script are required for the icon images to be included in packaged application.
Supports the default state for non-mandatory properties, only adding them to the descriptor file when a value has been entered.
Support for non-default descriptor files, i.e. those not named 'application.xml'.
Dynamically adds a toolbar button and menu item to the Project menu when opening an AIR project.
Settings can be customized to best suit the requirements of existing projects.

Download and Source Code
You can download the latest version of the plugin here
You view the changelog here
You can access the source code here

For more info read the post on the FlashDevelop Forum:
http://www.flashdevelop.org/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5281

AIR YouTube Music Desktop Player

2010-11-17T10:44:00.000+01:00

A lot of people i know use YouTube for listening to music because of that i came up with the idea to build a desktop AIR application for playing YouTube music videos. I'm still working on the design and features but i already have a working version(that i use a lot ;)). I'm really interested in what kind of features users want to see in the application.

The features i want to see in the player are:

Volume scrubber
Mute/unmute
Play/Pause
Next/Previous
Seek to scrubber with current time/total time
Fullscreen (not sure about this because i want to focus on the audio part)
Video quality (16:9/4:3 etc)
Show/Hide video
Toggle views (list/thumbs/details)
Favourites list
Shuffle
Repeat (all/one)
Social media (not sure)
Audio spectrum

If you have any ideas about the application let me know.

I'm hoping to post some of the code here when i have time.

Future of the Flash Player

2010-10-26T10:28:00.001+02:00

The Flash Player is under "attack" lately by people who think the technology is obsolete and that HTML5 in combination with javascript will eventualy overtake the Flash Player. I wont say that isn't a possiblity and wont happen but a lot of people forget that without the Flash Player the web wouldn't be so what it is now. All technology has it's place and it's there for the user if that technology is HTML5 or Flash doesn't matter it's about the user. HTML5 has a long way to go to be a rival for the Flash Player. In my opinion it's good that there is competition that way Adobe has to put the pedal to the metal to create an even better Flash Player. That's why i was so excited seeing demos at the Alternativa Platform website of what the upcomming Flash Player can do. One of the biggest things is that the Flash Player finaly hardware 3D support!

For more info go to the great site and blog of the Alternativa Platform

Future of Screen Technology

2010-10-14T09:42:00.001+02:00

It's been a while since i posted something on my blog, i'm busy working and recently bought a house that needed a lot of work. The house is almost finished so i hope i can write posts more often:).
Something that i wanted to share was a video called "Future of Screen Technology" which illustrates the role screens are going to have in everyday life.

I found this video on a site called elice.nl a supurb and inspirational minimal website.

Maeda’s ten laws of simplicity

2010-07-07T10:01:00.000+02:00

Law 1: Reduce
The Simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction

Law 2: Organize
Organization makes a system of many appear fewer

Law 3: Time
Savings in time feel like simplicity

Law 4: Learn
Knowledge makes everything simpler

Law 5: Differences
Simplicity and complexity need each other

Law 6: Context
What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral

Law 7: Emotion
More emotions are better than less

Law 8: Trust
In simplicity we trust

Law 9: Failure
Some things can never be made simple

Law 10: The One
Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful

via minimal

The Many Faces of Toe Fluff

2010-06-18T16:02:00.000+02:00

See what artists can do with a simple character as Toe Fluff its amazing how different all the designs are.

You can also contribute and make your own Toe Fluff character ;)

Visit : http://www.toefluff.co.uk/home/

Make your own: http://www.toefluff.co.uk/sketchatoefluff/

Made in Me

2010-06-18T12:02:00.000+02:00

Made in Me is a great example of educational software.
The website gives a good idea of the vibe the software gives.
You can find more info about Made in Me at their website and their blog.

The Land of Me - Shape, Size & Colour from Made in Me on Vimeo.

The Land of Me - The World Outside from Made in Me on Vimeo.

Designer Mike Thompson

2010-06-08T12:34:00.000+02:00

I really love the work of Mike Thompson if you like product design with a twist go check out the Blood Lamp, Latro, Wifi Dowsing rod and many more on his site.

Blood Lamp from miket on Vimeo.

Away3dLite Coverflow Update

2010-05-03T22:33:00.000+02:00

Here's a new demo of my Coverflow component. It's still a work in progress but you can see that it's already highly customizable. I want to extend the configuration part with the possiblity to download the coverflow content as a embedable package along with different types of embed javascript libraries like jquery and swfobject. The configuration navigation uses bit101's awsome MinimalComps which you can download here.
The coverflow part uses Away3DLite for the 3D environment.

Adobe Air 2 Multitouch application

2010-04-28T15:08:00.003+02:00

I can't wait to experiment with these new features of Air

via: http://www.cynergysystems.com/blogs/page/davewolf?entry=cynergy_kevin_lynch_demo_first

Actionscript 3 Twitter Experiment (online demo)

2010-04-20T16:16:00.000+02:00

In one of my recent posts i told you about the twitter mosaic experiment, and i thought it would be nice to post a online demo of experiment. I updated the experiment to show my followers instead of the public timeline.
You can find more info about the tweetr api here.

Powerflasher v3

2010-04-16T09:05:00.000+02:00

I simply love the overall look and feel of the new Powerflasher website especially the rollover effect of the buttons are awsome.

Bill Gates Bans iTunes From Windows

2010-04-16T09:01:00.000+02:00

Haha nice comparison of what apple did to Unity3d, FlashCS5 and other compilers ;).

Twitter Redesign

2010-04-14T09:37:00.000+02:00

Old news but the redesign of twitter seemds promising!

First Jquery Test

2010-04-13T17:18:00.000+02:00

Check out my first jquery test it's based upon my as3 image looper.

Multitouch floor

2010-04-13T11:50:00.000+02:00

Multitouch based on shoes :)

via: The Design Blog

Helvetireader

2010-03-31T10:56:00.000+02:00

I use Google Reader on a daily basis, a colleague of mine came across Heletireader a minimalistic skin for Google Reader.

Helvetireader is a user stylesheet for Google Reader that is hosted online and served via a user-script. It aims to make the interface a clean, minimal experience where you're not assaulted by an array of colours, social features and buttons (using Shortcuts instead). It's designed for people who just read the latest entries in expanded view without all the other stuff.

via RR

Away3dLite Coverflow

2010-02-27T19:10:00.003+01:00

I'm now using Away3dLite for my coverflow classes, check out the first result:

Flash Player 10.1 on Google Nexus One

2010-02-22T09:55:00.002+01:00

Flash Player 10.1 on Google Nexus One from michael chaize on Vimeo.

via: ByteArray.org

TurboSignals

2010-02-16T12:56:00.000+01:00

I recently wrote a post about AS3Signals made by Robbert Penner. I experimented a bit with the implementation of the code and found that it was a really fast way of dispatching events in Actionscript 3. Now Jack Dunstan comes with a similar way to dispatch events with his TurboSignals. Check out his speedtest of the native events in actionscript3, AS3Signals and TurboSignals, and you can see it's super fast! Can't wait to implement this in my project :D.

Graspable Content / Shapeshifting Cellphone

2010-02-02T12:49:00.002+01:00

I realy love this concept!

AS3 Signals

2010-01-22T14:09:00.003+01:00

Since i'm using twitter i've found a lot of cool new classes and api's. Today i saw a tweet coming by from Thibault Imbert which linked to a blogpost from Peter Elst about AS3 Signals created by Robbert Penner. AS3Signals is a different aproach to dispatching events and looks very promising! I'll try it out and (try to) post the results here.

Essence of Things

2010-01-20T09:33:00.000+01:00

To reach the essence of things, all non-essential elements must be eliminated.

— Dr. Koichi Kawana

via: Minimal

Snowflake Suite on 100″ multi-touch wall

2010-01-19T08:49:00.001+01:00

Thats a huge b*tch!

Mediateam Interactive Multitouch Screen from mediateam on Vimeo.

via: multitouch.nl

Lego-ize yourself

2010-01-18T11:02:00.002+01:00

Inspired by the Lego Photo for the iphone Seb Lee build this great webcam application for all the lego-holics out there.

via: sebleedelisle.com

Actionscript 3 Twitter Experiment

2010-01-13T23:09:00.004+01:00

For a while now i wanted to use Tweetr to show Twitter information in FlashDevelop but because of my busy schedule *cough* it didn't come to it until today.
I was amazed how easy it was! So for everyone who wants to use twitter in an flash application you can find all the information you need here.

After showing some text of recent Tweets from the public timeline i decided i wanted to see the avatar images of the users and that to was quite (easy after reading the documentation). So now i got all the avatars loaded, and displayed in a grid on the scene.
But there was a problem, some of the images were to big and i wanted them all to be 50x50 pixels. After some googling i ended up at the google code project home of jacwright who has a lot of cool, lightweight, and well written classes, like the ImageUtil class which i used to convert all the avatars to 50x50px. I noticed how different and colourful all the avatars were and wanted to do something with the colors. And at Soulwire i found the perfect class to get the colors, namely the ColorUtil class.

I think the next step is going to be a photo mosaic or color pallete feeded by twitter.

If i have more i'll post it here.

Avatar, Cloverfield and The Fast and Furious as Old Games

2010-01-13T12:58:00.004+01:00

via: Dutch Cowboys

Comic Sans – The Ugly History

2010-01-13T12:53:00.000+01:00

Comic Sans from Sam and Anita on Vimeo.

via: Buildinternet

Augmented Reality TOPPS 3D LIVE trading cards

2010-01-13T08:35:00.000+01:00

I would like to see this used in Magic the Gathering!

The Beast - Futura Livefont Motion

2010-01-12T15:08:00.001+01:00

The Beast - Futura Livefont Motion from Colin Sebestyen on Vimeo.

via RR

Computer 1,500 Years Ahead of Its Time

2010-01-11T15:48:00.001+01:00

A computer but then older (sort of).

via RR

Light Touch Interactive Projector

2010-01-11T15:40:00.003+01:00

Surface but then smaller :)

via RR

Motion controlled shopping experience

2010-01-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

via Bram Hilgersom

Doc? Air Local LiveDocs

2010-01-07T10:34:00.002+01:00

I have a lot of bookmarks to ASDocs, Doc? is a Air application wich allows you to bundle all your favourite ASDocs in one place.

A Journey To Zero

2010-01-07T08:33:00.003+01:00

A great initiative and a great website!
Check out A Journey to Zero.

Away3d 2D Collision Detection Update (v1.4)

2009-12-21T17:11:00.002+01:00

Away3d 2D Collision Detection

Update:

Added search function to find a safe position

userMap.addEventListener(CollisionEvent.FOUND, onFound, false, 0, true);
userMap.search();

private function onFound(event:CollisionEvent):void {
    var safePoint:Point = userMap.safePoint;
}

5byfive + tagscanner

2009-12-21T10:42:00.004+01:00

Getting your music organised can be a pain in the a-hole!
I have a rather large music collection and i'm busy tagging, grouping and adding album art to the albums and songs and especially that last one can take a lot of time.

Via a post from flash+ i found a great tool for searching for album art called 5byfive, i just love the speed and simplicity of the application! Just type in the name of the artist and album and poof you have a album cover.

For tagging i would recommend Tagscanner because of this program my playlist has never lookt this organized :).

Voice Gestures

2009-12-16T15:08:00.002+01:00

Check out what Didier Brun did with the new Microphone feature in Flashplayer 10.1!

Voice Gesture from didier.brun on Vimeo.

Via ByteArray.org

Away3d 2D Collision Detection Update (v1.3)

2009-11-30T12:00:00.002+01:00

After reading an Article of Darren Schall i decided to change the collision detection class. I replaced all the getters and setters with public variables and changed the originalPoint setter to a public function. This resulted in a smaller file and hopefully a small speed increase when using the classes.

The updated file can be downloaded from the link below:

Away3d 2D Collision Detection

There is a difference when using the class.
In version 1.2 you set the originalPoint with userMap.originalPoint = target.position
In version 1.3 this is done with a public function like this userMap.originalPosition(target.position)

The tutorial can be found here

Away3d 2D Collision Detection Update (v1.2)

2009-11-24T14:52:00.002+01:00

A Small update for the UserMap Class.
It's now possible to add an offset to the _originalPoint.
Credits go to colouredfunk

The link to the file and the tutorial are still the same and can be found here:

Away3d 2D Collision Detection

Away3d firstperson movement and camera

2009-11-13T11:49:00.003+01:00

For a project i'm working on i needed firstperson movement and mouse look.
In papervision3d i have used the FirstPersonCamera3D class made by Reyco1 and wanted a similar class for away3d. Because of that i created 2 classes based on Reyco1's code:

FirstpersonCamera3D is a simple class for the camera look, and FirstPersonControls is a class for the movement of objects.

You can get the classes here : labs.speak.nl/3d/away3d/controls.rar

Setup FirstPersonCamera

var camera:FirstPersonCamera = new FirstPersonCamera(stage);
view.camera = camera

To enabled looking use camera.look() in the render function:

Setup FirstPersonControls

Register the controls to the keyboard up and down event

var controls:FirstPersonControls = new FirstPersonControls()
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, onKeyEvent,false,0,true);
stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, onKeyEvent,false,0,true);
private function onKeyEvent(event:KeyboardEvent):void {
 ctrls.event = event
}

This function updates the position of the object you can place this function in the render function.

private function moveTarget(target:Object3D):void {
if (ctrls.moveForward) {
target.moveForward(+ctrls.zspeed);
}
if (ctrls.moveBackward) {
target.moveBackward(-ctrls.zspeed);
}
if (ctrls.moveLeft) {
target.moveLeft(-ctrls.xspeed);
}
if (ctrls.moveRight) {
target.moveRight(+ctrls.xspeed);
}
}

Away3d 2D Collision Detection

2009-11-12T14:53:00.006+01:00

I've been struggeling a while with collision detection in Away3D i was using the CollisionMap class but couldn't get it working right. Because of this problem i wrote my own class based on the CollisionMap class. It uses the BitmapData.getPixel() class to read the position of the player on a map.

The two classes can be found here: labs.speak.nl/3d/away3d/collision.rar

The setup is as followed:

You have to set up a standard away3d environment with a scene,view and camera first.

Setup the user map class:

collisionBitmapData is the bitmapData where the class checks if a collision occured
I make my maps black and white, white for the walkable parts and black for the bounderies. I use envWidth and envHeight for the height and width of the 3d object i'm moving on. The collisionBitmapData has to be a scaled down version of these dimensions

var userMap:Usermap = new UserMap();
userMap.originalHeight = envHeight//planeheight
userMap.originalWidth = envWidth//planewidth
userMap.map = collisionBitmapData;
userMap.addEventListener(CollisionEvent.COLLISION, onCollision, false, 0, true);

Setup the collision event


private function onCollision(event:CollisionEvent):void {
trace("collision")
}

If you want to view what's happening you can add a 2d map and 2d player to the stage to see the collision in action.

Setup the 2D map

var map:Bitmap = new Bitmap(collisionBitmapData);
this.addChild(map);

Setup 2D player

var player2d:Sprite = new Sprite()
player2d.graphics.beginFill(0x000000, 1);
player2d.graphics.drawCircle(0, 0,2);
player2d.graphics.endFill() 
this.addChild(player2d);

This function is used to render the view.
userMap.originalPosition is the position of the 3d object you want toe check the collision on. After the calculations the UserMap class returns a Point which resembles the position of the player2d sprite.

Render view and update positions


private function render(event:Event):void { 
//SET 3D position
userMap.originalPosition = camera.position 

//SET PLAYER Position based upon the camera position    
player2d.x = userMap.position.x
player2d.y = userMap.position.y
    } 
view.render();
}

“Hirngespinster” Motion Book Concept

2009-11-04T10:04:00.002+01:00

Cool! Oldschool book reading supported by newschool technology.

Via: digitalvolvelles

Alternativa3D Platform

2009-10-26T23:04:00.003+01:00

I tested some demo's from the Alternativa3D platform and i have to say i'm impressed.
I've played around with Papervision3D and Away3D and i'm having a lot of trouble loading models and keeping the memory as low as possible. Alternativa doesn't use a lot of memory but the quality of the rendering and the smoothness of everything is proof for me to experiment some more with this 3D platform.

You can check out the demo's from the Alternativa3D site here.
Or you can view the flat demo here, and temple demo here.

Downside of this all is that a basic, standart licence costs 1000 Euro.

Upside is that they say they can give good support if you have troubles with your project.

Stats by mrdoob

2009-10-19T22:47:00.002+02:00

Here's great lightweight memory/fps checker from mrdoob

Coverflow + motion detection working example

2009-10-19T22:30:00.001+02:00

Check out the working example of the motion controlled coverflow component at labs.speak.nl

Regular Expressions Actionscript 3

2009-10-19T09:38:00.003+02:00

Grant Skinner created a great application for collecting and showing regular expressions. You can check it out here.

10/GUI Multi-touch

2009-10-17T19:51:00.001+02:00

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Via: Flabber

PV3D Coverflow + (better)motion detection test 2

2009-10-16T22:47:00.002+02:00

Here's test 2 of my webcam motion controlled Coverflow gallery!
Googled around and found the motion tracking class from soulwire. It's more precise then the previous version and its nou posible to more accuratly scroll to a specific cover.

First Actionscript Twitter test (TwitterScript)

2009-10-16T11:30:00.003+02:00

I found a example code implementing TwitterScript on Trevor Boyle's blog.
It's astounding how easy it is to get a Twitter feed working in Actionscript3!

Multiple camera's + Motion Detection?

2009-10-16T09:20:00.003+02:00

Found a view examples of Flex/Flash applications using multiple camera's. This should result in a more accurate motion detection.

tricedesigns.com
rainbowlazer.com

Daar ben ik (Augmented Reality) PDF

2009-10-16T09:05:00.000+02:00

For people who dont want to order the booklet, you can download it here

Daar ben ik (Augmented Reality)

2009-10-16T08:50:00.004+02:00

Daar ben ik is a great example of the possibilities Augmented Reality has to offer. It uses a small booklet made in cooperation with Kofi Annan, to show the user what consequences the changing climate has on Developing countries.

It's an initiative of NCDO and the HIER Climatecampagne.

Visit: Daar ben ik
Booklet : ISBN:978-90-814707-1-1

PV3D Coverflow + motion detection in action

2009-10-15T19:10:00.001+02:00

Credits to Henk

PV3D Coverflow + motion detection test

2009-10-15T18:07:00.004+02:00

Today i succeeded in combining my coverflow class with the motion detection class from nocreativity.com. It's far from perfect but it's a start! Some finetuning here and there could result in a cool webcam driven application.

Nokia AR Concept

2009-10-15T15:23:00.001+02:00

via: codeispoetry

Markerless camera tracking

2009-10-15T15:16:00.001+02:00

via: codeispoetry

Coverflow + motion detection?

2009-10-13T22:32:00.003+02:00

I've come across some motion detection classes in actionscript 3 lately and was thinking of a fun/usefull implementation of this technique. I'm going to try and add motion detection to my coverflow class. If it works the user can browse through the albums by only using hand motions, this way a touchscreen isn't necessary. Hope it works :P

PV3D Coverflow with reflection

2009-10-13T22:19:00.005+02:00

Just added the Reflection class from Coding Cowboys to my Coverflow Class. I'm also using the MemoryGauge.swc from Grant Skinner to check the memory usage of the application. The memory usage is now around 50 mb with and 25 mb whithout the Reflection class but i think i can tweak the class to use less memory.

Simulate Backspace AS3

2009-10-12T11:28:00.002+02:00

I'm building a touchscreen user interface where the user can enter his email via a on-screen keyboard. to simulate the backspace i added the following code:


var txt:TextField = new TextField();
txt.text = "hello world!"
this.addChild(txt);
public function backspace():void{
   var str:String = txt.text;
   str.slice(0,(str.length-1));
   txt.text = str
}

Unicoderange Euro (€) sign AS3

2009-10-08T10:44:00.003+02:00

Need to embed the € sign in as3?

use this in the unicodeRange:


U+20AC,/*Euro (€) sign */

Other ranges are:


U+0020-U+0040, /* Punctuation, Numbers and Symbols */
U+0041-U+005A, /* Upper-Case A-Z */
U+005B-U+0060, /* Punctuation and Symbols */
U+0061-U+007A, /* Lower-Case a-z */
U+007B-U+007E; /* Punctuation and Symbols */

Transformers 2

2009-10-03T20:23:00.002+02:00

Oke dont't get me wrong i friggin love the original transformer series and the 1986 movie but the two newest transformer movies are an insult to the old series! The story of the new movies doesn't have anything to do with the storyline of the old series.
The robots and the effects are cool but the rest is just a bunch of poo! Today i saw Transformers revenge of the fallen and i had me a couple of WTF moments. For example there are 2 robots called Mudflap and Skids that are supposed to be the "black" robots in the series one of them even has a gold tooth i repeat A GOLD TOOTH! oh yeah and they cant read isn't that quite racist. They turned jetfire into an old man, Devastator has wrecking balls for balls :P and there's a tiny robot humping a leg and man does the list go on. I have to say it was a amusing film but it's not the Transformers i grew up with and loved.

Custom Events AS3

2009-09-29T14:29:00.008+02:00

Custom Events aren't hard to make but i keep forgetting which steps to take to creating my own event (DO'H!).
This is a "note to self" and for everybody who doesn't know how to create a custom event.

CustomEvent:

package {
 import flash.events.Event;
 public class CustomEvent extends Event {
  
  
  public static const FIRE:String = "fire"
  
 
  public function CustomEvent(type:String, bubbles:Boolean = false, cancelable:Boolean = false) {
   super(type, bubbles, cancelable);
  }
  override public function clone():Event {
   return new MyEvent(type,bubbles,cancelable);
  }
  override public function toString():String {
   return formatToString("CustomEvent","type","bubbles","cancelable","eventPhase");
  }

 }

}

Dispatch Event:

package 
{
 import flash.display.Sprite;
 import flash.events.Event;
 import CustomEvent
 
 /**
  * ...
  * @author Wiebe Steven v/d Meer
  */
 public class Test extends Sprite 
 {
  public function Test() {
   this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED, init, false, 0, true);
  }
  
  private function init(event:Event):void {
   this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED, init);
   this.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent(CustomEvent.FIRE));
  }
  
 }
 
}

Listen To Event:

package 
{
 import flash.display.Sprite;
 import Test
 import CustomEvent
 
 /**
  * ...
  * @author Wiebe Steven v/d Meer
  */
 public class Main extends Sprite 
 {
 
  public function Main() {
   this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED, init, false, 0, true);
  }
  
  private function init(event:Event):void {
   this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED, init);
   var test:Test = new Test()
   test.addEventListener(CustomEvent.FIRE, onFire, false, 0, true);
   this.addChild(test);
   
  
  }
  private function onFire(event:CustomEvent):void {
   trace("fired!");
  }
  
 }
 
}

Tapbots: Designing Convertbot

2009-09-23T13:16:00.003+02:00

I am the proud owner of a iphone 3GS since end July and two of the best designed applications imo are Weightbot and Convertbot from Tapbots.
Tapbots have placed a post on their blog explaining the design process behind Convertbot. You can find the post here.

IPhone 3GS Firmware 3.1 problems (solved)

2009-09-11T12:28:00.002+02:00

Today i had my first bad experience with my IPhone 3GS. This morning i updated my iTunes to version 9 and i was asked if i wanted to install the new firmware for my IPhone version 3.1 without hesitation i clicked OK because like i said i didnt have any problems with a update until today. Everything seemed to go allright exept for the fact that when the update was finished and the registration process was almost done i got an error message (error (13)) that my iphone couldnt be restored. The first thing i thought was WTF and i pressed the restore button again... with the same result. After a hour of Googling i found that a lot (and i mean a LOT) of people had the same problem. After trying different things like 1. restarting 2. new windows account 3. clicking restore 1000 times i found a post that said it could help to install iTunes on a different PC and then restore from that PC. And by golly it worked! So people if you have the same problem install iTunes on a different PC and update from there!
I have no idea why Apple has released this update if it's so crappy and i hope that there will be a update soon.

PV3D Coverflow FlashDevelop

2009-08-27T16:16:00.003+02:00

My blog is linked to Google Analytics and the papervision3d coverflow posts are viewed the most of all my posts. That's why i'm going to try and place some code/files here on a regular base. I converted the Flash CS3 version of my coverflow to a FlashDevelop project so that anyone who wants to use it doesn't have to use Flash to publish the files. I'm also going to make a customizable as posible.

Konami Code

2009-08-27T12:51:00.002+02:00

A lot of people who have owned or own a NES are probably familiar with the Konami code (UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A). It seems a lot of sites have a built in easter egg based upon this code. Instant Shift has listed a list of sites that use this code. Check them out here.

Red Bull Soapbox Racer

2009-08-27T11:40:00.002+02:00

Customize and race with your own Soapbox car.
Check it out at redbullsoapboxracer.com

Invizimal (Augmented Reality)

2009-08-18T16:44:00.002+02:00

Pokemon meets Augmented reality!
I see a lot of kids walking and falling and crying while seeking the Invizimals but it's stil a great concept.

AS3 Image + filter problems

2009-08-07T13:36:00.003+02:00

Using filters in Actionscript 3 is a pain in the @$$. If you add a filter to a loaded image and next you want to animate the image the memory usage goes through the roof and the animation is going to s#ck !
The only way i know on how to tackle this problem is to draw a bitmap of the image with the filter added to it.

for example:

 
private function imageComplete(event:Event):void {
   var offset:Number = 10//drop shadow size

   //FILTER
   var dropShadow:DropShadowFilter = new DropShadowFilter();
   dropShadow.color = 0x000000;
   dropShadow.blurX = 10;
   dropShadow.blurY = 10;
   dropShadow.angle = 0;
   dropShadow.alpha = 0.5;
   dropShadow.distance = 0;//10;

   var filtersArray:Array = new Array(dropShadow);
  
   //WIDTH/HEIGTH
   var w:Number = imageLoader.contentLoaderInfo.content.width
   var h:Number = imageLoader.contentLoaderInfo.content.height 

   //CREATE BITMAP  
   var bmp:Bitmap = imageLoader.contentLoaderInfo.content as Bitmap
   bmp.filters = filtersArray;
   
   var bmd:BitmapData = new BitmapData(w + 20, h + 20, true,0x00000000);
 
   //CREATE TEMPORARY CONTAINER  
   var tempHolder:Sprite = new Sprite();
   tempHolder.graphics.clear();
   tempHolder.graphics.beginFill(0x00FFFF, 0);
   tempHolder.graphics.drawRect(0, 0, w + 20, h + 20);
   tempHolder.graphics.endFill();
   tempHolder.addChild(bmp);

   bmp.x = offset
   bmp.y = offset
   
   bmd.draw(tempHolder);

   var image:Bitmap=new Bitmap(bmd);
   image.smoothing = true;
   
   
    //ADD IMAGE
   
    this.addChild(image)

    //REMOVE LISTENER 
         
   contentLoaderInfo.removeEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, imageComplete);
    
   imageLoader = null;
 
   
   //CLEAN UP JUNK
   tempHolder.removeChild(bmp);
   bmp = null
   tempHolder = null
   bmd = null
   image = null
   filtersArray = []
   filtersArray = null

AS3 + SWFObject Bug Fullscreen fires KeyBoardEvent

2009-07-07T13:50:00.003+02:00

I found a nasty little bug while working on my video player. It seems that when fullscreenmode is entered the KeyBoardEvent for pressing the SPACE button is fired.
I wanted to toggle play/pause with te space button, but when entering fullscreen the KeyBoard event fired on it's self. I don't no if it's a flash bug or it's a bug in SWFObject or in both but it doesn't make me happy :P. Changeing the button from SPACE to ENTER works fine in both IE7 and Firefox.

Xbox Project Natal

2009-06-26T09:03:00.003+02:00

If this is going to work as visualized at the project natal site, then this new technology is going to kick ass!

Credits to JKO

We Are Autobots - Transformers + Augmented Reality

2009-06-25T13:14:00.003+02:00

Transform yourself in Optimus Prime with augmented reality on We Are Autobots and Robotize Me!

Flash Develop + Google Analytics AS3

2009-06-25T08:57:00.004+02:00

Here are the steps to take if you want to use Google Analytics in combination with FlashDevelop.

If you don't have FlashDevelop you can find the files and a small tutorial on how to setup FlashDevelop here.

If you have everything setup and created a new project download the Google Analytics API for AS3.

1. Extract the files in the zip and go to the lib folder. Here you can find 2 flash component files (SWC) called analytics.swc and analytics_flash.swc.

2. Copy the analytics.swc and analytics_flash.swc and place them in the lib folder of your project.

3. In FlashDevelop open your project and navigate in the project structure to the lib folder. If the previous two steps were done right you can see the two added files in the folder.

4. To add the files to your class library right click on each file and click on add to library. You can nou access the files.

Here's an example on how to setup Google Analytics for AS3

package
{
 import com.google.analytics.AnalyticsTracker; 
 import com.google.analytics.core.EventInfo;
 import com.google.analytics.GATracker;  
 import flash.display.Sprite;
 
 
 /**
  * ...
  * @author Wiebe Steven v/d Meer
  */
 public class GoogleAnalytics extends Sprite {
  
  private var tracker  :AnalyticsTracker; 
                private var code:String = "place your google analytics code here";
                private var url:String = "/Test/ga_test"//url you want to track
                private var debug:Boolean = "true" //show the debug screen
  
  public function GoogleAnalytics() {
   this.addEventListener(Event.ADDED, init, false, 0, true); 
  }
  private function init(event:Event):void {
   this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED, init);

                        tracker = new GATracker( this, code, "AS3", debug );
                        tracker.trackPageview(url);
  }
  
  
 }
}

Designing Humanity into Your Products

2009-06-23T17:08:00.000+02:00

Source

IE7 + JQuery.flash + ExternalInterface.addCallback

2009-06-23T15:14:00.004+02:00

I use Jquery.flash a lot these days, for my video player i wanted to control the player with javascript. To achieve this i wanted to use ExternalInterface.addCallback to recieve information from javascript, and from this point i ran into a strange bug combining IE7, JQuery.flash and ExternalInterface.addCallback, ExternalInterface.call worked fine but i couldnt get ExternalInterface.addCallback working. After a lot of googling i found out that the problem was with the way JQuery.flash embeded the swf. The problem was solved using SWFObject 2.1 to embed the swf.

AS3 SoundMixer.computeSpectrum() BUG!

2009-06-18T09:59:00.002+02:00

I use SoundMixer.computeSpectrum() to show a soundspectrum while playing an mp3. The player that i developed can play video and mp3 files.
To test the video/ audio player i placed 2 players in one html page, one playing and showing a flv file and another playing a mp3 file and showing the soundspectrum. It all worked fine except when i paused the audio player and started playing the video player. All of a sudden the soundspectrum of the audioplayer started moving on the sound that came from the video player! And that's not all, if i had a swf file in my browser(tab or screen)for example youtube i got a sandbox violation error. It seems that the SoundMixer works globaly on all swf files! WTF! The error can be "fixed" by using SoundMixer.areSoundsInaccessible(), if this returns true, dont call SoundMixer.computeSpectrum(). This bug sucks, now i cant use the soundspectrum visualizer i built!

The bug

FlashDevelop

2009-06-16T19:39:00.004+02:00

I've started using FlashDevelop instead of Flash for creating actionscript 3 projects a few weeks now. I realy love the autocompletion, the fact that flash is no longer needed to publish a file and the ease of use. If you're more into coding than timeline animation than FlashDevelop is perfect for you. Oh yeah, did i mention its free? :P

Here are the files to get started with FlashDevelop:

1. FlashPlayer
2. FlashDevelop
3. Flex 3 SDK

Installation:

1. Install the flash player
2. Install FlashDevelop
3. Unpack the Flex 3 SDK
4. Copy the unpacked Flex 3 SDK folder to a place on your harddrive
5. Open FlashDevelop and go to: Tools > Program Settings > AS3Context > Flex SDK Location
6. Browse to the location where you placed the Flex 3 SDK folder.
7. Click Close
8. DONE!

AS3 Triangles

2009-06-16T19:22:00.003+02:00

Drawing triangles in as3 sucks. I needed to create a play button for a video player and wanted to draw the play icon with code. Luckily Lezlea Talbot of Flash Revelations made a nifty little class for this problem. Get the CreateTriangle Class here.

Circle preloader as3

2009-06-15T13:43:00.006+02:00

Today i was searching for a round preloader that fills up like a piechart.
After some googling i found this old post from senocular.

After some tweeking i came up with this function:

private function makeCircle( cur:Number, max:Number):void {

			// startAngle: first angle, 

			// endAngle: angle to draw to, 

			// r: radius

			// dir: direction; 1 for clockwise -1 for counter clockwise

			

			var pc:Number = ((cur / max) * 1)

			var dir:Number = 1

			var endAngle:Number = 2 * Math.PI * pc;

			var startAngle:Number = 0;

			var diff:Number = Math.abs(endAngle-startAngle);

			var divs:Number = Math.floor(diff/(Math.PI/4))+1;

			var span:Number = dir * diff/(2*divs);

			var rc:Number = r/Math.cos(span);

			

			//DRAW

			if (endAngle != startAngle) {

				circle.graphics.clear()

				circle.graphics.beginFill(0x000000, 1)

				circle.graphics.lineTo(r, 0)

				circle.graphics.moveTo(0+Math.cos(startAngle)*r, 0+Math.sin(startAngle)*r);

				for (var i:int=0; i					endAngle = startAngle + span; 

					startAngle = endAngle+span;

					circle.graphics.curveTo(

					0+Math.cos(endAngle)*rc,

					0+Math.sin(endAngle)*rc,

					0+Math.cos(startAngle)*r,

					0+Math.sin(startAngle)*r

					);

				};

				circle.graphics.lineTo(0, 0)

				circle.graphics.endFill()

			}

		}

Its used in a slideshow wher "cur" is the current image number and max is the total amount of images.

Im going to make a reusable class out of this function that im going to post here soon.

http://www.uniqlo.com/calendar/

2009-06-11T09:17:00.000+02:00

Get this great calendar from UNIQLO here

String to Array

2009-06-10T09:25:00.002+02:00

Here's a little code snippet i use a lot

var string:String = "a,b,c,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p"
var alphabet:Array = new Array()
alphabet = string.split(",")
trace(alphabet[0])//returns "a"

AlloSphere

2009-06-09T12:35:00.005+02:00

In my previous post i named Star Trek. I always found the holodeck one of the coolest things of the ship (that and the ability to move with the speed of light and teleportation :P). Some researchers are experimenting with a technology that has a lot of simularity with the holodeck from Star Trek. This "holodeck" is called AlloSphere.

Here's some information about the video:

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret scientific data. Dive into the brain, feel electron spin, hear the music of the elements ... and detect previously unseen patterns that could lead to new discoveries.

information taken from ted

from: Bright.nl

OOOii

2009-06-09T12:29:00.003+02:00

Remember the user interface in Minority report? It's designed by a compagny named OOOii. There also responsible for the design of the new Star Trek bridge that can be viewed in 360 degrees.

BooneOakley.com

2009-06-08T10:42:00.001+02:00

BooneOakley uses youtube as their site, its hard to explain, just check it out:).

UI Pattern Factory

2009-06-08T09:59:00.002+02:00

Another great collection of user interface patterns!