Archive for August, 2007
2007.12.28 UPDATE: v1.3 of QTIndexSwapper requires AIR Beta 3
With the release of the Flash Player 9 Update that supports H.264, we can now play a subset of H.264 movie files. The problem is most of the H.264 files have the index at the end of the file which for progressive download means you have to download the whole file before you can start watching any of the video.
In the notes from Tinic Uro, Adobe engineer working on the changes, there is mention of a C application that helps with rearrange the inwards of a movie to put the index at the beginning. Thus help with the progressive download issue. To this end I have create an AIR application which does the index swapping for you.
Its called “QT Index Swapper” (v1.3 using AIR Beta 3 as of 2007.12.28), get it at http://renaun.com/air/QTIndexSwapper.air. And if that isn’t enough I have also made the source available inside the AIR application.
There will probably be some quirks and many files that might not work. But give it a try and let me know what you think. I was converting 500Mb-600Mb movie files that I have in MP4 format to play on my PlayStation 3. The files were being converted in under a minute, just beware that the AIR app might act like it is hanging while reading that much information. Just wait for it to run and watch the new file being created.
August 22nd, 2007
David, a Buzzword Flex Developer, is giving a talk on Flex Performance and is looking for real-world stories. One of the biggest performance gainers that I see in many large applications is proper use of controls and layout. It is quite easy to create heavily nested containers which slow thing down quickly. With Flex going open source and Flex 3’s profiler performance will definitely come up more and more.
Help out David with your performance stories and come join us at MAX.
August 20th, 2007
The RIALogger is an AIR application that harness the power of the Flex logging Framework. Its comparable to the older Flex Trace Panel, XPanel and now the newer RedBug, XRay, and other trace viewers.
The RIALogger is different in some regards and focuses on logging (not object introspection/debugging). The RIALogger receives its messages through the use of the custom RIALoggerTarget found in the renaun_com_Logger.swc (in the bin folder of the zip file) library.
Some of the different features is the ability to identify the messages which allows for multiple log sessions with in the same application. I use this heavily as I am usually testing multiple applications communicating with each other or want to test different user sessions within a particular application.
You can read more about the here.
August 15th, 2007
This is history according to Ted Patrick and shared at the keynote at 360Flex in Seattle.
Lego
Mindstorms
Lliad
Odyssey
Royale
Monk
Zorn
Mistral
Zaphod
Moxie
2000 to 2007
2000 - Developer Paradigm for SWF (Lego, Mindstorms)
2001 - SVG/XML to SWF (lliad Odyssey)
2002 - “Royale” begins (Flex 1.0)
2003 - Matt and Deepa join team
2004 - Flex 1.0 arrives (J2EE Server)
2004 - David and George Comninos join “Monk” - Flex Builder start
2004 - Flex 1.5 arrives (J2EE Server)
2005 - Flex 2.0 Alpha at MAX
2006 - Flex 2.0 arrives (SDK + Builder + Data Services)
(note the references to the team members of Matt, Deepa, David, and George i think was because they were at the conference. There are many other great devs that have been part of Flex for quite a while.)
August 15th, 2007
The setup steps below are taken from a rough article I put together covering Cairngorm, Flex 3, and ColdFusion 8. The setup used ColdFusion 8 through Apache (XAMPP) all on Mac OS X.
Setup:
XAMPP
- Download latest XAMPP for OS X
- Follow instructions on XAMPP’s site: Installation, Start, Test
ColdFusion 8
- You need Admin rights to install ColdFusion 8 on Mac OS X.
- Download the Developer Edition of the ColdFusion 8 from Adobe.com
- Unzip the downloaded Mac OS X version of the ColdFusion 8
- Open a Terminal. Type “sudo open ” in the terminal. Then navigate to the “ColdFusion 8 Install.app” that you unzipped. Drag it over to the Terminal app, it will paste the path for you (should look something like “sudo open /Users/renaun/Desktop/downloads/ColdFusion\ 8\ Installer.app/”. Click enter.
- Now we are in the ColdFusion Wizard, here are what I selected as the installation options
- Clicked Ok
- Clicked Next
- Clicked “I accept….” and then Next
- Checked the Developer Edition and then clicked Next
- Select the “Server Configuration” option , then click Next
- I had no other installs, so left it checked No, and clicked Next
- I did not want the documentation, startup scripts, or Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES. I unchecked all 3 and then clicked Next
- I left the default install directory “/Applications/ColdFusion8″, and clicked Next
- I did not need to update from earlier versions of ColdFusion, so I left it No and clicked Next
- I left “Configure web server connected for ColdFusion” selected and clicked on the Add button. Use the values below to fill out the form, then click OK
- Web Server: Apache
- Config. Dir: /Applications/xampp/etc
- Dir and file name of server binary: /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/bin/httpd
- Dir and file name of server control script: /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/bin/apachectl
- Click Next
- I put my CFIDE in the default Mac web sites folder, which I changed the “DocumentRoot” value in the /Applications/xampp/etc/httpd.conf file of xampp also. So select your default web server DocumentRoot. Either:
/Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs
/Users/renaun/Sites/
Click Next
- Enter a password for the CFIDE administration login and click Next
- Enabled RDS and give a password if you want. I did not, click Next
- Provide your Mac OS X user’s password and click Next
- Click Install and wait for it to install
- Click Ok, and it will open the CFIDE administration login wizard
- Log in with your password setup eariler in the wizard
- To Start/Stop ColdFusion manual open a Terminal app and type in Either:
sudo /Applications/ColdFuions8/bin/coldfusion start
- or -
sudo /Applications/ColdFusion8/bin/coldfusion stop
NOTE:
sudo /Applications/ColdFusion8/runtime/bin/jrun -start coldfusion
sudo /Applications/ColdFusion8/runtime/bin/jrun -stop coldfusion
August 7th, 2007
