Flash and VB - Working together

Condensed from
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/flash_vb.pdf

Boring grey desktop GUI's can be dramatically improved with Flash. This article tells you how to do it.

Flash rules User interfaces. VB tops in programmer productivity. If you merge these, you have a potent combination.

Flash with a lot of prebuilt components ( Textboc, listbox, scrool bars..) make building offline/online GUI's easy

Flash uses FS command to communicate with an outside application.

To view .swf files in VB you have to add flash components object. This is an activeX component permitting flash to be used with VB.

Flash integration is just permitting normal flash to be played inside VB. No special flash files need to be created for this.

When you call FSCommand in your ActionScript and if the Flash file is being played inside the Flash component, it will generate a FSCommand event in your VB program. If we write code inside the FSCommand in VB, this code will then execute.

Set/GetVariable functions are used to get data from VB to Flash.

Getting flash into VB

Insert a ShockwaveFlash component onto a VB form. Name the Flash component as swfFlashScreen. Now to load the Flash (.swf) file into this component use the following function:

Call swfFlashScreen.LoadMovie(0, filename)

The filename is the full path of the swf file. The first parameter signifies the level where Flash is to be loaded; we used 0 for root level.

Since strings are very large in VB6 (upto 2Gb) and strings can be passed back and forth between VB and Flash using FSCommand and SetVariable, all data interaction between VB and Flash can be achieved easily.

Another way of data-exchange would be through XML
XML files can be used as data source for Flash.

Flash can call VB. VB can't call flash. To simulate VB talking to flash, flash can set a variable in VB and periodically check if VB has changed the variable value. On change, it initiates a sequence of actions

If you have the default Flash MX as shipped by Dreamweaver, it will not work in VB.You need to update it to the first service release. The updated Flash.ocx comes along with the latest download of Flash viewer.

Building a dynamic addressbook with PHP, MySql and flash

condensed from http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/flashmx_php.html

Communicating with server through Flash is easily done through the LoadVars object in Flash MX. In this sample a dynamic address book is built from a MySQL database (e-mail, phone, picture , caption ) presented in a tabbed addressbook, a PHP script to access that information, and Macromedia Flash to present it.

RSS Test

Flash Buttons and Menus
Create personalised flash buttons and navigational menus with this 3Mb trial version download

http://www.swftools.com/tool-details.php?tool=3316697265

RSS
Rich Site Sumamry, Really Simple Syndication

Geoff from fullasagoog.com wanted a RSS feed before my blog can be aggregated to the goog and I did some reading of what RSS is.
My blog as a RSS feed is available at http://lordramki.blogspot.com/rss/lordramki.xml

Summary of RSS from the URL below:
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/intro/2.html

Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a XML format designed to make sharing Web content easy. Everytime you update your site, the new info can be instantly shared with other sites.

RSS text file contains both static information about your site, plus dynamic information about your new stories

Each story is defined by an tag, which contains a headline TITLE, URL, and DESCRIPTION.

RSS thus becomes a mini database containing headlines and descriptions of what's new on your site. It can now flow into other products and services like other sites, PDA's, cell phones, email newsletters. and even voice updates.

RSS thus creates multiple points of entry to your latest content, rather than multiple copies of the same article (which introduces its own maintenance problems).

So, once you have data in a standardized format, new forms of content distribution channels are only limited by your imagination, and scripting ability.

" What I especially like about RSS and looking at feeds from hundreds of sites is that you can see the Web work at a grassroots level"

Nielsen's usability report, Short summary

http://www.macromedia.com/newsletters/edge/december2002/a3.html

1. Flash to be designed as a part of the site. Not as a stand alone 'cool' component

2. Give control to the user. Don't force him into one way of operation

3. Make the users 'confident'. Thats the key to success

4. Do not use non standard GUI

99% bad ....the happy ending

June 3, 2002, we announced a strategic partnership between Macromedia and Nielsen Norman Group to improve Flash usability: we will develop the usability guidelines for Internet-based applications in Flash MX.

Flash MX changes

1. Now supports the "Back" button.
2. Now ships with a standard set of interaction controls (No more random scroll bars made up at the whim of a Flash designer)

Macromedia has also made an important strategic decision to focus on useful use of Flash to build Internet-based applications, as opposed to the fluffy use that was prevalent two years ago when I published the above critique of the lack of usability in most Flash designs.

Flash: 99% Bad
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html

Flash is lousy because :

They delay users' ability to get what they came for. On the upside, most Flash intros feature a "skip intro" button. Why try to duplicate TV on the web and let the users skip it if they want ?

It encourages design abuse. Since we can make things move, why not make things move?

The Web lets users control their own destiny. Users go where they want, when they want. But many Flash designers abuse this and revert to presentation styles that resemble television rather than interactive media. Sites that force users to sit through sequences with nothing to do will be boring and pacifying, regardless of how cool they look.

Abuse of accepted standards. Many Flash designers introduce their own nonstandard GUI controls, forcing users to learn something new in every site they visit.

Usability issues

Flash being non standard HTML creates lots of problems :

The "Back" button does not work. So no undo for navigational mistakes

Link colors don't work. Creates navigational confusion.

The "Make text bigger/smaller" button does not work.

"Find in page" feature does not work. Flash does not support search.

Internationalization and localization is complicated.

Site's core values compromised

Flash screws up the site by

Not allowing frequent updation of content

Not allowing much content to be given

Not easy to create and deploy so gets created by outside agents who don't understand the business.

Edgar Codd, database theorist, dies at 79

Connect computers >> Internet
Connect Tests >> COT
Connect bidders and buyers >> Ebay
Connect book lovers >> Amazon
Connect data >> Relational database

"While working as a researcher at the IBM San Jose Research Laboratory in the 1960s and '70s, Codd wrote several papers outlining his ideas. To his frustration, IBM largely ignored his work, as the company was investing heavily at the time in commercializing a different type of database system.

In 1978 that Frank T. Cary chief executive of IBM, ordered the company to build a product based on Codd's ideas. But IBM was beaten to the market by Larry Ellison, who used Codd's papers as the basis of a product around which he built a start-up company that has since become Oracle. "


Ballmer on Linux

"Innovation is not something that is easy to do in the kind of distributed environment that the open-source/Linux world works in. I would argue that our customers have seen a lot more innovation from us than they have seen from that community

Linux itself is a clone of an operating system that is 20-plus years old. That's what it is. That is what you can get today, a clone of a 20-year-old system. I'm not saying that it doesn't have some place for some customers, but that is not an innovative proposition.

Some people say it is an advantage that Linux gets built in all of these little pieces. The fact is that if you want to do some kind of integrated innovation that touches the kernel, that touches the user interface--there is no way. Maybe Linus (Torvalds) can control the innovation in the piece called the kernel, but there are many pieces.

If you want a fix now, we may need to perform better, but you know where to go. There is nobody to turn to if you as a (Linux) customer says, 'I need this

. Remember, we brought Windows 1 out in 1983 and we didn't have any real volume until 1991. It took us eight years to get volume. I don't know when we got profit, but it took us eight years to get volume.

Take Windows server. We started on it in 1988, but it was probably 1998 before we had real volume, and I don't know when we would have said we had profitability on that product. But most of the good businesses require long-term patience, commitment, tenacity...and you can't be impatient

Question :
If you put Office on a PC, it can be one-third of the material cost of the system. Is that sustainable? Hard drives are going down in price and processors are going down in price.

Ballmer :
I think that is a bad way to look at it. I don't think the price of software and the price of hardware have some inextricable link. I think what we need to make sure of is customer perception of value versus competitive offerings. I think we've got the right mix of capability, functionality, simplicity, price, etc. I don't think looking at it relative to hardware prices takes you any place.

And I also don't think hardware prices have come down, at least at the client. Hardware prices have not come down significantly in a number of years...The capability goes up, as the capability goes up in our software. "

Macromedia Flash : A New Hope for Web Applications

Summary of white paper by christine perfetti and Jared Spool


vwasia.com

Visualiser:
Flass app lets you drag and drop engine types, interior fabrics and extras depending on their availability in the country u live. You can 'bookmark' your car once u are done.

vw.com tries to do the whole thing with html and the experiences are dramatically different.

https://reservations.ihotelier.com/onescreen.cfm?hotelID=2054&languageID=1

One sheet allowing to book rooms. Neat logical interface, relying on mounds of backend data

www.moen.com
Allows you to design your own rooms by choosing colors, fixtures and models of equipment offered by vendor. Not very nicely implemented but the concept can be dramatically improved by linking it to a realtime database of availability and let the customer do all the design.

The cool part is the updated invoice

80's Client-Server just coming up.
cheap and more processing power.

Dumb client >> smart client
mainframes >> desktops
Text absed >> GUI based
Server Side processing >> client side processing

HTML comes in and pushes control back to server.

Document model designed to send and receive hypertext. So linear, page based stuff. Not designed for rich web apps.

Java, Active x , DHTML jump in to fill the gap. But flash makes the biggest splash.

Immediate feedback w/o page refresh

Mortgage calculator

Greying out stuff no longer needed ( Once VISa is chosen, grey out other types of cards)

Better and intuitive validation

Gives user control of all pixels. So any part of screen can expand or collapse with a new menu. Not possible with HTML.

Invisible client-server interaction.

dumb browser vs smart app

Large amounts of data/options grouped and presented at one spot

Rich, Graphical data representation :

warzone explorer

Flashing SMS and GPS
http://www.mikekrisher.com/index.php?p=119&c=1

A demo of a sms message clientand an app for sending GPS data (via text file) from GPS into Flash.

" I can write conditions etc... for Flash to trigger events based on my location (lat and long). I really like the idea of location based services, and there will be a future for them. Flash and Flash Remoting make an excellent framework for location based apps. However, the adoption of such apps is not even close. Reason being that the location data (stored in database) will not reside on the device, so the device will need a data connection to send its location to an application server, which will respond with relevant data"

A peek into the future:
You have made a To-Do list in a flash app in your laptop noting " Buy a carton of beer". This data gets transferred to your Handheld automatically and when you pass the supermarket, your mobile beeps and displays the latest prices of beer.


The philosophy behind Macromedia Central :
Summary of Kevin's blog

Macromedia central is a asynchronous, message-driven, scripted, dynamic runtime-modifiable system. :o)

Instant Delivery.
Getting, installing, running applications securely ( without them fouling up your computer) should be as safe and easy as browsing web pages is today.

Occasionally Connected.
People arebecoming more mobile and move in and out of networks. Applications should continue working even when offline, and seamlessly take advantage of the network when online. You should be able to be productive regardless of whether you currently have a network connection.

Cooperative Applications.
Web applications should work together, not just connected to each other by copy and paste.They should share data and leverage on eachohers strengths to make the user more productive. Users should be able to combine applications in useful ways, building their own connections between them.

Open Data.
Data is owned and locked up by the applicaions today. ( Ex: MS-Word owns the text and is not possible to retrieve text without installing word) . Information continues to be trapped in 'black boxes' in many applications today, such as spreadsheets. XML is becoming a great way to represent data openly and is becoming widely adopted for this. Data should be open enough that many applications can manipulate it, and users can then have their choice of applications which they find most effective in working with information.

Context.

Internet applications can become more productive if they know more about you. What your current location is, whether you're currently in a meeting, or what other data you're interacting with. Given more knowledge of this context, applications can save users steps and be more relevant. Of course this needs to be balanced with privacy, and users should retain control over where their information is used.

Collaboration.
Applications are increasingly a multi-user experience. They are beginning to represent the presence of other people on the Internet, just starting to support collaborative work. Applications should have a common way of integrating communication with others in the context of the application, and be able to share application functionality to enable live collaboration in their use. The Internet is not only about connected web pages, it's about connected people.

Sat Discussion Summary

Future Projects

1. Dynamic CD supplement creation
2. Powertest in Flash, to be submitted to Macromedia
3. New Jigsaw
4. Shuffling objects in Drag n drop games
5. application (Like excel) as RIA in flash
6. Network games in flash
7. Creation of a pet store type interface for CD supplements
8 Formula based flash proto

Computer Devices needed
1. Sound Card – 1 No.
2. Head Phone – 3 Nos.
3. Key Board – 3 Nos.
4. Mouse – 4 Nos.
5. Open a Library Account on behalf of company

Pet Market RIA
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/blueprint/

Demo Website at :http://examples.macromedia.com/petmarket/flashstore.html

Sample code here :
http://www.macromedia.com/bin/petmarket.cgi

Full download on Space Desktop.

July 2002
Pet Market demo site illustrates both the benefits of rich Internet applications . Cost $64,000

Flash enables sections of screen to be updated without a page refresh based on back-end database interaction. It has gone beyond being eye candy. It is now a rich client that will radically change the way people use the web. Flash Remoting enables a Flash MX client to seamlessly interface with remote components running on an application server

All user interactions are brought into a single screen that never requires a page refresh. Browser's back button is used to navigate through the Macromedia Flash user interface.

Good stuff:
Use of Back Button: Back is undo for navigation. Lets user erase mistakes. Used well here
One page model : Everything loads in a page

Both Sun Microsystems and Microsoft had created what they called blueprint applications, which were designed to be teaching examples of how to write web applications for the J2EE and the .NET platforms.Since the Sun and Microsoft blueprint applications emulated an online pet store, the Macromedia team determined to create its own pet store, which it called Pet Market. The key value of the Pet Market blueprint application was to show developers how to create Rich Internet Applications using Macromedia's MX toolset.

Macromedia Flash Remoting enables developers can easily connect ActionScript client logic directly to remote services without writing any wrapper code, proxy code, or data marshalling code. Because the team could rely on Macromedia Flash Remoting to handle all the details of messaging, they could write code that called server-side methods as if they were local methods. In addition, Macromedia Flash Remoting allowed the client-side developers to focus on creating a high-quality user experience instead of coding and testing the client/server glue.

The file size of what we ended up with was amazingly small," he said. "It's less than the load size of a lot of web pages out there


Pet Market uses less bandwidth than the Java Pet Store and Microsoft .NET Pet Shop.
( The rich client user interface of Pet Market separates presentation and formatting from data so fewer bytes are sent over the wire.
· Client side processes (e.g. calculating a total, form validation) reduce the number of requests made to the server )

The Pet Market rich client user interface is much more usable than the HTML user interfaces of the Java Pet Store and Microsoft .NET Pet Shop.
Pet Market provides a far richer user experience with comparable lines of code.
Pet Market on ColdFusion MX scales under load

Typical initial loads of ecommerce sites
Macromedia Pet Market 152k
Amazon.com 114k
(The above loads were measured after clearing the browser cache. Includes all files including HTML, CSS, XML, and image files loaded with the homepage URLs of e-commerce sites)

The table below states the amount of data stored (in kilobytes) in the browser cache for the three applications after the application is first launched.

Comparison of initial loads
Macromedia Pet Market 152k
Microsoft .NET Pet Shop 69k
Java Pet Store 59k

The application is designed as a teaching example, so the download files have the entire project including the application, the ColdFusion and ActionScript source files (comments and all), the FLA files, and even the graphics.

The Power of Flash Remoting:
http://examples.macromedia.com/petmarket/flashstore.html

Animating Text in Flash MX
Flash MX has made text animation and effects much easier by
1. The ability to break text into individual text boxes, each contatining a single letter
2. The ability to distribute the text boxes to their own layers.
With these two tools animating text in Flash became much easier

XML and Flash
http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=E399FF13E4DD1CB3

Flash 5 was extended to allow XML to be used as an external data source.XML takes care of the content and Flash manages the presentation. So, update the XML document to change the content of the movie. No need to open the Flash movie. Bringing XML into a Flash movie is managed completely with ActionScript.

Flash 5 could only handle 3 XML files. Flash MX handles more and more efficiently.

XML object called Sockets allows Flash to connect directly to a live XML data source. Now you have live data being streamed into Flash.

*****
Flash Remoting is free for ColdFusion servers.For Java or ASP.NET servers, it costs $1000 :o(

NunChaku

Bought a Nunchaku today !

Modern nunchaku comes from Okinawa ( Japan). Japanese occupiers of Okinawa banned the possession of bladed weapons to strentghen their grip on power. The people invented new non bladed weapons utilising simple farming tools for practical self defense. With time some of these tools were modified quite significantly into the weapons that we know today.The practice of these weapons is known as Kobudo. These may be thought of as Karate with weapons

Basic Nunchaku techniques :

Locks and chokes
Twirls
Longer sequences of flowing strikes
More advanced gathers

Nunchaku strengths include incredible speed and a great deal of flexibility in what can be done. Nunchaku weaknesses include difficulty in blocking and the need to recover after striking

RIA Flash App ?

WOuld be a nice idea to have a desktop blog tracker, which tracks blogs under a few user defined categories( Choose the site or author). ( Flash, News etc). It connects to the net and downloads the blogs for viewing offlline. When connected, it updates itself with fresh blogs. Would be a good idea to try it for flash blogs alone and see how it works.

Whats the next decade gonna be ? The decade of wi-fi ? Genetic Engineering ? Nano Tech? Quantum computing ?

WLL ( Wireless Local Loop) delivers internet access ten times faster than the speediest broadband connections the telephone companies or cable TV firms can offer . Telecoms might become economic engine of the next decade is the way such networks are largely “user financed” and deployed in an unplanned, ad hoc manner—and thus free to grow exponentially if demand for them takes off.

CD storage capacity and Beethoven
Few pieces of music are as stirring as the last movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony.the 74-minute ninth symphony was used to set the standard capacity for a compact disc.Hitler was an ardent fan and had it conducted in his birthday concerts ; Ian Smith made it Rhodesia's national anthem.


http://www.muppetclan.com/honda.html
cool flash ad for Honda Accord

Drop Shadow in Flashhttp://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000202.php

Losing as little a $10,000 and as much as $1mn, in a night !
A cool drop shadow effect in Flash. Source code downloaded and is at space desktop. Prakash, check it out.

Leonard Tose, a big spender, died on April 15th, aged 88

AT A hearing by the United States Congress into gambling, the most compelling witness by far was Leonard Tose. He reckoned that he had lost about $40m through gambling, or it might have been as much as $50m. He couldn't be sure. The money had seeped away gradually though consistently, sometimes no more than $10,000 during a frugal night at a casino, sometimes as much as $1m. But he had vast winnings too. He recalled times when everything went his way. The dollars rolled in obediently. He felt he could not lose. Such moments kept Mr Tose going when fortune seemed to have deserted him. In one bleak run of ill-fortune he lost 72 nights in a row

Mr Tose was asked if he had any advice for Congress. “Don't drink when you gamble,” he said.

There was nothing stupid about Leonard Tose. In many ways his was the classic American success story. His parents were immigrants from Russia who had settled in Philadelphia. Mr Tose told stories of his father selling goods from a pack on his back and saving up to buy a truck. From modest beginnings the son built up a business of 700 trucks whose logo became familiar throughout the United States.

In the end he lost pretty near everything: his football team, the control of his trucking business, his Rolls-Royce, a model that matched that of his fourth wife. On his 81st birthday he was evicted from his colonial-style home, and he moved into a modest hotel, where the rent was paid for by some of his remaining friends. Last year, at the age of 87, he declined to be sorry for himself. He thought he had done well to reach a great age. He occasionally took a holiday, he said, but nothing flamboyant. He had a car, albeit one eight years old. And he still had his spirit.

Microsoft becoming more open ?
Make it easier for everyone to write programs to plug into windows said the courts. We will do so announced Microsoft this month.Though it might have escaped from the courts, it is still worrying about the European courts whose judgement is due in a couple of months.

Windows server 2003 is about to be launched and customers are pushing for more open standards( meaning make code open to all, not just to a few trusted vendors signing confidentiality agreements). Steve Ballmer seems to disagree. He claims he will still bundle MS ptoducts together. Want one? Use them all ! This strategy has worked prety well.

Want WIndows? Use IE killed netscape
Want Windows ? Use Media Player killed Real MEdia
Want hotmail ? Use IE, caused problems for Opera
Want Windows ? Don't use Java spelled a disaster for Java

Want windows ? Don't use flash is the threat which scares me now !

The threat of locking its property to poential competitors is the biggest stick Microsoft wields. It owns 90% of desktops, browsers and a sizeable chunk of email and chat users. It reserves the option to lock out any competitor from any of these platforms by simply making the code non-compatible. Companies have been doing this for quite a while ( AOL preventing its messenger system from working with MSN and yahoo), but none to the same degree as MS.

Leveraging dominance in one area to sell more of other products is a typical MS ploy. So no wonder Steve says "The opportunity here isn’t just to get a higher percentage of servers to run with our server operating system. It’s also to sell more SQL , more Exchange [ e-mail ], more management and more security.

MS is trying its best to repeat the windows dominance in Games, Cell phones, and Online services. But servers are the fastest growing areas for MS. Sun holds 15% and Linux 14% with MS claiming 60% of the market.

So the pitch " Buy MS servers, you get everything. Buy Linux and u have to do everything yourself" seems to be working for MS.

Snippets from the Flash Newsletter
The agency used action scripting to implement a unique component within the 728x90 banner which allowed users to input their phone numbers directly in the banner which would prompt a phone call reminder to watch the show.

From an interview with Brad Kozak

http://www.emerginginterest.com/mfaa/newsletter/dolecki_interview.shtml

"....see a small ad for a Mercedes Benz, and within the same ad unit, watch a television commercial about a specific model you might be interested in, or even contact a sales representative right there, on the spot"

For minimising file size:
1. Reuse symbols in movies
2. Utilizing bitmaps at the exact same size they will be used in your movie, and setting your properties for them upon export can save you quite a lot.
3. Optimizing vector art (removing unnecessary points in your objects) can also save you quite a bit.
4.Use Sorenson Squeeze for compressing video. ( You can deliver video at a quality that rivals Windows Media Player and Real player without much problem. )

The mobile market will be the next big thing in motion graphics advertising. Animated Gif's would give way to flash. .... Flash isn't just about spinning letters and colors anymore. Flash is a true application environment. People are starting to take advantage of that fact to make advertising so much more meaningful.


Recommended Book List
ActionScripting in Macromedia Flash MX
by Phillip Kerman
Macromedia Flash Interface Design: A Macromedia Showcase
Macromedia Flash MX Upgrade Essentials by Sham Bhangal

Demo of a time management application built with firefly components at

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dataconnection/demo/

Note the following in the demo

You can filter records by inputting data.

You can sort by clicking on column header. You can resize the columns

You can see realtime data changes. Notice how updates are immediately reflected and formulas calculated.

Shadowing
If you change data and add notes,they are stored as a Delta Packet and sent to the server ( when connection is there). So you can even work offline.

Connecting To Different Data Sources
You can switch among different data sources. Changing data sources requires no code changes in the application.

Firefly
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/firefly_components.html

Firefly refers to a set of components available on the new Flash MX Data Connection Kit. From the website:

The Data Connection Kit provides prebuilt connections to web services, XML data, databases, and application servers so you can easily access, save, and display data.

I saw a demo yesterday of how easy it is to create "data aware" components which hook together into rich, dynamic applications. Very impressive stuff. You can find out more here:


The foundation of this architecture consists of a client-side data management engine that is represented by three components: Connector, Dataset, and Resolver. These components provide developers with complete control over their data.

The Connector connects to a database and gets data. ( Reading ?)There are different connectors.SQL server connector is used for running SQL statements). Connector gets data and gives it to dataset.


The Dataset stores data. ( Manipulating ?)It does not care where the data comes from. It is connectors job to get the data and datasets job to store it.When the data is modified, the Dataset records the changes in an XML-based set of instructions called a DeltaPacket

The Resolver component saves data. ( Writing ?) Different resolvers are used for different data sources. When data changes, it takes the data from the deltapacket and updates the data in the original data source.


XML Shadowing tracks changes that are made to the Dataset in real time and generating a DeltaPacket which is sent to the server to update the original data source. This helps in creating optimized applications that can update changes to multiple records at one time, thus reducing network traffic and allowing multiple users to work with and update the same data source simultaneously.

The Firefly Components Visual Property Editor (VPE) makes it easier for developers to build rapidly data-rich applications within Macromedia Flash MX. Components such as FxGrid, FxDataSet, Connector, and Resolver have their own VPE which combines all of the properties, events, and settings that can be used to set up and customize the component.


Demo of a time management application built with firefly components at

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dataconnection/demo/

Microsoft Vs Linux:
If you want one, you have to take em all !

Microsoft's business strategy is to integrate multiple applications -- e-mail messaging, printing, Web page creation and the like -- with its server operating system, but to charge for them separately depending on how extensively they are used.

Cheap revolutions :
the cheap revolution, and Christensen's suggestions on how to escape it:

Improve your product offering faster than anybody else can. This tactic works, generally, only for market leaders with a good brand name, a greased distribution channel and financial might. (Think Intel.) And it works only as long as the market wants the added functionality and is willing to pay for it.

Sell fast custom solutions that answer a customer's needs..

Find an unserved market and serve it cheaply. This is the way of the disrupter. The product or service should be so cheap, in fact, that the industry's old guard thinks there's no money to be made and walks away.

RIA Sample
http://examples.macromedia.com/flash/homemortgage/app_index2.html

From Macromedia presentation of Macromedia Central

1. RIA >> Combines best of web, , Best of communications ( Integrating Audio, video, chats into apps), Best of Desktop, allows Internet applications to run on desktop, not just on browser

Why Central :

Works offline and online, reuses data across applications
presence on desktop
uses existing tools and applications
Bridges gap between desktop and browser
OCC
Consistent experience across applications
Personal interface to information

Roadmap:

Mar >> Unveiled at Flash Forward conference by Kevin Lynch
Apr 2003 >> Developer Beta release
Summer 2003 >> Product ships

Why store food ?
Research has shown that the average American household has less than a week’s supply of food on hand. This is also the case with the average American supermarket. An adequate food supply for your family is a major part of economic security, and could possibly be the key to survival. Most local relief organizations will take approximately three days (72 hours) to get back on their feet to be able to help you. A 72 hour kit is a big step in the right direction

Mistakes in Food storage
1. Not having a good supply of the spices you like to cook with.
2. Store dehydrated and/or freeze dried foods as well as home canned and "store bought" canned goods. Make sure you add cooking oil, shortening, baking powder, soda, yeast and powdered eggs.
3.Not storing Vitamins - Vitamins are important, especially for children. Becasul ( multi-vitamin tablets) and vitamin C ( Suc-cee tablets) are the most vital.
4. Not storing Psychological Foods. These are the `goodies' - Jello, pudding, candy, etc. - you should add to your storage
5. No Balance. Don't invest in a all wheat or all rice schedule. Variety is the key.
6.Not using proper containers - Always store your bulk foods in food storage containers.
7. Not using Your Storage - people store food and but don't know what to do with it.

Wi-Fi everywhere

WI-FI at conferences
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/unwired/work.html

Joe Nacchio spoke at PC Forum in March 2002. Two audience members began to heckle in real-time blogs, and the crowd, reading along, turned against him.

"...... weren't disappearing back to their rooms to check email between sessions. They'd just sit down in one of the common areas and log on. Because everyone was gathering in the same place, there was a lot more spontaneous discussion. Also, the sessions themselves became more interactive. Audience members would instant-message or email each other during a presentation as well as check out Web sites and info mentioned by the speakers. It really raised the quality of the presentations."

the most interesting wireless app is EtherPEG - code that scans the local network, captures a bit of every image being transmitted to and from laptops, and creates a montage of what people are looking at. At the Emerging Tech conference last year, someone posted the results to his weblog. When Larry Lessig was talking, the images went quiet. He's such an amazing speaker that people focused just on him. During other speakers, the images flowed like wine

Wifi and Tractors !
"...AutoTrac uses differential GPS to determine the precise position of the tractor and then takes over the steering. Because the rows are more exact, the farmer isn't wasting seed or fertilizer by overlapping.One farmer I met was planting 24 hours a day to take advantage of the good weather. He could work right through the night because of the satellite-controlled steering. We can steer tractors via the sky!

All that information is transmitted wirelessly and available 24 hours a day. If a machine breaks down, the system emails the service department."

Wi Fi and Hospitals
We have wireless laptops for patient. That means we can start working on patients as soon as the medics wheel them in.

Wi-Fi and ticketing
Desktop computer systems require the customer to wait in line - the data is anchored to the ground. Wireless allows you to go to the guest, rather than having the guest come to you. And wireless solutions are scalable: We can put 50 ticket sellers out there if we need to. The whole paradigm of waiting in long lines is gone."

PHP in place of Flash remoting. Splendour.. want to try this ?
http://www.flashmagazine.com/html/791

PHPObject can solve many remoting-like tasks like talking to web services and grabbing complete objects such as arrays from the server, but it also adds a new dimension. PHPObject can execute methods in your PHP class/library as if it was defined inside Flash itself. The project is open source published as GNU LGPL license, so PHPObject is free to use

Keeping Flash MX updated
http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/updates/

1. New Documentation
2. Flash Remoting updater
3. Flash Player 6
4. Standalone Flash Player 6
5. FreeHand MX Reader for Flash MX

In addition, you'll probably want updated components for UI, graphing, Remoting and FlashCom

The current version of all Flash players are 6.0.79. If you have not updated the standalone player that comes with Flash MX, you're probably still using version 6.0.21.

Cool Math component. Satish.. check it out
http://www.robertpenner.com/easing/
http://www.ericd.net/# for downloading the component

72 Hour emergency checklist

15 litres of drinking water
Aqua Clean
Food
Tent
Windproof/waterproof matches
Lighters
Sleeping bag
Lightweight stove and fuel
Raincoat
Umbrella
Candles, Torchlight
Tools
Pocket knife
Shovel
Small Axe /Machete
Sewing kit
50-foot nylon rope
First Aid kit
Burnol
Burn gel and dressings
Radio with batteries
Whistle with neck cord
Personal Sanitation
Personal comfort kit (include soap, toothbrush and gel, comb, tissue, sanitary napkins, razor), and other needed items
Extra Clothing
Money, spare change
Important Papers
Copies of documents important to your family (such as birth certificates, passport.PIN Nos, insurance forms), phone numbers you might need, credit card information
Games, books, hard candy, inspirational reading. For children: small toys, paper and pen, favorite security items
Mess kits and other cooking equipment
Insect repellant
Portable toilet
Special medication or other needs
Backpack

Emergency Kit for Auto

Now, this is what I call fully loaded, not loading your auto with 'Spoliers' and 'leather upholstered seats'

Toilet Paper: 2 rolls
Toothbrush: 3 nos
Toothpaste,
Roll on deodorant:
Comb/Razor?Shaving cream
Prescription Medications
Medications for diarrhea, constipation, headaches, and other minor conditions should also be included in kits for added comfort.
Plastic bedpans, collapsible camping toilets that use plastic bags, etc. at preparedness stores and can rest assured that your families necessities are met.
Small spade
Detergent,
Soap
Extra Pair of Prescription Glasses
Sunglasses
Cotton Swabs
Cotton Balls
Talcum Powder
Dental Floss
Fingernail/Toenail Clippers
Trash Bags
Sponge
Soap on a Rope

MySQL :Oracle = Linux is to Windows ?

Excerpts from My SQL CEO interview

Databases are a commodity is our assumption. Being a commodity market is not a black and white issue, it's about proportions. You say, how much of the database market is a commodity, and we say, whatever is a commodity, that's where we'll act. There will always be a non-commodity segment too and that's fine, we're not making any claims there.

Cool flash tip from Flashinthecan 2003
http://quantumwave.com/flash/fitc03/pics/index.cfm?idx=23

Getting in lotsa shapes and color into movieclips for use in AS programs

Import image into flash and "trace bitmap"
Copy from Flash and paste into illustrator
In Illustrator, ungroup and change transparency to 99%
In Illustrator, export to flash ( .swf)
In flash import .swf file ( Every vector becomes a graphic symbol)
In flash, select all, use property inspector to change every graphic symbol to a movieclip

Building a RIA with Flash

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/ria_databases.html
When building a Rich Internet Application (RIA), the first step is getting the Macromedia Flash application interface to read and write data to a database

Download the sample files (653 KB ZIP).
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/devnet/downloads/ria_databases.zip

Download the sample code (TXT).
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/ria_databases/ria_db_inlinecode.txt

Do we have these skillsets?

Create custom classes, and objects from those custom classes
· Create and manipulate data in arrays
· Use Flash components to build application interfaces
· Access remote data using server-side ActionScript
· Use Flash Remoting to retrieve and use data in Flash components

· Using the NetConnection Debugger
· Dynamic Queries

· Use the Flash DataGrid component with server-side data
· Create shared objects that persist in Flash
Use the DataGrid component

Move towards mobility

Trends :

People become less productive when they are away from the network.

Notebook PCs becoming main systems,powerful PDAs, mobiles becoming common.

Wireless LAN's are becomming very common.

Intel has started shipping wireless integrated chips, Xscale processor based PDA's and web phones.

People move in and out of networks. They want their PC's to function seamlessly. It is not possible today.

Macromedia central might solve some of the above problems.

SI Tour Program on 19 April , Sat

Number of guys planned : 10 ( 6 in Estate, 4 in Maruti). No Ricky !

Place : Mahabs/Vedanthangal/Kambakkam /Pulicat : To be finalised today.

Trip Budget:
Fuel : 800
Food : 400
Total : 1200

Will not wait for anyone after 7.30 AM. Will leave at 7.30 sharp.


7.00 AM Leave Chennai

9.00 AM Arrive. Set up camp

9.30 AM Breakfast
Toast Bread, Butter, Eggs, Jam, Sandwich, Coffee/Tea

10.00-1.00 Play Cards, Frisbee

1.00 – 2.00 Lunch
Chappati, Tomato Onion gravy, Avil, Puttu, Idiappam

2.00 – 4.30 Play, sleep

4.30 – 5.00 Tiffin
Mushroom Soup, Papad, Snacks

5.00-6.30 Fish fry/Chicken Barbeque etc

7.00 Leave camp

9.00 Back in Chennai

Macromedia Central

Macromedia central is an extension of the Flash player which lets users have access to content both online and offline, without using a browser.

Applications like the following will be supported

1. A user wishing to sell a stock can set the name of the stock and the price he wants to sell it, offline. As soon as net connection is on, the app tracks stock quotes, connect with an exchange and places an order to sell as soon as the user specs are met.

2.Employees can have access to the company's website even when they are offline and the moment they are connected, the changes alone will be downloaded.They can even manipulate data when they are offline.

3. Regular forms can be replaced with rich flash front ends doing basic processing, connecting to the web when given the chance.

Need to read and summarise

http://www.macromedia.com/special/forrester_central/macromedias_central_right_on_mar.pdf

Macromedia central brief

http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/central/articles/occ_whitepaper/occ_whitepaper.pdf

Intel whitepaper on OCC

The future of the Broswer ?

Earlier thought: A browser should do everything from viewing content to sending mails to editing webpages

Now: Develop separate apps which do it. Gurunet, IM ( you can type "weather" into the window of an IM program and instantly get a brief forecast for your hometown)" , why should I have to type in a URL, have it load and render a page, then figure out where to go on that page? I think it makes a lot more sense if I can type in the word 'weather,' the software knows who I am and tells me what I want to know."

The Web browser isn't designed for applications; it's designed for documents," said Kevin Lynch, Macromedia's chief software architect. "I think developers have done an amazing job of stretching what the browser is capable of doing. But we think there's a need for an environment specifically designed for hosting applications."

"One of the disadvantages of the browser is that there aren't very good ways of organizing information," Meyrowitz said. "Bookmarks just don't do the whole job. There's no real sense of place for the information you want to come back to."

A browser is passive. It does not recognise you ro what you have looked for. So there is a need for applications that take at least some of the initiative to find information relevant to the user.

Macromedia expects developers to create myriad Flash applications that will prove equally valuable regardless of whether they are connected to the Internet, by providing an optimized environment for viewing and storing data.

Using Video in Flash

The pdf file available at http://www.ericd.net/pdfs/fmxb_ch18.pdf
and is saved on Comp desktop . Summary given below

Earlier external video files were linked to the Flash document. Flash did not store the actual video content. So you still needed an external player for playback.

Now it is possible to embed the video file in the Flash document (.fla file) as well as the Flash movie (.swf file).So no external player is required for playback.

Tips for using video well

1. Garbage in Garbage out. Use good quality video and audio clips.

2. Bring only finished video clips into Flash MX. Don't edit clips here. Flash is not designed for editing.

3. Minimise cross-fades and slow dissolves, which involve rapid changes to each frame.

4. Minimize duration. Don't use very long clips.

5. Use named anchors to let the user jump between scenes in a movie.

Compression of video files

Flash MX can import a wide variety of video file formats, including .mov, .avi, .dv, .wmv, .asf, and .mpg files. and compress them significantly.

How does compression take place ?

1. By comparing the data between each frame and by storing only the differences between the two.

2.By compressing data in each frame.

Flash throws out some color and detail information to cut file size. For example, if the original video source shows a sunset with 80 shades of orange, flash will show only 50 shades.

WHile importing the movie, flash creates a number of key frames and uses interframe and intraframe compression to reduce file size. More jerks in the movie = more keyframes=more file size.

Flash MX encodes video with the Sorenson Spark Basic edition codec, which uses CBR (constant bit rate) encoding. You have limited control over the compression options in Flash MX. ( VBR codec can be bought separately)

After embedding video, it becomes an embedded Video object in the Library. You can reuse the same Embedded Video object as several instances throughout the Flash document with no increase in file
size.

Macromedia Flash movies do not stream into the Flash Player. They download progressively. Video streaming, means that the video file is never downloaded as one single file to the end-user. Rather, a streaming video server delivers the video in realtime, sending the video frame by frame to the player.

A progressive download, on the other hand, is downloaded to the player. as a single file. However, the term progressive means that the video can start playback as soon as a certain percent of the video has downloaded into the player.

Macromedia Central

It is about OCC (Occasionally Connected Computing) and how it translates in business opportunities. "... Occasionally Connected Applications are the next step in computing evolution. We can see it everyday, we experience it everyday, we are going mobile. "(...) the architecture that works best in a mobile environment works just as well for wired devices. Optimizing your applications for latency benefits everyone."

What is the Flash community working on ?

Using Flash in cell phones
Integrating XML in Flash
Integrating Flash With Web Apps

Reducing File Size in Flash

The longer we work on a FLAs the larger they get. The way to cut file size is to use "save as" and save it under some other name.

When ever you add,modify or delete content to your FLA Flash authoring adds a note to the end of the file outlining the modifications that have been made. So with more modifications, more notes get added and filesize of the FLA becomes larger.

Even if you have deleted something (say a movie), it still exists within the file but with a note saying that it shouldn't be used. These notes are discarded only when the file is compiled into a SWF.

Save As command ignores the history and the notes and rewrites the FLA file from the current data.

So to cut down file size, use "save as" and clean up the library. Should work wonders.

Maya
Maya 5 launched. Price USD 7000
Maya 5 can now export Flash and Illustrator files, and import quite a few file formats including SWF and SVG.
Maya trial adition is available at
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/ple/index.shtml

The Maya Personal Learning Edition displays a watermark on images and uses a special non-commercial file format to prevent commercial use.

Where is Maya used?

For a Virtual Synagogue Reconstruction

For pre visualization of s Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Pre-Visualization

For making games like
Bounty Hunter
Tomb Raider
Tekken 3

The making of the King James Bible
Condensed from The Economist book review

Published 1611, The King James Bible was the result of King James' dream of bridging through the Bible his kingdom's religious divides.

The king brought in disparate teams of translators, members from the Church of England Episcopalians ( Fond of pomp and ceremony in the Church) and from among the Puritans ( Who abhorred pomp and wanted to live by the Word alone) . These men were grouped into six teams, or “companies”, and were based at Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster.

The translated text was written in the left-hand column only of a large ledger, the right-hand kept blank for comments and improvements. In this fashion, working more like a team of accountants than the devisers of a national treasure, the translators put the new text together.

The personalities of the men colored the translations.Laurence Chaderton, a Puritan who translated the “Song of Songs”, was moved by memories of the lovely boy he had a crush on. Among the translators of Genesis was a man who had been to the West Indies,who filled his descriptions of Eden with memories of the parrots and forests of Dominica.

One translator, Samuel Ward, left a diary recording his struggles with sin. As a Puritan , he was bound to a regime of sermons and chapel-going. But his thoughts wandered rather freely to adultery and gluttony.

The Calvinist Geneva Bible of the 1550s records the second verse of Genesis as :

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.

King James's translators change it as:

And the earth was without form, and void, and the darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The comma after “form” and the colon after “deep” heighten the drama of the empty stage on which creation is about to occur. But the masterstroke lies in “the face of the deep” and “the face of the waters”, phrases by which the almost human elements appear to be responding to the touch of God.

When the newly translated texts arrived, each team would sit and listen as the words were read to them. Their child-like attention was vitally important. This Bible was meant, above all, to be read out and heard; euphony, its governing principle, is also the secret of its abiding power.

My first law :o)

No classifications, however they simple they look, can ever be rigid.

Explanation:

No one knows where non-life ends and Life begins. No one knows where plants end and animals begins. No one knows where software ends and hardware begins. No one knows where no-consciousness ends and consciousness begins. Looks like all the borders are forever doomed to be fuzzy. They look clear at the edges, but at the line of separation, they remain fuzzy forever.

This law might be applied to social concepts too. Where does democracy end and Dictator ship begin? Where does freedom end and slavery begin? Where does Justice end and Injustice begin? It is not possible to draw a line and say" Here it ends and here this begins"

Supports what I was thinking earlier that the terms we use " Life", "Plant" " Justice" etc are just a linguistic convenience and are not absolute facts. So they never can have clearcut borders.

The Cosmic Time Scale

15 Billion years ago : Big Bang

2 Billion years later ( 2 Billion years after Big Bang): Stars and Galaxies form

A few hundred million years later : First Stars burn out burning Hydrogen and helium into CArbon, Oxygen and iron


2 Billion years later ( 4 Bn yrs after Big Bang) : Planets start forming


6 Bn years later : (10 Bn years after Big bang) : Our solar system starts forming from the gas contaminated by heavier elements




2.5 Bn years >> For life to evolve from Single cell to Multi cellular animals

Recorded history = 10,000 years

Total info in our genes = 100 Mn bits = 50 Mils & Boon novels

Rate of Biological evolution = 1 Bit/year

Expected lifetime of universe = 30 Bn years from Big Bang to Big Crunch

Emergency preparation:

The current lorry strike almost paralyses Tamilnadu and the shortage of all essential stuff is maddening.

Would be a good time to be prepared for atleast an year by stocking essentials.


Basic Foods for Home Storage
(Per adult for one year. )



Grains
(wheat, rice, spaghetti)(180 kg) = Rs.3600
Legumes
(dry beans, peas, lentils)(30 kg) = Rs.1200
Powdered Milk 16 pounds (7 kg) = Rs. 420
Sugar (30 kg) = Rs.900
Cooking Oil (10 liters) = Rs.500
Salt (4 kg) =- Rs.50
Alcohol : 12 Full bottles

Water( For 2 weeks) (50 liters) Rs.30*27 =1200
total cost per adult per year = Rs. 7870= Rs. 20 a day

( It is impractical to store a year's supply of water. 50 litres per person is a suggested minimum reserve)

Storing and using water:
An adult needs 2 Litre per day per person for drinking, 2 Litres for other purposes.

water that tastes flat can be aerated by pouring the water back and forth between the container and a clear bottle

To increase the shelf life of water stored in translucent containers , group the containers together in dark plastic bags to keep out the light. Store the water supply away from gasoline, kerosene, pesticides or other chemicals. Plastic water storage bottles can allow the vapors from these chemicals to enter the bottle and contaminate the water.

There are two ways of treating water: boiling or adding bleach. If the water looks cloudy, filter it before purifying. First, let the water sit undisturbed so that all suspended particles settle to the bottom. Then filter the water through layers of clean cotton or paper towels, cheesecloth, or coffee filters.

Boiling is the safest method of purifying water. Place the water in a clean saucepan or other cooking container. Bring the water to a rolling boil and continue boiling for 10 minutes, keeping in mind that some water will evaporate. Let the water cool before drinking, keeping it covered during cooling.


Other stuff to store in emergencies :

Add packets of seeds for Living storage

Other stuff to store in an Emergency :
Matches, candles, lanterns, flashlights, and battery-operated lighting equipment
A battery-operated radio
Knives, a hatchet, a shovel, and other tools
Medicine, blankets, and a first-aid kit
Mess kits or paper cups, paper plates, and plastic utensils
A manual can opener
Wheat grinder
Plastic garbage bags and a plastic bucket
Soap, tooth brushes, toothpaste, and supplies for dentures and contact lenses
Toilet paper and sanitary items
Money
Books or games for children


Food storage tips :

Protect food storage from heat. Store all products away from heat and sunlight

Protect food from moisture. Store products on shelves or raised platforms, rather than directly in contact with concrete floors or walls

Protect products from rodents and insects

How long do foods last ? (when stored in a cool, dry place under ideal conditions)

Sugar 20+ years
Wheat 20+ years
Fruit Drink Mix 8-10 years
Dry Beans 6-8 years
Spaghetti 6-8 years
Macaroni 6-8 years
Chopped Dry Onions 6-8 years
Hot Cocoa 3-4 years
Rolled Oats 4-5 years
White Flour 5 years
Soup Mix 4-5 years
Rice 3-4 years
Nonfat Dry Milk 2-3 years

Storage Tips :
All food contains bacteria and mold spores, and most food contains insect eggs. Given the right environment, these microorganisms will start to grow and destroy the food. The main conditions that can cause insects and microorganisms to grow are moisture and heat.

If products are not properly packaged, they can absorb moisture out of the air. When the moisture reaches a level of 12% to 18%, product breakdown will accelerate. Make sure to store food in a dry place.

Heat is also a major cause of deterioration in food quality. Store all products away from heat ducts, clothes dryers, sunlight, chimneys and other sources of heat.

Oldest products should be used first to maintain freshness


Storing Petrol/Diesel/Kerosene

Kerosene is normally processed to remove compounds that form sticky gums, thus extending its storage life.

Petrol and petroleum vapour is highly flammable. Even a small spark from a light switch or mobile phone is enough to ignite fumes from the fuel and cause a fire or explosion.

All containers in which petroleum spirit is kept must be of metal or plastic. Metal containers should not exceed 23 litres capacity . Plastic containers should not exceed 5 litres capacity .These containers should be designed for the purpose and must be fitted with a screw-cap or closure to prevent leakage of liquid or vapour. Empty containers must be securely stoppered and kept in a safe place

The storage place must be well ventilated

Always have a fire extinguisher, sand for absorbing spillages, snd no naked fire capable of igniting inflammable vapour.

Diesel requirement : 1 litre a day = 400 litres per year for car = Rs.10000

Petrol 1 litre a week = 52 litres/year for the bike = Rs. 1500

Petrol vapour can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, and exposure to high concentrations, particularly in confined spaces, can cause dizziness and unconsciousness. Do not swallow petrol or attempt to use the mouth to siphon it This can result in petrol entering the lungs or stomach, which can be fatal.

Petrol vapour does not disperse easily and may also travel long distances. It tends to sink to the lowest possible level and may collect in tanks, cavities, drains, pits, or other enclosed areas, where there is little air movement

http://99-bottles-of-beer.ls-la.net/

A simple program in 515 computer languages from A= to ZZT and all the wacky ones in between! Here it is in Actionscript !

// "99 bottles of beer" in ActionScript
// by David Fichtmueller ( david@fichtmueller.de )

b = 99;
for (i=1; i<=99; i++) {
txt = txt+b+" bottle(s) of beer on the wall. "+b+" bottle(s) of beer. Take
one down, pass it around, ";
b = b-1;
txt = txt+b+" bottle(s) of beer on the wall. ";
}
stop ();

The Mobile Sweepstakes

A billion = 100 crores = the population of India

Half a billion cell phones are sold every year ( There are only half a billion Net users in the world). Zero point one ( .1) Bn Pc's sold every year. 5 times more mobiles sold than PC's

World population = 6 Billion

Browser wars for Cell phones are on
Two types exist: Data browsers for PDA's( html based)( Palm, MS, Symbian), Voice browsers for mobiles ( WAP based)( Openwave, Opera, Bitstream)

MS won the first browser war through its entrenched base of windows. It does not enjoy the same advantage in the second war.

Symbian, Qualcomm, Palm, IBM are in the race.

The cell and PC line is blurring. SO MS might have a chance too.

Challenges:
1. Convert pages from horizontal format of PC's to vertical format
2. Minimise horizontal and vertical scroll
3. Minimise data transfer


The wars have just begun !

India !

http://www.economist.com/countries/India/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Economic%20Data

Two thirds of India still depends on agriculture for living.25% of GDP comes from this.50% of GDP comes from services. 90 Mn tonnes of rice, 57 Mn tonnes of wheat are produced for a billion strong population.

GDP per head ( USD)
India 500
China 900
Pak 400
Bangla 300
Srilanka 800

Exports ( Bn USD)
India 40
China 300
Pak 9

The languages of the World

Languages are either "tag" based, like HTML, Cold fusion, or "script" based, like Java, ASP, PHP(open SOurce), JSP

JSP is designed to work with very large, high volume sites that connect to enterprise databases. It has a set of tools called JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) that are designed to move all the scripting into libraries. These libraries are linked to the page rather than placing the script on the page. Libraries allow you to easily change the logic of the application without having to change every page

PHP is a hybrid of tag- and script-based languages. It is widely supported, because it is a public domain language. You don't need to buy a server to implement PHP PHP is one of the fastest growing languages on the web

Flash Apps
E*TRADE Financial speeds up things for customers through Quote Widget, a rich Macromedia Flash application that displays stock quotes without requiring a page refresh.

Should we try something similar ? A cricket tracker maybe ?

Flash MX : Are we using any of these?

Storing data on client machines using SharedObjects

String, XML, and Array objects

Embedding video into Macromedia Flash files
Flash MX can now include interactive streaming video clips. QuickTime and RealVideo can now be imported within Macromedia Flash

Dynamically loading JPGs and MP3
loads external JPEG and MP3 media files during runtime, which results in smaller file sizes and the developer's easy modification of the content

Macromedia Flash movies communicate with each other through the LocalConnection object

With named anchors, Macromedia Flash MX content can now be bookmarked, allowing for the use of the browser Back and Forward buttons.

With the Free Transform tool and Pixel-Level Snapping Control which provide enhanced creative freedom and control over graphic content designers work faster. Color Mixer enhancements make creating, editing, and using colors and gradients easier

Macromedia Flash Application Server Gateway and Communication Server enable even faster ways to develop rich applications that benefit from the visual delivery of Macromedia Flash MX.

Vertical Text and support for Unicode in Macromedia Flash MX enables developers to rapidly build multilingual content and applications

Components
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flash/articles/components.html


RIA with Flash

1. Compressed SWF. Html gets bloated with content, images, script code. Not designed for RIA. Flash tuned for RIA. COmpress swf and decompress them at client using latent CPU power.

Vector graphics render and scale easily on a variety of devices

Streams and buffers content( audio, video, swf). SWF files are cached and need to update only changed data from net

Shared objects stored on client m/c and minimise trips to server.

Can communicate with databases

A part of screen can change without user ever seeing a blank page once loaded

Two way voice, video, data sharing possible between users.

Can work with Java, EJB, .Net

Loadvariable for loading from a URL makes it work with servers.

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flash/whitepapers/richclient.pdf

http://www.rheingold.com/texts/tft/9.html
Doug Engelbart, Of Mice and Men

From a variety of sources, but mainly from Rheingold's online book. Must read his Smart Mobs: The next social revolution. Has a nice breezy writing style.

December 9, 1968 a couple of months after I was born, Doug Engelbart and a small team stunned the computing world with a demo. They debuted: the computer mouse, graphical user interface, display editing and integrated text and graphics, hyper-documents, and two-way video-conferencing with shared workspaces

His goal ? "How to help mankind get collectively better able to cope with complex, urgent problems.
"

" I didn't know about computers in detail, but this radar used a cathode ray tube display, and its electronics make the display images. So, if a computer can punch cards and print, then it certainly could drive the electronics that would put what you want to see on the screen.

And if the radar could sense the operator turning a crank and pushing buttons, then computers could certainly do that, too. Then you could sit there and interact with the computer. And you could get all kinds of new portrayals, and really very different ways in which you could get your knowledge there to see. Other workers could sit and connect to the same computer complex, and you could be working together in really radical new ways. Oh boy! Okay!"

"..look, we can make machines smarter and smarter, but their value will be in how much smarter they make people"

"...The AI guys, for instance, they claimed that, hey, our smart computer will sit there and interact with the user, analyze what the user knows, and adapt so the user won't have to learn anything new. And they pointed over to my stuff, where we had links and structure and all kinds of new functions going on, and of course the interface looked strange, because how do you manage those things without different verbs and nouns? And they all started pointing to our stuff as the example of hard-to-learn bad stuff. Our backing just caved in. DARPA finally notified me, in 1977 I think, we're cancelling your funding.
"

"The interactive stuff was so wild that the people who knew about computers didn't want to hear about it. Back then, you didn't interact with a computer, even if you were a programmer. You gave it your question, in the form of a box of punched cards, and if you had worked very hard at stating the question correctly, you got your answer. Computers weren't meant for direct interaction. And this idea of using them to help people learn was downright blasphemy.

"
Doug told him about his ideas of getting computers to interact with people, in order to augment their intellect.

"How many people have you already told about that?" he asked Doug.

"None, you're the first one I've told," said Doug.

"Good. Now don't tell anybody else. It will sound too crazy. It will prejudice people against you."

"
"Suppose you had a new writing machine, a high-speed electric typewriter with some very special features."( The first word processor being described)

This hypothetical writing machine permits you to use a new process for composing text. For instance, trial drafts can rapidly be composed from rearranged excerpts of old drafts, together with new words or passages which you insert by hand typing. Your first draft may represent a free outpouring of thoughts in any order, with the inspection of foregoing thoughts continuously stimulating new considerations and ideas to be entered. If the tangle of thoughts represented by the draft becomes too complex, you can compile a reordered draft quickly. It would be practical for you to accommodate more complexity in the trails of thought you might build in search of the path that suits your needs.
You can integrate new ideas more easily, and thus harness your creativity more continuously, if you can quickly and flexibly change your working record. If it is easier to update any part of your working record to accommodate new developments in thought or circumstance, you will find it easier to incorporate more complex procedures in your way of doing things. . . .

It took 15 years more for Word processing to catch on.

. During the original presentation, an advanced electronic projection system provided a sharply focused image, twenty times life sized, on a large screen. Doug was alone on the stage, the screen looming above and behind him as he sat in front of his CRT display, wearing the kind of earphone-microphone headsets that radar operators and jet pilots use, his hands resting on an unusual-looking control console connected to his chair.

The specially designed input console swiveled so he could pull it onto his lap. A standard typewriter keyboard was in the center, and two small platforms projected about six inches on either side. On the platform to his left was a five-key device he used for entering commands, and on the platform to the right was the famous "mouse" that is only now beginning to penetrate the personal computing market -- a device the size of a pack of cigarettes, with buttons on the top, attached to the console with a wire. Doug moved it around with his right hand.

In front of him was the display screen. The large screen behind him could alternate, or share, multiple views of Doug's hands, his face, the information on the display screen, and images of his colleagues and their display screens at Menlo Park. The screen could be divided into a number of "windows," each of which could display either text or image. The changing information displayed on the large screen, activated by his fingertip commands on the five-key device and his motions of the mouse, began to animate under Doug's control. Everyone in the room had attended hundreds of slide presentations before this, but from the moment Doug first imparted movement to the views on the screen, it became evident that this was like no audiovisual presentation anyone had attempted before.

Engelbart was the very image of a test pilot for a new kind of vehicle that doesn't fly over geographical territory but through what was heretofore an abstraction that computer scientists call "information space." He not only looked the part, but acted it: The Chuck Yeager of the computer cosmos, calmly putting the new system through its paces and reporting back to his astonished earthbound audience in a calm, quiet voice.

Sometime in the early 1970s, Engelbart was inspired by a book, just as he had been enthused by magazine articles by Bush and Licklider in years past. This time, it was the theory proposed by business management expert Peter Drucker in the late 1960s. Knowledge, by Drucker's definition, is the systematic organization of information; a knowledge worker is a person who creates and applies knowledge to productive ends. The rapid emergence of an economy based primarily on knowledge, Drucker predicted, would be the most significant social transformation of the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Flash Blogs >> Stay up to date !

One-stop Blog:
http://www.fullasagoog.com/index.cfm?blogcat=FlashMX
Coldfusion, Flash MX other blogs tracked in one spot.

PSD2FLA
A plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that lets you save your layered Photoshop design as a Flash 5 .fla file is on MAc too. PSD2FLA saves as an editable Flash .fla file, as opposed to a .swf file. This means you can open your Photoshop design directly in Flash and begin to edit, adding animation, interactivity.
http://www.swftools.com/tool-details.php?tool=4589485373

The cleverly named swf tools site also lists a nice set of swf tools

Tamil Flash site :
Tamil guestbook in flash.

Dynamic charts for COT
http://www.swftools.com/tool-details.php?tool=1894206083
SWIFF CHART
Creating dynamic animated charts in Macromedia Flash format. CAn be used for COT. 2Mb download

Flash Pista Blogs:
http://www.markme.com/dhumphreys/
http://www.markme.com/mesh/

Future of Flash book summary

Flash on the Pocket PC
html wrapper supports flash on PIE ( Pocket IE)]
Games, animations for pocket PC's

Controlling flash through the keyboard >> user mapped keys

eVb, eVC ( EMbedded Visual BAsic,Embedded visual basic c++ connections with flash, Backend data support)

Flash on TV/DVD/Interactive TV, Flash to videotape ( TApe formats VHS>> Lowest quality )

Flash for Nokia ( Nokia has licensed flash player)

Develop once, play everywhere

A decade of browsing
http://news.com.com/2009-1032-995680.html?tag=toc

Mosaic, developed 1993 by Jon Mittelhauser , Marc Andreessen and a bunch of 20ish kids is 10 years old.

Browsers created a social revolution. And as with any social revolution, the applications demanded and cherished by the masses were something the acads never dreamed about.

Now, half a billion people have net access. 66% of adults in US are online. 75% of users use Email and 40% use Instant messaging.

What has the browser done ?

1.Expectation transparency : Everything is available out there and is more accessible than todays Newspaper

2. teenagers often rely on Web communities to socialize

Linux update from the Economist

Microsoft, risks being wiped off the face of the earth by Linux, crows Larry Ellison, Oracle boss.

Linux is free and runs on almost any computer. Right now Linux is used mostly to run servers. Linux boxes can also be clustered together to create a cheap supercomputer.

Linux is slowly moving from geekdom to where the money is.. telecoms-billing systems, airline-reservation systems etc.,

Linux ruling high end servers means Sun is the biggest loser and Linux coming to desktop would make Microsoft the biggest loser.

Solaris for servers is overkill, and Linux, a less capable flavour of Unix, is good enough. Many people who used expensive Sun boxes running Solaris now run Linux on cheap commodity PC's

Sun is trying to fight back by embracing Linux and by offering Linux servers as entry level servers, with the hope of trying to graduate buyers to the more expensive solaris boxes.

The biggest winners are IBM,HP and Dell, all selling Linux servers. IBM embraced Linux in 1999, and now offers Linux throughout its range from PCs to mainframes.

IBM received a boost in its mainframe business through Linux. A single Linux powered mainframe can be set up to behave like dozens of small Linux servers. So IBM convinced clients to junk rooms full of Unix Sun-Solaris servers, replacing them with a single mainframe.

Linux is the single common thread running across IBM's confusing product lines. Linux strengthens those firms that push diversity, such as IBM and HP, and weakens firms that push proprietary technology such as Sun and Microsoft.

Linux prevents Windows from dominating the server market. Windows boxes are cheaper than Solaris, but Linux is cheaper still.
Many governments like Linux due to lower costs ,avoidance of vendor lock-in, and the perception that open-source is more trustworthy.

Microdoft argues " Open Source stifles innovation" as no one makes money. Microsoft through its lobby group, the Initiative for Software Choice, tries to prevent governments from using open-source software. Steve Ballmer, the firm's chief executive, calls open-source software a cancer.

My Summary of Kevin Lynch's White paper
Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect , Macromedia.

Internet Applications: A new frontier

Improving user experience is a core goal. They retain customers, save money and bring in more business.

Rich Internet appilcations combine the best of stand alone software applications and web applications to improve user experience.

Macromedia is using flash to integrate web and stand alone applications

A RIA ( Rich Internet Application ) should be able to work across devices, should be delivered instantly over the web, should be able to interact with each other. They should be prepared to live in a occasionally connected world, being standalone applications when not connected to the web.

They should have common protocols for storing data and manipulating them. The same data should be easily accessible by a variety of applications, instead of being stored in black boxes ( Excel, Outlook) today.

RIA would be contextual, they get to know their users better.( What they are doing( in a company meeting, giving a presentation) , where they are( Home/work/ Out of the country). This would let them behave better and co-operate among themselves better.

RIA's should be colloborative, designed to improve the experience of connecting people together.

Macromedia Central aims to deliver all these.

Key Features of Macromedia Central

Macromedia central acts as a 'Mall of Applications" allowing users to see, try and buy 3rd party applications. These apps would run within a secure framework, so malicious code will not affect the client.

Data can be stored and shared locally among applications using Flash's shared object capability.

Any URL can be cached ( Including XML, Jpeg, swf ! ).

The common stored data can be handled by different applications. User can locate a restaurant from restaurant review and click ' Find it" pwered by a different application.

All data exchanges done through XML.

Information about the user can be made available to applications ( What is his work, where does he live and work etc), GPS tracking can help build more innovative applications ( What cinemas near me run Lord of the Rings part 2 ?")

Central uses Actionscript 'Agents' to run chores ( Check web content for changes, track blogs etc). Sample application : Sell when Infosys stock touches 6300 and book Holiday at Jaipur.

What can RIA do ?

I wake up in a guest house at Bangalore, open the laptop, get connected and a window opens with predicted weather, top tech/science news, Gist of top 5 emails, movies/special events in the town( with ratings) in Bangalore , appointments for the day, Suggested recipe for the day, great deals at Food world/Gangarams/Pubs. I add some ingradients to be ordered automatically from Food world and get delivered to my guesthouse and book tickets for The Two Towers.

I get to office and get connected to the WI-Fi network. I receive a list of the items shipped from Food world and confirmation of the Two Towers movie tickets plus a offer from the Underground Pub for the evening.

The meeting is starting late and I have 30 mins for myself. I click on the Fill Time application and it tells me I can do the following

1. Read the top 10 updated blogs ( Expected to take 30 mins)
2. Write my blog for the day ( Expected to take 45 mins)
3. Reply to the 10 unreplied messages ( Expected to take 30 mins)
4. Work on my cookbook ( Expected to take 20 mins)
5. Read the couple of white papers I've downloaded ( Expected to take 60 mins)

Must Read Macromedia Blogs

Macromedia has been one of the very few companies to have taken blogging seriously. It actively encourages their employees to blog. Some of them are eminently readable and are pretty valuable for keeping uptodate on product development and the direction their products are heading. This gives us a much needed edge as we can anticipate and start developing products based on this advance information. In many cases, we have gone ahead with product development where certain critical components were still not launched by Macromedia, but which, we were sure, would be incorporated in future releases.

Over to the blogs..

General intro to the Macromedia blogs and a nice set of articles on flash
Ed Krimen Ex-Vice President ( Developer Community) Macromedia

Short on Macromedia specific products, but has a lot of info on Wi-Fi, Opensource and interviews with Sergei Brin, Tim Berners Lee, etc.,
Jeremy Allaire (Founder Emeritius, Macromedia CTO):

On Dreamweaver MX issues
Mike Chambers Matt Brown (Community Manager for Dreamweaver ), Macromedia.

The philosophy of product design at Macromedia, info on the next series of products on the drawing board, a detailed white paper on the roadmap etc., A must read.
Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect , Macromedia.

A nice article on using two powerful tools together
Using Director and Flash together

A simple and lucid tracker of stuff relating to Macromedia MX
John Dowdell, Tech Support, Macromedia

Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintanence
"What's really angering about instructions of this sort is that they imply there's only one way to put this rotisserie together -- their way. And that presumption wipes out all the creativity. Actually, there are hundreds of ways to put the rotisserie together and when they make you follow just one way without showing you the overall problem, the instructions become hard to follow in such a way as not to make mistakes. You lose the feeling for the work. And not only that, it's very unlikely that they've told you the best way."

O'Reilly had quoted this paggage in his blog on the philosophy of open source movement. This fits in well with the cookbook I'd been contemplating.
Another phrase Pirsig uses is something close to my heart ". ..they make you follow just one way without showing you the overall problem, the instructions become hard to follow in such a way as not to make mistakes Stating the problem and letting the listner appreciate it as a problem leads to increased creativity.

Les say the problem is " How to make flour edible" and not how to make 'proper chappatis'. If the problem is restated this way, the following experiments may occur...

1. I might try adding just salt and pepper + water and try eating the dough raw
2. I might experiment with various liquiods for mixing diff kinds of oil, ghee, honey, cream, buttermilk etc etc.
3. I might try various baking methods.. or even try frying or microwaving.

Now all these would give rise to whole new classes of dishes. SUre, a majority of them will not be edible, but the process would sure be fun. And the jackpot is you might genuinely hit upon a combination which is lip smacking !

Reducing Flash file size

You can force Flash to rebuild the FLA (essentially compressing it), by doing a Save As to a new file name. This will force Flash to rewrite the FLA and only include the current data / assets from the movie. After that you can delete the original file, and rename the new one to the previous name

Action Script Cool tools
The manitu group, creators of ActionScript Viewer have started producing plugins for ASV, so their complete product offering now includes:
ActionScript Viewer - ActionScript and Flash decompiler
URL Action Editor - update getURL() calls in your .swf without opening flash
ActionScript Replacer - change a block of code in your .swf file without opening flash
ASV IE Cache SWF Browser - retrieve .swf files from internet explorer's cache
ASV Projector Creator - create compressed .swf files and projectors for flash player 4, 5, and 6 (i.e., reduce file size for your movies or projectors)

And check out this cool page turning effect
http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/msg/corp/flashdreamworks.html

So much to do, so little time !!

What an amazing array of sciences to learn and enjoy ! It is indded a pity life is so short !

Just started on Automobile basics with Jagan and want to do the following

1.Build a car from scratch, using junk materials
2.Retrofit a mountain bike ( Hercules Ranger) with a small TVS engine
3. Build a motorcycle from scratch

Cooking is more or less learnt as I've a grasp of the basics and so am confident I can turn out quite a few cuisines/recipes.However baking cakes, bread, using ovens, making cheese, making wine , liquers, whiskey etc needs to be learnt.

Architecture is another fascinating field I want to dabble in. Idea is to

1.Design and Build a house single handedly
2. USe non conventional designs ( Earth sheltered houses etc) and building materials ( Straw bales, Automobile tires, Aluminium cans , rammed earth etc )

Let's see how far I progress on these !

Earth Sheltered Homes
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo/buildplan.html

Saddams bunkers set me thinking... what would it be like to build underground ?

The advantages are numerous

1. Top area can be converted to a tennis court/ mini park
2. Sound proofing , privacy, novelty
3. Less exposure to elements
4. No need of painting, external finish etc.,
5. The temperature of the earth during the summer is much higher at the surface than at greater depths. SO a underground house might be actually cooler.

Did a bit of surfing and the downside seems to be

Cost of construction might shoot up if improperly planned, otherwise it should not cost more than a normal house.

Good design to avoid moisture problems

Design

There are two basic types of earth-sheltered housing
underground
Entire structure built underground.

bermed
The structure built above ground, with walls banked up with earth.

An "earth sheltered" home is one in which the top as well as most of the sides are covered with earth. An "earth bermed" home utilizes a conventional roof, with only the sides of the home protected with earth

From these two basic types, three general designs have been developed. They are the:

atrium (or courtyard) plan ( Love this... might be the one I decide on )

an underground structure where an atrium serves as the focus of the house and the entry into the house

elevational plan, a bermed structure that may have a glass south-facing entry;

penetrational plan, which is built above or partially above earth and is bermed to shelter the exterior walls that are not facing south

An earth-covered dwelling may have as little as 6 to 8 inches of sod or as much as 9 feet of earth covering the structure

" An atrium design offers an open feeling because it has four walls that give exposure to daylight. This design uses a subgrade open area as the entry and focal point of the house. It is built completely below ground on a flat site, and the major living spaces surround a central outdoor courtyard. The windows and glass doors that are on the exposed walls facing the atrium provide light, solar heat, outside views, and access via a stairway from the ground level. Atrium/courtyard homes are usually covered with less than 3 feet (0.9 meters) of earth primarily because there is no benefit in energy efficiency from greater depths. This style also offers the potential for natural ventilation.

The atrium design is hardly visible from ground level and barely interrupts the landscape. It also provides good protection from winter winds and offers a private outdoor space. This design is ideal for an area without scenic exterior views, in dense developments, and on sites in noisy areas. Passive solar gain—heat obtained through windows—might be more limited, due to the window position in an atrium plan. Courtyard drainage and snow removal are important items to consider in design. "
http://www.eere.energy.gov/erec/factsheets/earth.html

The climate in your geographical area will determine whether an earth-sheltered house can be a practical housing solution. Studies show that earth-sheltered houses are more cost-effective in climates that have significant temperature extremes and low humidity

the earth can absorb extra heat from the house in hot weather or insulate the house to maintain warmth in cold weather

In regions with mild winters and predominantly hot summers, a north-facing slope might be ideal. Every site differs, but generally southern exposures offer more sun and daylight throughout the year than north-facing slopes

The site's topography and microclimate determine how easily the building can be surrounded with earth. A modest slope requires more excavation than a steep one, and a flat site is the most demanding, needing extensive excavation.

The type of soil at your site is another critical consideration. Some types of soil are more suitable than others for earth-sheltered construction. For example, the best soils are granular, such as sand and gravel. These soils compact well for bearing the weight of the construction materials and are very permeable, which means they allow water to drain quickly. The poorest soils are cohesive, like clay, which may expand when wet and has poor permeability. Soil tests, offered through professional testing services, can determine load-bearing capability of soils and possible settlements that may occur.

The groundwater level at your building site is another important consideration. Building above the water table is almost essential. Choosing a site where the water will naturally drain away from the building is the best way to avoid water pressure against underground walls. The site should be surveyed for low spots and areas where water will collect. Seasonal or regular surface water flows should be channeled away from the structure. Drainage systems must be designed to draw water away from the structure to reduce the frequency and length of time the water remains in contact with the building's exterior. Underground footing drains similar to or greater than those required by a house with a basement are necessary in many cases.

The "Earthships" are built to be self-contained and independent; their design allows occupants to grow food inside and to maintain their own water and solar electrical systems

Waterproofing can be a challenge in earth-sheltered construction. Keep in mind these three ways to reduce the risk of water damage in your house: choose the site carefully, plan the drainage both at and below the surface of the house, and waterproof your house

Humidity
Humidity levels may increase in earth-sheltered houses during the summer, which can cause condensation on the interior walls. Installing insulation on the outside of the walls will prevent the walls from cooling down to earth temperature; however, it also reduces the summer cooling effect of the walls, which may be viewed as an advantage in hot temperatures. Mechanical air conditioning or a dehumidifier is often necessary to solve the humidity issue. Proper ventilation of closets and other closed spaces should keep the humidity from becoming a problem in those areas.

Air Exchange/Air Quality
Adequate air exchange must be carefully planned when building an earth-sheltered dwelling. Generally, well-planned, natural ventilation or ventilation by exhaust fans can dissipate ordinary odors.

A real creative excuse :

Just added this to my "Reasons for Non Payment" list.

"________ has been greatly affected by SARS. We have not been able to contact our customers as they are all closed.

I think we will not be able to pay on ____. But I will contact my customers when they re-open and will get back to you on when we can make payment to you."

And I thought I've seen everything !

Though the delayed payment hurt, the excuse sure lightened up my day !