Viewing by month: July 2005
sIFR 2.0 is Fantastic!
Posted on Jul 28, 2005
Working at Hasbro presents some unique challenges, particularly due to the fact that our sites are graphic (and Flash) instensive to say the least. It seems that each new design we receive from our design team contains countless fonts (don't even get me started on the drop shadow and glow overkill). This can make creating dynamic pages difficult, but fortunately sIFR 2.0 is finally offering a solution (or an improvement at least).
Certification Buzz - Response
Posted on Jul 22, 2005
I want to respond to a post at at CFCODER Blog. Let me state for the record that I think studying for the certification is a good thing. First off, the implication of his argument would be that you need to use every feature in every release (or at least a majority of them) to prepare for the certification exam. This is both unlikely and impractical and studying for the exam can often be an eye opener about features that you do not have a need for in your every day work. Also, I am not so sure about how many people really study that hard for certications to get jobs they cannot do. I am also unsure about which employers are hiring people with certifications and no experience in the line of work for which they are certified.
More Apple/Intel Speculation
Posted on Jul 21, 2005
A friend sent me a link to There's More to the Apple/Intel Deal Than Even Bob Thought At First by Robert X. Cringely. It is very speculative but also fascinating if you like to follow corporate "gossip" or you find the Apple/Intel deal interesting. Mr. Cringley connects the dots nicely (though who knows how correct he is) speculating on a potential "iTunes Movie Store" and a "super-high-capacity iPod and a separate retinal-scan display" for video. He certainly makes it sound possible if not likely.
Experimenting with Flash Forms
Posted on Jul 21, 2005
As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to build my first "mini" app using flash forms. It was heavily based upon Laura Arguello and Nahuel Foronda's "Constructing an Application with Flash Forms from the Ground Up" article from CFDJ. I found it an excellent article to get anyone thinking of getting started with Flash forms. I was shocked at how quickly I was able to get a nicely interactive form up and running.
Updates to both Firefox and Thunderbird (versions 1.0.6)
Posted on Jul 20, 2005
Mozilla just released updates to both Firefox and Thunderbird. The main fix on both (from the release notes - Firefox,Thunderbird) appears to be to "restore API compatibility for extensions that did not work in [versions 1.0.5]". This issue did not really affect me, but in this article they also claim "minor updates to improve stability". If you want to download go here for Firefox and here for Thunderbird.