It is beyond anything you have ever experienced or imagined
Internet Adventures
General category for links to other cool blog posts, discussions about new trends and technologies, and so on.
Making Facebook Apps with Rails
May 17th
Here is a brief presentation on using RFacebook to develop Rails apps for Facebook. It covers installing and setting up the plugin as well as some FB API calls and FBML specifics.
Some Tips and Tricks with Tweenlite
Jan 8th
Well partaking of some forays into AS3 I came across this sweet utility: TweenLite. I highly recommend checking it out.
Here are some cool tricks that I wish I had known earlier.
1. Tweening scrollRect
const scroller:DisplayObject; // This is the object that we want to display a portion of via scrollRect
const scrollRect:Rectangle; // This is the scroll rect we tween the properties of
private function centerScroll(player:Player) {
TweenLite.to(scrollRect, 1.2, {x:player.x, y:player.y, onUpdate:updateScroll});
}
private function updateScroll():void {
scroller.scrollRect = scrollRect;
}
It is seriously that easy. The trick is knowing to use the onUpdate parameter to get around being unable to tween scrollRect directly.
2. Random Assemblage
Say you have a logo built out of dozens of tiny stars. You want this logo to assemble from a random starting configuration, but who has the time to micro-manage a bunch of little instances? Well, now, no one needs to. Behold:
for(var i:int = 0; i < numChildren; i++) {
star = getChildAt(i);
TweenLite.from(star, duration, {x:String(Math.random()*800 - 400), y:String(Math.random()*800 - 400)});
}
Just place this little snippet in the actions of your MovieClip. The secret here is using the iteration over all the child elements so we don’t have to name them. Also, we can use random numbers so we don’t have to bother laying them out, they just end up in the correct layout from wherever they happen to start.
I’m sure there are many more ways to utilize TweenLite to simply accomplish many amazing things, and I’d like to hear about them!
Web-ad((minn)|(amantiumm))-ing
Dec 7th
I’ve been on hiatus from programming recently and instead have been focusing on getting the STRd6 site up and running. It is now to the point where content can start growing up out of it like a fertile ground. Soon it may even have a forum. I decided to use Joomla to power the site, it provides many things I need and takes much of the trouble out of getting a site that is easy to maintain, cross-browser compatible, and easy on the eyes. I’m going with Joomla 1.5 RC3 right now, which should save the trouble of upgrading later. One disadvantage is that there are limited extensions at present, but that should change over the next couple of months.
In other news, my computer has been on the fritz for ages, it freezes occasionally, but only occasionally. After an elaborate and boring diagnosis I tried doing random things. I uninstalled my Programmer Dvorak keyboard layout and switched to the ANSI Dvorak; that didn’t fix it. I updated the drivers to just about everything. Then I tried updating the BIOS and that’s when it got mad. Reset… power on … blank screen … “Beeeeeeeeeep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeep. … Beeep. … Beeeeeeeeeeep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep. … Beep.” I couldn’t find that exact sequence in the “Award BIOS Beep Code” section of my motherboard user’s manual, but the message was clear. “Ooohhhhh Shhhhhhiitt. … Beep” was what my motherboard was telling me.
After confirmed, please follow steps below to relief.
1. Clear the CMOS data.
(See "Close CMOS Header: JCMOS1" section)
2. Wait for seconds.
3. Power on the system again.
Oh, I cleared the CMOS data (after seeing “Close CMOS Header: JCMOS1″ section). Oh, I waited for seconds. Oh, I powered on the system again. It made it. How many times have you been ballz deep in your PC toggling a CMOS jumper? I might try another BIOS update now that I have learned the knowledge to fix it when I mess it up. For now I’ll just live with the freezing… for now… !!!
