Photoshop: Compilation of the most smashing light effects tutorials (Smashing Magazine)

I was looking to include the Tyndall Effect on my banner. I ended up finding a treasure cove of the best light effects tutorials I could have imagined.

Find the list here

Test Drive GPhone on your PC for FREE!

Download the Android Emulator here.

More on the Emulator here.

Google provides the Android Emulator for testing and development as part of it's SDK to Android developers. Android is the name Google has given to the software that runs on the Google Phone. I'm not sure why Google is not popularizing it... but you can use that emulator to test drive the GPhone before actually making a decision to buy it.

Flex CheatSheet - Flex and Amfphp (jonniespratley.com)

I found an excellent compilation of codes by Jonnie Spratley which can significantly aid beginner and intermediate level flex developers learning the ropes of communication with the server using AMFPHP. The codes are well formatted and I found the article to be very organized.

Click here's the read the article on jonniespratley.com

Happy Flexing!

Flex Tutorial: How to read a local XML file with Flex (flextutor.org)

I had planned to write up a tutorial describing how one goes about reading XML Files in flex but I found a very detailed version of the same posted here.

As a programmer, I am a fan of reusing code, in this case... reusing an article so I will simply refer you to the said article.

Just one note, the writer in the article instructs you to add the "use-network=false" parameter to the compiler. That is not necessary. The reason being, that as long as your XML file is located in the bin folder, and you're referring to the XML file as a relative url... Flex does not care whether you are on the internet or accessing it locally.

Click here to read the post!

Happy Flexing!

Flex Tutorial: Fire Eagle and Google Maps

• See Working Component (Requires Yahoo Account)
  
• Download MXML Source + FireEagle PHP Scripts (16 KB)

Download Note: The reason I don't let you download the component is because my API key will be compiled within the component and will only work within my domain! So you will need to download the source and enter the keys in the following files:

1. index.php - FireEagle Consumer Key and Secret

2. callback.php - FireEagle Consumer Key and Secret

3. getloc.php - FireEagle Consumer Key and Secret

4. FireEagle_GoogleMaps.mxml - Google Maps API Key

All the keys mentioned above can be obtained by logging into FireEagle and / or Google Maps API website. If you don't alredy have those keys, links to obtain them are provided below.

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This tutorial will show you how to develop web applications using Yahoo's Fire Eagle platform. Fire Eagle is basically a platform that allows users to securely update and share their locations with registered applications. Learn more about Fire Eagle here.

So, we're going to prepare a basic application where users tell us where they are located using Fire Eagle and we display that location on a Google Map embedded in our application.

Before we begin, you will need to register your application at the Fire Eagle Developer Center and apply for the Google Maps API Key. Both Yahoo and Google will give you a key that will allow you to use their services (Fire Eagle / Google Maps) on your domain.

Apply for the Fire Eagle Key here.

Apply for the Google Maps API Key here.

Note: you will need to create Yahoo and Google accounts if you don't already have one.

Also, Fire Eagle will ask you to provide a callback url. More on that below. For now, you can use http://www.yourdomainname.com/callback.php.

All done?... Ok, this is how it will work. We have a landing page that will simply display the link "Click here to authenticate with FireEagle!". The user clicks on the link and gets redirected to Fire Eagle. After logging in, the user is asked whether or not to submit their location information to our application. Upon accepting to submit their location to us, the user is directed back to our website where we display their location on the Google Map embedded within our application.

This is, by far, a minimalistic application with really no practical use. It is just to show you how to interact with Fire Eagle and Google Maps using Flex. Squeeze out those creative juices and you will find plenty of applications.

Now, in order to use Google Maps with Flex, you will need to download the Google Maps Flash component. Get it here.

Add the Google Maps Component to your project following the steps in the Screenshot.

Some information:

1. index.php is the landing page. This is where users are shown the link to authenticate their Fire Eagle account. When the link is clicked on, the user will be directed to Fire Eagle and a token will be passed to Fire Eagle that will help identify the current session.
   
2. callback.php is the Callback URL. Fire Eagle needs to know the location of this file in the Developer Center. All users wanting to share their locations with your application will be directed to this url. It gets the location information and the token identifying the user session.
3. getloc.php is the page that basically parses information out of the returned location object. Location objects are stored and retreived between php files using session variables.
4. getlatlng.php is a file that simply returns the latitude and longitude variables from session variables. It is called by the flex application when it needs the location returned by Fire Eagle to be displayed on Google Map.

As with all my tutorials, I will allow you to download the source files and the compiled components along with their corresponding files, then explain in detail when you ask questions in the comments sections.

So go ahead, download the files using the links at the top and start getting creative with Fire Eagle, Google Maps, and of course Flex!

Flex Tutorial: Feedback Form

• See Working Component (312 KB)
• Download Component (312 KB)
• Download Source (3 KB)
  

I'm too lazy to explain everything in detail right now, but feel free to ask questions in the comments section.

Future Peek: Internet Computing

An afterthought on my previous blog post, where I touched the concept of the Google Cloud... how will computing in the future work?

Laptops and Desktops as we know them to be today, will be antiques in the future. Probably used as fish tanks in someone's living room.

Given the speed at which internet speed barriers are being broken, at some point in the not-so-long future, internet speeds would have reached the equivalent of hard drive access speeds. Meaning, using the internet will be as quick as accessing files or applications on your computer.

Remember those good old faithful CRT monitors, they have pretty much gone the way of the dodos. LCDs are now dominating, so how much thinner does the future look?! You will be amazed! Imagine a screen as thin as paper. Screens of the future may be embedded in our T-Shirts, taped to the wall, wrapped around our wrists and maybe even eatable. Well, that won't do much good except to baffle the x-ray operator.

So in the future, computers will be indispensable. Computers will be part of every aspect of our lives. Imagine the possibilities: video newspapers, health check sticker with ability to access symptoms list online, ceiling light sheet, animated fashion design... the possibilities are virtually endless. And we can rely on our creativity to use the technologies to its maximum potential!

News Analysis: Implications of Google's new Chrome Browser Project

The word of the day is that Google has announced an open-source browser project: Chrome. Although I was unable to find any official announcement at the Google Press Center, the Blog World seems to be full of activity. The announcement, whether official or not, comes within a week of Microsoft's much hyped Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 announcement.

Speculation on the new browser project, seemingly concrete at present, comes after a 38-page comic series published by the acclaimed Scott McCloud depicting proposed features.

Some claim that information on the project will be posted at google.com/chrome though Google slaps me back with a 404 Not Found!

Let's look at the proposed features as described by the comic series:

1. Firefox 3 users will be familiar with the 'Awesome Bar' officially known as 'Smart Keywords'. If you're not a Firefox 3 user yet, you're definitely missing out! Chrome will have it too!
   
2. A completely new tabbing design seems to be coming over the horizon. The new 'special tabs' will run on processes of their own, killable via the process / task manager. Remember the old pre-IE7 days when closing one browser via the process manager killed all your open browser windows. I still cringe looking at that dreaded error reporting window. Also, these 'special tabs' will feature their own interfaces. By interface, I mean the address bar, back, forward and the likes!
   
3. Your Chrome homepage will feature thumbnails of your most visited pages. I hope the history's stored in my computer rather than on Google's servers.
4. Chrome also claims to be looking at a feature similar to Microsoft's InPrivate Browsing Mode made available in IE8. It isolates your browsing history and cache while the mode is switched on.
   
5. Other features are in line with standard browser marketing catchwords: Enhanced Security, Reliability, Stability, Performance, yada yada yada!

Now let's look at some of the reasons why Google could be building up its armies to march into the Microsoft dominated browser wars!

1. Better competitor to IE than Firefox: Could Google achieve better results than the innovation-driven open sourced Firefox in chomping down market share from Microsoft? It did so with Search and perhaps a little, with Google Docs. But the primary reason was the frailty of their respective markets at the time of launch. Simple, swift search was non-existent when Google exploded into the web world and no major corporation really did venture into online document management at a scale that Google did. But browsers have been around for quite a while. Yes, Microsoft was negligent until the open source community threw its weight around Firefox but the post-Firefox browser wars have picked up pace. The Bill-less Microsoft has realized its vulnerability in the web world and essence of IE in pushing its web agenda. Google is up against very powerful foes and unlike common thinking, Google hasn't succeeded in every territory it's ventured into, prime examples being Google Chat, Google Answers and Orkut.
2. Is it meant to be a step toward the Google Cloud?: For those unaware what Google plans to do with a cloud, no... it's not a weather control device. A computing cloud is basically an operating system similar to Windows or Mac OS but running entirely on the web, in this case, on Google's server farm. Not a farm as in farm for grazing cattle burping and contributing to global warming, but a state of the art complex filled with computing hardware whose combined thermal output require power plants of their own, on the most part, to cool those processors down. How can Google create its own online operating system without their own browser? The Google Cloud is a very powerful idea requiring a massive infrastructure. A failed browser will be a unacceptable setback for Google, that I believe is the reason Chrome has been open sourced. How many failed open source projects have you really heard about? The community of experts keeps them moving. Only this time around, expect heavy artillery support from Google.
   

See the full comic series here.