savvas.malamas

MTVGreece widgets!

I’ve build 2 widgets for Mtv Greece but I didn’t had the time to blog about them so far..
The first one is for my beloved Twitter and the other one is for music.

The twitter widget looks like this:

(you can click on the image to see it)

Special thanks to Paulius Uza for his help on this and especially for the server side which caches the tweets so we don’t have to mess with Twitter’s API limitations.

The radio widget looks like this:

(you can click on the image to see it)

It streams Live Radio from Mtv Greece through Akamai.
On this one I use Ben Stucki’s amazing audio visualizer.

On the demo below the widget plays an mp3 which is located on my server.  The reasons for this are two. The 1st one is because I have no idea if I am allowed to and the 2nd is because I wanted to present the widget on this post as it was originally ment to be. Unfortunately on the live version of this widget, which you can see on MTVGreece.gr, the visualizer is turned off because I get this security violation error. I guess this is because Ben is using the computeSpectrum to read the audio (and create the beautiful visuals) and since this is stream I probably need a crossdomain policy file (right?).

I have to make another post some time for the Akamai Stream – Flash Player communication because there is not much information out there..

Anyway you can click on the visualizer to change mode, all credits for this goes to the man, Ben Stucki and if any error occurs you can blame me.
Thanks a lot for sharing your beautiful work Ben.

Oh did I mention that both of them are pure AS3?
No?
Ok both of them are pure AS3 projects!

A nice guy wants to get into my house from my Adobe window (aka Octoshape Grid Delivery enhancement)

After a week or so bookmarked and in between another post I’m preparing (finally a bit technical) I’ve finally found some time to read the very informative post from Flash Magazine about “Plugins for the.. Flash Player“.

It was a few weeks ago when I visited this page on CNN in order to watch a video and suddenly I got a message that looked like that:

I have to admit that I’m not that expert in Flash (Im learning..) but of course I have the latest version installed on all macs @ home (yes my bros’ and parents’ mac on the island too) and my love to the platform is GIANT(wow what a word..). So as you can imaging I was sitting speechless in front of my beautiful Cinema Display wondering.. How did I miss a Flash Player update..?? Then I read the text on the express installation dialog box and I was again like Jack on LOST.. What is this? Where am I? Who are the others? Who is responsible for this and of course what should I do? I mean ok its just the express installation window but what is Octoshape Grid Delivery (which has a beautiful name btw)?

I almost immediately asked my best friend, Twitter, about that. – Don’t worry its ok to call Twitter my best friend as the real ones think that Facecook.. oops Facebook is THE web so.. – @UnitZeroOne reply to me about it and so I almost felt a bit calm.

It is obvious that Flash baby Player uses the express install for installing not only updates for him self but other Adobe goodness but this time was different.. Software for another company wanted to enter my house from my Adobe window. You get the point..

Anyway as you can guess I installed it and then I enjoy CNN but today I read the Flash Magazine’s post and I would like to mention it here just in case anyone else was “terrorized” by this.

A few lines that I would like include here from the original post are:

“Octoshape is developed maintained by a Danish company, located in Copenhagen. The software allows anyone viewing a video stream re-distribute it as well, as part of a Peer to Peer (P2P) network. Everyone that views the stream also offers the stream to other viewers and this offloads the central streaming server allowing for more users as well as huge savings in bandwidth costs. This is not a opt-in solution. If you have the plugin, you are part of the “grid” that broadcasts the stream. The Octoshape add-in for Flash Player will terminate itself about 5 seconds after the flash player has been closed/stopped, so it won’t be a node other than when you use it”

Really fancy, I have to admit!

Laurel Reitman, Sr. Product Manager of Flash Media Server Services asked to FM like that:

“As part of the effort to improve the experience of live events, we have started a technology trial to test grid delivery technology.”

This is great as an idea and technology but I don’t get how the word “trial” fits next to the express installation feature of Flash baby Player. I love Flash Player and Adobe, even more that the fruit company but man this sounds sooo weird. I have to say that I have the debug version so I don’t know if the release version is getting the installation box (but I think it does). To be fair I have to say that Laurel also mentions that:

“Flash Player Express Install functionality is not a general purpose installation mechanism. It is used to distribute Adobe software, such as the developer-initiated player update, Acrobat Connect, and the AIR badge installer, and for security reasons all packages must be digitally signed and delivered from Adobe servers. The Octoshape add-in is delivered during the trial as part of a strategic partnership to test the technology as a way to enhance the live video experience. We have no plans for any further distribution of third party software through the Flash Player.”

I really hope so. I love the baby player so much to see it being accused for problems especially when it’s not related to it (and that is unfortunately already happening for a lot of things).

Anyway the post is really worth reading it because there are more useful information there and for the psycho funs out there you will be able to read the Macromedia word a few times in there.

And YES, it still sounds THAT amazing!

Dear Adobe.. WTF?

I was afraid since 2005 that one day bad things will happen. Thank God Adobe did amazing things with Macromedia and I was really proud to see the NEW company.

CS4 is the baby of both companies and its a really amazing piece of software. Beautiful things also were announced on MAX 2008 which finished (the EU version) just yesterday..

And then I’ve just opened Safari to read my tweets and saw the worst announcement since 2005. Mike Downey and another 599 people out of Adobe. WTF?

I cant believe that this is really happening.
I wish to all Adobeans that are out the best of luck, not that they need it thought. 
I mean Jesus they are x-employees of the best software company, hello??

But man, Mike Downey? I didn’t see that coming and I don’t know what to think, I just want to wish you Mike the best on what you ‘ll do, I really hope to stay in touch and that for me you will always be the favorite Flash Manager (no offense to the current manager) even if you were not in that position the latest months. 

While I was using Flash IDE in every day’s tasks, you were the manager and I was really happy for being if not the 1st, one of the first Macromedians that I talked to. You also got me inspired into photography even thought I hate you a bit because you switch to Nikon

Good luck and please stay in touch. 

I really wish to meet you IRL soon. 

Take care,

Savvas

To my beloved Infinite Loop 1!