Soon after I bought my first computer I started building simple websites. I had all of the best animated gifs you could find, along with those awesome water ripple java applets and whatever other bells and whistles I could find. It was awesome. I wanted to push the boundaries of this new thing. To make something unique that nobody had seen before. This led me to Macromedia Flash 4. My new hobby slowly taught me how to program, and over time I got pretty good at it. Eventually I landed in New York City and found a job at a tiny little web design shop, building websites for big corporations and loving every minute of it.

During this time the internet was recovering from the big crash at the end of the 90′s and as browsers slowly evolved, so were the websites we were building. But browsers were slow to update back then, so Flash filled a need to move faster and give us more options to explore and new technology to use (and abuse!). Around this time I wrote a little javascript utility to detect the presence of the Flash plugin and conditionally inject Flash into a website or not, and I watched as it grew over the years and became one of the most used utilities on the internet.

Flash was huge. Everyone wanted a flashy website and the only way to get one that any meaningful number of people could see was to use Flash. As browsers struggled to keep up, Flash charged ahead allowing us to build some truly amazing websites. Admittedly, there was some abuse of this technology, but we still charged ahead, trying to discover and build the next generation of user interfaces. Most older companies still thought of the internet as just another medium to advertise on. They wanted a flashy website to show off to their investors and clients and cared less about building something useful. The ubiquity of the Flash plugin made it an easy choice to build these new kinds of websites. We weren’t held back by the limitations of HTML any more, and that let us all explore wild ideas and try things that wouldn’t be possible with HTML or Javascript for years to come.

But now, years later, the browsers are catching up. Mobile devices are becoming more important than desktop computers (a trend I expect to continue for years to come). As more people use the internet in their day to day lives, businesses have realized that having a useful website is more powerful than just a flashy animated advertisement.

A few months ago I noticed that SWFObject usage on the top 10,000 websites was declining for the first time ever (I believe usage peaked in the summer of 2010). Last week, Adobe announced that they would halt development of Flash player for mobile devices, and refocus their efforts on HTML. Since this news was announced, I’ve seen many sad and nostalgic tweets from friends and colleagues. Some seem to be taking the news better than others, and it’s understandable that some people are sad to see Flash go. But it’s important to remember that no single technology is responsible for this awesome thing we call the internet.

This brings us back to my younger self sitting at home in Arizona playing with Flash and Photoshop, building new things. I’ve always loved making things, and I suspect many web developers feel the same. The pleasure of making something great is what drives us, not a specific technology. So don’t be too sad about Flash evolving, or even dying. Just keep making awesome things with whatever tools you have at your disposal.

Discuss this post here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3227994

Tickets are on sale now to this awesome small-ish Flash and design conference. This will be the third year in a row I’ve given a talk here, and it’s easily the best conference in North America.

My talk will be about building and maintaining the YouTube video players, and some lessons and tricks we’ve learned along the way, so if you are interested in very high usage/high performance Flash apps, this should be a good talk for you.

1. FiTC: Toronto (April 19-22, Toronto, Canada) – Always a good time Flash conference up in The Canadia. I’ll be giving a talk about the new YouTube API features we announced today, specifically the Flash and Javascript player control APIs and about the new Chromeless player.
2. Google I/O (May 28-29, San Francisco, CA) – A conference all about Google apps and how to use them. I’ll be giving a talk on using the YouTube player APIs and Chromeless player.
3. Flashbelt (June 10-13, Minneapolis, MN) – One of my favorite Flash conferences is back this year with a ton of great speakers. I’ll be giving a presentation on lessons learned while rebuilding the YouTube video players from scratch.
4. Singularity (October 24-26th, Everywhere) – Singularity is a new ‘conference’ that takes place online – all sessions are broadcast over the internet, and there’s a TON of speakers for this thing. It will be very interesting to see how it turns out – I think it has the potential to change the way technology conferences happen online.

I think that’s about it for now. I’m interested in talking about the YouTube API stuff at more conferences. So if you are running a conference and would be interested in having me speak, please let me know.

Here’s some general info on Google intern programs.

If you know a student who might be interested let me know, or you can forward your resume directly to Fred Soriano here at YouTube.

We’re also looking for a full time Flash developer, if you know anyone.

I haven’t posted anything in quite a while, but I suppose I’ve been busy enough to justify it. So, I’ll start with an update to what I’ve been doing over the last few months:

1. Rebuilding the YouTube video players. Nearly from scratch. More on this later.
2. Helping out here and there with SWFObject 2.0 – It’s nearly complete, go try it out. This is a completely rewritten version (sorry, not backwards compatible), but we think it’s an overall better solution to any other Flash embed method out there.
3. We got a puppy.
4. Mostly enjoying San Francisco. The city is a pretty cool place to live. If you’re a nerd. So far it doesn’t quite measure up to New York City, but it’s still growing on me. My main complaint is that everyone here is crazy crazy crazy about the hot new web startups or who you work for and what you can do for them. New York had a little bit of this, but at the same time there was so much other diversity of interests it just seemed so much more interesting. I used to think that a city full of nerds would be awesome, but now I’m not so sure. Anyway, enough of the SF bashing :).

In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading off to my first SXSW. Should be very exciting, as I normally just hang out with Flash or Javascript nerd conferences, but this one seems so much bigger.

The new version is a complete rewrite from SWFObject 1.5, so we’ll need lots of testing before we officially launch it and replace the older SWFObject and UFO scripts, and since we have Adobe involved, they will be including this embed system in the Adobe authoring tools in the future.

The SWFObject project is moving to Google Code, where you can download the source from svn, grab the latest build, or file bugs or read documentation.

I’ve also created a new Google Group for SWFObject support questions and discussion.

If you are at MAX today, our presentation is at 2:45pm in room W-196c and it’s called “Flash Detection and Embedding: An open source solution”.

If you can’t make it today, we’ll be doing it again tomorrw (Wednesday) at 11am in room W-185d.

3689 8870 8247 5302

I don’t think I have any games that use this yet… Just sports and Zelda.

If you have SWFObject questions, try posting them to the SWFObject list, there are a few hundred people on there that have plenty of experience using it and can probably answer any questions you might have.

Anyway, after hours of searching, I finally figured out how to make iSync work with the phone (it’s not supported by default).

I’m sharing this info in the hopes that other people will find it useful.

Here’s what you do:

1) Edit your MetaClasses.plist file:
– Open a Finder window and press command+shift+g and paste in this line:

/Applications/iSync/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/

– You may want to make a backup of this file (just copy + paste it into the same folder)

2) Open the file in your favorite text editor, and add this info for the E70:

<key>com.nokia.E70</key>
<dict>
  <key>Identification</key>
  <dict>
    <key>com.apple.cgmi+cgmm</key>
    <string>Nokia+Nokia E70-1</string>
    <key>com.apple.gmi+gmm</key>
    <string>Nokia+Nokia E70-1</string>
  </dict>
  <key>InheritsFrom</key>
  <array>
    <string>family.com.nokia.serie60v2.3</string>
    </array>
  <key>Services</key>
  <array>
    <dict>
      <key>ServiceName</key>
      <string>com.apple.model</string>
      <key>ServiceProperties</key>
      <dict>
        <key>ModelIcon</key>
        <string>NOKE70.tiff</string>
        <key>ModelName</key>
        <string>E70</string>
      </dict>
    </dict>
  </array>
</dict>

NOTE: I copied the icon for one of the other phones and renamed it to “NOKE70.tiff”, but you don’t need to do this if you don’t want to, just pick one of the existing tiff files in the same folder as the .plist file.

3) Save the .plist file and restart iSync.

4) Add a device, it should find your E70 and allow you to sync using the built in sync software on the phone!

* NOTE: I ordered my phone from europe, so it uses the “-1″ in the identification string (Nokia+Nokia E70-1) – when the US model comes out, this will probably change to “Nokia+Nokia E70-2″

UPDATE: I noticed that this wasn’t adding the alarms for my meetings at the right time – they were all set without the timezone offset they should have had, so with some further digging, I figured out how to fix this:

1) Open Finder, hit command+shift+g and paste in this path:

/Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/PhoneFamilySync.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/

– Find the file PhoneConduitv2-serie60-SyncML.plist and make a copy of it for backup purposes (in the same folder is fine)

2) Open the file (not the backup copy) in your favorite text editor, and search for this node:

<key>hasTimeZone</key>
<false/>

and change the ‘false’ to ‘true’ so it should look like this:

<key>hasTimeZone</key>
<true/>

Save the file and relaunch iSync, and all your meeting alarms should now be the correct time. Since I had already synced, it wouldn’t resync all the events I already had, so you may need to remove the meetings from the phone and resync, but be careful, as removing the events from the phone will remove them from your calendar next time you sync! (I’m not sure of a good way to get around this, so if anyone has ideas, lets hear them)

Enjoy!

Notes:
– This only seems to work when syncing from the computer to the phone. If I choose sync in the phone, it tries to connect but then just disconnects without syncing or a warning.
– If all of this is too much for you, or you can’t figure it out, you can always just buy this plugin from NovaMedia for €10

UPDATE: I took some pictures of it so you can see the size of it – not the best pics (my room is kinda dark) but they should give you an idea of the size and feel of it.

UPDATE (6-27-2006): OS X 10.4.7 was released today, and it appears that the update breaks this functionality (there were some updates to iSync). The new update does not appear to support the E70 yet, so you’ll have to re-implement this change after you update to 10.4.7.

As it grew close to shipping time, we changed the name of our software to FutureSplash Animator to focus more on its animation capabilities. We also were growing tired of running a company that didn’t have much money to spend, and began trying to sell our technology. After an unsuccessful pitch to Adobe and turning down a bid from Fractal Design, we shipped FutureSplash Animator in the summer (May) of 1996.

So how do you celebrate 10 years? Well, there were a few things happening on Monday that are pretty big news: We saw one of the biggest US Television networks go online and offer streaming versions of their shows. This was exciting for me because Schematic designed the UI for the ABC player, and acted as a Technical liaison (with our VP of Multimedia stuff Robert Reinhardt heading that side up). A while back I was asked to help out with a motion test/technology demo for the 3D rotating images, and after a few hours of messing around with Andre Michelle’s the excellent DistortImage class by Thomas Pfeiffer (based on Andre Michelle’s code), we had a nice little working prototype running. It’s very basic, but you can check it out here if you want to see how the animation progressed as the ABC folks built the actual player.

Then Adobe redesigned their site — killing Macromedia.com in the process. At first I thought ‘sure another website, blah blah,’ but then I looked under the hood and noticed that they are using SWFObject to embed the Flash movies on the site(!). It’s a customized version, but the base functionality is all there, and they even left in my namespacing, so if you search the js file for ‘deconcept’ you’ll see the code show up. Pretty cool.

There’s one other big project that was launched on Monday but I’ll save that for another post.

About 5 months ago I left The Chopping Block and started as a Senior Software Developer at Schematic. I’ve been working on a few really cool projects, including some work on Vongo, and a Windows Media Center site for GameTap. There’s a ton of other awesome projects in the works that we’ll be launching soon, so watch this space. Also, we’re always looking for good AS2.0 developers, so if you or someone you know is looking for work, or even just more fun work, drop us a line.

I’ve also started teaching a class on XHTML and Flash at The Cooper Union, which I’m very excited about.

If anyone is looking for a cheap used laptop, go check it out.

I’m also selling an old cellphone. It’s a pretty cool one, but I replaced it with something a little smaller.

UPDATE: Auction is over!

I’m OK Registry – Enter the phone number of a loved one to see if they have checked in, or ask questions about a person by entering their phone number and posting a message. This is an excellent resource for people who may have relatives in the area and are wondering if they are ok.

Displaced Designer – A resource for those in the creative industry recently displaced by the on-going situation in New Orleans and the surrounding region. Offer up desk space to a designer who needs a place to work, or find a desk if you are a designer who no longer has a place to work because of the hurricane / flooding.

Please help spread the word about these sites. If more people see them, more people can help.

Naturally, I wanted to see how this compares to other retail chains, so I went to mcdonalds.com and plugged in my address. McDonald’s website doesn’t let you see how many total results there are within a certain radius, so I just hit the ‘show more’ button until I hit five miles. It turns out there are only 119 McDonald’s restaurants within five miles of me.

Wendy’s store locator gets the award for Most Useless Interface: when I put in ‘new york city’ and my zip code, it said there were no locations. After removing the city name and the zip code (only choosing New York from the state dropdown) there were 226 in the whole state of New York, but when I finally got it to tell me how many were in ‘new york city,’ the number was only 16.

So I guess Starbucks wins. Whatever ‘wins’ means.

I don’t want to give anything away, so let me just get to the point: all throughout the movie there are tons of references to the number 11. Some don’t seem to fit in at all with what’s going on and seem to have no real relevance to anything. I’m hoping that maybe someone can figure it out and clue me in.

Trying not to give any spoilers, here’s a list of things I noticed (there are more I think, but I can’t remember them all!):

• Owen Wilson says about the shark: “I’ve got a feeling that we could see it from 111 feet in the air” (or something close)
• The crewmember’s kid (German kid) is 11 years old(?)
• In the sub the reporter says randomly about her baby “In 12 years he’ll be 11 1/2″
• The last bowie song has the lyrics “I’m up on the eleventh floor / And I’m watching the cruisers below”

I also thought there was some mention of a “room 111″ towards the beginning, but I’m not sure.

So what’s the big deal with the number 11? Someone give me a clue.

UPDATE (12-22-2004): I posted a thread on IMDB about this. No responses with any good guesses, but someone did point out that the Royal Tenenbaums lived at 111 Archer ave.

Well I did a quick little Google search and found this page, which had this information:

It was on this day in 1862 that mathematician Charles Lutdwidge Dodgson sent a handwritten manuscript called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground as a present to Alice Liddell, the ten-year-old daughter of a colleague. Dodgson had improvised the story about a girl who falls down a rabbit hole during a boating trip on the Thames with her family. In 1865, Dodgson published the story at his own expense, titling it Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and using the pen name Lewis Carroll.

So there you have it. Why am I posting all of this? No reason really, other than it made me think of one of his other famous poems, The Walrus and the Carpenter.

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright–
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done–
“It’s very rude of him,” she said,
“To come and spoil the fun!”

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead–
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”

“If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

“O Oysters, come and walk with us!”
The Walrus did beseech.
“A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each.”

The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head–
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat–
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn’t any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more–
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

“But wait a bit,” the Oysters cried,
“Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!”
“No hurry!” said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

“A loaf of bread,” the Walrus said,
“Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed–
Now if you’re ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed.”

“But not on us!” the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
“After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!”
“The night is fine,” the Walrus said.
“Do you admire the view?

“It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!”
The Carpenter said nothing but
“Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf–
I’ve had to ask you twice!”

“It seems a shame,” the Walrus said,
“To play them such a trick,
After we’ve brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!”
The Carpenter said nothing but
“The butter’s spread too thick!”

“I weep for you,” the Walrus said:
“I deeply sympathize.”
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

“O Oysters,” said the Carpenter,
“You’ve had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?’
But answer came there none–
And this was scarcely odd, because
They’d eaten every one.

I love this poem, and I don’t even like poetry. And Happy Birthday to Alice.

He also happened to be wandering through a Best Buy the other day right after the new GameboyNintendo DS things were released. And they had some in stock. So of course he had to buy one. I was playing some Metroid and some Mario 64 on the train (slightly different, but the same levels from the N64 version) and I have to say it is a pretty awesome thing. I think I may have to buy one. I haven’t bought a portable game device since the original Gameboy came out, and I’m not really a huge video game player these days.

The most exciting part I think is the wireless multiplayer things. I Imagine we’ll start seeing people riding around on subway cars playing quick multiplayer games during their daily commute (Matthew thinks the subways will be the new gaming hubs, and we’ll see kids riding and riding all day just playing video games).

I do have a couple small requests though:

1. Give me the ability to invert the controls for metroid and other 3rd person shooters. I’m used to pushing my mouse forward to look down, and if I can’t have the same controls on the DS, I probably won’t play the game.
2. Someone needs to develop little thumb covers for using your thumb on the touch screen. The included strap with the plastic bump gets loose too fast and isn’t very comfortable. A little glove finger with a plastic bump on it would be perfect (although it would look really stupid, but you have to make sacrifices sometimes in the name of good video games).

Go buy your lady friend some undies.

Quoth the random group of people on my roof:

“It looks like a not quite ripe red wine grape.”

“It looks like a ping pong ball in front of a light bulb.”

“It looks like an angry testicle!” (said with a funny voice that must be used when repeating this quote)

I wanted them to show up between the blog posts, but I just can’t be bothered to hack it into submission.