I turn my head to the east... looking for the days than never existed
I can still see the purple sun

The jar on her head... in my head, my eyes not sure if it was the dream
My memory never lies

I walked in the street, I touched the pillars
Frozen colours, the nice afternoon

I went for that fantasy’s hunt... but it was over

I kept the light... and lost the dream

Include your HTML tags inside XML for flash

As anybody familiar with XML HTML and Flash that XML can not take characters like <, >, &, " and ' it is possible to use a CDATA node to turn around it but a node value can not take CDATA so what could be a solution.

If you need to have some text coming from a database with html tags supported by Flash such as <b> for bold, <u> underline, <i> italic and others, you will face this problem for sure, I come with a small simple solution, a script replacement so that I can write inside the xml [b] [u] [i] to turn around this problem and here is the AS that can solve this problem:

Let's said we have a text like this :

var tex:String = "This is my text and this is a [b]bold[/b] word";

lets said that text come from an xml node as [ can be used in xml without problem to specify an HTML tag

in my AS code I separate the charachters "[" and "]" with split function, then I replace them with "<" and ">" with join function.

var1 = tex.split("[");

tex = var1.join("<");



var2 = tex.split("]");

tex = var2.join(">");

In my text field, I enable the html by

test_txt.html = true;

Then I point it to our tex text variable

test_txt.htmlText = tex;

Text will be changed to: This is my text and this is a <b>bold</b> word

Simple !!! isn't it :)))

Uploading a file in PHP5 works the same as uploading in PHP4 as long as you are aware that you should take in consideration the following points:

1- In a shared host the ideal value for openbase_dir is to be a dedicated path for every user or client.

So in the php.ini file openbase_dir = (/web/www.yourwebsite.com/).
You can add multiple paths : (/web/www.yourwebsite.com/:/tmp/).

This is to limit the files that can be opened by PHP to the specified directory.

2- Using a function such as: move_uploaded_file ( string $filename , string $destination )

Your destination should be an absolute path.
During the move a temporary directory is needed, this directory will be defined in php.ini under upload_tmp_dir, if there is no value by default the directory will be /tmp.

3- Many shared host company leave openbase_dir with no value this will not cause any problem if upload_tmp_dir have no value as well, but if there is the values should be:

openbase_dir = /web/www.yourwebsite.com/:/tmp/
upload_tmp_dir = /tmp/


This changes can be done by the host provider as its not possible to use function ini_set() or .htaccess file to change the value of a php_admin_value.

Why 3D?

The future of the web depends on its infrastructure, imagine a broadband like virgin of 50mega we have also cheap large hosting servers, imagine... 3D web, just imagine how much software technology we need, AE is just a drop in the ocean... using in it will be essential, because the 3D devices are coming, flat medium will be archaic with the speed of HI-Tech evolution.

Imagine a web of 3D view, for any object, with 3DXML that may happen in a decade, I will be 49 I don’t think I will retire yet, that if it doesn’t happen sooner, working 3D will not be a joke or imagination. Don’t think flat, forget about the cave drawing from Stone Age that we keep using on and on in different ways, the web now is more interactive and needs more tools and technologies to improve it, and because we live in a 3D world we will need to feel it in our interactivity with the web too. Imagine what is waiting for us when it comes to use multimedia in 3D... how mad and hard that will be?

Imagine 3D laser scanner in your studio to scan objects quickly; try to imagine virtual world spaces with avatars created by scanning real people.

We will not have enough time to spend hours and hours doing simple things, the web will depend on a huge amount of creativity, as web designers now we use the current packages of Adobe, still moving like a snail when it comes of the use to multimedia, we can not be courageous enough and be more creative because of the current situation of the web infrastructure, a tender from Ireland send me a request: “I need a page that loads in 10 seconds on dial-up connection” the website itself is about jewellery, this is quite frustrating.

We… all the people involved in web industry, we have to be ferocious when it comes to the use of multimedia, and we will make the changes that will prepare the user to easily step to the future of the web.

Are we ready to imagine multimedia in 3D?

Lido Ghali, Derry / L'Derry - N. Ireland

…Alara once again…

A happy child, as we are all, as we should be… a strange statement to declare … over confidante… perhaps we should be always happy.

Alara, the girl with Almonds and the golden puppies… her arms wide open hugging the life, chanting perhaps in that melodic Turkish voice, that one day some of my ancestors spook… Happy.

Shall I dance with Alara or let the fairy dance in my mind… that hair of hers… fiery colour of a fauve… that happy face… in my eyes, those clear eyes it must be a fantasy to look deep at them.

Alara dancing… turning and hugging life… taking the beauty from life and reflecting back that beauty in the eyes of any body looking at Alara, spreading that fine feeling of sweetness of life… that simple feeling that always exist around us, waiting for us to gather somehow, sometime.

The dawn is almost there
Coming over the wings of seagulls
Calling from my window
Six hundreds brick to build the bridge

Are we there yet?

I can’t see Godot

Those lands that reflect from the windows
The brown soil and the green grass
The priestess is waiting
The monk is muttering

Where is Godot?

The dawn is yawning
The sun is coming
The seagulls still calling
I am looking from my window
Six hundreds brick to build the fort

Are these enough

Godot didn’t show yet

The sun is rising
The temple is fading
The monk is sleeping
I am backing away
Six hundreds brick in that wall

Will Godot ever come?

When every time I see storms coming
I feel that I am going to wake up

My sweet dream
You will not continue
I can not feel you enough
Fading with illusion in my head

Sweet Love
I can not put you even in words
The words are there
Hidden in the time
But the time can not begin

You are like all the colour of the spring
In a hidden divine paradise

A Queen
And your people is only me
A God … a religion
And your worshipper is only me

You are scared and I am broken
There is too much space can be between us
Too much ice can form

My heart is burning
That ice could soon melt
Because my eyes can’t see better sky
Than the sky of your eyes

Oh Jerusalem of the west
Your soil buried the Fenians and the Brits
Your faith … your cross … your heart
The stones are all around

I wish if he was here
King Solomon and a sword
Like a the child will slice you
But who will shed the savior’s tears

(I enter to the British Islands competition with this, and it was selected, but it was not published because I did not return the form of copyright)

Launch ThickBox from Flash movie with AS3:

I tried many sites to find a solution to launch the ThickBox with some movies and images inside an html page from a flash file but there was no success, after some trials, here is what I found as solution:

1 - in your flash FLA ActionsScript on the frame write this script:

import flash.external.ExternalInterface;
function b1() {
ExternalInterface.call("tb_show","Your Title of the page","yourpagepath? &keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=650",false);
}

2 - in your link or button ActionsScript write this script:

on (release) {
b1();
}

3 - in your HTML make sure that the wmode of any flash under the ThickBox is transparent.

Since it was used in 1974 Bell Laboratories internal memorandum by Brian Kernighan, developers did not stop using it again and again to test the new renovations in IT field, I personally use just “Hello” or “This is just a test” to be more precise sometimes.

I am browsing everyday article after article; WEB 1.0, WEB 2.0… WEB n.0 I personally think that WEB x.0 is not the right way mathematically to display the version since “x” is more geometric, I prefer to use the “n” because n as a numeric variable refer to suite of numbers.

If we stop for the moment and talk about WEB 2.0 and how that is affect our everyday life, let me introduce you to it the way I feel it as a normal average net-user, the “Hello world” should become an XML file, then you have to read it through different data medium the same way.

There is a lot of great technologies that create rich Internet applications such as Ajax and Flex, which I believe that they will guide us to the WEB 3.0 which an area that will be characterized by the use of the 3D technologies.

In 2004 I went to the Exchange restaurant for a meal and I asked the owner about the website address to take a look at it, he told me that there is none for the moment, so I offered him to design his website, he give me a deposit and the go ahead, the second day I bought my photography equipment and took some shoots and left and started to think what I should do about the display of the images and the text, that what is all about, since the owner want to offer the ambiance and the atmosphere inside the place.

www.exchangerestaurant.com

By the time Adobe did not Acquired yet its main rival Macromedia and personally I thought before it will be a great achievement if there is cooperation between the two companies in the future.

In one hand I needed some Blur Gaussian effects that could be done with adobe Photoshop to be used in flash; I had to create them frame by frame, now they can be done very easy by adobe after effects and exported to flash.
I had to think about the display of the text and it should be updated by the staff of the restaurant. The solution was to use XML files that don’t stick in the cache like SWF file, so I generated the XML in PHP file extension that has no cache to communicate with a MySQL database to be controlled by a CMS build in PHP.

Although Fireworks use to make things easy but the future of the web required a lot, the world now become virtual and it’s moving… the new generation of net-user expect more animation and more interactivity.

Developing now require more intelligent solution with less time.

Flex or Ajax?

In Wikipedia there is an interesting article about this comparison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_Ajax_and_Flex

Although Ajax and Flex can also be used together, we have to know that they face challenges, Browser compatibility and SEO indexing.

I have been working in this field for years and I remember the time when we did ask the question should be tortured by the browser war or should we take a side, I personally followed for some time the compatibility solution between Netscape and IE then one day I decided that I will take side of IE and as I predicted the war was over and IE won, now there is Firefox but time has change, there is in total an approach toward compromising.

I see Ajax is good for the moment but I believe the future will see the rise of Flex, there is a lot of work to be done in the side of indexing, we still need a browser that use a new world wide web consortium.

Microsoft in the other side of the equation is trying to play the biggest challenge, Silverlight.

Microsoft try to get to the new era of the web and maybe Web 3.0 or even 4.0 by using her existing technology with a new born that I suspect under development, for the moment I believe the Silverlight give the same experience of Microsoft media centre, this will be a challenge to the world domination of flash.

Microsoft can create a new Beta browser, work with Google indexing system, better than that, I believe that Microsoft will come with a solution gift that normalise the experience of the browser with Silverlight navigation system that will be created in Microsoft Silverlight experience builder to be used with the new devices such as iPhone or something more revolutionary that will change the web for ever.

This sounds a bit of fantasy, I am not sure about it now since Microsoft with all it’s might don’t have the finance to do it, it has to come from a combined effort between India and China who started already the use of ipv6 which another story to tell, mean while Adobe can make an impressive challenge but the technology that they did acquired until now, they will give a dramatic navigation experience that need to be introduce realistically to the market like flash itself regarding all the challenges.

In web 4.0 Hello world you can write it, read it, hear it again and even almost move it with your finger inside 3D medium device, I try to cost it for the moment it was more than $50 000 to start with! The device need to be assembled then you have to come with the software yourself .