My blog has moved

Hello everyone,

For last few weeks I was trying to move my blog from Blogger to orison.biz. Finally I have managed to do so. Here’s the link to new location: www.orison.biz/blogs/chall3ng3r/

We are using WordPress as our blogging engine and a little modified theme. Please do not post any comments on this blog any more.

Also update your aggregators to use RSS/Atom feed from new blog location.

// chall3ng3r //

MM Studio 8 Tour "file not found" error reviewed

I have just decompiled the tour swf (featuretour_shell.swf) using SWFDecompiler. what I found was very interesting that the guy who made all this is checking totalframes property of the holder_mc which holds the loaded swf.

The developer didn’t used a tricky logic here, selected simple old way to detect movie loaded condition.

He will be experiencing no errors because he has checked it on LAN or on broadband connection. But on dialup, this logic doesn’t work. and user gets “file not found” messages for all the slides.

here’s a little chunk from the featuretour_shell.swf file:

my_bufferFactor = 0.500000;
my_fps = 21;
my_totalBytes = this.holder_mc.getBytesTotal();
my_totalFrames = this.holder_mc._totalframes;
my_currentFrame = this.holder_mc._currentframe;
my_loadedBytes = this.holder_mc.getBytesLoaded();
my_loadedFrames = this.holder_mc._framesloaded;
my_leftBytes = my_totalBytes - my_loadedBytes;
my_loadTime = getTimer() - my_startTime;
my_speed = my_loadedBytes / my_loadTime;
my_totalTime = my_totalFrames / my_fps;
my_playTime = my_loadedFrames / my_fps;
my_leftLoadTime = my_leftBytes / 1024 / my_speed;
if (my_playTime > my_leftLoadTime * my_bufferFactor && this._parent.ccReady != "wait")
{
    this.status_str = "playing...";
    this.holder_mc.gotoAndStop(1);
    var myFrame = this.holder_mc._currentframe;
    if (myFrame != 1)
    {
        gotoAndPlay(_currentframe - 1);
    } // end if
}
else
{
    this.status_str = "buffering...";
    gotoAndPlay(_currentframe - 1);
} // end if
if (my_totalFrames == 0)
{
    this.status_str = "";
    this.loader_mc.percent_str = "file not found";
    gotoAndPlay("on");
} // end if
// [Action in Frame 35]
if (this.holder_mc._totalFrames == 0)
{
    this._parent.fPlaylist("next");
    stop ();
} // end if

Lines in red are the code to watch. I think the developer who created these tours has not tested with narrowband connections.

I have sent the feedback to MM about this, and i hope it’ll be fixed soon.

// chall3ng3r //

The "File not found" show

MM Studio 8 "file not found show"
Originally uploaded by chall3ng3r.

Since MM has posted Studio 8 products online. in product tour page of any Studio 8 product i am getting “file not found” messages in flash presentations.

// chall3ng3r //

Macromedia Studio 8 - It's there!!!

Well, as expected. It’s here

// chall3ng3r //

Some updates

• I will be representing Federal Urdu University in ITCN Asia 2005. if anyone visiting, and want to say hi, get on to FUUAST both.
• Next version of DigitalSurv’s website is now available for public beta review.

// chall3ng3r //

New FlashPlayer 8 Beta build available

learned from Mike’s blog that new build of the FP8 Beta is available for download. This build includes fixes to a bunch of compatibility issues, so make sure to check your content.

don’t forget to download FlashPlayer 8 Standalone to easily test out your flash 8 stuff ;)

// chall3ng3r //

www.start.com

MS is working hard to win the Search Engine race. I have noticed that my blog posts and any updates on www.orison.biz are index faster than google or yahoo.

I am always using google for my searching, from few days back, i am just playing around with www.start.com and i am really having fun :D

check out three different versions of start.com

• www.start.com/1/
• www.start.com/2/
• www.start.com/3/

I liked the third one.

// chall3ng3r //

about e-paper

ch3ckmat3 has posted a good post about e-paper.

check here: War of the e-paper ships

// chall3ng3r //

FlashPlayer 8 Standalone - Updated

FlashPlayer 8 Standalone - Update 1
Originally uploaded by chall3ng3r.

I have got great response from Flash community with my two utilities for Macromedia FP8 Beta, FP8 Standalone and Convert2SWF8.

I received many requests and suggestions for further improvements. Many thanks to people who appreciated my work.

This update includes following features:

• Ability to adjust height & width of the initial FP window with SWFs specs.
  Note: This feature works only with non-compressed SWF files. Disable SWF compression from “Publish Settings” dialogue.
• Built-in SWF8 converter. When AutoConvert is checked, all SWFs will be first converted to SWF8 before loading into player window. (You’ll love this feature)

Download: FlashPlayer8_update1_setup.zip

Happy testing FP8, and don’t forget to drop a line in comments :)

// chall3ng3r //

DynaDesk for Central developers

Some time ago, I created a dynamic wallpaper for Windows using Flash & HTML. I think it might be still useful to Central developers.

get it here: DynaDesk (Source code is also available)

// chall3ng3r //