Check my link out over at the FPO blog.

My focus is expanding:
Where I was used to developing flash content for the interweb I now feel the need to write stuff for mobile devices aswell. I bought a HTC desire (phone) a while ago and I love it (for as far you can love a phone, ofcourse). It is now running android 2.2 (Froyo) which supports flash 10, meaning: a decent flash version for mobile!

I automatically started to try out some of the flash sites I developed for the web (aah, curiosity!) on my phone and even when it’s ment to just work in a browser it works great on the phone aswell, which is offcourse nothing less than awesome!

Show me some stuff!
Yeah yeah, ofcourse you want to see some stuff. Well, something not developed by me but still cool nonetheless: remote droid. What is it, you say? Well, it’s a mouse and keyboard for your computer ON your phone! Exciting, no?

It’s actually really easy: you download the desktop computer app/laptop app here, unzip it and double-click the “RemoteDroidServer.jar” file (you need a java runtime environment for that, which you can download here). Assuming you have an internet connection the app opens and says something like the following screenshot:

On your Android phone you just open up the marketplace and look for an app called “remoteDroid”. Installing it takes less than a minute and when you open it you just have to fill in the IP address the computer app says and you’re good to go!


Try it: it works like a charm!

// replace the capitalized variable with your unix timestamp
// multiply it with 1000 (remember my note above!)
var currDate:Date = new Date(Number(YOUR_TIMESTAMP_HERE)*1000); 
 
// trace out the humanly readable values			
trace(currDate.getDate());
trace(currDate.getMonth());
trace(currDate.getFullYear());

Done!


A real life flash example (DateDisplayer):

Download this wonderful widget here!

Go now, my young actionscript children! Feed on my example and make me proud! Soon the world will be filled with actionscript 3.0 vampires!

Check it out here (flashwork done by Murten Saerbi).

I was driving home from a late meeting and suddenly spotted a huge cloud of black smoke hanging above my hometown. While getting closer and closer I started to see the flames coming out above the houses and by the time I was in the middle of my otherwise so peaceful hometown all I could see was smoke, fire and firemen. I grabbed my camera and got out of the car to take some quick shots of this absolut crazyness.


But First! Trivia! Some facts you all need to know about the auction of Mechelen:

* It is the largest European co-operative society as an auction.
* The Auction, as first Belgian auction, obtained both the ISO 9002 and the HACCP certificate.
* In 2009, the turnover of the Auction of Mechlin amounted to 178 million EUR.
* Almost 40% of all Belgian horticultural products are sold at the Auction of Mechelen.

Anyway, enough facts: see some pics!

I currently have loads to do (which is good and I will definately show you proof of this bold statement) but I actually wrote down some useful none-Murten-is-great related posts aswell and am in the process of tweeking them for release on the blog. I’m also working on my own website (for real, this time) so I will keep you boys and girls updated on this.

Stay tuned, this post will be updated tomorrow!


UPDATE on 28 january 2010:
Well I promised that I would update this post today and I may be many things but I’m not a liar! As a bonus for me not posting a while and in light of “Flanders and the Netherlands poetry day 2010″: a rhyme for the wonderful people I am currently doing a project for:

I’m working for cowboys, that’s really no lie,
they eat cacti for breakfast instead of regular pie!
They create graphics for all,
make sites big and small,
and they’re really nice too: they use “howdy” for “hi”!

A slick and easy-to-use navigation together with a modern design is exactly what Houwelyckx wegenbouw needed and goes nicely together with the new offices and the 10.000m² functional workplace.

You can check the website out over at www.houwelyckx.be/.

Facebook launched a new share button, one that can keep statistics to the url you provide it! This is great news for people that like to track data regarding their share efforts on facebook. It’s basically a small database that stores information (see below) about a url so you can do all sorts of euhm… stuff with it.

They have a share button for it which looks like this (the number means how many times this item is shared):

They also provide a slightly less subtle button that places the amount something is shared on top of the button. To make it even more easy they made a generator for it: the share widget.

Here’s what you can track:

- How many… Users share the link on Facebook.
- How many… Users “like” the shared story.
- How many… Users comment on the shared story on Facebook.
- How many… Users click back to your site from the story.

There is also a browser call to it, which is an awesome little thingy for flash/flex applications since it returns an xml.

note: Be sure to URL encode the link in your applications!

Some additional information about the facebook share can be found on the facebook developer blog.

Since they promote themselves at just about every workshop or renovation, building or decoration event we at Murten Saerbi had to deliver them something good looking to instantly show the people just how cool their switches are. Therefore we went for a 3D demo house that runs on flatscreens pc’s on the event itself.

If there is a mouse present users can click the switches below to turn the lights in the house on or off. If there isn’t a mouse present or a user leaves the screen be for 10 seconds or more the application turns into a presentation and switches the lights on and off. This subtle movement automatically attracts the people to come and take a look at this small but cool application and the switches in general. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself.

The app also runs online as a testcase, you can check it out here.