NxtGen Media - The Freeman View

Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS)

I love to dabble in both graphics and audio, even if I’m only a novice.  I have played with Acid and Fruity Loops, and really like them but could not justify getting the latest versions since money is tight and audio is not really where my development focus is. I have been on the lookout for an open source equivalent, and it looks like there is a good one now out.

Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS) is a cross platform tool similar to Fruity Loops. Has a good set of features, and is pretty quick to jump into and create something. Has great documentation, and is really stable. Best of all it is free. If you have the desire to dabble in the audio end, this is a great way to start. Check it out at:
LMMS
Also of Note:
ZynAddSubFX - a nice open source synthesizer (great for creating sound effects).
DCF

Flex HTTPService and IE

I recently had a weird problem with working with HTTPService for Flex. I had been using the Flex RemoteObject along with ZendAMF which was working fine until I recently upgraded and could not for the life of me get everything set up correctly. From what I understand, I guess something got messed up in the packaging of the recent release. I figured I would go back to it later once they got that all sorted out.

Since the data I was pulling was fairly light, I figured it might now be a good time to check out JSON in Flex. Got evertything working just fine, and was able to get records from the database fairly easily. Then I started inserting and updating records and thats when it got weird. Aparently, there is a caching issue with Internet Exlporer (IE).  I was using GET as my transfer method and it turns out that subsequent GETs are cached in IE, so if you try to update your table, you get the same data until you restart the app. Could drive one mad. Firefox does not have this issuse. Once I switched to POST as my method, all went well. Thank God for folks who post these quirks!

Flex HTTPService, Browser Cache and IE

Using Flex, PHP, and JSON to Modify a MySQL Database

D

BigDump - Large Db importer

Ever have a situation where you export a MySQL database to move to another location, only to find that you can’t load it to the new location via phpmyadmin because of script timeout? You can always load the script from the command line, provided you have access to the command line and know the MySQL commands, but suppose you don’t have these abilities. Bigdump.php may be the answer for you.

Bigdump is a staggered MySQL dump importer. It allows for the import of large databases to be broken up into small task so the system does not time out. I’ve used it on a number of database imports with great success. Just load it to your web server, configure it for your database, and run. It really is a nice utility.

Check it out

DCF

Max Day 2

Watching day 2 keynote of Adobe MAX today was pretty impressive. The big deal of the day I think, was having John Mayer show up and talk about how he is using Flash and Augmented Reality in one of his videos. Very cool to see a recording artist blending media to push the envelope of how we experience music.

While the video section telling all the great stuff that will be available in 10.1 was nice, the thing that impressed me most was the FedEx Flex application and how they are using it. Combining Flex, LCDS and RTMP they’ve made this awesome looking application that allows them to monitor their trucks locations, and a host of other things like truck cargo bay temperature, and put so much information into a well designed interface. Definitely, an impressive example of how companies are using Flex for enterprise applications.

The monetization and analytic additions were touched on, and even though the pay application hung during the demo, it was still good to see that this will eventually be one less thing to worry about. It was nice to see Electronic Arts there and to hear about their use of Flash in the casual game development. It was also nice to hear them get a dig in on the lack of ‘right click’ support. All in all, the keynote was pretty encouraging and it gives me hope that Flash development is still a pretty good thing to pursue.

DCF

Flash Everywhere

Well, I watched the Adobe MAX opener today and was marginally surprised. The big announcement was Flash for the iPhone. Kind of overshadowed everything else. I thought this announcement was kinda cool, but since I’m not an iPhone person, and my company has not targeted the iPhone I was only a little excited. What I did find interesting was the whole effort to bring Flash 10 to all the ‘rest’ of the phones out there, and to get it working well on netbooks, and TV. It was also noted that Adobe is moving to plug up those memory leaks and optimize the player so it runs well across the board, as well as beef up Air so that it is a more compelling development option. Now that is exciting.

There was mention of hardware acceleration, but I am not clear if it is just for the mobile piece or will it extend to the PC based player. In any event, it means that the player is getting beefed up a bit even if its only a dot upgrade and not a full version. It also means that Adobe is getting closer to having a player that runs everywhere. I’m sure there are a few orgs out there not liking the direction this all seems to be going. Write once run anywhere is sure getting closer, but who would have thought it might be Adobe and Flash to pull it off. Tomorrow we’ll hear more about the Flash platform upgrades and future directions. Hopefully we’ll get the low down on just how powerful the upgraded player will be.

DCF