Wade Walker : Interactive Developer

Jul 25

Media Player

Adobe, AIR, Flash, Mac OS X, Movies, Software, Technology Comments Off

I have recently finished my second Adobe Air application, Media Player. Media Player is a basic video playing application to watch FLV’s, F4V’s, and many other video formats as long as it is an H.264 video with AAC or MP3 audio. I am a huge movie guy and one of my real loves for Flash is its video playback capabilities and being able to create something with it. I hope what Flash can do with video in the future expands even more because right now the options with video that isn’t coming from a Flash Media Server is limited to how it can be manipulated. One thing you will notice is if you try to scrub the video, it may jump once you release the mouse, this is a thing with Flash because it can only scrub or move to the closet keyframe in a video and not individual frames. If the video source is from a Flash Media Server, then frame-by-frame scrubbing would be possible. That is one of the things I am hoping will be updated. Please feel free to request for features or report any bugs that you may find that I never encountered in development.

Also if there are any other Flash/Flex developers that are reading this and know of how to work with DRM videos such as iTunes bought movies, I would love to include that as a video type that Media Player can play. I can’t seem to find a whole lot of info online about it and the Flash Help just provides bullet points on what to do for DRM files but provides no examples.

Jul 03

GetItNow Downloader update

AIR, Flash, Software, Technology Comments Off

I just released a minor update to my AIR app GetItNow Downloader. There were two bugs in it. The first was the progress bar would go the opposite direction when download really small files, such as text files. The second bug was the “Delete and Redownload” action would delete the file by moving it to the trash, but it wouldn’t initiate the download part if it was a single download, and not from a “Add to Queue” entry. Both bugs have been corrected. If you see anything that glitches or doesn’t work properly, please let me know and I will correct it as soon as I can and you will be notified by the application that an update is available the next time you launch it.

Jun 29

GetItNow Downloader

AIR, Flash, Software, Technology Comments Off

Over the past week I started working on an AIR Application for both Windows and Mac OS to be able to download files from online. The main idea behind the project was to no longer have to use Firefox just to download files. I say that because I use Safari and have a hard time switching to anything else because I am a heavy MobileMe user with having my iPhone and computer completely synced over the air. If you aren’t a Safari user then I shall inform you of what I consider a flaw.

Safari likes to treat certain files in certain ways where other browsers don’t. When it comes to ZIP files, Safari sometimes automatically decompresses the file, creates a folder of the contents of the ZIP, and deletes the ZIP file altogether. Not moves it to the trash, but straight up deletes it. This pisses me off majorly because I don’t want the browser doing things like that automatically and not giving me the option to turn it off as a basic preference. It does have a preference on automatically opening files, but it still treats those certain file types a certain way. Other files like movies and music, it plays within the browser if you have the proper video/audio codecs installed. But I want to download the file, not try to stream a potentially large movie in the browser that isn’t embedded in someones site.

So my solution to this “problem” was to create an AIR app that would let me download the files I want and download them the way I want without having to open a second browser just to download a file and then close the browser. Anyway, the application I created is GetItNow Downloader and you can grab it from my AIR Apps page.

Sep 09

Sega Dreamcast

Technology Comments Off

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast. I just had to write something about this great console. Me personally, I think the Dreamcast is the greatest system ever made. It was a good 5 years ahead of its time, doing things that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are doing today. Some of those features I am speaking of is: downloadable content/updates(to an extent), browsing the internet and sending emails, downloading other users saved games, and being able to develop your own games to play on the console.

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Breaking that down further, certain games that had online connectivity, mainly(or only) Sega brand games, could download update or add-ons to the game. Sonic Adventure for example had a couple of holiday updates for Christmas and Thanksgiving that changed the main town to have holiday decorations. I don’t remember, but it may have even changed the music. Phantasy Star Online did the same thing for Valentines Day by modifying the main area before going out on a mission with a giant holographic heart.

I can’t leave out the Sega VMU. VMU(Visual Memory Unit) was the Dreamcast’s memcard and much more. The VMU came with a built in LCD screen(black color only) and a D-Pad plus several buttons(Start, Select, A, B). The VMU alone had the ability to connect to other VMU units and transfer files and so forth. This connection between two VMU units allowed game companies to make mini-games that would be offloaded onto the VMU where people could have battles/competitions with each other. While plugged into the controller, if a company choose to, it could display vital information. For example, in Resident Evil : Code Veronica, the VMU would display the characters health status. Not all companies took advantage of this feature, but it was one of those little things that helped make the Dreamcast what it is.

When it came to online connectivity, the Dreamcast came with a built-in 56k dial-up modem with a broadband-ethernet modem as a separate purchase. I only had the dial-up because like most people in my area of living 10 years ago, dial-up was the thing to have and cable/DSL was too expensive. But for only having dial-up internet, the Dreamcast did great with online play. When playing NFL2K1 online or Phantasy Star Online, I next to never had lag issues until Sega started closing down its servers late in the Dreamcast’s life.

Overall, I believe the Dreamcast is a great system and I still have mine today. I have many great memories with this gaming system and I thank you Sega for making such a great console that sadly was just ahead of its time and didn’t have the support it needed and deserved.

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Apr 03

Throttle Body + Spacer

Hardware, Mustang, Technology Comments Off

I got the next phase of working on my car complete. I got a new BBK Throttle Body and a Steeda Throttle Body Spacer. The spacer pushes the throttle body out about an inch from the actual engine. There is a swirl design inside the spacer that helps promote airflow by breaking the surface tension of the incoming air. The new throttle body itself helps bring better and increased airflow into the engine for the purpose of adding more horsepower to the engine.

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