Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Blog

  • Central App: Stiletto MP3 & SHOUTCast Player

    This started off as an app I was gonna spend my newfound freetime on, as copying and surpassing WinAMP’s current incarnation is a nigh impossible, albeit daunting task. I love those.

    Well, then the contract work hit, then Flex came along, and the whole time I’m attempting to do homework so I can pass class. I’ve waited 3 weeks for my Yahoo account, but haven’t followed up simply cause I was busy. I know form the Central Dev list who to talk to… but at this point, I’ve got better things to do. This project I do want to continue when I have more time, but figured sitting on ice for 3 weeks doesn’t help those that might want to look inside. It’ll be awhile before this is anywhere close to being worth 5 bucks.

    She’s full of bugs, uncompleted functionalities, and she’s one hell of a memory hog after 30 minutes (adding to the 60 meg footprint your start with), but hey… there’s a reason I’m going to R&D vs. Developement soon, hehe…

    BTW, removed the Slider component from… uh… DRK 3? Just to confirm I’m not proliferating anything illegal, but you could make your own I guess. Anyway, the point isn’t to compile, but rather see the code. The good code is the PLS to DataProvider or whatever I called it. I used Sean Voisen’s approach to classes, Geoffrey William’s Central AS2 classes, and Grant Skinner’s GDispatcher. My disclaimers are that my structure does NOT follow the mx.core.UIObject/UIComponent framework correctly at all, and my base class wrapper is old, so disregard for best practices (not that you would look to me for guidance beyond what games to play). It’s my first time using a Pod, so be gentle…

    If you keep the pod open to listen to music, make sure you stop and start every 30 minutes… or you won’t be able to once Central laches hold to your virtual memory; at that point, it’s all over.

    Yes, I know the installation badge is offsetting my site mr/mrs designer head, werkin’ on it…

    Stiletto : Central MP3 and SHOUTCast Player – App | ZIP

  • Flash Video: Negative Proliferation a Good Thing?

    Granted, my interpretation of negative may be positive to others, but I loathe spam, so whatever.

    Anyway, got this spam email in my work’s junk box, and right before hitting delete, a familiar image came into view. The video they were asking you to view (an image to trick you to going to their site to view it) had some familiar looking controls… Flash Video ones that come with one of the Media players. I’ve seen them on other sites, so immediately, I became intrigued. Scrolling down, they even had the form done in Flash…!

    I couldn?t get any of the url?s to work, but saving the email as HTML on my desktop allowed the Flash to play as normal. Wow? turns out, live SPACE mercial dot COM (eerily similar to http://www.mediadiva.net/) is promoting the use of Flash video in emails now. Craziness. Although I hope all spammers burn with excruciating pain in fiery hell, this is awesome! If millions have to suffer for proliferation of Flash video, heck, I?ll take this shot in the arm with pride!!!

  • Waiting For Her Ship

    Long ago, family members would wait for their kin at ship docks, upon the warf anxiously awaiting to see loved ones again. During those times, it was filled with great anticipatation, impatatience, and worry.

    In years past, people would meet at train stations. The host would sit patiently and wait for a period of time while waiting for their guest’s train to arrive at the station.

    In years past till now, people still do this with all forms of transportation. Waiting for a car ride, waiting at the bus stop or subway station, all the while, those who wait pass the time in various ways. Some make allowances for such time, knowing that it is out of their control, so they make the most of it… others just get impatient.

    This evening, while I drove in a car, I called her majesty via my cell phone to have her fetch a number from my computer I had forgotten to write down. Knowing there are certain times she is indisposed because of one form of entertainment or another, I took preemptive action to plan ahead for this, and thus called early. …not early enough.

    I was forced to wait, just like generations before me, for her ride. Yet, her ride consisted of an interplanetary starship, landing at an Endor starport, on the Tarquinas server. The ship doesn’t physically exist, and she’s already physically arrived, even though her trip didn’t take her anywhere. I was the one moving, waiting silently on the phone… while she dilligently gave the C-3P0 model droid her ticket so she could catch the ship to Correllia, and then promptly gave me her attention as her computer then dumped all physical memory as it always does attempting to run that infernal, RAM hogging game.

    Have we truly transcended to a new age where we no longer wait for someone remote to physically arrive, but rather wait for someone who’s physically remote, to arrive at their non-physical destination? Seems like displaced courtesy and patience to me…

    …still, had my parents waited to start dinner until my Starcraft game was over, I would of had less arguments in college when I lived at home part of the time. There are certain digital engagements and meetings one must be present for, even if you physically haven’t moved. It is important to note, however, that your attention is still grounded in one world or the other.

    …maybe that’s the next age; when your attention can be in two places at once, regardless if that place is physical, or digital. I’ve seen some co-workers and a manager or two do it. Who knows.

    Anyway, my point with the above is I’m not just taking into account people’s physical availability nowadays, but also their digital ones. Some just digital. Really, it comes down to how much time they can give me attention, but what I find fascinating, is I’m taking premptive action towards travel time that doesn’t really take you anywhere, knowing that her majesty will be busy during that time… even if I’m standing right next to her.

    Or maybe this metaphor is shot out of game context. Fuggit, I’m going to bed.

  • Why Central Matters Editorial Discussion

    So last night, Phillip Kerman posted a link to the editorial I wrote for MX Developer’s Journal. I was curious if he really did like it as I’m insecure about a lot of people’s feelings for Central. It’s cut and dry with other technologies, and since Central is so new, I’ve been trying to be, on purpose, more sensitive to understand people’s reactions and try to understand where they are coming from.

    I went back to read what I wrote to see if his comments coincided positively with what I wrote, or, as a professional writer, he was bringing to our attention some glaring error I (or the editors) had missed. I have yet to take JD’s advice, and get the point quickly.

    I then noticed that you could give feedback on the article. I didn’t know this, and saw that someone had. It was interesting that it had the typical response of not knowing what Central was buried in the middle, but additionally, it was a perspective of web applications I hadn’t heard before, so it was a good read. I tried to respond the best I could as we both are definately from different perspectives with different opinions on what the web does for us, for users, and where it’s going.

    Anyway, if you have thoughts, if you could leave them here or there, I’d appreciate it.

    Why Central Matters