May

25

I use Textmate as my primary editor. Very very good. If you are on a Mac and haven’t tried, you need to download the trial version and give it a try. It features projects, code snippets, and automation. It is a pure Mac app. Very very nice. And yes, it has ActionScript support and color coding.

Enough gushing. One problem I have had is with a lag time that happens as the project drawer refreshes as the app regains focus. Only happens when using mounted drives. I work off of a Samba share that I have set up on my home Web server, and the lag was really annoying. Every time I would leave Textmate to go check out a change in Flash or a Web browser, Textmate loses the OS focus and when going back to Textmate it would refresh the project drawer, essentially indexing all the files in my project folder. With on large sites takes a good couple of seconds.

So I found a work around today. I set up a desktop manager. I am using VirtueDesktops. It allows me to have multiple desktops with themes. By default, one is called code. I set up Textmate to run on this desktop. On another I have Flash and on another I have Firefox. I can now switch to FF to test a change in code and switch back to the code desktop and Textmate never thinks it lost OS focus and thus the project drawer refresh never happens. Rock!!!

P.S. Textmate allows you to do a command+enter when working with a ActionScript file and it will make Flash the focused app and run a test movie. Very handy when working with classes and packages.

May

25

MocoNews.net is running an article with quote’s from Bango’s VP discussing the new .mobi top level domain that has been approved and has begun selling to trademark holders. I’ve commented on this in the past regarding the technical implications. Besides that, I think it is a terrible user experience, most users of the Web don’t understand what the top level domains mean, and just add .com by default. I completely agree with this Anil. My favorite quote: “The domain is unnecessary.”

Read more of Anil’s reasoning behind why .mobi is unnecessary.

May

24

I am going to be presenting one of the Mobile and Devices eSeminars for Adobe in June. I’ll be presenting on the MediaPlayback API example that I created for shipment in the Flash Lite 2.0 SDK. If you are interested in easily integrating video, audio, and dynamic images into your Flash Lite 2.0 application, please register.

Also, a great Flash Lite 2.0 developer, Paul Lamonby, from BlueskyNorth, will be presenting an eSeminar today at 3:00 EST on game development in Flash Lite 2.0. Registration is still open. Should be a great seminar.

May

23

Yesterday we rolled out more content for Mickeys.com. Go get your free ringtones, mobile wallpapers, desktop icons, and more from the downloads section. We also added the ability to download the videos in multiple formats, including h.264. Rock!

More content to be added in the future, keep checking back.

May

9

This morning I received Palm’s Treo newsletter. I’ve been wanting one for a while now and signed up for the e-mail newsletter some time ago. A piece of this newsletter caught my eye. Palm is offering a trade-in program so you can upgrade to a Treo. Rock on! Great idea, PDAs become outdated and there is nothing else to do with them then sell them on eBay.

I quickly followed the link and went to the “get a quote” link to see how much they would give me for some of the old PDAs and Smartphones I have laying around. First, the Blackberry 7230. Total offer: $37. OK. Next, the old Palm V that hasn’t seen the light of day since 2000 or there abouts. This is where it gets funny. I get the response “We’re sorry, but the product you have entered has a trade in value of $0. Please try another product.” So I enter a Palm VX and get the same message. I laughed. Despite the fact that Palm is offering a trade in, they don’t want their old $#!^ back. Apparently they realize their old offerings aren’t worth squat either. Guess, I won’t be upgrading. The message says to me, we want you to upgrade, but only if you are currently using a competitors product or something recent that we can liquidate. Stick it to the potential new customer, ouch!

Guess I’ll be looking for a used Treo 650 on eBay still.

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