Monthly Archives: April 2006

Restyling Slashdot: First Draft

Being an almost-daily reader of Slashdot, I’m glad I didn’t miss Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda’s announcement of the Slashdot CSS Redesign Contest. I can’t pass up the chance to win a new MacBook Pro, so I’m going to see what my design skills can cook up. I’ll take a nice progressive approach and share my thoughts and results here over the next couple weeks. Comment on the designs if you want. You can tell me I suck or give encouragement. I’m game for any sort of feedback. So, without further ado… here’s my first Photoshop mockup:

Screenshot of the modified Slashdot layout

Obviously, it isn’t overly ambitious. I wanted to start small. I kept the same general layout, but I polished things up all around. CmdrTaco specifically stated that he’d like the logo’s font and the site’s base color (#006060) to stay the same if possible. A little depth and shine to the logo makes a big difference. Likewise, the slightest shift in color makes things look better. Some gradients help a little too.

Screenshot of the modified Slashdot logo

I’d like to change more. CSS is pretty powerful, and I could do quite a bit with the existing content. Look at the Zen Garden if you want proof of flexibility. I think for my next draft, I’m going to try changing a lot more. Then, I’ll take ideas from both drafts to determine the final result. Once I’m happy with the look, I’ll dive into the actual CSS and produce what will hopefully be the winning entry. 😉

Dynamic bleeps and bloops in AS3

I noticed an awesome hack on Flashcoders today. David from Robots w/Lasers shows off a way to dynamically generate sounds in AS3. He actually builds a SWF in a ByteArray at runtime and passes it into a Loader object. With a little work to refine this approach, ambitious Flash developers could put together some sort of music sequencer. A full game soundtrack would be pretty cool. The sounds have a nice retro feel that would go well with many of the Flash games out there. It reminds me of my days playing with BASIC or Assembly. I’m sure there are hundreds of other possibilities.

If you’ve got some time, David is interested in seeing any improvements that can be made. I might take a look at his code later this weekend. It seems like a fun little project.

FlashDevelop HelpPanel 1.4 Beta

The HelpPanel plugin for FlashDevelop is getting complex enough that I feel I need to do a beta release this time around. I’m excited about this release because it’s my first public version that is powered by Apache Lucene. Lucene is the search system that powers Eclipse, among other things.

What does this mean for you, the ambitious FlashDevelop user? Well, thanks to Lucene, searches complete almost instantaneously. If you blink, you’ll miss it! This great speed improvement comes from Lucene’s indexing features. Lucene analyzes your help files and saves certain information about each one. Instead of using the old method of actually reading all the help files for every search, Lucene uses the single index file and a little black magic to spit out results for you.

Why is this a beta release? Well, honestly, it’s because I’d like feedback. I’m pretty sure I’ve stabilized my codebase, but I’m not entirely sure about the user interface implementation. Right now, when you run your first search in a default source (Flash’s help files), it will automatically create the index and show a simple progress dialog. Should I include a message that says this process will only need to happen once? Where would be a good place for it? I’d rather not create a message box specifically for this message. Perhaps it will be best if I placed it on the indexing dialog.

I’m also unsure if the behavior for adding a new source is the best choice. Instead of waiting for the first search to create the new index, I do it right away when the Help Source Manager is closed. I felt it would be good to do it so that you don’t have to wait for it during your first search. Yet, I wonder if it would be better to make the behavior match that of the default sources?

Please let me know what you think of this beta version. Also, if you have any thoughts about other things I can do to improve the HelpPanel, I’d be happy to hear them. You can download the HelpPanel plugin from the FlashDevelop plugins page.

What's Right and Wrong At Microsoft

I’ve been unconsciously paying attention to the goings-on at Microsoft lately. Some part of my brain has been filing away snippets here and there. As the most visible company in the computer industry, they’re important to watch. A lot has been happening lately, and Redmond seems to be in a turmoil. A couple different interviews with Microsoft leaders seem to indicate opposing philosophies.

In a recent interview with Steve Ballmer, Telis Demos asks Steve if he has an iPod. I can imagine his response is instantaneous: “No, I do not. Nor do my children…. I’ve got my kids brainwashed. You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.” Whether he meant it as a joke or not, it’s obvious that he’s actually quite serious. Now, I’m all for a little company rivalry, but that’s hardly a healthy attitude. As a leader of the industry, I’d rather embrace the successes of my competitors and work to push myself beyond them to the next level. It makes you wonder if iPods and Google are banned on Microsoft’s campuses too.

On the other hand, Bill Gates seems to have the right idea. A recent article on CNN Money talks about Bill’s daily workflow, and it’s obvious that he’s passionate about technology. Based on the interview, which stresses his desire to go paperless, and other articles I’ve read about his home, Bill always wants to find new technology that makes his life better and easier. I noticed that he dropped product names for some of the technologies he uses on his three-monitor PC. He talks about Outlook, SharePoint, and OneNote. Then he says that he uses a desktop search program, but he never says the name of it. Unlike Ballmer, I’d expect Bill, thanks to his technophilic desires, to actually be willing to use Google’s program. Sure, he probably has plans for Microsoft to make a better version, and he certainly wouldn’t say he uses it in an interview, but he’s a guy who seems to be more passionate about exciting technology than bitterly choosing sides.

Other initiatives at Microsoft, such as live.com, show that a lot of the employees are looking to innovate. I’m personally excited about the pageless AJAX results in their new search engine. With all the excitement that Apple is generating, Microsoft needs to focus on the ideas coming from those innovators. I don’t know who led the restructuring of the Windows group, but I hope it will help refocus their direction. I’ve loved my iPod since I got it, and my next computer will be a Mac. I want Microsoft to try to win me back with bigger and better ideas.