arielsommeria.com/blog/

http://www.silexlabs.org/the-blog/fr/2010/08/amfphp-2-0-roadmap/

To test a new app in Internet Explorer 8 I decided to try the virtualization route on my Mac. I installed XP on parallels, and of course included was IE6. No problems, I’ll just download an update, I thought. Not so simple: The IE8 installer I was offered by default is in French, but it isn’t compataible with my English XP. So I tried the English one. Not only isn’t it signed, which means that it is blocked by default on XP and I had to find the setting to allow unsigned files, but it was corrupted. I finally managed to get it through Windows Update, after going through all the Genuine Advantage Windows bullshit.
No thanks Microsoft!

I’ve posted a formalization of the discussions we’re having about the future of Silex over at the Silex Labs blog:

http://www.silexlabs.org/the-blog/fr/2010/07/future-silex-developments/

just a quick tip of the hat to someone with some serious hacking skills who got Flash to run on an IPad. http://www.redmondpie.com/flash-on-apple-ipad-video/

So I finally got around to trying the Ipad. I’m not yet decided on whether or not I want to buy one, but I sure do like the experience. And the experience I find drives the following points home, that I think can be applied to building stuff for the web:

- Purists can say what they want, people love stuff that moves and zooms and slides around. I tried the Wired application and I loved it. For those who haven’t seen it or videos about it, there’s a video here.

- Zooming around is all nice, but once you’re on the content page you’re interested in, animations become annoying. So to counter balance the point I made above, animations are good to help people navigate, to inform, to train, but once you’re there, stop!

- Content is king. The ipad has only a simple black frame, with one very discrete button. So once you’re looking at that content, there’s nothing else that distracts you

- Ads can be of interest. In the Wired Ipad app they’re even beautiful and it’s nice to look at them. This starkly contrasts with Le Monde, a newspaper whose content I like but who shoves blinking ads at me as much as it cans.

- It should be as easy as possible to buy stuff on a website. Amazon has done it well with One-Click. The Ipad has made it really easy to buy.

Finally, as customers have been asking me for flipbooks for the past few years, I just know that they’re going to be asking for sliding content viewing.

We’ve been tossing the idea of plugins for AMFPHP around, and so here’s what come of it. Please share your thoughts on this. Note: this is a copy of a mil I’ve sent to the amfphp-cvs mailing list

Why?
People who want to contribute to the AMFPHP community currently mst have their contribution vetted by me. Not only am I a poor judge, but I’m also lazy. So the idea is to provide a system where someone who has a cool idea can push it to the community and let the community decide.

Design Goals
Flexibilty, extensibilty, simplicity, convention over configuration

How (global design)?
I’ve looked around a bit, and what seems to work elsewhere and that I quite like is a system of hooks. The idea is that at certain points in the execution of the script the possibility is given to the plugins to interact with the data flow. Here’s a simple example: Your plugin wants to add a service to those available in the usual “services ” folder. When the gateway tries to direct a service call, instead of just routing it to the services folder, it can ask the plugins first if they have a matching service.

How (technical specifics)?
There will be a new “plugins” folder in amfphp. Each plugin will consist at the very least of a subfolder and an index.php. When called this index.php will register for all needed hooks. To continue with the example, the index.php will register a function “addMyService” for the hook “LIST_SERVICES”. When LIST_SERVICES is called by the gateway, the plugin’s “addMyService” function will be called, and it will return the path to the plugin’s service.

What about plugins for the service browser?
The plugin registers for the hook GET_SERVICE_BROWSER_PLUGINS, and naturally takes the opportunity to add a nearby SWF.

That’s all for now. I know it’s a bit sketchy, but once we get the basics down I’ll flesh this out.
Ariel

Ryan who is just starting his project CubeHenge wanted some tips on how to make money with open source.  I tried to give him some answers, and it then degenerated into this blog post.
Your project is a business, it’s just that your business model is different, because you’re not selling licenses for your software. Look at Mozilla, they make a heapload of cash by selling that search spot in Firefox. Look at Wikipedia, they can pay a few people’s wages through donations. I like the model behind Tweenlite, even if it’s not strictly open source. Wordpress is open source, and makes money on hosting, among other things. Freemium is also an option, with part of your project being open source and the other part commercial. For nearly any open source projects, particularly small ones like the ones I work on, you have the following general options:
- you sell service around your product. Some corporation likes your stuff and doesn’t have the mad skillz to set things up, or needs some advice on how best to use it.
- you sell development. Some corporation needs this extra feature on your project, and you sell it to them.Ideally this is something that reintegrated in to the project.
- you sell your name. You’re not just some random dude who sells development and advice and consulting services, you’re the guy who wrote “Really Cool Tool”. And because the project is awesome, you must be awesome too and you sell exactly the same services as some other freelance consultant does, but you’re much better and much more expensive, because you’re worth it and you can prove it.
- you sell your contacts. Through “Really Cool Tool” you have met a lot of people, and you know this amazing developer called Dmitri who lives in Romania who contributes to your project. He’s not very expensive and you know how to work with him, so you can subcontract to him. Or you met this guy who works at Adobe and you can totally just give him a call and ask whether or not this or that feature will make the cut in the next version of Illustrator.

If someone has some better ideas, or some questions, comment away!

AMFPHP is back! A new team has come together to get the project moving again.

What?
AMFPHP is the best way for Flash to communicate with your PHP code. It understands the AMF data sent and received by Flash, and translates it into something your PHP code can work with. AMF allows for binary serialization of Action Script (AS2, AS3) native types and objects to be sent to server side services.

Why?
It is a critical component in a number of projects, so we decided to revive it. Many CMS can integrate with AMFPHP. Check http://www.amfphp.org/frameworks.html

Where?
www: http://amfphp.sourceforge.net/

Learn more: http://amfphp.sourceforge.net/about.htm

Discuss: http://www.silexlabs.com/the-blog/fr/2010/02/amfphp-is-back/

Now is about that time of year when the music you hear in public spaces is even more aggravating than usual.  The idea I guess is to get you all warm and christmassy to make you reach for your credit card more readily.  I’m ok with music thought out for certain listening conditions.  Dance music gets me moving, and I appreciate Music to make Love To, even if this is rather a personal choice. But Christmas music feels like music to wash the dishes with, or music to vomit to.

Thankfully, I am not alone. Some like minded fellows in the UK have successfully driven that very seasonal song from Rage Against the Machine to the top of the charts. As a Frenchman I have a natural distrust of the Brits, but once in a while I have to say it: Hats off! More info can be found here .