Convert your files with Zamzar.com

I found a really cool site. I always have the problems with converting files. I download a trial program for it but they always have some nasty trial features in it and because of that you can't use it.

www.zamzar.com is really easy. The only thing they can do better in my eyes is that they send the file that you convert to your email address but for the rest it is supporting a lot of files.

Apollo presentation

today I did my Friday weblog presentation about Apollo. It has not much to do with weblogs but it is very important to follow the Apollo application because it is also possible to build Flex applications for Apollo.

Here you can find on Google video the interview with Christian Cantrell. If you want better quality here is a 100MB file.

I also used some screenshots from this site from the fancy mp3 player.

File down and upload

Niels Bruin already posted a open source upload component, but of course you learn nothing from just copy and pasting a open source component.

Here can you find a tutorial to make your own upload component.

update_attributes returns "false"

Today we had a big problem with Ruby. We tried to update all the database fields of a user by a simple form. Ruby refused to do that and the only thing he send back to us in the event result was "false".

Normally Ruby gives back a nice fault message so our thought was that the problem was in Flex. After 1 hour and we changed everything on the Flex side nothing was changed. Then we when't in the code of Ruby.

2 hours later we finally found the problem. The problem wasn't in Flex and wasn't in the Service that we used to update the user. The problem was that we had this line in our model

validates_presence_of :name

But the database field name wasn't anymore in our Users table. We will never forget what we have to check first the next time if we get a "False"

Next minor

last blog post was a long time ago.

I have the feeling that this minor period is far from over but we only have 6 weeks left or something that is why i got forced to choose a other minor. My two favourites where Crossmedia and Game design.

Crossmedia is cool because you don't have to work 6 months to the same product. Every product there only takes 8 weeks and than there is a broadcast on TV.

But at the end Game design was the winner. I like it to make a game from start till end and i also wanna learn 3d stuff

A second tutorial on the RIA wiki

Well i finished my first tutorial. Niels Bruin asked me to make a tutorial how to receive a list of user into Flex. Niels made the first Tutorial. I got a lot of help from Niels and i didn't do it all on my own.

click here to go to the tutorial 2

My only concern is how slow you receive your data with webORB. I think this will lead to a lot of irritation under our users if we are going to use this

A small Flex application

Last week i tried to make a start with our school project in Flex. It is hard to do, but i was glad that i did a few tutorials for flex. So i already know a few things about Flex.

For our project for school we needed a vertical menu on the left of the screen, and it has to slide in and out (so the menu slides to the middle of the screen) In this vertical menu you can open your profile, clip player, etc. This is one of our "features" (You can browse and watch a clip at the same time) where you can watch a profile but if it isn't the one your looking for you can easily click on one of the other members on the right side of the screen.

But i talked enough and it is easier to understand if you see it. Maybe it isn't that great but it is a start.

We finished the first period of the minor

Last Friday we technically finished the first period of this minor. The finish of this period was an groups assessment. We had a session with two assessors where we got the possibility to defend our product. What we have so far.

At the end they said to us that they think we are doing well the only comment they had was personally for me. My blog (this here) wasn't to good. Now I try to put some more time and attention in it. I can do better I hope.

First talk with my mentor

Before the weekend i had my first talk with Gert my mentor. We told about the possibility's of me this period and we solved some problems with my competention list.

We discussed and he told me that my plans are fine but i have to set it straight with the community leader. I have to make an appointment. I did that and next Friday they will look into my pop

Flex live reflection

Found a demo and code of making a live reflection in flex. It looks really nice. A bit like the reflection of video's and covers in iTunes

Direct link to the demo:
http://www.rictus.com/flex/LiveReflection/LiveReflection.html
The hole article is here
http://www.rictus.com/muchado/2006/07/05/live-reflection-component/

Direct link to the demo:
http://blog.wrench.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Flex/livereflection/LiveReflection.html
article:
http://blog.wrench.com.au/2006/07/08/live-reflection-component-with-a-twist/

2nd meeting with the Productivity tools community members

Today we had or 2nd meeting with the people that are in the community productivity tools.

We all reviewed a tool and filled in a list with some points we think was importent for a managment tool. We discussed the positive points and negative points of every tool.

There wasn't a tool that was really compleet and can do everything so we put all the positive and negative points of every tool on the RIA wiki and let the users use what they think is important

Most likely we put or info on this page

http://www.cmd.tech.nhl.nl/wiki/index.php/Minor-Ria:Community

The "productivity tool" meeting

Today we had a meeting with everyone from the community group productivity tools. We discussed what or tasks are in the community.

We also made a format to analyse the Project Management Tools. Every member of the community gets a tool and they have to analyse that. On wednesday we have a new meeting and then we discusse the results and choose the best tool

Usability

We had a college about usability on 20-09-2006. We got 2 tasks to do in this college. Create the worste mp3 player and create the worst ATM

The next things i learned from this:
* By some things usability is important but if you by example create a game it is not because if you can walk true all the levels it is to easy and there is no fun.

Welcome on my Blog

Welcome more things will follow soon