enabling mouse events

I am going to start leaving clips of action script here for me to review and use easily.
I am an as3 newbie and I need to organize my notes....
This seems to be the best way to do it.

This may not be that exciting to read...

I had to enable and disable mouse events so that a slideshow would not error because of clicking the button so fast.

first I tried myMC.mouseEvent = false;
(for some reason this did not work)

so what a co-worker said to try...
the movieclip which had both the buttons embedded...
myHousingMC.mouseChildren = false;
myHousingMC.mouseEnabled = false;

this actually worked even better - i could enable many buttons at once if they are in the same movieClip...

Thank you ickyNickle!...I mean dime... lol

This little piggy said "Wii, Wii, Wii" all the way home

Today I had the pleasure of linking a wiimote to my PC! ...and I actually got it to connect!

I am using TRENDnet TBW105UB (USB Bluetooth Dongle)
I found this device on a list of compatible Bluetooth adapters:
http://www.wiili.org/index.php/Compatible_Bluetooth_Devices

If you have made attempts before... please read this whole post before following my instructions... I will not assume any responsibility for what you do to your computer.

What worked for me?

First I connected the dongle to the PC... I am running Windows XP pro SP2. So Windows did its own thing and got the dongle installed and working. Bueno!

Next I installed a software which was mentioned in the list of compatible bluetooth hardware specifically for this TRENDnet adapter. "Broadcom update"
http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_update.php

I also need to install a software to communicate with the wiimote. I am using "wiiFlash Server 0.3.2" Here is a google-code link:
http://code.google.com/p/wiiflash/downloads/list



After installing the broadcom update I opened the "add bluetooth device" wizard.(bluetooth setup wizard) When the wizard begins searching for the device, I hit the connect/sync button on the wiimote. (the little red button inside the battery compartment.) The wiimote shows as "Nintendo RVL-CNT-01"

I click on the wiimote icon and hit the "next" button. I quickly skipped over the security password(no password needed.) I am moving quickly because I do not want the wiimote to power off... On the next screen When the wiimote shows up in the menu - I quickly select the "checkbox" and hit "finish."

I quickly open up wiiFlashServer0.3.2 and then my wiimote "rumbles" letting me know that I am connected. Now, my wiimote will not power off. Whew!

From here I have not figured out what to do next. I will be adding to this post as I figure out more. I am looking into a program called foxglove which will allow me to assign the function of the wiimote buttons.

One important note: If the wiimote loses connection with the computer(powering off)... What I have had to do is... Close the WiiFlashServer application. (you must close the app by right clicking on the icon next to your clock. Hitting the "x" only minimizes the app. After WiiFlashServer is shut down, open up "my bluetooth places." Then I have to disable the controller I see in the window (which will also delete the icon from the window.) Then I follow the steps of adding the bluetooth device all over again, starting in the same window by clicking "add a bluetooth device." I am still looking into an easier way to reconnect if the connection is lost. But right now the only success I have had is to get rid of it and completely make a fresh bluetooth connection. I hope there is an easier way. I will be looking into WiiFlashServer0.4 (but it is in prerelease at the moment.)

More to come! Stay tuned!

W3C Recomendations

I have always been aware of W3C standards... Never have I been "fully" compliant.

But then Again... I went to many popular websites to see who is...

www.espn.com - nope
www.cnn.com - nope
www.microsoft.com - nope(suprisingly)
www.google.com - nope

www.msn.com - YES(finally, I found one.)

If these sites are not compliant... what responsibility does that put on smaller companies?

I am a flash developer... fortunately, Flash CS3 publishes a compliant way to display .swf files. The content I create does not even fall into the same category because I do not develop X/HTML/CSS. I have every intent of making the content I create available to everyone. Where do I stand? In another view... If someone asks me to create a W3C compliant flash site... This does not mean that it will be accessible to everyone. (defeating the point)


There is much discussion about whether corporations are driving the W3C or are they really trying to conform to standard? From the list above... It does not seem that they are conforming. I believe that companies need to stop being so territorial and begin working together. The more browsers and versions being used are only getting us farther from being united. And it is making the job tougher for those who wish to create content. And I WILL REITERATE I would like to make content which is accessible to everyone. I believe in the freedom to choose from multiple browsers... why can't there be a consortium to make these "deep-pocket" companies conform to how information is displayed. Wouldn't it be smarter to have 5-10 companies conform to a standard which can be used by everyone, rather than having thousands of smaller companies trying to conform to an ever-evolving battle between the creators of the browsers.

If nobody is living up to the standard... is it really the standard?
(even if the standard is really only a "recommendation")

3d in After Effects

I have just had my first experience in creating 3d environments within Adobe After Effects CS3. (or any version for that matter) I built just a simple "fly-thru", similiar to the scene from Star Wars when Luke is flying across the surface of the Death Star. (It seemed like a good place to start) It was so much fun!

Unfortunately, in my school career this idea was not introduced during any of my 3D animation courses. We only used Maya and 3DSmax. I will state that if I had not studied those two pieces of software I would have much more difficulty understanding this 3D environment in After Effects. But looking back... After Effects would have added so much to those classes. Even though this is technically a 2D package.

SP3 Issue

I have been reloading some PCs Lately... And this bug seems to have been fixed. So please do not think that SP3 has to be installed after all other updates. It works just fine to start your updates with SP3. But just in case, I am leaving this post up for anyone finding themselves having the problem of not having IE7 or the newest WMP install after installing SP3.


On Memorial day I decided to reload one of my PCs. I had tried to boot it days before with no luck... It had been at least six months since last time I had booted up the machine. So rather than trouble shoot, a fresh start sounded good to me.

So I reinstalled windows XP SP2. No problem. I began doing updates, this is where my problems lie. I thought that installing SP3 first sounded great... It should include those other 100 and some updates, right?

But this is where it went wrong... I had not installed Windows Media Player 11 before SP3. I was not able to install it nor a few other updates and drivers. For some reason SP3 would not install some remaining updates, one was even a "critical" updated.(capicom) Others were my audio and display drivers, which I feel were equally critical. I fought with my machine for hours... rebooting checking the updates in "installed programs." (which only showed SP3)

To make a long story short...

If you uninstall SP3 first - then you may install all the updates manually - and then go back to install SP3 it seems to work fine. I don't understand it but then again Microsoft products are not always the most logical. Or if you don't have SP3... make sure you get the new updates you want before installing SP3 or you may find yourself backtracking.

I hadn't seen any documentation on this issue, but I figured it will happen to someone other than me and I hope I can save someone some extra time and headache.

Springtime!

I have been getting my hands dirty and getting ready for a prosperous garden. I am amazed that while tilling, I have chopped up two separate cable lines in my yard. Both of which are dead and did not show up when having my yard surveyed. They were old cable lines, but my home is less than 20 years old. They have been upgraded to hold internet.

Anyway, I've planted many seeds and can't wait to see what I can harvest this fall.

Flash Usability

I have recently began dealing with flash usability problems. For instance, what if you have a flash site and you want google to find the contact page of your swf? Google would normally only find the html which is embedding the swf file. Users will only find the main screen of your swf. Then again, they may not find it without the correct meta tags or html text.

Flash supports deep-linking anchor tags. This is completely under-utilized.

here's the trick:

I have my index page with my swf embedded in it, nothing out of the normal. Then I create html pages to represent the sections within the swf file that I want the search engine to find. This html page which represents the section desired is nothing more than a javascript redirect page, and I can make that redirect to any anchored section of my swf I want. Within this html the meta tags will contain words and phrases which will allow the search engine to find this "page" of my swf even though there is not truly a devoted page to this content. I am excited to add this to my toolbox, and I am happy to make my Flash more usable.