» Kubuntu 8.4 "xine was unable to initialize any audio drivers"
Note to self: The next time sound stops working in Kubuntu, amarok, youtube, etc stop working, run the following:lsof | grep snd and kill the offending process.
September 26, 2008
July 8, 2008
» If you haven’t already, take a look at Flash 10 for Linux
If you haven’t already, take a look at the new features available with the new Linux Flash 10 Beta. Such new features include:
3D Effects
Custom Filters and Effects
Advanced Text Layout
Enhanced Drawing API
Visual Performance Improvements
Enhanced Sound APIs
More information can be found at the link posted above.
The Flash 10 plugin is available both as a gzipped tarball and as an RPM.
February 4, 2008
» Wine and Adobe AIR
So I was working the eBay scene yesterday with the goal of a new phone, and I quickly remembered how much it sucks to try and track multiple bids, and time those last second bids. It surprised me that eBay.com still lacked any real Ajax (Live countdowns anyone?) anyways the long of the short is that I eventually stumbled across eBay Desktop Beta, one of the front runners utilizing adobe's new desktop runtime based on flash. Given Adobe's track record of promising Linux implementations, then half-delivering years later, I was about to just give up. On a whim I decided to give wine a shot at this, not only did AIR install painlessly, but the app was functionally complete, and only minor display issues (Ironically, these all seemed to be the WebKit components, all the html rendered by AIR was ugly and oddly formed).
Either way, I got my phone, and have already fallen in love with the application for all my ebay purchases, but whats more, wine is just really impressing me. With the new Mono integration pending, I think we can start to make a truely astounding claim... Linux supports Windows XP elements at least as well as Vista, if not better! ;)
Ok, so the above is a little exaggerated, but still, for that once in a blue moon when I stumble accross things like this (niche Windows apps) I really have a near-complete solution. I was thoroughly impressed.
So I was working the ebay scene yesterday with the goal of a new phone, and I quickly remembered how much it sucks to try and track multiple bids, and time those last second bids. It surprised me that ebay.com still lacked any real Ajax (Live countdowns anyone?) anyways the long of the short is that I eventually stumbled accross Ebay Desktop Beta, one of the frontrunners utilizing adobe's new desktop runtime based on flash.
January 31, 2008
» Bebo Announces Auto-play for All for Flash on User Profiles
A really cool feature of the Bebo API is that, unlike the Facebook API, they are committed to allow autoplay on Flash widgets placed on Profile pages. Facebook has turned off this feature, requiring users to click on the widget before it is allowed to play. Today, Bebo became even more appealing by announcing they are going to allow the user to have preference over what autoplays and what does not.
On Bebo, Developers have the choice to have the sound on their Flash widgets play when the page is loaded, have the sound off when the page is loaded, or disable the sound entirely. Users have the ability to disable sound entirely when they load pages:
“bebo users can opt to not autoplay flash content on profiles they view - if such a viewer is viewing a page then all sn:swf tags that requested sound=”on” will be set to “off”
Flash Widgets still autoplay, with or without sound. The user then has the opportunity to turn on the sound with a little speaker icon in the upper-right corner of the widget.
I think this is a great way to prevent spam of music or other sounds playing as you load others’ profiles, similar to how MySpace does it. At the same time, it stays flexible for developers in that they can have a completely running flash application (instead of an image, like Facebook), right as the page loads. Apps like the Skype app for Facebook and my GrandCentral app actually have purpose with this method.
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