GalaxyGoo Blogs

A sneak peak at what the color of spam may look like:

Posted by Kristin at 01:25 PM | Permalink

Introduction:
At FOTB, Seb's talk on particle systems was on my short list of sessions I wanted to see, and meeting him was a real treat. I was delighted when he joined the GalaxyGoo Flash-a-thon. His snow effect is great, and the fact that he wrote it so quickly is a testament to both his skill as a coder and his familiarity with particles. ~Kristin

Author: Seb Lee-Delisle, Technical Director, Plug-in Media
Author's comments:
At FlashBrighton's Big Day Out a couple of weeks ago, I set myself the somewhat crazy challenge of programming a dynamically generated snowstorm in fifteen minutes from scratch. No pre-written classes, no graphics, nothing!

Needless to say it was a somewhat frenetic, but exciting session, and I just about made it with a few seconds to spare. And, as I felt that producing 2D particle snow would be a little too easy, I decided halfway through that it'd look better in 3D. And then I added some wind. As I always say, it'd be boring if it were too easy. :-)

Support the educational projects at GalaxyGoo, and make an online donation through Network for Good or Facebook Causes..

For live version, and source files, continue reading.

Continue reading "Snowstorm in 15 minutes" »

Posted by Seb Lee-Delisle at 11:27 AM | Permalink

How's this for a little experiment in social networking for a good cause? And the timing is great!

About the Causes Giving Challenge The Causes Giving Challenge launches on December 13, 2007 at 3pm EST and ends on February 1, 2008 at 3pm EST. Through the Challenge, all users of Causes on Facebook are invited to participate by creating a cause. A total of $250,000 will be awarded to the causes of those individuals who inspire the most donors to give to their charity.

$50,000 to the Cause with the most donors
$25,000 to the next two Causes with the most donors
$10,000 to the next ten Causes with the most donors
AND $1,000 each day to the Cause with the most donors that day

We believe that this campaign has the potential to show the extraordinary impact that new technologies and online communities are having on giving.
~ The Case Foundation

Note that it says the "most donors" not the most donated. So, if 200 people donate $40 each, we could be in very good shape.

Our goal is to raise money for The Cell Project, bringing us closer to getting it into classrooms as an integrated project based learning activity and lesson plan.

As of a few minutes ago, the Flash-a-thon for The Cell Project was doing pretty well. We're still in the top 4, but we need your help to stay there.

Adding to the excitement of the Flash-a-thon, the stats are updated real-time, so this could get exciting. How many donors will we need to win one of those $1,000 daily grants? Or one of the bigger grants?

Posted by Kristin at 10:39 PM | Permalink

Introduction:
We're going to start with a fantastic piece by Keith Peters. What a great way to kick off the Flash-a-thon! ~Kristin

Author: Keith Peters
Author's comments:
The Chaos Game is a simple algorithm that can produce some surprising fractal forms. This one has been done in 3D. More info here: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ChaosGame.html

Support the educational projects at GalaxyGoo, and make an online donation through Network for Good or Facebook Causes..

For live version, and source files, continue reading.

Continue reading "Chaos Game" »

Posted by Keith at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Today, the marathon begins! We will post experimental Flash projects every day, until the 15th or until we run out of projects to post. Right now, It's looking like we'll run over our minimum!

We're posting our source files, and releasing them under creative commons license, so download and have some fun! All files are released as is, without warranty.

As with any something-a-thon, this is a fund raiser. Your donation will help bring project based science activities, like The Cell Project, into classrooms and enrichment programs.

Support the educational projects at GalaxyGoo, and make an online donation through Network for Good or Facebook Causes. Please see the GalaxyGoo Flash-a-thon FAQ for more information.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons GNU General Public License License and a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Posted by Kristin at 11:40 AM | Permalink

We've started a group on Flickr, for the Flash-a-thon. There are already a couple of sneak-peek images up.

We start posting on Monday, Dec 10th...less than a week away! Stay tuned for upcoming news...like prizes for best audience participation.

Posted by Kristin at 11:34 AM | Permalink

The moo cards I ordered, to take to FOTB, arrived today! Yeah!

Looks like the conference is completely sold out! Wow! Really looking forward to it! I just hope my presentation stands up to all the other great sessions on the schedule. I'm having a great time preparing it! Atoms, and fractals, and algorithms...oh my!

Thanks to a temp license from Wolfram Research, I now have a copy of Mathematica installed on my laptop. Yeah! If you're going to FOTB, and you're curious, look for me at the conference.

Posted by Kristin at 02:08 PM | Permalink

We're getting ready for the GalaxyGoo "flash-a-thon", in late November. Still need a few things including:

1. An official name ...other than a "Flash-a-thon". Any ideas for what to call it? Code-a-thon? Geek-a-thon? Code-fest?

2. A logo -- for t-shirts and other items.

3. Flash coders -- to contribute source files. We've got some great talent lined up for the event, but there's always room for more.

Are there sponsorship opportunities? Of course! If you're interested in sponsoring the event, send a note through our contact form

Posted by Kristin at 01:10 PM | Permalink

Well, I'm trying to install the update for Flash CS3 that supports publishing an AIR file from the Flash CS3 authoring environment. It's not going well.

I've searched, and haven't found a mention of this problem, so I'm posting it here as a reminder to myself and in the hope that somebody in-the-know will have an answer.

When I ran the update installer everything seemed to be going well. I have not installed an earlier (beta 1) version of the update. But when I try to publish an AIR file, I get the following error message:

"Creating AIR file failed.
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3: error 400: Certificate file missing/cannot be opened "

What certificate is missing?

Posted by Kristin at 01:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This weekend, I was playing around with some AS1 code that Edwin posted a few years back. I even managed to convert it to AS3. Which was a great exercise!

His original version draws short lines, to fill a color pattern. In my simple modification, I've used graphics.drawEllipse() instead. But I keep getting a white line down the middle of the pattern, that shouldn't be there.

When zooming in on the swf, I noticed that when dots overlap on the mid-line, they cancel each other and leave a white space. Very odd!

Wondering if the size of the shape would have any effect, I changed the width and height of the ellipses on half of the pattern.

While this didn't give me the hoped-for result, it did give me an idea for simulating fish scales!

I'm sure I've seen something like this posted somewhere, but I just can't remember where or if there was a fix.

Update:

If I replace
...
var fillColor = f0*(sqX=x1*x1)+f1*sqX*sqX+f2*sqX*(sqY=y1*y1)+f3*sqY*sqY+f4*sqY;
c.graphics.beginFill(fillColor);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(pX=100-(x1-=2), pY=y1+100, 1.8,1.9);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(199-pX, pY,4,4);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(pX,198-pY,1.8,1.9);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(199-pX, 198-pY,3,3);
...

with

...
var fillColor = f0*(sqX=x1*x1)+f1*sqX*sqX+f2*sqX*(sqY=y1*y1)+f3*sqY*sqY+f4*sqY;
c.graphics.beginFill(fillColor);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(pX=100-(x1-=2), pY=y1+100, 1.8,1.9);
c.graphics.beginFill(fillColor);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(199-pX, pY,4,4);
c.graphics.beginFill(fillColor);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(pX,198-pY,1.8,1.9);
c.graphics.beginFill(fillColor);
c.graphics.drawEllipse(199-pX, 198-pY,3,3);
...

which simply adds a new beginFill command, before each drawEllipse command,

the subtraction problem is eliminated. Very strange.

Update (after Robert Penner's commentt):

Posted by Kristin at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

My session description for Flash on the Beach is up. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one!

The complexity of the universe and all of life is based on simple building blocks. A metal is a metal, no matter how many times you melt or pound it. It's the sub-atomic particles of each atom that determine its character, and how it interacts with others.

Posted by Kristin at 01:31 PM | Permalink

Flash! What is it?!

An vector illustration and animation tool?
A video format?
A programming paradigm?
AS3 + movie clips?
Endless font frustrations?
A tool for developing specialized Flex components?

I'm heading out for the Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education this week. While there, I will undoubtedly be talking about Flash a lot...about what I do with it. About interaction, and dynamic animation, ...

A lot of people have an idea of what Flash is, and what it can do. Do they have the complete picture? What would you say, if someone asked you what Flash is?

Posted by Kristin at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This has me completely puzzled. I'm finishing up a project that allows the user to input information and then print a page combining tdynamic elements with static elements. All elements are black (0x000000), and are mostly text (static & dynamic) and straight lines.

On my system (win XP), everything works fine. But client is reporting that the static elements are printing as blue, instead of black. He's on a mac.

Any ideas why? How to fix it?

Posted by Kristin at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

GalaxyGoo has participated in the Blogathon twice now. It's been a lot of fun and we posted some great experimental Flash projects.

It's time for us to spin off on our own, with a less hectic schedule and more community participation. I'm thinking that we should spread the posts out over a few weeks and encourage the community to post links to their adaptations. Perhaps we should arrange some nice prizes.

We need a name! Current candidates are "GalaxyGoo-a-thon" and "Flash-a-thon". Obviously, we need more ideas.

Posted by Kristin at 01:42 PM | Permalink

Well, there goes the summer...Flex 3 Public Beta is now on Adobe Labs.

I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but I'm hoping that it supports better work-flow integration with Flash....without boxing people into Flex for coders and Flash for designers.

Posted by Kristin at 09:03 PM | Permalink

Below is a short description of how I might import a video file into Flash. I wrote it to explain to the folks at Wolfram what I want to do with flv or swf files generated by Mathematica . I'm hoping that someone may have some insights on how to resolve the problem I'm having when working with the files generated by Mathematica in Flash. Please note that this is not a tutorial. If it was, I'd be a lot more careful about defining my terms and not leaving out any steps or details.

Continue reading "Where I'm stuck, with importing Mathematica FLV into Flash" »

Posted by Kristin at 02:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm still thinking about what to present at Flash on the Beach, in November. I certainly want to have a lot of fun with this one. If I can get the details of exporting Mathematica generated swfs worked out with Wolfram, I may explore some of the possibilities that opens up.

Yes, I know I've already posted about this, but they sent me such a lovely graphic I had to post again.

Posted by Kristin at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The scientific and education communities use Adobe products extensively. Does Adobe have an evangelist that serves their needs? If not, why?

I'd like to see Adobe doing more to meet the needs of scientists and educators. I'd like to see Adobe at the next AAAS national meeting, as exhibitors--a big booth with demonstrations of the current releases of Photoshop, Flash, and the rest. Introduce them to AS3 in Flash....you'd be surprised how often I meet scientists/programmers who have no idea that Flash has a scripting language, let alone one with the capabilities of AS3!

Why do I want Adobe to do this? Because it will make my life a lot easier! Adobe now owns most of the software that I use in my work. The more scientists and educators know about Flash, the sooner I can get to the project brainstorming and development aspects of my work. We will all start to build even more compelling and useful learning tools.

Posted by Kristin at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

What do you think about registering, before getting open source files? I ask this because it is rather challenging for us, as a non-profit organization, to provide reports on how our efforts are received by the public. How many people are we reaching and serving with our programs? Are we fulfilling our mission? We could develop better server solutions for tracking download statistics, behind the scenes. However, I'd prefer to go with a full disclosure policy, from all parties.

Is registration "bad", when we're a growing community? Identity supports responsibility, and respect for fellows.

My impression is that this is a sensitive issue, and I'd like some well considered thoughts from the community at large. If you are unfamiliar with GalaxyGoo, we are a small non-profit dedicated to increasing science literacy.

Posted by Kristin at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

A little while ago, I briefly posted about Mathematica 6 exporting to SWF. Well, I've had a little time to play with it, and must confess that I'm finding it difficult to focus on finishing a project, because there is always something interesting in the documentation to distract me.

I've set myself the task of exploring the export to SWF feature, and here's an early example. AT this point, all I've done is make some small modifications to provided examples.

My impressions, so far:

Some Good stuff:
1. A lot of power in a few lines of code! This example was created in about 4 lines.
2. Wonderfully simple programming interface--I've always loved that about Mathematica.
3. Amazingly easy to go from evaluating a function to producing an interactive animation of it (even if the swf export doesn't have the interaction part).
4. Nice range of color palettes to choose from, and easy to apply. (I need to research how to add custom palettes).

Some Problems:
1. The resulting swf is huge! 3.27mb!
2. There is no interactivity in the swf - it runs automatically, even though there is a slider visible. (within Mathematica there is a lot of interaction with the example).
3. The swf does not support the 3d rotation of rendered object, which is present in the Mathematica interface.
4. The swf appears to be frame-by-frame animation of stills, rather than making use of any of the Flash drawing api.

Because the file is so big, I've posted it to the extended entry, instead of the main body, of this post. I've also posted a screenshot of the Mathematica notebook file, used to create this swf.

Continue reading "My First Export to SWF, From Mathematica" »

Posted by Kristin at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In past years, GalaxyGoo's participation in the Blogathon has been a lot of fun and resulted in collections of cool Flash experiments and their source files. Participants post every 30 minutes, for 24 hours. It's certainly a marathon.

I'm thinking that GalaxyGoo should go independent, and modify the program a bit. Scheduling daily bursts, for a week or two, instead of the 24 hour marathon. That would give our readers time to participate as well. I'd love to see variations on the posted source files.

Posted by Kristin at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This post is really just a question. One that's been puzzling me.

Why is there no built-in output panel that displays trace() results in Flex Builder 2? Is there a setting I should change, and have it functioning the way I'd expect from my years as a Flash-coder? Is it perhaps that Flash-coders were not expected to switch to the Flex Builder for coding? Is there a better tool than trace() in Flex Builder?

Why should I have to do any extra work to get trace() output when developing AS in Flex Builder? While I appreciate the code collapse, and other neat dev tools, trace() is really an important to how I develop code.

**Update: --- Read Comments for answers and explinations
*
* You must use Debug, instead of Run to get trace() output
*

Posted by Kristin at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Holy Cow! The new release of Mathematica (6) exports to swf!

Guess what I'm going to be playing with as soon as the disk arrives.

Posted by Kristin at 01:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The graphics for Flash on The Beach have been updated....that must mean the whole site's about to be updated. If that's the case, keep an eye out for my name on the speaker list.

That's right, I've accepted an invitation to speak at Flash On The Beach this coming November. My general theme will be the intersection of art and science. Not sure of the details yet, but really looking forward to it.

Posted by Kristin at 07:03 PM | Permalink

I'm working on a little app that tracks user activity and saves the data locally, so the user can go back and resume where they left off. To keep track of where they position various movieclips, I'm using an xml object with a node for each movieclip and it's position. Fairly simple, really.

What's been frustrating me, though, is the removeNode method of the XML class. I have yet to successfully get it to work for me. I've also had trouble finding much documentation on removeNode() in AS3. In the end, I've resorted to delete, which works like a charm.

So, instead of

myXML.myNode.removeNode();

I'm using

delete myXML.mynode;

Posted by Kristin at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, I've gone an built a portfolio. Would you believe it's the first time I've done so?

It's still rough, and I need to add "loading" messages, among other things.

It was a great learning experience. Many things that were very simple in AS1 and AS2, are more complicated in AS3. Others are blissfully simple in AS3...like e4x for XML!

The whole thing was built with AS3, using the Flash9 AS3 Preview.

Posted by Kristin at 02:46 PM | Permalink

Woohoo! I'm making the trek to Toronto, for FITC. And I get to just enjoy it all, without any stress, because I'm not speaking this time.

Posted by Kristin at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

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When you order through this link, GalaxyGoo receives a commission from an affiliate program.

Posted by Kristin at 11:07 AM | Permalink

So, I'm playing around with the Flash9 AS3 Preview, and updating a project I'd built in Flash8 to AS3....when I get stuck. I can't figure out how to fix an error message I get when trying to run a Document Class...so I go back to the tutorials, and start from scratch. I tinker with the files I create with the tutorials. It all goes well.

But when I go back to my old file, I still can't get my document class to run without a fatal error. So....I go through all the visual assets in the fla. Eventually, I find one movieclip on the stage with an instance name. When I remove this instance name, my document class works like a charm.

So, why does having a manually set instance name cause an error? I'd very much like this explained, because I think I'm missing something important. Does it have something to do with not setting insance names in AS3?

Posted by Kristin at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

At last Friday's Apollo Camp, I was interviewed...on camera! To my frustration, when they asked me what I would build with Apollo, I blanked. Must have been the bright lights, and the late hour. Of course, as soon as I was off-camera, the ideas spontaneously regenerated in my tired brain. What's a geek to do? Blog it!

Apollo is a bit more than a desk-top Flash player. There are number of features that have captured my interest:

1. Apollo applications sit on Apollo Runtime, not the operating system, freeing the developer from choosing which operating system to develop for. This is the reason I first got into Flash.

2. Apollo desktop integration means applications have local file access, and can make use of system clipboard and drag-n-drop...think how easy it will be to add your local photos to online applications!

3. Apollo applications can run in the background. When I heard this, the first thing that popped in my head was distributed computation projects.

4. I can use my existing web dev skills. According to Kevin Lynch, anything that works in HTML will work in Apollo.

5. Apollo also has online/offline detection events. This has a lot of interesting possibilities...preparing content, and then publishing, all in one application...checking for updates...

With the ease of web-services integration into Flash and Flex projects, and a force of developers who think web-enabled, I think we'll see some very interesting applications in the near future.

I'll probably start with something that will make my own life easier, like a bookmark manager.

Posted by Kristin at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm heading across town for Adobe's Apollocamp, in a couple hours. If you're going to be there, be sure to say hi!

I'll be the short, round, female, with glasses and dark hair ;-)

Posted by Kristin at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A lot of people that visit this blog have some sort of connection with Flash and the more experimental side of ActionScript and even experimental code in general. Whether it's by coding yourself or loving to check out what others can come up with. So this entry is about when it got started for you, what was the first piece that made you go 'whoa'?

When it comes to Flash and sparking my interest to take ActionScript one step further, Geoff Stearns' Click 3 Points is what started it for me. I remember seeing the original piece on an early version of his website, Deconcept and just spending hours clicking away and being mesmerized by it. I wanted to see if I could recreate it, I *needed* to recreate it. Since my AS-skills at the time (Flash5) weren't all that, it took me a bit, but eventually I came close. I even used one of my own resulting images as a wallpaper on my computer at work for a long time. And then Geoff created this page where people could showcase their variations of his original code, so I tweaked his code and he was gracious enough to add my piece on there. I was *beaming* when I saw my name on the page...

I could list a few more people/sites that have also been influential to me at some point, but Click 3 Points is what started it all, so... What started it for you?

Posted by Edwin at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I want to go to Adobe ApolloCamp, but it's "sold out". If anyone has tickets, but can't attend, I'd appreciate it if you'd consider transferring one to me.

Update: There was a cancelation, and i'm now registered. :-) If you're going to be there, be sure to say "hi"!

Posted by Kristin at 12:37 PM | Permalink

Often, I'm asked how I "learned Flash". I don't always know how to answer, since I don't think the way I learned it would work out for others. I also started programming before I even knew Flash existed.

People learning Flash, have a big challenge in finding good material amid all the noise. Some of the material really frustrates me. In fact, I recently had an "argument" with someone who wants to teach the old "on()" event model to high school students, instead of teaching best practices. For a lot of people, ActionScript is their first programming language, and I don't think it's a good idea to teach an outmoded event model that they will have to unlearn before they can make real progress in Flash.

What resources do you point people to, when they're starting out? Do you think there is a shortage of online resources that help people start out, with a solid foundation that prepares them to continue on?

Posted by Kristin at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

About 2 months ago I posted an entry about the beta release of the Flash Player 9 plugin for Linux. I installed it on my Ubuntu desktop and have been enjoying Flash8 & 9 content since (there has never been a Flash Player 8 plugin for Linux, only 7 and lower). I didn't encounter any real problems with it and I was very pleased with it. But lo and behold, it seems Adobe has not been sitting back to enjoy the achievement! Yesterday it announced the official Flash Player 9 for Linux release! Not just a beta, but a full release, putting Linux officially on par with Windows and OSX as far as Flash Player support goes. I am pretty stoked about this, the beta-release was an awesome feat, and knowing that Adobe continues with it is awesome as well!

Posted by Edwin at 12:11 AM | Permalink

Every so often, the absence of women at Flash conferences gets mentioned in the Flash blogs. But still...not much changes. There's a speakers list up for FITC now, and out of over 36 speakers currently listed, guess how many are women. Zero.

Why should I, as a woman, speak or even attend a Flash conference?

FITC Toronto 2007 - The Design & Technology Festival

Posted by Kristin at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

A few weeks ago Adobe released the Flash Player 9 Beta for Linux. This is great news as there wasn't a Flash Player 8 for Linux and now Linux users can check out the latest and greatest Flash applications and sites without a problem (do submit bugreports if you find any!)... This means it is now possible to create and view Flash9/AS3 content under Linux without the use of Wine/etc (creating it was already possible). Flash has taken one more, big!, step in the cross-platform world.

I'm planning to update my Linux install soon (it's my main OS at home), so once that is done I'll install the beta and report my findings here.

Posted by Edwin at 12:59 AM | Permalink

My article (Adventures with Bitmaps and Vectors) is now live. It's a work in progress, so please send in comments.

I hope that people find it useful. I've gone into more detail on subjects that there wasn't room for in the last published book I worked on.

Thanks to Aral Balkan, who inspired me with his post about vector vs bitmap.

Posted by Kristin at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

darron schall :: Compile ActionScript in ActionScript

Posted by Kristin at 12:38 PM | Permalink

The folks at Adobe surprised me this summer. They said they wanted to feature my work in the Adobe Design Center Gallery. I was thrilled...and who am I to pass up such great publicity?!

I had a lot of fun creating the piece, and I hope you enjoy it:
Adobe Design Center Gallery Featured Artist: Kristin Henry

Posted by Kristin at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Every time I speak at a Flash conference, I'm asked how to find female speakers. Well, Ann-Marie, over at FlashGoddess has taken steps to make this easier for everybody, with the new (and growing) Flash Goddess Women Speakers Listing. Personally, I'm thrilled to be on this list.

Posted by Kristin at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adobe has released a security bulletin for the Flash player, and recommends a critical upgrade of the Flash player. Details and download link are available from Adobe.

Adobe - Security Advisories : Multiple Vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player 8.0.24.0 and Earlier Versions

Posted by Kristin at 04:49 PM | Permalink

Back in 2002, I figured out how to integrate webMathematica and Flash. When the Flash player security tightened up with player 7, some problems came up. Even with a policy file on the remote server, the player wouldn't load the data. It couldn't find the policy file. But with the addition of loadPolicyFile(), it was possible to indicate the exact location of the file. All good.

But that solution no longer works. New problems popped up when we moved the webMathematica portion of our Periodic Table of Elements project to a new server. Data stopped loading from the remote server, and the application stalled in a "loading data" loop.

The application itself is very simple, and is an exploration of importing data from a webMathematica script into Flash. Building the table is fairly straight-forward, and a simple version of it (sans webMath calls) is in our mediaLab.

The tricky part comes in when the user clicks on an element's table cell, this triggers a call to the msp (a webMathematica script) on the remote server. Normally, a simple policy file would take care of the restrictions the Flash player has for loading remote data. However, the player looks for the policy file on the standard port.

webMathematica does not serve on the standard port. On our previous server, we found that we could work around this by using loadPolicyFile() in the swf. The port was indicated in the address: http://www.server.com:8080/somefile.msp

On the new server, the port is not part of the URL. And for some reason, loadPolicyFile() won't load the policy file we specify. Perhaps it's looking on the standard port. I tried the to-port attribute for the outgoing policy file, but this didn't help. This is where I'm stuck.

In case anyone at Adobe is reading this, and could use more details on the problem:

• when testing in the Flash authoring environment, the remote data loads just fine.


• we are now on port 21


• I tried using to-port attribute in the policy file, but it didn't help

Update (question for John):
How do I load data from a remote server (through port 21 on that server) to a swf residing on my website's server (normal port)?

The remote server is running webMathematica. I've been able to load data into Flash from a remote webMathematica server before, but the remote server's port number was part of the address, using a policy file and indicating it's location with actionscript's loadPolicyFile(http://www.myserver.com:8080/math...) inside the swf.

Posted by Kristin at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Yep, I'm having trouble with cross-domain data loading and quirky policy files again.

I recall someone recently posted on the blogs about having similar troubles, where the data loaded just fine when tested on local dev machine, but wouldn't load from server. I'd appreciate it if anyone could point me to that post, or another solution.

The problem seems to stem from being on an unexpected port, again. There are policy files on both servers, but the server the swf is on seems to be unable to locate the crossdomain.xml file on the remote server with the data.

Posted by Kristin at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I never use the filters that Flash8 has inside the authoring environment. But after Kristin pointed out to me she had problems reproducing a Glow Filter in AS that she had made in the authoring environment I checked it out.

The default Glow Filter settings inside the authoring environment are as follows: color is #FF0000 (red) at alpha 100%, blurX & blurY are 5, strength is 100%, quality is low and knock out and inner glow are unchecked.
To recreate this using AS you need the same settings as above except the strength needs to be set to 1 and alpha needs to be set to 1. The alpha parameter in AS goes from 0 to 1 which makes enuf sense. However according to the docs the strength goes from 0 to 255. So how does this relate to the strength settings inside the authoring environment which can be set from 0% to 1000%? 100% relates to 1 apparently. So there doesn't seem to be a linear transformation. Which seems odd.

I haven't checked any of the other filters if there are odd differences between filters applied inside the authoring environment and those applied in AS. Anybody?

Posted by Edwin at 12:50 AM | Permalink

Wow! We did it! We posted experimental Flash projects (with source files) every 30 minutes for 24 hours. It wouldn't have been possible without my amazing team. Edwin, Mike, Paul, and Stacey, and special guest Keith Peters, posted fantastic and diverse experimental flash projects (including source files). The experience made us all wish we had more time to experiment. Everyone went above and beyond what was asked of them, and in my eyes they truly sparkled.

In addition to the coders, we had an invaluable team member who may be unfamiliar to the Flash blog audience: Phyllis Pugh. Phyllis is a neuroscientist.She is also on the board of directors and is the science advisor to GalaxyGoo. If you ask me, we've just discovered a hidden talent of hers: blogger extraordinaire. Her introductions were great! She stepped up during the blogathon, even with an unexpected and personal loss.

Why'd we do this? There were two main goals: 1) inspire our fellow flash developers to do more experimentation and 2) raise money for the educational programs at Galaxygoo.

It's not too late to make a pledge of support for GalaxyGoo at blogathon.org. To every donor who pledges $40 or more, we'll be sending a cool thank you gift: a Glow-in-the-dark Astro-Logix construction toy (64 pieces).

Posted by Kristin at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The blogathon is almost upon us, and we're working furiously to get ready. We've got a fantastic group of Flash coders contributing files to this event. Some participated back in 2003, and some are joining us for the first time.

• Edwin Heijmen
• Kristin Henry
• Mike Johnson
• Stacey Mulcahy
• Paul Ortchanian

The projects will be in various version of Flash, including AS3.

During the event, we'll publish source files as well as finished swf. We hope that you will join in on the fun, play around with the code, and post your own variations.

The event starts at 6am (pacific), on Saturday, July 29th, and ends 24 hours later.

You can help support the educational programs at GalaxyGoo, by making a pledge of support on the blogathon.org website.

Posted by Kristin at 12:53 PM | Permalink

I've updated the Data Visualization of Avian Flu so that it shows the data from the World Health Organization on cases reported through July 4th, 2006.

Posted by Kristin at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's official! We're in the 2006 Blogathon. We'll post an experimental Flash project every 30 minutes, for 24 hours.

In the 2004 blogathon, GalaxyGoo won the award for "Best Visual Arts". After a two year break, we're participating in the blogathon again.

When: Saturday, July 29th
Start Time: 6am (Pacific)

Sponsor GalaxyGoo! Your pledge supports the educational projects at GalaxyGoo.

Posted by Kristin at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This is a little project I've been working on. It shows the progress of confirmed cases of Avian Flu over time, and is based on data from the World Health Organization. Please note that they only report cases that have been confirmed by laboratory testing.

Data Visualization of Avian Flu Cases in Humans

The most challenging part of the project, in all truth, was to convert the data from the format the WHO published it into an XML formatted data structure. It was the manual formatting that took the most time and concentration.

This animation, to use a current catch-phrase, uses client-side logic to render data from an external data source (in XML format), and can be updated without editing the swf file.

Please note that this is a work in progress, and there are a number of features I will be adding in the future, including greater user interaction with the data, alternative rendering views, and the overlay of other data (such as cases in birds).

Posted by Kristin at 01:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Wow! What a conference!

Yes, the sessions were good, but it's really the people who make a conference. It was great to meet up with old friends, and to make wonderful new friends....just too many to list in a blog post. Two new and very dear friends (Mario and Alexandra) were so much fun throughout the conference. It was all such a whirl-wind that I didn't get to spend enough time with lots of people, especially Stacey and Ann-Marie. Robert, Keith, Aral, Simon...the list goes on and on. Really great people.

I had to tend to business as well, and may have a new sponsor for GalaxyGoo. I also got some good advice on the book-writing front, including the possibility of developing courses or workshops.

Even on the flight home, the conversations continued. Paul Ortchanian and I talked for a good portion of the flight. He's now based in San Francisco, but we'd never met before.

I can hardly wait for the next FITC.

Posted by Kristin at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Early tomorrow morning, my long journey to Toronto and FITC begins.

I'm really looking forward to this conference. I'm especially hoping to meet up with people who are active or interested in the OSFlash movement. Be sure to introduce yourselves! My talk is at 10:15 am on Saturday, in Pier 2 & 3, and is titled Beyond Usability: Building Meaningful Learning Applications.

Posted by Kristin at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Woohoo! This is great news! With AS2!

Macromedia - Flash Player 7 For Pocket PC

Posted by Kristin at 02:33 PM | Permalink

Marc Tanenbaum, from Red Hill Studios, recently asked if I knew any Flash coders who are currently available. If you are interested in this position, please use the contact address at the end of this post.

Red Hill Studios is an educational interactive media developer for consumer, classroom, online, and museum markets. Although we operate in a fast-paced environment and strive to do the best work possible, we feel it is important to have fun along the way.

To apply for this job please submit a resume and cover letter to programmer at redhillstudios dot com.

Posted by Kristin at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Over the years, I've informally explored the issue of color-challegned users in Flash. Some of my recent explorations have turned up these links:

• light and the eye
• Color Perception FAQ
• Cone Fundamentals & Generating a Spectrum from Wikipedia

And here is a book I'd like to pick up:

Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae
(Wiley Series in Pure & Applied Optics)

Posted by Kristin at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For those of you that don't follow the Flash blogs, this may be news to you. A vulnerability in the Flash player has been discovered, but Adobe already has a fix for you to download. This is a security vulnerability, so make sure to take care of this, and download the update right away. Macromedia - APSB06-03: Flash Player Update to Address Security Vulnerabilities

Posted by Kristin at 04:00 PM | Permalink

I recently came across an odd issue with FlashPlayer 8. Consider the following ActionScript:

var arr = [];
arr[203] = "�";
arr[235] = "�";
var obj = {};
for (var i in arr) obj[arr[i]] = i;
var t = "";
for (var i in obj) t += i+" - "+obj[i]+" | ";
txt.htmlText = t;

Where 'txt' is a dynamic textfield on the stage.

When this code is published for FlashPlayer6 / ActionScript1.0 (as is the case with the company I work for, I work with MX2004 at the moment) it displays "� - 203 | � - 235 |" in the textfield when viewed with FlashPlayer 6 & 7. It however displays "� - 203 |" when viewed with FlashPlayer 8! It does however show the correct result in FlashPlayer 8 when this code is published for FlashPlayer7 / ActionScript2.0. Very odd and it seems to be a backwards compatibility issue/bug.

Since we use our own custom encoding/decoding scheme to send texts back & forth between Flash and the server which relies on the above-mentioned ability, this is kind of a problem. Is there an easy solution besides publishing for FP7/AS2.0 and thus having to update a lot of applications?

I might actually file this as a bug with Adobe/Macromedia as it isn't, in my eyes, expected behavior/correct backwards compatibility.

Posted by Edwin at 02:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Call me a geek, but I just love creating interactive data visualizations with Flash. The more challenging, the better.

I recently finished a really fun project for NASA: an interactive visualization of the Vostok ice core data. The small graph at the bottom of the data widget (as we've been calling it) is the navigation system for the data set. It's embedded, about halfway down, on Earth Observatory Feature: Paleoclimatology: Frozen in Time: the Ice Core Record

Posted by Kristin at 08:18 PM | Permalink

I've been asked to speak at FITC 2006 Toronto - The Design & Technology Festival. I accepted the invitation. So, it looks like I'm heading to Toronto in late April. I was planning to take a break from tech conferences this year, but just couldn't resist FITC.

Posted by Kristin at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Special Edition Using Macromedia Studio 8, by Sean Nicholson. I'm amazed that I only now remembered to post the title. While my name isn't on the front cover, it is printed just below Sean's on the title page, and on the back cover :-) Sean was also very kind, and mentioned me in his acknowledgements.

There's a possibility that the publisher will post one of my chapters online. I'm still not sure which one to ask for, though. The chapters I'm considering are "Introduction to Action Script", "ActionScripting for Motion Graphics", and "Introduction to Class-based Programming in Flash". I'm leaning toward "Introduction to Class-based Programming in Flash". Let me know if you have thoughts on which would be most useful to the Flash community. By the way, the files for the tutorial chapter (building an XML-based slide show) can be downloaded on the publisher's page for the book. Look for "The example files developed for Chapter 16".

Since I was a "contributing author" and not "co-author", I didn't get to write any acknowledgements for the book. So, I'd like to do a little of that here. First of all, I need to thank my husband and children for putting up with me while writing the chapters, and for being so supportive and understanding...and for eating so many take-out dinners. MD Dundon was my tech editor, and I couldn't have gotten through it with out her. There were something like 7 editors on this book, and MD really helped me figure things out, when I'd get confused. Frances Segal, my intern at the time, was wonderfully patient with me and the crazy schedule.

Writing the Flash chapters of this book was an amazing learning experience. I had to start at the very beginning, and give the reader a footing in drawing on the stage with the toolbox and frame-by-frame animations and tweening. From there, the reader works from simple ActionScripting to working with external data and then Class-based coding. And of course, we had to fit in audio and video. I especially enjoyed writing about the new Flash 8 video encoder and the FLVPlayback component. Cool stuff! There wasn't a lot of room to cover things in as much detail as I'd have liked to. Everything had to be boiled down to their simplest essence. I also didn't get to spend much time on the new features in Flash8, although I did slip in a coded filter for the tutorial on coding a slide show.

Do I plan to write another book? Yes! In fact, I'm looking for the right publisher for my next book. It's much more fun to write a book at one's own pace than under tight deadlines. :-)

Posted by Kristin at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just saw today, that Keith Peters' fantastic book, ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move, is sold out. Wow! Congratulations Keith!

It just so happens that we were about to list a signed copy of the book in our MissionFish/Ebay auctions. So, if you've just got to have a copy, and you'd like to support our programs at the same time, the timing couldn't be better. The listing is scheduled to go live tonight at 9pm, Pacific.

Legal note: GalaxyGoo is a registered charity in the State of California. This is not a solicitation for donations outside of California.

Posted by Kristin at 12:58 PM | Permalink

Sometimes, I just have to make something silly. Usually this happens when I've been working on a particular project for a very long time and I start imagining it's elements in a peculiar way ;-)

Click on the stage to start a new randomly generated pattern.

Thanks go to Edwin, for inspiration and some code from his kaleidoscopes (1, 2, & 3).

Posted by Kristin at 01:29 PM | Permalink

We've just uploaded a new version of The Cell: A Learning Tool.

This version includes a feature that lets the user build a cell from a selection of organelles, and checks if the correct organelles have been placed in the cytoplasm.

We've also included questions in the quiz that are more cognitive based.

We still need to add better logic to the quiz, so that the same question isn't repeated and the quiz responds to the user's learning needs.

Posted by Kristin at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Woohoo! When this book comes out, it will be a must-have.

moockblog: announcing Essential ActionScript 3.0...

Posted by Kristin at 10:48 PM | Permalink

It's been so busy around here, that many "news" items just haven't made it to the blog.

This summer, I attended the best conference I've ever been to: the Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education. There were several factors that made it such a great conference. First of all, the attendees were all encouraged to participate by presenting posters, so that most attendees were either giving a talk or giving a poster. Also, the speakers were not singled out, or isolated from the rest of the attendees.

The conference was focused on a single track of sessions, and there were more opportunities for talking with the other attendees than at other conferences I've been to. Also, limiting attendees to 125 reduced the chances of getting "lost in the crowd". During the five days of the conference, we ate all of our meals together and there were many opportunities in the day to socialize. We visited several pubs.

For me, attending one of the two-day workshops before the conference began was a great way to get to know people. We broke up into small working groups. I learned a great deal about assessing the effectiveness of learning applications, and got to know some amazing people at the workshop. You could even say that I had a paradigm shift, as a result of the workshop. I'll be writing more about this, as I continue my studies and explorations.

There was also the mini-grant competition. During the course of the conference, we were encouraged to form interdisciplinary teams, design a pilot project, and write a grant application to fund the project. Each team was expected to include a subject expert, a learning expert, and a media expert. The application was due at the end of the conference.

I am pleased to announce that I am part of a team that won funding for a pilot project, through the conference, and the project will include the development of a learning tool built with Flash. The grants were funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Posted by Kristin at 01:40 PM | Permalink

Eric Mulvihill contributed a class based update of Edwin's CML reader a while back. It's now available for download on the GalaxyGoo Working Forums - CML reader