adir1

Yesterday IE 9 Beta landed on the web. It’s a major rework of the most popular browser, with support for fancy new features (like HTML 5 and CSS 3) and Hardware Video acceleration. I of course installed it right away, and then was even more ecstatic when I saw in my Google Reader feed that Adobe (Finally!!!) released 64 Bit version of their ubiquitous Flash Player.

First impressions? I am not really all that impressed, unfortunately for Microsoft. Although I am really excited that 64 Bit browsing (which is presumably more secure) now finally sports HTML5 support and Flash support.

I guess speed still depends on server and Internet congestion. Startup experience is improved, but Chrome still starts faster on my machine. New tabs open pretty quickly, but look unimpressive (to say the least). Plus, on their own Beauty of the Web site, I get significant “hiccups” in frame rates, from time to time. This is on nVidia accelerated quad core beast, aka my main PC, which I am very happy with overall.

Oh well, it’s a Beta. Overall, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Plus, if you are one of those (strange?) people who like Toolbars and Add-ons, it will tell you which ones are running slow and impacting your overall IE browser performance.

Enjoy!

Adobe Flash Platform got some bad press lately, and its exclusion from iPad is a major slap in the face to Adobe by Steve Jobs himself. Even though millions of sites out there (including this one) use Flash to liven up things and provide extra interactivity, Apple is willing to leave users to stare at Big Empty Boxes on iPad, rather than add Flash support.

To be fair, I myself did a lot of Flash/Flex development and still do! I really like what ActionScript can achieve, much more so than messing with JavaScript and CSS/HTML. But, times are tough, so here is my proposal:

How about we setup an Open Source project to build Flash alternative based on Dalvik VM and some existing Android platform components. We already know that it’s very capable, and if Google is true to its mantra, they wouldn’t mind sharing! Why not reuse the great UI library and 3D API’s, and others, and bring them into the browsers on all platforms – Windows, Unix and of course, Mac and iPad/iPhone! Can’t we all just get along?! Plus with JIT for Dalvik, and potential for native hardware video acceleration on Windows/Mac/Ubuntu/Handsets, I see very bright future!

I am not ignoring Silverlight or HTML 5, I just don’t see either as viable solution. Silverlight is still proprietary and you need specific Microsoft tools to develop for it, while HTML 5 feels like a bit “future-ware” and even when materializes, it’s unclear that it can provide all the richness of visual effects, 3D support, overall speed and pixel level manipulation which we expect in this day and age.

But what about JavaFX you ask? Feels like DOA to me, sadly. I love Java, which is yet another reason why I think Android approach is great, but JavaFX is just “overweight” out the door, and many posted about other major shortcomings.

Plus true modularity is still not there with neither technology! Why are we (developers) still forcing users to go through complex installation ritual to get new software on a system? Why does it have to be a gamble, especially when installing complex applications, whether it will interfere with other applications on the system and break things?!

So, I want to see comments! I know it’s rather big project, so without some people weighing in as to it’s merit (or with offers of participation), I am not going to bother starting even. Besides, probably Googlers are already doing it, whether in their 20% or even as main task, who knows…

UPDATE: I just discovered that someone implemented Flash player in JavaScript!? I didn’t think it was possible, but it is seemingly done using HTML5 browser features in modern browsers. More details and browsers compatibility list on the Gordon project on Github.

Today I remembered a curious little application, which I wrote back around 1989, if memory serves me right. So, decided to document this for the future generations and you, loyal readers.

Back then, in mostly age of DOS, it occurred to me that one can easily create “An Engine” which could easily be reused in many different applications without any coding. The simple idea was to combine files with pre-prepared “screens of text”, and have a master “script” file, which describes the flow between the screens of text and tells the engine what to show, and what to do if a user selects X or clicks on Y. The whole thing took less than a week to write, if I recall correctly.

This wasn’t any major breakthrough, mind you. Even back then, awesome Sierra On-Line figured out that by coding single “Game Engine”, and giving it "Assets” (such as graphics, music and overall “story-line” script), you can create myriad of quality entertainment quickly and with consistently high level of quality. The quality comes in because “Game Engine” itself is small and highly optimized piece of software.

Next we fast forward, through the rise of Macromedia, which essentially conquered game makers market by offering a effective pre-built platform with Engine and “Asset Creator” for graphics and animation. No forgetting the Shockwave player and ultimate unification of Macromedia with Adobe, through brilliant consolidation of companies, giving the world a single preferable standard.

The latest chapter in this saga brings us the Adobe Flex Builder with Adobe AIR platform. Suddenly, creating exciting business applications, with pretty animations and fast response time is as easy as loading up “Assets” along with main “Story script”. Well, in reality, business is never that easy, but this is clearly a Leap Forward. And Yep, your business application is running on the same optimized “Game Engine”, at 30 frames per second!

A Wish Come True for us business developers, who always wanted to Make Games!!!

I am continuing to encounter strange Adobe Flash problems in Internet Explorer 7. We have a bunch of PCs here at home, and after upgrade to IE7 several had broken Flash. I had to search all other the web and try many different things before fixing it.

Few days ago I noticed that Adobe Flash stopped working on my main Windows Vista PC also, probably after Zune software installation, since that’s the only thing I installed recently. Though, there were also several Vista patches on Tuesday, that may have played a part in this.

I was able to fix it and here are the tips for you to try, organized from simple to hard:

• Go directly to Adobe installation site for Flash, Pay Attention and Uncheck Google Toolbar (seriously, it’s like Spyware installer!). Follow installation steps and make sure to reboot your PC after installation.
• Still doesn’t work? Try downloading Flash Installer package from Adobe. Follow directions and download the Installer package at the end of step 3. HOWEVER, on Vista, do an extra step and Shut Down Internet Explorer + Find IEUSER.EXE in Task Manager and End Process on it. Then proceed to install Flash as downloaded above
• Still broken? You are in serious fix… You will need to install Microsoft software and fix some registry keys. Then try again the step above. Reboot and Voila.

Of course, if you still can’t fix it, just use Firefox browser, it seems to work just fine even while IE keeps insisting that "Flash not installed".

Now that you have your Flash fixed, you have some options. First, educate yourself on our planetary crisis by watching the trailer below. Next, proceed to enjoy more Flash capabilities and features, courtesy of Adobe. Of course if they would get their act together, and talk in over with Microsoft or whoever, you wouldn’t have to mess with all that Adobe Flash installation mess to begin with. Enjoy!