UPDATE: Read the press release

At least, that’s what we believe at Footnote. You can either read a transcript of notes from the Continental Congress, or, you can view them yourself. View a collection of Civil War photos. Or, browse one of my favorite collections so far, the Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation 1908-1922, where you can learn about Albert Miller’s arrest in 1917, and subsequent fine of one dollar, for practicing medicine without a license.

Many of the records that we’re offering have never been available online before now. Now you can view high-res scans of documents available from various sources, including The National Archives. Many of these documents have been indexed and are searchable - you won’t have to read every page to find what you’re looking for - search, and be taken to the relevant image. You’ll be able to dig pretty deep into history - both American and your own.

Earlier this year, the development team did a series of “van trips” to various parts of the country to visit with people and show them early builds of the site, and to get feedback on how to improve it. We learned a lot on that trip, and made some significant improvements to our site. While on one of these trips, a few of the people we were visiting with did some searching and were able to pull up some Civil War records that had to do with their ancestors. It was a pretty exciting moment - because something we made had become more than just another website for that person - it was now something that they could use to learn more about their own personal history.

Another important feature is the ability to upload your own content to our site. While we have millions of records & documents already available, if you have content of your own that you would like to share with others, go ahead and upload it. You’ll be able to write articles about various topics, linking to documents & images you’ve uploaded, and the existing content on our site. You’ll be able to write your Wikipedia articles, and point to the original document as a source for your info.

I left mediaRAIN in September of last year to work on the Footnote project because it was something that sounded like a fun Flash project to build. However, the more I started to get into it, and really understand the scope of our site, it became something more. I had been feeling kind of burnt out, and not really all that excited about Flash development, and I saw this as a nice change of pace. It was still Flash, but it was going to be a change for me going to an actual product that could be steadily improved, as opposed to a one-off site for a client. It’s definitely been a challenge to get the image viewer I made online in just a few months, but it’s been a lot of fun. For the first time in a long time, I’ve enjoyed coming in to work again each day.

The site is online, and we’re proud of it. The entire Footnote team has done a great job - pretty much everyone at the company has contributed to the site in one way or another. There’s still some room for improvement, and we know it. The site will be constantly evolving as we learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what could work better. But when you want your product to be the best it can be, you need to recognize that there’s always room for improvement. Like any big project, we had tons of ideas that just didn’t have time to be implemented. So, stay tuned, because what we have now is just the beginning.

I haven’t tried this out yet, but I will be soon - looks like you can listen for the buttons on your Wiimote in your Flash content on the Wii, so your content can use more than just mouse movement and clicks.

Here’s how they map out:

Via: wiinintendo.net

How great is this? That great little Flash game Linerider has been picked up for development by inXile Entertainment into a game for both the Nintendo Wii and DS! Having that game on my DS when I’m travelling will be great. I loved Alien Hominid when it was first posted on NewGrounds, and it’s still one of my favorite GameCube games. Here’s hoping we’ll start to see more of these great little games go on to bigger things in the future!

Links:

inXile To Bring Line Rider Flash Game To Nintendo DS, Wii
1Up.com - Line Rider to become Wii, DS Game

Update: Since I get so many requests about this, I want get this out of the way up front…

I cannot send you a copy of the videos used, in any way, shape, or form.

It’s not that I don’t like you, or that I don’t want to share. In fact, I’m flattered that so many people have written me asking if they can use this as part of their displays. But there are a few reasons why I don’t share.

• This is a custom thing that I need to tweak each year, since my display changes. I don’t have a one-size-fits-all version to give out. (That may change in the future - if it does, I’ll post about it.)
• These technically aren’t video files - it’s a custom Flash application I’ve written that is fairly dependent on my computer setup. I don’t want to mess with trying to troubleshoot every configuration out there. (Again, this may change - in fact, I’d like it to.)
• Finally, and most importantly, I do not own the rights to distribute the music used in the video. If I felt that I could legally share the music without Mickey coming after me w/ a crowbar aimed for my knees, I would.

I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but that’s the current state of things. In short, you can ask, but for the time being, my answer will be the same for everyone - no.

Now, back to the original post…

Yeah… I know it’s almost December, but I figured better late than never, right? Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. And each year we try to do something a little different for the trick or treaters, and that builds upon what we did the year before.

Last year was actually pretty small, it really consisted of a CD of spooky sounds & music, and me passing out the treats with a puppet of a witch. As most of the kids in the neighborhood are pretty young, we really don’t want to go very scary. The spooky noises coming from the bushes were enough to get “that house is haunted!” and other such remarks from the kids.

So this year, the theme ended up being pumpkins. Lots of pumpkins. Instead of carving regular pumpkins, we carve “Funkins” - hollow, foam pumpkins that don’t go mushy after a couple of days. A couple of years of saving pumpkins, plus finding them on sale at the craft store a few days ago, means we have a lot of jack-o-lanterns out on display.

But, the best part of this year’s display were the singing pumpkins. Using Flash, I spent some time animating a quartet of singing jack-o-lantern faces against a black background. Then, by hooking up a projector and running the SWF in full-screen, I then projected those pumpkin faces onto a group of pumpkins set up on the porch. The end result is a quartet of pumpkins singing that classic song Grim Grinning Ghosts from Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. I used Adobe Soundbooth to mix all the audio for the show.

Watch the video

It’s not really that original of an idea, as I got the idea earlier this year while riding the Haunted Mansion, and realized that I had all the stuff I needed to pull off the same effect at home. The best part is seeing the reactions of people that stop by. From little kids that come to the porch, and don’t want to leave until the song finishes, the parents asking where I got the singing pumpkins so they can get some, or the kids that come back for a second or third round of candy, this time bringing their friends along.

Next year, we’ll probably bring them back, but we’ll include the puppet pumpkin as well. I built a sort of “Flash puppet” out of one of the pumpkins - using a headset, and some key controls, I’m able to use one of the jack-o-lanterns as a puppet, and control various facial expressions. Using my iSight camera to stay hidden, I was able to keep on eye on the people at the doorstep, and talk to them through the pumpkin. Unfortunately, there were, and are, still a few bugs to work out of the puppet, so I’ll need to do some tweaking before next year.

In the end though, it was a big success, and a lot of fun. So, if you’re in the neighborhood next year, stop by!

If you’re interested, I’ve posted a video (launches in a new window) - it’s not the best quality as I recorded it using the iSight, so it’s pretty dark. Also, the audio may be out of sync as I redubbed it because the iSight didn’t pick it up very well either. (Flash 8 is required for the video.)

Also, some basic tech info:

There were two swf files, one with the pumpkins, and the other to serve as the “control panel”. These were both played using the Standalone Flash Player, on my PowerMac. The pumpkins were displayed on the secondary display which was an LCD projector. The control panel contained a series of buttons that could be used to start and stop the animations, and play other various spooky sound effects. The swfs used LocalConnection to communicate.

The pumpkin faces were animated in orange, on a black background, then projected onto each real pumpkin out on the porch. Each pumpkin face had some drag actions assigned, so that it was easy to position and resize them to fit on the pumpkins.

Occasionally when working in the Flash IDE, while editing properties of items on the stage, such as height, width, or the positioning of the item using the Properties Panel, you’ll find that after a while the hot keys to toggle between various tools end up disabled. (V, Q, A, etc.)

As someone that relies on hot keys, this can be very frustrating, and a big productivity killer. Until now the only way that I’ve found to restore the hot keys was to restart Flash. But, because this bug ticked me off so much, I vowed to hunt it down, so I could reproduce it reliably, and hopefully it can get fixed for when Blaze is released.

Here are the steps that I’ve found to both kill, and restore your hot keys in the Flash IDE:

To kill hot keys:

1. Select an item on the stage
2. Clear the value for width in the properties panel
3. Tab out of the Width text field
4. Click OK to clear the “Invalid size…” warning
5. Hot keys should now be broken

To restore hot keys

1. Select the item again
2. Enter a valid value for the width
3. Tab out of the Width field
4. Hot keys should now be working again

I’ve only been able to test and verify this in the Mac version of Flash 8 Professional, so I’m curious to know if this info applies to other versions of Flash and the Windows version as well.

A while back, the LDS Church’s Interactive Music Player developed by mediaRAIN was selected as a Macromedia Site of the Day. Since then, we’ve created the musicRAIN team, who is in charge of further developing the Interactive Music Player product, dubbed musicRAIN.

This new version of the player features many enhancements over the original, and better performance as well. The musicRAIN team has done a great job with this new release, and so it’s fitting that they be selected as an Adobe Site of the Day, for Friday, September 22, 2006.

Congrats guys.

Last night was our user group’s ‘10 Years of Flash’ party. It was a lot of fun - basically, it was a good excuse to gorge ourselves on some free food, give away some free software, and have a good time. We took turns sharing some of our first experiences we’ve had with Flash (mine involved a 75MB swf file - I didn’t know any better), and watching some good cartoons.

With it being Flash’s birthday and all, I’d been thinking about my first experiences with Flash, and it makes me laugh now. In the beginning, I hated Flash. I hated sites that used it, and would bail out of a site as soon as my browser told me I needed to install the Flash Player. Later, I had to use it for a class I was taking at UVSC, and built the previously mentioned 75MB swf in that class. It wasn’t until I started making stuff with it that I realized there was something ‘useful’ about Flash.

I’ve since learned how to actually use Flash properly, and it’s treated me well ever since. Thanks Flash!

(And thanks to the folks at Nectarine for the awesome cake design - I stole the image from the cartoons we watched at the party. I’d send you guys a piece, but it was pretty much gone by the end of the night.)

In redirects, at least.

With Flash’s birthday right around the corner, seems like a lot of folks are interested in the history of Flash. Out of curiousity, I tried to visit www.futurewave.com. Only to be redirected to www.flash.com. Which in turn sends you to a Macromedia page, then on to another Macromedia page, and then finally, an Adobe page.

Here’s the full progression, as far as I can tell:

• www.futurewave.com
• www.flash.com
• www.macromedia.com/software/flash
• www.macromedia.com/software/flash/flashpro
• www.adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro

That’s about as short a history I think you’ll get.

Just a quick reminder that we’re meeting tonight (July 26). We’ll be discussing the future of the Flash Platform, specifically Apollo, and what it means to us as Flash developers.

We’ll be meeting at the mediaRAIN offices, located at 255 South Orem Blvd (behind the Pep Boys), at 6:00 PM.

We’ll also have some important info regarding upcoming meetings, so please be sure to come if you can.

Lately I’ve been working on a fairly large application that relies heavily on Flash Remoting. Needing something better than the NetConnection Debugger (which apparently doesn’t work in Flash 8 - though it seemed to only work 50% of the time before), I found ServiceCapture.

Some of the other guys here have been using it fine with no problems, and have been really happy with it. I downloaded the Mac version, and while it works great with Safari, NetNewsWire, Menuet (an iTunes thing), and just about anything else that connects to teh interweb, it does not work with the Flash 8 IDE.

Any Mac users out there running into this same problem, or had this problem and found a fix for it?