Rich Rodecker’s blog on flash, flex, actionscript, javascript, and php, with a dash of randomness
Archive for July, 2004
Boadband over Power Lines (BPL)
Jul 14th
This article on CNET talks about a new emerging type of broadband connection, called Broadband over Power Lines, or BPL, which sends internet traffic over (you guessed it) power lines.
from the article:
“…broadband over power line (BPL) technology makes it “theoretically possible to reach every power outlet in America with a broadband connection.”
PHP 5 Released
Jul 14th
The final version of PHP 5 has been realeased. This is a huge release for php, featuring a new Object model and a bunch of new functions
from the web site:
Some of the key features of PHP 5 include:
* The Zend Engine II with a new object model and dozens of new features.
* XML support has been completely redone in PHP 5, all extensions are now focused around the excellent libxml2 library (http://www.xmlsoft.org/).
* A new SimpleXML extension for easily accessing and manipulating XML as PHP objects. It can also interface with the DOM extension and vice-versa.
* A brand new built-in SOAP extension for interoperability with Web Services.
* A new MySQL extension named MySQLi for developers using MySQL 4.1 and later. This new extension includes an object-oriented interface in addition to a traditional interface; as well as support for many of MySQL’s new features, such as prepared statements.
* SQLite has been bundled with PHP. For more information on SQLite, please visit their website.
* Streams have been greatly improved, including the ability to access low-level socket operations on streams.
* And lots more…
New Flash Site
Jul 13th
caught a new flash site today, and it looks like it has potential: EML Labs is a site dedicated to “real-world flash”. Not all that much content up there as of yet, hopefully they’ll be adding more soon.
Disease trading cards
Jul 7th
ugh, found this one via slashdot…i’m appaled and compelled at the same time. The Center for Disease Control has a set of trading cards for infectious diseases in the kids section of their site. Bet you can’t stop yourself from checking them all out.
random stuff while I was away
Jul 1st
wow, i went back to ny last weekend and missed some cool stuff:
* Apple’s 30-inch Flat panel monitor – completely ridiculous and yet oh so sweet. (man, my tv is only 32″, i need to upgrade).
* Guitar Rig – another totally cool coputer gadget. Not cheap.
* the real criminal is [U.S. President George W.] Bush. – says Saddam.
i wonder what else i missed…
EAS 2.0
Jul 1st
nice, i got my copy of Essential Actionscript 2.0 yesterday. In contrast to ASDG, where the book was an exteremly detailed language reference, EAS 2.0 focuses mainly on developing OOP applications using Actionscript 2.0.
While the book does a great job explaining the nuances of AS2, there is no dictionary-style reference as there was with ASDG, which is fine, since there weren’t that many features added to AS with Flash player 7.
Blog Spam
Jul 1st
Yeah, i kinda knew it was inevitable, but my bob seems to be getting spammed pretty hard. Anyone care to share their anti-blogspam techniques (besides just turning comments off)?
–update–
went with MT Blacklist…such a sweet tool. Not only will it block the spammers on the master blacklist from posting on my blog, but it wiped out all the existing spam comments with a couple of mouse clicks.
