decoration
Dec
28
2008

Changes to the page

Now I have done small changes to the site. When I set up this page I programmed everything regarding language myself. But now i have updated my Wordpress to version 2.7 and I have installed a plugin called qtranslate

This program enables me to use as many language as i like. I have decided to use english and icelandic and drop the danish language because i dont think i will ever write a good danish.

So when i now write a post or a page i can switch between language in an easy way. It all happens in the same window. And if i want to use qtranslate in my template i can use so called language tags like this

<!–:en–>text in english<!–:–> <!–:is–>text in icelandic<!–:–>

I hope I will be able to write posts about multimedia things and hopefully I will do it both in english and in icelandic.

Sep
05
2008

Google - Chrome

Yesterday I tried out a new browser. This one is called Chrome and is one of Google´s new things.
I have to admit that I really like this browser, it´s fast and simple and from one day of use I can´t see any issues regarding css which would be a bugger for me as a developer. As far as I know this browser is driven by the same engine as Mozilla Firefox which I also like alot.
One nice feature that Chrome has is that when you open a new tab then you get a thumbnails with all the resent pages that you have visited. The same thing happens when you open the browser.

Chrome when you open new tab

Chrome when you open new tab

In Chrome you can get a detailed information about the xhtml and css code in a seperate window which is very nice when you are developing. But this is no Firebug because you can´t manipulate any values like you can in Firebug. To open this window you just right-click anywhere in the browser and chose “inspect element”.

Chrome - code view

Chrome - code view

I urge you to try this nice browser. You can download it here


Aug
31
2008

CSS - absolute positioning

For a long time I avoided using positioning in CSS. I think the main reason was that I didn´t really understand it. Absolute positioning was the worst. In stead I used floating alot and it worked most of the time even though it sometimes gave me a lot of headaches.
But as times went by I started to use positioning more and more and I discovered that it is the perfect tool to “positioning” elements on a web-page.
There is one very important rule that one has to remember when using absolute positioning. The parent element has to be positioned relative or absolute. Let me explain with the words of Andy Clarke.

An absolutely positioned element is positioned first to its closest POSITIONED ancestor. If there is no positioned anchestor, the element is positioned to the root element <html>.
Andy Clarke - transcending CSS

To give you an example of how to use absolute positioning i want to show you how i positioned the elements in the footer of this pages.
The xhtml code looks like this

<div id="footer">
    <ul id="icons">
     <li><a href="#"><img src="images/facebook-icon.png" alt="bippi on facebook" /></a></li>
     <li><a href="#"><img src="images/flickr-icon.png" alt="bippi on flickr" /></a></li>
     <li><a href="#"><img src="images/rss-icon.png" alt="rss feed" /></a></li>
    </ul>
    <span id="icon-text"></span> 
    <span id="copyright">Copyright © 2008 bippi</span>
   </div>

There is nothing complicated here. We have one <div> and inside that <div> there is a one un-orded list and two spans.

The CSS code looks like this

#footer
{ 
 position:relative;
 width:951px;
 height:48px;
}
#footer ul li
{
 display:inline;
}
#icons
{
 position:absolute;
 left:20px;
 top:10px;
}

#icon-text
{
 position:absolute;
 left:172px;
 top:20px; 
}
#copyright
{
 position:absolute;
 top:20px;
 right:20px; 
}

The main thing here is that the footer div is given a relative position and then we are able to use “top”, “right” and “left” to correctly position the three elements.

Aug
28
2008

Flash Map

I was going through my stuff and I found a Flash-Map that i did for my second semester exam project in ATS. I was in a group with Dagný and Katrine and we did a re branding job for Clip-Rens which is a dry cleaning company here in Denmark. We wrote a very fine report and made a nice prototype web page also. The manager for Clip Rens at that time was very helpful and enthusiastic about our project.

After we finished our exam we had a meeting with the manager and he wanted us to finish the web site so the company could use it. We told him that we were ready to do it for very small amount of money because we had to spend our summer holiday on it. He said he would think about it but to make a long story short then it ended up that we got a letter from the Clip-Rens lawyer saying that we should hand in everything that we had done regarding the website. They threaten us to go to court and what can a poor student do when a big company threatens to drag you to court. We gracefully handed in our website with a letter which reminded the company that there were a certain copyright laws in the country. They never did use the stuff that we made.
Well that was the story about Clip-Rens.
I was very proud of the Flash that I made for this project and i´m going to show it to you here on the website. Who knows maybe i´ll get another law-suit.

This movie requires Flash Player 9
Aug
20
2008

New web page

Finally I´ve manage to design and program a new web page for my self. The purpouse of this site is to introduce me as a multimedia designer and present the skills that I have in that field.
The site is in three languages, English, Icelandic and Danish but blog and portfolio will only be in English.
In the portfolio part I will present the projects that i´ve done so far and even projects that i´m working on.  In the blog section i will write down my thoughts and ideas about what I´m dealing with in the heat of the day. It can be about Flex, Flash, XHTML, CSS or what ever related to multimedia.

Fyrir ykkur íslendingana sem hafið komið á þessa síðu til að fylgjast með okkur fjölskyldunni þá vil ég láta ykkur vita að ég mun fljótlega setja upp fjölskyldusíðu þar sem þið getið áfram fylgst með okkar skemmtilega lífi hér í Danmörku. Ég mun láta vita þegar þar að kemur

Aug
11
2008

Why use Flex 3 instead of Flash?

Flex and Flash have many things in common. The final product from both is a swf file which in turn is played in Adobe Flash Player. In both one can use Actionscript 3.0. But they differ also in many things (information from http://paragmetha.blog.com/1831276/):

Flex isn´t Flash

  • Flex has no timeline
  • Flex has no library
  • Flex has no drawing tools

Flash isn´t Flex

  • Flash has no MXML
  • Flash has limited CSS
  • Flash does not have the new components

Flex Strengths

  • Form based apps/ wizards / heavy data entry
  • Easy coloring of components
  • Layout engine
  • Separation of code and controls
  • Programmers like it

Flash Strengths

  • Designers tool
  • Easy to integrate animation, sound and video
  • Timeline
  • Drawing tools

So a simple answer to the above question would be that if you want to make an RIA application which heavily relies on data manipulation then you would use Adobe Flex. If you on the other hand want to make ad-banners, animations or some fancy graphical web page then the platform to choose would be Adobe Flash. Another answer could also be if your project needs a lot of programming then you would use Flex but if you want to do a nice visual design then you would use Flash.

Aug
11
2008

Adobe Photoshop Express

Photoshop express

 

Yesterday when I was presenting my Flex in FlashJam at school I showed an application which I called “online photoshop”. I thought this was a good example of how powerful Flex actually is. But yesterday i had never heard of Photoshop Express. Those geniuses at Adobe have created an online Photoshop where you can upload and edit your images. This is just fantastic.

Aug
11
2008

Adobe Thermo

Adobe is planning to relase a new product this year, Adobe THERMO. This program is aimed at designers because what you can basically do with it is to take for example a photoshop file and slice it up to a RIA (rich internet application) which you can then transfer into Flex.

Sounds like a great tool and i´m looking forward to try it out.

Aug
11
2008

My first video tutorial

Today I made my first video tutorial ever! It was much harder then I thought to do a good tutorial. I found out that you have to plan it very well before you start. It was also hard for my to do it in English because that is not my first language. So there are probably to many hmm and uumm in the video.

But what count is that i made this video tutorial about the basics regarding Flex3 builder. What i covered in this tutorial is

  • How to make new Flex project
  • Show the workspace
  • How to add components
  • Basic styling of components
  • Simple Databinding

The link to the tutorial is http://flex3.bippi.net/projects/tutorials/basicFlex.html

Enjoy!!!