Set-top Flash
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 | actionscript, flash, flash development, flash set-top development, iPhone | No Comments
Having worked with Flash and Actionscript for around 10 years I have been witness to a fair amount of excitement regarding flash player distribution. I must admit the one that came to light a couple of days ago is very interesting. This has got us in the office very excited thinking of new ways this may be used, as well as ways we may be able to use it. It’s always nice when you can transfer your existing set of skills to a new medium with very little effort. Exciting times lie ahead.
The other interesting thing about this, is it seems to have put Adobe in the driving seat regarding flash player on the iPhone. It seems like an age that rumours have been going around about flash player on the iPhone - with very little coming from Apple. From Apples point of view you can understand it - as it currently has a monopoly on downloadable apps with the app store . Hopefully with this new set-top deal and the Flash platform reiterating its dominance we may see it soon.
Small town prices - big city service
Monday, April 20th, 2009 | business, peterborough | No Comments
Sometimes where your offices are based can have a big effect on your business - being based in a small city like Peterborough, you often find that in the past clients have looked at this situation unfavourably. During the credit crunch it looks as if things could be changing. Over the past few months we have found that we have been approached by many companies from big cities such as London and Cambridge.
These companies are looking at ways they can cut costs and not pay London agency prices, this gives companies like us, based in Peterborough and other smaller cities a big advantage. We are able to keep overheads down easily with much cheaper office rates etc. This is why Peterborough is expected to be one of the cities (if not the city) with the largest growth over the next 10 years.
The other reason for all of this sudden interest, is that people are realising agencies in cities such as Peterborough or towns like Stamford are able to deliver. Talent hot spots seem to be popping up all over the country and not just in the major cities. We’re hoping we can spear-head the revival and growth of Peterborough along with all of the other forgotten towns and cities.
Change of blog direction (blection)
Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | actionscript, business | No Comments
I have come to the decision that I am going to change the direction of my blog. When I started Bigbeam Interactive back in 2005 I was primarily a developer - and starting out I had to do the lions share of the development. Over the past year, after the arrival of my new business partner, Simon Osborne, I have found we have grown, and with this my job role has had to change.
Whilst I still get the chance to code (mainly Actionscript 3 and PHP) and keep up with new technologies and frameworks I have found a lot of my time has been taken up with running the business, client liaison and marketing. I have found all of these new challenges very exciting as I love learning new things. I still love getting my hands dirty and initially found it hard to delegate; but I am enjoying the joys of delegation more and more.
My passion has always been business; but I love how Computer Science and programming can change business, for the better. We’ve got a few projects of our own coming up over the coming year that will hopefully do just that. Oh and also you can now follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/bigbeam).
Time for the iPhone 3G
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | iPhone | No Comments
Anyone that knows me will know that my phones don’t last very long. I managed to have my iPhone for about 6 months before I broke it last night. I was happily washing up when I knocked something with my hand and watched it disappear into the soapy hot water. I was gutted for about 2 seconds until I realised that I could use it as an excuse to buy a new iPhone 3G. All my idiot friends that always go on about how good the Nokia n95 is compared to the iPhone were obviously pleased with this result; its as though they think there phones would float.
Its quite clever though as the screen still comes on but only to tell me that its broke. Better get on the phone to 02 now…
EDIT: My phone magically started working again, sweet.
GreatWhite - getting the camera to focus on (0, 0, 0).
Monday, August 18th, 2008 | 3d, actionscript, flash, greatwhite, papervision | No Comments
I recently ported a project that I’m working on from Papervision 1.5 to Papervision 2.0 Great White. The port was pretty easy and didn’t take long at all; the only little quirk I noticed was that the camera didn’t focus on (0, 0, 0) like it did in 1.5, the camera just kind of translated x/y coordinates without pivoting along the y and x axis.
I solved this problem quickly and easily by adding an empty DisplayObject3D to the scene and then within the enter frame simply using camera.lookAt(dispObject) to look at the display object.
I’m sure theres a more elegant way to do this - and I would love to hear it but this way seems to work great for me.
Cuil competition - find the most random image
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 | search engines | No Comments
Yesterday saw the launch of a new search engine - Cuil. Cuil says it index’s 3 times as many pages as Google and 10 times as many pages as Microsoft. It seems loads of people are not taking to Cuil and a lot of blogs are saying they don’t like it. I actually quite like it, the interface is excellent and the category accordian at the top right of the page is a great idea. The one thing that did my head in though was the pictures, they seem to be consistently wrong. I searched Bigbeam Interactive and it came up with a “Bijoux Spring Summer Sale”! Try it for yourself by clicking here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a moaner and I find this pretty funny. There should be a challenge to find the most innapropriate image for a listing.
Amazing non-papervision 3D engine
Monday, July 28th, 2008 | 3d, actionscript, flash, papervision | No Comments
On the Papervision 3D mailing list the other day someone mentioned Roxiks 3D engine. This is from the same bloke who made the Eco Zoo. Obviously a very talented man. I’ve not seen it mentioned anywhere else so I thought I’d mention it.