Pete's Eats

My previous post about SlideShowPro was fairly spot on I’m happy to report. It genuinely is really robust and put together with great attention to detail. Top quality stuff.

I had a spare 5 mins so put together this quick experiment using my friends photo stream from Flickr. I didn’t need the full 5 mins.

I created a new OPML file using the RSS feed url from Flickr and saved it. I then created a new Flash file and dragged the SlideShowPro component onto the stage. I resized it; added the OPML file’s url; changed the background colour; put in some rounded corners and published. That’s it. See the result here.

I’d imagine that given more time you’d be able to really mess with it and come up with some great results. The use of OPML & XML in such an easy-to-use format is the key here – it’s a very powerful combination and yet another brilliant use of Flash and data sources.

Update: I had to sod around with getting a Flickr API key in order to get it to work online. This made the whole thing take a little longer but once it’s done, it’s done for your chosen domain for good. If I’d created an XML file from a local gallery then this wouldn’t have been an issue obviously – it’s to aid cross-domain security, nothing more…

Todd Dominey has released a new Flash-based product called SlideShowPro. Todd is a well known designer in both the Flash and standards worlds.

SlideShowPro enables you to create customisable photo slideshows using Flash MX. There are some serious features built in and it even takes content from RSS/XML feeds too. I haven’t had time to play with it very much so I’ll come back with some more when I’ve had the chance but first impressions are of a seriously high quality application. I’m looking forward to having a play

Disclosure: Todd once wrote some very nice things about me and this may affect the things I write about him (but not SlideShowPro)

The Food Standards Agency has released a list of products known to have been contaminated by the food colouring ‘Sudan I’. This colouring has been linked to cancer apparently and the products have been removed from the supermarket shelves already, but just in case you may have already bought some it might be worth checking the list. It affects all of the main UK supermarkets.

The list on the FSA’s website is understandably a little slow to load right now, so I’ve copied it down and you can see it here now as well. (86kb)

I just got back from London and I’m shagged so I’ll do a lot more of this stuff tomorrow – but, this is a good one for your shiny new Flash-Lite player (see previous post)

RSS Reader in Flash-Lite

Of getting it that is…

Macromedia have launched a Flash-Lite player you can buy – go here for that – and also put up the Flash-Lite exchange too. This is good news and a very long time coming.

This week also sees a strategic partnership with Macromedia and Nokia that will make the Flash-Lite player available on all Nokia Series 60 handsets in the very near future. Again, excellent news.

More soon.

This site has an archive of cover pictures from Private Eye magazine. The Eye is one of my favourite reads and has been since my college days. Simply bloody brilliant.

Based on the 2001 elections in the UK, this Flash map is a superb use of the medium to display information in a way that would otherwise be a bit of an arse. I’m sure that we’ll see a lot of these maps popping up during the election run-ups as we did with the US elections but this is the first I’ve seen – and very good it is too.

The details

The map itself

I’m seeing more and more excellent uses for Flash, particularly with data visualisation that I think I’m beginning to long for the bad old days a bit, when Flash files were HUGE and played annoying sounds without warning. How are you supposed to beat usability experts over the head with useful stuff? Nah, we need some crap Flash intro’s that we can really be proud of… Heh.

I’m still struggling to keep up with my email. I’ve been desperately firing off email replies to people this week and upon rereading some of them I feel I may have been a little ‘angsty’ or short. If this means you then I’m sorry. If you haven’t even got a reply from me yet then I’m even sorrier!

Normal service shall be resumed shortly (hopefully).

Stewart noticed that this photo on Flickr is, “the number one result for “Wife Photo Sharing” on Ask Jeeves!”

So, just got back from a mad trip to Chamonix for a few days to celebrate Pip’s birthday. Mad 8 1/2 hour journey down (we drove) followed by three full days of snowboarding and alpinism stuff and another long (through-the-night) journey back – 6 hours this leg though…

I have a lot of history with Chamonix and this trip didn’t disappoint at all. Snow rocks. Mountains rock. Simple as that…