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December 14, 2004

Important Words in Quality Assurance

kruft: (n) unneeded functional penetralia. Generally to be avoided, kruft sometimes sneaks into a mature product. Synonyms: junk, old stuff, waxy buildup.

foist: (v) to introduce or insert surreptitiously or without warrant. We don't want to foist this workflow upon our users. Synonyms: dump, drop, force.

QA: (n) Quality Assurance team. A feature can be said to be "in QA" which means "in the quality review process". The buck stops in QA. A person can be "in QA", meaning "in a certain peaceful, open state of mind." After two years of testing Dreamweaver, Dominic was in constant QA. Also: Quality Assurance Engineer. Someone can be "a QA" or just "QA". Hey baby, I'm Dreamweaver QA. Synonyms: user, guinea pig.

QA: (v) to test thoroughly, relentlessly; to assure quality. We really need to QA the hell out of this feature. Synonyms: test, examine, vet, break.

vex: (v) to irritate or annoy by petty provocations. Windows vexes me. Synonyms: harrass, puzzle, provoke.

Posted by at 02:19 PM | TrackBack

December 13, 2004

Flash Video In a Database

Flash Video Kit can help you start your own Flash Video gallery in PHP.

Here is how one would use Dreamweaver and the Flash Video Kit in a database setting:

0. Encode FLVs with metadata via Squeeze (comes with)
1. Create HTML template with one instance of Flash Video using Dreamweaver
2. Modify Flash Video code:
- site- or root-relative URLs for FLV using PHP/MySQL
- database values for Height and Width of FLV
- site- or root-relative URLs for Progressive Player and Skin.

Example.
From this:

<!-- Begin Flash Video for Progressive download -->
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" width="320" height="240" id="FLVPlayer">
<param name="movie" value="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" />
<param name="salign" value="lt" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="scale" value="noscale" />
<param name="FlashVars" value="&skinName=clearSkin_3&streamName=media/flv/filename&autoPlay=false&autoRewind=true" />
<embed src="FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" flashvars="&skinName=clearSkin_3&streamName=media/flv/filename&autoPlay=false&autoRewind=true" quality="high" scale="noscale" width="320" height="240" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>
<!-- saved from url=(0013)about:internet -->
<!-- End Flash Video for Progressive Download -->

To this:

<!-- Begin Flash Video for Progressive download -->
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" width="[PHP or Your Value]" height="[PHP or Your Value]" id="FLVPlayer">
<param name="movie" value="http://[url]/FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" />
<param name="salign" value="lt" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="scale" value="noscale" />
<param name="FlashVars" value="&skinName=http://[url]/clearSkin_3&streamName=http://[url]/media/flv/filename&autoPlay=false&autoRewind=true" />
<embed src="http://[url]/FLVPlayer_Progressive.swf" flashvars="&skinName=http://[url]/clearSkin_3&streamName=>b?http://[url]/media/flv/filename&autoPlay=false&autoRewind=true" quality="high" scale="noscale" width="[PHP or Your Value]" height="[PHP or Your Value]" name="FLVPlayer" salign="LT" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>
<!-- saved from url=(0013)about:internet -->
<!-- End Flash Video for Progressive Download -->

3. Create your PHP template using modified Flash Video code.

4. The above will also work with root-relative links (such as /media/flv/filename)

This way, you only keep one instance of the Progressive SWF and Skin SWF. This type of template code will also work in your blog, asssuming that you have FTP permissions to your site or anywhere that you can post the Progressive Player SWF and Skin SWF (as well as your videos of course).

If your team is using Contribute, you could have your content contributors post the encoded FLVs and and associated page (based on the template above), but for now you'll have to modify the code to include their URL (and video dimensions if neccessary) with Dreamweaver once they save the page.

Posted by at 11:29 AM | TrackBack

December 06, 2004

Happy Mac

Friends, I will now relate the tale of Reformatting my Hard Drive on Purpose:

When I got my 15" PowerBook, it was the fastest machine I had to use. I would hum a little tune as I crashed beta after beta of Dreamweaver, and installed all manner of "productivity-enhancing" tools like menu additions and such for OS X. Eventually, the machine started slowing down. Also, I had broken up my drive into too many partitions and I needed more space for my Tiger install. So, I attempted to back up and restore once I reformatted my partitions. (Warning - Read ahead before attempting - or try Simplified Steps):

Step 0:
Overwhelm your OS with add-ons, hacks, and other operating detritus.

Step 1:
Procure a Backup Hard Drive. In my case, a LaCie FireWire 400 brick. Break it up into properly sized partitions as needed. Mount.

Step 2:
Fire up the Terminal.app. Type cd /Volumes. Type sudo sh, enter password. Type ditto -V [source drive] [destination drive] (-V will allow you to watch each file transfer). Ditto will copy all files and preserve Resource Forks. These are more important than Salad Forks, but somewhat less useful in a kitchen brawl.

Step 3:
Take a break. Read a book. Play guitar. Play station. Read someone's blog.

Step 4:
Repeat ditto for each desired backup.

Step 5:
Unmount your backup drive, insert OS X install disc, double-click to run and restart. Before proceeding with the install, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Reformat your drive into neccessary partitions (in my case, Panther and Tiger). Leave at least 6 Gigs for Tiger (in my case, 20 Gigs for OS, files, and the occassional disk image).

[Step 5.5:
At this point, I used ditto to copy back over the stuff from my backup, and then restarted. I encountered several Framework errors, and it basically didn't work - probably because Apps had been installed on a different partition. So, I endeavored to restore vital bits by hand, see below.]

Step 6:
Return to installer. Cross your fingers and desalinate your shoulder as you select install options and choose "Erase and install".

Step 7:
Revisit Step 3. Add Simpsons and Futurama as needed.

Step 8:
Do a little dance as the OS X setup music plays. This part is very important!

Step 9:
Setup and configure your OS: Stop the icons from bouncing in the dock, set your folder views, configure Expose. Run Software Update at least twice. Restart as prompted.

Step 10:
Restart your Mac, holding down the "T" key. This will place your machine in Firewire Target Disk Mode. Mount your old drive. Copy over vital bits from:

Step 11:
Reinstall vital apps. In most cases, this will involve simply copying the program folders and keying in the license when you run it for the first time. In some cases you may need to install from the original program disc. Pepper your old preference files into ~/Library/Preferences to avoid lengthy configuration.

Step 12:
Spend a few hours futzing with your music collection in iTunes, because it was scattered around in various places. Agonize over moving some music off of your machine in favor of fresh tones.

Step 13:
Recovery! Notice your Mac running faster. Install Tiger. Notice many new and amazing things, break them, report bugs to Apple. Go about your business and try not to imagine what this would have been like on a Windows machine!

Posted by at 11:43 PM | TrackBack

December 02, 2004

Multiple Column Lists in CSS

I've always wanted a shortcut for this:
Multiple Column Lists in CSS

[free from CMX]

Posted by at 04:43 PM | TrackBack