submitData = new LoadVars();
	//avoid safari bug
	submitData.junk = "zzz";

	TextField.prototype.unwrapSpaces = function() {
		this._width = this._width + 0.01;
	}

One thing to be aware of when developing Flash projects for the AOL browser: external JPGs may not load. The AOL browser will convert the JPG format into the more compressed ART file format for faster download speeds. The Flash player chokes when it tries to load an ART file. The most reliable solution is to convert all jpgs into swfs. Illustrator will do this for you as a batch job.

When I first checked out PopCap's games I was upset by the mindless gameplay which usually involves repetion of simple tasks. These games seems to be targeted at a large and unloved sector of the games audience: old people and office workers. These people have web access and lots of free time. They want undemanding, relaxing games with nice graphics that will kill some time.

After playing Rocket Mania for a while I began to succumb to the almost zen-like state of mindless clicking. The games are very well crafted and easy to use. They have good installers, effective sounds/animations and very tactile UIs. There is usually a random play element to keep up interest, and a game system where good (or lucky) plays are rewarded with chain-reactions of explosions.

As the game market expands to cater to people other than teenaged boys, I think PopCap will do very well.

Justin Ouellette of Chromogenic used SimpleViewer for his winning submission to online photography magazine 28mm. Check it out here.

It turns out the ghost's movements are completely deterministic (there is no randomness in the AI). Because of this people have discovered patterns that will enable you to finish the game every time. There are actually just 3 patterns you need to get to level 17 every time.

Note that these patterns enable you to finish levels but not maximize points. The perfect Pac-man game is hitting the level 256 split-screen lock up, after eating every ghost and every fruit, and never losing a life. This was achieved in 1999 by Billy Mitchell, who said: "I understand the behavior of the ghosts and am able to manipulate the ghosts into any corner of the board I choose."

Many thanks to Christian for his work in creating this.

Also check out this great 2004 Web & Downloadable Games White Paper (pdf - 2MB). A must-read for anyone interested in creating web based games.

Why is it annoying? Try browsing through the images in the illustration section. As the buttons have no labels (or rollover descriptions), there is no reason to click one button over another. This leaves 2 choices: click on the buttons in sequence or at random. Clicking in sequence is difficult because each time you want to go to the next image, you have to move your mouse precisely 5 pixels horizontally with no vertical movement. This causes you to focus on your cursor, when you should be focusing on the images. Clicking randomly has an extra problem, in that you cannot tell what images you have already viewed, so you are likely to view the same image multiple times.

This example is noticeable because otherwise the site is great: fantastic illustration and nice audio.

There are various solutions to this problem. The simplest would be to allow the user to skip to the next image by clicking on the current image (or add a next button).

This test came about from a discussion over at JesterXL, which was a response to Derek Franklin's post about the problems of getting Flash sites to show in Google.

This is one of the few remaining big problems for Flash (It's also one of the reasons I switched from a pure flash site, to a HTML/Flash hybrid). Macromedia and Google are working on a solution, but there is still a long way to go.

One possible solution would be to use an external XML file for SWF text. A standardized naming convention would be used for the external XML URL, so Google could easily pull it from the SWF.

From the site: "Charles is an HTTP Proxy that enables a developer to view all of the HTTP traffic between their machine and the Internet.

Charles simulates modem speeds by effectively throttling your bandwidth and introducing latency, so that you can experience an entire website as a modem user might (bandwidth simulator).

Charles is especially useful for Macromedia Flash developers as you can view the contents of LoadVariables, LoadMovie and XML loads."

JC The Store - lovely use of short video loops that expand to play mini-movies.

Psyop - Simple site with superb video content - check out the Psyop anthem!

I never understood why flash video isn't a lot more common. It's true that you can get (slightly) better quality at the same bit-rate using QuickTime or Windows Media Player, but the Flash 7 player and improved sparq codecs have closed that gap. The great advantage of Flash video is seamless integration into a the UI.

Most video on the web could do with the "Grandma" test. Try and get your Granny to play a video on the web. First she gets a pop-up window asking her to select from multiple video playback technologies and bandwidths. On selecting, the video opens up in a separate application that she may or may not have installed.

Compare this to Flash video where the video plays right in the same window, regardless of the users platform. (To make the experience really slick, it's nice to do a bandwidth test on the client, and serve the appropriate stream accordingly.)

The game is so popular that the makers are porting it to an (as yet undisclosed) console.

Inspired by the master, I took some shots today in the area around where I work ("Hell's Kitchen"). You can see them here.

In other processing news, setpixel has been updated with a set of processing experiments in live-video recognition and manipulation. 'Robot Mirror' is especially cool.

It's not so good for detailed viewing of images (there's no image zoom control for example), so once I find the image I want, I ususally open it up in PhotoShop. Set Picasa to 'Watch for Changes' on your usual photo download folder, and it will automatically add new image folders as new albums. Picassa is PC only.

To use them you need Macromedia Extension Manager and Flash MX 2004. To install, just download and run the MXP file, then restart Flash. Most of these extensions will add an item in Flash's 'Command' menu.

Add Stop frames. Creates a Stop action in the selected frame. Joy!

Distribute to Frames. Takes all the elements in the selected frame, and places them sequentially in the layer.

Duplicate Layer. Does what it says on the tin.

Duplicate Folder: Doesn't work for nested folders.

Frame to Symbols. Makes all elements in the selected frame into library symbols.

Library Manager Extension. This adds a menu item in your Window->Other Panels menu. The Library Manager shows all your library symbols as a list, and allows you to manage multiple export and linkage options.

This one is just for fun. It's very simple: no preloaders, no thumbnails. PostcardViewer is based on a real world metaphor: a set of postcards shuffled onto a surface. If you would like to use it with your own images, instructions are here.

'Floating Logos' explores this ever present signage. "The poles are digitally removed from the image in order to give the illusion that the signs are disconnected from the ground as they ominously float above us."

The same artist (Matt Siber), also created 'The Untitled Project' a great series of images that strip the text from signage, to create a surreal looking environment that could be anywhere in the world, and is eerily reminiscent of sci-fi dystopias like in 'They Live' and 'Repo Man'.

It's quite amazing how many images are in Flickr. Type in practically any word and you will get back a load of images. I can imagine Flickr becoming a global collaborative image database, like a visual wikipedia.

Many thanks to the Flickr team for putting together a really easy to use API.

These user-created tagging systems (or folksonomies), are an interesting way to organize data for 'free'. Wandering between Flickr's related tags can be a fun way to come across new images.

This artwork is so stupid it's genius! [via...] Other stupid art: David Shrigley's photo of a swan.