Monthly Archives: May 2007

Google Gears and Apollo… and Tubes?

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Since reading this announcement on the Google Gears API Blog last evening, I’ve been wondering to myself (from time-to-time) how this would/could/will apply to the Apollo runtime. Apollo’s integrated web engine is WebKit which is the same engine the Safari browser runs on… but Safari is not supported by the Gears API as of yet. Though as stated on the Gears site- it will be.

It is mentioned in that same announcement that Adobe is one of the “industry partners” working with Google on this project. I can only imagine that there will be some base shared technology between Google Gears and the Apollo local database probably in the form of SQLite?

There are three features touted on the Google Gears website that are of interest:

  1. Store and serve application resources locally
  2. Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database
  3. Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

Point #1 can already be achieved through the Apollo alpha using the integrated File API and point #3, I believe, is possible as well since Apollo apps can be built with AJAX (though I have only dealt with Apollo through Flex and cannot confirm anything specific on that front). So that leaves point #2… this capability within Apollo would be amazing!


“It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes!”

My Favorite New CS3 Feature (sarcasm)

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The installer for CS3 Web Premium is horrible! This is a consistent experience across machines. In an attempt to install the product on a fresh copy of Windows XP, I’ve had to run the installer about 5 times now. I’ve had similar experiences on other machines, generally installing twice, and am now getting rather frustrated.

Installing software shout not take 40 minutes unless you are installing an OS… installing software should not have to be performed 5 times (maybe more!) before an acceptable result is achieved.

What the hell, Adobe???

Intel 2100 3a Mini PCI Wireless Card Solution

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I own a Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook computer with the Intel 2100 3a Mini PCI wireless card installed. I’ve always had problems with this configuration and dealing will Dell over service issues the past few years has been nothing other than pointless as their service is non-existent… The main problem is that the connection (while “excellent”) just sputters out and doesn’t return until a restart and then sputters out again soon afterwards. So over the past year or so I’ve been using an obtrusive USB-based wireless receiver which works fine except that it’s a pain always sticking out of the machine.

So today I decide that I’ll either find a real solution to the problem or purchase a new Mini PCI card to replace the Intel. I chose to do a total removal and reinstallation using the latest drivers which can be found here. These are EOL (End of Life) drivers in that there will be no future versions. So if these drivers did not work then I really couldn’t expect to ever get this card going again. These are the steps I took to get everything working properly:

  1. Disable the wireless antenna.
  2. Uninstall drivers and software from both Device Manager and Add/Remove Programs.
  3. Shut down the machine.
  4. Physically remove the card.
  5. Restart the machine.
  6. Run the driver install routine.
  7. Shut down the machine.
  8. Physically install the card along with the antennae.
  9. Restart the machine.
  10. Have Windows handle the wireless connections (did not install the PROset software- only drivers!)
  11. Create a connection profile.

This seems to have actually worked. I’ve tried a number of different solutions over the past few years and I know there are a lot of people out there in the same situation. Hope this helps someone!

Scalenine Appreciation

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I’ve been aware of scalenine for some time now but haven’t had the chance to really look into the resources provided there until recently. I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to download these themes, pull them apart, and learn from example how to go about authoring a total customization of the Flex interface elements. Customization through CSS is so much nicer than applying attributes to the UI elements themselves. Much cleaner!

I’ve gone into my first little Flex widget to customize the design with what I’ve taken away from this experience and I’m very pleased. I’m only mucking around with the CSS here with no imported image assets and even so… such a change.