Fun Stuff

jqPuzzle is a nice puzzle script based on jQuery. The script has some very nice effects using the jQuery library.

You can get jqPuzzel as well as see a few demos here.

Six Revisions has put together a great list of Flash and ActionScript resources. Since Flash is used throughout the web for animation and with ActionScript you can do some pretty nice programming to go with the animation it is nice to have some good resources.

You can read an excerpt from the post below.

6. ActionScript.org

ActionScript.org is a site that provides resources and information pertaining to Flash, Flex, and ActionScript. They have a fairly active Forums section as well as an ActionScript Library that currently has over 700 objects you can download.

Tutorial examples:

• Drawing Shapes with AS3
• Simple reflection effect with AS2
• Physics in ActionScript 3.0

7. Flash and Math ActionScript 3 Tutorials

Flash and Math has a great collection of tutorials on AS3. They cover basic to advanced topics so that Flash developers of any level can find something they can read and learn from. Many of the tutorials include the source files for download.

Tutorial examples:

• Drag-and-Drop in Flash CS3
• Tween Tricks in Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3
• Simple 3D Drawing in Flash CS3 and ActionScript 3

8. Flash Tutorials on Pixel2Life

Pixel2Life, according to the site, is the "largest tutorial index catering to graphic designers, webmasters and programmers". With over 40,000 indexed tutorials, you’ll find many links to tutorials in their Flash Tutorials section.

Indexed tutorial examples:

• Creating a Basic Flash Website (AS3 Version)
• Actionscript 3 Timer Class
• Stars animation above the city

9. Flash Perfection

Flash Perfection is a website with a large collection of Flash tutorials, tips, and tricks from various websites. Flash Perfection has 23 categories to help you find information more quickly.

Indexed tutorial examples:

• Atmospheric Steam
• Optimizing your Flash SWFs
• Quick and Easy Zoom Effect in Flash

You can read the full post here.

With the major use of Flash for animation on the web this resource will help many web developers.

It's interesting that I just finished up a post on keypress navigation, because I've come across a little gem called goosh [goo-sh], an Ajax-based UNIX-like Google search shell that enables you to use the Google search engine with only your keyboard. Sporting a variety of commands listed in its help menu, goosh is just what you need to make your Googling just that much quicker.

Google itself has seen the value in adding keystroke navigation to their search engine as shown in one of the experimental search tools in Google Labs [demo].

Check your mouse at the door and visit goosh.org

With the recent addition of 10 languages to the Google AJAX Language API, we have published an update to TubeSpy that includes support for Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish.

TubeSpy, a recent addition to Ajaxonomy Labs, is a YouTube Spy allowing you to see what videos others are watching on YouTube right now! TubeSpy was built using jQuery, the YouTube API, and more recently, the Google AJAX Language API to add support for other languages.

Visit TubeSpy

A while back I wrote a post about Processing (you can read my previous post here). If you haven't seen Processing before, it is a Java based development platform that rivals Flash. Well, John Resig has written a cool port of the Processing API to JavaScript.

Below is an excerpt from John's post.

The Processing Language

The first portion of the project was writing a parser to dynamically convert code written in the Processing language, to JavaScript. This involves a lot of gnarly regular expressions chewing up the code, spitting it out in a format that the browser understands.

It works "fairly well" (in that it's able to handle anything that the processing.org web site throws at it) but I'm sure its total scope is limited (until a proper parser is involved). I felt bad about tackling this using regular expressions until I found out that the original Processing code base did it in the same manner (they now use a real parser, naturally).

The language includes a number of interesting aspects, many of which are covered in the basic demos. Here's a brief selection of language features that are handled:

• Types and type casting - Type information is generally discarded, but becomes important in variable declaration and in casting (which is generally handled well).
• Classes - The full class system is supported (can be instantiated, etc. just fine).
• Method overloading and multiple constructors - Within classes you can have multiple method (or constructor) definitions - with the appropriate methods being called, based upon their signature length.
• Inheritance - Even classical-style inheritance is supported.

Note: There's one feature of Processing that's pretty much impossible to support: variable name overloading. In Processing you can have variables and functions that have the same name (e.g. float size = 0; float size(){}). In order to support this there would have to be considerable overhead - and it's generally not a good practice to begin with.

You can read the full post here.

If you get some time over the weekend, you might want to play with the new Processing JavaScript API. This looks like another good job by John Resig.

If you are looking for something to get through the rest of the work week then check out this great JavaScript game. The game is Wolfenstein 3D (for you younger readers Wolfenstein 3D was the very first big first person shooter) and is just like the game I used to play on my 386 (except the AI is not finished)!

You can read more about the game here. Or you can get straight to the game here.

Note: that the game works on most browsers, but does not work on Internet Explorer.

It is always interesting to see things like this done in JavaScript. Who knows, perhaps we will be playing games like Doom (the original version) in JavaScript within the next few years.

Ryan Dewsbury has built a multiplayer GWT based Pictionary game called XSketch. He is the creator of GPokr and KDice. XSketch is pretty fun and straightforward game. One player is shown a word he needs to illustrate. While he's drawing, the other players try to guess that word. The sketcher and correct guesser are awarded points only when the word is guessed correctly. However, only the sketcher loses points when no correct answer is guessed. The role of sketcher moves around the table so each player has the opportunity to draw.

Go Play XSketch!

TubeSpy, our YouTube application from Ajaxonomy Labs, now supports 11 new languages. By utilizing the Google Language API, TubeSpy is now able to dynamically change the language used in the application.

Languages now supported by TubeSpy include:

• English
• Arabic
• Chinese
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Spanish

Here's a sample in Russian:

The app is still in beta, so be aware there may be some layout/formatting issues with the additional languages. In any case, please send us your comments, bugs, and feature requests.

Go to TubeSpy

Today we are releasing the latest application for Ajaxonomy Labs. The applications is called BuddyBlend. BuddyBlend is a way to easily get all of your friends activities in one location without logging into a bunch of different Social Networks.

You may be thinking that FriendFeed already does this and you are correct to a point. The big difference between FriendFeed and BuddyBlend is that with BuddyBlend you don't need to make friends with a new set of people to see what they are doing, but it gets the latest updates from the friends you already have on various social networks. Because I consider FriendFeed as a type of social network you can get your FriendFeed friends information on your BuddyBlend.

BuddyBlend is currently in public beta, so we will continue to improve on the application to make it more useful and work with more social networks.

Below are the social services that are currently available on BuddyBlend.

• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Twitter
• flickr
• FriendFeed
• FaceBook

BuddyBlend uses your free Ajaxonomy account, so if you already have an account there is no need to sign-up for a new account. As we continue to improve the application we welcome your feedback, so please let us know how we can improve the application.

If you have designed any cool web sites or applications that displays many images you may have been looking for some good image galleries. Well, over at NTT.CC the have put together a good list of 15 free flash image galleries.

Below is an excerpt from the post.

Following are some free but powerful flash image gallery which I collected. Hope you will enjoy it and share with your  friends.Note: listed in no particular order.

No.1 dfGallery

As stated on many other articles on this site, dfGallery is one of the coolest Galleries currently on the Web.It is a Flash Gallery to support both Flickr , Picasa , Fotki, Photobucket and Custom Images, enable / Disable “Print Screen” ( requested by Photographers ), liquid Layout - Fits to any size you specify, and free, etc.

No.2 Photo Viewer

The Photo Viewer uses both Flash and XML. All data is stored within an XML file making it easy to make modifications and update.

No.3 Flash Photo Gallery

Flash Gallery is a FREE, simple photo gallery built in Macromedia Flash 2004, that uses XML files to store the information about which images to display. The gallery is easy to configure and update since you need to change only the XML file.

No.4 SimpleViewer

SimpleViewer is a free, customizable Flash image viewing application.

 

No.5 Flash Photo Stack Gallery

Flash Photo Stack is a simple Flash template that enables you to click through a stack of your favourite photographs.

No.6 AutoViewer

AutoViewer is a free, customizable Flash image viewer. AutoViewer is designed to display a linear sequence of images and captions.

No.7 Flash Page Flip Photo Gallery template for Picasa

This template is based on the free version of the FlashPageFlip flash engine on www.flashpageflip.com. It lacks the advanced functions of the commercial versions but still makes a very nice photo album on your website. You can see and hear the pages flip.

No.8 TiltViewer

TiltViewer is a free, customizable 3D Flash image viewing application.

You can read the full post here.

I hadn't seen many of these galleries before and it is always good to have more interesting ways to present image galleries. Because these are Flash based galleries they are able to have some more interesting effects than a JavaScript based gallery. If you have used any of these galleries or know of any other good galleries, I would love to hear about them (as usual you can leave them in the comments or write a blog post about them using your free Ajaxonomy account).