Thank god, after five days of struggle the kid was finally rescued. Read more here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Read the full news here.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Finally its happening, check this out : Adobe's Acquisition of Macromedia Expected to Close on December 3, 2005

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 02:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So there are hundreds of Flash forums already on the net and why one more? So the focus of this forum is not going to be generic flash discussion but will focus on time saving techniques for Flash users. The idea of having a central repository of Flash hacks and tips & tricks was there in the back of my mind for a long time now and so I decided to bring the forum in my site back, with a new look and a fresh idea. The primary focus of this forum will be to exchange ideas, tips & tricks and hacks in Flash, this forum will also focus on some common issues in Flash and possible workarounds.

Last time I had to close out the forum as the spamming was unmanageable and I would spend hours just cleaning the spam and hence this time around only registered users will be able to post or reply to the forum. I am also looking at a way to hack the inbuilt ranking system of phpBB to include a point based system to rank users based on their activity or rather participation level. I have added a few common categories to the forum please feel free to suggest some more relevant categories.

What are you waiting for? Just go ahead and register yourself, it just takes a few seconds.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

One thing I have always admired about Macromedia as a company is its openness and commitment towards its user community. Lot of companies makes software for the masses but there are very few companies that have the humane touch attached to their software. I strongly believe that one main and major reason for the success of Macromedia is due to their strong commitment towards the community. Macromedia has proved this time and again and now once again with Macromedia Labs.

Macromedia Labs is such a amazing concept, a place where you can keep updated on what's cooking up for the next release, how other developers around the globe are using Macromedia products, to see how people around the globe are pushing the limits of Macromedia products and what more do you want - you can interact with the developers directly and comment and contribute to the wiki. Name me one commercial software company which has opened its door so wide open to let their users do these things.

And for those who are interested in ActionScript 3.0, don't forget to check out the ActionScript 3.0 FAQ. It answers the following questions; I have linked the questions in the FAQ for convenience here:

1.1.1 Have any items been deprecated in ActionScript 3.0
1.1.2 How do I access the root time line of my content?
1.1.3 What is the difference between Stage.root and displayObject.root?
1.1.4 What are the default values that types are initialized to?
1.1.5 Can int / uint / Number contain a null value?
1.1.6 How can I check whether an object contains a property?

1.1.6.1 in operator
1.1.6.2 Object.hasOwnProperty(k)
1.1.6.3 Object.propertyIsEnumerable(k)

1.1.7 How can I specify a function with optional arguments
1.1.8 Does ActionScript 3.0 support metadata?
1.1.9 Can I use variables within metadata definitions?
1.1.10 Can I access metadata at runtime?
1.1.11 How can I get meta information about a class instance?
1.1.12 What are all the access modifiers in ActionScript 3.0, and what do they mean?
1.1.13 What is the default access modifier?
1.1.14 Are private functions inherited by subclasses?
1.1.15 What are primitive data types?
1.1.16 What are complex data types?
1.1.17 What is the difference between int, uint and Number?

1.1.17.1 int
1.1.17.2 unit
1.1.17.3 Number

1.1.18 Can I still use Trace in ActionScript 3.0?
1.1.19 Does ActionScript 3.0 support constants? If so, how?
1.1.20 Can you still declare classes as dynamic in ActionScript 3.0?
1.1.21 How do I put my class in a package?
1.1.22 How do I keep my classes from being extended?
1.1.23 What are namespaces?

1.2 Object Oriented Programming

1.2.1 Can a class implement multiple interfaces in ActionScript 3.0?
1.2.2 Are Abstract Classes supported in ActionScript 3.0?

1.3 Errors

1.3.1 Where can I find more information on what ActionScript 3.0 errors mean?

1.4 Loading Data

1.4.1 How do I load data from a remote URL?
1.4.2 How can I pass name/ values pairs to a remote server?

1.5 XML

1.5.1 Can I still use the old ActionScript 2.0 XML API?
1.5.2 What API is used to parse XML in ActionScript 3.0
1.5.3 How do I create a string of XML in code?
1.5.4 How do I load and parse XML from a remote URL?
1.5.5 How can I access elements within XML that has one or more namespaces?

1.6 Browser Integration

1.6.1 How do I tell the browser to navigate to a URL?
1.6.2 What API do I use for Flash / JavaScript communication?
1.6.3 What browsers are supported by the ExternalInterface API
1.6.4 How can I call a JavaScript function from ActionScript?
1.6.5 How can I call an ActionScript function from JavaScript?
1.6.6 How can I get return values from Flash / Javascript function calls?
1.6.7 Can I use flash.net.navigateToURL to communicate with JavaScript?
1.6.8 How can I access variables passed into a Flex Application from the URL or FlashVars?
1.6.9 Will multiple consecutive calls from ActionScript to JavaScript work?
1.6.10 How can I access variables passed into a Flash / Non-Flex Application from the URL or FlashVars?

1.7 Text

1.7.1 How can I capture user click events on hyperlinks in HTML text within Flash?

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think most of you would have read this news by now. For those who have not, here it is:

A 19 year old geek has used a worm with JavaScript, modified using XMLHTTP Request (within AJAX Web applications) to insert a code into the profiles of people who are visiting his page on MySpace and has gained tremendous popularity, overnight. Particularly this line "Upon executing the code, it would add me as one of their friends. This normally requires their approval, but this was all done in the background via Ajax." in his email interview by Philipp Lenssen is very threatening. You can find the explanation of his code here; very interesting to see how he has hacked his way in.

He has become so popular that Zazzle is selling T-shirts titled "Samy is My Hero"

While we have a very positive outlook towards Web 2.0 and likes, these kind of incidents reminds us that we should not miss out on the security threats that new technologies like AJAX posses.

Related readings :

The Web 2.0 MySpace Friend-Generating Worm
Samy. Their Hero
How to Make 1 Million Friends on MySpace
Hacker Makes Himself the Most Popular Person On MySpace
fast.info

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 02:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Macromedia acquired iteration::two, the company well known as the leader in RIA's and is very popular for its unit testing framework (Flex Unit).

iteraction::two will aid Macromedia in better RIA consulting with its vast customer experience. This is definetly a exciting news for both the companies.

Read the press release of on the iteration::two website.

Posted by Last ActionScript Hero at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)