
Saturday, November 3rd
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! Newest CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca Adrian Senior, creator of the latest CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca, tells us more about the geography of this beautiful resort town in the introduction to his article: While not exactly a city, Playa Blanca is a beautiful town that can be found on the southern tip of Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of a group of small volcanic islands that despite sitting off the African coast come under Spanish sovereignty. The colours in Playa Blanca have been used to reflect the sunshine and the many wonderful volcanic shades that can be found on the island. As the weather turns colder for many of us, Playa Blanca gives us a virtual escape. Now on to the features of the latest JumpStart.... Of course, CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Playa Blanca is a centered, two-column, fixed-width layout with header and footer, but it is a more complex variation of that common layout type. It uses a series of nested divs that create the illusion of the secondary navigation effect that bleeds the appropriate button into the related content region. The top navigation is a floated unordered list, and Mr. Senior gives a mini-lesson on its issues, including those that are unique to Internet Explorer. The package includes documentation, an extension, five tutorials, one main and two Internet Explorer style sheets, a PNG document for branding the graphics, and a starter page. Playa Blanca is available for $29.99 to non-members, but is absolutely free to CMX subscribers. Read more about how to make it yours. * CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca article for nonmembers and members who would like to read more about its features and see a modified Playa Blanca design. * CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca article for members and for those who would like to purchase Playa Blanca now. The Good, Bad And Ugly Of Leopard The big news this week of course - besides the release of Playa Blanca - is the release of Leopard, the newest version of OS X. If you're a Mac Addict that plans on upgrading as soon as you can get your hands on Leopard, you'll want to make sure that your applications will run on it. Adobe posted some information on Leopard and its compatibility with the various CS suites. TechnoMix has broken down the Leopard/Adobe compatibility a bit more. With that out of the way, what are the benefits of Leopard? On their website, Apple boasts over 300 new features. Are these features reason enough to upgrade? The folks at MarketMatador.com call Leopard a "minor upgrade", while ComputerWorld.com says that Leopard is "Cool" and loves the Time Machine feature. As a matter of fact, Time Machine, Leopard's version of Windows' System Restore feature, seems to be a favorite among Leopard lovers. So how does Leopard perform? Geek Precis has gathered several benchmarks from places like ArsTechnica and Primate Labs. Another benefit of Leopard is that if you're a PC user, you may be able to load it right onto your PC. More on that at ArjunThomas.com. Mac OS X: The New Windows 98? Some Mac users actually run antivirus software. Yep, it's true. There haven't been many viruses that target Macs because the goofy folks that write viruses typically want to affect the greatest number of users, and the greatest number of users use Windows. Now that Windows and Macs can co-exist on the same machine, that could change. As a matter of fact, a virus that targets the Mac was discovered just this week. If you read articles like this one from Wired.com, you might worry about the sanctity of your Mac's security. Thankfully Daniel Miessler is here to keep it all in perspective at dmiessler.com. MySpace And Google Becoming BFF MySpace and Google have just struck a deal to distribute Google's widgets on the internet via Google's OpenSocial platform. The widgets make it simpler for users to share video, pictures and music on social network websites. Google already has the participation of Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, Ning and Orkut, but this deal with MySpace is going to throw quite a few more eyeballs in Google's direction, and some of those eyeballs will belong to developers that can create more widgets, which in turn, well you get the idea. Yahoo.com has an article that delves into the details behind the Google/MySpace deal, what it means for Facebook. Oh, looks like Bebo and SixApart are joining OpenSocial as well, according to TechCrunch.com. SixApart.com explains why they think OpenSocial is important. Then again, the Nobien Blog isn't so impressed... Wal-Mart Wants To Be Your Tech Store Wal-Mart has been known to cause a bit of controversy, what with selling "watered-down" versions of some artist's recordings because they were considered too profane. They also get boycotted by people who believe that Wal-Mart is the cause of the diminishing number of Mom and Pop stores. But hey... a good deal is a good deal! Wal-Mart has got two deals you may be interested in hearing about. First, Wal-Mart is selling desktop PCs running Linux for only $199. If that doesn't float your boat, how about an HD DVD player for $100?
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "This was an excellent tutorial. I work with under and over-exposed images all the time and only knew to use Levels before. I can't wait to try these new techniques, thank you." CMX Subscriber Margi P., commenting on Knut Kubenz's tutorial "New Uses for the History Brush and the Layers Palette: Part 2" Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!
Great Quotes: "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen." — Leonardo Da Vinci Advertising Free Beer Will Get You Some Attention Too The Rolling Stones said that you can't always get what you want. Unfortunately, they were right. For instance, it would be ideal if everyone visiting your website looked at it and thought "Wow! I'm contacting them right now to do some work for me!" Actually, that sounds a bit more psychotic than ideal, but even so, your website could be getting you more gigs than you're presently getting. How? FreelanceFolder.com has a list of twenty five things you should either do or stop doing in order to make your website a client-generating machine. Rip It! Flash Video Encoder and Sorensen Squeeze are great for converting most major video formats to flv format. But sometimes you've got the need to convert an quicktime video to avi or a dvd to mpeg, or maybe even an avi to dvd. You can find the tools do what you want on the internet simply by going to a search engine and typing in "dvd to avi" or "quicktime to avi", or you can just go to LifeHacker.com and check out their list of "Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters." Comcast Caught Being Naughty. Again. At CMXtraneous, the Community MX blog, you'll find some interesting tech information, some meaningless ramblings, and even pictures of Canadians in their natural habitat. CMX Author Paul Davis made a pertinent point on our blog regarding Comcasts's disregard for net neutrality and the implications for internet users. Quick quote: "If you have Comcast and you've been noticing things not working right, it isn't your computer - nor your browser (for once!) - it is your ISP meddling in what you are allowed to do." Read on at the blog. Blockbuster On The Way Out? Whenever any major corporation posts a big quarterly loss, the "doomsday is near!" people come out of the woodwork. Blockbuster reported a net loss of about $35 million. Considering that they make billions per year, this may not sound bad, but Don Reisinger over at News.com looks at it as being a significant indicator of Blockbuster's likely demise. It's common knowledge that Blockbuster has been trying to vie for the online dvd rental audience, and that its main competitor has been Netflix. If Blockbuster can find a way to outsmart Netflix, they could start pulling a profit again, but if they expect to stay on top by remaining a brick and mortar store, it's just not going to happen for them. Check out Reisinger's commentary at News.com. We're Shameless Braggards Everyone here at Community MX enjoys doing what we do. Whether it's writing articles, tutorials, creating extensions, helping people learn more via our online forums, or creating our next JumpStart (see the first news article, above), we take pride in what we do and are lucky enough to enjoy the heck out of it. We're very fortunate that there are a lot of people who enjoy what we do as well. The folks at Adobe have always treated us well too, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Community MX playing a bit part in Adobe's Bridge. Just crack open Bridge, go to "Favorites", click on "Home" and click on one of the product icons. You'll see Community MX under the "Community" links. It's a pretty short list, so we really appreciate Adobe for including us among those other great resource sites.
CMXCF Image Popup Server Behavior The CMXCF Image Popup server behavior works with your database to open a popup window containing an image from your database. The window will size itself to the dimensions of the image, and will close if the user clicks on it. If no reference to the image exists in your database, the behavior will allow you to display an alternative thumbnail image that will not open a popup window. It has the following features Popup window will size itself to the dimensions of the image, as called out in the height/width fields of your database. Allows you to display an alternate thumbnail on your page if there is no image for a particular record. The alternate image will not open up a popup window. Check out the Extension by CMX Partner Bill Horvath
Fun and Freebies The Cream Sensation That's Sweepin' The Nation A logo is believed by some to be the most important part of any company. Sure, customer service and quality products still rate pretty high, but a company logo is ususally the first thing that gives you an idea of what they're about. It's no surprise that a lot of our clients want their logo to be displayed proudly and prominently on their website or brochure. But... there's such a thing as going overboard. What if there's just no room to make their logo bigger? Not to worry. When you're faced with this dilemma, just use Make My Logo Bigger cream. The Hidden Benefits Of Working For Google It's well known that the Google treats its employees well. But we didn't just how well until Cracked.com published some of the benefits that were unbeknownst to us. For instance: "Google affords all employees a $1500 monthly stipend for mandatory lava lamp purchases." Who knew? Can't Believe He Doesn't Have His Own Sitcom Yet... Steve Balmer is a passionate guy. Anyone who has seen him talk about Microsoft knows that. And Balmer can talk. A lot. When you talk a lot, you're going to say things that you might regret saying. Hmmm... actually, we don't think Balmer regrets saying any of the things quoted at TheLinuxWay, like "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." That wacky Steve.
Playing with Radial Gradients in Flash Ever wondered what mayhem you can unleash with a Radial Gradient in Flash? read on... This free article by CMX Partner Tom Green can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing Fitting Fireworks CS3 into the Design Work Flow [FREE] Jim Babbage In my last article, I talked about the decision process between when to use Photoshop or Fireworks in your projects. Really, what I'm talking about here is freedom of choice. Knowing your options and where different applications fit together can help you work faster and smarter in your day to day production work flow. And - happily, Fireworks can fit in quite nicely in the digital workflow of many professionals, even if they don't know it yet! This article, based on my talk at Adobe Max 2007, gives an overview of the integration between Fireworks and the other core Adobe products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and Bridge. I thought it would be good have an overview of the features in a single location. Where relevant, I have included links to other CMX articles that dig deeper into the topics. That Annoying stopDrag() Quirk in AS3.0 Derrick Ypenburg I was surprised to see that in AS3.0, the onReleaseOutside mouse event was left out of the MouseEvent class. This was a very important mouse event when it came to drag-and-drop functionality. To find this out, and think of a work-around in AS3.0 has been annoying for many people to find / figure out. Fortunately, the solution is simple. This article will cover the quick work-around to solve the missing onReleaseOutside functionality. CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca Adrian Senior Playa Blanca is a two column fixed width design that uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. The colours in Playa Blanca have been used to reflect the sunshine and the many wonderful volcanic shades that can be found on the island. I hope you like Playa Blanca and it serves you well for future work. Approximate download size: 1.8MB Introducing CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca [FREE] Sheri German I admit it: this JumpStart city necessitated that I do a little geography lesson. Adrian Senior, creator of the latest CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca gave me clues to googling for Playa Blanca information in the introduction to his article: While not exactly a city, Playa Blanca is a beautiful town that can be found on the southern tip of Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of a group of small volcanic islands that despite sitting off the African coast come under Spanish sovereignty. All right! A beautiful beach resort that brought me back to my summer trip in Hawaii. Now on to the latest JumpStart....Playa Blanca is a centered, two-column, fixed-width layout with header and footer, but it is a more complex variation of that common layout type. It uses a series of nested divs that create the illusion of the secondary navigation effect that bleeds the appropriate button into the related content region. Of course Playa Blanca meets the W3C standards for CSS and XHTML, as well as the WAI accessibility requirements. HTML Reports in Dreamweaver - Part 1 Paul Davis Dreamweaver includes a set of reports to check the HTML of a group of pages in a site. The reports include Combinable Nested Font Tags, Accessibility, Missing Alt Text, Redundant Nested Tags, Removable Empty Tags and Untitled Documents. In this part of the series, creating and reading the Combinable Nested Font Tags, Missing Alt Text, Redundant Nested Tags, Removable Empty Tags and Untitled Documents reports is covered. The Accessibility report will be covered in Part 2 of this article. ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 3: Pods Chaz Chumley Continuing on our ColdFusion 8 and AJAX series we will take a look at Pods. So what are Pods and why would I use them? Similar to layout areas within a <cflayout> tag, Pods provide us a standalone area of the browser window where we can display static and dynamic content. Follow along as we explore the <cfpod> tag. The ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series: ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 1a: Layouts ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 1b: Layouts ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 2: Tabbed Layouts ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 3: Pods Ubuntu & You, Part 7: An Ugly Upgrade Thomas Pletcher Ubuntu recently released version 7.10, aka "Gutsy Gibbon", and it remains an excellent Linux distribution. However, if you're upgrading from a previous version, be careful! This article outlines some of the potential pitfalls, along with the rewards you'll receive from a successful upgrade. The Ubuntu & You Series: Ubuntu & You - Part 1: Trying Today's Most Popular Linux Distribution Ubuntu & You - Part 2: Using Today's Most Popular Linux Distribution Ubuntu & You - Part 3: Breezy is Easy Ubuntu & You - Part 4: Breezy is Better Ubuntu & You - Part 5: Be A Dapper Dude (or Dudette) Ubuntu & You - Part 6: The Dapper Difference Ubuntu & You - Part 7: An Ugly Upgrade Create a Scary Spider in Illustrator CS3 Kim Dudley That spooky time of year is here again and in just a few days there will be lots of ghosts and goblins wondering the streets. To get the "Trick or Treat" spirit started I thought I would create a Halloween graphic. Over the past few years Jim Babbage and I have created a respectable library of Halloween themed images. The (Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins Series: (Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 1 - Ghost (Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 2 - Jack-O-Lantern (Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 3 - Demon eyes (Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 4 - Spider and web (Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 5 - Bat (Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 6 - Tombstone The Freehand Trick or Treat Series: Trick or Treat - Part 1 - Spider and web Trick or Treat - Part 2 - Tombstone Illustrator Halloween Tutorials: Jack-O-Lantern Fun with Illustrator - Jack-O-Lantern Spooky Halloween Type One of my favourite graphics to use is the spider and web I originally created using Freehand. However, many of my documents are now set up in Illustrator so I thought I would recreate this artwork using Illustrator. The steps used to create this spider and web are very different then those used to draw the image in Freehand but the results are quite similar. Flex 101: Part 11 - The Event Class Joseph Balderson Learning Flex 2 can be can seem overwhelming at first glance, considering all the elements that go into the making of a Flex application, from the development IDE, the source files, the runtime and the APIs, not to mention the abundance of documentation, examples and blog entries to choose from, not all of which are intended for novices. Just to name a few. This series aims to take some of the mystery and confusion out of learning Flex 2, providing both a beginner's overview of building applications in Flex, as well as some in-depth examination of the basics for intermediate Flex developers. In this article, we will take a look at using the Event class to create more effective event-based communication between objects, as well as a brief lesson on Flex application usability. Displaying component events through the Event class object. The Flex 101 Series: Flex 101: Part 1 - Introducing Adobe Flex 2 Flex 101: Part 2 - What's New In Flash Player 9 Flex 101: Part 3 - Using Flex Builder 2 Flex 101: Part 4 - Building in Design Mode Flex 101: Part 5 - Using MXML Flex 101: Part 6 - Components and Databinding Flex 101: Part 7 - Events Flex 101: Part 8 - AS3 in MXML Flex 101: Part 9 - Custom MXML Components Flex 101: Part 10 - Databinding Custom Components Flex 101: Part 11 - The Event Class Flex 101: Part 12 - Using the Flex 2 Debugger Coming Soon Flex 101: Part 13 - Declaring Events in AS3 Coming Soon Flex 101: Part 14 - Using the Event Subclasses Coming Soon Edge Sharpening Couldn't Be Any Easier Knut Kubenz Some of the best sharpening tools in Photoshop are the Unsharp Mask and the Smart Sharpen Filters. Most people would agree with this statement and a lot of folks use these two for most of their image editing when it comes to sharpening. However, how many people really know how to use them properly or know when they've gone too far or too little with the process? It's often a bit of trial and error with a lot of control options and it gets even more tricky when you want to just sharpen just the edges of an image rather than the entire image. Well this tutorial is bent on making life much easier for your when it comes to edge sharpening and believe or not, you're not going to go near the Unsharp Mask or the Smart Sharpen dialogs. This tutorial will show you how to effectively and simply do edge sharpening with the use of Layer Mode options and a little obscure filter called the High Pass Filter.
Positioning Outside The Box - Part One With this tutorial, it's time to step up to the next level in Absolute Positioning. Allow us to by your guides for several of the steps. We'll flip a positioning problem inside out and upside down too, revealing a backdoor solution to a confining CSS question, precisely positioning child elements to the outside of their parent element. You're going to like this! Check out the Article by Holly Bergevin and John Gallant
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of John Gallant Tricks With Borders and CSS You can't always tell what's happening on a CSS page just by looking. Weird things often seem to occur with no visible explanation. Well the answer is simple. Make it visible! Simply put borders or background colors on page elements to define exactly where they really are. Be careful though, because borders will add to the dimensions of a rigid box. If that box is in a tight layout the test border itself can cause the layout to break. Backgrounds don't have this problem, but being opaque they can obscure important bug related clues. For a quick look, you can also use the Webdeveloper's toolbar, in Mozilla-based browsers, and choose the "outline" command to make red dotted outlines appear. Borders and backgrounds are the single most powerful weapon in the CSS bughunter's arsenal, so use the heck out of them! Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com. That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!

CMX Weekly Newsletter

News
Fun and Freebies
Recent CMX Content
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

Newest CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca

Adrian Senior, creator of the latest CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca, tells us more about the geography of this beautiful resort town in the introduction to his article:

While not exactly a city, Playa Blanca is a beautiful town that can be found on the southern tip of Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of a group of small volcanic islands that despite sitting off the African coast come under Spanish sovereignty. The colours in Playa Blanca have been used to reflect the sunshine and the many wonderful volcanic shades that can be found on the island.

As the weather turns colder for many of us, Playa Blanca gives us a virtual escape. Now on to the features of the latest JumpStart....

Of course, CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Playa Blanca is a centered, two-column, fixed-width layout with header and footer, but it is a more complex variation of that common layout type. It uses a series of nested divs that create the illusion of the secondary navigation effect that bleeds the appropriate button into the related content region. The top navigation is a floated unordered list, and Mr. Senior gives a mini-lesson on its issues, including those that are unique to Internet Explorer.

The package includes documentation, an extension, five tutorials, one main and two Internet Explorer style sheets, a PNG document for branding the graphics, and a starter page.

Playa Blanca is available for $29.99 to non-members, but is absolutely free to CMX subscribers. Read more about how to make it yours.

* CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca article for nonmembers and members who would like to read more about its features and see a modified Playa Blanca design.
* CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca article for members and for those who would like to purchase Playa Blanca now.

The Good, Bad And Ugly Of Leopard

The big news this week of course - besides the release of Playa Blanca - is the release of Leopard, the newest version of OS X. If you're a Mac Addict that plans on upgrading as soon as you can get your hands on Leopard, you'll want to make sure that your applications will run on it. Adobe posted some information on Leopard and its compatibility with the various CS suites. TechnoMix has broken down the Leopard/Adobe compatibility a bit more. With that out of the way, what are the benefits of Leopard? On their website, Apple boasts over 300 new features. Are these features reason enough to upgrade? The folks at MarketMatador.com call Leopard a "minor upgrade", while ComputerWorld.com says that Leopard is "Cool" and loves the Time Machine feature. As a matter of fact, Time Machine, Leopard's version of Windows' System Restore feature, seems to be a favorite among Leopard lovers. So how does Leopard perform? Geek Precis has gathered several benchmarks from places like ArsTechnica and Primate Labs. Another benefit of Leopard is that if you're a PC user, you may be able to load it right onto your PC. More on that at ArjunThomas.com.

Mac OS X: The New Windows 98?

Some Mac users actually run antivirus software. Yep, it's true. There haven't been many viruses that target Macs because the goofy folks that write viruses typically want to affect the greatest number of users, and the greatest number of users use Windows. Now that Windows and Macs can co-exist on the same machine, that could change. As a matter of fact, a virus that targets the Mac was discovered just this week. If you read articles like this one from Wired.com, you might worry about the sanctity of your Mac's security. Thankfully Daniel Miessler is here to keep it all in perspective at dmiessler.com.

MySpace And Google Becoming BFF

MySpace and Google have just struck a deal to distribute Google's widgets on the internet via Google's OpenSocial platform. The widgets make it simpler for users to share video, pictures and music on social network websites. Google already has the participation of Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, Ning and Orkut, but this deal with MySpace is going to throw quite a few more eyeballs in Google's direction, and some of those eyeballs will belong to developers that can create more widgets, which in turn, well you get the idea. Yahoo.com has an article that delves into the details behind the Google/MySpace deal, what it means for Facebook. Oh, looks like Bebo and SixApart are joining OpenSocial as well, according to TechCrunch.com. SixApart.com explains why they think OpenSocial is important. Then again, the Nobien Blog isn't so impressed...

Wal-Mart Wants To Be Your Tech Store

Wal-Mart has been known to cause a bit of controversy, what with selling "watered-down" versions of some artist's recordings because they were considered too profane. They also get boycotted by people who believe that Wal-Mart is the cause of the diminishing number of Mom and Pop stores. But hey... a good deal is a good deal! Wal-Mart has got two deals you may be interested in hearing about. First, Wal-Mart is selling desktop PCs running Linux for only $199. If that doesn't float your boat, how about an HD DVD player for $100?

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"This was an excellent tutorial. I work with under and over-exposed images all the time and only knew to use Levels before. I can't wait to try these new techniques, thank you."

CMX Subscriber Margi P., commenting on Knut Kubenz's tutorial "New Uses for the History Brush and the Layers Palette: Part 2"

Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!

Great Quotes:

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen." — Leonardo Da Vinci

Advertising Free Beer Will Get You Some Attention Too

The Rolling Stones said that you can't always get what you want. Unfortunately, they were right. For instance, it would be ideal if everyone visiting your website looked at it and thought "Wow! I'm contacting them right now to do some work for me!" Actually, that sounds a bit more psychotic than ideal, but even so, your website could be getting you more gigs than you're presently getting. How? FreelanceFolder.com has a list of twenty five things you should either do or stop doing in order to make your website a client-generating machine.

Rip It!

Flash Video Encoder and Sorensen Squeeze are great for converting most major video formats to flv format. But sometimes you've got the need to convert an quicktime video to avi or a dvd to mpeg, or maybe even an avi to dvd. You can find the tools do what you want on the internet simply by going to a search engine and typing in "dvd to avi" or "quicktime to avi", or you can just go to LifeHacker.com and check out their list of "Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters."

Comcast Caught Being Naughty. Again.

At CMXtraneous, the Community MX blog, you'll find some interesting tech information, some meaningless ramblings, and even pictures of Canadians in their natural habitat. CMX Author Paul Davis made a pertinent point on our blog regarding Comcasts's disregard for net neutrality and the implications for internet users. Quick quote: "If you have Comcast and you've been noticing things not working right, it isn't your computer - nor your browser (for once!) - it is your ISP meddling in what you are allowed to do." Read on at the blog.

Blockbuster On The Way Out?

Whenever any major corporation posts a big quarterly loss, the "doomsday is near!" people come out of the woodwork. Blockbuster reported a net loss of about $35 million. Considering that they make billions per year, this may not sound bad, but Don Reisinger over at News.com looks at it as being a significant indicator of Blockbuster's likely demise. It's common knowledge that Blockbuster has been trying to vie for the online dvd rental audience, and that its main competitor has been Netflix. If Blockbuster can find a way to outsmart Netflix, they could start pulling a profit again, but if they expect to stay on top by remaining a brick and mortar store, it's just not going to happen for them. Check out Reisinger's commentary at News.com.

We're Shameless Braggards

Everyone here at Community MX enjoys doing what we do. Whether it's writing articles, tutorials, creating extensions, helping people learn more via our online forums, or creating our next JumpStart (see the first news article, above), we take pride in what we do and are lucky enough to enjoy the heck out of it. We're very fortunate that there are a lot of people who enjoy what we do as well. The folks at Adobe have always treated us well too, but we were pleasantly surprised to see Community MX playing a bit part in Adobe's Bridge. Just crack open Bridge, go to "Favorites", click on "Home" and click on one of the product icons. You'll see Community MX under the "Community" links. It's a pretty short list, so we really appreciate Adobe for including us among those other great resource sites.

CMXCF Image Popup Server Behavior

The CMXCF Image Popup server behavior works with your database to open a popup window containing an image from your database. The window will size itself to the dimensions of the image, and will close if the user clicks on it. If no reference to the image exists in your database, the behavior will allow you to display an alternative thumbnail image that will not open a popup window. It has the following features Popup window will size itself to the dimensions of the image, as called out in the height/width fields of your database. Allows you to display an alternate thumbnail on your page if there is no image for a particular record. The alternate image will not open up a popup window.

Check out the Extension by CMX Partner Bill Horvath

Fun and Freebies

The Cream Sensation That's Sweepin' The Nation

A logo is believed by some to be the most important part of any company. Sure, customer service and quality products still rate pretty high, but a company logo is ususally the first thing that gives you an idea of what they're about. It's no surprise that a lot of our clients want their logo to be displayed proudly and prominently on their website or brochure. But... there's such a thing as going overboard. What if there's just no room to make their logo bigger? Not to worry. When you're faced with this dilemma, just use Make My Logo Bigger cream.

The Hidden Benefits Of Working For Google

It's well known that the Google treats its employees well. But we didn't just how well until Cracked.com published some of the benefits that were unbeknownst to us. For instance: "Google affords all employees a $1500 monthly stipend for mandatory lava lamp purchases." Who knew?

Can't Believe He Doesn't Have His Own Sitcom Yet...

Steve Balmer is a passionate guy. Anyone who has seen him talk about Microsoft knows that. And Balmer can talk. A lot. When you talk a lot, you're going to say things that you might regret saying. Hmmm... actually, we don't think Balmer regrets saying any of the things quoted at TheLinuxWay, like "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." That wacky Steve.

Playing with Radial Gradients in Flash

Ever wondered what mayhem you can unleash with a Radial Gradient in Flash? read on...

This free article by CMX Partner Tom Green can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

Fitting Fireworks CS3 into the Design Work Flow [FREE]

Jim Babbage

In my last article, I talked about the decision process between when to use Photoshop or Fireworks in your projects.

Really, what I'm talking about here is freedom of choice. Knowing your options and where different applications fit together can help you work faster and smarter in your day to day production work flow. And - happily, Fireworks can fit in quite nicely in the digital workflow of many professionals, even if they don't know it yet!

This article, based on my talk at Adobe Max 2007, gives an overview of the integration between Fireworks and the other core Adobe products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and Bridge. I thought it would be good have an overview of the features in a single location. Where relevant, I have included links to other CMX articles that dig deeper into the topics.

That Annoying stopDrag() Quirk in AS3.0

Derrick Ypenburg

I was surprised to see that in AS3.0, the onReleaseOutside mouse event was left out of the MouseEvent class. This was a very important mouse event when it came to drag-and-drop functionality. To find this out, and think of a work-around in AS3.0 has been annoying for many people to find / figure out. Fortunately, the solution is simple.

This article will cover the quick work-around to solve the missing onReleaseOutside functionality.

CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca

Adrian Senior

Playa Blanca is a two column fixed width design that uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for.

The colours in Playa Blanca have been used to reflect the sunshine and the many wonderful volcanic shades that can be found on the island. I hope you like Playa Blanca and it serves you well for future work.

Approximate download size: 1.8MB

Introducing CMX JumpStart: Playa Blanca [FREE]

Sheri German

I admit it: this JumpStart city necessitated that I do a little geography lesson. Adrian Senior, creator of the latest CMX JumpStart Playa Blanca gave me clues to googling for Playa Blanca information in the introduction to his article:

While not exactly a city, Playa Blanca is a beautiful town that can be found on the southern tip of Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of a group of small volcanic islands that despite sitting off the African coast come under Spanish sovereignty.

All right! A beautiful beach resort that brought me back to my summer trip in Hawaii. Now on to the latest JumpStart....Playa Blanca is a centered, two-column, fixed-width layout with header and footer, but it is a more complex variation of that common layout type. It uses a series of nested divs that create the illusion of the secondary navigation effect that bleeds the appropriate button into the related content region. Of course Playa Blanca meets the W3C standards for CSS and XHTML, as well as the WAI accessibility requirements.

HTML Reports in Dreamweaver - Part 1

Paul Davis

Dreamweaver includes a set of reports to check the HTML of a group of pages in a site. The reports include Combinable Nested Font Tags, Accessibility, Missing Alt Text, Redundant Nested Tags, Removable Empty Tags and Untitled Documents. In this part of the series, creating and reading the Combinable Nested Font Tags, Missing Alt Text, Redundant Nested Tags, Removable Empty Tags and Untitled Documents reports is covered.

The Accessibility report will be covered in Part 2 of this article.

ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 3: Pods

Chaz Chumley

Continuing on our ColdFusion 8 and AJAX series we will take a look at Pods. So what are Pods and why would I use them? Similar to layout areas within a <cflayout> tag, Pods provide us a standalone area of the browser window where we can display static and dynamic content. Follow along as we explore the <cfpod> tag.

The ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series:
ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 1a: Layouts
ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 1b: Layouts
ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 2: Tabbed Layouts
ColdFusion 8 and AJAX Series - Part 3: Pods

Ubuntu & You, Part 7: An Ugly Upgrade

Thomas Pletcher

Ubuntu recently released version 7.10, aka "Gutsy Gibbon", and it remains an excellent Linux distribution. However, if you're upgrading from a previous version, be careful! This article outlines some of the potential pitfalls, along with the rewards you'll receive from a successful upgrade.

The Ubuntu & You Series:
Ubuntu & You - Part 1: Trying Today's Most Popular Linux Distribution
Ubuntu & You - Part 2: Using Today's Most Popular Linux Distribution
Ubuntu & You - Part 3: Breezy is Easy
Ubuntu & You - Part 4: Breezy is Better
Ubuntu & You - Part 5: Be A Dapper Dude (or Dudette)
Ubuntu & You - Part 6: The Dapper Difference
Ubuntu & You - Part 7: An Ugly Upgrade

Create a Scary Spider in Illustrator CS3

Kim Dudley

That spooky time of year is here again and in just a few days there will be lots of ghosts and goblins wondering the streets. To get the "Trick or Treat" spirit started I thought I would create a Halloween graphic. Over the past few years Jim Babbage and I have created a respectable library of Halloween themed images.

The (Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins Series:
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 1 - Ghost
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 2 - Jack-O-Lantern
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 3 - Demon eyes
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 4 - Spider and web
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 5 - Bat
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 6 - Tombstone

The Freehand Trick or Treat Series:
Trick or Treat - Part 1 - Spider and web
Trick or Treat - Part 2 - Tombstone

Illustrator Halloween Tutorials:
Jack-O-Lantern Fun with Illustrator - Jack-O-Lantern
Spooky Halloween Type

One of my favourite graphics to use is the spider and web I originally created using Freehand. However, many of my documents are now set up in Illustrator so I thought I would recreate this artwork using Illustrator. The steps used to create this spider and web are very different then those used to draw the image in Freehand but the results are quite similar.

Flex 101: Part 11 - The Event Class

Joseph Balderson

Learning Flex 2 can be can seem overwhelming at first glance, considering all the elements that go into the making of a Flex application, from the development IDE, the source files, the runtime and the APIs, not to mention the abundance of documentation, examples and blog entries to choose from, not all of which are intended for novices. Just to name a few. This series aims to take some of the mystery and confusion out of learning Flex 2, providing both a beginner's overview of building applications in Flex, as well as some in-depth examination of the basics for intermediate Flex developers.

In this article, we will take a look at using the Event class to create more effective event-based communication between objects, as well as a brief lesson on Flex application usability.

Displaying component events through the Event class object.

The Flex 101 Series:
Flex 101: Part 1 - Introducing Adobe Flex 2
Flex 101: Part 2 - What's New In Flash Player 9
Flex 101: Part 3 - Using Flex Builder 2
Flex 101: Part 4 - Building in Design Mode
Flex 101: Part 5 - Using MXML
Flex 101: Part 6 - Components and Databinding
Flex 101: Part 7 - Events
Flex 101: Part 8 - AS3 in MXML
Flex 101: Part 9 - Custom MXML Components
Flex 101: Part 10 - Databinding Custom Components
Flex 101: Part 11 - The Event Class
Flex 101: Part 12 - Using the Flex 2 Debugger Coming Soon
Flex 101: Part 13 - Declaring Events in AS3 Coming Soon
Flex 101: Part 14 - Using the Event Subclasses Coming Soon

Edge Sharpening Couldn't Be Any Easier

Knut Kubenz

Some of the best sharpening tools in Photoshop are the Unsharp Mask and the Smart Sharpen Filters. Most people would agree with this statement and a lot of folks use these two for most of their image editing when it comes to sharpening. However, how many people really know how to use them properly or know when they've gone too far or too little with the process? It's often a bit of trial and error with a lot of control options and it gets even more tricky when you want to just sharpen just the edges of an image rather than the entire image. Well this tutorial is bent on making life much easier for your when it comes to edge sharpening and believe or not, you're not going to go near the Unsharp Mask or the Smart Sharpen dialogs. This tutorial will show you how to effectively and simply do edge sharpening with the use of Layer Mode options and a little obscure filter called the High Pass Filter.

Positioning Outside The Box - Part One

With this tutorial, it's time to step up to the next level in Absolute Positioning. Allow us to by your guides for several of the steps. We'll flip a positioning problem inside out and upside down too, revealing a backdoor solution to a confining CSS question, precisely positioning child elements to the outside of their parent element. You're going to like this!

Check out the Article by Holly Bergevin and John Gallant

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of John Gallant

Tricks With Borders and CSS

You can't always tell what's happening on a CSS page just by looking. Weird things often seem to occur with no visible explanation. Well the answer is simple. Make it visible! Simply put borders or background colors on page elements to define exactly where they really are. Be careful though, because borders will add to the dimensions of a rigid box. If that box is in a tight layout the test border itself can cause the layout to break. Backgrounds don't have this problem, but being opaque they can obscure important bug related clues. For a quick look, you can also use the Webdeveloper's toolbar, in Mozilla-based browsers, and choose the "outline" command to make red dotted outlines appear.

Borders and backgrounds are the single most powerful weapon in the CSS bughunter's arsenal, so use the heck out of them!

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!