Everybody needs a Smile(y)

It has been up and running for a couple of weeks now - the Smiley Factory at Windows Live that is. The website is a small generator that creates smileys to be used in Windows Live Messenger. Its a pretty cool idea and we are happy to see it being used.

There was some trouble reported with the installer on some machines running Vista so if you try it and experiences something unusual just take a screen shot, write down some words on your configuration(s) you think might help and we'll try to duplicate it and fix it. Email thoughts and bugs to support [at] thomson.nu

Design/Advertising agency: Joy
Techniques: Flash AS3, C#, C++ and lots of image mathematics ;)

Check it out: www.windowslive.se/smileyfabriken/ (swedish only)

Flash 9 dirty dirty smuts and some good stuff coming too...

Flash 9 / AS3 has some issues regarding unloading content that one of our developers pointed out this week. GSkinner writes about it and explains more on the issue.
The impact for us is crucial since almost everything we produce uses loaded content with contained functionality.

Check out GSkinners post "Failure to Unload" here

Next generation flash... Diesel
There are som really interesting news with rendering in 3D , kinematics and other advanced features but what hits us most is the new format for the source - XFL. The flash format specification has never been public but with this new xml formatted source the future opens up. This means that anyone could create a flash authoring tool in javascript or any other language for that matter. Adobe Air anyone? Flash As A Service? Possibilities are endless if only a XFL compiler is available *crossing my fingers and hoping for this to happen*.