c. scott andreas

I’ve spent half of my last three Saturdays coding and experimenting with new languages, APIs, frameworks, and the like. This weekend brings you a functional three-click videoblogging app for WordPress, Moveable Type, Drupal, and more.

To recap, earlier hackathons brought:

• A stable version of Phoreo Elements (with documentation). Launching very soon.
• ESV for iPhone, Mac OS X Dashboard, and Adobe AIR (Mac + PC).

This week’s pièce de résistance:

Three-Click Videoblogging. It’s really that simple. Open the app, click Record and bark into your iSight for awhile, then hit Stop when you’re done. Preview it if you like. Bang out a Title and Body content, then hit Publish to WordPress.

How’s it work? The app records video from your webcam via Flex / Flash, sends it off to a Flash Media Server to be encoded as an FLV, then communicates with your WordPress blog via XML-RPC to create a new post and embed the video automagically.  This is (mostly) sample code from Adobe that wasn’t functional (i.e., the blogging component did not work properly).  That’s been fixed, and this (along with some other tools, like WordPress MU) could form the basis of a really cool app.

The result?

Ultra-easy, brainless, painless videoblogging in just 3 clicks. Screenshot:

(I look like a total tool in this photo. Sorry. It was an early test - I was surprised that it worked.)

What went into it? ::

• Adobe Flex ( + Flex Builder 3)
• Adobe AIR / a web browser
• Adobe Flash Media Server
• A little XML + RPC magic
• A Mac / PC with a camera

It’s not ready for primetime yet, but it does work. Handy! Thanks to Mike Potter of Adobe for this week’s Legos.

But…my development / testing environment was a nightmare. Imagine a PowerBook G4 running Flex Builder 3 in OS X and Flash Media Server in a Windows 2000 Virtual PC session communicating with each other via a VPN tunnel looping from England to southern Indiana and back. Uh, slow. Painfully slow. Thanks, University of Kent, for your awesome IT policies. Bleah.

So here’s the new deal: Buy me a new MacBook Pro and I’ll make you something cool. Maybe a nice shrimp fettucine alfredo with a bottle Savignon Blanc or something.

Might be on hiatus next weekend - I’m headed to Cut & Paste London. Curious about this app or heading to C&P, too? Hit me up at scott att phoreo dawt com.

This morning’s experiment with Adobe AIR really got out of hand. I’ve created tools to access the English Standard Version of the Bible via your iPhone, a Mac OS X Dashboard widget, and an Adobe AIR app for Mac + PC (the original project). Pheew!

I’m not convinced that anyone needs all of this (or that it’s even useful!), but it was a fun project that involved coding on a Saturday morning.

Want ESV on iPhone?

Head to http://esv.phoreo.com.

Crave the Dashboard widget?

Click to install.

Intrigued by the AIR app (Mac + PC)?

Grab it here (and Adobe AIR if you don’t have it).

With a semester and a half left before graduation, I’m rethinking my entire academic career and feverishly planning out an MA in a completely unrelated area.

Doug Zongker of the University of Washington has opened up a new field of study set to revolutionize academia. In this brief presentation, he outlines a few of his ideas supported by incontrovertible qualitative and qualitative data and certainly left many heads scratching.

Please watch the clip. I guarantee you - it will not disappoint.

Two stories popped up on Digg today. Bleah.

Good Magazine has put together a feature video in conjunction with Bikes to Rwanda, a non-profit organization that I support.

Bikes to Rwanda is a group that provides cargo bikes to the Karaba coffee co-op in Rwanda. Rather than extending a one-off donation, this initiative is part of a larger partnership between Stumptown Coffee (an outstanding Portland-based OG/FT roaster that has redefined “coffee” for me) and the growers. Outstanding vision, great bikes, great coffee, and a development program worth checking out.

Mozy is a web-based backup tool that does the job right. For five bucks a month, you get unlimited data storage and a handy desktop client that sits in the background helping all of your stuff “mozy” up toward their servers.

Mozy isn’t the only web-based storage provider on the block. What makes them stand out?

They effing get it. Read the rest of this entry »

Designer?  Developer?  Techno-philanthrop[art]ist?

Over the next couple of days/weeks, I’ll be posting quick reviews of some really cool tools that make my workflow sing.  We’re talking software, hardware, web apps, and yes, maybe even some stuff not made of silicon, electricity, and love.

Whether or not you’re a web worker, you might find a gem or two here that you’ll soon not be able to live without.

A departure from experimental projects such as A Collision and Sunsets and Sushi, Remedy is Crowder’s “there-and-back-again” take on the clean but edgy style he’s developed in Can You Hear Us? and Illuminate.

More than signaling his transformation as an artist, Remedy’s synthetic plea may be indicative of a larger transformation toward an ancient/(post-)modern spirituality bent on changing the world emerging in Christian music as well as Christian thought.

I’ve listened to Remedy a few times and read through the slick digital booklet that tagged along.  The verdict? Read the rest of this entry »