How the Flash Search Player works

Jim Corbett, Flash Player Engineer at Adobe, did a talk at MAX San Francisco with some good information on how the Flash Search Player works.

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f15384v1000
45min video

What I got out of it:

• Adobe has built a headless flash player that runs through a
  swf file really fast.
• Google has build a virtual user that communicates with the
  headless flash player, the user deals with the logic to make sure it
  clicks all the buttons and decides what to index.
• All text fields visible on the display list can be accessed
  even dynamic ones
• Images of text are not found – best way to hide
  text for Easter eggs
• If you load data via external file i.e. xml and populate
  text boxes, it can be accessed via the headless flash player (Google
  are not yet passing this file back to the headless player, but they do
  index the external file)
• No sockets, no video
• A snap shot of the state can be taken (this is at the
  Google virtual users request)
• No external interface
• No swfAddress deep linking
• Flashvars are ok as the virtual user passes the player the
  complete url
• No accessibility text yet

Kick YouTube to the curb and download their videos

If you want to download any YouTube video, don’t bother with any software just put “kick” before youtube.com in the address bar and you can download it as Flv, Mpg, Mp3 or HD Mp4.

This is the best method I have seen, I’ve tried using Lee Brimelows’ AIRTube app, but that didn’t work and some random bit of software but that didn’t work either, recently I have resorted to using firebug to get the links form the page and finding the flv file by trial and error but this is so much better.

Watch this video to see a demo:

The bacon and cheese roll

This is an amazing use of bacon to make a simple but mouth watering dish.

Weaving bacon is genius; you can make so many more things with a flat sheet of bacon, like a lasagne or a pizza base and lots of other things I can’t think of right now

I’m going to make a bacon cheese roll soon but I will put something else into the middle, most probably one of these:
Egg for a breakfast roll
Sausage but that might be a bit too much pork
Mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers would add a nice element of veg
Chicken breast to give a slant on the normal chicken cordon bleu

Ill post some photos when I make mine.

Amazing innovations at Adobe

This week I have seen 2 amazing bits of technologies come from the Advanced Technologies Lab at Adobe Systems.
The bad thing is you cant get your hands on them yet unless you know someone.

I really want to get my hands on both of these, Zoetrope would be so useful is so many different ways and the video Manipulation will be fun at the start but I’m sure it will have some commercial uses.

Interactive Video Object Manipulation: just amazing video tracking and manipulation

Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

Zoetrope : the time machine for the web
Technology Review:
Video demo: