Yahoo! Go 1.X is discontinued

I got an email yesterday, Yahoo! Go 1.x would be discontinued tonight i.e. August 27, 2007 midnight. I am suggested to upgrade to Yahoo! Go 2.0, which unfortunately doesn’t work on any of Nokia S60 second-edition phones. I am suggested to use mobile-browser to access services provided by Yahoo! Go 1.x. Well I think, that’s not going to help because:-

• I loved the way Yahoo! Go seamlessly integrates with phone and delivers mails/messages to Phone’s inbox.
• I loved Yahoo! Messenger in Yahoo! Go 1.x
• I loved the Yahoo! Calendar integration with Phone’s calendar.

I think, I liked the seamless integration.

My brother told me that Yahoo! Go 2.0 on Nokia N95 (or S60 third-edition) doesn’t come with Yahoo! messenger, that’s not good? Why it’s missing from new version (Yahoo! Go 2.0)? Is it because of some business-deal (BlackBerry etc)?

I think, taking away an important feature in new version of software/hardware or lack of backward compatibility would upset users. Backward compatibility is important.

I am upset because Yahoo! Go 1.x would stop working on my phone, I don’t know why? It’s alright to release new version but that shouldn’t force existing users to upgrade or not being able to use existing (installed) software.

Technorati tags: Yahoo! Go, mobile, application, discontinued

Adobe Flash runtimes support H.264 and AAC

Adobe has announced support for H.264 (codec) and AAC (audio) in latest update of Adobe Flash Player 9 Beta and Adobe AIR. I just read Tinic’s post, which is full of information. Some related links:-

• Tinic’s technical post on H.264 support and other things added to latest update of Flash Player 9 Beta 2.
• Adobe’s announcement on Yahoo! Finance
• Ryan’s post on H.264 support
• ReadWriteWeb on H.264 support

I think, this would increase Flash Player usage on web. I am hoping that this update makes to release version ASAP. Future surely looks great...

Technorati tags: adobe, h.264, video, standards, flash player

Happy Independence Day

I wish a Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Indians. It is indeed a day that reminds us of all freedom fighters who struggled for this day, thanks to all of them for showing us free India. I am proud to be an Indian.

We have done a lot in last sixty-years but we could have done more. It’s never late, I am sure India would be a developed nation by 2020, a vision given by our ex-President Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

Jai Hind

Credit: Flag graphic provided by http://www.3dflags.com

Technorati tags: Indian Independence Day

DataGridDataExporter: Export DataGrid data as CSV

A friend of mine, who is new to Adobe Flex, asked how can Datagrid-data be exported as CSV. I wrote a simple class, with one static-method, to do that. This is very basic implementation of CSV format.

Check out the example or download the code (with example).

DataGridDataExporter.as:

/** _________________________________________ DataGridDataExporter is a util-class to export DataGrid’s data into different format. @class DataGridDataExporter (public) @author Abdul Qabiz (mail at abdulqabiz dot com) @version 0.01 (2/8/2007) @availability 9.0+ @usageDataGridDataExporter. (dataGridReference) @example

var csvData:String = DataGridDataExporter.exportCSV (dg);

*/ package com.abdulqabiz.utils { import mx.controls.DataGrid; import mx.controls.dataGridClasses.DataGridColumn; import mx.collections.ArrayCollection; import mx.collections.XMLListCollection; import mx.collections.IList; import mx.collections.IViewCursor; import mx.collections.CursorBookmark; public class DataGridDataExporter { public static function exportCSV(dg:DataGrid, csvSeparator:String=”\t”, lineSeparator:String=”\n”):String { var data:String = “”; var columns:Array = dg.columns; var columnCount:int = columns.length; var column:DataGridColumn; var header:String = “”; var headerGenerated:Boolean = false; var dataProvider:Object = dg.dataProvider; var rowCount:int = dataProvider.length; var dp:Object = null; var cursor:IViewCursor = dataProvider.createCursor (); var j:int = 0; //loop through rows while (!cursor.afterLast) { var obj:Object = null; obj = cursor.current; //loop through all columns for the row for(var k:int = 0; k < columnCount; k++) { column = columns[k]; //Exclude column data which is invisible (hidden) if(!column.visible) { continue; } data += “””+ column.itemToLabel(obj)+ “””; if(k < (columnCount -1)) { data += csvSeparator; } //generate header of CSV, only if it’s not genereted yet if (!headerGenerated) { header += “”” + column.headerText + “””; if (k < columnCount - 1) { header += csvSeparator; } } } headerGenerated = true; if (j < (rowCount - 1)) { data += lineSeparator; } j++; cursor.moveNext (); } //set references to null: dataProvider = null; columns = null; column = null; return (header + “\r\n” + data); } } }

DataGridCSVExportExample.mxml:-

<?xml version=”1.0”?>

Technorati tags: Datagrid, csv, export, flex2, actionscript

Pownce Invites!

I have around six Pownce invites. If you are interested, please let me know through comment form. I would send invite to the first six now, keep sending later. Please put right email address in email-field of comment form below.

[Update: Pownce invites are over. I would announce, once I have more.]

Technorati tags: pownce, invite

Taj Mahal is Number-One among Seven Wonders

Taj Mahal has been selected among the seven-wonders of the world. It’s number-one among seven.
Cool! Check out more at: http://new7wonders.com/.

Mashup: Google Map + on AIR Bus Tour images

Google maps accepts flickr feed with georss extension (geocodes). I just pulled on-AIR-Bus-Tour pool feed and threw in Google Maps, now it would show on-AIR-Bus-Tour images on the map.
If you are Google maps fan, you can bookmark following link:

http://tinyurl.com/yrgpy4

Technorati tags: onairbustour, google maps, mashup, georss

Mixercast: on AIR Bus Tour

I just created a mixercast to show all latest pictures, videos and twitter updates of on AIR Bus Tour. Check it, out by clicking following image.

Technorati tags: onairbustour, mixercast, flickr, twitter, video

as3httpclient project update

Sometimes back, I posted about as3httpclient project which is an open-source http-protocol-library written in ActionScript 3, not yet completely done. Library has been updated recently by Erik, who has recently joined the project. It’s great to have him in the team.

Things that have changed:-

• package name has been changed to code.google.as3httpclient.* from com.abdulqabiz.net.*;
• HTTPURLLoader class has been renamed to SocketURLLoader
• Some more classes added.
• ASDocs has been added.

Now as3httpclient can be used for:-

• HTTP Basic Authentication without browser’s dialogue box
• Adding custom or standard HTTP headers
• Uploading files to server that requires http-authentication [new]
• Copying bytes (of images/files downloaded using this library).

Two important features planned for future release:-

• Support for more HTTP verbs (PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, HEAD etc) - would be there soon.
• Support for SSL or Secure HTTP - This feature might take sometime because it needs some investigation.

Please check out the project. I would love to hear your feedback/bug-reports/suggestions.

Please get back in touch with me [mail at abdulqabiz dot com], if you want to contribute to the project.

Technorati tags: as3httpclient, actionscript, httpurlloader

Watch Youtube videos on Apple TV - Yeah it's working

I have been hitting Update Software option in Apple TV since I have heard about Apple and Youtube deal. It’ available now, if you have Apple TV you can update Apple TV software.

To update, go to Apple TV menu > Settings > Update software.

Technorati tags: apple tv,youtube