Widget: Newest Games

Taking the same "feed" from Games-Garden Latest Games as the one used for the Featured Games Widget but displayed in a different way, this is my first Flex Widget:

Newest Games

I haven't uploaded it into any widgets distributor yet as I still haven't found a way to pass variables into the widget (to change colours for example) so at the moment there's no design but the default components skin from Flex 3.

I must say I love how easy is to work with Flex and my new homework is to do some changes in the PHP side of Games Garden to create an API that will provide feeds for most of the different categories of the site. The next one is "Top Players" which I won't be releasing as a widget as is only important in the website itself.

Play around with Newest Games and play some games as well! come on, you deserve a 5 minutes break ;)

Flash Security Policy Server

With the introduction of Flash Player 9.0.115.0 another issue came out when trying to make a socket connection to a server.
Before the release of this Flash Player version the use of a crossdomain.xml would deal with the loading of external data into a flash application, however, Adobe decided to change these security policy as explained on this document.

To fix this issue, Syed Meerkasim, a Senior Java Developer from where I work has released a Flash Security Policy Server created in JAVA that you can download for free from this link.

His new website, Flash Resources, will be updated on a regular basis so I advice you to keep an eye on it ;)

salut!

Social timelines: Timetoast released

Using Adobe Flex as front end and Ruby on Rails as backend technology, here it comes Timetoast, a new web 2.0 site that you should keep an eye on.
From their press room:

LONDON, England - April 22, 2008 - Timetoast, the new web-based timeline
creation application, launches it’s service to the public today.
Timetoast.com is a web application that allows people to create interactive
timelines, which they can share anywhere on the web. Anyone can join and
start creating and sharing their own timelines, all they need is a valid email
address. It's also completely free.
Timetoast.com was built on top of powerful open-source frameworks and technologies
such as Ruby on Rails, MySQL and Adobe Flex

You don't even need to sign-up if in case you want to check the public timelines. However, you would need to fill in a small form (only 4 fields) to become a member and start creating your own time-lines.
By default your timelines will be saved as "drafts" that later on you can change this status into "public" allowing the world to see them.
One of the cool features is that there's RSS feeds everywhere! even each timeline has its own feed; this is great if in case you want to create a mash-up application or let's say widgets showing these data...

So, if in case you want to track a project, share the story of your life, your dog, your relationship... or tell others what you know about your favourite artist using a timeline, go and sign-up.

Salut!