Brainbench tests.
Today I completed several free test provided by Brainbench and got some quite marks 8). I scored 4.17/5 in Computer fundamentals (Win XP) and 3.69/5 in Math Fundamentals (metric). I would probably score higher if the test were in Spanish but anyway, they are great. You can also take free test in Javascript, Java, Linux, C, and more. Register at Brainbench and look thorugh the free tests. They also have MM apps exams but they are not free.

PhpFlash 2.5.
PhpFlash 2.5 is conformed by series of .php and .as files developed by Rolf. They are granted totally free of charge. Its main application is facilitating the development of simple data queries from a database, setting up the query's parameters from Flash.
Supported SQL functions are: Insert, Update, Select and Delete. It's also able to send html-formatted e-mail, if allowed by the server. This tool has been created for the development and administration of simple web applications. It was not made for the administration of a database (creating or deleting tables).
It seems a useful tool to use if you don't really know to make SQL queries in PHP.
[Via Granato blog]

Free RIA's seminars powered by Macromedia.
There is going to be held some seminars in Spain about RIAs and I hope I can attend to the one held in Madrid. The seminar is free and these are the dates and places where they will took place.
- Barcelona, June 3rd.
- Madrid. June 11th.
- Valencia, June 17th.
More info here.

Van a tener lugar varios seminarios sobre RIAs en España, todos ellos de mano de Macromedia. Los seminarios son gratuitos, de un día de duración y en ellos se plantearán algunas preguntas necesarias para enfocar el desarrollo web desde otra perspectiva y se examinará el punto de vista: "experiencia usuario", comercial, requisitos técnicos necesarios, optimización de los recursos. Estas son las ciudades dondo tendrán lugar:
- Barcelona, 3 Junio.
- Madrid. 11 Junio.
- Valencia, 17 Junio.
Información sobre seminarios.

MadInSpain Conference, 4-5 July in Madrid.
MadInSpain is an event related to the design, usability and programming world in Internet. These are great news becuase an event of these characteristics haven't been held in Madrid up to date. The desire to learn from the best professionals, along with the passion to Internet made possible to organize this 1ª edition of MadInSpain.

National and international artists will carry out conferences, workshops and exhibitions, where subjects as design, architecture of the information and programming will be, but always focused to the design. Experimental works along with real practical cases will be able to be seen in MadInSpain.

The tickets are ready to sell now. For 65 euros you have full access and meals for the two days. And an exclusive MadInSpain t-shirt.

MadInSpain website.

Want to creat your own nation?
Here you can create your own country, fashioned after your own political ideals, and care for its people. Either that or you deliberately torture them. It's really up to you. Really fun but it would be great if you could submit your own flag.
This is my own country: The Free Land of MoiK


The Free Land of MoiK is a tiny, safe nation, notable for its strong anti-business politics. Its quiet, industrious population of 6 million are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.
It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, socially-minded government stops and the rest of society begins, but it juggles the competing demands of Social Equality, Education, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 51%, and even higher for the wealthy. The private sector is almost wholly made up of enterprising fourteen-year-old boys selling lemonade on the sidewalk, although the government is looking at stamping this out. Same-sex marriages are increasingly common. Crime is well under control. MoiK's national animal is the monkey, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the Moikan.

Some really remarkable quotes.
"You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience. You must undergo it." Albert Camus.
"Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him." Aldous Huxley.
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." Oscar Wilde.
"Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience." James Boswell.
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." Isaac Asimov.
"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." Nathaniel Borenstein.
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." Andy Rooney.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." Bill Watterson.
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." Vernon Sanders Law.
"High thoughts must have high language." Aristophanes.
"England and America are two countries separated by a common language." George Bernard Shaw.
"There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have." Don Herold.
"Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people." William Butler Yeats .
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them." Isaac Asimov.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." Albert Einstein.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein.
"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." Putt's Law.
"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons." R. Buckminster Fuller.

15,000 visitors in less than a year!
When I began blogging in June 2002 I never thought that so many people would read my blog. i don't know if you find what you where looking for and if my thoughts have helped you, I'm glad.
Thank you all for coming to my blog. It makes me feel that the world is smaller and that I can contact anybody in the world. I have made some friends (at least I consider them my friends) in this year and i hope that my blogging friends' ring becomes bigger and bigger.
Thank you again 8-)

Great Bon Jovi concert.
Yesterday I went to the Bon Jovi concert of the World Tour 2003 here in Madrid.
I'm not a big fun of him but my girlfriend is. It was the first concert I went to and it was great but I'm waiting for the moment when U2 comes to Madrid. I hope it will be soon.

Ripping off Macromedia.
This morning I went to Macrofun and read this news. The old MM site has been ripped off, but not any rip off, it's the RIP OFF. It's almost a carbon copy of the site, same menus, same effects, I wouldn't be surprised if they had included the MM copyright into it. Take a look at it here. At least, they made a great effort in doing it just the same as the MM site. No detail has been dropped.

Changed RSS feed.
I have moved the script to another host (Flaver, thanks Mike) so please blog aggregators update the RSS feed source.
New RSS feed source.

Great app: Quick Color Scheme.
Maybe you have face with the need of a new color scheme for a website your are developing and you have run out of ideas. This app will give you some inspiration because the color schemes it outputs are really good.
Give it a try here: Quick Color Scheme app.
[Via enterFrame]

:: UPDATE ::
Ron Selling found this handy JScript app where you can add you own HTML code.
ColorMatch app.

Great app by Marcos Weskamp: Desktop Activity Monitor.
View it here.
It's a desktop app which registers what he's currently working on, and before posting that to FlashComm, it filters the results through a white list of applications he gave clearance to. It's really cool looking at someone's activity (like Big Brother). It will be cool if many blogs include it.

New section: MoiK78 Stuff.
Today I opened a new section in my blog where you can take a look at some of the Flash movies I have done and some coding tools. They aren't all there but the section will grow as I try to locate some of the older files and some experiments.
Let me know if you find them useful or whatever.

New version of Flash Player: v7.2 r11 coming?
Today I downloaded the Macromedia Flash Detection Kit and I was reading one of the Read Me included and I stepped out with this. In the Dreamweaver Behaviour Read Me, when it explains some of the expressions being used, they talk about a Flash Player version: 7.2 r11. I don't know if it's an example or if it's real. In the Examples, the Read Me's talk about the v 6.0.79. Maybe some of the MM people can clarify this.
Also the detection code is falling with me in Windows XP in IExplorer 6 and Netscape 7. I have v 6.0.79 installed and ask me to upgrade.

:: Update ::
The flash_detection_as.fla included with the examples in the Kit looks for version 7.0.79, that's why it tell us to upgrade.

Dano blogs: the new and improved Blogger.
It seems that after the fusion with Google they are doing great things. They have completely re-designed the code and redesigned Blogger interfaces. In a couple weeks time, rhey will be transitioning everyone's blogs - posts, templates and all to the new system.
Also they included new tags and new features. Here there are some of them:
- New Standard and LoFi interfaces: completely redesigned Blogger interfaces.
- Contextual help: Context sensitive help for providing tips on Blogger usage, trouble shooting and explanation of blog settings.
- View Blog pane: a new tab allowing single-click viewing of your blog from within the Blogger interface or as launched in a new window.
- Publish pane: a new tab for displaying publishing status messages and offering the ability to republish latest post or entire blog.
- Template preview: preview the changes to your template before you publish.
- Mail-to-Blogger: The mail-to-blogger email address can now be used in a bcc: field. Emails can be formatted as as plain text, html or multi-part. Pre tags should not be used in html-formatted email and Body tags should not contain parameters.
Internationalization: Added timezone locales to blog settings and properly escape special characters for RSS feeds.
- sFTP: Blogger can now publish to external sites using secure FTP.

Go here to know more about Dano blogs.
Go here for the Releases Notes.

Here there is a screenshot of the new application:

C-Font Pro v1.7, a great font manager.
Download it here.
I really like this font manager. Need no instalation, only execute the exe, and also have a slideshow of all the fonts installed in the system.

From the author:
C-Font Pro is tool that was developed as a way to manage fonts; to include system, printer, and currently uninstalled fonts. This font viewer lets you view installed system fonts, printer fonts, and a special mode where you select a directory and view the fonts in that directory. C-Font Pro will let you select a custom phrase to display with each font - this lets you see exactly what the font will look like against your phrase. View All mode will let you view all of your system or printer fonts in a single view with printing capabilites. Also, be sure to check out the SlideShow mode where the application will cycle thorugh each font at an interval determined by you. New: Resizing of display, Control the way fonts are displayed when viewing all fonts.

A new Flash Goddess blog.
Vera Fleischer :: MediaSparkles.
Here we have another nice Flash blog run by Vera Fleischer. Hermain interest is application development with Flash as the front end and she is always interested in new projects involving Flash, XML, PHP, mySQL, ColdFusion, and the Flash Communication Server. Also, she has bought a new car, a Beetle, and looks nice. It's the first car with "Flash" as its name that I can remember. Keep an eye on this blog because great things could come out of it.

Note to Vera: Would you like to send me an icon of your blog (19x20 maximum) so it can be displayed in my links section?

Working ID3 v1.1 genres tag.
Today I had to work with some MP3 files and have found that the id3.genre property outputs a number so I have to add an array of all the names of genres. Here they are in case you someday need them.



Download the .as file here.