A better solution is now available from Adobe itself, which now incorporates a similar review service in it’s range of CS Web software. Have a look at Adobe’s new offering, integrated into the CS5 suites : Adobe CS live services

DNS lookups?
Several blogs reported that the reason might be slow IPv6 DNS lookups. If you type about:config and change the setting “network.dns.disableIPv6″ setting to “true” it solved the problem for some people. Alas not my problem.

Firefox itself?
Other blogs gave tips on generally improving the internal mechanics of Firefox. I kept this reference as a last resort, but my instincts told me to look elsewhere.

Next thought: add-ons.

Add-ons can slow down Firefox’ performance so it’s worth checking. In fact the first suspect on my list turned out to be the actual add-on causing the slow loading speeds: my antivirus software’s “Anti-phishing toolbar”!

I disabled the add-on and hey presto everything worked as fast as in other browsers. (Note: remember that if you disable a plugin you will loose that functionality, in this case a useful security aid)

Thought I might share these possible solutions with the community before going back to work again (at milliseconds speed!)

I didn’t make much noise with CreOFF lately, this was mostly due to the fact I’ve been helping Emakina with a rather big project for the past months. But the start of the new year marks some -late- new year’s resolutions:

• CreOFF will show it’s face into the real world more often: I’m participating in the FeWebPlus sessions.
• Yes, expect the CreOFF site to get a new look. No world shattering news but still interesting because under the hood it might use some technologies that eventually will make it into your projects as well…
• and behind the scenes CreOFF is working on yet another usefull app – but more on that in the coming months.

Ever needed a smooth solution for translating content to a different language? Like, say, being able to click on a text inside the page and translate it right there on the spot?

For an upcoming CreOFF project I needed to be able to translate site content to different languages smoothly and without resorting to implementing a full CMS like Drupal or Joomla.

How does it work?

Just browse the site in translation mode and any missing texts are clearly marked in red, like this:

Click on any of these blocks and you’ll get a popup where you can translate the text block (as shown at the top of this page).

It’s an easy system for webdesigners too: they can change texts themselves or keep changing the layout without interfering with the actual content.

The page above look like this in html:

For those sites with few content changes this is still a viable solution. It’s nowhere near a complete CMS solution, but it is a very visual way of translating your site’s content.

In fact, with some extra work something like this could be implemented on top of a CMS to give translators another option to get at the original texts with the added benefit of seeing more of the context in the page.

See for yourself:

Although I have the utmost respect for my fellow COBOL programmers, being an Actionscript programmer myself it’s obvious I would prefer to see the Actionscript language rise from it’s current 22nd position.

Hmm… what can I do? maybe I should do my part by taking less PHP projects and adding some more Actionscript to the mix?

Check the current popularity status on the TIOBE website where I found the list. It’s updated once a month.

Impossible? No, the technology is here already. But there is a catch…

The good news

How is it done? The secret bridge between your phone and the printed document is a new version of the well-known barcode. Special software in your phone takes a snapshot of the pattern via the built-in camera and translates the pattern to data it can use to connect to the internet.

All your phone needs is a built-in camera and online connectivity to the web.

The bad news

The concept seems very interesting, but some shortcomings need to be addressed first.

You still need to download (free) software to your mobile phone, and this might scare some people away from the concept, but some groups (like the Mobile Codes Consortium) are trying to convince mobile phone manufacturers to include the code reader as standard software on their phones.

A single standardised pattern method will need to emerge or the pattern reader on your phone should be able to read different kind of patterns.

And last but not least: online internet access via mobile phones should become more commonplace (which demands for cheaper, faster services)

If those conditions are met the technology will present endless possibilities as a bridge between the printed world and the worldwide web.

Sounds like a new app idea for CreOFF labs? Who knows…

That’s why now there’s a special space dedicated to (some of) the ideas that might become true apps:  labs.creoff.com

From time to time  extra ideas will be added, so check out this blog and the labs pages !

These steps presume you’re already familiar with creating an Adobe AIR install badge and Google Analytics is already installed on your site.

Integrate Google Analytics into your AIR install badge:

1. make sure you have the latest Adobe AIR install badge files (download zip from Adobe site)
2. Open the file “AIRInstallBadge.as”
3. Add the ExternalInterface class somewhere under the other import statements (top of file)

   import flash.external.ExternalInterface;

4. then find the method “handleActionClick” and add these lines as first lines within the function:

   // GoogleAnalytics script
   // change the gaLogAction value to the name you want to appear in the Analytics logs
   var gaLogAction:String = "/airbadge/"+action;
   var gaJS:String = "pageTracker._trackPageview";
   ExternalInterface.call(gaJS, gaLogAction);

5. open the file “AIRInstallBadge.fla” to recompile your badge with the changes you just made
6. upload the newly created AIRInstallBadge.swf to the same location on your site, overwriting the old AIRInstallBadge.swf
7. test if the new clicks get registered in the Google Analytics site (this might take some time to show in the statistics, so be sure to check the next day as well)

…that’s all there is to it

If you want to see it in action, please check the ReviewR download page. It uses the same kind of patched install badge.

Some notes however:

• this is the workflow for the newest Google Analytics script (ga.js, not the older urchin.js) you have to change the value in variable gaJS for the older script.
• Your site should have Google Analytics installed already, if not please check out the Google Analytics site for more info.
• And maybe an unnecessary note, but I make it nonetheless: the badge uses Actionscript 3.0 and at least Flash 9

ReviewR is a showcase of a possible solution for reviewing websites and designs. It also shows some collaboration features like inviting people to join your review and give comments.

The ReviewR proof of concept was created mostly with designers and agencies in mind, since they often have to get feedback from customers.

NOTE: at the moment ReviewR is NOT a complete application – it’s a “proof of concept” application only, so it’s strongly advised not to use it in real life situations. Also, only a limited set of features are included at this time.

These are some of the basic features:

• browse to any site via the application and just click “review this” button to start a review of a webpage
• click on an element on the page to comment on that element.
• capturing html as well as D-HTML or AJAX states
• view comment(s) of other participants
• invite other participants via e-mail to review the selected pages
• drag and drop review files (.rvw) onto the application for easy loading of reviews
• uses Secure AMF remoting
• registration, lost password handling, etc…

Possible features planned for future versions:

• more detailed overview: comments list, contacts list,…
• printing reports
• capturing Flash states (allowing detailed commenting on Flash sites)
• improved functional layout and design
• and more…

Some ideas which are integrated into the ReviewR showcase application might appear in a final ReviewR version or even other spinoffs.

Agencies, designers and other developers are invited to give feedback and are welcome to participate in the ReviewR project.

Visit the development site: beta.reviewrhq.com

Yahoo has made agreements with leading TV manufacturers like Samsung, Sony and LG to use their widget system on the television screens. New chips inside the TVs will carry extra software that will be able to run the widgets, as well as connect to the internet.

Read more on the TV widgets site