Eklog

Happy New Year!!!!

Here’s a ‘virtual’ version of a nicely designed clock - created in flash. The location of the site with the original physical clock has been lost - so sorry, no acknowlegement:

The little known, rarely seen, mating dance of the Disco Penguin. Hold the mouse button down for a while then let go to create a zoom in and out effect.

Click to see disco penguin

Here’s a neat little flash app. Drag a record onto the decks to listen to some cool mp3s (The original is at Flash Kit: Flash Turntable):

(You need to click to view the stand-alone page to see it in action.)

Click the jar to refill with a new random injection of left field miniature visual goodness:

The Jar

Cacti dance. Some dance very slowly. And some, in the dead of the night, dance like dervishes.

Click to see The Dream

Here’s a trip down the rabbit hole:

Click to see Wonderland

International Stunt Pigeons. Mouse over the moon or the sun to spin the earth, then, after stopping at the continent of your choice, click on the land mass of choice to see a local pigeon performance.

Click to see the International Stunt Pigeons

Here’s the code for a ‘zoom’ effect for a flash movie which zooms into any spot the viewer clicked, then back out once the mouse is released. You can see it in action in the flash movie ‘Disco Penguin‘.

The main core of the code is at Auto Zoom at FlashKik.com. It was submitted by T Norman at N T Designs. The Actionscript is as follows:

myZoom = function (myDepth) {
if (myDepth == "deep") {
myDepth = 4;
} else if (myDepth == "medium") {
myDepth = 8;
} else if (myDepth == "light") {
// default
myDepth = 12; }
trace(myDepth);
_root.onMouseDown = function()  {
if (k>0) { return; } zoom = true;
dir == 1 ? (dir=-1) : (dir=1);
if (dir == 1) {
pt = {x:_root._xmouse, y:_root._ymouse}; } };
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (!zoom) { return; }
_root._xscale += dir*k*50/myDepth;
_root._yscale += dir*k*50/myDepth;
var pt2 = {x:pt.x, y:pt.y};
_root.localToGlobal(pt2);
_root._x -= (pt2.x-pt.x);
_root._y -= (pt2.y-pt.y);
k++; if (k == 8) {
zoom = false; k = 0; } }; };
myZoom("medium");

It had the zoom effect but didn’t zoom out on mouse release. The actionscript in this movie required the user to click a second time to zoom back out. An onMouseUp event was needed to switch the direction of the zoom. The enterframe operation is never halted, it runs continuously. The variable “k” is used as an increment in the scale equation:

_root._xscale += dir*k*50/myDepth;

The if statement just resets the increment variable to 0 if it reaches 8. The variable itself just acts as a counter. The direction of the zoom determines whether the scale is in or out. If dir = -1… the scale would be the same as _root._xscale-=value. If dir=1 _root._xscale+=value.
In the end, to get a zoom in effect with zoom out on mouse release the actionscript needed to be as follows:

myZoom = function (myDepth) {
if (myDepth == "deep") {
myDepth = 4;
} else if (myDepth == "medium") {
myDepth = 8;
} else if (myDepth == "light") {
// default
myDepth = 12; }trace(myDepth);
_root.onMouseDown = function() {
if (k>0) {
return; }
zoom = true;
dir == 1 ? (dir=-1) : (dir=1);
if (dir == 1) {
pt = {x:_root._xmouse, y:_root._ymouse};
scale = true; }
if (dir == -1) {
scale = false;
} }
_root.onMouseUp = function() {
if (k>0) {
return;
zoom = false; }
dir == 1 ? (dir=-1) : (dir=1);
zoom = true; }
this.onEnterFrame = function() {
if (!zoom) {
return; }
_root._xscale += dir*k*50/myDepth;
_root._yscale += dir*k*50/myDepth;
var pt2 = {x:pt.x, y:pt.y};
_root.localToGlobal(pt2);
_root._x -= (pt2.x-pt.x);
_root._y -= (pt2.y-pt.y);
k++;
if (k == 8) {
zoom = false;
k = 0;
} } }
//Usage
myZoom("medium");

Here’s a half attempt at a CD / DVD textifier.

MP3 CDs and DVDs can hold so many albums / tracks it’s difficult to write all the tracks on the disc in a legible fashion. It would be nice to have something to create a label with the track listings printed on the physical disc so you can remember what’s on there without putting them in a device. The best way to use up the available room is to have the text curve around the disc in a spiral-like fashion.

This ActionScript code may be one way of creating It uses source code for a flash application that creates a swirl effect with text. Code by g.wygonik of cut.rate.box.

With a small amount of tinkering It now works in a very limited fashion to this end, but not very well, and only for about 100 characters.

So basically, that’s the concept. It needs limits to the trig so that the curvature regresses to align more accurately in relation to the length of the input. It also needs a image export script. A form for adding track names and assigning numbers would also be good.
Anyway, here it is:

The CD / DVD Textifier