Marco Tedone's blog

Is Apache Pivot the next competitor for Adobe Flex ?

The Apache foundation has just released Apache Pivot, a fully open-source framework containing RIA components. The novelty about Apache Pivot is that it allows the definition of User Interfaces by using the XML-based language BXML, with a syntax like the following (taken from the Apache Tutorial website):

<Window title="Hello BXML!" maximized="true"

    xmlns:bxml="http://pivot.apache.org/bxml"

    xmlns="org.apache.pivot.wtk">

    <Label text="Hello BXML!"

        styles="{font:'Arial bold 24', color:'#ff0000',

            horizontalAlignment:'center', verticalAlignment:'center'}"/>

</Window>

The code above produces the following output:

The example above is very simple and probably doesn't trigger any Wows! However have a look at the website because there are many much more advanced components, all of which can be declared through BXML.

If this technology proves itself successful, Apache Pivot might very well be the Java-based (since any language which can run in a JVM could be used to create Pivot components) competitor for Adobe Flex.

Happy technology to everyone!

 

http://pivot.apache.org/

Great blog on how to setup Git with gitosis and gitweb on Linux

http://tinyurl.com/y7be8h5

It's easy to drive the masses

It's easy to drive the masses by fulfilling their organic needs, e.g. the satisfaction of the Es over the Ich. There are only two organic drives: The Erotic Drive and the Destruction Drive. Some political leaders, like the Imam in Iraq and Hitler in the past to name just a few, play on the Destruction Drive of the masses, by inciting to go to war, by instilling rage feelings against a common enemy. The Es does not need anything else to satisfy the destruction drive and therefore replies with enthusiasm to such instigations. We've assisted to such examples throughout all history. When the Ich was uneducated the satisfaction of the organic needs was prevalent and war prevailed nearly everywhere, the life conditions were brutal, the life expectancy short, etc.

More moderated political leaders, the media and generally any other organisation which wants to "sell" something, be votes, goods, etc play on the Erotic drive on the organic structure. This is demonstrated by the exponential growth in marketing communication of sexual (implicit or explicit) messages which accompany a marketing campaign; it is also demonstrated by the exponential increase in sexual messages delivered by the media.

All of this exist, and those who control the masses know about the seductive power that the promise of the fulfillment of Eros and Destruction have on masses. They will follow without questioning, because their subsconscious is gratified by such instigations. Those who are controlled, instead, ignore the driving power of the subconscious, they ignore the two main drives of the organic structure and therefore have no defense, no resistence against those solicitations.

Unfortunately, as Mr Freud teaches us, if the organic drives were to be fully satisfied, this would mean the exctintion of human race. The looming of a 3rd world nuclear war is there; who knows? Maybe this time it could be caused by the economical shift of the wealth from West to East and the exhaustion of natural resources on our planet. Although for the ignorant and their selfish leaders this would be very gratifying at the subconscious level, it would nearly certainly end up with the exctintion of Human Race. As Einstein put it in the last century, after the atomic bomb had been created, "I don't know which weapon they will use in the Third World War, but I know which one they will use in the Fourth...The Rock".

Think people, think!

 

 

Creating a shaking effect in Flex 4

In Flex 4 is really easy to create a shaking effect. Let's suppose that you had a Login Panel with id "login", as in the following code:

    <s:Panel id="login"
        title="Login"
        includeIn="loginState"
        x="24" y="112"
        width="250" height="168">
       
        <s:Label x="27" y="21"
            text="Username:"/>
       
        <s:TextInput id="username"
            x="96" y="15"/>
       
        <s:Label x="29" y="51"
            text="Password:"/>
       
        <s:TextInput id="password"
            x="96" y="45"/>
       
        <s:Button x="96" y="75"
            label="Login"
            click="button1_clickHandler(event)"/>
       
    </s:Panel>

 

Then a shaking effect could be created when the user enters the wrong authentication credentials. Here is the shaking effect declaration:

        <s:Sequence id="shake"
                    target="{login}"
                    duration="30">
            <s:Move xBy="20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="-20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="-20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="-20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="20" />           
            <s:Move xBy="-20" />           
        </s:Sequence>

It is basically a sequence of consecutive effects which move the x axis of your panel forwards and backwards of 20 pixels, with a duration of each effect of 30 ms. The resulting effect is the Panel shaking. To play the effect, in the Login button handler function one could write:

protected function button1_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
            {
                if (username.text == "flex4" && password.text == "gumbo") {
                    this.currentState = "portalState";   
                } else {
                    shake.play();
                }

}

Of course this is not production code, since authentication would beed to happen by proper means, but it gives you an idea.

Happy technology to everyone!