Artanoid - Flash arkanoid game

Date: 9th April 2008 at 2:56 pm | Filed under: actionscript, development, flash, gallery | Author: Sam Burdge

I built the game Artanoid for the 76 Creative website. It is a remake of the arcade classic Arkanoid with a 76 creative twist. The game has 5 levels, various 'power-ups' andalso saves and updates a score table using server side php. I recommend turning the music on to get the full effect, with a different soundtrack for each level.

1 Response to “Artanoid - Flash arkanoid game”

  • Comment by Jeffrey Posner
    Date: June 6th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    I am interested in having you work on some possible flash games for me. I tried writing you an email but it bounced.

    Let me know if you are interested or when you may have time to chat about it.

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Encoding Flash Video (flv) - Part 1 - The Basics

Date: 16th February 2008 at 12:53 am | Filed under: development, flash | Author: Sam Burdge

This is the first part in a series of articles I will be writing on encoding Flash Video (flv files) using the Adobe CS3 Video Encoder. I intend to cover all aspects of flv encoding to help you to attain the best results possible. If you are using another software to encode your flv files, such as Adobe After Effects or Final Cut Pro, many of the principles will be the same.

Read on…

3 Responses to “Encoding Flash Video (flv) - Part 1 - The Basics”

  • Comment by Grant Forrest
    Date: February 29th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Hi Sam Been hunting the internet for some advice on optimum source files for flash - with no joy. But came across your encoding flash video article and have been enlightened. Many thanks Grant

  • Comment by John Smith
    Date: July 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Very helpful information. Much appreciated. Thank you.

  • Comment by samir
    Date: July 15th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    Thank you for this useful article.
    Very informative.
    It solved my issue with horizontal lines in flash video files.

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WP Digi Clock Plugin - Folder and file permissions

Date: 11th January 2008 at 2:27 am | Filed under: development, plugins, wordpress | Author: Sam Burdge

I have recently received emails from a couple of users of my WP Digi Clock Plugin who have been unable to update the clock's settings via the Digi Clock options page in WordPress. Unfortunately I do not have time to give individual support for my free plugins as I am too busy building sites, earning a living etc. However, I think the reason some of you have been having trouble is due to file/folder permissions on your server. When you update the clock's options the wp-clock-params.php file for the clock is updated (this file stores your clock settings), if the permissions for the file, and the digi-clock folder itself are not set correctly it will not be able to update.

The permissions should be set as follows:

wp-digi-clock (folder) – 755
wp-clock-params.php (file) – 644

Here is a brief explanation of file and folder permissions on a unix server:

The three user types are:

  1. user - the user (the owner of the file or directory), who you are on the system is determined by username and password at login time
  2. group - a group of users, e.g.: administrators, plain users, etc.
  3. world - anyone else, e.g: anonymous users or anyone who is not the owner, or of the same group as the owner, of the file or directory

The three access types are:

  1. read - the file or directory can be read
  2. write - the file or directory can be written to, or deleted
  3. execute - the file (scripts or executables) can be run, or the directory can be entered

To set permissions, in the simplest form, you use a three digit code: the first digit represents the access given to the user, the second digit represents the access given to the group, the third digit represents the access given to the world. The values that make up each access type are:

4 = read
2 = write
1 = execute

To apply more than one type of access to a user type, simply add the values together to get access permissions of the desired types:

7 = read, write & execute (4 + 2 + 1)
6 = read & write (4 + 2)
5 = read & execute (4 + 1)
4 = read
3 = write & execute (2 + 1)
2 = write
1 = execute

Putting together these digits determines the 3-digit permission code that makes up the file's permissions.
E.g. User: read, write & execute (7) + Group: read & execute (5) + World: read & execute (5) = 755.

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WP Digi Clock Plugin (1.0) - New Version!

Date: 4th December 2007 at 10:18 pm | Filed under: development, flash, plugins, wordpress | Author: Sam Burdge

This easy to use plugin will embed a flash digital clock into your wordpress blog, either in a post or page, or within your blog's template (in the sidebar / header / footer etc.). The background and font colours are managed via the options menu. The clock can display the time as set on the user's local machine or as set by your web server with an optional offset. It also has options for 12hr and 24hr clock.

Installation:

  1. Download the plugin file here: WP Digi Clock Plugin (1.0)
  2. Upload the wp-digi-clock folder to your wp-content/plugins folder
  3. Activate the plugin from the plugins page
  4. Go to Options -> WP Digi Clock to choose your colour scheme and time format options

Usage:

To embed in a post or page:

type in [ wp_digi_clock ] (removing the spaces) anywhere in a post or page.

to embed in your page template (header, footer, sidebar):

use the function wp_digital_clock($x), with $x being a number or identifier for example:

<h2>TIME</h2>
<li><?php wp_digital_clock('1'); ?></li>

1 Response to “WP Digi Clock Plugin (1.0) - New Version!”

  • Comment by Mat
    Date: June 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm

    thanks for making a great clock.

    is there a way to change the font size?
    thanks again!

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WP Digi Clock Plugin (0.1BETA)

Date: 19th October 2007 at 10:48 pm | Filed under: development, flash, plugins, wordpress | Author: Sam Burdge

A NEW VERSION OF THE PLUGIN HAS BEEN RELEASED!! Please follow this link: WP Digi Clock Version 1.0

[wp_digi_clock]This easy to use plugin will embed a flash digital clock into your wordpress blog, either in a post or page, or within your blog's template (in the sidebar / header / footer etc.). The background and font colours are managed via the options menu. The clock displays the time as set on the user's local machine. Server time and timezone offsets will be a feature of version 1 when it is released. For now please try it out and let me know of any issues etc. by commenting on this page.

Installation:

  1. Download the plugin file here: Follow the link at the top of this page to get the new version!!
  2. Upload the wp-digi-clock folder to your wp-content/plugins folder
  3. Activate the plugin from the plugins page
  4. Go to Options -> WP Digi Clock to choose your colour scheme

Usage:

To embed in a post or page:

type in [ wp_digi_clock ] (removing the spaces) anywhere in a post or page.

to embed in your page template (header, footer, sidebar):

use the function wp_digital_clock() for example:

 
<li>
<h2>TIME</h2>
</li>
<li><?php wp_digital_clock(); ?></li>
 

7 Responses to “WP Digi Clock Plugin (0.1BETA)”

  • Comment by chris
    Date: November 2nd, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    when trying to change the color, what numbers correspond with what color? is there any info on this?

  • Comment by Sam Burdge
    Date: November 2nd, 2007 at 11:23 pm

    Hi, as this is the very first release I haven’t had a chance to integrate the colour picker. Basically it works by hex codes e.g: #ffffff = white, #000000 = black. For a full list of colour codes you can visit: webmonkey

  • Comment by Hien
    Date: November 3rd, 2007 at 5:14 am

    Hi Sam:

    Just tried out you Digi Clock plugin (0.1BETA). Its a snap to use. I know that you probably have plans for other features so I won’t make any unreasonably unbearable requests. There is only one thing I’d like to bring to light… non-military time. The plugin, works great with my site color scheme right out of the box. I didn’t even have to change a thing. Thanks!

  • Comment by Shawn
    Date: November 5th, 2007 at 8:30 pm

    Hi Sam.. looks good.
    I would love, however, a “countdown” feature…
    allowing us to put a clock widget on the sidebar with a configurable title to provide countdown clocks .. ie.. “Time until election day”, “Time until vacation”, etc

  • Comment by Sam Burdge
    Date: November 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm

    Hi Shawn, the closest thing I could find is this plugin: Countdown

  • Comment by Afzal Javed
    Date: November 6th, 2007 at 7:32 pm

    I still don’t know how to change the back ground color. Please let me know in which line of plugin-code should I change the code.

  • Comment by Sam Burdge
    Date: November 6th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

    Hi Afzal,
    In the options menu in wordpress you should see the tab for WP Digi Clock. Go to the WP Digi Clock options page and enter hex color codes for the background and text colours. If you dont see the colours change at first, try emptying your browser’s cache. Hope this helps…

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