HTML Sketch Pad

Flash? Nope. Silverlight? Not really. Its HTML 5. A flash replacement? Not so soon.

http://mugtug.com/sketchpad/
http://www.sumopaint.com/app/

Sixth Sense by Pranav Mistry

What’s fascinating about this project is less of the technology than the new form of user interaction that takes advantage of the unique capabilities of this wearable device. The later half of the talk gives a preview of some of these gestures Pranav have designed.

TED Talk
Website: http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

One Frame of Frame – Rebuilding a MTV one frame at a time

The concept is strikingly simple: a short video clip is put online and each audience is allowed to replace one of the frames with an imitation of their own. Monkey see monkey do in front of their web cams. The result is interesting, see it in action at oneframeoffame.com

This work reminds me of an earlier piece by Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima where they asked 10,000 independent unsuspecting users to paint a tiny portion of a USD$100 bill. The finished image can be bought for charity at tenthousandcents.com

Lego CL!CK – Find Your Inspiration

Interesting site presenting social media news in the form of interactive lego blocks.

http://www.legoclick.com/

Sending email using gmail’s smtp with Zend Framework

To send emails using gmail’s smtp server, you must specify the tls port by providing the ’ssl’ and ‘port’ in the config array. The default port for tls is 25 but gmail is using 587. You will also need to authenticate with your account and password.

Update: There’s a daily limit of outgoing emails you can send using this smtp, I experienced a problem of maxing my limit while sending out confirmation emails to the users of my facebook app. So if you are looking to do the same, just be warned that its a bad idea.

$config = array(
’ssl’ => ‘tls’,
‘port’ => 587,
‘auth’ => ‘login’,
‘username’ => ’sender@domain.com’,
‘password’ => ‘password’);

$transport = new Zend_Mail_Transport_Smtp(’smtp.gmail.com’, $config);
//Use this if you do not want to specify $transport evertime you use Zend_Mail->send()
//Zend_Mail::setDefaultTransport($transport);

$mail = new Zend_Mail();
$mail->setBodyText(’Email body in plain text’);
$mail->setBodyHtml(’Email body in HTML’);
$mail->setFrom(’sender@domain.com’, ‘Name of sender’);
$mail->setReplyTo(’sender@domain.com’,'Name of sender’);
$mail->addTo(’recipient@targetdomain.com’, ‘Name of recipient’ );
$mail->setSubject(’Your trial at FItness First’);
$mail->send($transport);

You can use your own domain name using gmail’s coporate email service, if not, just use gmail.com for the domain.

Catch, gmail automatically replaces whatever ‘from’ or ‘reply-to’ you have specified with the account you are authenticating with (sender@domain.com). To use another account, you must allow gmail to send using that email address by following the steps here.

The Third and the Seventh

A beautiful piece exploring architecture through photography, view in full screen and turn up your speakers to do it justice.


The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

And after staring in awe at the jaw dropping images while wondering what camera he was using, watch the making-of:

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Bezier Curves in AS3

Was researching a while ago for a whiteboard style app and came across Andy Woodruff’s implementation for bezier curves.

http://www.cartogrammar.com/blog/actionscript-curves-update/

Zynga Hits 200M Monthly Active Users on Facebook, Spreads Further with Mafia Wars Toolbar, FarmVille.com

http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/11/20/zynga-hits-200m-monthly-active-facebook-users-spreads-beyond-it-with-mafia-wars-toolbar-farmville-com/

Fonts not working after nVidia update

After updating to the latest nVidia drivers some of my fonts stopped working. When I try to access them from the windows fonts folder I get a “the requested file ___.otf was not a valid font file” error, and the affected fonts are not loading in other apps like flash. Continue reading ‘Fonts not working after nVidia update’

Cut the Fat Challenge

Cut the Fat Challenge is now LIVE. Play the game at http://apps.facebook.com/cutthefat.

Its a casual game, but competitive players can aim for the win and claim a free 1 year membership at Fitness First, an international fitness and training center.