Jan Vesely

My first Flash game: The Snake!

2007-05-22T16:24:00.000+02:00

Oi, sunshine, here we go! After a week of testing new Flash (Adobe CS3) and now with Flex Builder, I'm proudly presenting my first app in Flash! For some reason I always hated the syntax etc. but now I must admit, ActionScript 3.0 is just it, syntax similar to Java, Flex Builder (plugin for Eclipse) is helping as one would expect... Some catches and surprises like by any language but nothing fatal. No more negative talks from me ;)

I skipped Flash Player version testing so if it doesn't work, you probably just don't have the 9th version. And I also skipped the workaround for Internet Explorer so you must click on the Flash to activate it.

I love SEO!

2007-04-18T11:48:00.000+02:00

When somebody misunderstoods it, it's wonderfull material for funny blogposts... Check their pages (of course no different content on every of them - the first page is just an "intro" page with practically no content at all).

However, they've actually got my attention...

My favourite Firefox extensions

2007-04-12T09:24:00.001+02:00

I'm a Firefox user for a long time, it helps me everyday thanks to a lot of very usable extensions. So this is for me to have a list of them accessible from everywhere and for you to discover the ones you don't know.

General use

Adblock Plus http://adblockplus.org/

DownThemAll! http://www.downthemall.net/

Greasemonkey http://www.greasespot.net/

Google related

Gmail Manager http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/gmanager/

Google Bookmarks Button https://addons.mozilla.org/cs/firefox/addon/2453

GTDInbox http://www.gtdgmail.com/

Better GCal http://lifehacker.com/software/exclusive-lifehacker-download/enhance-google-calendar-with-the-better-gcal-firefox-extension-260074.php

Better Gmail http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/lifehacker-code-better-gmail-firefox-extension-251923.php

Google Toolbar http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/

Google Notebook http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/

Web development

ColorZilla http://www.iosart.com/firefox/colorzilla/

Firebug http://www.getfirebug.com/

IE Tab http://ietab.mozdev.org/

MeasureIt http://www.kevinfreitas.net/extensions/measureit/

Screengrab! http://www.screengrab.org/

User Agent Switcher http://chrispederick.com/work/useragentswitcher/

Web Developer http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/

wmlbrowser http://wmlbrowser.mozdev.org/

I'm going to change this list according to my current configuration.

ShowYourself Widget: Buttons go to hell

2007-03-24T10:01:00.000+01:00

I wrote about buttons for profiles few days ago. As you may have noticed, there's change on this blog - buttons were replaced by this cool widget which looks better than anything else. Thank you Dustin!

Manager's tip: clean the office

2007-03-22T18:24:00.000+01:00

Well, I know how it sounds... I know you're not being paid for cleaning your office. But still: do it. At least once.

I came to this idea pretty recently when I was appointed to my new position. New office, new people. And an incredible mess left by former staff.

I'm not much into this management crap you hear every day, but still this idea isn't so bad. When your first assignment will be: lets clean this office! and you will be the first who really starts, you can actually get a lot (and tell a lot without words):

You'll be a hero! Nobody has tried this ever before.

The employees will recognize you as the new leader much faster: you are really wanting something after them!

Good image. The superior of yours will be surprised you like the order.

New way. Message that the history that produced such a mess is over.

You're proud to their achievements on the other hand. Don't throw away something from the past with some relevance to the history of company. Call it part of the company's culture and give it a proper place, because it's really important. You're telling everyone, you know they had achieved something big, you're aware of that and value this very much. You want to continue the good and throw away the bad.

Your way is about teamworking. Cleaning the office is task for everyone, everyone is anticipating and you're controlling it. You meet people face to face and it's like one of these so loved-by-everyone team buildings - it's dirty. But it's for free.

You will know where all the things are. You know exactly where is stuff you need and stop asking every minute where are some pencils. Knowing the office is extremely important to become quickly part of it.

You'll know which machine is working and which is not. This router is doing here what? Nothing, it's just here because nobody repaired it. Get rid of this or let it repaired.

You'll lower the costs. Actually you will not but the space is expensive so don't waste any square feet on something that's not working or shouldn't be there, there are other places for that. Not your office.

If you came up with something more, let me know in the comments.

Ruby: FTPS (FTP over TLS)

2007-03-21T11:37:00.000+01:00

The first big issue emerged: I needed a script for backing up the data from our server to the intranet machine. Looks like a simple task, right?

But the ftp server is secured via TLS, so I needed something that could behave like an FTPS client. (And no, it's not SFTP - just to avoid the confusion, it's not the same)!

The first thing I found on the Internet was some pretty expensive Chilkat library. For this simple script not exactly the solution.

The standard ftp library in Ruby doesn't look like it has some support for firewall/proxy to get there a program like TLSWrap between client and server and solve the problem so easy.

I found some curl library in prealfa state that could possibly help me somehow - but it looks like the last solution when everything else fails (prealfa, weird installation, compilation etc).

One good rubyist pointed me to net/ftptls.rb library, it actually looked ok till I found it can't encrypt the data channel, just the command channel. Almost done...

The ultimate solution is the FTPFXPTLS library. Just install the gem called "ftpfxp" and you can use it just like the standard ftp one:

require 'rubygems'
require 'ftpfxp'

host = ''
user = ''
pass = ''
local_basedir = ''

ftp = Net::FTPFXPTLS::new(host, user, pass)
ftp.passive = true
ftp.debug_mode = true
files = ftp.nlst
files.each do |filename|
  unless filename.eql? "." or filename.eql? ".."
      ftp.getbinaryfile(filename, local_basedir+File.basename(filename))
      ftp.delete(filename)
  end
end
ftp.close

Works like a charm, my first Ruby script!

Day Break: Decision, consequence

2007-03-20T11:14:00.000+01:00

Today Detective Brett Hopper will be accused of shooting state attorney Alberto Garza. He will offer his rock solid alibi. He will realize he's been framed. And he will run. Then he will wake up and start the day over again. (IMDB Plot Outline)

I thought it will be just something average to fill the gap between other TV show but the reality is, it's one of the best shows ever! I really like the story, characters and everything around it. You really should watch it if you like detective stories.

Call Center Movie

2007-03-15T08:52:00.000+01:00

Watch this: http://www.callcentermovie.com/. Great short movie based on true story. More or less :)

Ruby gets a chance

2007-03-14T08:55:00.000+01:00

You could say that any programming language is as good as the programmer using it. I'm pretty experienced in PHP and after all that time being my primary programmer language I must admit, it was a bad choice from the beginning. Last few months I'm in the mess more than ever before: bug in serialization, from true became false, after PHP update some things just don't work... I'm trying to be honest as much as I can but these were really not my faults, it was unbelievably clear where the problem is. And it was always like that with PHP. I'm being tired of hoping it will change. So I'm going to keep PHP just for small webpages where I need some basic scripting functionality just not to repeat the code. Game over PHP.

On the other hand - Java or C#, both great languages, have unfortunately big overhead for mid-size webapplications, maintenance cost is not exactly low etc. So this is not the way either. I'm really really sorry you two.

I hope I found the Saint Grail - Ruby. I'm just the beginner but I love it already. Weird stuff they mix into it... And I still didn't try Ruby on Rails which is according to these videos absolutely breathtaking. I hope it's not just the marketing and it really is as good as everybody is saying so until I find something ugly about it (except the addiction) I'm on Ruby.

30 Rock doesn't rock

2007-03-13T18:16:00.000+01:00

I love TV shows. The good ones. Unfortunately 30 Rock is not one of them. After watching the first episode I'm really disappointed, where the hell is that fun everybody so admires? I laughed once, for a pilot really bad score. There's some potential in this Tracy Jordan role and maybe it evolves over time. He reminds me the great Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element but this guy is not him. Nobody is. So farewell 30 Rock and never see you again...

VHS To DVD Guide

2007-03-13T17:40:00.001+01:00

Few years ago I wrote an article about converting VHS to DVD. Back at that time I wasn't exactly into internet marketing so only few people have actually read it. Recently I chose this one article as a good start for learning the basics of e-marketing. The main reason was: it deserved it. This article is not something that changes the world but it already helped a bunch of people so why should it not help to even more video beginners?

I registered it onto many sites and added to some forums where people were asking for help in this matter. I discovered that people are linking to it even by themselves which is actually the best I can get. The majority of people are still coming from videohelp.com - when the link was on the homepage it had a huge impact on number of visitors (so if you're doing things like that be prepared for success - it can be even more effective than you've imagined).

The fun part was with the keywords: I'm actually the first in google for vhs2dvd but the problem is - nobody googles that... If I were first for "VHS to DVD" I could probably buy a yacht nowadays.

I've also played with some revenue programs and can say that AdSense is really good solution. It doesn't earn exactly millions but still it's more than I'd get from some webzine or even paper magazine. I have already a good pagerank too so I joined the Text Link Ads and already sold one unit (well, that's nothing but it proves that there are people who are really paying for it). So once again - the product may be just a little above average but with proper marketing you get more of it than from the perfect one without this extra work.

I'm not exactly the SEO fan. I make the webpages primarily for people and not for search engines. But the truth is: if you make it for people but still have the SEO in mind, you're actually doing it for visitors because you get more of them.

I hope I get some time to find a way to convert videos from VHS to DivX using only free software. My article will have finally a sequel.

Why Blogger.com?

2007-03-13T16:11:00.001+01:00

Why I chose Blogger.com as the blogging engine? Well, the first and foremost reason is that there's no maintenance cost. I liked WordPress but unfortunately the well-known systems get a lot of attention from hackers and other animals who want to pee on every corner. I'd have to check their security newsletter and keep the application updated and pray that it will not get any attention (which is exactly the opposite one wants to achieve with blogging, right?). Hence I decided for some self-maintained system and Blogger.com looks like good choice. So I'm not saying it's the best I 'm just saying that after some reading of features it looks OK and I don't want to spend another precious time with chosing some maybe the even non-existing better way.

Actually the only thing I don't like here is the little thingy at the top of the page. It looks like when the free hosting was not exactly "free" - I mean there was exactly these kinds of intrusion from the hosting company. Nevertheless, a lot of you will read it from RSS so why do I even bother?

I hope it will work just as I expect and I'll be posting here the interesting things from the journey of my life without any trouble. As for now I must say: good work guys!

Buttons all around... Or not?

2007-03-13T15:17:00.000+01:00

Everyone loves buttons! It's not exactly the message I want to scream to the world but buttons really look nice on a webpage and are definitely working. I have some profiles on social networking sites and want to promote my profile with some appropriate picture with logo of the service. User who knows the service will immediately recognize it and doesn't have to think what it means. He doesn't have to read all the links.

So why is so hard to find these buttons? Try to find it on LinkedIn for example. I feel like a hero after I finally made it... But at least they provide it! For example Listal doesn't (but ok, it's new service so I'll wait some time). Do not underestimate this promo stuff guys, the impact is much greater than you think!

66 Seconds on YouTube

2007-03-13T14:31:00.000+01:00

Vaclav was faster than me but still, I really should put this on. Few years ago we created with bunch of friends some short movie with no plot in mind, it's result is quite funny. So here we go:

66 Seconds First Cut

66 Seconds Director's Cut

66 Bonus - Shooting The Final Scene

Embedding the YouTube onto Blogger.com isn't that easy... You can't switch to compose view or it alter the tags (they're not longer well-formed XHTML). And I really should mention this article: Embed youtube video to your site or blog correctly because it looks like that YouTube is not providing the users with a valid code. What a shame!