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This is the personal blog of John F. Morton. It's where I talk about the stuff that interests me. Primarily technology, marketing and pop culture. If you are looking to see what I do when I'm not blogging, visit jmx2.com for a taste. Thanks for stopping by!

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How To Add Spotlight Tags in Flash AS3

At JMX2, we build a lot of Flash advertising pieces for a variety of clients. At the end of the process, we get asked to “put these Spotlight tags in” from media companies. They nearly always send AS2 code for you to drop into your pieces. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten AS3 code. If you try to place this AS2 tagging code into an AS3 project, a landing page, for example, you will get errors.

What the Doubleclick Spotlight tag does.

The spotlight tag is most often placed on an HTML page and it just loads in a small invisible image which increments some counter in a Doubleclick database.

The AS2 code you’re given does that same thing. It loads a small graphic into your Flash application. Here’s a sample of the AS2 code we often get.

a = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000000); 
tag_url = "http://ad.doubleclick.net/activity;src=1234567;type=yourclient123;cat=stndr123;ord='+ a + '?"; 
loadMovieNum (tag_url, 2);

The “a” is a variable that is storing a random number. This helps prevent caching of the image file. That random number is concatenated to the URL of the image for your client’s campaign. I’ve made up generic variable in my sample code. The “loadMovieNum” is loading in the image and then placing it at level 2 in your AS2 document.

The AS3 solution.

ActionScript 3 does not use the loadMovieNum function, but you can do the same thing by using the Loader class and passing it a URL with the URLRequest Class. I use “rand” as my variable instead of “a” as seen in the AS2 code above. A variable called “a” isn’t descriptive enough, IMHO.

AS3 code to that does the same thing:

var rand:Number = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000000);
var url:String = "http://ad.doubleclick.net/activity;src=1234567;type=yourclient123;cat=stndr123;ord=" + rand +"?";
var ldr:Loader = new Loader();
var urlReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
ldr.load(urlReq);

Depending on what your Spotlight tag is counting, you’d place it on the onLoadComplete function of a page, a button click event, a rollover event, or any number of other things.

If you’re using Google Analytics.

If you’re here looking for how to use Google Analytics on a Flash page, you’ll need to use the ExternalInterface class instead. This require that your container HTML page has the javascript you got from Google right before the closing of the body tag. Don’t leave it out.

In your Flash document, you’ll need to call the ExternalInterface and pass it a variable. In this example, the variable is called “action” and I’m passing in the word “CouponLink” which will show up in my Google Analytics page.

// variable to be sent to Google Analytics
var action = "CouponLink";
// the ExternalInterface to call Google Analytics javascript in the HTML that holds this page
ExternalInterface.call("pageTracker._trackPageview", action);

Happy tracking.

Why you should care about DRM.

A good friend of mine, Ian, has unwittingly provided a good way to illustrate why we should all care about DRM. I wanted to share Ian’s story with you.

Before I tell you the Ian’s tale, let’s talk about what DRM is. It’s a technology that limits what you can do with digital content. DRM is an acronym, but what DRM actually stands for depends on what your point of view is. The big media companies that created DRM say it stands for Digital Right Management. People who don’t support locking out features inherent in digital content say DRM is short for Digital Restrictions Management.

If you’ve bought a movie or music online over the past few years, you’ve probably got DRM on some of the things you’ve bought. Public sentiment over the digital restrictions swelled to a point where most music online is now sold without DRM, but that doesn’t mean DRM is gone.

The DRM Story You Should Hear

Ian had his Amazon account canceled. The reason for the cancelation isn’t germane illustrating how DRM is bad, but since it’s a question I’m sure you might be asking I’ll include it. Ian had returned several expensive, and what he believes to be defective items, to Amazon which triggered something in Amazon system to cancel his account. Amazon deleted his account and told him any future accounts would also be deleted.

To defend Amazon for a moment, as a business owner, you have no obligation to do business with someone who you think is unprofitable for you to do business with. I have no problem with Amazon canceling someone’s account. The problem in this story arises with past purchases that have DRM applied to them. In Ian’s case, the books he had bought with his Kindle are wrapped in DRM. That DRM is tied to the Amazon account books were purchased under. If there is no Amazon account those DRMed ebook files are no longer unlockable since you’d need to log into an Amazon account to unlock them. To be clear, these are ebooks that are already paid for.

It’s true that if these ebooks are currently downloaded to Ian’s Kindle they can be read, but they’re readable only as long as his particlar Kindle works. Like most electronics, they do break sometimes. I know of 3 Kindle’s that have been replaced personally. Ebooks can’t transfer them to a new Kindle if the DRM they’re wrapped in doesn’t have an account associated with it.

Thankfully, after some communication between Ian and Amazon, Amazon has reinstated his account. Ian is happy and will basically not purchase any more big ticket items from them simply because he doesn’t want to be in the situation where he will need to return defective merchandise and face this situation again.

DRM stops you, not the pirates.

As a continuing percentage of our purchases switch to digital delivery, the content we buy is at greater and greater risk. You could find yourself at some point in the future with a library full of ebooks that disappear because your account is terminated, the company that sold them to you goes out of business, or if the company simply stops supporting “old” purchases. (For an example of a really big company stopping support for “old” DRM systems, read about Microsoft dropping support for their Plays For Sure DRM system here: http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/137120.asp)

DRM has not stopped illegal copies of digital works from appearing online, but it could potentially cost you a good deal of frustration and money if you’ve bought into a DRM system that changes it’s rules after you’ve bought content. I’m sure you’ve clicked “Accept” to a long legal disclaimer acquiescing your rights before you were allowed to purchase any DRMed content. These disclaimers usually give the content owner the right to change the rules that govern the content you are “purchasing” at their will, even after your transaction is over.

More on Ian’s story.

Ian’s experience with Amazon, his Kindle and DRM has really made the rounds on the Internet. You can read about is at Consumerist, Boing Boing, Engadget, Slashdot, Gizmodo, Electronista, IGN Gear, and Golem (in German). It’s picked up so much interest for a good reason. DRM harms the people who actually pay for content.

What can you about DRM?

Defective by Design, http://www.defectivebydesign.org/, provides a guide for DRM-free living on their site. http://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide.

I’ve also notice online activists use tagging on Amazon.com, a system where users add keywords to products, to label many DRMed items with the tags “drm infected.”

Personally, I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with a monthly donation. The EFF is a group of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists fighting for your rights as a citizen in the digital age. DRM is not their primary focus, but a larger agenda of freedom in the digital space. You can find out more about them at their web site, http://www.eff.org.

Mac 101: Make a More Useful Dock

The Dock in your Mac was supposed to make finding your most used programs easier. I do a couple things to make it more useful.

Tip 1: Add Spacers to your Dock

First, as you can see in the image above, I add spacers to make finding certain types of programs easier. On the left, I’ve got 4 Adobe programs I use regularly. I’ve got TextMate, a text editing program, separated out on its own. Then to the right of that, I’ve got everything else, MailPlane, iTunes, etc.

How do you add spaces? It’s certainly not obvious how to do it, but it’s actually built into the OS. To access it though, you’ll have to download a free utility called Onyx. You can get it more information on Apple.com’s page about Onyx or directly from the developer’s web site.

After you install it, it will ask to do a check of your disk before proceeding. It also suggest that you make a backup of your drive. These are good things to do. You’ve already got a backup of your computer, right?

Once you’re in the program, click the Parameters button on the right. Next click the Dock from the row of buttons that appear. Both are marked with a yellow box in the image below. Finally, near the bottom of window, you’ll see a button labeled Applications. I’ve marked it “Click here” which is how you add the spacer. Your dock will relaunch and now have a spacer which you can drag and drop around your dock. You can also erase it by dragging it out of your dock. Sweet!

Tip 2: Making Multiple Docks

I use a free utility called Dock Spaces to make multiple Docks for various tasks I focus on at different times. Visit the Dock Spaces home page for the free download.

Once you have it installed, you can switch between Docks by using a pull down menu, which you can see here. You can also open the Preference in this drop down menu to integrate it with Spaces, giving each Space a specific Dock. If you’re not familiar with Spaces, check out Apple.com for a good overview of Spaces. Basically, it lets you set up a separate “space” to work in for different programs. Very handy.

Update on ASUS 1000HE at SXSW: How It Performed

Before leaving for SXSW, I decided to take only my new ASUS 1000HE, on the 10-day trip. I wrote about how the software I installed in the posting Prepping the ASUS 1000HE for SXSW and promised an update on how it performed for me.

The Good

The good news is that I was really happy with my choice to leave my larger laptop, a MacBook Pro, back at home. The battery life of the netbook was as good as I had hope. Its charge lasted the entire day even though I had it out and running through much of the day. There was reliable wifi in the Austin Convention Center and I was easily able to keep up on email whenever I wanted. I took notes using StarOffice. I Twittered. I blogged. I even watched 3 hours of movies on the way home from Austin using the VLC player while stuck in the airport using the netbook.

The Bad

There’s not much bad at all! My only problem with the netbook is also a “feature” of all netbooks; the keyboard is small because it’s a small computer.

I’m a fast touch-typist and I had a couple of occasions where as my fingers were flying over the keyboard I accidentally hit the up arrow key above the right SHIFT key along with the SHIFT key, selecting an entire line of type and ended up erasing text without intending to as I continued typing.

I also had to alter the default setting for the touch pad because I found that it was recognizing gestures that I didn’t intend, like the 3 finger swipe to go back or forward in my web browser, or the pinch to change font sizes. I have now disabled those and solved that issue.

That’s it. Those are minor shortcomings and I’ll deal with given the huge battery life and portability of this machine.

The Caveats

Before I close, I should point out that I did prepare to leave behind the type of work that wouldn’t be good for my netbook. I told my clients that I was not able to do any development work (Flash, PHP, After Effects, etc.) while I was away. If I had the need to do updates to a single Flash file while I was away, I would have needed to bring along my MacBook Pro in addition to the netbook.

If your business can be done through email, Skype, and text documents though, you can make a netbook work. And for under $400, I was extremely impressed.

Links from SXSWi 2009

I went to quite a lot of sessions during SXSW Interactive 2009. As I listened to people, talked to people, and read about what was going on, I bookmarked URLs in my browser.

Although I haven’t provided any context to the links other than listing them in the reverse order they were made i, I think you’ll see a pattern emerge when you go through them. I hope you enjoy them.

• Phone Gap - http://phonegap.com/
• jQuery resources - http://www.heinmaas.com/2009/03/all-the-jquery-resources-youll-ever-need/
• memeorandum - http://www.memeorandum.com/
• PostRank - http://www.postrank.com/
• Lijit - http://www.lijit.com/
• How to Find the Weirdest Stuff on the Internet - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_weirdest_stuff_on_the_internet.php
• MacBlips - http://macblips.dailyradar.com/
• Security Bloggers Network - http://www.securitybloggers.net/
• http://sonofatweet.com/
• Google Custom Search - http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
• Drag & Drop Zones Firefox Add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5595
• Lazy Mutha Fucka - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Mutha_Fucka
• Beyond aggregation: finding the web’s best content - http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife/?p=447
• Oomph - http://www.codeplex.com/Oomph
• 97 bottles - http://97bottles.com/
• CMS Showdown - http://cmsshowdown.com/
• Microformats Wiki - http://microformats.org/wiki/Main_Page
• Huffduffer - http://huffduffer.com/
• Open Frameworks - http://www.openframeworks.cc/
• Identity Firefox Add-on - http://lab.madgex.com/identify/
• Madgex Labs - http://lab.madgex.com/
• Operator Firefox Add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4106
• TARP for the Kids - http://tarparg2009forthekids.org/
• Open Your Facebook Page to Everyone - http://www.stevengroves.com/2009/03/16/opening-your-facebook-page-to-everyone/
• Links for Non-Profits - http://www.pinkertonsouth.com/newmedia/
• 8 CSS tips for better linking - http://www.designer-daily.com/8-css-tips-for-better-linking-1424
• Firebug Firefox Add-on - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
• YSlow - http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/