I’ve said it for a long time, just didn’t quite make my point

I just finished reading an article on Drawar.com about how Smashing Magazine killed the community. I have been thinking about what you’re about to read for some time now but it never occurred to me that Smashing Magazine was one of the reasons why everything changed.

Let’s start in the beginning (because there’s a lot of things to cover here).
I’ve been reading Smashing Magazine for more than 2 years now. I started reading in their very early days as ‘Smashing Magazine’ (Before, it was a smaller online magazine with a different name).

They actually caught my eye with very very interesting articles that focussed on one topic. Every article covered ways to do things and things you shouldn’t do, in a very specific aspect of (web) design.  That content was of great value since it was on-topic and very high-end.
However Smashing Magazine’s content  not only caught my eye… Lots of people started reading it on a regular basis and subscribing to the RSS feeds. That’s when they really started making money, and therefor stopped actually writing ‘real’ articles and started going down the ‘lists‘ road. At that point, it only took me about 2 weeks to stop caring about Smashing Magazine (besides when they linked me). I still check the site every now and then, but honestly: If an article starts with a number I don’t even read the rest of the title. It’s all they’ve been doing ever since…

The worst part: Lots of other site have been doing it too, just because Smashing Magazine prove the concept works. I myself have only published 1 single post like that in the 2 years I’ve been blogging. And hell: I’m proud of it!
And the more I actually talk to other people about this issue, the more I realize the very people we write for think the same way. They don’t want a list of whatever. They want your secrets. They want to know why you did something the way you did it. They want to know why you prefer ketchup instead of mayonaise. They want a personal opinion. If they want a list, they’ll just Google whatever it is they need. Google lists everything by default anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

Open Microphone pt 1

If you’ve come by here a few times you know I have been experimenting with computeSpectrum and webcam motion detection. At a given moment I wanted to combine the 2 of them in order to use voice commands in order to make stuff happen on the screen. That would be pretty badass, right?

However I soon learned the microphone feed didn’t go through the SoundMixer of the Flash Player, therefor would would not be able to be analyzed. There was a workaround with FMS/RED5 and bouncing the stream off the server but that’s rather overkill (not to mention the lag). Read the rest of this entry »

FlashFocus reloaded (part 1)

Those who know me personally have undoubtably noticed a serious increase of FlashFocus activity in the past few days, and today I’m happy to announce that FlashFocus started the long awaited update.

FlashFocus went down for scheduled maintenance on Friday, June 12th. The team worked for 3 days straight in order to be able to present a new FlashFocus running from our new server over at our sponsor Easyhosting.

The work the team did during the past 3 days was the first big step in order to be able to roll out a lot of new features in the coming weeks.

If you speak Dutch and you’re intrested in Flash, Flex, Air, After-Effects or any other Adobe product, don’t hold back to join the biggest Dutch-speaking community on the web. Ask your questions, share your knowledge, show off your coolest projects.

Register on FlashFocus
Follow FlashFocus on Twitter
Join the FlashFocus Facebook group

Design. Technology. Cool shit.

The well-known slogan of FITC!

After having held successful events at Toronto, Chicago, Winnipeg, and Hollywood, last year FITC came to Amsterdam. I don’t have to tell you that Amsterdam was at least as successful as the other events. And in a little less than 2 weeks, FITC Amsterdam will kick off for the second time!

Only a few days ago FITC announced that the Amsterdam event was already sold out. Again. And I’m one of the lucky ones to go!
Also, no different than last year, Adobe Max Award winner Thomas Joos created an event guide for your mobile phone. Make sure you check it out!

I’ll be attending FITC for the first time, so I’m very excited.
I’ll be there with Jeroen Beckers, my FlashFocus colleage. If you’re there make sure to come by. I’d love to meet you guys (and gals)!

Soooo… Who’s coming?

<head> revisited

Man, I can’t believe it’s been a week already since the first edition of <head> kicked off. This event was so freaking amazing, I don’t even know where to start.

Okay, let’s just start right from the beginning. At first I didn’t really feel quite comfortable about the ‘online room’ concept. I remember having these meetings in Connect rooms, and believe me: those are horrible memories. Fact is: When I entered a room, 2 attendees were already there and they were having this conversation…

Attendee 1: Hmz, aren’t we kinda early?
Attendee 2: Yea… True… Oh well, at least we’ve got good seats, right? Read the rest of this entry »