More to come!

Click the image to launch the demo. You’ll need to install the Unity player, but it’s pretty seamless.

Oh, for crying out loud. If I read one more blog post about why Flash doesn’t work on an iPod / iPad / iPhone I’m going to scream. I bit my lip when the “because the swf format is not open source” comments started. I rolled my eyes when the “it’s because they hate each other” nonsense took hold. Same with the processor hogging / battery life debate. And now I’ve just read a post that argues the fact that roll-over states can’t be implemented on a touch screen as the main reason. The fact that every App on the App store seems to get on fine without a roll-over state and a simple change in approach to flash design would solve it, seems to be too much of a mountain to climb. [Update] Seems Mike Chambers is with me too. Flash designers (myself included at times) have the same attitude to Accessibility, I.e. I would have to change, so it’s not worth it. Each arguement has a valid point some extent but all in all, they are (in my opinion) just pointless finger waving compared to the main issue.

As is customary at this point, on this subject, I seem to have to declare my allegiances. Yes I develop Flash and have for years. But I also have experience publishing iPhone apps and the inner workings of the iPhone development (and deployment) world. I’ve also been coding since 1982. I was there before flash and the iPhone and I’ll be there after no doubt. I’ve seen many things come and go and have a job in a digital agency where I get involved in the inner workings of the business models of certain platforms and content strategies. I like my iPhone, I like Flash, I like Adobe, I like Apple.

Right, that’s that out of the way. What’s my point? The App store model is the ONLY point. So 3 billion Apps have been download, of which an estimated $75million goes to Apple EACH MONTH. That’s profit btw. They didn’t develop the Apps, they don’t have to support the Apps, Apple simply take their 30% of the App revenue to cover ‘making it happen’.

If you want to play a game on the iPhone, you download the App.

If you want to play a game on a PC / Mac, you go to Miniclip or similar and play a Flash game. The ad-funded or Advergame model may not be perfect but it does seem to, just about, keep the internet free.

In fact, if you want to do many things on your PC / Mac, you will probably find a Flash or Java ’something’ for it. Quite literally… “there’s a free App for that”.

Now imagine what would happen to that juicy $75million a month if you just went to a full screen Flash App on a website using Safari. Yep, you wouldn’t pay a thing for a game again.

Apple innovated with music downloads when others were struggling to come up with a model. With the App Store, Apple have also managed to get people to pay for low-level content too. Something not achieved before. Of course they wouldn’t want to allow Flash to punch big, leaky holes in their ever-so-tight monopoly for extending the iPhone’s functionality. I can’t EVER see a point where Apple will let this change unless all Flash content is preceded with an ‘pay now’ popup or micro-payment system or, heaven forbid, Adobe pays a hefty fee each month ($75million?) to offset Apple’s loss in profit.

So it’s not about handbags at dawn, it’s not about something as trivial as a rollover state, it’s (unsurprisingly) about guarding a business model that makes more in a month than most companies make in their lifetime.

I do love the blurring of the edges however. Those ’screw you’ moments like Gordon, completely written in iPhone-browser-friendly javascript that allows simple Flash to be played in the Safari browser. I also like Adobe’s own (rather cobbled together) functionality in the upcoming Adobe Creative Suite 5 to allow Flash to be compiled directly as an iPhone App. For Flash developers, Apple has turned itself into the cliché vision of King Kong, swatting off the annoying advances of desperate attackers determined to find a weakness, and exploit it. Will they succeed? I hope so. Will Apple’s clean, tidy walled-garden get scruffy and diluted? Probably. Will Flash content be on your iPhone any time soon? No.

Nice, short and insightful presentation by Shiv Sing from Razorfish about the marketing benefits of social influencers.

I’ve been following this little story with interest. In a nutshell, ‘traditional’ advertising agency has a go at social media, gets it a little bit wrong, fumbles the recovery and ends up getting it very wrong. The agency in question is Saachi & Saachi, the client is Toyota (like they needed any more bad publicity) and the project was a simple (but terribly over-done) competition to come up with a home made advert for the Toyota Yaris.

I could try to paraphrase the entire scenario here but I found this article my Mumbrella in Australia which explains in painful detail how this came to be, the resulting fall-out and more importantly, the learnings. I found myself reading it through my fingers at one point.

As Tim Burrowes tactfully summarises;

“It’s now obvious that PR expertise is not an optional extra that ad agencies having a bit of a dabble in social media can do without. Although advertising has always had the potential to be controversial, for social media that possibility grows exponentially and that risk needs to be controlled.”

If you haven’t seen the ‘winning entry’, I suggest you read the article before watching the clip below, the lead-up makes it even more remarkable.

Ad guru David Ogilvy’s commentary on Direct Marketing is a classic. With digital media constantly chasing new and innovative delivery methods to get noticed above the crowd, it’s grounding to be reminded of the basics now and again. “Ladies and gentlemen, I envy you, your timing is perfect, you’ve come into the Direct Response business at the right moment” as Ogilvy says. Swap out ‘Direct Response Marketing’ for ‘Social Media’ and play the video again. Still as relevant today as it was back then, and no doubt will be again in another 10 years with the next marketing meme.

When To Take My Name Off The Door by Leo Burnett.

I haven’t heard this speech since I was in college 20 years ago. I happened accross this version on YouTube which adds a visual narrative too. Worth a watching while wearing a starched shirt and smoking a cigar.

Notice that the pivot bolt that sticks out of the back of brake on the left is very short as it’s designed to go through a small rear chainstay, not a chunky fork. One solution is to replace the pivot bolt with a longer one but these aren’t available for the Kurve brakes (they are available for some Shimano brakes though). Another solution is to use a longer recessed bolt to bridge the gap. I’ve had to use a super-long 30mm recessed bolt just to attach a normal front brake, so I’d need at least a 50-60mm recessed bolt… and these don’t exist.

So my solution was to make one. I thought I’d share the process just in case it helps you out of a sticky situation too.

First, this is what happens in a normal front fork…

Now this is what happens when you use a rear brake with short pivot bolt… it doesn’t work!

Even using an ultr long recessed bolt doesn’t work…

So I need to make a longer bolt somehow. I’m also keen to keep the ‘recessed’ bolt feature, as it’s not only neater but is how the fork was designed to accommodate a brake bolt. I could try and surface mount a bolt but this may end up damaging the carbon fork’s outer shell. So you’re going to need some kit…

So first thing to measure stuff. Insert the brake into the front of the fork and hold it in place. Insert a spare bolt or allen key into the rear of the fork until it comes into contact with the brake pivot bolt. Make a mark on the allen key where it exits the back of the fork. If your fork has a recess (like mine) then mark where the allen key first exits the fork, niot where it finally emerges from the recess itself. Obviously, this is how far in the pivot bolt is inside the fork, or to put it another way, how long a custom recessed bolt shaft would have to be to just touch the brake pivot bolt but not screw onto it. Mine was about 40mm. Now add 10mm to this measurement to allow for a good overlap with the pivot bolt when it’s screwed in. I.e. now a total of 50mm.

So now we need to get some recessed bolts to use as parts. Seeing as my fork seems to be very wide, I got hold of two 30mm recessed bolts from my local bike shop. I’m a “known person” so I got them for free but expect to pay about £3 each. Put it this way, there’s a 35mm titanium one for $7 Toronto Cycles or a 30mm steel one at SJS Cycles for £6.99.

So I need to make a bolt 50mm long so I can do that with a 20mm recessed bolt and 20mm of the threaded tube from the other bolt. So next thing to do is to use a hacksaw to chop 20mm off the threaded tube part of the long recessed bolt. File it as flat as possible and offer up the ‘unchopped’ end to the end of the existing recessed bolt, so you have a nice, clean interface between them. Now we need a way of joining them together…

You’ll also need to chop the threaded bit off the normal bolt. Again, measure it so that it’s long enough to fit entirely within the normal recessed bolt and has enough extra thread to screw into the threaded tube… but short enough to leave that 10mm or so of the threaded tube free at the end. Use s file to flatten the end of the bolt and remove any rough metal. Then carefully cut a slot about 3mm deep into the end with a hacksaw. It doesn’t have to be too neat but it does pay to be as accurate as you can. That’s it for the manual labour.

Now add some strong metal adhesive / epoxy glue (I used Araldite Rapid Steel) to the threaded shaft and screw it into the normal recessed bolt. Be sure to clean the thready first mind as any grease will stop the glue holding. Use a flat headed screwdriver in the slot you cut to tighten it. Then screw on the threaded tube to  the rest of the shat that sticks out (again, with glue). Leave to set for at least 24 hours (or whatever your glue instructions suggest.)

Now you should be ready to rumble. If all goes well and you have measured everything relatively well, it should just work like a normal recessed bolt, only a really long one! Thus…

Finally, don’t forget to swap over the brake pads as they are directional and because you’ve flipped the brake, the left pad will now be on the right and vice versa.

Now there’s no excuse not to use all those rear brakes cluttering up Ebay!

http://twitpic.com/wdsey

So, as usual, this got me thinking. Could I just type any characters after the URL and still get an image? Like so:

http://twitpic.com/dino

Was any image ever given a rude word? Has anyone even noticed? Turns out the answer was yes to all of the above.

Not quite figured out what a ‘good’ one is yet but it’s maybe “the word you type in represents image itself” or the super rare, your name is the text AND you are in the image too. Not sure if it has a name yet either, so I’m notionally calling it Linkwhacking after the GoogleWhacking phenomenon from back in 2001. Seems appropriate.

Anyways, here’s are some I’ve found…

http://twitpic.com/dino Little does she know who she’s linked to	http://twitpic.com/drugs Jamba Juice seems pretty addictive
http://twitpic.com/3gs iPhone 3Gs? Nope, it a Nokia	http://twitpic.com/sn0w Bit of a cheat but sn0w has snow in the pic. Nearly!
http://twitpic.com/cute Hmmm, a Ducati 848 in red… cute!	http://twitpic.com/life Sad when you can get it all in one box
http://twitpic.com/win What’s not to like? Win!	http://twitpic.com/fail Caption reads “French EU Presidency: Facing an Environmental Emergency.” Fail!
http://twitpic.com/iraq Ironic how Iraq is the quintessential American scene	http://twitpic.com/osama Seems innocuous until you realise it’s a team called The Bombers. Doh!
http://twitpic.com/pc Suitably digital	http://twitpic.com/spunk Just wrong in so many ways

Having visited a fair few of the pages, many of the comments left with the images are from fellow ‘linkwhackers’, so it’s clearly being noticed already.

So now the hunt is on for more. It works equally well on other image sharing servers, so go find some my friends. Would be interested to hear what you find.