This year was great for me and I wish it would continue to be that way the next year too. I am going to my hometown to celebrate the New Year with my parents and wont be accessible through mail or web till next year ;). Once again, wish you all a very Happy New Year, filled with joy and happiness. Have a FLASHy :) New Year !
December 29, 2004
Satellite picture of Tsunami
Most of you, by now would have heard about the Tsunami which hit South Asia very badly the last week. It’s a real tragedy, the death count is increasing everyday and already more than 30000 are dead. I was watching the Tsunami hit parts of South India, live on Sunday on the TV and was feeling so bad. All I was able to do was to pray for them.
Iam sorry about the wrong picture, I think my friend fooled me by sending me a wrong one. I was unaware that the picture is actually a hurricane which hit Florida. Iam removing the picture from here.
December 24, 2004
Macromedia’s Commission Junction Affiliate program
Macromedia is concluding the current Macromedia Affiliate Program on December 31, 2004. Its moving its Affliate Program to Commission Junction and the most intersting part is that, for people who join the new affliate program before Jan 15th gets an attractive 10% comission for all sales made through their site.
For those of you who have not got the communication or unaware of the affliate program, here is the mail which I got from Macromedia.
Dear Affiliate,
Macromedia is concluding the current Macromedia Affiliate Program on December 31, 2004. We invite you to join the Commission Junction network so you can be part of our new Affiliate Marketing Program. As one of Macromedia’s Premier Affiliates, we are offering you a special commission rate if you join our new Affiliate program by January 15, 2005.
Join the Macromedia Affiliate program with Commission Junction by January 15, 2005 and earn up to 10% commission.
If you are new to Commission Junction, please click here
If you are already a publisher using Commission Junction, please click here instead.
Macromedia’s new program with Commission Junction offers many enhancements, including:
Comprehensive Real-Time Reporting: Hourly Web site performance reports allow Affiliates to make adjustments to their site or modify any keyword bid that is not performing. Deeper reporting options are available within the CJ Marketplace, letting Affiliates truly evaluate how well they are performing. You’ll be able to sort and drill down into various criteria such as “Performance by Link Name.”
Easier to Obtain links: Affiliates can obtain links by type, size, or product — all from a single interface. This allows more effective link searching and ensures that the best-converting links are found easily, helping produce better sales results and earning you more money.
Invalid Link Report: This report, located on the home page of the CJ Account Manager, is very helpful because it alerts Affiliates when they need to remove an inactive link.
Consolidated Monthly Commission Payments: As a member of the Commission Junction network, you will receive regular monthly payments for all of your sales generated during the previous month. The commissions you earn from all Commission Junction programs are consolidated and paid if the total amount equals $25 or more.
Important Details:
What is the commission structure?
Macromedia would like to thank you for your patience and support throughout our current program. As a show of appreciation, all current Macromedia Affiliates who join the new program by January 15, 2005 will receive a special promotional commission rate of up to 10% on all sales made for all of 2005. Any new affiliates or those who join the program after January 15, 2005 will earn the standard commission rate of 8%, so we encourage you to make the switch as soon as possible.
How do I get started?
By January 15th, 2005, we strongly encourage you to:
Join the Macromedia Macromedia’s Commission Junction Affiliate program by clicking the appropriate link above, or by using one of these links:
If you are new to Commission Junction…
https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=1359820
If you are already a Commission Junction publisher…
https://members.cj.com/member/publisher/advertiserdirect.do?advertiserid=1359820
Replace all existing affiliate creative on your site with Macromedia’s Commission Junction links for the new program.
Note: the existing links will work and direct customers to the Macromedia Online Store, but you will not be compensated for sales unless you have joined the new affiliate program.
What will happen to our existing commissions from Macromedia’s Affiliate Program?
As you know, we have been experiencing technical difficulties with tracking your affiliate sales for some time. Consequently, you will receive your commission payouts as follows:
July, August, September, and October sales by mid-January
November and December sales by mid-February
Questions?
As always, we are available to answer any questions or concerns you have. Please feel free to contact us at macromedia@cj.com.
We look forward to a smooth transition and our continued successful affiliation.
Best regards,
Joe Raffetto
Affiliate Program Manager
December 07, 2004
FlashBlock : Block Flash Contents
Today, when I was searching for a Mozilla plugin I came across this plugin FlashBlock, which blocks Flash, Shockwave and Authorware contents in a web page, when using Mozilla. It then leaves a placeholder on the page that allows you to click to view the Flash content.
This is the description of the plugin as found on mozdev.org :
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla and Firefox browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves a placeholder on the page that allows you to click to view the Flash content.
Note the word "pessimistic" in the content ;)
You can view some screenshots of how the blocked contents would appear, here. Once you install the plugin the blocked contents show up as a placeholder with the flash player icon in it and whne you roll over it it changes into a Play icon.
December 02, 2004
Detecting a runtime value change in a TextField
Today, in the Macromedia Workshop which I attended, the guy sitting next to me had a doubt about using change handlers with textfields.
This was his question : When the user changes a value of an input textfield by typing in a new value then we use a onChanged handler or a listener to trap the event, but how do you trap the change, if the value of the textfield is changed through code?
Yes, what he said was true, you cant trap such a change using a onChange handler or a listener. The only solution which I had for him is to use the costly onEnterFrame event to trap the value change. This is the solution which I told him about :
var myObject:Object = new Object();
myObject.onChanged = function()
{
trace("Value Change Detected using Listener");
}
my_txt.addListener(myObject);
_root.onEnterFrame = function()
{
newVal = my_txt.text;
if (newVal != oldVal)
{
trace("Value Change Detected using onEnterFrame");
}
oldVal = my_txt.text;
}
Though this solves the problem, I know for sure that this is not the best/smart way of trapping the change. I remember some solution which I had come across a long time before but couldn't recollect it. Does anyone of you know of a better way to do this?
December 01, 2004
Macromedia Flash & Dreamweaver workshop in Bangalore, India
Macromedia is organizing a free one day free training on Flash MX 2004 & Dreamweaver MX 2004 in Bangalore, India on December 2nd 2004. An the training agenda is:
Basic ActionScript for Application Development (Half day Session)
- ActionScript Fundamentals
- The Flash Player Object Model
- Creating Classes
Website Development with Dreamweaver MX 2004(Half day Session)
- Create and link style sheets for a consistent look and feel of your web pages
- Create and implement a page design using HTML tables and layers.
Those who reside in and around Bangalore can register online here.
Those of you who are attending the seminar in Bangalore tomorrow, post a comment here about you briefly so we can recognize each other there.