IE7 @font-face bug and fix
Posted by | Wayne Helman | on February 17, 2010 | No Comments
This week we stumbled upon a rather odd bug in IE7 (surprise, surprise) when embedding a EOT font file using the @font-face construct. To save on bandwidth, we often edit out sets of characters from a font that we know will not be used on a site. In this particular instance, we were using this font for headers that were all composed in title case, but displayed in uppercase using the text-transform property. Logically, we saved all our font files with only the uppercase characters-we simply don’t use the lowercase. The site rendered perfectly in every browser (including IE6 and IE8) that supported the @font-face construct with the notable exception of IE7. Read more
Site Launch: Neilson® Dairy Oh!®
Posted by | Wayne Helman | on November 30, 2009 | No Comments
Neilson® Dairy Oh®!
A51 is pleased to announce the launch of a new updated website for Saputo’s Neilson® Milk brand Dairy Oh!®. Dairy Oh!® contains DHA, an Omega-3 fatty acid, contributes to good health and normal growth and development. The focus of the campaign was to elaborate on the benefits of milk high in DHA. The overall campaign creative was developed by Clean Sheet Communications. A51 developed the “one page website” concept for the campaign, designed the creative and developed the website.
The website uses jQuery to scroll up and down a stack of books held by a young girl, displaying selected content in a callout window. Both English and French versions are available.
A big thanks goes out to Clean Sheet and their team for putting so much trust in us!
Physics, meet Multi-user. Multi-user, meet Physics
Posted by | Wayne Helman | on November 18, 2009 | No Comments
We’ve been racking our brains here looking for a unique spin on our corporate site. It’s always a challenge not only to differentiate yourself from the hordes of other great firms out there, but also to spotlight your strengths. So after a little bit of back-and-forth, we thought up a strange brew wrapped up in Flash. Using SmartFox Server (the fantastic multi-user Java based socket server) and the Box2D physics engine, we’ve developed a rather wacky environment for our visitors to visit. There’s really only one way to get the full concept and that’s taking it for a spin. I personally want to thank Phil Chertok here at A51 for his patience and hard work in putting the project together.
This is basically a Beta in terms of viewer response, so feedback is welcome. We’re planning on adding more goodies in the future.
A51 & ActionScript 3 Development Task Contest #1
Posted by | Phil Chertok | on November 16, 2009 | No Comments
On Friday I participated in the first ActionScript 3 Development Task Contest, which challenged users to divide the stage into a grid and to find all the neighbors of a given display object on that grid. The key was that the winner should implement their method in the quickest/most efficient way possible. Results would be measured using Grant Skinner’s fantastic Performance Testing Harness. Read more
Stress Testing CakePHP with Pylot
Posted by | Matt Fisher | on November 5, 2009 | No Comments
Since we like to use the CakePHP framework here at A51 we figured it would be great if we could find or develop a tool to load test our sites as we developed them to weed out any issues that would be caused in a high load production environment. After some research, we found a small open source application called Pylot (http://www.pylot.org) which is made for testing performance and scalability of web services. Pylot generates concurrent load (HTTP Requests), verifies server responses, and produces reports with metrics. Tests suites are executed and monitored from a GUI or shell/console. Read more
AS3 ToolTip Class
Posted by | Phil Chertok | on September 24, 2009 | 2 Comments
One common element of many applications is the tool tip. Tool tips can be useful for clarifying interactions and giving more detailed descriptions of elements in an app. Unfortunately AS3 does not have any native tool tip class so we have had to create our own.
5 Great Web Developer Resources & More
Posted by | Phil Chertok | on September 8, 2009 | 1 Comment
Last week I posted 5 of my favorite resources for ActionScript development and the response was really great so this week I’ve decided to share some my preferred sites for non-flash/traditional web development.
Nettuts+: This site that is part of the Envato network of pages has new tutorials every day. From JavaScript, to CSS to PHP frameworks, this site runs the gamut when it comes to web development tutorials. With many contributors and topics, you are bound to find something you like. Add contests and freebies to the mix and it makes Nettuts+ a can’t miss site.
Trends in TV Show Sites Featured
Posted by | Wayne Helman | on September 4, 2009 | No Comments
Leave it to Smashing Magazine to publish an article on trends surfacing in designing TV show sites. They’ve listed a number of sites including one we here at A51 developed for The Listener on CTV in Canada and NBC in the US. It’s actually an interesting look – many sites are structured almost identically.
We developed The Listener site using Papervision3D with a .NET C# / SQL Server backend. It’s been versioned in who knows how many languages – all text is live. Thanks to Steven Snell at DesignM.ag for including us.
5 Great ActionScript Resources
Posted by | Phil Chertok | on September 3, 2009 | 2 Comments
There is no shortage of great places to get your fix of ActionScript but we thought we’d share some of our favorites.
GoToAndLearn: This is a great resource for both people starting out with ActionScript and experienced developers. Run by Adobe evangelist Lee Brimelow, the site is filled with screencasts and example code on a wide range of subjects including flex, 3D, AMF, Pixel Bender and more. The tutorials are both informative and entertaining as Lee is a great speaker who always brings something interesting to every screencast. You should also check out Lee’s Blog which features lots of insight on the Flash/Adobe world.
Miele Gallery Caplan’s: Listed
Posted by | Wayne Helman | on August 31, 2009 | No Comments
Listed on Design Charts
Look kids! More recognition! Our latest Papervision3D Flash project for Miele Gallery Caplan’s has made the list at DesignCharts. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the project and made it a huge success. Visit the site. Visit Design Charts.
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