For Over Ten Years ArcStone Has Helped Organizations Find Value In Their Digital Assets
After several months in development, and a lot of customer feedback, we are pleased to announce the launch of Wonderfile 2.0.

For those of you unacquainted, Wonderfile is ArcStone’s solution to one of the biggest problems facing modern businesses today; how do we leverage the vast amounts of information distributed among our organizations thousands of digital files?

Wonderfile Is The Swiss Army Knife Of File Management
For over ten years ArcStone has helped organizations large and small find value in their digital assets. Wonderfile is the culmination of all that work, a system designed to effortlessly manage the mountain of unstructured data every business and individual has.

Wonderfile Adapts To YOU, Not The Other Way Around
The hallmark of our system, and what makes it different from anything else, is that Wonderfile adapts to YOU, not the other way around. The reason other file tagging systems don’t work well is they force you to adopt their organizational model.

Wonderfile Is Your Own Personal Digital File Library
In Wonderfile you make the model, you’re personal way of thinking is the engine that drives Wonderfile. The net effect of Wonderfile’s flexibility is a powerful, personalized search engine, effortless sharing of any size and type of file, and a solid base from which to build customized file tagging solutions.

Amazing Things Your Files Can Do In Wonderfile

• Send A Very Large File To Someone With Password Protection
• Collaborate With Colleagues On The Same File And Track Revisions
• Be Automatically Notified When Someone Adds A File To Your Project
• Access Your Most Important Files From Anywhere
• Create A Powerful File Store For Your Companies Intranet
• Group, Search, Organize, Archive And Share Files In An Unlimited Number Of Ways

Start Using Wonderfile
You can start using Wonderfile in minutes for free. There is never any contract or setup fee. Just go to Wonderfile’s sign up page to get started.

Once you start using Wonderfile you’ll never struggle to find, share, or backup files again. It’s just that simple.

Big news in Facebook land. Starting on June 12th at 11:01pm (to be exact), people and companies using the social networking giant, will be able to create their own “vanity URL”.

What does that mean to you and me? For you, it might mean an easier Facebook address to direct people to, for me it means new search engine optimization (SEO) and branding opportunities to explore.

On The Facebook blog, Facebook Designer, Blaise DiPersia writes,

“We’re planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future.”

Note, new Facebookers (those who joined after May 31, 2009) and those fan pages with fewer than 1,000 fans will not be eligible. Sorry newbies!

What does that mean for SEO? Simply put, individuals and companies will be able to market their brands much easier. Did I mention that MySpace and Twitter already offer vanity URLs? Facebook has always lagged behind in this area. Very soon, individuals and companies will be able to easily share their “branded” Facebook URL. For example, in the past, finding someone on Facebook was a bit of a pain. Now people can just use your name.

See Blaise’s example:

A couple of notes, if you want to remain anonymous, you may not want your vanity URL. If your name is John Smith, be prepared for a longer vanity like www.facebook.com/JohnGeorgeFranklinSmith, unless you’re very lucky.

I suspect that there will be a mad frenzy to snatch up popular names and brands. Remember back when those sneaky cyber squatters bought up lots of great domains just to turn around and sell them for mucho dinaro? Facebook says that it is setup to handle trademark infringement cases but still, expect lots of gray areas and legal battles.

One significant thing to note, Facebookers will not be able to register generic terms like ‘houses’. I’m sure there will be a lot of people pushing the envelope on this one. Will you be allowed to select MinneapolisGreenHomes? It’s still pretty generic but it’s a specific, generic term.

Another important note, once you select your vanity URL you cannot go back and change it. Now is not the time to make a typo because you were rushed. Carefully review your selection before hitting that save button.

On a related note, Facebook’s rollout seems to coincide with speculation that Twitter is going to implode because of its inability to scale. It’s a little reminiscent of the hysteria around Y2K. Remember that? Call me a cynic, but how is it possible that this weekend is significant for the two social media giants? I wish I could believe that it’s pure coincidence but…

Be sure to remember to get your Facebook URL rockin’! As for me, I’ll be busy celebrating my son, Jackson’s 9th birthday!

As was recently announced, Railo, the open source CF engine, has finally given ColdFusion to the masses.  March 31st saw the release of the first 3.1 public beta, providing full feature compliance with Adobe’s ColdFusion 8 standard, and allowing developers to begin porting over existing sites to Railo.  The ability to port over existing sites, or to spin up entire servers for a client without running into the pesky licensing costs of ColdFusion is one of the developments that has me the most excited about Railo.

Previous versions of Railo (including the promising but ultimately not CF8-compliant and buggy 3.0) have been known to provide phenomenal speed increases, but without the ability to fully support the CF standard there have been compatibility issues with web software firms attempting to make a move to Railo.  This, combined with a lack of true enterprise capabilities led many to dub the platform unready for prime time.  Railo 3.1 is about to change all of that, at least once it is finally out of beta.

I have not yet had time to play with Railo 3.1 too much, but they provide an express install that isn’t really an install, so it has been very easy.  Just extract to a folder, double click the ’start’ script to start the application/web server, and then you can immediately browse to it at http://localhost:8888.  Drop code into the Railo webroot folder, and you can start testing existing apps against Railo.  The administrator for Railo 3.0 was very sparse compared to the CF administrator that ColdFusion developers know and love.  Not so with Railo 3.1.  The server adminstrator which manages the more global settings has a separate password from the web administrator, and there are numerous settings available, many specifically tailored towards compatibility with CF8, but there are also enhancements beyond what Adobe provides. Additional enhanced selections within the administrator, such as “convert 0000-00-00 MySQL dates to NULL” seem like a sensible upgrade to the default behavior of CF, others probably depend on the needs of your application.  Missing at this point in the release is the much ballyhooed cfvideo tag, a cluster scope (though Railo supports J2EE sessions at this point), and clustered caching.  With a CF license costs no longer at issue, expect Railo’s clustering functionality to get a full workout in the coming months.

Installing extensions, and restarting the cf service are available within the administrator as well.  Things like Galleon forums, the Mach-II framework, and other open source CF goodies.  Additional providers can be added via the server, too, (this works very similarly to how plugin providers are added via the Eclipse IDE) and updating the server software is also possible within the Railo admin itself.  One of the weirdest things for anyone that has restarted a ColdFusion service before is that Railo’s cf restart is darned-near instantaneous.  Everyone gets logged out on the server, as sessions and other scopes are cleared, but other than that, there is no painful delay waiting for the service to kick in while site visitors are crashing into technical looking 500 server error screens as is so often the case with a typical ColdFusion restart.  It’s…eerie.  It is also a distinct improvement, but performance has always been Railo’s most promising and consistent offering in their platform.

You can bet that many people across the internets have been tinkering with Railo 3.1 lately, especially in tandem with Amazon’s EC2 or similar cloud service, in order to provide things like open source load-balanced J2EE session-scoped cluster farms.  Suddenly, stunningly, ColdFusion developers are now enjoying something that PHP developers have been able to enjoy for years.  I welcome an open CF8 standard (whether Adobe has created or simply joined the CF standard is unclear) and a fully-featured open source ColdFusion application server.  It is clear that this can only mean good things for CFML and ColdFusion developers in the future.

What is not so clear, however, is how Railo’s other open source competitor Blue Dragon has fared, but with many members of the Blue Dragon team leaving (and some of them joining the Railo team), chances are that it will not fare very well.  Equally unclear is Adobe’s opinion on Railo, and how its official release might come to affect its bottom line.  Whatever the case, the cat is out of the bag now.  We’ve seen the future, and the future is open source.

Viva la Revolucion!

When companies want to beef up their brand identity they go to a design firm or ad agency for an image overhaul. When design firms want to breathe life into their images they go to ArcStone.

Target came to Sussner Design Co for help redefining their new commercial interiors division. Sussner created, among other things, a compelling new web site design that would serve as the basis for an interactive Flash experience.

Few Web Development Shops Possess Both the production skills & Design Sensibilities
Faced with a tight budget and even tighter time-line, Sussner invited ArcStone to provide Flash production work that would live up to the high standards Susssner’s clients expect. And Sussner Design Co. is well aware, not all Flash work is created equal. Few web development shops posses both the production skills and design sensibilities to work side by side with design firms developing Flash sites.

Beyond Looks
Truly effective Flash sites that wow visitors and create lasting brand impressions do more than just look good. Load times, image quality, typography, and navigation elements all factor into the overall user experience.

This is where ArcStone’s Flash production expertise comes into play. Each image used is optimized for Flash delivery and pre-loaded behind the scenes to insure smooth transitions.

We also leverage Flash’s excellent XML support and AS3 coding language to make much of the site dynamically loaded, making maintenance easy for the client and extremely cost effective.

ArcStone Has Developed A Keen Sense Of How To Blend Flash With HTML, PHP, ColdFusion
To Flash Or Not To Flash
Another key part of Flash production work is deciding which elements should be Flash based and which are better of presented another way.

After years of building Flash sites ArcStone has developed a keen sense of how to blend Flash with HTML, PHP, ColdFusion, and other tools, delivering a seamless user experience and the highest bang for our customers buck.

In Target’s case ArcStone found creative ways to integrate existing content, saving time, money, and preserving some of Target’s initial investment. The product search engine, for example, feels like a native part of the site even though it comes from a third party system.

Beauty & Brains
Although most sites could be built without the use of Flash there are many reasons designers and developers choose to leverage Flash’s unique capabilities. Flash is often the best choice for:

• Showcasing High-Quality Imagery
• Creating a Unique User Experience
• Melding Multiple Types of Media (Text, Images, Video, Audio)
• Telling a Compelling and Memorable Narrative

The marriage of great design and smart Flash coding make the new Target Commercial Interiors site an effective branding tool and a useful source of information for visitors.

Check out the new Target Commercial Interiors Site, learn more about Sussner Design and read our other Technology Translated Flash Blog Posts.

To learn more about how Flash can make your products look their best, leave a lasting impression on visitors, and differentiate you from your competitors, check out ArcStone’s web site.

Like store-brand cough syrup, VoIP (Voice Over IP) has left a bad taste in many peoples mouths. Expense, reliability, and complications have plagued many small business VoIP adoption. Although not often viewed as a complete VoIP system, the scrappy software based solution known as Skype can be an excellent free alternative for testing the VoIP waters, or even adopting as your business’s De facto VoIP solution.

You Can Call Your Clients From A Beach In The Bahamas and No One Is The Wiser

Voice Over What?
Simply put, VoIP is a way to make phone calls over your computer, mobile phone, or specialized desk phone’s Internet connection. With VoIP you don’t incur any costs from the phone company on a per minute basis or for long distance. Generally, if you make a lot of long distance calls a VoIP provider’s monthly fees will be less than what you would usually pay the phone company.

The biggest VoIP advantage is the ability to bring your phone, and number, anywhere you go. You can call your clients from a beach in the Bahamas and no one is the wiser.

Skip The VoIP Headaches With Skype
Because Skype is a software based solution there is no need to buy an expensive specialized phone to get started. Simply download Skype for your computer or supported hand-held device. Skype also works on hundreds of cell phone, including the iPhone (I use Fring), and is now coming pre-installed on many Nokia handsets.

Once installed signing up for an account and making calls is a snap. Calling from one Skype user to another (Skype-to-Skype) is always free, and has the added benefits of accessing all the other Skype features that go beyond simple voice communication. Calling from Skype to a normal phone requires a paid plan. Paid plans fall under a pay-as-you-go model or unlimited service. Unlimited US calling is less than three dollars a month.

Skype For You, Your Business, and More
Skype also offers free tools to help manage your companies Skype implementation. There are also a multitude of partners offering additional services, and a constantly expanding set of business centric tools that leverage the Skype communication network.

A few of the great things you can do with Skype beyond just making calls:

• IM (instant message), conference call, and send files
• Hold a web conference, share your screen, and collaborate on documents
• Video chat, screen cast, and send faxes
• Run a call center, run your help desk, and dial from SalesForce.com

Flattening The Communication Landscape

With Skype There Is No Large Upfront Investment And No Need To Dump Existing Infrastructure

Although the web 2.0 revolution (coupled with the explosive use of smart phones) has opened up many new avenues of communications, Skype stands out for many reasons. Skype has a multi-dimension / multi-media / multi-device approach to communication, and melds old-world networks with the latest cutting-edge trends. With Skype there is no large upfront investment, no need to dump existing infrastructure, and virtually limitless potential for creative applications of the Skype protocol.

If you have used Skype in the past let me know what your experience was like in the comments of this post.

Happy Skypeing!

Flashbelt 2009 is right around the corner. A truly exciting event where local flash designers and developers converge to see some amazing demo’s. A chance to learn what Adobe and flash masters are working on to push the boundaries and maximize the efficiencies of using flash in day-to-day work and play. The event is made up of both presentations and workshops and other events, and is appropriate for all experience levels.

Never been? Check out at least one presentation, you will undoubtedly go back for more. get yourself registered, space is limited.

Learn more about it and see who’s there this year.

Thanks to our friend Dave Schroeder at Pilotvibe, the founder and host

Last Saturday night was Earth Hour. Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature in 2007, Earth Hour encourages people and businesses to turn off lights and non-essential electronics to raise awareness about climate change.

Since 2007 the Earth Hour movement has spread throughout the world to include over 1,000 cities including Minneapolis. Though – I have to say, in my humble opinion, the word didn’t really get out beyond the Wedge coop member, counter-culture types (guess where I shop).
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We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest makeover!

Southview Design came to us several years ago (through our friend Kristin Kowler at Genius to Go) in search of a clean, professional site that reflected the caliber of work which they were producing in landscapes. The new site not only improved their image, but made their team proud to share it. That was the site design “version 1″

Just yesterday we launched the all new Southview Design, while the previous site was plenty good they sought a more interactive and engaging user experience – and to continue to their already strong search engine presence. The new site features a striking new look, continually updated project slideshow on the home page, and intuitive navigation scheme. The project gallery allows visitors to explore by image – or quickly filter the list of landscaping projects by Service or by Price.

With this new site Kristin has again provided powerful and effective search engine friendly content, which will continue to build upon the already strong search engine presence Southview Design enjoys. Coupled with the ultra-clean site code and site optimization techniques employed in this go-around we wish them much happiness and success with the new site.

And just in time for Spring!

I’ve been putting some thought lately into the best way to render shadows in AS3. The built-in DropShadowFilter is perfect for most situations – particularly headlines and simple movie clips – but it lacked perspective control, at least for what I was envisioning…

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We recently completed an ‘Interactive Roof Designer’ Flash piece for Trimline Building Products. The objective was to create an area where prospective clients could customize the look of a house, and apply different colors from Trimline’s Distinction Tile and Distinction Slate composite roofing product lines. The final piece allowed for some interesting looking houses – here’s a break down of the process for each step…

1. CHOOSE HOME STYLE
3 photos were selected to represent different house styles. The idea at this point was to focus on the overall structure of the house – as the material, color and roof product would be customized in the following steps. ArcStone’s Nick Longtin created line drawings of each house. He did it all with his left hand while sipping a delicate blend of herbs and spices with his right.

2. SELECT MATERIAL & COLOR
This stage allows you to select a building material – brick, stucco or siding – and customize the overall color. Using ActionScript’s BitmapData, a custom ColorSelector class was written to avoid using a simple color picker with a limited palette. This allowed use of the full spectrum and a color intensity slider (saturation).

Surprisingly, the bulk of the work at this stage wasn’t the ColorSelector or Flash development – it was the laborious job of masking out the exposed building on all 3 house photos and applying brick, stucco and siding textures to to each house with perspective and shadows in mind. The textures where then desaturated to a medium gray and applied to each house in Flash as a MovieClip, set to BlendMode.OVERLAY. When the ColorSelector dispatches a CHANGE event – the new color gets applied to the selected texture movieclip (via ColorTransform manipulations).

3. DESIGN YOUR ROOF
The final step – applying different roof products – was achieved through the same techniques as step 2, but the tint color overlay was limited to the colors of the individual composite roofing products.

The final product allows visitors to visualize their dream roof in real-time, right in the browser, and without downloading any software. Other similar systems from Timeline’s competitors often rely on server side image manipulation that is slow, requires page refreshing, and just isn’t very interactive.

Flash is a great technology for visualizing products, and incredibly effective at drawing customers into site content by offering engaging interactive elements. If you’re interested in bringing a product or service to life on the web please contact us. We would be happy to discuss the wonderful options Flash and other technologies offer.