Maya VPS

Preparing a Video for FLV Playback

8 months ago on December 12th
1083 views, 0/5 rating, No comments yet
adobe, encoder, flash, flv, media, playback, tutorial, video

We're going to build a custom Flash Video Player using a combination of Flash's pre-defined components and ActionScript 3 with some of our own symbols. First, we need the video to be prepped and ready to be played on the web. For this, we're going to use the FLV format, which reaches 99% of internet-enabled desktops thanks to Adobe's Flash Player. The FLV format is ideal in it's reach level and quality-weight ratio.

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Classic Firefox Add-ons

8 months ago on January 3rd
839 views, 4/5 rating, No comments yet
adblock, add-ons, browsers, cookies, developer, download, firefox, ftp, media

I've been using Firefox since the early 2000s and still maintain a strong relationship with it. What keeps me from switching to a different browser is its massive add-ons library, it's compliance with W3C standards, and its nondiscriminatory attitude towards operating systems. Enjoy a great list of favorite, essential add-ons!

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The Wayback Machine

5 months ago on March 21st
803 views, 0/5 rating, 1 Comment
archive, media, top sites

So browsing the Internet, I discovered the Wayback Machine. Thanks to Internet Archive, you can see what web sites looked in their early days and see each month of progress. Mainly, let's take a look at Alexa's Top Sites worldwide on the Internet to see how each one has changed over the years. We won't be looking deeply into the purpose, but rather design and usability upgrades.

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Creating a Basic Flash Video Player

8 months ago on December 15th
717 views, 0/5 rating, No comments yet
adobe, components, disney, flash, flv, oceans, playback, tutorial, video

So now that we have our video we can open up Flash and start working on the player. Flash makes creating components easy with the Components and Component Inspector panels. We could write the ActionScript to generate these components from scratch or we could take advantage of these and drag and drop them to the stage.

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Are You a Squatter?

8 months ago on December 17th
708 views, 0/5 rating, 2 Comments
apple, cnet, cyber, dell, domain, maya, microsoft, nic, squatting, verizon

So, we've all done it. Mistyped a URL and gotten a page full of useless ads. Not until recently did I decide to check out omarmaya.com, a domain name I registered in July of 2008 which expired a year later. I had no intention of renewing this name, so I let it go, regardless of all the junk mail I received from various registrars asking me to renew it. I was a little surprised when I typed in my old domain name it returned a page full of advertisement links. I asked myself, "Who would want to squat me?" Maybe it's for a different Omar Maya; regardless, they are squatting a person's name.

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Understanding IP Addresses

7 months ago on January 16th
651 views, 0/5 rating, 3 Comments
domain, hosts, ip, map, network, php, proxy, trace, user agent

In essence, an IP address is a numeric address of a computer network or a single computer. Public IP addresses are assigned by their respective organizations. Most computers, referred to as hosts from now on, have two to three IP addresses. Each of these have a certain meaning to other hosts it might communicate with. If you have a router, all of the information exchanged between local devices and external hosts will go through your router.

Types of IP Addresses

Self IP Address
This IP address is used by your own computer when communicating with itself through transfer protocols.

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Sniffing phpMyAdmin Vulnerabilities

8 months ago on December 24th
583 views, 0/5 rating, No comments yet
htaccess, htpasswd, mysql, phpmyadmin, root, ssl, xss

For those running phpMyAdmin as an aid for navigating through MySQL, you must remember to secure both your MySQL and phpMyAdmin installations. This applies especially to a dedicated server. Looking through some access logs I encountered some strange visits.

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Bitmap vs. Vector

6 months ago on February 12th
561 views, 0/5 rating, No comments yet
bitmap, media, paths, pixels, resolution, vector

When it comes to computer-related media, the biggest confusion I seem to see is between vector and bitmap images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF files). Any image can be made into a bitmap, but a bitmap cannot be made into a vector image without redrawing every line to create a new file completely. Bitmap uses tiny squares each with its own color to make up an image, while vector uses mathematical points and lines connected to each other to enclose a shape. Each serve their own purpose in design work.

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The Ball is Rolling

8 months ago on December 5th
555 views, 0/5 rating, 2 Comments
ball, introduction, rolling, welcome

Introductions, Introductions...
Welcome! I'm excited to present this web site to you. I've developed this web site with PHP and MySQL; so, since it's quite fresh, I will be adapting new features as the content and visitors call for them.

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Wired vs. Wireless

7 months ago on January 31st
514 views, 0/5 rating, 1 Comment
ethernet, network, verizon, wifi, wired, wireless

After some deliberation as to whether a wireless or wired connection is better I decided to put them to the test.

The Five Factors

• Cost
• Installation
• Security
• Reliability
• Performance

The Aspects

Cost
Usually CAT5 cables required for wired networks run about $0.80 per foot. While hubs and routers required to keep hot spots constant are $100+. Although, there would also be labor costs involved in running cables throughout the building should they not have been.

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