O'Reilly News & Commentary

The maker movement's potential for education, jobs and innovation is growing - "MAKE" founder Dale Dougherty was named a "Champion of Change" by the White House.

By Alex Howard
November 4, 2011

Dale Dougherty, one of the co-founders of O'Reilly Media, was honored by the White House as a "Champion of Change" for his work on "MAKE" Magazine, MakerFaire and the broader DIY movement.

High voltage music: Behind the scenes with ArcAttack - A look at the technology behind ArcAttack's Tesla coil music show.

By James Turner
September 27, 2011

ArcAttack creates a maniacal combination of music and mad science that uses half-million-volt Tesla coils to play songs. We caught up with Steve Ward, a recent addition to the ArcAttack crew, at MakerFaire NY and asked him about the technology behind the show.

Developer Week in Review: iPhone 5 is still on hold - Waiting for iPhone 5, patent madness continues, and the geeks will soon descend on New York.

By James Turner
September 9, 2011

We've been waiting for months, but the iPhone 5 is still getting ready. Elsewhere, Google lends HTC some ammo for the patent wars, and the Makers will soon gather in New York.

Maker Faire Detroit this weekend - Maker Faire Detroit will be held July 30 and 31

By Dale Dougherty
July 29, 2011

In our second Detroit Maker Faire we're able to see all kinds of examples of how makers have become resources for the community, contributing in Detroit and the region.

Tinkering with technology education - The maker movement's many entry points create a welcoming environment for tech education.

By Marie Bjerede
June 6, 2011

The maker movement offers an appealing invitation to technology for a broad audience that includes both women and men, seniors and children, technologists and artists.

2 makers, 2 robots, 2 visions - An errand car and a ball-shaped 'bot illustrate Maker Faire's robotic diversity.

By James Turner
May 6, 2011

In advance of the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area, here's a look at two vastly different robotics projects: one aims to change the world while the other wants to roll around (and inspire some healthy creativity).

Four Short Links: 16 March 2011 - Javascript Fiddling, Securing Web Traffic, DIY Jumbotron, and Kinect Tesla Fun

By Nat Torkington
March 16, 2011

JS Fiddle -- an online editor for snippets build from HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The code can then be shared with others, embedded on a blog, etc. (via Darren Wood) SideStep -- Mac OS X program that automatically routes connections through a secure proxy when you're on an unsecured wifi network. (via Gina Trapani) Junkyard Jumbotron (MIT) -- lets...

A New Team, A New Vision Part 4

By Tom Barker
January 24, 2011

The floor is electric since we've had our new team structure. Everyone is excited to be working together and excited about what they are doing. This heightened level of engagement is thrilling and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Strata Week: Data centers - Solving the problem of where to store huge amounts of data

By Julie Steele
January 13, 2011

This week, we look at the problem of too much government data, and companies beginning to build air-economized data centers (some in barns!). Plus: a few suggestions for pre-Strata reading on big data.

Hacking AIR for Android 2/2: Google Tracking without Javascript

By Sidney de Koning
January 5, 2011

For a test project I was doing I wanted a way to collect data about the device, but since you can't use JavaScript from an Android application created in AS3, because its not hosted within an HTML page, this forced...

Everyone loves a science fair - Get your submission in for the Strata Conference Science Fair by January 14.

By Alistair Croll
January 4, 2011

Strata's science fair will showcase the creative edges of big data. If you have an interesting tool or technology to show -- the more beta, the better -- let us know.

2011 Conferences

By Jesse Freeman
December 28, 2010

Here are a list of conferences worth checking out in 2011.

delicious-flex-client (a.ka.a 'Yumify')

By Mike Slinn
December 21, 2010

What with the ongoing drama around Yahoo's Delicious product, I discovered that there are many alternative services with similar features. I moved to Pinboard, which has a compatible API. I whipped up an open source management client for Delicious and...

Hacking AIR for Android 1/2: Getting device specific properties

By Sidney de Koning
December 16, 2010

Ever since the pre-release beta of AIR for Android, I've been kind of frustrated/inspired that there was no API for getting out very specific device information. I would like to get information like Device Brand, Model, OS version and CPU,...

AIR For Android On Tablets

By Jesse Freeman
December 14, 2010

This was a big year for Flash on Mobile devices. Not only has Flash finally made its way onto Android, Android itself is taking over the mobile space in a big way. It is clear that Adobe has a vested...

Announcing TOC Bologna - O'Reilly teams up with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair for TOC Bologna in March of 2011

By Kat Meyer
November 26, 2010

O'Reilly Media and the Bologna Children's Book Fair today announce the first Tools of Change for Publishing event at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. TOC Bologna will be a one day conference held on Sunday 27 March 2011, focussing on digital and mobile technology.

NMEA2000 Design Tool AIR Application

By Mike Slinn
October 29, 2010

If you are an avid sailor or power boater, you might have heard about the NMEA 2000 standard. Originally based on the CAN bus technology introduced for cars in 1986, NMEA 2000 carries instrumentation and control information and is designed...

Create your 1st Flex based AIR on Android Application

By Rich Tretola
October 25, 2010

Flex Builder Burrito is finally here and I know that you are chomping at the bit to start building Flex based Android applications. This tutorial will walk you through creating your first Flex Multi Screen application for Adobe AIR on...

QOW: Are you building mobile applications?

By Rich Tretola
October 12, 2010

Are you building mobile applications? HTML or Flash for browser based mobile apps, AIR on Android, Objective C, Java, JavaScript for installable mobile applications? What are you building? What technology are you using? Please let us know what challenges you...

Adobe AIR for Android Now Available

By Rich Tretola
October 8, 2010

The Adobe AIR runtime for Android devises is now available in the Android Marketplace. Go get it today!...

Innovation, education and Makers - Thomas Kalil: What would education look like after a Maker make-over?

By Dale Dougherty
October 4, 2010

During a recent workshop, Thomas Kalil of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy explored the impact of the DIY mindset on education and industry. The full text of Kalil's talk is included in this post.

Android App Development with Adobe's AIR 2.5

By Matthew David
October 4, 2010

Today, there are 5 Billion people around the world using mobile phones. It is a staggering figure. No other technology is advancing at the rapid speed the mobile industry is experiencing. As a frame of reference, there are only 1.7...

Bookish Techy Week in Review - Snooki to publish; yet more surveys on who is reading how; tablet sales continue to rise; TOC Frankfurt preview

By Kat Meyer
October 1, 2010

This week we noticed: Snooki getting a book deal; Google taking an instant dislike to certain word searches; children liking ebooks; Amazon setting up shop at Facebook; Babylonian poetry finding its voice; and some people cutting up their personal library books.

A World's Faire for Makers - A preview of Maker Faire New York.

By Dale Dougherty
September 24, 2010

The first Maker Faire on the east coast takes place this weekend on the grounds of the New York Hall of Science in Queens, the site of the 1964 World's Fair. Here's a preview of talks, events, and performances.

RIAUnleashed - a two day Flash conference in Boston

By Elad Elrom
September 24, 2010

I want to talk about an awesome event coming up November 11, 2010 called RIA Unleashed. I attended this event for the first time last year and it was awesome! They had the top speakers in the industry, great topics...

It's a time-sharing world - "The Mesh" author Lisa Gansky on the shift from ownership to sharing.

By Dale Dougherty
September 22, 2010

Why own when sharing will do? In this interview, "The Mesh" author Lisa Gansky discusses the rise of sharing goods and services and how companies are adapting.

Introducing AntPile

By Jesse Freeman
September 13, 2010

AntPile is an AS 3 project template complete with ANT build script and unit testing scaffolding. It also supports automating Air for Android APK compiling and deploying to phones.

The Louvre of the Industrial Age - The Henry Ford is one of the world's great museums, and the world it chronicles is our own.

By Tim O'Reilly
July 30, 2010

I would never in a hundred years have thought of making a visit to Detroit just to visit The Henry Ford museum, but knowing what I know now, I will tell you confidently that it is as worth your while as a visit to Paris just to see the Louvre, to Rome for the Vatican Museum, or to Florence for the Uffizi Gallery. This is truly one of the world's great museums, and the world that it chronicles is our own.

Detroit 2.0: Motor City to Maker City

By Dale Dougherty
July 27, 2010

Maker Faire Detroit opens this coming weekend at The Henry Ford in Dearborn. Our goal is to create a fun, family-friendly event and showcase talented makers from Michigan and aroundthe Midwest. I also think the event gives us an opportunity to consider ways that makers can be part of re-inventing Detroit from the ground-up. This Thursday, just before Maker Faire...

Detroit Can Do Camp - July 29

By Dale Dougherty
July 21, 2010

As part of the week leading up to Maker Faire Detroit, we have organized Can Do Camp for Thursday, July 29 at Eastern Market in Detroit. Can Do Camp is an informal day for makers to meet each other and explore the DIY mindset. This mindset is a powerful and positive force for building hands-on communites as well as fostering...

Flex 4.1 and Flash Builder 4.0.1 released

By RJ Owen
July 1, 2010

It's a good day for Flex news. Hot off the heals of the Hero announcement is the announcement that Adobe has released the Flex 4.1 SDK and an update to Flash Builder 4.

Announcing Hero, the next Flex SDK

By RJ Owen
July 1, 2010

Today Adobe announced "Hero", the next version of the Flex SDK. Hero builds on previous versions of Flex and focuses on bringing full multi-screen development (Mobile), updates to the Spark component set, and improving existing features for building large-scale applications. Hero will be officially released sometime in the second half of this year with plans for a final release in 2011.

Flex 4.1 and Flash Builder 4.0.1 released

By RJ Owen
July 1, 2010

It's a good day for Flex news. Hot off the heals of the Hero announcement is the announcement that Adobe has released the Flex 4.1 SDK and an update to Flash Builder 4.

Announcing Hero, the next Flex SDK

By RJ Owen
July 1, 2010

Today Adobe announced "Hero", the next version of the Flex SDK. Hero builds on previous versions of Flex and focuses on bringing full multi-screen development (Mobile), updates to the Spark component set, and improving existing features for building large-scale applications. Hero will be officially released sometime in the second half of this year with plans for a final release in 2011.

Androideroids: Grant Skinner's Multi-Screen Asteroids Game

By RJ Owen
June 22, 2010

Flash Platform whiz Grant Skinner has released a video of his latest project. Dubbed "Androideroids", it is a multi-player version of the game Asteroids in which players control their individual ships using Android phones which connect to a desktop client that displays the full game. The game is powered by Adobe AIR, with an AIR client running on a laptop connected to the main screen and AIR clients running on each mobile device to control the individual ships.

Androideroids: Grant Skinner's Multi-Screen Asteroids Game

By RJ Owen
June 22, 2010

Flash Platform whiz Grant Skinner has released a video of his latest project. Dubbed "Androideroids", it is a multi-player version of the game Asteroids in which players control their individual ships using Android phones which connect to a desktop client that displays the full game. The game is powered by Adobe AIR, with an AIR client running on a laptop connected to the main screen and AIR clients running on each mobile device to control the individual ships.

Flash Camp Manchester

By Rich Tretola
June 21, 2010

Last year Flash Midlands staged Flash Camp Birmingham, a completely free event that attracted over 200 Flash professionals for a day of inspiring presentations and networking opportunities. This year we've gone a little further and put Manchester on the Flash...

Flash Camp Manchester

By Rich Tretola
June 21, 2010

Last year Flash Midlands staged Flash Camp Birmingham, a completely free event that attracted over 200 Flash professionals for a day of inspiring presentations and networking opportunities. This year we've gone a little further and put Manchester on the Flash...

AIR 2.0 NativeProcess API - What’s It Good For?

By Joseph Labrecque
June 15, 2010

While there are a few examples available for connecting AIR applications to native operating system processes today, most of them are basic "Hello World" examples, or happen to be purely theoretical. I've only come across one or two real...

AIR 2.0 NativeProcess API - What’s It Good For?

By Joseph Labrecque
June 15, 2010

While there are a few examples available for connecting AIR applications to native operating system processes today, most of them are basic "Hello World" examples, or happen to be purely theoretical. I've only come across one or two real...

What the AIR 2.0 and FP 10.1 releases mean to you

By RJ Owen
June 10, 2010

Adobe has somewhat silently released AIR 2.0 and Flash Player 10.1 today. If you haven't been part of the pre-release, here's what these releases mean to you.

Adobe Releases AIR 2.0 and FP 10.1

By Andrew Trice
June 10, 2010

AIR 2.0 and Flash 10.1 have been officially released! You can download AIR directly from: http://get.adobe.com/air/, and Flash Player 10.1 directly from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. Go get them!

Flex 4 Cookbook $9.99 (ebook)

By Rich Tretola
June 10, 2010

The O'Reilly eBook deal of the day is the Flex 4 cookbook by Joshua Noble, Todd Anderson, Garth Braithwaite, Marco Casario, and Rich Tretola. Today Only! You can get it for only $9.99. Flex 4 Cookbook http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805623/ Use discount...

Building Flash Frogger For Android In A Week

By Jesse Freeman
June 8, 2010

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over - Building Flash Frogger For Android In...

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