greynode

Using SSL for HTTPService communication and loading images is very easy in Flex 4. There are differences between using HTTPService over SSL and loading images over SSL, however neither is complicated.

Communication using HTTPService over SSL

1. Host the flex 4 application on an SSL enabled host
2. Ensure the application is loaded over SSL (i.e. the URL has https:// prefix)
3. Make HTTPService.url a relative path to where the SWF is stored

Using SSL for mx:Image

Set the Image.source attribute to the full URL, including the https:// prefix, like so:

<mx:Image source="https://server.com/image.jpg"/>

Here is an example of a shader written in the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL). It is very simple shader, only assigning 4 different color values, yet the result is pretty cool. I’ll post the link to the source code once I add it to my git repository.

For introductory material on GLSL, check out Lighthouse 3D (where I got this cartoon example). Also check out the orange book for more in-depth discussion and examples on shaders.

A funny post on comp.lang.c.

Thought I would share an interesting article on why there are no games on linux. Want more games on linux? Solve these problems!

Recently the rsync server at work broke down, and I needed a quick solution for incremental backup using just FTP. As it turns out, the FreeBSD version of tar is not GNU tar. So in order to use the following trick on FreeBSD, the gtar port must be installed. Once you have the software, making an increment backup with tar is easy:

$ gtar -g /backup/tar-incremental.log -cjvf /backup/backup.tar.bz2 /etc /usr/local/etc/ /usr/www

The tar-incremental.log file must be saved as it contains information for the incremental backup. Every time you run this file a new file will be created, so do not over-write your files. A more in-depth discussion can be found on the GNU tar incremental backup page.