My take on decompiling SWF

zedia.net — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:10:49 +0000

I didn’t read (or listen, I don’t remember if it was a video) Lee Brimelow article on decompilation but I know he his not against it. In the same way, I also believe decompiling other’s work is a positive thing. I remember doing my first webpage (html) and to add cool stuff to it (nice javascript and strange html tags) all you had to do was to right click, choose view source and apply it in your context. Back then you were on your own, but what you would learn there you wouldn’t forget because you worked to extract the knowledge from the cryptic code. What you learned was then added to your toolbox; you could build better webpages. The entire internet grew from the view source feature.

I believe it should be the same with Flash. Every day you can see an awesome piece of creativity if you go to theFWA.com; sometimes you know how it is done, sometimes you don’t. This is the time where you should reverse engineer the work. Learn how they did it, how they solved certain problems. You should do so, not to replicate the piece, but to make it your own. Mix it with what you already know or give it a new twist; do something even better. That is how you should pay back.

The community, platform (Flash) would grow from this. People would start decompiling your work and even better pieces would be created. In the end, we would all win from this. Better creations means more confidence in the platform, more money invested into it (Adobe, web agencies) and more jobs.

If you think individually, you’ll only see the bad sides of decompiling, but if you open your mind and have a broader view, you’ll understand the benefits.

Online Awards for Flash Websites

zedia.net — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:33:49 +0000

I compiled a small list of award websites at work and I tought it would be usefull to share it here too. I didn’t test any of those yet, so I don’t know which give the best results in term of traffic and visibility but here is what I have right now:

Favorite website awards (you have to pay) (25 words desc)
http://www.thefwa.com/

Dope awards (35 words desc)
http://www.dopeawards.com/

Design Licks
http://www.designlicks.com/

Best Web Gallery
http://bestwebgallery.com/category/flash/

Design Flavr (needs a screenshot of at least 523px)
http://www.designflavr.com/category/flash/

Design Snack (needs a screenshot 389 x 180px)
http://www.designsnack.com/

101 best websites (requires login)
http://101bestwebsites.com/category/flash

Inspiration Up
http://inspirationup.com

Website Design Awards
http://websitedesignawards.com/index.php/category/flash-gallery/

Spyline
http://spyline.de/section/flash

Creative Website Awards
http://www.creativewebsiteawards.com/

Mowsnet Web Awards
http://www.mows.sk/awards/index.php

iBlog
http://iblog.chubzz.com/

Another Bookmark
http://anotherbookmark.com/

Refresh links (nothing new since may 2008)
http://refreshlinks.org.uk/

Flash in the pan (seems outdated nov 2008)
http://www.flash-in-the-pan.org/

Flash Blasted (seems outdated nov 2008)
http://flashblasted.com/

Flash Galleria (seems outdated)
http://www.flashgalleria.com/

New Web Pick (requires a login and does not seem so relevant)
http://www.newwebpick.com/

I classified them by relevance from my first impression, so as you go down the list, the less relevant and usefull becomes the link. This list will have to be updated as I compile results from them.

zedia flash blog » FWA

My take on decompiling SWF

Online Awards for Flash Websites