Flash is a program used to make animations and games that are most commonly used on the internet. You can also make website templates or a full blown website with it. Adobe and/or Macromedia has a nice flash program. The newest version of there flash program is CS4. It's everything you could possibly need for animating.

What is a pre-loader?

Well a flash pre-loader is just a loading bar for an animation or game. But there's a little more to it then you would think. Without one of these, when someone was to view your flash file it would just have a blank screen until the file loads. With one of these it will show how much of the file has been loaded. Just like a loading bar you've probably seen on things before.

How to make a pre-loader.

Here are some step by step instructions that should help you make a pre-loader in your adobe flash animation.

1. Open a new ActionScript 2.0 file
2. Create an animation
3. Add a blank keyframe for the very first frame in this animation.
4. Right click on the first frame and click on actions
5. Give it the action (copy and paste)

stop();
onEnterFrame = function() {
var amount:Number = this.getBytesLoaded()/ this.getBytesTotal() *100;v
loader._xscale = amount 
if(amount == 100) {
this.gotoAndPlay(2);
delete this.onEnterFrame;
}

}

• Next draw a rectangle you want for your pre-loader
• save that rectangle as a symbol and make it a movie clip
• click on the rectangle you have out on the stage in your animation
• then go to properties and give it the instance name loader

Now when you test your animation the loader wont work but it will when its on a website, such as newgrounds.

From the age of around five I have been using a computer, of course there were a few mild mishaps at an age so young, such as when I stood on the CD drive and snapped it off or when the screen came crashing to the ground. But I have learnt from these experiences and from that I have gained more knowledge so that now at the age of 14 I know not to stand on the CD drive and not to use the screen as a step ladder. But learning from small things like that has allowed me to become confident enough to build my own computer and almost secure me a position in the IT industry.

But for a majority of people a Pentium Processor is completely irrelevant to their understanding of computers as is a Hard Drive and Graphics Card etc. And sometimes I wish I was one of those people who didn’t have to know about technology and just lived life easily and relaxed but life isn’t like that, we are all here for a reason and we all have a purpose, but that’s a whole other story that I will rant on about some other time. Back to technology;

One great thing about computers and the Internet is money. It is a huge industry and one of the main way users earn money off of the internet is through advertising. I built a blog/website about a specific computer that I own, www.imacupdate.blogspot.com and on the site you will notice there are adverts. Every time someone clicks on one of them I get paid. Simple as that, and that is one of the reasons people are quitting their jobs to become these so called ‘Internet Entrepreneurs’ expecting to make millions from doing nothing. It just doesn’t work; it takes weeks if not months to even get it started and you may still only earn small change. I won’t say how much I earn but if you are interested please email me at the address at the bottom of the page.

Now onto the problems with computers, it’s always when you most need to use it. You need to e-mail some really important work to someone or need to retrieve a file from your computer. Then you hear the dreaded beeps just seconds after you turn on the computer and an error message saying ‘Warning, major system error…’ Oh fiddle, what can you do, the list is endless, restart, Ctrl + Alt + Del, off and on at the wall, check all the connections (by the way, in my experience, it has never been because of a loose connection otherwise it wouldn’t turn on, duhh), the list never ends. Finally you give up and take it to your local computer repair shop. They will then keep it for a number of months because the employees are too busy fantasizing over the new 8GB RAM module that has just been released.

Once you finally get it back in 2013 you are only too pleased to find that it has been repaired and everything is working again. Only when you get home to find that your Hard Drive has been wiped clean, all of your Photos, Music and Videos are gone. You then spend an hour cursing down the telephone at the manager and the best answer the can come up with is something you don’t understand. You then accept defeat and retire to bed.

Computers can cause more stress in a few hours than anything else can in a lifetime. Therefore, only buy one if you need one. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it.

In other words; to all the loyal fans who have supported Apple by buying its products and standing by them in the face of a market dominated by Microsoft, to all those who kept it from going under when no one else would buy their expensive, over priced products, and to all those who went to the time and the trouble of actually going to a Macworld expo: Apple say “thank you, but we don't need you any more, now that we're popular”. How many people are now disappointed with themselves – that having taken the time and trouble to go to Macworld, to show their support, now they are faced with the reality that Apple can't be bothered going to its own trade show?

Apple would have us remember that it “ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh.” Today they want you to think that it “continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.”

But they fail to mention that between these times there was a whole decade where nobody wanted them. It was during those troubled times that a small band of diehard fans kept them alive. These fans stuck by them and continued to buy their overpriced equipment when no one else would. If it hadn't been for these fans, Apple would not have been around to take hold of its new found glory. So loyal fans, trail yourselves to Macworld 2010, and ask yourselves, what are you doing there?

Computer Specs

Intel core 2 quad Q9400 CPU @ 2.67 GHZ
4GB DDR3 RAM
Asus 4870 wth 512MB DDR5 memory
500GB HDD
windows 7 6956 / Vista Dual boot    32 BIT!!

Have XP on another laptop to compare with
I used my friends mac to test mac OSX speeds

First, looks

When I first got in and activated windows 7 it came up with a more polished and a refined look that far surpassed the look of vista. With the addition of the new super bar and the new revised gadgets it became easier to navigate through and actually looked quite beautiful. From the New boot screen to the new window transitions I found it look a hell of alot better than vista, But how does it perform?

Performance

I remember how vista was originally extremely slow and with the addition of service pack one it's still not up to par in speed and performance as XP or Mac leopard. So how does windows 7 improve on those issues?. As soon as I started to boot up windows 7 I already noticed the huge speed up times. On vista it originally would take me about a minute to boot the computer, now with windows 7 I get approximately 30 seconds. That's half the times of vista! As soon as windows 7 loads the desktop, I could notice that the transitions have been smoothed to perfection. The OS feels so much faster and the load times when opening programs have decreased drastically. Windows 7 just feels alot better than vista does when changing between programs.

Features

One of the new really amazing things in windows 7 is the super bar, which is very similar to the dock on the Mac OSX. It uses a special docking feature that you can pin almost every program to. Another great feature for it is aero peek which utilizes the desktop preview function, when you hover your mouse over the desktop preview of a window it automatically appears and when you move it away it goes back to your previous window. This makes it very easy to multitask. Another amazing way to multitask is to the use the aerosnap feature in which you move windows to each corner of the screen and it will snap to it; making it possible to say, work on two documents at the same time. Or say your writing and essay, you could snap the information to one side, and open your document on the other. Windows 7 now features jump lists which are an easier way to access a program or find a folder. By right clicking on one of your icons in the taskbar up comes the list, with your options for your program that you selected. I't was also great that I found that all my Drivers, Programs and games were all compatible with windows 7! And this was just the beta!

Final Words

Words can't explain how amazing this new OS really is. Just give it a try, I guarantee you will be amazed.

9/10

Let me list this out for you.

Macs claim they have

-Great surfing ability

-Awesome software like Garage Band and such.

-A webcam with fun distortions and effects

-Easy to use editing software

The list goes on but at what price are you willing to pay for 512 megs of ram a single core possessor and a sleek black casing? Well be willing to shovel out about 2ooo dollars.

Now my alienware m15x comes with every single one of those features but double the ram/prossessors and graphics capabilities but for 200 dollars less.

Not to mention for having such great software Mac actually uses Microsoft office programs rather than developing their own.

Ill be the first to admit i hate vista but a PC with windows XP is a sound investment in my book at least until about 4 years from now when vista will be required and even then will still be better money on Mac's who only slander PC rather than boasting on their great units, well I suppose they really cant do that because they have nothing to boast about.

"That will never catch on," I told my friends and teachers. "That's just a novelty, a toy. Who would really want to create art on a computer?"

Little did I know that a little over ten years later I would be sitting in a college training to become a graphic designer. I could kick myself for not learning the computer back in high school when I had the chance. Oh sure, I had played around on a computer at home when I was a kid. Our family even owned an Apple™ knock-off called Franklin. (they went out of business years ago.) I would spend hours copying code from a magazine just to get the think to print a calendar or something similar. But, alas, no Photoshop.™ So, when I sat in that first day of design school and waited for the professor to come in and teach me about the Apple Macintosh™ I was understandably a little nervous.

But, like anything else in life, I learned that if you don't dive in head first you don't learn a whole lot. I tried my best and studied hard. There was a time when I really hated Photoshop™ because I just didn't get it. It was too complicated and the instructor seemed to talk way too fast in a language of terms that were completely foreign to me at the time such as scanning, frequency, dots per inch and resolution. This was in the mid 90's so a lot of this was new to everyone. We were learning Photoshop 3.0.™ If you are familiar with the program's history you will know that it was very primitive at this stage.

Eventually I excelled and started to enjoy creating art in Photoshop.™ One of the things that I learned quickly and really seemed to help was keyboard shortcuts. My instructor couldn't say it enough. He would say that if we didn't learn our keyboard shortcuts we would not be able to meet our deadlines and if we didn't meet deadlines we would be out of a job. Boy was he right! So, that's why I am going to stress to you that you go about learning your keyboard shortcuts. I will outline some simple ones for you and tell you some ways to learn on your own.

Most people that use the computer regularly are familiar with the basics shortcuts for a computer. But, just in case I will go over a few. Generally the first letter of a word is matched with the command key (apple) or the control key (PC). Such as command or control - P is usually print on most computers. Similarly, command or control - O is usually open. As a designer you will definitely want to familiarize yourself with the copy, cut and paste shortcuts. They should be about the same for any application. They are command or control - C for copy, command or control - V for paste and command or control - X for cut.

The industry standard design programs that I use are Adobe Photoshop™, Adobe Illustrator™ and Adobe InDesign.™ When you buy these applications they usually come with a cheat sheet with several shortcuts. I urge you to use these as much as possible if you want to be an efficient designer. You will be amazed at the time it will shave off your day and allow you to finish your jobs faster (or goof off sooner as the case may be!).

Another important factor regarding keyboard shortcuts is the placement of your hand. You should keep your fingers placed near the command or control keys so that you can place your thumb on the modifier key (the first key to be placed) and then the corresponding letter. Such as command or control - P for print. After a while of working this way you will not even notice you're doing it. You can also make use of a two-button mouse. The right button generally takes the place of the modifier and when pressed will bring up a menu of commands.

If you have been meaning to learn your keyboard shortcuts and haven't because you feel it is too time-consuming or demanding I have some suggestions. Try learning just one shortcut a day. Work all day with this one shortcut only and try to only use the shortcut for executing this particular command. Or you could try two or three a day if you are brave. Then, the next day, or in a few days, whatever you feel comfortable with - try some more. Eventually you will learn several of them and they will become second nature to you.

If for some reason your software did not come with a cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts there are several websites that list them that you could print out or you could simply just look in the menus of the program. For example, in Photoshop™ - the keyboard shortcuts are always listed to the right of the command in the menus. Take note of these and start using them. You will see a marked improvement in your speed and you will free up more time for other things. For more information you should also visit Adobe software's website at http://www.adobe.com.

          The new touch pad deserves its own paragraph because it’s so important. Instead of the traditional touchpad and button the entire thing is a touch pad. Apple had gotten rid of the button and made the whole touch pad one giant button. The user can click anywhere on the pad, but the higher you click the more resistance. The touchpad also has finger gestures such as scroll down/up and the like.

The macbook pro's new screen is very nice. It has a gloss finish. Some people say that the gloss finish makes the screen reflective. The only problem with the screen is when using the macbook in a very bright room the screen becomes a little hard to see. 

The graphics on the macbook are exceptional! Apple really went all out on this front. They have included both an intergrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M along with a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT. If you're a gamer the nacbook should provide ou with no problems. All the games I have played and the videos I have watched were, in one word, stunning.

          The macbook pro is as fast as ever and provides for a very comfortable internet browsing experience. Pages load fast, the screen is bright and vibrant, videos look gorgeous, and really what else could you ask for? Bottom line the new macbook pro is a great laptop. Anyone in the market for a new computer should consider the macbook pro. It is a great computer.

Though both the PCs and the Macs retain the feature of running an operating system, the operating systems that can be installed on each computer vary. An operating system is a collection of software that runs the computer while it is on. Nearly any operating system can be installed on a PC, including Windows and Linux. The only operating system that cannot be legally installed on a PC is the Mac OS. The Mac OS comes in several versions, and a new version is released nearly every year. Most PCs include an operating system pre-installed. Macs come pre-installed with Mac OS X, a series of Mac OS operating systems that have been used since September 13, 2000. The current Mac OS X version is Mac OS X 10.5.4 Leopard, and a future version of Mac OS X is planned for release sometime during the summer of 2009. Through the assistance of Boot Camp, a program that has been included with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and will be included in future versions, users are allowed to install different operating systems onto their Mac through the creation of partitions on their hard drive. Just as an operating system is a form of software, security programs are also a vital form of software for a computer.

Security is another issue between the PCs and the Macs. Both PCs and Macs have the ability to log onto the internet, and when they have fully accessed the internet, they can be easily bombarded by viruses, spyware, and adware; which are all harmful to a computer, whether it is a PC or a Mac. PCs never come with security software, and the Windows operating systems do not include security. Macs, however, have built in, high-level security that is built into Mac OS X because the operating system is coded in Unix, a form of coding language. Along with software differences, PCs and Macs have differences in hardware.

Hardware-wise, Macs and PCs are very different. The most noticeable design feature on the Mac is a glowing Apple logo. Macs usually have a glowing Apple logo on the lid of notebooks or the side of desktops. The design of a PC varies by the company that developed it. Ever since Apple has started using the PowerPC G4 Processor platform, they have started to use more environmentally-friendly materials in their Macs, such as aluminum and glass. Most Macs these days are made of aluminum, and have a glass monitor. For one to upgrade the hardware of a PC or a Mac is not uncommon. Hardware upgrades allow computers to run faster and more efficiently. Most upgrades on a laptop are for RAM, yet on the Apple MacBook, upgrading the hard drive, normally a difficult feat on a PC, is easy. Apple's professional desktop, the Mac Pro, contains no visible internal wires, and there are very few situations where a screw driver is required for an upgrade. Though the PC and Mac are very similar and different in scores of ways, they have made a great impact on the world today.

Computers have been the scaffolds for world-changing innovations since their creation, and they impact the world greatly. I could never imagine the world without computers, and the introduction of PCs and Macs has only opened a door of opportunity for the world, and although they are very different, they have created the path for more advanced technology, and will send mankind further into the future.

Go through the checklist.

1. Your computer is not overheated

2. Your battery is not dead, flip the mac over and click the button. If at least one light turns on that's not blinking, it's charged enough. 3. Plug it in to the wall with a charger and then try it. (For if it won't turn on)

Now, do these few things. It may fix some stuff.

1. Hold down the power button for a while, till the sleep button (Bottom frame, lower right corner) blinks, and let it turn on.

2. Start up holding alt, choose Mac HD, and let it turn on.

3. If frameworks are messed up, do an "Archive and Install' From your Tiger/Leopard install disk.

4. If all else fails, bring it to the apple store.

I've found out a few of these from various people, and decided to compile them into one place.

You can go to here and download helpful widgets to the program which help you on your daily computer using. Tip on using Dashboard: If you press F4 you can open Dashboard anytime. Trick 5. : If you press Alt+Command+Esc you open the Force quit window where you can force unresponsive programs to quit. Super Special Trick: You can actually install Windows on a Mac and run them at the same time.

To do that Download and Install VMware Fusion from here and open it. Then coose New Virtual Machine and select the operating system of your Windows copy. Then insert your Windows installation disk and open the New virtual Machine you created. Then Follow the steps of installing Windows and Voila you will have a fully operating Windows emulation on your Mac. Trick 6. : You can use the program Time Machine to copy all of your files on your computer when you do something risky so if you lose some files you can use time machine to bring them back. That's all for now and Thanks for reading. Hope you learned something here.