Here be a list of Frequently Asked Questions presented in a professional-looking bullet-pointed fashion.  If you've read the FAQs and are still none the wiser, feel free to email me with your woes and I'll do my bestest to help...

 

The facts :: Neave Games :: Flash Earth :: Neave.tv

The facts

• What?

  My name is Paul Neave.  I'm a typical person with hair and skin and lots of flappy bits.  Yes we all have flappy bits.  No use in denying it.

• Are you available for work?

  I'm afraid I'm not taking on any freelance work at this time as I'm very busy with many new and exciting personal projects for Neave.com, but thanks for considering me.

• How can I learn the ways of the Flash?

  Lay your paws on a free trial copy of Adobe Flash and try out the tutorials that come with it.  Once you've covered the basics, head over to one of the many Flash community sites such as Ultrashock, We're Here, Kirupa, GotoAndPlay.it or Adobe's Flash Developer Center.  More importantly, make sure you enjoy playing with Flash otherwise it's not worth it.

• What Flash books can you recommend?

  Don't read any books if you're just starting with Flash, start by using the tutorials that come with Flash and learn from first hand experience — you'll enjoy it a lot more and will gain a real sense of personal achievement.  Then if you're looking to sharpen your coding skills, I'd recommend Colin Moock's ActionScript books, namely ActionScript Definitive Guide for Flash MX, Essential ActionScript 2.0, or the excellent new Essential ActionScript 3.0.

• Can you teach me Flash?

  I'm a hopeless instructor — you'd be much better off learning by playing with Flash yourself than listening to me dribbling on about ones and zeros.

• Do you have any tips?

  Turn the computer off and read something new.  Sit on a park bench and gawp aimlessly at the clouds or stars above you.  Smile like an idiot.  Count your blessings.  Don't worry about the future.  Don't think too much.  Don't take life too seriously.  Don't pay attention to a word I say.

Neave Games

• Can I add a game to my website/MySpace/Facebook profile?

  You can use the code found on either Widgetbox or MySpace ModWorld or MySpaceGens.  It will work if you have your own website or a page on MySpace or Facebook or any other social networking website.

• Can I put the games onto my Joomla site?

  Yes, you can use a component called PUArcade.

• Can I download a game or have its source code?

  Sorry, downloads and source code are not available.

• Can you customise a game for me?

  No, I'm afraid I do not licence or make custom-made games.

• Can I link to your games?

  Yep, please feel free to link to anything you to want on Neave.com.

• Nothing works on this site.  I hate you.

  Make sure you have JavaScript enabled, you have the latest Flash Player installed and you're using a decent web browser and not Internet Explorer.

• A question about Arcade! Classic Arcade Pack

  I didn't make the software available on Download.com or Openwares.org even though it features some of my games.  The author is someone called "Zobber" and if you have any questions about it, please put them to Openwares directly rather than myself.

• What happened to Pac-Man?

  The original copyright owners decided they didn't like me any more.

• Can I use a joystick or controller with the games?

  Nope, sorry.  Unfortunately Flash does not support joysticks or external controllers of any kind, and so they cannot be used with the games.

Flash Earth

• Can I license/use Flash Earth on my website?

  Flash Earth is not available for commercial or private use other than via the website at www.flashearth.com.  Flash Earth started as a project to see if Google Maps could be made better using Flash, and it ended up exceeding my own expectations, but it is still only designed as an experiment and not as a fully-fledged mapping application.
  
  

  Although it is capable of accessing imagery from various mapping websites, that's as far as the implementation goes.  Currently there's no way to extend or adapt or add any useful data or marker points to the Flash Earth map — it's really more of a proof of concept than anything else.
  
  

  Also, Flash Earth has not been formally endorsed by any of the imagery providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! etc.) as it conflicts with their Terms of Use which states that the imagery should only by accessed via their official API, and not by any other means (which Flash Earth has done).
  
  

  If you want to use a Flash-based map on your website then I'd recommend using Yahoo! Maps API or Google Maps API if you're happy to go with a JavaScript map instead.  Both APIs are much more exhaustive, extensible and adaptable for your needs than Flash Earth is.  Other open source options include worldKit, OpenStreetMap, OpenLayers or the experimental (but not Google-endorsed) Google Maps Flash component.

• Do you ever plan to make Flash Earth commercially available?

  One day, yes.  Eventually I hope to upgrade Flash Earth in all manner of amazing ways, but this is still many months from happening.  In the meantime you'll have to stick with the APIs mentioned above I'm afriad!

• Is the source code for Flash Earth available?

  No.  Because Flash Earth uses unofficial (that is, illegal!) techniques to access imagery from mapping websites, I do no want to encourage other people to do this, and so the source code is no longer available.

• How often is the imagery updated?

  It depends.  The imagery is refreshed quite often, every month or so, but the photos themselves may have been taken anywhere between one to five years ago.

• Does 'NASA Terra (daily)' mean the imagery is updated daily?

  Yes!  The NASA imagery is updated from the MODIS Terra satellite daily, about midday PST (which is around 8pm GMT/UT).  The near real-time imagery is limited to 'subsets' and not the entire globe due to the limited funding provided for the MODIS Rapid Response System.  Even so, these subsets still manage to cover a large proportion of countries.
  
  

  If you use Google Earth or NASA World Wind, you can view this imagery in 3D using KML files available from NASA OnEarth.

• How do I search by latitude and longitude?

  If you know the coordinates of a location by its latitude and longitude, you can enter these figures into the search box and be taken to that position.  For example, entering 48.856558, 2.350966 (decimal latitude and longitude separated by a comma) or 48 51 23 N, 2 21 3 E (a pair of degrees, minutes and seconds, separated by a comma) will position you directly over Paris.

Neave.tv

• What is it?

  Neave.tv is "creativity in a telly stylee" — a selection of top quality, creative, weird and wonderful videos I've found on the web, presented in a TV-style (continuously streaming video in your full browser window) and powered by Blip.tv, Google Video and YouTube.
  
  

  It tries to challenge the concept of video over the web.  Why have video stuck inside a tiny box inside a webpage with a scrub-bar, a five star rating and a comments section?  Computers can do so much more than that.  It's a TV experience; it's not about finding content, it's about watching it.  There's deliberately no commercials nor boring videos where you need to skip to the good part — just sit and watch.  That's the idea anyway.

• Did you make all the videos?

  No, they've been created by many different people.  In some cases I've edited and redubbed the videos to give them a punchier feel, but for the most part they're untouched from the original footage.  If you want to learn more about a particular video, click on the web address in the top-left corner of the screen when it cycles round, or by right-clicking and choosing from the context menu.

• Can I watch Neave.tv on my Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3?

  I'd love to be able to offer Neave.tv on the Wii or PS3 but unfortunately both only support Flash Player 7, and Neave.tv needs at least Flash Player 8.  Hopefully Flash Player 9 will be available for both platforms in the coming months, so keep an eye out.

• Can you customise the Neave.tv player for my site?

  I'm afraid not.  Neave.tv is a highly experimental interface and has only been created to demonstrate a concept, not to promote a product in itself.  Please feel free to take the idea and recreate it yourself.  Trust me, it would be a nightmare to reverse engineer my application to your needs.  Sorry about that.  If you'd like to set up a video channel you should try using the services already provide by YouTube in a blog or similar.