Scripting News - Latest Comments in Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Brent Ashley — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:24:43 -0000

It's not that nobody did it, it's that nobody noticed. That has been the way with lots of things - the whole Ajax epiphany came at least 5 years after the techniques were in wide use, for instance.

Take Q42's Quek in this case: http://www.quek.nl/q/index....

I first noticed it in 2001. http://www.ashleyit.com/blo...

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Bill — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:46:48 -0000

This post is preventing Scripting.com from loading in IE7..

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Sanford Dickert — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:20:11 -0000

Dave - if you are still in the area - give me an email/call.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Brajeshwar — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:20:38 -0000

Ok, read the blog's article
-- He just gave me a demo and my first reaction was "You can't do that,"

Well, it is not "You can't do that", as it was done before - long time back.

How Firefly implements it and makes it a good product is a different story.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

davingreenwell — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:19:02 -0000

I notice it hijacks my ability to scroll using the page up/page down keys. That is annoying.

This could be utterly brilliant for web developers working with designers though.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

mrclark411 — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:00:56 -0000

Technology doesn't matter. It is how it is used. I'm not saying that Firefly is awesome, but to say that "this could be done back in XXXX" is irrelevant. Facebook could have been built back in 2000, but no one did.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

sundoggy — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:52:40 -0000

This is very interesting (yes, very shiny comes to mind Michael). Seems to work very well in a webkit based ap (Netnewswire 3.1x) until I tried to leave this comment and it wanted to chat. I am at a loss for actual applications, though I suspect real-time chatting with other readers would be the basis. What would make that really cool (and more valuable from a blog owner AND reader standpoint) is a log/transcript of the chatter. It will be interesting to see how this evolves and where is goes.

Thanks for hosting the demo, and cool demo, Firefly. Can't wait to see what you (and others) do with it.

paul

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Jimmy — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:12:01 -0000

This is NOT a product. Hardly. This is a socket server running through a full screen SWF. Interesting use, but weak....

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Ted Dziuba — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:13:58 -0000

Doesn't work. I just get "loading" then my browser hangs. FF 2.0/Linux. Awesome.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Ruben Puentedura — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:33:09 -0000

Dave, thanks for hosting this demo - I haven't had this much fun with a product rollout since Twitter first showed up.

I've just written a "first reaction" post on my blog - more later, once I've had a chance to see what other people do with Firefly.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

James Vasak — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:27:02 -0000

Any chance you could use this to produce a real-time heat map of your site? Might not be able to track the users' eyes (yet), but at least you'd be able to see where their mouse was moving.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Matt Harwood — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:26:10 -0000

Very weird feeling using Firefly. A fellow chatter (couldn't tell who anyone was) pointed out "who owns the data?" - very valid point in my opinion. Seems buggy on Gecko engines (crashed Camino for me, others have problems with Firefox) but an interesting tool..

Is it specific to scripting.com, or the page where you click it?

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Nick Johnson — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:50:01 -0000

Here (firefox2/linux), it works, but it doesn't appear over the content, it appears on a blank page of its own. Seems a bit pointless in that context.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Brajeshwar — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:44:31 -0000

Alright, Unless I'm missing something; Isn't this doable many years ago ever since Flash Communication Server (currently Flash Media Server) was released by erstwhile Macromedia. Isn't this an SWF with wmode set to Transparent and use Flash Media Server to relay connected users' mouse.

Unless there is anything extra, we did this during 2004!

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

Michael — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:25:54 -0000

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo SHINEY!!!!!!

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

RAGZ — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:23:50 -0000

For me, this all depends on whether it's used to help me if I'm obviously lost, or to hurt me if I'm constantly assaulted with changing ads or crazy admin messages following the mouse pointer. I can't really think of a time when someone would follow the mouse pointer to help me, because I'm not often lost. I think it's for targeting the most expensive CPC ads to go where the pointer goes.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

zacksback — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:10:52 -0000

I dunno, Dave - it's like an ADD Twitter. But oddly compelling.
It took some effort to stop.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

(notnixon) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:04:14 -0000

Very interesting product. It may be limited beyond the novelty factor, but if it can be expanded, and kept spam-free, then it will be worth a second look.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

threepointone — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:58:28 -0000

Bloody hell, that's quite cool. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Demo of Firefly (Scripting News)

pennydistribution — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:57:28 -0000

interested to see what this firefly can do...