I know what you're thinking: why on Earth would an article about a flippin' patent case possibly interest me, the hip-hip-happenin' designer? It may not seem like the usual fare for creative-types, but the first time you field an angry phone call from a client over "activating" embedded content like Flash or QuickTime, you'd best be prepared for how to deal with the fallout. So let's take a deep breath, collect our thoughts, and power through here. It may sound scary, but it's really not that bad once you know what to do.

For the three (or perhaps even four) of you who regularly follow my Flash tutorials, you are well aware of my repeated rantings that Flash designers can do themselves solar systems of good by learning at least a little ActionScript. One of the better illustrations of that mantra is the Tween Class, which I'm going to make you try and fall in love with over the course of these next couple of articles.

If there's a glaring hole in Apple's current digital lifestyle approach, it's the absence of DVR functionality. Whatever the reason for this continued (and seemingly deliberate) oversight, the folks at Elgato certainly have risen to the occasion with their EyeTV line of products. With the recent unveiling of EyeTV 2, Elgato's first "unbundled" software release, the result is a product so thoughtful, beautifully polished and utterly Mac-like that one could easily think that the software was named "iTV" and come directly from Apple itself.

If you do any sort of ActionScripting in Flash at all, eventually you're going to come across a situation where you'll need some kind of timer. Whatever the need—a countdown clock, a simple pause before directing some sort of action, or even a timeout feature for a kiosk application—there are a bunch of ways to do it, so let's start with the two simplest.