Author Archive
Flex 4 released today – tons of new material for learning
by Dave on Mar.22, 2010, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, Coolness
If you haven’t seen already, Adobe released Flash Builder 4 and Flex 4 SDK today. If you’re a student or you’re unemployed, or possibly an unemployed student event, you can get yourself a free copy of Flash Builder. Along with the release are endless heaps of new material to get you up-to-speed with the latest and greatest of Flex. Below is a list of some of the best new resources to get you up and running with Flex 4 in no time.
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Flex 4 animate properties
by Dave on Jan.25, 2010, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex
I came across a situation while doing a Flex 4 upgrade for an Adobe Developer Center sample app where I wanted to use some the Spark animate properties classes.
This is SO cool because it gives you truly granular control over every aspect of a component you want to animate. In the sample I’m upgrading, there is an extended TileGroup component that has three columns and two rows of charts for an enterprise dashboard application. When a user clicks a button to zoom in on any given chart, I wanted to make use of some of the new Spark effects to really create a 3D look and feel quickly (without delving too much into custom layouts). Actually, the layout I made is a custom TileGroup, but I wanted to point out some ways you can use the Animate class to make sweet transitions on any property of a component in your own apps for simple animation, without having to create custom layouts.
(Shibuya-beta) Adobe’s Try/Buy service for AIR applications
by Dave on Oct.10, 2009, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, Coolness, PXL Info
Ok so it takes me a while to catch up on the blogging. MAX is over and the secrets are out. One thing I was particularly happy about was the new Shibuya Beta program, where Flex developers could incorporate Adobe’s licensing framework and start selling AIR apps.
My colleague Holly Schinsky and I were invited to be part of the super early beta program before MAX, which was extremely cool. This is huge for AIR developers because we now have a fully supported means of monetizing our applications. In the early days of Apollo (AIR’s beta name) I had come up with the idea for Attest (mock exam software for Adobe’s Flex certification) while studying myself. There was nothing on the market and I had compiled heaps of data while studying, so I thought it would make for a nice side project.
Updates on MezzyShredder.com
by Dave on Sep.29, 2009, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Coolness, Electric Mayhem, Intense Nonsense, PXL Info
Where have I been again? I don’t remember sometimes…oh wait, working constantly! Inundated with work and slacking off on the blogging again. I was at CF United, and that was very cool. Learned heaps, caught up with old friends, drank beer, learned more, played golf, drank more beer, and so on.
Besides that, I’ve just been insanely busy (what’s new) pitching gigs, winning some, losing some, running away fast from others, and working secretly on Attest in the wee hours on top of everything else. Check out the PXL Blog for more (much much more soon), even if you’re not looking to get Flex certified or not interested in Attest, you’ll be very interested in some of the Adobe MAX goodness next week – mwahahha! Shhh, say no more…say no more, wink wink, nudge nudge, does she go aye?
On top of that, I’ve been updating MezzyShredder.com with new content, many a late night. He joined a new band, formerly called LOCKJAW, currently called War Horse. I defy even Yngwie Malmsteen to play faster or better than this man 
What economic crisis? Surely not for RIA developers!
by Dave on May.02, 2009, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, Apple, Coolness, Intense Nonsense
To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. Where to start? They tell me there’s an economic meltdown going on. My question is, where? If you’re an RIA developer, especially a Flex developer, I can’t imagine you’re having a tough time finding gigs. Unless there’s just so many of us now that there’s actually competition?
My thorough lack of writing on my FUN blog parallels my thorough lack of sleep. It’s tough running a company on your own, especially when it’s a teeny tiny RIA firm and you’re completely lost when keeping records in QuickBooks. So what have I been up to? For starters, I updated a bunch of stuff on MezzyShredder.com. Added tons of videos of him playing with his band Wicked Society ( signed on a B & G Music label ) and YouTube. So if you’re into Black Label Society-style music, go check out Mezzy shredding like none other!
Buy American…but don’t pay for Attest 1.5 though
by Dave on Mar.05, 2009, under Actual RIA info, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, Coolness, Intense Nonsense, Nonsense, PXL Info
Ok that’s an excuse, but a good one! I finally bought myself a Fender FSR Highway One Stratocaster HSS 
made in the USA of course 
Needless to say, I got NO work done the rest of the day…well no RIA work anyway. Man this is one sexy guitar!
Sorry, I had to share my euphoria though. With this thing in the office, I’ll have a hard time getting any work done. Anyway, I’ve been working my rump off on a bunch of different things but mostly I’ve been cranking on Attest 1.5. It’s built in Adobe AIR (see PXL blog for the full scoop). This is current being tweaked and tested, and will be available shortly. The coolest news is that it’s free for non-commerical use. If you want to get certified in Flex 3/AIR, you’ll want to download this AIR app when it’s finally released. I’ve taken a way longer time getting it out than I had originally planned on, but with my work load, and being a one man show so far, it’s been tough.
Life on Mars and now we’re 3D Holograms
by Dave on Jan.16, 2009, under Intense Nonsense
Where the hell have I been? I slacked on blogging while working on a big Flex project for the past few months that gobbled up all conceivable time, and when I return, scientists say they may have evidence of life on Mars and we’re all a great big 3D hologram. Or so they suspect.
They’re thinking the existence of methane gas on Mars suggests there are little microscopic martians swimming around under the dirt and farting up a storm. If they do discover life, it would put an end to the age-old question of whether there’s other intelligent life in the Universe. The answer would be yes and no. Although you might think microscopic critters swimming around farting aren’t altogether brilliant, I’ll bet they can give many people here on Earth a run for their money. I wonder if the martians decided to try and make contact now because they saw some methane plumes from Earth. I just recently adopted a lost Beagle wandering around the front yard and I can tell you, with his gas problems, if there is life on Mars, I’m sure they can see his plumes before his doggy rescue.
The new CEO of PXL Designs, LLC
Check out Mezzy Shredding!
by Dave on Sep.15, 2008, under Coolness
This deserves its own post. My buddy Mezzy and I shot a quick video under 60 sec to enter him in the Dean Shredder Search. I’ve posted his latest demo with No Wasted Motion on his site www.mezzyshredder.com and I’ll get some more video of him shredding like no man as soon as I can.
SWF file format becomes SEO friendly
by Dave on Jul.01, 2008, under Actual RIA info, Adobe Flex
Just read on the Washington Post that Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo to make SWFs readable/visible to search engines. Completely awesome news! That’s been a major draw back for other Flash/Flex developers for years, that the search engines can’t read content inside a swf . The article states that this is a first step, it’s not a complete answer, but it’s progress.
I’ll have to look into this more as time permits. Is this a technology/API that we as developers work into our apps? Or, it seems from the article that it’s going to be part of the Flash Player itself in conjunction with Yahoo/Google’s technology so there may be no new steps needed to get your Flash/Flex app or website indexed on the biggies.
Not only were there plans for the Photobucket AS3 lib…
by Dave on Jun.02, 2008, under Adobe AIR, Adobe Flex, Mashups
They’re basically done! http://code.google.com/p/photobucketas3lib/ I just got finished working it into MyStylez today for easy drag/drop functionality while building MySpace layouts. The AS3 library itself is extremely well done and easy to use, took me no time at all. Great job Photobucket gang!
Going forward, I know which api I’ll be using for online image sharing 
I know some other AS developers, like Quentin, who commented on the last post were searching too and we didn’t see anything up on Google code yet, so we planned on maybe starting up a project. The guys at Photobucket beat us to it. So that was an easy job for us, can’t beat that!
