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

Besides his band’s demo and performances, he’s teamed up with artist Scythen Hade and released their first album on iTunes called Elements of Time.

Check out the NEW Mezzy Shredder and Scythen Hade album entitled ‘Elements of Time’ on iTunes! I know of a few people who will be happy to finally get their hands on a real album instead of eating up my bandwidth listening to songs.

War Horse is actually highly likely to go tour next year in Europe, which would be insanely cool! I’ve posted new pics, songs, videos, and there’s a ton more coming soon. They’re currently recording their demo album and Mezzy is going to send much more material, so keep an eye out (or ear open) for updates.

Technorati Tags: Attest, cf united, lockjaw, Mezzy Shredder, war horse

My software, Attest, the Adobe Flex 2 Certified Developer practice exam happens to use it’s copy protection from a company that just so happens to be one of the very few on a list of other companies who’s software is affected by this update. Most of the other companies directly affected by SP1 are primarily made up of anti-virus, internet security, and anti-spyware manufacturers…….you know, no big deal. Who cares for that kind of software anyway, not Bill!

So as you can see, Bill releases monkey patch for Vista, that makes certain software programs explode that otherwise worked great, so those companies release updates for their products and “stuff” rolls downhill…….good thing I noticed that my software would be mangled and created an update, or I may have been hit with a ton of support issues without knowing that Bill decided to revamp his OS yet again.

The company I use for copy protection made their patch for Vista, then I made mine for Attest. Meanwhile, Microsoft chuckles at us, “hehehe look at ‘em all running around!”. This is exactly why I still haven’t upgraded to Vista. Vista is Spanish for view, by the way, and I could see lots of monkey patches coming from a far way off and that’s why I’ll need to be forced to upgrade from XP Pro.

That being said, I have decided that the next version of Attest will be created in Java I wouldn’t mind some cross-platform goodness, and what’s more, I wouldn’t mind not having to deal with some Vista hole-patching that throws my plans for the weekend in the crapper when I could be doing things like running my teeny tiny company compared to Microsoft, or blogging on nicer things that don’t make my nostril hairs recede back into my nose tunnels when I think of Bill and his non existent retirement plan.

Technorati Tags: Adobe Flex 2, Attest, Microsoft, practice exam, PXL Designs, service pack 1, Vista, Windows

Some ideas that I had, as well as ideas from other developers using Attest are:

• Learning Mode:
  • Should allow user to choose amount of questions for custom tests. This way the user may only have 10 mins to spare, but could still create a custom test (5-10 questions for example)
  • Ability to check the answer during viewing of the questions for learning mode only. Instant feedback would be nice.

• Test Mode:
  • Same ability to choose custom number of questions and time for each test, as well as the premade tests.
  • Possibly view the results per question as stated above, rather than go to a different results page.

These are great suggestions, and from a usability standpoint they make sense. Adding a “learning” mode would be very cool, because Attest wouldn’t only serve as a practice exam, but a more mature learning tool in itself. When the user felt they were ready to really be tested, they could pop into Test mode and challenge their knowledge with instant results.

Currently, Attest is a stand alone practice exam with 6 pre-made tests. It was my original concept to have some customizable features like allowing the user to create custom tests. They could set their own time limits, amount of questions, maybe allow the program to pick random questions, or focus on one particular group like UI, or Data Services questions only for a quick refresher on a weak area.

I’m actually using the down time from the holiday season to get started creating a proof of concept for myself written in Java. I’d like to have Attest 2.0 cross-platform, and have it more robust in general since it seems to be filling a gap in learning tools for Adobe products. Attest 1.0 has been live since November, 9, 2007 and seems like it’s going to be a hit! So now that I know people dig it, I’ll look into making Attest 2.0 beefier and more of a learning tool in general.

Another thing I originally wanted to do was create other versions of the program for ColdFusion, Flash, DreamWeaver, and possibly cover all of Adobe’s certification exams. This would be a task in itself, so we’ll have to see what the future holds but we can at least count on a future Flex 3 cert version with some more muscle.

Have any feedback on ideas you’d like to see implemented on Attest? Toss them out, don’t bottle them up!

Technorati Tags: adobe, Attest, certification, developer, exam, Flex 2, flex 3, practice test, PXL Designs