August 27  |  General  |  6 comments

Some Rest, Intel, FOTB, Lisbon, MAX and Latin America!

Things are going to be pretty unresponsive around here (more than usual) for the next week as I’m taking some time off to recharge the batteries. After I return things will be picking up rapidly as we enter the new conference season. Here are some upcoming things that are going on over the next few months. There is lots of exciting new stuff that I can’t wait to start talking about.

Intel Developer Forum · San Francisco · Sep 13 – 15
My first conference back will be the Intel Developer Forum taking place at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Adobe and Intel have partnered for the Melrose project that presents an excellent way for developers to monetize their AIR applications targeted at netbooks. I will be presenting on Adobe’s multi-screen vision.

Flash on the Beach · Brighton · Sep 26 – 29
I am really starting to get amped up for this year’s Flash on the Beach conference, which is arguably the world’s best. There is an interesting mix of speakers this year including several industry heavyweights. The Inspire sessions are probably my favorite part of this conference. Now don’t be a wanker. Go and register.

Flash Camp Portugal · Lisbon · Oct 2
This will be my first time in Portugal and I’m looking forward to hearing the difference between Brazilian Portuguese and the native version. Will essa porra even translate? The plans for this are still in the works but it will take place in Lisbon on October 2nd.

Adobe MAX · Los Angeles · Oct 23 – 27
MAX will be huge this year and I will be pretty busy. I’m doing a 90-minute BYOL session on building your first AIR for Android application. I will also be doing a slightly modified version of the My Head Hurts presentation that I did at FITC. I think it is a really informative session. Go and register for my sessions if they sound useful to you.

Latin Flash Tour · Latin America · Oct 30 – Nov 12
Yes were coming back for a second year bringing mayhem, cervezas, and some Flash stuff too. Check out the details on the official site. Details are still be worked out so be sure to check back. Mateo un ladron!


August 26  |  General  |  35 comments

Demand for Flash Developers is Increasing

The Wall Street Journal recently put out an article describing how the demand for Flash developers has been increasing as of late. While this is no surprise to most of us in the community, it is a refreshing reminder that those who have marked Flash as a dying technology are quite wrong indeed. The article states that the increase in online Flash gaming is a large reason for the spike. I’m guessing that it also has something to do with all of the anticipation surrounding Flash on mobile devices.

The article also includes a quote about the salaries that top Flash developers are getting these days:

Top full-time Flash engineers can now command more than $150,000 a year in salary, says Stuart Liroff, a headhunter at GreeneSearch recruiting firm. That compares with $50,000 to $80,000 a year three years ago.

I’m sure a lot of you are now running to your bosses office to talk about getting a raise :-) .


August 23  |  AIR  |  9 comments

Idea for a Cool AIR Application

I often get ideas for things to build but don’t have the time to actually see them through. Recently I came across an API for accessing the Android Marketplace that was written in Java. Google has no official API for this as you are supposed to only be able to access it from your device. The idea was to build an AIR application that would allow you to search and browse on the market. There are many websites out there that do it but they are messy and riddled with ads. This would be clean, fast, and could include advanced features like directly connecting to your device.

I started by trying to port it directly to AS3. This was going great until I had to set a cookie header with the authentication details when querying the market. This is not allowed in ActionScript and I could find no workaround. A proxy on my web server could work but this is for an AIR application. Next I decided to simply call to the JAR file using the AIR 2.0 NativeProcess API. This worked great and I was able to get results returned. The issue then was that it seemed to be badly formed JSON. The JSON library in as3corelib kept giving me errors so that is where I left it.

If someone out there is looking for an idea for something to build, I think this would be a great app that would garner some attention. Make sure you send me the URL when you’re done. Below is the code I was using to interact with the JAR file.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
private var np:NativeProcess;
private var npi:NativeProcessStartupInfo;

protected function windowedapplication1_creationCompleteHandler(event:FlexEvent):void
{
    np = new NativeProcess();
    npi = new NativeProcessStartupInfo();
    npi.executable = File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("C:/Windows/System32/java.exe");
    var args:Vector.<String> = new Vector.<String>();
    args.push("-jar");
    args.push(File.applicationDirectory.resolvePath("androidmarketapi.jar").nativePath);
    args.push("YOUR_GMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE");
    args.push("YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE");
    args.push("SEARCH_TERM");
    npi.arguments = args;
    np.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.STANDARD_OUTPUT_DATA, onData);
    np.start(npi);
}

private function onData(e:ProgressEvent):void
{
    var str:String = np.standardOutput.readUTFBytes(np.standardOutput.bytesAvailable);
   
    if(str.indexOf("app") != -1)
    {
        str = str.substr(str.indexOf("app"));
        var obj:Object = JSON.decode(str, false); //FAIL
    }
}

August 12  |  General  |  48 comments

Flash This – Not That!

Flash This - Not That

August 9  |  General  |  46 comments

Flash This – Not That!

Below is the first of a series of images depicting situations where you might want to use Flash along with those where you probably shouldn’t. They are based on the great Eat This – Not That! articles put out by Mens Health magazine. Now these are not hard and fast rules but instead just a general guide.

Flash This-Not That!

Look for more images in the series over the next couple of months. I won’t be using specific examples of sites that use Flash in questionable ways. If I did I would have to include several of my own previous sites :-) .


1 - 5 of 619 Prev 5Next 5