back to the grind

I’ve been trying to diversify my arena a bit before returning to slave-hood.

Studies in python ( django ) and Java ( log4j ) have definitely expanded my view of flash-in-the-universe.

My as3 is coming together very well, thanks to the small Flickr gallery I just created for the new Young and Rubicam site.

Wishing I could make it to Google IO this week to chat with the Heads, but it looks like I’m going to have to stick around L.A….

I’m still quite staggered that there is no freeware osx actionscript IDE. I love FDT but it is *expensive* to be the only AS IDE for Mac ? Particularly seeing as I jump from machine to machine to machine. If someone ported Flashdevelop to osx, instant HERO.

I’m going to do some red5 experiments with a fridge-magnet widget… maybe try taking some bitmap snapshots, or capturing it’s state as XML. I feel a lot of pressure to get these learning explorations done, as I fear I can’t escape employment much longer….

other thoughts…

spending a few years on osx has turned me into something of a brawler. the latest dependency / install hell has made me so much more aware of unix internals and how it glues together…. it was grusome, but a lot of learning about NIX.

here’s the mac brawler application list I just cobbled up from the loaner laptop :

Adobe After Effects 3 SDK
Adobe Bridge SDK
Adobe Dreamweaver
Adobe Flash
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Media Encoder
Adobe Photoshop
apache-log4j
Aperture
Apple QAdministrator
Applie Qmaster
arSync
AudioHijack
Blender
Chainsaw
Charles
Cinema Tools
coconutBattery
Color
Comic Life
Compressor
CyberDuck
DataRescue II
DiskWarrior
DVDxDV Pro
Eclipse
FCP Rescue 6
Final Cut Pro
Firefox
FlashPlayer
Flex_SDK
Flightgear
Flip4Mac
Fugu
GitX
GoogleEarth
HDDMaintenance
Image Capture
iMovieHD
Invisibility Toggler
Iserials
iSync
iTerm
Kdiff
MacPorts
MacStumbler
MacTheRipper
MacVim
MAMP
Motion
MySQL Tools
NetBeans
OmniOutliner
Open XML Converter
Opera
P2log
P2StoreManager
PhotoBooth
Porticus
Processing
Python
Sherlock
SmartSVN
Soundtrack Pro
SuperDuper
svnX
TextWrankler
ThunderBoltAs3Console
Toast8
VLC
vstsdk3
xray
xtrace

about actionscript adventures presently.

My first AS3 critter, aside from my early MVC testbeds, turned out to be a Flickr gallery.

No point in belaboring what everyone has said about AS3.

However.

I think it’s really interesting that asset sharing across CS3/CS4 and the MXMLC / FDT environments is,

so left-in-the-dark.

There turned out to be a number of nifty ways one could co-create with Flash 8 and MTASC, sharing assets.

Now, with SWCs and whatnot, you would think integration would be tighter, easier.

It just doesn’t seem so.

Let’s take the example of the humble On_The_Stage_In_The_IDE  Sprite, holmes_mc sitting in the IDE.

In the IDE, Sanjiv Actionscript has access to holmes_mc, and can do nifty things like : var mymc:Sprite = holmes_mc.

Now, in MXMLC, we use the tag to get physical stuff, jammed into the swf.

CS3 really doesn’t like classes that go about things that way; by MIRACLE CS4 actually comprende embede.

bottom line ? this hack doesn’t seem modular. it does work;

var myLogo;

try {

myLogo = new LogoMcMXMLC();

addChild(myLogo);

checkIfContained(this, myLogo);

} catch (e) {

trace(‘CATCH : sprite instance error -> ‘ + e);

myLogo = new LogoMcIde();

addChild(myLogo);

}

trace(‘ myLogo -> ‘ + myLogo);

and here’s the asset classes.

 public class LogoMcMXMLC extends Sprite {

 

//[Embed(source="/../deploy/image.jpg")]

//private var ImageMc : Class;

 

[Embed(source="/../deploy/zzz_logo__asset_00.swf", symbol="libraryclips.LogoMcIde")]

private var AssetMc : Class;

 

//

public function LogoMcMXMLC() {

init();

}

 

function init() {

//var myPhoto : DisplayObject = DisplayObject(new ImageMc());

//addChild(myPhoto);

//

var myLib : DisplayObject = DisplayObject(new AssetMc());

addChild(myLib);

myLib.x = 0;

myLib.y = 0;

}

}

//

// THE IDE CLASS BELOW

package libraryclips {

import flash.display.Sprite;

 

/**

* @author mobile1

*/

public class LogoMcIde extends Sprite {

 

public function LogoMcIde() {

}

}

}

ok…. back to work…

so. I had my vacation locally and did nothing. it’s very easy on the budget and i did get my eyesight and the use of my arms back.

i did tons of snowboarding and mountainbiking and raids around the l.a. area before it got too hot.

i drove random places in the middle of the night and went up onto tall things for dawn.

it was like going to an island in the indian ocean with warm blue water.

um… no. actually, wait. it wasn’t.

so, i could be bitter about not being able to take a real vacation;

what i will do instead is work my ass off yet again to see if I can get a good launch velocity.

murda.murda.

hmmm. ok…. here goes… something….

predictably, the rainicorn emerged from the forest’s edge.

i’m back . things suuuuure have been interesting.

this isn’t even a suggestion of a post. i’m just aware that i have a blog now….. hmmm.