Axelology

Creating a DragImage from your UIComponent

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:45:00 -0500

A new post at the new blog. Creating a DragImage from your UIComponent I will stop doing these duplicate posts by the end of the month, please subscribe to the new blog... Thank you. Axel

CustomRichTextEditor with XHTML text

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:49:00 -0500

A new post at the new blog. CustomRichTextEditor with XHTML text I will stop doing these duplicate posts by the end of the month, please subscribe to the new blog... Thank you. Axel

Using Flex 3, Filtering Data, and new TileList ItemsChangeEffect

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:13:00 -0500

Switching from this blog over to http://axelscript.com I have a new entry please click here to read.

KeyboardManagement for Games in Actionscript 3

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:50:00 -0500

I'm officially starting the bleed of blog entries from this blog, and toward mid to end march I will probably stop posting on this blog all together. please view the new post at http://axelscript.com please subscribe, I'll probably be blogging more on the new blog because wordpress has great save features, so I can save temporary posts, and come back at a later time to finish them... which is the main reason for switching blogs...

Application - Source

360flex Europe, and my presentation code and slides

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:00:00 -0500

360flex is going to Europe, please checkout http://www.360conferences.com/ for details. I believe it's next month or something like that, at least thats what tom said up on the mic this morning. 360flex is an absolute blast, it's great company, full of intelligent people, and I couldn't ask for more of a conference to go to. If your a flash/flex developer, and or want to get in to flex, this is the conference for you. Thanks to everyone that attended my session this morning it was great! and it was great to be in a room with such knowledgeable people. Everything went fantastic. Here is my presentation zip file. 360flex Preso

Timezone Issues with remote (Date/Time) data and flash

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:26:00 -0500

Application - Source We are wrapping up with this great charting application at cfwebtools, and we get a call from a customer that says our data is wrong.... We listen to them, and debug, and for some reason we just can't quite see the same thing he see's... On top of that, no one else is having the problem, but the fact is that, he has showed us screen shots, he's duplicated on Four pc's of his own, and he's talked to 10 friends telling us that our data is wrong, and that there is mismatched days in our chart. The problem: When he was bringing up the charting application, the charts showed up successfully, but when you ta ke a closer look, and you know your stuff about Financial Charting applications, you know what your looking for, and you know it with GREAT detail. So this guy, tells us our data is wrong, and pretty much with all of his friends proved to us SOMETHING was going wrong, but we couldn't duplicate it. [More]

360flex, video games, and venting

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:08:00 -0500

I wonder if there is gonna be anyone with rock band at 360flex playing rockband? They are doing an API contest at 360 flex and they are giving away an xbox 360 and a ps3... I think they should have a rock band in one of the open parties after the conference hours. I think people would have a blast! I've got to vent to someone so i'm going to vent to my blog, here is a list of my complaints about some of the current video games.

Halo 3 (xbox 360)
- Could the online matchmaking be any SLOWER! for god sake, seriously? and why does it seem to take 8 choices from the time the xbox starts to get online and play...
  - first the xbox starts
  - then you have to sign in
  - then you have to choose a destination of where you want to save your profile.
  - then you have to choose matchmaking (why can't that just say "online" or "Multiplayer" when i first got the system it took a learning curve to figure out.
    - then it tells you that your NAT isn't open in your router, and then prompts you with alerts telling you your friends are on. (EVEN IF I SET MY XBOX TO BE THE DMZ ON MY NETWORK I DONT' GET THE NAT WARNING ANYMORE BUT IT'S STILL FRIGGIN SLOW!)
  - once you get in matchmaking you choose your game type.
  - then you click on start (or whatever the menu item is that you select to go on)
  - then you wait
  - and wait
    - oh then, it finds 7 players out of 8, and restarts the friggin search! wtf!
  - then once your online, someone quits...
  - and then you get your ass handed to you by someone that is 12 years old and sounds like a chipmunk or still has a squeaky voice.
Halo 2 was a blast on the original xbox, they seriously went and messed it up... it sucks because it's the new thing out, I wish halo 2 still was going strong.

Need For Speed - Pro Street

This game is quite fun... if you like racing games...
- it takes a few races to get used to the style, but you get in, and warm up to it.
The Menu is slow, and confusing, and prompts you to go online ALLL THE TIME.
- after every race (do you want to submit your records to EA Nation online?!) NOOOOOO FRIGGIN LEAVE ME ALONE!
  - so you have to unplug your network cable just so it stops prompting you.
- then you get into a race you can't beat, and you damage your car.
  - lets prompt you to fix it, and tell you that you can't do crap until it's fixed... so then you fix it...
  - get back into the race just to figure out you can't win again, and go to practice...
  - you think your good enough but your not. so you get pissed and slam your controllers on the coffee table like a baby that can't control his emotions.

Rock Band

This is a fantastic game for drunken nights with friends... NOT THAT YOU HAVE TO BE DRUNK TO THINK IT'S A BLAST!
- but seriously, it's so fun everyone wants to play! but not everyone SHOULD PLAY. because of course you have multiplayer mode, where you play with a group of friends, but if people can't keep up, the get knocked out, and that causes your power meter to go down steadily, and if none of your friends are good enough to get in "overdrive mode" (star power for those of you that are familiar with guitar hero) to bring your friend back in, then you are forced to exit the song...
- this is fine for competitors, but what about the rest of the drinking world where people are just looking to have a good time, and maybe forget about their problems for a little bit?
  - THEY NEED A PARTY MODE where people can't get knocked out! PLEASE PLEASE EA do something about this!
  thats about the only complaint I have about rockband.

I suppose that about all the video games I have complaints about... One main point that I'm trying to make is that with growing technology we are all getting wrapped up in look and feel and features of websites, games, software, etc... but we're forgetting about usability, there is a fine line between fancy stuff, and over bloading to the point of making your program go down to a crawl.

Customizing the Flex Slider

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:41:00 -0500

Application - Source

Lately I've been super busy, I've been getting some good hours for side work, and have been working on this really awesome charting application it's not customizable to the extent of StockFetcher, but it's cool in it's own right.

Everything is driven and built dynamically based off of an xml file. The cool part of the app, is that in the xml I can specify the timeline I want to show, and customize all of these things called studies. Studies are calculations like On Balance Volume, Moving Average, and Double Smooth Stochastics. I have no clue what any of those things mean to a financial stock person, but looking at these graphs means something... pretty much whether or not to buy or sell stocks is what i presume.

Java, Coldfusion, and Flex marriage

We are using a customized java library for the calculations, and that helped out a lot. So we are leveraging three technologies here, Java, Coldfusion, Flex. It's a great combonation, we're not accessing any java directly with flex, but through coldfusion we are instantiating java objects in order to complete the calculations.

The Slider issue

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Speaking at 360 Flex Atlanta

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:02:00 -0500

Over late 2007 I've been blessed with the privilege to work with flex full time, and do a lot of great projects. I've loved blogging about all of it, and I love to be able to share the knowledge... I decided to bid for a speaking position at 360 flex this time around, after missing the past two. Luckily it all went through, I'll be speaking on "Understanding the component Lifecycle". Here is some info on 360 flex. 360|Flex Atlanta - February 25-27, 2008 This 3-day conference is the place to learn about Flex and AIR from Adobe and community speakers. Sunday before the conference we'll be offering an all day Flex 101 session, included in the price of registration. That's right, a pre-conference all day training session on Flex. 360|Flex is the premiere Flex and AIR conference. We were the first Flex conference and we're still growing and getting better. Don't miss out, only $480 for an individual or $1500 for a 4-person team. More details can be found at http://360flex.com 360|Flex Atlanta, February 25-27, is the place to learn about Flex and AIR from Adobe and community speakers. Included in the price of registration is a free pre-conf, all day training session on Flex 101. We're the premiere Flex and AIR conference. $480 for one or $1500 for a 4-person team. Visit http://360flex.com

Flex MP3 Player Updated

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:45:00 -0500

Flex XML MP3 Player Update

I finally opened this puppy back up and updated it, added a new great attribute

podcast_mode=true (or false)

Now you can use it for podcasts!

please check out the google code for the new version. http://code.google.com/p/xmlmp3player/

Installing Flex 2 on Eclipse 3.3

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:17:00 -0500

The newest version of cfeclipse runs on the newest version of eclipse (version 3.3) and I came across a link looking up some errors, and found this link. and thought it might come in useful at a later date... then I could have eclipse, cfeclipse and flex builder back together like I used to.... http://www.eclipsezone.com/articles/howto-flexbuilder2/

Making Flex (flash) look 3D...

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:27:00 -0500

Application - Source

Making Flex LOOK 3D!!!

Just to state, this in no way talks about papervision3d. I was asked to put a bid out for a project that required walking through a 3D house, and I thought to myself... "Flash vs. Flex" granted either one, could make it happen... I didn't want to over complicate it and think i would have to draw everything myself in flex so I started to think about it, and look at more examples...

Mixing swf files with swf loader

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CrossLoop

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:12:00 -0500

For anyone that is a fan of gotomeetings.com and has a windows pc, there is a beta application out there that one of our clients just showed me, it's called crossloop.com, it installs a desktop app that does not run as a service on your pc like vnc, but runs as an actual application, it's so simple, so you only run it when you want someone to connect to your pc to see your screen... It's so simple, it has two tabs, "share" and "access", go to the share tab, and it has an autogenerated number that you give to the other person to connect, and then they go to their access tab, and type in the number and it bypasses all the firewalls and "it just works!" it's great. crossloop.com

Cool Component Links

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:13:00 -0500

So I was searching for a resizable titleWindow today, and ran into a great link and thought I should throw a blog entry out there that way I can remember it. http://fleksray.org/adobe_flex_components_en.html Our XML MP3 Player is even on this link! woot! http://flex.org/components/

Programmatic Visualization

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:17:00 -0500

Did some searching today, and ran across a great example, and blog entry by Andrew Trice I've always had the urge to sit down and come up with a way to do a family tree, and have images of my family and what not, and map them to each other, that way i don't have such a hard time remembering distant relatives names at those big family reunions... So I wanted images that drew a line to one another in a tree type structure, but wanted to to be dragable and what not... and andrew released the source for his relationship mapper, and I couldn't thank him enough... Relationship Mapper Application - Relationship Mapper Source Also does a drawing canvas much similar to my drawing blog post Drawing with the UIComponent in Flex (part 3) Application - Drawing with the UIComponent in Flex (part 3) Source Paint Canvas Application Paint Canvas Source