lo-ga-rie words, lines .. life

has to do something with this

my oh my i need so more with this part of the internetz

Air is ok

Some people may want to shoot me now but I think adobe air is a gift send from heaven.
Programming with Actionscript3 is very nice and a lot more logical then actionscript was before. Using the power of flash and port it from the trusty sandbox of the browser to the desktop and mobile devices is just awesome. Of course we need loads more if then else loops just for checking what feature is available on what device but the base is still the solid AS3.

Performance is key on mobile devices and that is where Air (the programmer and the animator) is failing at a bit. Vectors should be bitmaps, Tweens should be picture sequences etc. but overall most of the performance issues are common sense. A badly written html5 webview with crappy expensive javascript is a killer as well.

Although I'm of the generation "why should we care about memory management if we know everyone has GB's of internal memory we can use" I'm very interessed in getting the hang of being memory and loadtime efficient. Getting the hang of it? Ye I'm no pro at that yet but I'm doing my homework :P

it’s done!

Last few weeks i was working on an Action Script project called "wat weet Nederland" and it's live @ http://bit.ly/watweetned (sorry it's Dutch only)
See my last post for what I've learned here, it was quite a journey but I am proud of what we've made and my own part in it. A fully flash based video quiz/survey, not stuff i normally do.
Something might happen in the next few weeks that can blow my world apart, but i don't want to jinx it by saying to much about it. Stay tuned; could be I have some mighty interessing news next week!

(basic) as3 stuff

some things I learned in my last action script project:

• be sure to make a loader class with a dictionary that holds references to files you already loaded
• make a basebutton class to handle your different button states
• extend that class when you need to
• implement a reset function in your swf files so you reset an already loaded file
• program event driven, the more events you dispatch the more power you have to interact
• leave designing to the designers and motion to the motion developers and force them to use flash as it is intended; as scripter you need to demand fla files with embedded animations instead of making them yourself
• Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE is very powerfull if you use a MVC program model sinc you can access your Controller when the model is added to the stage.
• trace debug stuff with the timestamp and fully qualified class name so you know which class spawned the trace event
• Declare baseclasses of .fla files as a dynamic class so you can add new properties on the fly (you know you want to!); you can always implement or extend the property in the class itself
• buy a crap cheapy netbook to test performance on a low level machine
• never think a preloader isn't needed; implement it but hide it if the file is loaded < 500ms or so (a flickering preloader is just as bad so don't always show it)
• the predefined flash components are just as strong as the predefined html form elements, they do a lot but never everything your crazy designer thinks off
• let buissines logic be handled by the backend if available (e.g. let the backend decide what you need to show make sure you can make it show)
• Use a generic XML parser (if used) or use json if you can handle it ;)
• if you are using XML parse the nodes into AS values so you can handle them directly

Family visit

Last weekend I've been in Madrid and it's surroundings for a small family visit. Let's take a look at the trip with the #purring app for both Android and iPhone.

It all started at schiphol http://www.purring.nl/p/004Js6 and after an easy 2 hour flight I landed in Madrid at the barajas airport http://www.purring.nl/p/004Js8 from there I took 2 metro's and a lightrail to pozuelo http://www.purring.nl/p/004Js9. I've stayed the night in pozuelo and made a trip to El Escorial http://www.purring.nl/p/004Jsd the next day, which is an awesome and very impressive monestary.

We left at 19.00 exactly

The next day i went back to barajas http://www.purring.nl/p/004Jsf and strait back to Schiphol and back home!

Music; 3/4 2010

3rd quarter is done and the results are in

Bands

1. Devin Townsend Project
2. Stone Temple Pilots
3. Edenbridge

Songs

1. Devin Townsend Project – Numbered!
2. Devin Townsend Project – Bend It Like Bender!
3. Devin Townsend Project – Resolve!

Lol; just listen to Devin like I do ;)

it’s the final countdown

officially it's 6 more days but let's keep it at 7 untill i go to the zoo again for the first time in years. The company is great and it will be an epic day. How it works out? well stay tuned but don't expect any pictures; my trusty phone makes every day look like the weather is now: dark and grey

Music; 2/4 2010

2nd quarter is done and the results are in

Bands

1. Stone temple pilots
2. Ayreon
3. Pearl jam

Songs

1. 30 Seconds to Mars – Vox Populi
2. Linkin Park – The Little Things Give You Away
3. Epica – Martyr of the Free Word

The new Stone temple pilots album is great!

been busy

Almost 6 weeks have past since my last blog here, with good reasons! I've been busy, really busy.

I had a training that opened my eyes in more than 1 way and I can use that training in my every day work which in my world means i work a lot and have a lot of fun doing it.
What training is it then? It was my wcag (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)  training. It really informed me how to create websites for everyone instead of those that are blessed with being capable of doing everything. Besided that my boss loved the whole projected reality idea so keep an eye out on your appstore because it is coming and it might become a real big thing, who knows ;)