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QueueLoader 3.1.7

Announcing a long overdue update of QueueLoader last week. Fixes include finally addressing the error handling of a missing item that is first loaded. Also some optimization of the utility with interfaces.
Click here to download

The google group has been growing and hopefully it has been helpful. I set up an approval process for membership to reduce the amount of spam. I typically approve members within 12 hours.
Click here to join

Any additional suggestions or issues are welcome. Also feel free to click on our sponsors!

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Web Design and Development in Anguilla British West Indies Caribbean

This is a condensed collection of freelance web design and development projects that I have done for clients in Anguilla, British West Indies. Anguilla is located on the most north eastern edge of the Caribbean islands and is known for its amazing beaches.

Currently all of the web development work I do is done in Flash. For all of these projects I provide SEO (Search Engine Optimization) content using a PHP based technique for "ghosting" pages, sections within the Flash are tracked using Google Analytics, as well as an external XML file for easy updating copy content and some graphical resources.

Feel free to contact me for more info.

Tequila Sunrise Villa

Charming Escapes Collection

01

YouWillKnowTheTruth.Com – The Final Cylon

I'm excited about the launch of www.youwillknowthetruth.com. Keep checking the site as clues will be released frequently leading up to the moment of truth!

01

AS3 Tweening + Go + HydroTween rev 0.3.1

Here's my latest tweening module for Go called HydroTween. Using HydroTween with the Go system is as easy as:

HydroTween.go(target, {width:760}, .8, 0, Exponential.easeInOut, onCompleteHandler);

Be sure to go to goasap.org to get the Go source.

01

QueueLoader AS3 rev 10

Latest Version Info:
Click here for the current rev

Click here for the usage guide

Click here for the change log

Also click here for any posts related to the latest changes:
QueueLoader Updates

Rev 10 Update
You can easily draw the frames of an externally loaded SWF to bitmap objects in an Array which was suggested by Carlos Ulloa. I'm still looking for people to help with rigorous testing and features. Contact me if you are interested.

0

Papervision 2.0

Had a great time at the Papervision 2.0 seminar with John Grden and Andy Zupko here in NYC. Lot of eager people braving the cold snowy weather. It was slow at times trying to get everyone going on Flex. This gave me time to get the demos working in AS3 only FDT projects. Hopefully with John's and Andy's blessing I can put those demos here on the blog

0

ADDED_TO_STAGE + IE6 + Debugging

Let me start off by saying Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE does NOT work in IE6. I spent the better part of today debugging to finally track the culprit down to this event. This flip side to this is I figured out a gorilla method for debugging and getting to the source of the problem.I added a method to my SendJavascript singleton class called debug() that fires an ExternalInterface function (I might convert the rest of the class tp ExternalInterface at some point if I find it works better then the way it is now). This in turn is connected to a javascript that generates an alert box. Surprisingly enough, when the alert box would popup on screen, the code running in the SWF would stop. By moving this method around my application I was able to figure out that if the alert came up all was well. If it didn't come up then I knew it was located beyond the trouble spot. By continuously narrowing the bookends of the alert calls I tracked the issue down to the event. Reminded me of using signal flow to track down a hum in an audio path.I took it a step further and created an F.D.T. code template that allowed me to insert the call. This made it speedy as it would automatically insert the class method and the enclosing method.Here's the template code:

SendJavascript.getInstance().debug("${enclosing_type}.${enclosing_method}()");

Here's the script added to the html:

<script language="JavaScript">
function sendToJavaScript(value) {
     alert(value);
}
</script>

Here's the updated Class:SendJavascript Debug UpdateYou can see more info on this class as well here.

01

GO Tweening System

Check the most recent Go post for updates to HydroTween

I finally got a chance to play with Moses' new AS3 tweening system "GO". It's very, very cool, and very powerful. The only drawback to this is it takes a bit more work and is a little more advanced then the average tweening engine. However for advanced developers comfortable with customizing and modifying a tweening engine, GO will be a natural solution especially for big projects.

Go here for updates and info on the GO System.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other people come up with and how they extend the functionality of GO. This was a simple example but I plan on abstracting out the array tweening function so it can be used in other situations. Hopefully people will catch on to this and a library of extensions will develop. I think once that happens it will become very accessible to all developers.

Here's the current code example:

import com.hydrotik.go.SepiaTween;
import org.fuseproject.go.events.GoEvent;
import fl.motion.easing.Sine;
 
// Add Interaction
image.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, imageHandler);
image.buttonMode = image.mouseEnabled = image.useHandCursor = true;
var isSepia:Boolean = false;
 
 
// Setup our sepia matrix
var sepiaColor:Array = [
	0.3930000066757202, 0.7689999938011169, 0.1889999955892563, 0, 0,
	0.3490000069141388, 0.6859999895095825, 0.1679999977350235, 0, 0, 
	0.2720000147819519, 0.5339999794960022, 0.1309999972581863, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 1, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 0, 1
];
 
var nullColor:Array = [
	1, 0, 0, 0, 0,
	0, 1, 0, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 1, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 1, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 0, 1
];
 
 
// Setup GO
var oGo:SepiaTween = new SepiaTween(image, sepiaColor, 0, 3, Sine.easeInOut);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.START, goHandler);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.UPDATE, goHandler);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.END, goHandler);
 
 
 
// Handlers
function imageHandler(event:MouseEvent):void{
	oGo.matrix = (isSepia) ? nullColor : sepiaColor;
	oGo.start();
	isSepia = !isSepia;
}
 
function goHandler(event:GoEvent):void{
	switch (event.type) {
		case GoEvent.START:
			trace("start");
			break;
		case GoEvent.UPDATE:
			trace("update");
			break;
		case GoEvent.END:
			trace("end");
			break;
	}
 
}

Check the most recent Go post for updates to HydroTween

I finally got a chance to play with Moses' new AS3 tweening system "GO". It's very, very cool, and very powerful. The only drawback to this is it takes a bit more work and is a little more advanced then the average tweening engine. However for advanced developers comfortable with customizing and modifying a tweening engine, GO will be a natural solution especially for big projects.

Go here for updates and info on the GO System.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other people come up with and how they extend the functionality of GO. This was a simple example but I plan on abstracting out the array tweening function so it can be used in other situations. Hopefully people will catch on to this and a library of extensions will develop. I think once that happens it will become very accessible to all developers.

Here's the current code example:

import com.hydrotik.go.SepiaTween;
import org.fuseproject.go.events.GoEvent;
import fl.motion.easing.Sine;
 
// Add Interaction
image.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, imageHandler);
image.buttonMode = image.mouseEnabled = image.useHandCursor = true;
var isSepia:Boolean = false;
 
 
// Setup our sepia matrix
var sepiaColor:Array = [
	0.3930000066757202, 0.7689999938011169, 0.1889999955892563, 0, 0,
	0.3490000069141388, 0.6859999895095825, 0.1679999977350235, 0, 0, 
	0.2720000147819519, 0.5339999794960022, 0.1309999972581863, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 1, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 0, 1
];
 
var nullColor:Array = [
	1, 0, 0, 0, 0,
	0, 1, 0, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 1, 0, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 1, 0,
	0, 0, 0, 0, 1
];
 
 
// Setup GO
var oGo:SepiaTween = new SepiaTween(image, sepiaColor, 0, 3, Sine.easeInOut);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.START, goHandler);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.UPDATE, goHandler);
oGo.addEventListener(GoEvent.END, goHandler);
 
 
 
// Handlers
function imageHandler(event:MouseEvent):void{
	oGo.matrix = (isSepia) ? nullColor : sepiaColor;
	oGo.start();
	isSepia = !isSepia;
}
 
function goHandler(event:GoEvent):void{
	switch (event.type) {
		case GoEvent.START:
			trace("start");
			break;
		case GoEvent.UPDATE:
			trace("update");
			break;
		case GoEvent.END:
			trace("end");
			break;
	}
 
}

0

FF – Day 1 – Key Note w/Kevin Lynch

Adobe was nice enough to treat us to Colin's book as I said before. Kevin Lynch, Adobe's software tech guy, gave the keynote introductory speech. He went over the 3 software applications that make up the actionscript environment. The first of the 3 being CS3 was mostly about the plugin enhancements code named "moviestar". A very interesting thing he brought up was that Flash player's Virtual Machine which is called "Tamarin" is being merged into the Mozilla open source world. This mean that in a couple years you will find flash running natively in firefox. This also allows access from developers in streamlining the code. Another key thing he mentioned is the increase in Flash adoption as versions are released. Currently Flash 9 has a penetration rate of 90% which is considerable higher then I though. There were some cool demos of Flex's debugging capabilities as wel as a really coo Air application the will might even make Digidesign take notice called DigiMix. More to come.. off to an Adobe Mobile roundtable discussion.

BTW I sorta missed much of the first block, wanted to see the new additions to AS3, but it was packed and I've seen enough sound visualizers. I should have caught the air presentation.

2

Black Magic Records and DJ Donovan

So I was a DJ/Producer way back in my raving days (pre silly looking pants era) in the early and mid 90’s under the name DJ Donovan. I actually put out a fair amount of records and remixes. Was on an Astralwerks compilation Unkownwerks in '98 and I even started my own label Intellihance Records which I gradually lost steam with in 2003ish? It’s even possible some people might find their way to this blog from that world. Anyways in 1996 I put out a record with Black Magic Records after moving to New Orleans to work with DJ Voodoo and The Liquid Method (DJ Demonixx/Mike Scott). They were part of the south eastern breakbeat scene down there. This record kind of formally kicked off my DJing and producing career (if you want to call it that). Nonetheless, I did a vanity search on iTunes and what do you know, that record popped up!.

I'm pretty confident that most of my work that came after this first record got better;) Maybe one of these days I'll find a way to put some of the Intellihance stuff on iTunes.

Funny how things take you back in time.