Sams AIR Unleashed up on Amazon

December 18, 2007 by Stacy Young

Hey the book is finally listing on Amazon!

AIR Unleashed

Covers all the nuts and bolts as one would expect but includes some goodies on frameworks, design patterns, continuous integration and automated testing. (in the context of AIR)

Cheers!

It’s not easy being green this Christmas.

December 13, 2007 by Stacy Young

I’m ashamed to say that this year will be the first that I’ve put real effort into having a tree. Felt it was necessary not that I own a place. (used to move around a lot)

I had a hard time making a decision to go real or not. I’m not a huge fan of killing a tree to hold up a bunch of lights for a few weeks …but I’m greedy, for a real Christmas you need a real tree damn it!

Then a few weeks back I was at Rona (Canadian Hardware Store/Depot) and spotted all these weird little trees dolled up with lights and decorations. Of course I forget the actual name of the species, (if anyone knows please post - some kind of fir?) but the girl referred to them as an “upside-down Christmas tree”. As you might have guessed, the branches grow upward and out. It can also have multiple trunks which really fill out the tree.

Anyhow, I had found my solution. These little trees (they can get quite huge if you keep moving them into larger pots) are the new-age holiday trees!

  • They’re real
  • No petroleum based fake tree shipped from China
  • It’s soft to the touch, not prickly
  • No need to toss them away after, they’re stylish! (although I still want a giant palm tree for the living room)

Top it off with some low wattage LED lights and you’re good to go. Just need to leave out the plate of cookies and cold beer -err I mean glass of milk for Santa.

Digg: Adobe Releases BlazeDS, AIR Beta 3 and more!

December 13, 2007 by Stacy Young

Lots of goodies for the holidays. Details available on Ted’s blog via this Digg story.

 http://digg.com/software/Adobe_Releases_AMF3_Spec_Blaze_DS_AIR_Beta_3_Flex_Beta_3

Enjoy!

Ray Kurzweil: How technology’s accelerating power will transform us

December 10, 2007 by Stacy Young

While he’s not the most animated presentor at this conference, his topic is mind blowing if you consider the implications over coming decades and beyond.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/38

p.s. Beware, if you’re a Science nut this site has the risk of consuming your life for the next couple of hours.

Yes I’m alive, plus a new AIR book in the making!

December 3, 2007 by Stacy Young

After sifting through all the fan mail of folks asking for new material on this blog, I figured I should fire out an update. Ok “fan mail” might be a bit of a stretch …maybe more along the lines of “inquiring minds” …ok ok there’s only been spam and the occasional hate mail. I tell ya there’s nothing more uplifting in the morning when you login and see refreshing remarks such as “You suck” or “Get a clue lady”. (pssssttt, I’m a dude)

All joking aside, I do have some news. I’ve begun work on a new book for Sams. It’s on AIR!. In fact it’s practically made of air at the moment -I need to get writing. It’ll be part of Sams Unleashed series …with a slight twist. More details as they come about!

Flex: Jim Gianninas now blogging

October 22, 2007 by Stacy Young

Jim is a Flex/Java wizard and is my former partner-in-crime over at Optimal Payments - before I made the leap over to Adobe. He’s only just started but expect to see plenty of useful nuggets over the coming weeks and months.

Jim’s Blog

Complete a short survey, get a free beer

September 19, 2007 by Stacy Young

Complete this 7 multiple choice survey and earn yourself a free beer! If you spot me at an event simply tell me you filled out this survey and I will pony up a cold beer! Actually lets make that two beers …so we both win. :-)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7iJCXjs8tPzK_2bjog9_2bGMLA_3d_3d 

Developers: Want to free yourself from coding forms?

September 18, 2007 by Stacy Young

Hey so do I! Sorry to get your hopes up but I’m only here to publicise a very short survey for Developers that would like to comment on the pains and pleasures of dealing with forms in Web Applications. (Or data capture in general)

If you think about it, forms are everywhere in our apps. I’m not just talking about capturing user sign-ups and what not …but development tasks even closer to the core of an Application. i.e. Record editing etc

There are only 7 or 8 questions on the survey, please spare a minute or two! Cheers!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7iJCXjs8tPzK_2bjog9_2bGMLA_3d_3d 

Flash Video, now in HD!

August 21, 2007 by Stacy Young

Been a while since my last post. Had to take in as much as the summer as possible. :-)

Couldn’t avoid this story though, next Flash player 9 update will support H.264 standard as well as a lot of other goodies. Check out this extensive post on the topic. Great read with links to more info on ISO specs etc.

http://www.kaourantin.net/2007/08/what-just-happened-to-video-on-web_20.html

It’s Official, Apollo Project is now Adobe AIR

June 11, 2007 by Stacy Young

Our project previously codenamed Apollo has now been officially branded as AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime). Lots of info in labs or checkout the press release. You can also now download the latest SDK and start developing (or re-purposing) your applications.