Sunday 9/19 (Day 0): OK, honestly, this is one of the toughest choices to make. Seriously, I have to pick out of all of the labs. Let’s skip talking about Sunday ’cause I just don’t know. Between Dan Florio‘s Flex 101, Garth Braithwaite‘s AIR2.0 lab, Paul Robertson’s Robotlegs lab, the Litl labs, Jonathan Campos‘ AIRAndroid lab and Ben Garney’s Pushbutton Engine, I just don’t know which to chose. I would attend all of them if I could. Er.

Monday 9/20
9:30 am: Christian Cantrell (AIR Product Manager at Adobe) and Doug McCune Keynote. This should be super fun for so many reasons. Christian is crazy smart, and Doug does some great work with Flex.

10:50 am – 12 noon: This is a toss up between Paul Taylor‘s TLF debut and Jesse Warden talking about How to Launch a Small Software Project. Even though Paul’s session may go over my head, what he is doing at his age deserves some support and applause.

12 – 1:30 pm: Lunch and Jesse vs Jesse. This is going to be super. Jesse Freeman and Jesse Warden dukin’ it out over which is better, ActionScript or Flex. Have you seen these guys argue on Twitter? They fight about just about everything. I can’t wait to see it in person (from a safe distance of course).

1:30 – 2:40 pm: Another difficult decision. I’ll be in either Jeffry Houser’s Flex Components for the Real World or Kevin Hoyt‘s Getting Started with LiveCycle Collab. Services. But, I’ll have to leave half way through so I can be sure to be ready for my own session at…

2:5o – 4:00 pm: I’ll be making a fool out of myself in front of a bunch of really smart devs talkin’ about designer-y type stuff. This should be fun. Then after I finish a few cigarettes and vomiting…

4:10 pm: Ben Stucki’s general session Art of Computer Science should be pretty sweet, reflect on what you’ve learned.

Then, there’s the Flex-a-palooza, one dope concert by a bunch of developers. Not sure how late I can stay up, I’ll have to head back to my hotel room to prepare for the next morning.

Tuesday 9/20
9:30 am: (Note: I am from Seattle, so this is 6:30 am to me) My general session The Mobile Experience: It’s About the User. I’m so incredibly nervous for this one its not funny. Hopefully, I can get at least one person excited.

10:50 am – 12 noon: I’m going to Andy Powell‘s Everything I Need To Know About RIA Dev., I Learned From a Farmer. This just sounds crazy interesting.

12 – 1:30 pm: Lunch and The Compilers Tech Talk. Not sure what they’ll be talking about, but there is lunch.

1:30 – 2:40 pm: I’ll be in Richard Lord’s Re-architecting the designer-developer workflow. This is right down my alley and something I have been pushing for for a while now, so hearing Richard talk about it should be great. It’s not that the other sessions aren’t going to be good as well, though.

2:50 – 4:00 pm: Eric Fickes‘ Screw HTML5, make cool shit with AIR. Must… go… there.

4:10 – 5:20 pm: Chuck Freedman hosts The Great Framework Debate. It should be fun listening to a bunch of devs fighting over who’s framework is better.

After Chuck’s debate its time to meet the Flex Team. That’ll be fun.

Wednesday 9/21
9:30 – 10:40 am: Some general session. I’m not sure what this one is about. A surprise maybe?

10:50 am – 12 noon: Michael Labriola’s Flex 4 Components from the Firehose is a definite can’t miss.

12 – 1:30: Lunch.

1:30 – 2:40 pm: Garth’s Decrapping Your Flex App. Garth will be talking about Interaction Design, which, obviously, I’m very interested in.

Almost immediately after, though, I’ll have to be running out to catch a flight back home so I won’t be able to catch the rest of the sessions. :`(

Needless-to-say these four days will be off the freakin’ hook and I really can’t wait.

If you’re on the East Coast, especially near DC, it would be great to see you there. There’s still time to get your ticket. Go. Go get it.

Teach kids how to use the computer (if you notice how the HUD of the app looks like a browser), as well as daily learning activities from multiple Disney Preschool properties. Great 3D animations (in video form). Near impeccable voice overs (many by the talent themselves no less). All kinds of fun little animations for all interactions (even on the exit confirmation screen). It is addicting, even for a growns-up like me.

You can download it to check it out here: http://preschooltime.go.com (requires sign-up for 15 day free trial)

Here are some screen shots:

I know what you may be asking. “But why do this in an AIR application instead of in the browser?”

Well, there’s a couple reasons why you could (and maybe should). There really are some benefits.

First, keeping an AIR application full screen and as up-front to the child limits the possibility of getting to “harmful” content. It keeps them focused on these activities that are productive and less likely to wander into some “farm place” which is completely counter-productive. Wrap the child in the experience, make it fun (which this one does) and the kid (or even adult) is more apt to spend more time in it.

Second is how the child may get to the application. Try teaching a 5 year-old how to use a computer (well, a 5 year-old of a non-tech savvy family). Try teaching them to double-click on the FireFox logo, typing in the URL, or looking for it in the bookmarks bar. Its not that easy. Now just teach them to double-click the AIR app icon to launch the application. BAM, easier.

Plus, if you set up the child their own user profile on your machine, you can lock it down so that the child doesn’t have access to the browsers and only to applications such as this. This will further help keep them away from “harmful” content. Direct access, simple actions to an immersible experience.

Thirdly, when you first open the application it appears it is looking for – and possibly downloading – updated content. The app is doing this behind the scenes while the child is going through an activity, and you can’t get out of the activity until the updating is done (or so it seems). Sure you can do this in a Flash app in the browser, but it just feels much more seamless on the desktop. You continue to go through the activity without any notice of the download and update process because its fun. If there is no internet connection or there is no update, and since (and I’m assuming here) the application has already downloaded a day’s worth of content on the first install, the child can continue playing without any hiccups.

I’m sure there are other technical and design reasons to use AIR for this type of application, but its late and I’m too tired to think of them.

For now, just enjoy the app. Its actually quite fun.

Fixing The Player SWC.

First, download the playerglobal.swc like in my earlier post.

This time, though, don’t put it in the FP10 folder. Instead, create a new folder in [app]/Common/Configuration/ActionScript 3.0, name it FP10.1, and drop the .swc in there. If you have already grabbed the playerglobal.swc and placed it in the FP10 folder, just move it to this new folder and put the archived version back where it was (hopefully you did backup the previous .swc).

Open the FlashPlayer10_1.xml located here:
Mac: /Applications/Adobe Flash CS5/Common/Configuration/Players
PC: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS5\Common\Configuration\Players

Change the <player> id to =”FlashPlayer10.1″ and the <name> to Flash Player 10.1. Then in the <playerDefinitionPath> change the as3 path to reflect the newly created FP10.1 folder. Save.

Now, download this zip. In it is an .xml for Flash Player 10 Publish Setting taken from Flash CS4. It won’t break CS5, I promise.

Place that .xml into the Players folder.

Open up Flash CS5 and create a new AS3 file.

You will notice that Publish Setting’s Flash Player is 10. This is default for AS3 Projects in your default Publish Profile (more on that in another post). If you want to change it, go to Publish Settings and bring down the player version. 10.1 should now appear in the list.

This still does not address the Player version on Test Movie problem. So to truly test this, you will need to publish and test in the browser. You can Publish and Run by cmd(cntl) + F12. Swap the player by grabbing archived versions of Flash Player here.

This is possible for Flash CS4 as well. Only differences there is the paths, of course, and the Player .xml will need to be grabbed from CS5.
**Update 08/29/10:

HFUG found an issue with TLF in the newly created Flash Player 10 files:

This is because there is a missing node in the FlashPlayer10.xml that we put into the Players folder. If you have followed this post then you can simply open that .xml and paste this line to the bottom of the <feature> nodes:
<feature name=”textLayoutFramework”       supported=”true” />
I have updated the .zip above to fix this .xml.

Happy Flashing!

You can get the first meeting here.

Follow Dee on twitter to keep up with when and where the meetings will be.

Next online meet is on September 21st. Hope to see you there!

Many comments on someone’s slideshare post was “that’s awesome,” “thanks for this great information,” “your design work is so nice.” etc. (of course I’m paraphrasing here). So much feedback we hear and see on the work we do is praise. The amount of “I <3 U’s” is obnoxious. This is especially prevalent in the design world.

Back in college, when giving peer critiques everyone would sit around someone’s painting or design and give their thoughts. Mostly everyone just took turns to praise it. When it came my turn to give feedback it was generally constructive, or what I thought was constructive. Sometimes my feedback was harsh, negative or even mean. A few times I spouted out “That is fucking ugly [retarded, stupid, useless, etc].” Hell, I didn’t like it for some reason or another and if you asked for my opinion you best bet you’re going to get it. You would also get my reasoning behind why I didn’t like it. And often you would hear ways I believed the painting or design could be improved.

Our industry is ripe for feedback. We put our work out for everyone with internet access to see, to use. Yet when we do, we hope to hear how much some one loves it just as much as we do. We look for people to tells us what an awesome job we did.

Now, I’m all for praise. I, too, would love to hear about how awesome you think I am. Its a self-esteem boost. But if all we hear is praise, we are destined to make the same stupid mistakes repeatedly. We never grow or improve. Or only slowly do.

Why tiptoe around one another? Why not be honest? Why not give your opinion on what was said? Why not challenge one another?  Does everyone really think the same way? Do they all believe in the same values, concepts, standards or theories?

Damn.

I would much rather read something like, “Face it, your shit stinks. There are problems with your approach. Your opinion is flawed. Your choice of color, fonts, layout are disturbing and hideous. How you handle interactions, designs, code, navigation, flow are all skewed and wrong. Your thoughts are bullshit.” “But here’s why I think so.”

Ok, maybe you don’t have to be as much of a dick about it as I am, but you get the idea.

All this praise is annoying. Its frustrating, really. Stop it. Writing replies on how much you love someone’s work and that’s it make YOU sound like you have no opinions, and thus YOU sound stupid.

Just about every mother has said at one point “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” This is bullshit. Change it, “If you can’t say anything to contribute usefully, don’t say shit.”

I want you to challenge me.  Tell me when what I say or do has discrepancies. Let me know what you don’t like about something just as much as what you do. But when you tell me something you don’t like, give me reasoning behind why, and maybe some reason behind how to improve it. Start a conversation. Let’s explore ways for us all to improve.

Don’t just send your love. Send your thoughts.

Really? Why hide your content? And with such a small player?

This can be found here.

I will be offering “Premiere Slots” and “Standard Slots.” If enough space is sold I will turn my desktop into randomly rotating images to display as many ads as possible. Rotating desktops at 1 minute a piece during a one hour presentation will give plenty of exposure. I haven’t quite worked out the details on payment (most likely a PayPal account will be set up within the next few days).

Promote yourself, your company, your kitty’s awesome stealth skillz, your sister’s baking, your favorite website, or whatever.

Now, any ad submitted will need to go through a review process. There are basically 3 guidelines.

1. No Pornography (You can get that on Android)
2. No Degrading or otherwise inflammatory content regarding another company, person or other entity. (Unless I find it funny.)
3. No vulgar language. (Again, unless I find it funny.)

That’s it. Really, it is to my sole discretion. Just keep it as clean and friendly as possible. Review process will take place before any funding will be collected. If your ad is approved, you will receive an email notifying you of payment process.

Prices are as follows:

Standard: $5 per unit.
Premiere: $10 per unit.
2 Adjacent Standards: $10
Full Screen Take-Over: $50

*Prices are subject to change.

Here is the layout:

Fullscreen Takeover will be at full dimensions: 1024 x 768. Keep in mind the 15 – 20 pixels for the Mac Status bar at top.

Deadline for ad submission is September 10th, 2010. Any space not sold by this time will be filled to with a generic background, most likely a gray to black gradient from bottom to top.

Get creative, remember that your slot does not have to be “rectangular.”

To submit your ad send an email with desired size and example of your ad (jpg or png format) to adspace@swfhead.com.

**Update 1: All proceeds from ad sales will be going Children’s Greatest Needs category at Seattle Children’s Hospital. I will match up to $250 in total ad sales. But the more sales the better. Before and after my presentations I will let my desktop run for as long as possible, giving your ads as much exposure as I can. 360|Flex sessions are recorded, so not only will your ad have the chance to be seen by 300+ people at the conference, but also afterward in videos.

On top of all of this, if you buy a fullscreen slot, or spend $50+ I will make a donation of the amount you purchase in your name with SCH.

Its a small price that can potentially get you a ton of exposure and have a real impact on a child’s life.

Or you can donate directly to SCH here.

Thanks!

1. DL and set up the Android SDK as described here. This doesn’t take too long. Just make sure you follow all the steps.

2. Set up your PATH. On Mac, open Terminal (make sure you’re in your parent directory, eg ~) and type open -e .bash_profile. TextEdit will open with blank .bash_profile doc.

When TextEdit opens add export PATH=${PATH}:/Your/AndroidSDK/dirs/here/

Save and quit.

This information will come in handy when “other” SDKs become publicly available. You can just add the other SDK’s directories here.

3. Now you have full access to Android SDK. So if you ever need to use it just type adb … in Terminal.

4. Test this. Plug in your device and in Terminal type: adb devices. The Daemon should run and your devices plugged in should show up.

Now you can install apps. For instance, let’s say we want to install myfungame.apk that sits on your desktop on to your device.

1. With the device plugged in. Open Terminal and cd to your desktop. Here’s what mine looks like:

2. Type in adb install myfungame.apk

3. Terminal will run and when “Success” appears, your app is finished installing. You can open it on your phone now.

As a note, I put my Android SDK in /HD/Developer/ so that it is central and quick to get to. That “other” SDK is in (added to) the development SDK.

Be sure to read the documentation on the Android Dev site for more of what you can do with the SDK. Or in Terminal type adb help.

Enjoy!

It appears the new Flash Platform (AIR 2 and Flash Player, CS5 style) Logos are terribly hard to find in vector, so I made them.

You can grab them here in Illustrator format.

Enjoy and Happy Flashing!

This is awesome. The 360|Flex speaker line up and schedule is up and on it you’ll find my name!

Not just once, but twice.

Yup, that’s right. I’ll be giving 2 sessions at 360|Flex DC and I couldn’t be more excited. The 360 speaker line up is chalk full of great people to learn from. Having my name listed next to theirs is more of an honor than can be described.

In case your wondering, here are my sessions:

Session: Your AIR App is Boring
Description: Let’s make your next AIR app fun and different. We’ll take a look at several AIR apps to see what makes them standout. Then we’ll dive into how you, too, can create an application that your users will enjoy.

•• For this session I’ll be talking about some simple (and some not-so-simple) things people can do to make their AIR apps fun. It sounds pretty straight forward, right? Well, there is some design thinking involved that even developers can do.

Session: Mobile UX: It’s About the User. The Mobile Experience: It’s about the user.
Description: From project flow to design to testing, staying focused on the user will better your applications and ensure the best experience possible. We’ll talk about what makes an outstanding, fun, and exciting (and usable) experience on mobile devices.

••Often times we forget who we’re creating applications for. We’re all guilty of it, myself included. Stepping back and looking at your work from an users point of view is important. The description pretty much says it all.

In essence I’ll be talking about design to a bunch of developers. Scary thought. I’ve already got the butterflies.

In between attending sessions and nervously checking over my own, I’ll get the opportunity to meet some of the people I have admired for quite some time. This includes Garth Braithwaite, Elad Elrom, Michael Labriola, Jesse-freakin-Warden, and many more.

If you’re on the East Coast, or even if you’re not, come to 360|Flex DC. It will be well worth it, and would be great to meet you!

And a big, huge thanks to John and Nicole at 360 for letting me partake in such an awesome event!