tombray.com http://www.tombray.com Chatting about Flex & AIR Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:52:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 en Being a Flex trainer has its perks! Like getting a tour of JPL! http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/11/being-a-flex-trainer-has-its-perks-like-getting-a-tour-of-jpl/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/11/being-a-flex-trainer-has-its-perks-like-getting-a-tour-of-jpl/#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:52:38 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/11/being-a-flex-trainer-has-its-perks-like-getting-a-tour-of-jpl/ Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing Flex training at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and got take a VIP tour to see the next generation Mars rover that will be going up in a few years.  I even got to sit in the Mission Manager’s chair and pretend for a minute.  I’m enough of a geek that I watched the Pheonix landing live on NASA TV, so this was a treat for me.

Mission Manager

Here’s the cruise vehicle and heat shield that will get the rover to its destination:

Rover Cruise Vehicle

And the way they’re going to land the rover is incredible:

landing.jpg

The part with the thrusters will hover there while the rover slowly descends along a cable like a spider.

Sorry for the poor quality photos, but you get the idea :)

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/11/being-a-flex-trainer-has-its-perks-like-getting-a-tour-of-jpl/feed/ Next L.A. Flex meeting (12/3): Flash Catalyst (Thermo) and Flex 4 (Gumbo) demos http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/02/next-la-flex-meeting-123-flash-catalyst-thermo-and-flex-4-gumbo-demos/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/02/next-la-flex-meeting-123-flash-catalyst-thermo-and-flex-4-gumbo-demos/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:29:12 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/02/next-la-flex-meeting-123-flash-catalyst-thermo-and-flex-4-gumbo-demos/ I’ll be demonstrating pre-pre-release versions of Flash Catalyst and Flex 4 tomorrow night, December 3rd, at 7:30.  Don’t miss it!  More details can be found at our new group site at http://groups.adobe.com/groups/2b6ef91865/summary. Hope to see you there! 

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/12/02/next-la-flex-meeting-123-flash-catalyst-thermo-and-flex-4-gumbo-demos/feed/ Our Flex jobs feed is integrated into the new Flex.org http://www.tombray.com/2008/07/09/our-flex-jobs-feed-is-integrated-into-the-new-flexorg/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/07/09/our-flex-jobs-feed-is-integrated-into-the-new-flexorg/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:22:08 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/07/09/our-flex-jobs-feed-is-integrated-into-the-new-flexorg/ Our Flex job posting service syndicates job postings across various Flex-related blogs, the Los Angeles Flex User Group site, our popular Flex chat room, the SearchCoders Dashboard (15,000+ downloads), and now the new and improved Flex.org.

If you blog about Flex, you can make some extra cash by putting our jobs feed on your site like I have on my sidebar. Cool Flex jobs are being posted to our site every week, so we’re doing what we can to get the word out.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/07/09/our-flex-jobs-feed-is-integrated-into-the-new-flexorg/feed/ Source code for my AIR feed reader from the last L.A. Flex meeting http://www.tombray.com/2008/06/19/source-code-for-my-air-feed-reader-from-the-last-la-flex-meeting/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/06/19/source-code-for-my-air-feed-reader-from-the-last-la-flex-meeting/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:55:56 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/06/19/source-code-for-my-air-feed-reader-from-the-last-la-flex-meeting/ In our last L.A. Flex user group meeting, I demonstrated how to build a feed reader using AIR. The source is now available here. The app supports RSS .91, .92, 1.0, 2.0, and Atom 1.0 thanks to the open source xmlsyndication library available on Google code.  It also saves feed information locally using SQLite.  Think of it as a basic example for using the xmlsyndication.swc and for working with SQLite.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/06/19/source-code-for-my-air-feed-reader-from-the-last-la-flex-meeting/feed/ New Flex User Group in New Jersey http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/15/new-flex-user-group-in-new-jersey/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/15/new-flex-user-group-in-new-jersey/#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 20:19:43 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/15/new-flex-user-group-in-new-jersey/ If you’re a Flex developer in NJ, don’t miss the first user group meeting on May 21st.  David Finnerty is one of the guys helping to get it started — you may be familiar with some of his posts about my EasyMVC Flex architecture recipe.  The official UG site is www.njflex.com and you can read Dave’s post about it as well.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/15/new-flex-user-group-in-new-jersey/feed/ Updating AIR Drag & Drop examples for AIR 1.0 http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/13/updating-air-drag-drop-examples-for-air-10/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/13/updating-air-drag-drop-examples-for-air-10/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 21:26:29 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/13/updating-air-drag-drop-examples-for-air-10/ I’m giving a presentation tonight about drag & drop in Adobe AIR and noticed that a lot of the examples out there were made for beta versions of AIR and don’t work with AIR 1.0.  For example, Christophe Coenraets provided some useful utility classes for working with XLS and Bitmap formats which you can read about here.  I’ve updated his source to work with AIR 1.0 and you can download it here.

There’s another example made by Rich Tretola that I’ll post soon.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/13/updating-air-drag-drop-examples-for-air-10/feed/ 5/13 L.A. Flex UG Meeting: Drag & Drop in AIR http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/09/513-la-flex-ug-meeting-drag-drop-in-air/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/09/513-la-flex-ug-meeting-drag-drop-in-air/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 16:08:12 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/09/513-la-flex-ug-meeting-drag-drop-in-air/ If you’re in the L.A. area and you haven’t been to a Flex user group meeting, next Tuesday should be a fun one.  I’ll be demonstrating how to implement drag & drop into and out of AIR applications from the desktop and other application windows.  More details at laflex.org.  Also, be sure to join our Google group so you’re on the mailing list.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/09/513-la-flex-ug-meeting-drag-drop-in-air/feed/ Taking over the L.A. Flex User Group http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/07/taking-over-the-la-flex-user-group/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/07/taking-over-the-la-flex-user-group/#comments Wed, 07 May 2008 23:16:15 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/07/taking-over-the-la-flex-user-group/ My business partner, Robert Cadena, has been running the group for the last year and he’s expecting a baby in June so we’ve transferred control over to me.  I’ll be frequently presenting on the tips and techniques that Robert and I use in our Flex consulting projects, our SearchCoders Dashboard AIR application (watch interview), and our Chatopica branded chat service.  If you’d like to be a guest speaker, let me know.  Be sure to check out the laflex.org website and subscribe to our google group if you live in the greater Los Angeles area.  

Also, if you’re hiring Flex developers in the L.A. area, be sure to post your jobs at www.searchcoders.com/jobs because that jobs feed is syndicated on the L.A. Flex website, various other blogs, SimplyHired, and we point to the jobs listings from the ads in our syndicated Flex chat room.

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/07/taking-over-the-la-flex-user-group/feed/ Flex jobs feed: put it on your blog and make some cash http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/06/flex-jobs-feed-put-it-on-your-blog-and-make-some-cash/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/06/flex-jobs-feed-put-it-on-your-blog-and-make-some-cash/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 16:41:57 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/06/flex-jobs-feed-put-it-on-your-blog-and-make-some-cash/ We frequently get asked to post Flex jobs on our blogs (especially the L.A. Flex User Group blog) so we decided to create a jobs feed and an affiliate program so that other Flex bloggers can make a little extra cash by posting jobs. Once you put the feed on your blog, just let us know and we’ll send you an affiliate ID to plug in. The details of the affiliate program are here. To put the feed on your blog, you can point any feed widget to http://www.searchcoders.com/jobs/feed and you can customize the content of the feed with something like this: http://www.searchcoders.com/jobs/feed/q=los+angeles+flex. You can also just copy and paste this feed widget:

<div id=”scjobs_content”></div>
<div id=”scjobs_powered”>powered by <a href=”http://www.searchcoders.com/jobs/”>SearchCoders/Jobs</a></div>
<script language=”javascript”>
var affiliate=”";
var query = “flex”;
</script>
<script language=”javascript” src=”http://www.searchcoders.com/js/jobs_widget.js”></script>

If you’re just looking for work or want to post a job, go directly to www.searchcoders.com/jobs

Let me know if you have any questions!

]]> http://www.tombray.com/2008/05/06/flex-jobs-feed-put-it-on-your-blog-and-make-some-cash/feed/ Another win for Flex runtime styles: custom branded chat for Dell’s environmental site http://www.tombray.com/2008/04/13/another-win-for-flex-runtime-styles-custom-branded-chat-for-dells-environmental-site/ http://www.tombray.com/2008/04/13/another-win-for-flex-runtime-styles-custom-branded-chat-for-dells-environmental-site/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:41:16 +0000 tombray http://www.tombray.com/2008/04/13/another-win-for-flex-runtime-styles-custom-branded-chat-for-dells-environmental-site/ A few months ago I wrote about how we used runtime styles to create a custom skin for Fox Searchlight’s movie Juno.  Well, now we’ve got another example with a completely different skin but the same underlying code.  Dell computer has a site dedicated to environmental issues and they’ve set up a Facebook Graffiti contest where members can show off their artistic talents while expressing what “green” means to them.  We’ve integrated our chat into the site so that users can talk about the latest Graffiti submissions and share their thoughts on building a sustainable future.  If you’re interested in branded, customized chat rooms, please contact info@chatopica.com or visit www.chatopica.com for more info.

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