Flash/Flex, Interactive Marketing, Photography, and Social Media
I used this promo code on iStockphoto today and received $15 off my $75 purchase. So I only paid $60 on iStockphoto for 50 credits. A pretty good deal if you ask me. If you click the link above I will get a small commission thanks.
Here is the code - Promo Code: stocklayouts
Thanks to Elizaibeth for turning me onto the promo code.
Everyone wants Google rank their blog high in searches. Another important key is to get people to read your blog repeatedly. Here are 7 tips to writing effective blogs.
Search Engine Optimization Terms
Thanks and Happy Blogging
Curtis J. Morley
April 13th only the "Great Work, Great Career" iPhone app is available for the price of $2.99. It has been selling for $9.99 but to help with the downturn in the economy FranklinCovey is offering the iPhone app for this special price today only.
The app is fantastic and it really should be 5 apps sold seperately.The application helps you find a job if you are looking and helps you keep your job and make a difference at your company if you are employed. Get the FranklinCovey iPhone app.
Here are some screen shots.
Great Work, Great Career, Great iPhone App
You can ask Stephen R. Covey or Jennifer Colosimo questions about getting and keeping a job directly through the app.
The app comes loaded with videos from Stephen R. Covey and Jennifer Colosimo
One of my favorite features of the app is the Strengths finder. It helps you make a difference for you company by laying out your strengths and helping you tap into them more.
Find out what your true strengths are and how to best use them.
The "Resource Finder" is where you go if need to get a job.
Find the right job and get the skills you need with the Resource Finder
Once you have a job and know your strengths then use the app to set out to make a difference with your "Contribution Statement"
Don't Just Work - Contribute!
Another awesome part of the app is creating a "Village" where you have instant access using your own contacts to in a way you may never have thought of before.
Who is in Your Village?
Get the Great Work, Great Career iPhone app today.
One way to get Google to Read Your Blog
Thanks and Happy blogging.
Curtis J. Morley
Yahoo's tool for creating RSS feeds that fit your style. Everything from E-bay to business tools.
Yahoo Pipes RSS Feed Filter Tool
A nice tool that filters individual feeds. It is an inclusive RSS filter rather than an exclusive RSS filter.
Feedsifter RSS Filter Tool
FeedRinse RSS Filter Tool
Not a pretty site but it works well for RSS aggregation
Syndic8 RSS Filter Tool
This company has been around a while and has a suite of tools for RSS feeds and filtering
NewsIsFree RSS Filter Tool
An RSS company that has created fantastic business-oriented channels and tools.
MoreOver RSS Filter Tool
xFruits RSS tools
Are you looking to speed up your coding in AS3 when you are working in Flash environment? Here is a list of hotkeys that you can use in your actions Panel or with external .as files. Just hit the [Esc] key and then individually hit the two keys listed after and Flash will spit out a snippet of code for you.
If you want to add your own Flash Quickeys go into the ActionsPanel.xml file and add a quickey. For example if I wanted to create a pacakage that contained a class and a constructor then I could create my own quickey to do all of that. or if I just wanted to create a package then I would add id ="package" quickey="pk" to the line that starts <string name="package" in a similar fashion as the rest of the line with quickeys.
Flash ActionScript3 HotKeys
| AS3 output | Quickey |
| trace ( ); | [Esc - tr] |
| break( ); | [Esc - br] |
| case condition : | [Esc - ce] |
| continue; | [Esc -co] |
| default : | [Esc -dt] |
| do { } while ( ); | [Esc-do] |
| } else { | [Esc -el] |
| for ( ) { } | [Esc -fr] |
| for ( ) { } | [Esc -fi] |
| if ( ) { } | [Esc -if] |
| return ( ); | [Esc -rt] |
| switch ( ) { } | [Esc -sw] |
| throw ; | [Esc -th] |
| try { } | [Esc - ty] |
| catch ( ) | [Esc -ch] |
| finally { } | [Esc -fy] |
| " " | [Esc -ev] |
| while ( ) { } | [Esc -wh] |
| with ( ) { } | [Esc -wt] |
| class { } | [Esc -cl] |
| function ( ) { } | [Esc -fn] |
| var ; | [Esc -vr] |
| // | [Esc -//] |
As always happy Flashing
Curtis J. Morley
P.S. Here is the code I used to grab all of the quickeys from the ActionsPanel.xml file. I love E4X.
var quickeyXML:XML = {I pasted the XML from ActionsPanel.xml here}
for each (var element:XML in quickeyXML..@quickey)
{
trace("[Esc - "+element+"]");
}
Adobe Releases CS4 Beta Products
Well we knew it wouldn't be long after the public release of Flash Player 10 that CS4 Betas would be released. Currently you can download the beta of Dreamweaver CS4 and beta of Fireworks CS4. There currently is no Flash Beta but of course you can author for Flash 10 with Flex 3 and SDK 3.0.
Dreamweaver and Fireworks are excellent tools that if you don't have you should get soon. Especially with the new enhancements. Here is a summary from the Adobe Labs website.
DreamWeaver CS4:
Fireworks CS4:
Thanks,
Curtis J. Morley
P.S. I realize that the date on this post is before the actual date on Adobe Labs, but they always post the night before. It may have something to do with global time.
Warning: 1100: Assignment within conditional. Did you mean == instead of =?
Description:
AS3 warning 1100 is Adobe watching out for you and helping you out. Flash/Flex let's you know that you are assigning a variable while at the same time evaluating to see if it is true. This AS3 warning is quite easy to understand and well written.
Fix:
To solve Flex/Flash Warning 1100 all you need to do is add another " = " sign inside your conditional making 2 == rather than just one.
Bad Code 1:
if (topFive[i]="one") {
Good Code 1:
if (topFive[i]=="one") {
Note: This is not ActionScript Error #1100. Click this link to find AS3 Error #1100.
This should help you resolve Flash / Flex Warning #1100
Thanks and as always Happy Flashing
Curtis J. Morley
Thanks to Thor for having me come present in the Multimedia Dept. The class was great. As promised here are the links to examples, applications, and books that I talked about.
Applications that I have been a part of
Rifle Builder - Shopping Cart application built originally in Flash 5
LDS.org/cm - The Original Interactive Sheet Music Player
MusicRain.com - Commercial Interactive Sheet Music
LogoMaker.com - HP Purchased LogoMaker in-part because of the success of this application.
Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Games - Click on the "Games and Coupons" button
RideHarder.com - New design by Element
SolutionOverview.com - Green Screen interactive video
BrainHoney - Learning tool for self publication, uses mashups and Facebook integration. upload whatever files you want and make a lesson or learn what you don't know.
Applications turned into web apps:
Photoshop:
http://www.flauntr.com/ -
http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome -
http://www.splashup.com/ - Fauxto now caled Splashup This is the most fully featured one I have found.
Mapping -
FlashEarth.com -
maps.yahoo.com -
Microsoft Word:
BuzzWord.com
Grant Skinner Spell Checker for text editing
Image seam carving:
http://swieskowski.net/carve/ - Neat example
http://www.quasimondo.com/archives/000652.php - Example with code
http://rsizr.com/ this one is amazing and you can do it yourself
Video Editing:
RichFLV - Flash Based Video Editing Tool done with Flash/Flex and published with AIR
Motion detection & Vid Cam like Minority Report etc..
incomplet.gskinner.com
Sheet Music Applications -
LDS.org/cm - The Original Interactive Sheet Music Player
MusicRain.com - Commercial Interactive Sheet Music
Books:
Adobe Digital Editions
Quicken:
mint.com - Web based version of Quickenfor money management
The Radio:
www.pandora.com - the music genome project
iTunes:
www.anywhere.fm/player
Outlook:
www.goowy.com/index.aspx - Flash web based Outlook knock-off.
Great Books For Flash, Flex, and ActionScript -
ActionScript
- Great Bridge between Flash and Flex - One of the best books for crossing over into AS3 from AS2 - By Collin Moock is the most comprehensive guide to ActionScript.(period) - Joey Lott provides some great examples on how to do things quick -This book rocks. the concepts are advanced but well taught. has produced one of the best longest running books for years. - A very advanced read but great for working with OOP (Flex only)Intermediate Books
- This is an excellent book for doing the sexy things in Flash. Heavy focus on animation and cartoons and is a great resource for col effects - Great book for learning both Flex and FlashBegining Books
- Very well done book for quick tips and reference - Love the format of this book - Phillip is great. I really enjoy seeing him at conferences and reading his new letter that he gives me every time I see him. I was able to review this book before it was published. Phillip is and always will be a fantastic teacher of Flash. - Great reference for getting started in Flex.Books not to buy
- Only buy this book if you have never used Flash. The games are good BASIC games but the graphics are horrible and the examples don't really teach the prinicples behind game design. - You might as well buy the Dummies book(see below) if you are going to buy this one. Not a good place to start. Not comprehensive. Not well written. - This book should not be allowed to be called CS3 because some of the examples are not even using AS3. If you own Flash 8 then you will want this book but not for CS3. - You are not a dumb, but may feel like it after spending any money on this book. They do have good cartoons though.Thanks,
Curtis J. Morley
ActionScript Warning: 3551: Appending text to a TextField using += is many times slower than using the TextField.appendText() method.
ActionScript Error Description:
I love this ActionScript Warning. This is not technically an ActionScript Error instead it is a warning that helps you code better. It is very clear and easily deciphered. This states that you should not use the old way to add text to a text field but rather use the new TextField.appendText() method. This improves performance dramatically and will prevent the user from getting the 15 sec. timeout. (Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default timeout period of 15 seconds.)
Fix:
Use TextField.appendText() instead of +=.
Bad Code:
var something:String = "Happy ";
var somethingElse:String = "Birthday";
myTF_txt.text = something;
myTF_txt.text += somethingElse;
Good Code:
var something:String = "Happy ";
var somethingElse:String = "Birthday";
myTF_txt.text = something;
myTF_txt.appendText(somethingElse);
ActionScript Warning #3551 is simple and easy (the way that all ActionScript errors/ warnings should be)
As always - Happy Flashing
