I added a Link Category “Cool Tools I Use”. I thought it would be good to list out the various programs I find especially useful on a daily basis. Most of these are related to Flash development or computing in general. Also, most of them are free and many are open source, though neither of those are prerequisites to being on the list.
Feel free to recommend other cool tools, though the list will remain those things that I, personally, use on a regular basis.
Read more...I just wanted to mention it here, in case anyone in the area was not yet aware of it. We got a nice user group off to a big start tonite, with almost 40 people attending. I think it will only grow. Details at https://www.bfpug.com
Read more...Lots of changes this year. The blog needed a facelift.
Whoa. Just noticed that the import killed all my comments. hmmmm…..
Update. Fixed the comments. See here in case you decide to switch from Movable Type to WordPress. Put the new mt.php file in your import folder before importing.
Read more...When I post experiments on BIT-101, I always make the source available. After a while, say several months, I take down the old stuff, and from there on out it is only available on the BIT-101 Source CD.
Well, at least that’s how it has been. Starting now, the source for every experiment on the site (about 700 total), is now directly downloadable. Go get it: www.bit-101.com/flafiles.
Now, why would I do such a thing? For one, all the old stuff is, well, old. There’s Flash 5, Flash 6, Flash 7 stuff in there. And we are heading into Flash 8.5 and 9. Secondly, the lab has gone a bit stale. I’m just not adding any content to it any more. The combination of these two has brought down the value of the CD to the point where almost nobody is buying it, and I don’t blame them.
Read more...Between CES and MacWorld, we’ve seen some incredible products announced in the last couple weeks. Seems like everyone is jumping on the Personal Media Player bandwagon. This is definitely something I want to invest in this year. The question is, which one?
Here are the ones that really spark my interest, all in the $300-400 range, I think:
viliv P1 Now this just looks sweet.
Toshiba Gigabeat S This looks pretty promising.
Creative Vision M OK, it’s an iPod ripoff, and Creative’s other players feel kind of cheap, but this has gotten some really great reviews.
Flash 8 Essentials by Friends of ED
It’s kind of tough to review a book like this, as it is not particularly the type of book I would purchase and read on my own. I’m more of the dive-into-the-help-docs-and-try-everything kind of guy, at least when it comes to Flash. Then again, I spend almost every waking moment using Flash, and when I’m asleep I’m dreaming of it. (Well, it’s not that bad, but close.)
Read more...I had my first real benefit of using SVN last night. Working on a project (which hopefully I’ll mention some time soon) that involved some complex interactive 3D stuff. I needed to add a bit of functionality to it. Seemed easy, but it had some side effects. Started hunting them down and had to start changing things here and there. I realized I had gone down a really bad path. No problem though. Just went back to the last check-in, got that, replacing what I had, and started over. Very nice!
Read more...In the last couple of months, I’ve gotten my organize on.
I set up an automated backup system that copies all my important stuff either offsite or to another server.
And I installed and am actually USING Subversion on a daily basis.
I was feeling pretty good about myself. Pretty secure. Then I saw Eddie Awad’s post about Password Overload. Yeah, that was a good one. I had so many accounts on various sites, networks, banks, etc. It’s impossible to remember all of them. I had a sort of system with about four different base passwords that I could combine in multiple ways, so even if I forgot a particular one for a specific site, I could usually suss it out by trial and error. But it’s far from secure, and sometimes you get these default passwords that you can’t change. I eventually implemented a locked page in OneNote, that just listed them all. But that was kind of a pain too. Eddie linked to KeePass, which is free and does what it needs to. I started entering everything and without straining, I was up to about 30 passwords. Over the next couple days I kept saying, “Oh, yeah, there’s another one,” and adding that. I’m up to almost 50 now!!! Oh, and yeah, I added my KeePass database to my backup set, so that’s all nice and secure too. Maybe now I’ll go in and generate some really random ones with the program and feel really safe.
Read more...If you’ve been checking out FlashDevelop, you might be interested to know that they just put out a Beta 8 release. The feature set is really coming along. Go get it here.
Read more...I was just informed that my book, Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move!, has sold its first printing, and they are beginning a second run. I find that pretty amazing that it’s hit that point after just two and a half months. I guess people like it.
This does give me a chance to make any minor changes. I know of a few typos. If anyone has spotted any, let me know quick so I can get them in there.
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