Friday, September 4, 2009

"Flash" package missing, code hinting lost

Earlier today I started getting some ridiculous behavior out of Flex Builder. All code completion revolving around the Flash package, especially events, just quit. Then it started flagging the word "flash" itself as an error:

1120: Access of undefined property flash.

After a while hitting up the bug database and searching the googleverse I found this great tip from Garth Somerville - make a new workspace.

It's kind of a pain, but it worked!

Update:
WHEN THIS FAILS: When this fails, as Andrew T pointed out in the comments, re-install the SDK

AND WHEN THAT FAILS: Re-intsall Flex Builder. After re-building my workspace 5 times with no luck, reinstalling the SDK, and fighting with this for hours, I finally just scrapped all of that and re-installed Flex Builder. It all works fine now - old workspaces and all.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

CFUnited Speaker Questionnaire

Recently CFUnited sent out a speaker questionnaire. Since this whole thing was too long to twitter, I thought I'd share it with you, gentle reader, here on my weblog page.

1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past? What would you tell someone who hasn't been to CFUnited before?

I have never, even once, spoken at CFUnited. Last year I was sworn to silence. I would tell someone, it's okay - you can get through this.

2. Why should people attend your session(s)?

People should attend my session if they want to learn about what's new in Flex 4, or how they can use Flex to build some sweet UI's onto the hearty back-ends they're used to building in CF.

3. Do you have any projects in the works that you will be revealing at CFUnited?

[mysterious]If I did, I most certainly wouldn't reveal them on the internet. You'll just have to come and see for yourself.[/mysterious]

4. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?

I'm looking forward to Jun's session and David Tucker's session. They both know a lot about a lot of things, and I like learning things from people who know them.

5. What are some of the hot topics you'd like to see at RoundTable discussions?

I'd really enjoy listening to two gentlemen (or ladies) diplomatically argue the merits of the multi-party system of government favored in Europe compared to our rather intransigent tradition of only two.

6. Where can people find you at CFUnited? (At the bar, networking, working, in your room, etc.)

I will most likely be in the pool, trying to see how long I can hold my breath.

7. What's the latest news with you? Has anything changed since last CFUnited?

Well, Liz, I'm glad you asked. Last week we watched our friends' dog. It's a pretty nice dog, so it went well, generally, but it yipped a lot at night, and I'm a light sleeper, so that was a little rough. You know what, why don't we just catch up at the conference?

8. What is unique about CFUnited?

It's the last great bastion of hope for a dying world in need of a hero. There are a few mediocre bastions around, but you won't find any other great ones. Especially not around WADC.

9. When you are not working what do you like to do in your free time?

When I'm not working, I like reading, playing video games, and occasionally playing sports in my free time. When I'm working, I prefer to spend my free time playing scrabble over a nice glass of 2% milk.

10. How do you feel about Law and Order?

It is my firm belief that there are too many crime dramas on evening television, but of those crime dramas, Law and Order is pretty good, I guess.

Monday, May 4, 2009

New offices - EUI Upstairs!

Back in the summer of 2006, we (EffectiveUI) purchased a really big warehouse in down town Denver and moved in. In the early days we didn't have bathrooms or lights or conference rooms, and it was a real shack. That was quickly rectified, but as our numbers were still small we only built out the bottom floor of the building.

Since then we've grown considerably and our space started to constrain us - we couldn't physically fit enough desks in the office to house our Denver crew. Late last year we got serious about finishing the upstairs of the office, and today is the glorious day in which we've finally moved upstairs. Our design, development and PM teams moved upstairs, while account management and sales (the noisy people) stayed on the ground floor. It's nice and quiet up here. :)

Here are a few pictures, for anyone interested. It's still got a good industrial feel but is far nicer and more workable than the raw warehouse was.

The view from my desk of our "developer pit" area:


This is the designer "pit", separated by a half wall for us developers. The wall is there to make sense of the difference in floor height - not to keep them out (or us in (I think.))


Front couches upstairs - a good place to take phone calls. :)


The front stair case leading up to our new digs, with some of the art we're going to hang on the walls soon. I think Todd Hebenstreit made that one. All of the art we're using to decorate upstairs was done by EUI employees. I spray painted a smiley face myself, but it's not here. :)


View of the pits from the staircase:



We made Andy McIntosh sit with the designers to help him appreciate Flex Builder more:

Monday, April 20, 2009

Rocky Mountain Adobe Camp, June 22nd

Mark your calendars and get out your stimulus check: Rocky Mountain Adobe camp is on June 22nd. The camp will be at the chic Magnolia Hotel, smack dab in the middle of Denver. Expect an exciting day of the Flash platform, Dynamic Media, or eLearning, depending on your preference, hosted by the Rocky Mountain Adobe User Group. Get all the latest news on Adobe Camp through twitter, here.

I'll be speaking there on Flash Catalyst and Flex 4 with Juan Sanchez. Juan will provide the Flash Catalyst designer details and I'll be talking about the code. We'll look at how Flex 4 works along with some best practices (as far as we can tell) for integrating with Catalyst.

There are some other great Flex / Flash platform talks planned, including an intro to Flex by Jun Heider, some more talk on Flash Catalyst from DEVELOPER Adam Flater (what does he know? :) ) and an in-depth talk on testing by Michael Labriola, who co-invented testing with Liebnitz (or Newton, depending on who you ask.)

I'm pretty excited for the great day of the learning, and to have so many great minds descending on our city. If you're in Denver or ever wanted to visit this would be a great time to make the trip. Let us know on Twitter or in the comments here if you're coming - I'm sure we'll take some time to tour the city after the conference.

Monday, April 6, 2009

CF United Express Denver Presentation

This afternoon I gave a presentation on the Flex 3 Component Life-cycle at CF United Express in Denver.

We had a good group at the talk who did an amazing job of keeping up as we blazed through the material! We had to skip some things at the end, as this presentation was originally 80 minutes long (condensed to 60 for CF United Express) and because I was 10 minutes late (blame it on my calendar.)

All in all it was really fun, and I'm really glad I had the opportunity to present.

Here are the slides from that presentation:




I'm going to be speaking in August at the full-blooded CF United event in Leesburg, VA, on the how the Component Life-cycle and the rest of component development changes in Flex 4. If you're in the area or up for a good time, get yourself there and check it out!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

the new ipod shuffle and bad design

The new ipod shuffle interface is completely confusing and totally non-intuitive. Bring back the old one, with buttons that made sense and the ability to plug in any headphones I want.

Engadget says it best:

Friday, January 23, 2009

Things I will never need

1. More than one clock on my desktop
2. An analog clock on my computer or phone, anywhere
3. Small widgetized forms of old games (block breaker, that picture shuffle thing) I never enjoyed in their original form cluttering up my desktop
4. Cover flow for just about anything
5. Transparent or semi-transparent windows that lock themselves on top of other windows