Development tidbits, struggles, revelations, and still some Flash

Saturday morning is the last day of class for the beginning Flash class I am co-teaching. I will be teaching my own ActionScript class in the spring (starts April), but this has been a good introduction into teaching a entire course.

On Saturday, the class will be turning in their final projects. The left over class time will be spent doing some extra stuff not covered by the book. Dianne, the other instructor, has asked me to do a bit on video within Flash. I really haven’t had much call for video in my Flash work, but I have worked with it and this might be something fun for the class.

I figured I would start off going over the basics and then walking them through the Macromedia video intro and then show them some completed video pieces and the ActionScript behind each one. The classroom is only outfitted with FlashMX2004 standard and not professional, so I will need to pre-build some SWFs to take into class.

I’ll blog back after class and let you know how the final projects looked and what the students thought about Flash video.

Another year, another MacWorld SF and Steve Jobs doesn’t dissapoint again.

The new Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle are two pretty cool products. The new iLife suite is good upgrade and I am very glad to see iWork released. This will at least keep MS innovating with MS Office since Mac users now have a good cheap alternative besides just OpenOffice.

I would have liked to see speed bumps on the laptops and desktops. My guess is those annoucements are coming but will happen quieter and later (maybe next month). Today was about the inexpensive options for Apple.

Well.. once OSX 10.4 Tiger comes out (if not before), I will definitely consider getting the new Mini. It will sit on top of my Shuttle SFF and will be easier (and faster) than my old dual G4/500.

Guess I am back quicker than I thought.

I decided just before the end of 2004 that I would go for my Flash Dev certification. I have never been someone who put much value in certification. I come across a lot of people certified from many programs (MS, Macromedia, A+) and it was never a good indication that the person was really qualified or if they are even up to date. Plus — how often do you ask for proof when someone says they are certified?

So why am I getting my certification? I decided that I wanted the challenge and certification will also force me to get more experience with those Flash features that I have not had a real need to learn. As much as I really like the idea behind web services and Flash remoting, I have yet to need it for any of my clients.

So I picked up the FlashMX2004 Dev study guide just before the Xmas holidays. I started to review it and plan on concentrating more on it after this Fridays deadline for a client. While I know the study guide is probably a good start, from the people I have spoken to, it is definitely not a crib sheet and you really need to know your stuff before spending the $150 on the cert exam.

Well.. today I decided to start my own blog. My wife started up her blog some time ago as a sort of personal diary. I read tons of blogs but never felt I had enough to say.

I guess that is changing. I started fulltime freelance in November and recently started co-teaching a beginning Flash class at UNLV EDU Outreach. In the spring, I will be teaching an advanced ActionScript class. It should be lots of fun as I have always enjoyed sharing what I know. Plus — I will be getting paid for it

Anyhow.. stay tuned. I hope to post once a week, more or less.

Talk to you soon.