360|Flex San Jose – Hands on Sessions

March 24th, 2010 No Comments

Fortunately enough I sat down to eat dinner next to Justin Mclean the night before. So I also got the inside scoop on what he was going to discuss (Flex + Hardware), as well as an open seat to join in since I wasn’t signed up. During the break I jumped into the Robotlegs session with Joel Hooks. Both sessions were great, but because Justin was giving away free Arduino kits, I felt indebted to him and spent most of the day in there.

Here are some photos from the sessions. To say the least, it was awesome, I also got a free Arduino kit, enough said…and thanks Justin!

[Show picture list]

Read More »

360|Flex San Jose – Arrival

March 9th, 2010 No Comments

If this is any indication for the rest of the year, things are looking really good…

I flew in early Saturday to get a head start on things and upon arrival I was in fear I had jumped the gun by a day. Thankfully Amy and Steve were here as well, so we grabbed some lunch at Gordon Beirsch (I highly recommend their burgers). This gave us an opportunity to pick back up where RIAdventure left off, back in December. Following lunch we parted ways and I decided to have a look at what the area had to offer.

Like any other downtown city, there are a lot of buildings, but it’s a bit different to look out and see the Adobe logo. Adobe is literally a few blocks away from the Marriott that we are staying at, you can see it out the window of the room. This is the kinda stuff that can be pretty inspiring for simple Dallasite like myself. The Tech Museum is also right across the street and judging from all of the costume wearing folk, I’m guessing they are still pushing the Star Trek exhibit. Aside from the nerdy stuff, there are plenty of bars, restaurants and shops I peaked into before heading back to the hotel for a nap to dream about the next few days.

I’ll be sure to update this will all the cool stuff I experienced once I head back to Dallas and get a minute to gather my thoughts. Just want to say thanks to John and Tom for the free ticket, and I’m looking forward to everything!!!

Updated Pics:

[Show picture list]

Read More »

Custom Events + Robotlegs + dispatch + Overriding the clone() method

January 4th, 2010 2 Comments

Let me preface this by saying, this approach is certainly not the final say. Any tutorials, demos or information shared on my site should be taken for what they are worth. I love feedback, so feel free to leave a comment below.

[Update: As Amy mentioned in the comments, this is not specific to the Robotlegs framework.]

I have recently been tinkering with the new Robotlegs framework and wanted to share a quick gotcha. It’s really not a gotcha, and really more something I forgot to do. Click here to see the post that helped jog my memory on this one. Hope this will come in handy for someone.

View Demo | View Source

If you can’t read the white print on the demo it says:

This demo serves to explain the need for overriding the clone() method on custom events.

Notice that no output is generated when a user clicks the CustomEventOne button.

When a user clicks CustomEventTwo, the output is generated. This is because the MainMediator must re-dispatch the custom event, and so the developer must remember to Override the clone() method.

Right-Click to View Source, then look in the com.diomampo.rlcustomeventdemo.events package at the differences between both events.
Read More »

At This Moment I Am…

December 24th, 2009 No Comments

I intend on repurposing this title “At This Moment I Am…” as a series of mile markers about myself. I’ll be breaking it down into two different sections: Working On, and Moving Towards. Both categories are pretty self explanatory, Working On will list what I am doing now in order to get to what I am Moving Towards.

Working On

  • An Android application
  • A modular Flex application
  • Optimizing as3 code
  • Meeting new people

Moving Towards

Mobility

The future is mobile, and at least two of the items I am Working On will get me there. In the world of Mobile Phones, for me it’s all about Android, and if you haven’t heard of Android, something is wrong. Check out this market share prediction. At any rate, the signs are there, and Google as well as the community is really pushing the Android Platform.

How about developing for Android? As a Flex Developer, I’d like to think the learning curve for Android development is slightly reduced. When you start your first project in eclipse, you’ll notice that the xml layout files(located in res/layout/) give two tab options, Layout and someFile.xml. You’ll find these in the bottom left corner in the image below.

Think of the Layout tab as the Design tab in Flex Builder. In this case it is giving you the visual representation of the xml file (registration.xml) versus MXML in Flex, which would be like seeing the Source tab.

On the surface I was able to pick up on some of the similarities, but I was fortunate enough to have some good discussions with Faisal Abid about everything under the hood. He has a strong Flex background and has been working on some heavy Android apps. At some point I will put together a good post on bridging the gaps of Flex and Android.

Another item I’m working on that falls under Mobility for me is, meeting new people. For me to be more mobile in 2010 it will require breaking out of the shell and meeting more people in more places. It’s amazing how much seven days on a cruise ship with complete strangers can really change your perspective on things. See my Stop Encapsulating Yourself!!! post for more on this. At any rate, traveling is a top priority for me this coming year, so meeting people around the world is a big deal. I’ve compiled a list of where I will be traveling in 2010:

  • San Jose, CA (early March) – It’s conference time! This time I get to meet back up with the gang and a couple hundred other members for 360|Flex.
  • Breckenridge, CO (mid-late March) – Snowboarding and friends!!!
  • _____, LA –  Wedding, Congrats @ogreen32!
  • Las Vegas, NV (summer time) – WSOP! I’m looking to get into one of the smaller events like the $1k, we’ll see.
  • _____, VT (October) – Yet another wedding, Congrats Gonzo!
  • Japan (65% chance) – Meet new people, be in a different country.
  • NY and Canada (80% chance) – Visit friends

Be sure to stop by http://www.nowandthere.com/ for some great travel/lifestyle resources (thanks Sam).

Read More »

Stop Encapsulating Yourself!!!

December 14th, 2009 7 Comments

To start, I’ll explain the inspiration behind this post. I recently had the pleasure of being onboard the RIAdventure conference cruise. Being that it was my first Flash/Flex conference, I could tell after day one that I had been missing a really, really big piece of my life as a developer. I feel ashamed to say it, but my time prior to this was spent hacking away from the sidelines. Here is a small Q/A I came up with…

  • Do I browse every forum and blog searching for an answer, but don’t find one, then when I finally solve it, do I submit the solution?

    • Express your gratitude with a simple response. It’ll go further you think.

  • Is there a limited history of my work available to the public?

    • So you write top secret code, but still find time to update your twitter status with useless information. The top dogs in our industry gain a following, because they have something to follow. If you have nothing, recycle, and try throwing a link to a good article every once in awhile.

  • Have I ever been to a conference?

    • For super introverts, find your local user group, and get involved. For curious introverts to total extroverts, book the next conference possible!

Meet Some Of My New Developer Besties (in no particular order)

If you’re not jealous, Stop Encapsulating Yourself!!!

Read More »
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Subscribe to RSS Feed Follow me on Twitter!