I’m really excited to have the opportunity to present at this event. 360|Flex conferences are always the most valuable and enjoyable conferences I attend and to be invited to be a part of it this year is just awesome.

The title of the session I’ll be doing is “Intro to Flex Typography using the Text Layout Framework“

We’ll be diving into the text APIs introduced with Flash Player 10 and the components that Flex 4 provides on top of them to show you what it really means to think outside the (text)box. Come see what you can do when you throw the web-safe fonts list out the window, peek under the hood, and start creating dynamically flowing text layouts, embedding inline images, and getting creative with ligatures, kerning and baseline settings. By the end of the session you’ll have a good idea of what all of those terms mean in practice and how you can begin using this powerful addition to the Flash Player in your own projects.

If you’ve never been to a 360|Flex (or any 360|Conferences event) then you should definitely check it out. These guys have really got the formula down. Unparalleled content produced by real working professionals, combined with great fun, food, and drink.. what more could you ask?

I’ll see you there!

I learned a lot and had a ton of great conversations with my fellow Flex coders, but there was also quite a bit of new stuff that was either announced at 360|Flex or came across my radar for the first time that I thought I’d list the ones that interested me the most. So, without further delay here is my list, in no particular order.

Axiis (http://www.axiis.org)

Axiis is an open source project for creating data visualizations. It’s built on top of Degrafa and is meant to make building simple charts extremely easy while providing tools to facilitate the creation of much more complex interactive visualizations. If you’re doing anything in the data visualization space, or currently using the Flex Charting stuff, then this is what you should be looking at. Check out the examples (http://www.axiis.org/examples.html) and don’t forget to right click and view the source.

FlexUnit 4 (http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexunit/FlexUnit)

FlexUnit is the pinnacle of unit testing for Flex. It’s been updated to include all of the functionality of its JUnit counterpart, but rather than a direct port it was built specifically with Flex in mind. I attended a session on this and a few things really struck me. First off, it’s very easy to implement, using metadata tags. It now handles asynchronous calls very easily, which has been kind of difficult in Flex unit testing in the past. They also added a lot of extra features, like Hamcrest support for asserts, which means you have asserts like “closeTo” where you can check if a value is within a certain variance. Another great addition is Theories and DataPoints, which allow you to run the same test with a series of different inputs.

Basically, if you were putting off trying unit testing or have tried and found that the tools were too immature in Flex then it’s time to give it another shot. FlexUnit 4 is mature and seems to have been really well thought out.

Check out the slides from Jeff Tapper’s presentation which goes over some of the new features: (http://blogs.digitalprimates.net/jefftapper/index.cfm/2009/5/20/FlexUnit-4-feature-overview)

Bifff (http://bifff.seanhess.net)

I think this was the most exciting new thing I discovered at 360|Flex this year.

Bifff, or Behavior Injection Framework For Flex, is completely, incredibly, awesome. It’s JQuery for Flex. If you’ve ever used JQuery’s selectors then you’ll immediately understand the power that this library brings to Flex. You can very easily apply modifications to visual classes in your app by finding them by id, style name, class type or class ancestors like interfaces or base classes. Want to make all Canvases with a stylename of “draggable” draggable? Just add a few lines of code and it’s done. The other great thing that Bifff adds is the ability to assign mutiple style names to an object. Fex can’t do this natively, but Biff will combine them so you can have something like <mx:button id=”mybutton” stylename=”mybuttonstyle largefont redtext”/> where the mybuttonstyle might be a basic style for all buttons, largefont is a style that sets the font size to 16 and redtext makes the text red. Additionally, you can then reference any one of those styles to inject additional bahavior into the button.

If my description doesn’t really make sense then just go to the GitHub site and look at the examples (http://wiki.github.com/seanhess/bifff). I think the power will become apparent after you view the source there and get a feel for what Bifff can do.

Glue (glue.seanhess.net)

Glue is a framework similar to Mate that was built by Sean Hess using Bifff. Because its built on Bifff the data injection that is core to Mate is taken to a new level and at the same time simplified. It makes for a simple to use, unobtrusive, and very lightweight framework.

StandingWave (http://code.google.com/p/standingwave/)

StandingWave is a sound sampling library for Flash and Flex. The demo presented in the closing keynote was pretty impressive. The library allows you to take wav and mp3 samples and algorithmic sound generators and sequence them across time hierarchically. It also allows you to apply effects like echo and fade. It was built for use in the Noteflight application (which is incredible in its own right) and looks to be incredibly useful to anyone looking to generate sound or sequence music in Flex.

I know there were more, but these are what came to mind first. Of everything I saw I have to say that Bifff was the most useful for the type of work I do, and also the most unexpected. The session on it was a write-in at the last minute and if Sean Hess hadn’t been given a few minutes in the closing keynote to explain what Bifff was I don’t think I would have attended his session and discovered this amazing tool.

Some other quick observations from sessions I attended and conversations with others in the Flex community..

• Cairngorm and PureMVC are out, Mate is in.
• FDT is an incredible editor for Actionscript and now Flex as well. I mean, really productive x10 incredible.
• Flex 4 is going to be awesome. Spark is a game changer in terms of component creation and skinning.
• Flex 4 will use Degrafa style code, but the flex compiler will convert it into actual flash player shapes during compilation, making for much improved performance.
• The Flex community is incredibly open and friendly. Everyone wanted to talk about the work they do, problems they face and where they felt they were and weren’t overcoming them.
• Tom and John put on a great conference!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll post individually about the projects I listed here as I get to know them better, and will be looking forward to next year’s 360|Flex.

Picking one idea out of the five or so in my head, knowing what a huge commitment it is to finish a game, is a bit daunting. After much back and forth, pros and cons, I decided to just sit down with flash and start sketching some things out. Almost immediately this little guy popped out: (go ahead and hit the play button to see some crazy ninja action)

So, Ninja vs Robots (tentative title) it is. As of right now the basic plan consists of a side-scrolling free-roaming platformer (Metroid style) with some story to it and hopefully some fast-paced and interesting game play. This is going to be slow going, I’ve got a lot of other stuff on my plate and this’ll be a background thing, but expect to see something, oh I don’t know, sometime in 2011? Well, hopefully sooner than that, but you know how it is. It’s ambitious - I thought about doing a more casual game at first - but I know the types of games I want more of on my iPhone and this is it, so I’m going to skip the casual game phase and jump right into what gets me all happy.

I’ll post little updates here as I flesh out the concept more and start putting some gameplay together on the iPhone itself.

Indeed, I am considering my first foray into homebrewing a success. Two weeks after bottling my porter I’ve cracked one open and it is officially beer.

It’s a little sweet, which is to be expected with the low alcohol content I estimated two weeks ago. My fermentation apparently didn’t get as much of the sugar converted as it should, but I think I know how to fix that next time. I’m going to cool the wort properly, down to 65 degrees as I should have, and probably use a starter instead of pitching the yeast dry. That should give it a better hold and keep the fermentation going stronger.

It also came out a little over-carbonated for a porter, at least for my taste. This can obviously be fixed by adding a little less corn sugar than the 3/4c suggested by the guy at the store when I bottle it.

Those two points aside however, it is still a very drinkable porter. It’s got good flavor.. not too hoppy, but not all malt. It’s nice and dark and has a fuller mouth feel than I expected for an extract-only brew.

I’ve got a long ways to go before I’ll feel confident in what I’m doing here, but this was a good start. I’ll be doing my second batch next weekend, and I’m sure it’ll come out even better than this one.

Let me be clear, I think it went pretty well for my first time, and I enjoyed the process, but there are a few things I’m going to change next time around.

Firstly, I’ll be a little better organized. There was a lot of shuffling around during crucial moments. I don’t have a lot of counter space and once everything is sterilized you really want to touch and move it around as little as possible. It’s safe to say I got myself a little overwhelmed at first trying to find places to set hard tubes and soft tubes and clamps that that were in my kit, most of which I didn’t actually need. I had to restart my siphon four times during the transfer from fermentation to bottling bucket and I’m afraid that there was too much touching of hands, sink, counter and tap water involved to remain sterile, but only time will tell. I am really grateful to this Make: Online post and homebrewingvideo.com for the video on starting a siphon.

Secondly, I’ll never use bleach as my sanitizer again. The guy at my homebrew store talked me out of buying one of the no-rinse sanitizers and said that bleach is the easiest and cheapest way to go. Well, having to rinse everything so thoroughly to get the bleach off after sanitation just makes me feel that I defeated the purpose. Plus, my hands smell like bleach now, which is really bothering me.

Finally, I’ll make sure that I take the labels off of my recycled bottles long before bottling day. Labels are a bitch to get off even with soaking. Some of them popped right off, but most bottles took several minutes of intense work to get clean. In any case, I’ll make sure that next time my bottles are ready before hand. This go around about half of my bottles are label-less. The rest still retain the symbol of their former lives. Hopefully it won’t make me feel too bad when I’m drinking my porter and thinking “man, I wish this really was an Arrogant Bastard.”

As for the beer itself, it tasted surprisingly good for a flat, warm beer. I am really pleased that it survived the first half of the process and actually tastes like something I would drink. If the bottle conditioning goes well then I think I’ll have a passable porter - definitely a win for my first go. The final gravity came to 1.016, which, after accounting for a slight calculation error in the original gravity due to temperature (should have been 1.046), puts the final porter at ~3.93% alcohol. That’s pretty weak, but still beer. I’ll need to figure out how to get it bit higher for next time.

Speaking of which, I’m already pretty excited about making my next brew. This experience has been a good one and I’m thinking my next try will be an IPA. I got quite a few in our company beer trade last week, so they’re on my mind, but who knows, that may change before I get to the store again. One thing’s for sure though.. I’m going to make that guy sell me some Star-San whether he wants to or not.

I talked to the guy at my local homebrew store, Beercrafters in Turnersville, NJ. The guy was really helpful and got me set up with a custom starter kit and everything I needed for my first brew. I decided to go with a porter and he suggested I start with a simple extract, but because of my tastes he also gave me some additional hops and a better yeast.

English Porter

Extract: Muntons gold docklands porter kit.
Flavoring hops: 0.5oz East Kent Golding pellets.
Aroma hops: 0.5oz East Kent Golding pellets.
Yeast: 11g Danstar Nottingham brewers yeast.

Started: 03-21-2009

Sterilized everything in the fermentation bucket full of water with 1/4c bleach and began 2 gallons of water boiling.

09:56 - Water is at full boil, adding the extract. Smells good.
10:08 - Full boil achieved, start timer for 40 minute boil.
10:28 - Added flavoring hops to wort. Used a satchel. Smells awesome.
10:45 - Added aroma hops to wort. Used a satchel. Smells incredible.
10:48 - Boil complete, turned off heat and began cooling process.

After a few minutes sitting covered on stove, moved the wort to an ice bath to help speed cooling.
Added water to fermentation bucket and added wort. Topped off to five gallons.

Original Gravity: 1.042. This supposedly means that my brew has a potential for just over 5% abv.

I tasted my brew at this point and it tasted really good. Obviously not beer yet, but I could taste the porter waiting to come out for sure. Very hoppy and already quite complex.

I got impatient and pitched the yeast while the wort was just under 90 degrees. This is a bit hotter than they recommend, but knowing what I do of yeast from baking it should do fine, I hope. I worked a lot of air into it with an industrial sized whisk we have (which I sterilized in the bucket prior.)

I sealed up the bucket with the hydrolock to create the one way valve and carried it to the basement where it will hopefully get a nice 65-70 degree average temperature. I’m a little worried about that, but it’s the best I can do for now. My wife likes it warm, so the living areas of our house are typically too hot, I think. Hopefully the basement doesn’t get too cold. I stuck it next to the heater, and a temperature reading down there said it’s currently 65.. good luck my little porter.

I’ll do another update in a few days once I see how fermentation is going. I have some more research to do, as I have a glass carboy and I don’t know if this beer would benefit from a second fermentation. The guy at the store seemed to think that any beer will, but I don’t quite understand the purpose just yet.

Anyone out there that’s interested in sharing knowledge with the Flex community should look into writing for Flex Authority. By nature of it being “for Flex developers, by Fex developers” it’s very accessible to a new author but is run very professionally. The writer’s guidelines they give have formed the basis for what I plan on using in all of my technical writing going forward. And don’t worry if, like me, you don’t have much writing experience. They have a great copy editor and people to review your technical accuracy to keep you in line.

It was no surprise that we made the list - Nxtbook is a great place to work - but as the night went on and they kept counting down we were all getting more and more excited. As they went through the companies they would say a little about what makes each one a special place to work and with every announcement I was thinking “Huh, Nxtbook does that.” When they announced the #2 best place to work and it wasn’t us the group exploded. Nxtbook Media is officially the #1 best place to work in PA! A title that they have worked hard to earn and one that I and the other employees at Nxtbook certainly appreciate and experience on a daily basis.

yup, pretty cool.

So go install it! The sooner everyone gets on board the sooner I can start using the cool new 3d features, enhanced text and pixel bender sweetness, not to mention the not as glamorous but oh so welcomed as3 improvements.

So get on it people, we need 90-95% penetration and I don’t want to wait the usual 9 months or so to get there. Yikes, there’s a wierd metaphor in there, but I’m going to ignore it.

Download Flash Player 10