I have been working on a project here at work. It is my first project in AS3 and one of the largest and most complex I have ever made. The user capabilities have made for a difficult time but the thing that keeps fighting back is a context sensitive aspect. I have a little function that helps people locate a nearby service based on their zip code. Works fine in the production environment, information is pulled from an external source and displayed to the user. However… once it is on a server it fails to do its job.
I have a crossdomain.xml file in place on the other server which I am pulling information from. I have narrowed it down to 2 things that could be my problem now.
1. HTTP does not play nicely with HTTPS when it comes to Flash Player
2. Flash Player, even when directed not to, looks for a policy file at the root. Bad Flash Player ! No, bad!
Suggestions? Ideas? I think I might be the only person trying this because all my searches come up with it either being HTTP to HTTP or HTTPS to HTTPS. Never a true crossover. The server I need to get information from I do not have access to because it is a third party that collects information for one of our clients. I’m exhausted with trying to figure out if it is me or the fact that HTTP and HTTPS when it comes to Flash Player just do not play nicely.
So you know, I have Read through this extensive document and think I got everything right. Would make it easier if I had access to the server to actually control what I am doing rather then depending on a third party.
I spend a far amount of time each day looking around for creative inspiration that will motivate me to get something done. I don’t always need this inspiration but its a good way for me to get my brain moving first thing in the morning. Most mornings start off with a visit to Smashing Magazine which, after a few reads, leads inevitably over to the Envato Network and its plethora of sites.
These are not my only outlets however. I stay make a point to take a trip daily to the house I helped build at PhIxDA Automagically. There I get to discuss things with friends that I don’t get to see on a daily basis anymore. Alongside all these great resources I sometimes find myself doing a quick sketch or just creating some tests in AS3 to learn more about it. In any case I find that there is a lot that can inspire me through out the daily grind, and it isn’t always the same. Even though no one really visits this site, if you do, I would love for you all to share some of your creative inspiration with me. Oh and lets not forget music, that has to be the defining factor in my day and honestly helps me determine how focused I want to be one something.
Over the weekend I finally launched www.pairedimages.com for photographers Jessica and Jessica. They are two amazing people that really do create beautiful art with thier photographs. The design of the site was simple and aims to let the work speak for itself.
For the sake of time and the ease of updating I utilized SlideShowPro for the inner workings behind this site. The albums are completely controlled and updated by Jess and Jess themselves. Not much time was spent with this as I have been terribly busy in my day job. I am happy they were patient with me and glad they are pleased with the outcome as it now stands. There will be some changes and improvements to it over the next few weeks as we tweak the site. We will be updating the look of their blog to match the site very soon. Leave me some feedback if you like it!
I have been doing an insane amount of work lately. To say the least work has taken over my life in 2008. Looking back on the years and years past, It has been good to take the time time and reflect and think about many, many things.
2009 will be a year of less work and more living. One of the main reasons I am making this post is www.likemovinginsects.com. My roommate from college, Mike Tolbert, and I used to bar hop around Philly and he introduced me to these guys. Reminds me of the days of the carefree wondering that cities like Philadelphia afford to those willing to walk around it.
Well it has been a long while since my last post. Have been very busy around the office lately over at Sitelab. Working on some really interesting stuff currently with a lot nice looking projects coming through in 09. So with that little back story set lets get to the point. Windows Vista.
Many developers, at least I think, work with both a PC and Mac. I myself use my Macbook Pro for work even though it is my personal computer. I have really come to enjoy how easy it is to use, or should I say how little it makes me think about what I am doing. I also work on a PC desktop, that has Windows Vista. Since day one Vista has been an issue. The time entry software that the rest of the company uses does not work on Vista. Vista would constantly crash because of video driver errors. The final nail in the coffin, or so I thought, was when Vista decided Adobe CS3 was no longer necessary and just killed all the apps on launch. Man I love it.
So after we wiped the hard drive, re-installed vista and started over things have been ok. I honestly only use the PC for email and to check browser compatibility. But today I wanted to watch some of the video on Adobe TV and figured I could do it through Adobe Media Player. Wrong again! Even after uninstalling both that and Adobe AIR, I still continued to get an error that I was unable to update Adobe Media Player because Vista stopped it from causing a system error. Thanks Vista.
I’m so glad you harass me to make sure that I am sure about being sure about wanting to open a file. Makes me feel good to know that the choices I wish to make may not be the right ones and I’m glad I have you there to help guide me through the scary world known as the Technology Age. Where would we be without you Vista?
Oh, that’s right. I would be doing what I am doing now. Using a stable, popular OS known as Leopard. Now don’t get me wrong, I still use XP at home, and have enjoyed carefree, non-issue use of it since day one. An OS is an OS in my book, but sometimes the shiny, it just works mentality of one wins over the customization of another.
And that is my rant for the month. I’ll be posting a few blog entries about my head dive into AS3 and the fun I have had with that. Also I’ll be posting a review of Versions, a really nice SVN client for OS X. Later.
Evey since I completed the first Team Lethal website and really got into counterstrike I have always amired Valve. They are a great software company and always seem to come up with extremely catchy trailers and teasers. They seem to sink an enormous amount of time and effort into some things, which shows in their work.
I want to thank an old friend for putting this out there for me to find. Nice one. It’s good to see others inspired by Valve like I have been over the years and making something of it. Well done to Trickster over at noobsgonewild.org for this one.
I am almost complete my first AIR application. Well I should it’s ready for a beta release. I hope to have it published by this Tuesday. It will be the first time I release and AIR application and it would be nice to see how the community receives it. I am looking forward to updating and maintaining it.
I have also created a custom desktop wallpaper for the group and will be releasing a new wallpaper every couple of days till I get bored with it and make something else. I am hoping to create enough for people to make their own and provide the community with resources to start producing videos and flash animations etc. We will see were it goes. I’ll post on Tuesday when I release the application.
In the midst of picking up some freelance work before my move out west I built a custom questionnaire page using JQuery. The goal behind this was to enhance usability while providing user feedback. This questionnaire is aimed at potential clients to get a good sense of what it is they are looking for. It is also a test to see if they are ready to devote the time, money and effort it takes to build and deploy a proper website. Check out the questionnaire if you would like and give me some feedback.
I am finalizing the website of my great trip across America. My fiancee Samantha and I drove in our Honda civic from Philadelphia PA to San Diego CA in 11 days. I put together a photo album and a blog regarding our trip. You can visit both by going to http://www.losergeekdesign.com/westward
Take a look around and let us know what you think of our journey in the blog. Both pieces will be updated on a weekly basis, or as often as we take photos or have stories that we want to share with you. We hop you enjoy our lives as much as we do.
For the photographers Jessica Notargiacomo and Jessica Latos I have started some ideas for their proposed website and publication material. They are both very talented individuals and bring a very bold and strong sense of work with them. I realy want to try and get this across with the website. I wanted the design to be solid yet very playful at just the right moments. For all their seriousness, what makes Jess and Jess’s photography so astounding is there ability to capture the humanity of the moment. I want this to be present in the movement and organization of the website.
I was also asked to design a business card for the two as well as a logo. They are still deciding on a name so the process has been slightly slow, but it will be good in the long run. As with most things in life, good things take time and I feel this will show itself through this website and its publication materials that will accompany it. This will be a flash based website that will also utilize Slideshowpro as the managing aspect of the photo gallery itself. This will allow Jess and Jess to update, manage and maintain their website with ease.
