An interesting question I woke up with this morning stirring through my thoughts. I think partially due to yesterday’s Adobe MAX keynote. Partially due to the HTML5 vs. Flash debates. Partially due to the recent state of where we are in computing and development in general. Partially due to the most recent round of Flash “killer” conversations, etc.

I think in one word being a Flash Platform Developer, being a part of the Flash Platform Community is “passion”.

Not passion for just development, the language, the Flash Player or even Adobe. Passion to seek and explore new levels of creativity. Passion to become a better developer. Passion to bush boundaries and ourselves. Passion for each other. Passion for building cool stuff. Cool stuff that changes the way people view and use computers and the Internet.

Flash has a long history. It’s been around for a while. Along with it there’s always been the community. I think a lot of the people who got involved in the beginning were artists and designers. True creatives. People that saw an opportunity to express their ideas in ways that no one had ever imagined or realized. This resulted in some of the early WHAO experiences on the web. The jaw dropping, inspirational experiences such as the first time we saw Gabocorp. The early work of Joshua Davis and Colin Moock. Mario Klingemann and Keith Peters. The Friends Of Ed Flash Masters books. If you’ve been around since the beginning then you know the importance and significance of these digital pioneers and what their contributions mean. If you don’t I urge you to take a moment and take a walk through memory lane. Long before social media, long before HTML5, long before iPhones, tablets and Mobile, long before Adobe even was a part of Flash (yeah Macromedia FTW!).

Back then if, memory serves me, we had blogs, Flashkit and the Flashcoders list. That’s about it. I think a beautiful thing came from the early pioneers and these resources of communication though. What’s become know as “The Flash Platform Community.” I can’t remember when we even started calling it that to be honest. Pretty sure we didn’t back then. I think it was pretty much just called Flashcoders. It was a handful of truly innovative artists communicating with each other and sharing ideas and code. Important word there, “sharing.” I think that’s another huge part of being a Flash Platform Developer. Since the early days we’ve always had each other’s backs. Back then if you had an issue you’d post to Flashkit and/or Flashcoders and then wait. Usually for a day or more to receive and answer, or a tidbit of information to help you move along. I think a lot of us were learning about programming from the start back then. Not only were we pushing the boundaries visually and interactively but also in the way  code was written. We were using a program intended for animation to program. If you stop and think about it for a minute that’s pretty crazy. Artists writing code, in an animation program. Wait, what…? We changed history.

It also makes sense that the community was born. Artists are pretty passionate people. So I think my original statement stands as I write through all of this. The birth of the community was due to a lot of factors, where we were in computing, the state of the Internet at the time, the creation of Flash itself, and the adoption of the Flash Player in the web browser. I think the most we had for animation back then, other than Flash, was animated GIFs. Oh, and Java applets of course! Unless you count the marquee and blink tags, oh, oh! and the JavaScript status scrollers!! There really wasn’t anything that existed that could be used to create truly immersive, animated, interactive experiences. (Well there was Directory but the Shockwave player never caught one like Flash Player did. I think Authorware also had a player, but that’s a whole other story…)

So there we were. A handful of creatives, working in the field of web design/develop. Churning out websites with HTML, tabels, spacer GIFs, et al. Downloading copious amounts of music from Napster, hacking HTML during the day and experimenting with Flash at night. Most of us anyway. It was a rare and cherished opportunity to work with Flash full time at a job back then.) Hacking away at ActionScript on the timeline nested within Movie Clips. I remember showing the actual IDE/dev side to “programmers” back then. Their response was priceless. It didn’t really matter though. We were pushing the envelope and people were amazed at the visual appeal that resulted. Think about the first time you saw the 2Advanced website. I think we all went and attempted to replicate either the entire site or at least pieces of it. Behind the scenes there were a handful of us all communicating on Flashkit and Flashcoders. Every day. Another important word there “communicating.” The birth of the Flash Platform Community.

Did we know what we were doing? Probably not. Both in terms of “programming” and in terms of creating the community. I don’t really think any of this was planned or premeditated. It evolved over time. Organically, naturally. As clients and people wanting websites built increased the amount of people starting to get involved with creating content with Flash increased. The innovation and communication also increased. More and more blogs starting popping up, Flashcoders was a riot back then. I’ll never forget the first time Jesse Warden replied to one of my posts. I thought I was a “Flash Rock Star”. That’s what we all wanted to be. Long before any recruiter held that term in their mouth. This was a new breed of experience from a new breed of developer. The Flash Developer.

Those were truly amazing, fun, thrilling, ground breaking times. I’ll never forget some of the moments from back then. I don’t think any of us will. The ones that were there. This is when a Java developer would laugh at you if you told him you were a “programmer” or a “developer.” That’s probably another reason we started to stick together and how the community was born. Back then  you couldn’t really ask a C or Java guy a question about some AS1 nested within five Movie Clips on your animation timeline. They had no idea what you were talking about and I don’t think they much cared. Somewhere I remember seeing Keith Peters post something like: you should try it over in the C community for a while, they’re not quite as open as we are. True words indeed.

Timing is an important aspect within all of this as well I think. We were all roughly the same age. Most of us had come from non-traditional backgrounds as far as computer science goes. Skaters, musicians, artists, etc. A pretty far stretch from the programmers of days past. Another reason I think we all stuck together and helped each other out though. We had a lot in common.

Since the early days and the first wave of Flash on the web there’s been several iterations of new developers to start targeting the Flash Player. Each bringing their own imaginations, innovations, experience and passion. Flex of course brought us the RIA and a bunch of Java guys hopped on the boat. I think that was for the best. Some may argue but I think we needed to be tamed a bit. The art of ActionScript development was advancing and there were a lot of people getting us going in the right direction. IDE’s, classes, packages, AS2, components, etc. But in terms of a “real” development environment I think a lot of people were still just hacking away at timeline code. I think around the time Flex 2 was released a lot of the old school Flash developers grew up a little. (Just a little.) Flash Player was maturing, the web was maturing so naturally we had to. I think our passion changed a little and a lot of us started focusing on quality code, learning from our past and started improving our development and programming skills. We started using frameworks, starting using TDD, etc.

Over time I think two roles clearly emerged in the world of creating content for the Flash Player. One was the designer, animator, user experience person. The other was the developer. Back in the beginning this was definitely not the case. If you did Flash stuff, you did everything. Design, code, animation, etc.

This lead to some interesting things though. Now we have a bunch of developers who used to be artists that have been refining their craft and honing their development skills for ten plus years. We can hang with the big boys now in terms of programming and talk shop and compete with the best of ‘em. One things that has remained however is our community. For the most part we’re not a bunch of introverted, self absorbed, navel gazing jerks that aren’t willing to communicate and share. We’re the opposite. We are teh awesome. We share everything. We communicate constantly. We feel bad and ashamed when we work on projects and can’t share our code. We help each other with code problems. Computing problems in general. Hell even life problems. We’re a tight knit bunch. It’s like a TV show or movie almost. There’s a cast in our world. It’s like reality TV, but better. It’s real life. It’s people that care about each other working on similar problems, willing to help each other grow and succeed. I think the community is the core part to Flash. I think you could remove Adobe, I think you could even truly “kill” Flash and remove it. I think even then the community would stand. I think we’d stick together. At least I know a handful of us who I’m about 99.9% sure would.

I think this is something that HTML5 will never have. I’m not going to rant, compare or bash HTML5 or JavaScript here. I’m just saying. I think the “Flash” in “Flash Platform Community” is pretty damn important. We’re a family. Not a family of products. Not a family of product users even. We’re a bunch of developers working toward a common goal and doing it together. That’s a very powerful thing. I think it will continue to drive Flash into the future for some time to come. If you take a minute and think about what Flash was 10 plus years ago and then compare it to what we have now it’s pretty amazing. It’s evolved, morphed, grown and matured. The capabilities have, the language has, the user experience has and the tooling and development experience has. So has the community.

Let’s keep the fire burning. The communication rolling. Let’s keep rattling the web. Changing people’s perception of what is possible. Let’s keep the competitors running as fast as they can to catch up. Let’s keep the bleeding edge bleeding! Let’s look back on this blog post I’ve just written ten years from now and still be developing for the Flash Platform as the Flash Platform Community!!

Here’s a pretty awesome Flex job at Adobe I found searching their site this morning. Looks like the lucky applicant that is hired would be working in the Flex mobile space on the Flex team. WOW!!! The position appears to be in the San Jose (Headquarters) office. I had the opportunity to work in that location for a couple weeks once and I can say it’s top notch. Plus you’d be right in the brain of the mothership. Talk about cool!!

You can get more information about the job and apply here.

Computer Scientist-Flex Engineering – 09585

Position Summary

The Adobe Flex framework helps people build visually engaging applications that go well beyond what is possible with traditional application development technologies. Every day, Adobe customers worldwide use Flex to build high quality, design oriented, and information rich applications that span smart phones, tablets, web browsers, and desktop environments. Adobe continues to push the envelope in providing solutions for developing and delivering rich multi-screen and multi-platform applications. In this role, you will be part of a focused, energized team that works closely with customers and product teams in the Flex mobile ecosystem to identify and implement functionality that brings the power of Flex to a broad spectrum of mobile devices and platforms.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of research, design, implementation, and delivery of new features in the Flex framework on mobile devices.
• Work with customers, both internal and external, to understand customer needs.
• Work with the QA group to ensure high quality and rapid turnaround for changes that surface during quality testing.
• Develop adequate documentation at all levels.
• Write unit tests to ensure ongoing correctness of the code.
• Deliver robust, efficient code quickly

Requirements

• Minimum of 3 years of professional software product development experience.
• BS, or equivalent, in Computer Science.
• Experience coding in Java, C++, or ActionScript.
• Excellent object-oriented design skills.
• Proven ability to develop robust, efficient, high-quality code.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience in full product development life cycle, from initial planning to first customer release.
• Passion for developing design-oriented applications across multiple screens and device types.

Adobe’s dynamic working environment is well known – including 11 years on FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”, and other, similar accolades. By hiring the very best and brightest, we continue to be a simply better place to work.

Location: Americas – USW-San Jose (Headquarters)

Schedule: Full-time

Google recently released their JavaScript unit testing framework to the public and has open sourced it. If you’re planning on installing google-js-test on OS X Lion you’ll need to update Mercurial first. Download and install Mercurial 1.9.2 for MacOS X 10.7 before trying to install google-js-test or you’ll run into an error like:

==> Cloning https://re2.googlecode.com/hg
abort: couldn't find mercurial libraries in [/usr/platlib/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages /usr/local/bin

Once you get Mercurial updated you won’t have that problem. You’ll also need Homebrew installed if you don’t already have it (brew is used to install google-js-test). You can get Homebrew here.

One you’ve installed these items you’re ready to install google-js-test. That’s it. Pretty easy, just open Terminal and run:

brew install google-js-test

It takes a minute or two for the download and installation. Terminal kind of just sits there. It took around five minutes for me over wireless. Once you’ve got that properly installed  you can hit up the Getting Started page on the google-js-test site for some code to run to ensure everything is installed and working.

It’s pretty straight forward. You just create a couple JavaScript files, paste the code that google provides into the files and then run the tests from Terminal. Make sure you’re in the directory you created your test files before running the gistest command though.

gjstest –js_files=namespace.js,some_functions.js,some_functions_test.js

You should see output similar to the screenshot below if everything is working correctly.

Once that’s all set up you can move on and read more about Matchers and Mocking (google-js-test has built in mocking. Nice!!)

Here’s the output from my working tests. You can see failed and passing tests as appropriately defined in the code provided by google.

name: Raymond Camden (friends call me Ray, but I use Raymond when I’m trying to sound important)
age: Above the age where I know it instantly. The age where I have to think for a minute. 38
employer: Adobe
location: Lafayette, LA

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

My mom’s employer gave her an Apple 2e (it may have been the plus – we had both the plus and the E but I don’t remember which came first). She was supposed to learn computers on it, but I took it over pretty quickly. After playing all the games I could (Ultima 3 is one of the ones I remember the most), I began to look into programming. I mainly did it to cheat at games. (I used a hex editor to edit my Bard’s Tale characters.) Apple’s BASIC was real friendly and fun to write in.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I’ve been tangentially involved with Flex since it was still in testing. I’ve never done it full time, but I’ve done projects from time to time and have remained interested in it over the years. I thought it was cool because I was a true believer in the RIA concept and the Flash IDE just didn’t make sense to me. Flex was the perfect mix of code and UX.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

Nope. I have not yet adopted testing 100%. Mainly because I tend to do many ad-hoc small projects for blog posts. I believe testing is critical to a project’s success, but I don’t necessarily feel that you have to build the tests first.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

Only Swiz, and I loved it Because I used Flex off and on, my skills never really took off. When I first worked on a large scale project, Swiz helped me wrap my head around how to build a larger Flex application. I was able to focus on building stuff and not so much on organizing.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Heck yes.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

Flash Builder. The only plugin’s I’ve added are a SVN and Git plugin.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Nothing.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I rarely visit individual blogs on a regular basis. (The exception is Kotaku and io9.) Instead I use flexbloggers.org. It’s an aggregator of over 500 feeds. (And written in ColdFusion using an open source project for blog aggregation.)

I mainly hit video game and Sci Fi sites when I’m doing anything non-technical.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

cfObjective, NCDevCon, MAX, RIA Unleased. Speaking/spoke at all of em. Oh, and I did my first jQuery conference early this year and spoke on jQuery Mobile.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

See RIAForge (and my answer below).

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

Quite a few. I’ve released a lot of ColdFusion open source and manage RIAForge.org. An OS hosting site for projects making use of Adobe technologies.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

I think it’s interesting. I have much more confidence in JavaScript than _some_ HTML5 features. I don’t buy into the whole HTML vs Flash argument. To me, it’s a great thing that we’ve got multiple ways to create content.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

4.5.1.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

ColdFusion and jQuery (along with jQuery UI and Mobile).

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

Video games, books, and hanging with my family.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

This is it. My degree is in English with a minor in Comp Sci. At one time I thought I might be a technical writer, but once I got into web development that was pretty much it.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

My blog is coldfusionjedi.com.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

Not a damn thing. I’d take it as an opportunity to start fresh and empty handed.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

Mainly anything indie, but I’ll listen to trance too while I code. It depends on how stressed I am at the current time. If I really need to think I’ll switch to classical. Over all my favorite bands are The Cure and Depeche Mode – although I’ve not been terribly happy with them recently. The artist I’m probably most excited about over the past few years is MIA.

what is your favorite animal?

Bacon.

name: Kiran Ruth
age: 25
employer: Thoughtnet Technologies Pvt Ltd.,
location: Bangalore , India

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

I think I started using computer when I was in third grade.My uncle usually had (still has) loads of cool gadgets which I had access to . My cousin and me used to play games in it all the time. I spent most of my time playing prince of Persia , space invader and a whole lotta stuff. My first programming language was GWBASIC. I think my passion to everything computer began then and it still is strong.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I started with flash mx mostly doing timeline animations, making animated slideshow using very little of AS. I think I used only gotoAndPlay() and stop() . ha ha .

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No I am not practicing TDD , though I am learning about it and hope to use it soon.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

I have used SWIZ. Now I am learning robotlegs and I kinda like it and see a lot of potential in it.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes I have done few but nothing which paid . I like the idea of mobile social gaming. I always wanted to develop games mostly because I was so into gaming myself . After seeing @terrypaton1 works I have a very strong urge to get into mobile game development now.. Someday soon I will make my own game. For this I see a long learning curve and I am up for the challenge.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

At work I use Flex 3 , mainly because it’s a huge ERP to port to the latest versions. I had tried to convince my boss but guess I could convince him . Otherwise I use flex 4.5.1(expires in two weeks *sniff sniff*) to do my mobile projects

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Other than Flex , I am big time into PHP .I use notepad++ or Aptana studio for PHP/HTML development

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

If I am not asleep I am online on twitter. I read before I go to sleep . I subscribe to load of stuff and try to keep up with the world , that basically quenches my daily tech thirst.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

I attended @adobe_summit this year as an attendee . I would love to attend adobe max but that takes place on the other side of the globe. AND I don’t think I can walk to that place either .

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

I have a bunch of projects but mostly all half cooked and nothing worth mentioning . There is this project which I did a long time back which a few of the carnatic singers use. Its available at http:/bit.ly/shruthibox . This is pretty much one project a few found very useful. I am working on an android / i-phone version soon . This requires some research and I am working on that.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

Its definitely not a flash killer. Most of the ppl who say it’s a flash killer have little or no idea of AS and the framework. Its like the village head said “No flash!!!! only html/JS” then the entire tribe danced in unison “aaahhhh hooo”. Its really nice that html5 web standards have finally come and I see it staying. When it come to web I guess all these are keys of a piano. Each one has a purpose and using them correctly brings out the best.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

I use Flex 3 at work .

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I use PHP for backend . I know a little of other web technologies which helps me in deploying stuff and getting the work done.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

When not writing code I’m learning how to write better code :p . I play PC games ,music and yeah at times I get a book to read.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

WOW .. forever is a long time. I don’t think it’s a good idea to be stuck in an island . But if that island has free 100mbps wifi , KFC , a nice lawn chair , then I’ll take my laptop he he ….

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

I don follow any band in particular. The song and the volume at which I play it depends on my mood but when I am coding I am always listening to something.

what is your favorite animal?

Chicken ? wait !! yeah that doesn’t sound wrong . he he ..

Here are a couple pretty interesting looking books that could be of use for anyone getting into the world of Flash and/or Flex mobile development for Android and iOS. Some of these titles are newer than others and one is yet to be published. They all look like they’re worth checking out a bit though either online or at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore.

Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications

Everything Flash developers need to know to create native Android and iPhone apps.

This Wrox guide shows Flash developers how to create native applications for Android and iPhone mobile devices using Flash. Packed with practical examples, it shows how to build a variety of apps and integrate them with core mobile services such as Accelerometer, GPS, Photo Library,and more.

• Offers Flash developers the tools to create apps for the Android and iPhone mobile devices
• Shows how to design a user interface optimized for Android and iOS and offers plenty of examples for building native Android and iPhone apps with Flash, migrating existing Flash media, testing and debugging applications, and more
• Helps you understand ways to work with files on Android and iOS

Flash Mobile: Developing Android and iOS Applications

Build rich media applications for the iOS and Android platforms with this primer to Flash mobile development. You get all of the essentials-from setting up your development environment to publishing your apps to the Google Market Place/Apple iTunes App Store.

Develop elementary applications without coding; then realize the power of ActionScript 3 to add rich complexity to your applications. Step-by-step instruction is combined with practical tutorial lessons to deliver a working understanding of the development stages including:

• Rapid prototyping
• Adding interactivity, audio, and video
• Employing iOS and Android Interface Calls
• Hardware optimization with AIR
• Game development; game engines, controlling physics, and 3D
• Designing for iPad, Android tablets, and Google TV
• Code optimization, testing, and debugging
• Publication within weeks of Adobe’s release of the Android packaging utilities Full-color illustrations of UI and design implementations *Companion website with tutorial media and author forum

User interfaces are presented in full color to illustrate their nuances. The companion websiteincludes all of the AS3 code, project files, and a blog to keep you up to date with related news and developments.

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps

The Android operating system works on phones that combine a camera, Web browser, e-mail, GPS, and mapping tool into a single accessible pocket-sized unit, and can function on computers, as well. Aimed at visual learners and packed with hundreds of screen shots, this guide brings Flash developers up to speed on the necessary factors to take into account when developing for this touch-based, mobile platform. Experienced Flash developer Julian Dolce escorts you through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using the Flash CS5 development platform and informs you of best practices to try as well as common pitfalls to avoid.

• Guides you step by step through the process of creating applications for the Android OS using Flash CS5
• Explores the capabilities and limitations of developing apps for the Android OS
• Points out common pitfalls and teaches you best practices
• Features hundreds of screen shots to assist with visual learning

Android Development with Flash: Your visual blueprint for developing mobile apps gets you on your way to developing apps for Android… in a flash!

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets

iPhone does not support Flash in the app store, but don’t despair…Android does! In today’s mobile marketplace, games are one of the most popular and money making apps out there. And Flash enables some interesting games on Android, for both smartphones and tablets.

Pro Android Flash Games: Developing Flash Game Apps for Android-based Smartphones and Tablets lets you take your Flash game development skills mobile as you learn the latest in Android development using the Adobe AIR SDK, Flash CS and Flash Builder tools.

If you’ve ever dreamed of creating games for the fastest growing mobile operating system, Google Android, then this book is for you. Whether you’ve dabbled in ActionScript 3, or worked with Flash Professional or Flash Builder, this book shows you how to create compelling mobile games for Android smartphones and tablets.

• Create compelling mobile games that leverage device capabilities such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, and multi-touch.
• Design games to work well across multiple screen sizes.
• Identify ways to monetize your app through competitive pricing, ads, or in-app purchases.

After reading and using this book and its rich code, you come away with the ability to build fun, commercial Flash game apps that can also make you some money, too.

Back in July I had the awesome opportunity to do a presentation for the FlexMania Brazil conference on getting started with Arduino and AS3/Flex communication. I got the link to the recorded presentation and decided I’d share it with everyone. I was going to give this presentation at the UK based try { harder } conference happening in a couple days. Unfortunately I can’t make it out to try { harder } to give the presentation in person (megasadpanda). So, here’s the recorded Connect session, the slides and the PIR Motion Sensor schematics from my presentation. Enjoy!!

Getting Started with Arduino and Flex/AS3 Development (by: Sean Moore)

This presentation will explain what the Arduino is, how it’s used and why it’s used. The session will cover how and where to obtain the hardware and software needed for Arduino development with and without Flex and AS3. It will also demonstrate a basic LED blinking example, a temperature sensor example and a PIR motion sensor example. The session will also explain how to get as3glue and serproxy working on your system to enable Arduino circuit development with Flex and AS3.

Here’s the live recording (Connect session) of the preso

Here’s the PPT of the slides and a PDF of the slides

Here’s the schematic to build the PIR Motion Sensor circuit

Here’s also a Fritzing schematic for the PIR Motion Sensor circuit. You can get Fritzing here.

My presentation can be found here in the original listing on the FlexMania site for proof and/or historical purposes: http://www.flexmania.com.br/gravacoes.php

Oh, and a MASSIVE, MASSIVE shout to Igor Costa for inviting me to present at the conference and THANK YOU to everyone who attended!!!!

Happy Arduino’ing everyone!!!

Over the last year (a little longer) I’ve been tinkering with Arduino. Building various circuits, learning how to solder (burning  myself), etc. I attended a really cool workshop at METRIX CREATE:SPACE in Seattle the other night. (If you’re in the Seattle area I highly recommend checking them out, the place is too cool for words!) The workshop got me pretty jazzed on Arduino dev again so I decided to gather up a bunch of links to my various explorations into the exciting world of hardware hacking.

So here’s some links to photos, videos, blog posts, etc. I actually gave a presentation for FlexMania Brazil on Arduino and Flex/AS3 dev/communication. I don’t have the recording of the session yet. Once I get it I’ll be sure to post it. (Igor??)

If you haven’t checked out or played around with Arduino I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s really cheap to get started and loads of fun!!!

My next big project will be to build the Robot that the workshop I attended got everyone geared  up for. Here’s a picture of the robot.

If you want to get started with Arduino I’d recommend the Budget Pack and Experimentation Kit from adafruit.com to get started with Arduino development. Also check out as3glue when  you want to start working on Flex/AS3 to Arduino communication. It’s fun stuff!!! Check it out!!!

Anyway here’s a bunch of links to various stuff I’ve been working on over the past year.

Using Brainwave Data to Control an LED using AS3, AIR, Mindset BCI and Arduino

http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2011/03/14/using-brainwave-data-to-control-an-led-using-as3-air-mindset-bci-and-arduino/

Experimenting with EL Wire – EL Wire Hoodie

http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2011/04/09/experimenting-with-el-wire-el-wire-hoodie/

Arduino Development Continued (now with Soldering!)

http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2011/01/17/arduino-development-continued-now-with-soldering/

Getting Started with Arduino Development

http://seantheflexguy.com/blog/2010/10/19/getting-started-with-arduino-development/

PIR motion sensor, jumbo LED and an Arduino UNO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtNOxwB00Vw

Mindset BCI, Arduino, Adobe Flex and an LED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il-Z64aHkqg

EL Wire Hoodie 0.0.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9lzx0puBk4

EL Wire Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJPzg-t_Who

Arduino Duemilanove and ST7565 LCD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8udnmZMncs

Arduino psheild project finished

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bE5tNp1VuM

Arduino circuit with force sensitive resistor and jumbo LED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEHTnh1pTyY

Standard Red & Black LCD (16×2) and Arduino Uno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbPQWXoVV5I

Merry Arduino XMas!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3zci1w3wG4

Arduino circuit with potentiometer controlling brightness of an LED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsjP1GXH9E

Arduino circuit with a photocell controlling the brightness of an LED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Nr0jB03RE

Arduino with Button to turn LED on and off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKKN-atiNeE

(The images above are from adafruit and metrix.)

name: Nick Kwiatkowski
age: 30
employer: Michigan State University
location: Lansing, Michigan

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

My dad was into computers well before I was born. He saw them as video game systems, and always had the latest one. My first computer was a Colecovision Adam Family PC, which had SmartBASIC loaded on it. I think when I was around 6 or so, he bought me a programming book at a used book sale, and I haven’t looked back since. I quickly grew from BASIC to Assembler on our Apple IIGS, and a ton of more programming languages since.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

My first dive into Flash programming(I did some light animation before then, but nothing serious) was when Macromedia introduced Flash Professional. It tried to break away from the timeline based programming and tried to introduce “Screens” that allowed a developer to work mostly in code. It was bad — real bad, but it allowed me to jump from Lingo to ActionScript.

Shortly after, I was working for a large telecommunications vendor who had me on a project where I was connecting a backend into what became Macromedia’s Flex. I read the only book on the subject (Webster’s ‘Devloping Rich Clients with Flex’) all the way through, and loved the concept. I think we were targeting Flex 1.0 or 1.5 at the time, and the IDE was based on Dreamweaver, with the compiler on the server. I’ve been using Flex ever since.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

I know TDD is the new hotness, I don’t usually practice it. I believe in testable code, but I don’t subscribe to the theory of programming to tests (I think the tests should be driven by contracts, and the cost should be driven by contracts — the end result is the same, but the implementation is different). I use iterative development and the QC development model, which works much better for my team and development model.

what application development frameworks have you used?

what’s your favorite? I’ve tried most of them, but like Mate the best. I don’t use one of the popular frameworks for most of my development — we have our own internal one that we use on my team.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

We have done quite a bit of mobile development with AIR. For the types of apps that I deal with, AIR is a no-brainer… Our customers expect us to deploy on multiple devices with no budget and a short timeline.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

Right now I’m using Flash Builder 4.5. I load it up with tons of plugins such as ColdFusion Builder, Mylyn, Subclypse, Android development tools, etc.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Not really… I do use some tools to help with diagnosing issues with data communications like WireShark, and ServiceCapture.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I’m always watching Polygeek (he’s pretty much my hero), Matt LeGrand, and Jeffery Houser. Otherwise I watch the news on Fullasagoog and Flashbookmarks to see what the latest happenings are.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

I’ve attended 360|Flex this year as an attendee (one of my favorite conferences), and I will be attending Adobe MAX as a speaker. I attend quite a few other conferences for my job, but the others are more related to telecom and video stuff.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

I’m going to be open-sourcing some projects after my talk at MAX this year. Mostly projects dealing with the Microsoft Kinect and Flex and of course Arduinos and Flex. Matt LeGrand and I are working on a few other projects that I’m sure you will be reading about soon

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

I know the direction things are going, but I have a feeling that people will wake up to find out that HTML5 is not all it’s cracked up to be. Will that lead to a resurgence of plugin-based solutions like Flash/Flex? I don’t know. JavaScript is pretty unpredictable and not at this point, being used in ways that it wasn’t really designed for. Let’s put it this way — it’s not my cup of tea right now

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

I support Flex based apps written in 1.5 all the way through 4.5. Obviously I’m targeting 4.5 at the moment.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

All my back-end stuff is either in Java or ColdFusion. I’ve been doing more Java work lately than CF, but it all depends on the app I’m working on. I also do some embedded development in C/C++ and dip into Delphi/Pascal every so often as well.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I support my usergroup, do mountain biking, support various Entrepreneurship efforts in the Lansing area and help with our Ignite, DemoCamp and TEDx events.
[ED NOTE: and help Sean w/ about 10 million Arduino questions. THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH NICK!!! ]

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

I worked in computer sales, marketing, IT infrastructure management, telecom management and teaching. Technically right now my job is in telecom management, but I still do quite a bit of development.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

Favorite at the moment? I guess Against Me, Flobots, Gorillaz, and Linkin Park. I usually have one of the Ska or Punk stations on Shoutcast (RantRadio mostly).

name: Luca Mezzalira
age: 28
employer: CEO & Flash Platform Architect
location: Padova (ITALY)

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

My first for cycle was written in 2004 after 8 months I was Macromedia Certified on Flash MX 2004 developer.

I love code after the first day that I started to use Actionscript 2 for create dynamic content

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

AS and Flash in 2004

AIR in 2007 when it was called Apollo

Flex with the second edition, I think the first release client side

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

I used Mate, Swiz, PureMVC but for now I’m working with a custom framework based on

Presentation Models for a multiple screen project with 3 differents GUIs but the same base-code

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes of course, it’s my favourite kind of development!!!

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

First of all Adobe Evangelists like Mihai Corlan, Michael Chaize, Duane Nickull and so on, then Peter Elst, Biskero, Lord Alex, Stephan Beladaci, RIACowboy and of course… YOU!

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

I attended FATC in NY and next week Adobe MAX in L.A.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

Yes I’ve one, mPresenter is an advanced remote control for presentation. It helps you when you are on the stage and allow you to change, draw or point on slides; you can also receive comments during your presentation for each slide. I made it for Android and iPhone too. It’s composed by a mobile app and a desktop app, this one allow you to create your preso and add comments in the slides.

More information on mpresenter.mart3.org

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

it’s the same soup with a new name…nothing new, with the same limits and problems…

HTML 5 is interesting but Flash Platform is definitely better, It seems to come back 5/6 years ago with AS2

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

Mainly from 4 to 4.6 obviously always with AIR 2.7, I really love this combination

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I usually go to the stadium for a soccer match or I go out with Paco, my young jack russell terrier he is the best!

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

I was a warehouseman for 4,5 years

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

Yes, I suggest to take a look at CrocusModeller ( http://crocusmodeller.com) I think is an interesting tool, we started to use in my company and it’s so useful to speed up a Flash Platform project.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

Mainly Oasis but also a lot of italian singers

what is your favorite animal?

Jack Russell Terrier