Free DNS report tools

Excellent comparison and info on free DNS reporting tools which come in handy when DNS is doing what it shouldn’t… at least not what you think it should! In the end I used intoDNS, CheckDNS.net, and pingability.
Free DNS Report alternatives

Everyone that runs a web server or even a site needs to run a DNScheck from [...]

Enums, Objects and the joys of being typesafe

I like autocomplete. I also like it when the compiler (or IDE) tells me I am doing something wrong BEFORE I compile. Flexbuilder is my AS3 compiler of choice. Although FlashDevelop 3 has come a really long way. It’s PC only though.
Anyway, just did some reading about Enums in AS2. This bit of [...]

Enums, Objects and the joys of being typesafe

I like autocomplete. I also like it when the compiler (or IDE) tells me I am doing something wrong BEFORE I compile. Flexbuilder is my AS3 compiler of choice. Although FlashDevelop 3 has come a really long way. It’s PC only though.
Anyway, just did some reading about Enums in AS2. This bit of [...]

Flex, MVC, Cairngorm and Universal Mind Extensions

This podcast with Thomas Burleson probably has the best description of MVC with Flex, why to use Cairngorm, challenges of using Cairngorm, why to use the universal mind extensions, the problem of view locators and how to work with those, etc. Good stuff. I wish there was a transcript of this.
UMEvent, UMCommand, Callbacks, and other [...]

More on MVC

Going to have to do some more reading here later… Joes’ article “An architectural blueprint for Flex applications” was probably the first thing I tried to chew through to understand MVC, Cairngorm, and “separating concerns” while building an app in Flex. Model adapters and view mediators look like something I have been wrapping my head [...]

Flex form: indicating a required element

Customize the indicator on a Flex form to show a form item is required.
Changing a Flex FormItem container’s indicator skin at Flex Examples
The following example shows how you can change the FormItem container’s indicator skin which appears when the form item’s required property is set to true.

Cairngorm factories for xml in and VO out

I’ve linked to this article before but I wanted to bring up another point now. I have a good xml data set that is becoming the local store for a chunk of a UI. But because it is xml, it doesn’t update the way it should. I need to try to implement this xml > [...]

Actionscript sprintf

I like python and the ability to do variable substitutions. In AS3 you have to do… well see the example below. Alas, this is for AS2, not AS3.
sprintf : Downloads : Nate Cook
Formatted strings are a real convenience—one that is sorely missing
from the Flash Actionscript library. This adds in the sprintf
functionality, which lets you reduce [...]

Universal Mind Cairngorm Extensions

There are several issues I have had when developing with Cairngorm. It gets better with time as you work around the issues, but you have to “work around them”, as opposed to working within the system constraints. The constraints are good. They give form and function. But there are some headaches… certainly no offense to [...]

Simple XML creation with Python

I was so happy when I first found Amara. It was the easiest thing I had seen for creating XML with Python. It’s quite serious stuff because it can probably handle just about anything you throw at it. Then I heard about the wonderful web2py project. One of it’s beautiful aspects is XML generation, or [...]

Extract .bz2 on Linux

I am updating some python libs on my webfaction host. The python easy_setup isn’t working for this particular bit though which is unusual. It’s the first time it didn’t work. The reason? It seems it chokes on .bz2 archives. The one in particular is python-dateutil. Fortunately a quick wget later and it’s downloaded. On OS [...]

Local subversion on 1and1

1and1 had an update. Good. It broke subversion. Bad. After a short fight with subversion 1.4.6 (which didn’t work) I thought about using 1.4.5. Fortunately that’s pretty straightforward and… it works! So here are the commands for that. I develop on Eclipse using a JumpBox Trac/Subversion server locally. Changes to my Django app [...]

Building Flexlib from SVN source to get openEnd and closeEnd events for WindowShade

Short version: You must provide a path to the manifest.xml file in order for ant to find it! For example:
<arg line=”-namespace http://code.google.com/p/flexlib/ /path/to/manifest.xml” />
Long version: I didn’t know that… thought it makes total sense in hindsight.
I am using the very nifty WindowShade from the life-saving (OK that’s a bit melodramatic…) FlexLib library. However, I wanted [...]

Computed properties and binding

This is also something I’ll have to take a look at later.
Computed properties and binding « FLEXYGEN
Updating views in response to model changes is a snap with Flex data binding.
A model property is set to be [Bindable] and and a view property is set to an expression in curly braces that refers to [...]

Cairngorm, Flex and MVC

Cairngorm helps when you’re wanting to know how to structure things. There are other options, especially as you start actually understanding the language. PureMVC is an alternate framework. Then Flexygen has a simple MVC sample… without using Cairngorm. It’s not that Cairngorm is bad! It’s the de facto standard framework for Flex (right [...]

Using Degrafa for customizable data visualization

You have to see it to appreciate it. I especially like the capacity indicator “distribution ala itunes/ipod”, and the shape renderer. So sweet!
Degrafa & Data Visualization
While syncing in iTunes I was looking at the indication
of how my media was distributed across my iPhone and realized that same
visualization could be duplicated using Degrafa. I [...]

A clean way to define an app wide CustomBusyCursor for Flex

A good tip on how to set and maintain an app wide custom BusyCursor with CSS a custom cursor class and CSS declarations.
How to customize Flex busyCursor | LA Flash – Los Angeles’ Flash Professionals Adobe User Group
The CursorManager class in Flex provides a way to display a busy cursor whenever [...]

Implement clone() in custom events

I have custom components that “relay” events. They pick up events from one place and pass them to the other. (There is a place for that… sometimes… somewhere…) I have not hit this error myself, but the lesson is still a valid one. How do you pass an event and make sure it is passed [...]

Freedocumentaries.org

Note this for later. The bit about High Cost of Low Prices should be… interesting in a scary sort of way.
April Fool’s Day Rally: Your Money is Worthless, You’re Hungry & Nervous. Dow Rises 391 | The Second Great Depression

Last weekend an acquaintance introduced me to a fantastic website at www.freedocumentaries.org.
As the title [...]

Responding to the user

More on this later.
The Joy of Flex » Blog Archive » Effects in response to user input
When building a UI in Flex, a common situation is to play some kind of effect as a result of a user action. Take the simple case of the user pressing a button which causes an item [...]

Sweet example of WindowShade + Degrafa

What I hope to be able to do sometime in the (near) future… Gotta like that Degrafa.
Doug McCune » Blog Archive » Examples from my 360|Flex session – Using Open Source Community Projects
WindowShade + Degrafa exampleIn this example I used the newly added WindowShade component in FlexLib, combined with the CanvasButton [...]

I like WindowShade

I like the WindowShade component from FlexLib. It’s going in a project now. The example on this page uses LinkButtons for the header bit.
One of the reasons I like it though is that it’s light. One poster mentioned it should extend Panel and I have seen implementations of this. But because they extend [...]

CanvasButton!

It has resurfaced from the depths of my memory… and I finally found it again. The CanvasButton. Put what you want in a button, much like the example on this page. Great stuff from the FlexLib crew.
Doug McCune » Blog Archive » Using complex headers with the Flex Accordion
The CanvasButton component in FlexLib
is [...]

Cairngen moving to Google Code

I use Cairngorm. It’s main strength is making sure you put code where it should go. It goes by the MVC mantra which, in and of itself, is really good. The problem? To add one new capability, you sometimes have to add… I forget how many new class files:
“Hmm… need a button here to do [...]

Speed reading…

I really need to learn how to speed read. There is just TOO MUCH to read! Er… too much I want to read.