Status update on several projects:
1. Begin uploading homework from my graduate school days in human-computer interaction (I graduated 2 weeks ago).
Status: Requires more time than I thought, because each homework involves a lot of background reading of research papers, and I have to include some explanation on the context of the homework assignment
2. Build a Flash-based blog interface.
Status: I'm sure someone else has started working on this, but I still intend to build a Flash UI for movabletype. I'm talking with a few other Flash hackers about an XML standard (like RSS 2.0) for collating all blog sources into a feed inside the Flash MX authoring environment.
4. Flash-controlled Telerobotics - Integrating Lego Mindstorms robotics with Cold Fusion MX, Flash Remoting, and another unannounced Macromedia technology.
Status: I currently have a lego robot running the leJOS java virtual machine, and have some Java applications on the laptop to send commands over the infra-red tower. I've also learned how to use the Behavior/Arbitrator design pattern for simple artificial intelligence, but AI's not needed for telerobotics. Many thanks to Jody Zhang and Jeremy Allaire for tips on JRun/CFMX/Flash integration, I hope to have a working prototype soon (need to buy a wireless camera too).
5. Actionscript OOP Book from New Riders Press.
Status: We're kicking ass on this book. It's a little bit delayed due to the amount of thinking involved. I've even learned a lot from reading Branden Hall's draft chapters on OOP design patterns. Tonight, we came up with a new design pattern specifically suited for Flash development. Basically, the Flash editor allows you to define instances of visual objects before run-time. Many design patterns rely purely on class definitions that instantiate other classes, so these patterns don't work well in a pre-run-time instance definition environment like Flash. We came up with something better as we were brainstorming on a solution I proposed in my textfield chapter. My textfield chapter will end up 3 times longer than its original length. The solution was so good that Branden re-wrote part of his chapter on Actionscript OOP. Well, I don't want to overhype anything, so I'll just stop here.
This site will feature more Flash source code, lego/Flash integration, and HCI topics soon.
-Sam
Posted by samuel at May 12, 2002 07:45 AMYou are awesome. Nothing more to say.
Have long time to see you at were-here.com.
Have Fun Sam!
Chanki
Ps.Any tips for being experimental in Flash with astionscript.
Posted by: Jim (aka Chanki) at May 12, 2002 11:37 PMI love that photo girl you have in the expressions by proxy can I use it in my experiments in Photoshop.
Chanki
Posted by: Jim (aka Chanki) at May 12, 2002 11:54 PMHey Chanki, thanks! Sure, feel free to play with the photo in photoshop, just don't redistribute my work :)
As far as being experimental in Flash with actionscript, it's all about the math... I know Robert Penner's working on a new book with some math-oriented chapters. Worth checking out when it's released.
Robert, project #3 is "Find a full-time job after graduation" :)
Posted by: Sam at May 13, 2002 06:07 AMThanks Sam!
It's all about MATH thats right. I will stick with this!
Chanki
Posted by: Chanki at May 13, 2002 07:30 AMHey Sam can you send me feedback with an email about my site?
Thanks in advance!
Chanki
Posted by: Chanki at May 13, 2002 07:38 AMthe flash blog is desperately needed
Posted by: at May 13, 2002 04:07 PMWhen does the OOP book come out? I'm interested to see your take on design patterns within Flash.
Posted by: Kenny Bunch at May 15, 2002 02:24 PMComes out sometime this summer, around august i think. Branden's done most of the work on design patterns. We didn't invent new patterns (except for the modified Decorator/Factory = Flair), but Branden does cover some practical applications.
Posted by: Sam at May 17, 2002 12:48 AMHi, I just wanted so say thank you guys ! i really like your site and i hope you'll continue to improving it.
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