Recently I’ve been working on a Flash-based game that uses XML for its level format. Because of the ease with which a swf can be decompiled and its assets extracted I made the decision to not store level data in the swf itself. Rather levels are loaded from a remote server into the game swf via AMF at runtime. Hopefully this will make it more difficult to rip off my content, but certainly it will require a lot more data to be passed over the wire.
I’ve been using SmartFTP for some time now and aside from the too frequent crashing in the middle of an upload it’s a pretty nice FTP client. I like that it supports tabs and is just easy to use effectively. What I most certainly do not like is the system SmartFTP has in place to force users who paid a “one-time” licensing fee to upgrade.
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I recently upgraded to Windows 7 x64 from Windows Vista x64 and I must say I’m loving it! However, much like Vista x64 before it Win7 x64 doesn’t play nice with Flex Builder. I still have issues with blank dialogs (for which I found a work around) but now I have an issue with adding build paths.
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Here’s a link to a post I did over at the BKWLD blog about making AIR apps more seamless on Mac OS.
I recently wrote a post over on the Buk Life blog about creating native menus with Adobe AIR in Mac OS. The emphasis of the article is making the “application name” menu (e.g., “Safari” for the Safari browser) look like it belongs when creating customized application menus.
You can read the full article here: Creating Application Menus in Mac OSX with Adobe AIR.
Back in August I took a new job as a Flex Developer at BKWLD in Seattle. I now primaril work on an Adobe AIR application called Elastic Sales that is a new take on a catalog and ordering systems.
BKWLD also has it’s own blog so I’ll be blogging about work-related topics and things I learn about Flex through work there. You can follow me here.
I’ve always wanted to learn about working on cars so I’ve been helping a buddy restore his grandfather’s 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint Custom Hatchback. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of frustration.
I recently made the switch to Vista 64-bit (loving it by the way, 8GB of RAM is most excellent) and it’s been a mostly pain-free conversion. One program that as behaved…curiously…since the upgrade is Flex Builder 3.
Just today I found a bug that seems to affect 64-bit Windows user in the Project Properties dialog. The bug in question is that the “Flex Modules” section of the properties dialog is blank. So there is no way to add or remove modules from the project build. To fix this, open the Properties dialog (Project > Properties), click on “Resources” and resize the window horizontally to be as thin as possible. Then click on “Flex Modules” and resize the window to be usable again and BAM! just like magic the modules appear!
UPDATE
I’ve found that an easier way to do this is just adjust the divider between the list on the left hand side of the dialog and the right hand content area. Just adjusting the divider a smidge will cause everything to magically appear.
I’ve had to reset the font size in Flex Builder a few times now and each time I forget, not because it’d been so long since I’d last changed the font size, but because the setting is buried away, hidden from view.
To change the font size in Flex Builder click Window > Preferences…. In the dialog that pops up click General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts and expand the Basic rollout. In the Basic rollout there are a bunch of options, click Text Font and then click the Change… button that appears. It should be smooth sailing from here.