RMC

Welcome! Let me help you along to one of two resources…

1) For Software Architecture, Consulting, Development, and Training checkout Rivello Multimedia Consulting (RMC).

2) For Presentation Information you are in the right place! See below…

Find your event below and leave a comment, good and bad, please! If you are new, please peruse all events and feel free to request that I present at your next conference or online event. I’m always looking for new outlets at which to speak and I have a laundry list of great Multimedia speech topic proposals too. Find out more more about me while you are here.

Look over some code examples, there are just a few cool things there. RMC established and maintains robust Standards and Best Practices for ActionScript 3.0 & MXML and more. Download and review them with your team today!

If you have a comment or question about a talk, please leave it here on the blog, but feel free to contact me with invites to speak and teach and also for more general questions presentations2010 [at] RivelloMultimediaConsulting [dot] com.


RMC CONSULTING: www.RivelloMultimediaConsulting.com
RMC BLOG: www.rivello.org
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/srivello
PRESENTATIONS BLOG: http://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelasherrivello

DURATION: 63 Minutes (Overview)

EVENT: I’ll be speaking at the free, online-only, super-event FlexMania in Sao Paulo, Brasil.

DESCRIPTION: Frameworks are groups of design patterns prepared to work together in concert. Benefits include creating a team-friendly, stable, and extensible work environment and code-base. Robotlegs is a light framework for creating AS3-based (Flex and Non-Flex) applications. A popular implementation is the Model-View-Controller design-pattern. This separates the application code into three distinct areas; data, user interface, and the application logic. It is approachable and powerful with minimal tedium and repetition in development.

AGENDA: In this session well review the benefits of using an established framework for Flash Platform projects. We’ll see Robotlegs as a powerful and capable framework and review the theory as well as practical application of the framework.

While the examples shown will be specific to Adobe Flex 4 for deployment to the browser, this session is equally relevant for application developers of other technologies including Adobe Flash CS5 for the browser and Adobe AIR desktop deployment.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS5 and Adobe Flex 4 developers with equivalent ActionScript 3.0 knowledge.

LAPTOP REQUIRED: Optional

TAKE-AWAY: Attendees will have another tool in their belt for organizing readable, efficient, maintainable projects. All source code and documentation will be available to attendees.

SECTIONS:

• Section 1: Background of and Benefits of Frameworks
• Section 2: Background of and Benefits of Robotlegs
• Section 3: Robotlegs Applied
• Creating a New Robotlegs Project from Scratch
• Creating a New Robotlegs Project using the Robotlegs Template Project
• Overview of the 3rd Party Robotlegs Utilities and add-ons

DATE:

• July 09, 2010 6pm Sao Paulo Time (5pm EST, 4pm CST, 2pm PST)
• Watch the Free Event Here – Live “www.flexmania.com.br

$#^& Debugger!!!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a Flex project that stopped being debuggable. The App could be published from Flash Builder 4 as ‘Run’ or as ‘Debug’ as always, but in the latter there would be no connection made. This delays the project build and you have to work around the missing ‘trace()’ functionality.

This solution below worked great (for my MAC too)!!! And I blog about it hoping only that someone finds the solution more readily now.

http://therush.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/resolved-flex-builder-3-debugger-stopped-working/

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”

**Thomas Jefferson — (American 3rd US President (1801-09). Author of the Declaration of Independence. 1762-1826)

There was a time when computers were optional. Now for mainstream society they are not only required, they are a part of our lives.  Especially for those of use who use our computers to earn a living, there is a special role for technology in our lives.

To lose bad habits, form good ones, and leave the past behind us, I think a computer revolution is needed, at least every 24 months. That is usually my rhythm, but for many people every ‘5 years’ is a new computer.  Perhaps that is speeding up though.  For me, I think every 6 months is better from now on, and I’m going to try for that now.  We should backup everything, format the hard drives, and bring back into our daily lives only the files that matter.  We can take this opportunity, this revolution, to simplify our lives to improve the quality of our work time and personal time.

I’m getting a new computer this week and using the opportunity to redefine my workflows and the software I use.  For the purpose of my list a ’service’ is anything that I continue to pay for after day 1 (for membership or for content) and ‘GDT‘ is a popular movement about ‘getting things done’ (being productive).  It is a movement in personal effectiveness.  Its been 18 months exactly since my last new computer, so I’m past due.

Here is the setup of hardware, software, and services for my digital life.

Any comments (good or bad) or suggestions are very welcome.  Enjoy!

• HARDWARE (Just 6 Things?)
  
  1. MacBook Pro w/ Power Cable
  2. Wireless Magic Mouse
  3. External Monitor (Duel Monitor Setup)
  4. External HD (iTunes, Backup)
  5. Really Fantastic Headphones
     
  6. iTouch w/ Teather Cable
  • • Mail
    • Calendar
    • iTunes
    • Facebook
    • Evernote
    • Mindmeister (Mind Mapping)
    • Games

As part of an experiment and as part of research for a writing assignment, I am crowdsourcing a new web development project. “Crowdsourcing” is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.

The nature of the work is not an area of strength, so it will be interesting to see how the process goes. I have listed this project on April 20th, 2010 only on Elance.com. I will update again following the completion of the project.

Here is the posting.

The language from Apple’s agreement states “Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs”. This stipulation is a move by Apple to render the new Adobe Flash CS5 feature of port Flash files as iPhone/iPad apps totally useless.

Read more below…

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

• I * Think * this is the guy that broke the story…
• The licensing agreement for the newly unveiled iPhone OS 4.0 ensures Adobe’s Flash isn’t going to turn up on the iPad or iPhone anytime soon
• iPhone Bans Adobe Flash
• iPhone Private API

Who Can Publish to iPhone?

• Developers Using Apples Dev Toolkit for iPhone
• Unity 3D continues to be allowed to publish to iTouch/IPad/IPhone

Who CANNOT Publish to iPhone?

• Adobe Flash using its iPhone Exporter (a to-be-released Flash CS5 Feature)
• Other 3rd Party Publishing Technologies (not sure what others exist…)

I have evangelized the benefits of using off-the-shelf-frameworks for Adobe Flash and Flex projects for years. PureMVC continues to be a great choice, but I have been learning more about IOC frameworks with dependency injection (a feature which PureMVC lacks). Robotlegs (RL) offers dependency injection through metatags. I have learned RL and used it on paying client projects in the past year. I am now considering adding it into the my consulting repertoire.

RL team member Joel Hooks has been helpful through his great website and guiding me towards great resources to learn more about RL. Today I announce a helpful Hello World project which is instrumental in learning RL and starting your projects (template) as well as a great diagram I created too. I’m working to get both released onto the RL website, but will leak them here for those who would like a peek.

Downloads

• The RobotlegsTemplate Project for Flex 4.0 on Google Code
• The Robotlegs ‘MVCS Class and Flow’ Diagram (v2 jpg, v2 pdf, Older v1 Online)

I am coming to the end of 90 days in Brasil. I started at FlashCampBrasil in the smaller beach city of Maceio, Alagoas state in the north and will be exiting the country from Sao Paulo (SP) in the south. SP is massive and the hub of most business in the country, including Flash and Flex development.

I have worked with and met business leaders from major companies, major players, and have learned much.

I’ll be writing more thoughts soon;

• Traveling in Brasil
• Working in Brasil
• Challenges of young tech companies in Brasil
• Future of Flash and Flex in Brasil (Outsourcing, Crowdsourcing, Nearshoring)

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): Conference Session (TBD Hours)

AGENDA: I will be one of the instructors on a vacation destination-based training in beautiful Maceio, Brasil. I’ll be teaching a session of “What’s New in Flex 4″. I had title it “Top 10 features”, but I think I’ll show much more than 10 things. I will cover why Flex is great, why Flex 4 is the greatest, what is new in Flex 4, Flash Builder 4, and more!

AUDIENCE: Advanced Flex 3 developers who want to learn the latest, Flash developers who are thinking to start Flexing, and Java developers who are curious about using the Flash Platform for application development.

TAKE-AWAY: Attendees will be inspired and recharged!!! All source code and presentation materials will be given to attendees.

TOPICS: I have two amazing topics bubbling in my head. It will shock and surprise the world which one I choose (or perhaps I’ll prepare and present both).

• TOPIC 1: “What’s New In Flex 4″ aka “Why Should I Care About Flex?”
  • Adobe Flex 4* is updated with tons of must-have new features! MXML & AS3 (Flash 10) are faster and more potent, the component architecture & skinning model is game-changing, the Flash Builder 4 IDE is easier and more powerful than ever, and more! For newbies, there has never been a better time to jump into Flex, and for veterans this training will expose just what you need to augment your tool set. This will be an adapted from my “Top 10 Flex 4 Features” presentation.
• TOPIC 2: “Creating Biological Life with Flex 4″
  • I review a biological definition of life (7 qualifications such as ‘growth’, ‘metabolism’, & ‘reproduction’) and showcase a simulation of digital-amoebas that meet the criteria. The code will be available to attendees to contribute their own micro-life-forms to the project. The high-level concept is to compare bio-life to digital-life by analyzing the Object Oriented principles and AS3 concepts which power such creatures.

DATE

• Register Now for Flash Camp Brasil
• Download Full Source Code and Documentation
• Translate This Page To Portuguese / Traduzir este site para Português

DESCRIPTION: The fine people at Flash and Flex Developer Magazine (FFDMag) are as excited about Augmented Reality (AR) as I am. They have published my latest article about AR and Adobe Flash CS4. Augmented Reality involves the combination of the physical world and an interactive, 3-dimensional virtual world. This field of computer science is not new, but with recent advances in computing technology, thought provoking tech-demos and innovative consumer products using the technology are now bubbling up to mainstream audiences.

AUDIENCE: Developers, Designers, and business leaders who are interested in Augmented Reality.

LINKS

• Download the January FFD Magazine as PDF w/ “Creating Augmented
  Reality w/ Adobe Flash CS4″

INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!

As a speaker and consultant, I’m often asked a simple question about the Multimedia – “What should I learn and how should I learn it?” Years back I created a laundry list of resources and would forward it to interested parties. I’ve updated the list and it is below for all to enjoy.

Part of the trouble with Flash development is that ‘Flash’ can do so many things. I’m lucky to meet talented individuals from a a dozen different disciplines that all use Flash; illustrators, animators, UI designers, hard core coders, professionals, students, teachers, managers, business developers, and hobbyists.

I wanted to take a step back and provide some insight and direction for how each othese personalities can learn from the free, cheap, (and expensive) learning resources out there. I love to learn and love to teach. Happily I get to do a bit of both each week.

With the Multimedia Primer below, and reader contributed comments below it, I hope we can turn the maze of information overload into a network of sharing to help us all meet our goals.

ULTIMATE PATH LEARNING

Luckily, there are many great resources to learn. Wikipedia is a ridiculous resource. Its goal is to house the sum of humanities knowledge and provide it for free (WOW!). While Jimmy Wales is working on that gem, take a look at the list below. I hope it helps.

See the image above of ‘Lifelong Human Inheritance’. We have the amazing ability to learn from experts and evolve our own capabilities. Blue Guy helps Green Girl, who helps Yellow Girl, and Yellow Girls helps Red Guy. Is Red Guy an asshole for taking but not giving? No, I’d argue he’s an eager and clever one in the bunch, leveraging his personal network for professional gain. After Red Guy hits it rich, has a heart attack, and sells his Ferrari, he’ll surely move up the chain to a Blue, Green, or Yellow and help others then. I’m sure of it!

The road to learning is not easy. Its easy to get burnt out on a project all day and feel lifeless to sit down at night and learn for learning sake. I invite yo to find and focus on your end goals (whatever that means for you), get inspired to build passion, and burn that passion as you work your ass off to meet your goals.

Thanks in advance to all those who helped me learn in the past and continue to fuel me in the future. If you love or hate any of my links or can suggest others, please leave a comment!

• BEST WAYS TO LEARN (ANYTHING)
  1. Get excited! Learning about what interests you is like swimming WITH the current.
  2. Get Paid to do it!If you or your manager does not allow for 20% of work time to learn, think seriously about making a major professional change and get on the trendy train of seeking more balance in your life (see # 7.5). When planning projects, don’t just take ones that are easy. Challenge yourself to accept new projects which are calculated-risks balancing familiar core concepts with some new-to-you tasks too.
  3. Get Pressure! Some pressure is good pressure. By placing time-sensitive criteria to specific goals ( I will learn how to float an image in CSS by the 1st day of next month), you are holding yourself accountable. We resist these types of deadlines for only one reason: We are afraid to ’start’ something we may not finish it. Mark it on your calendar, START IT, and finish it. You’ll be far more thankful at the end of 30 days if you meet a few learning goals than if you managed to watch another dozen repeats of ‘The Office’ on TBS. (Awesome show BTW)
  4. Give Back! Its amazing how much you can learn by helping others. Showing someone a new technique, sharing a favorite book, or other things (like writing an amazing blog post, HAHA!) are all fantastic ways to re-learn the fundamentals, practice articulating concepts, and align your chi.

INSPIRATION

• Travel The World
• TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
• Des-veloper: Joshua Davis
• Des-veloper: Erik Natzke

GENERAL DESIGN

• Learn About Design That Doesn’t Work

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT

• 10 Things Every Senior Flash Developer Should Know
• 10 Things Every Web Developer Should Know
• 10 Skills Developers Will Need in the Next 5 Years
• Flash / ActionScript Developer Qualifications (Must Haves)
• Things Every Flash Developer Should Know

CONFERENCES

• Rich Media Institute
• 360 Flex
• RIAdventure
• Rich Media Institute
• Adobe Max
• FlashForward
• FITC

ADOBE FLASH

• Adobe Design Center
• Youtube: “Learning Flash”
• Lee Brimlow’s GotoAndLearn.com
• http://www.kirupa.com Tutorials
• Lynda.com: “Flash”
• ActionScript.org

ACTIONSCRIPT 3.0 (AS3)

• Lynda.com: “AS3″
• Best Book Ever ActionScript The Definitive Guide (ASDG), and also Essential ActionScript 3.0

ADOBE FLEX

• Adobe Development Center
• Youtube: “Learning Flex”
• ***Flex 4’s Top 10 New Features***
• Lynda.com: “Flex”
• ActionScript.org

ADOBE FLEX / FLEX WORKFLOW

• Workflows with Flash Builder 4 & Flash CS4
• Flash Catalyst

LEARN ALTERNATIVES TO THE FLASH PLATFORM: Compare/Contrast/Stretch

• Microsoft Silverlight
• HTML
• JavaScript
• AJAX
• Virtools 3D
• Wild Tangent
• Adobe Director

This is an overflow of thoughts that could not be contained in my post “Adobe Max 2009 Quick Wrapup Part 1 of 2”

SESSIONS OF INTEREST / THOUGHTS ON ‘EM

• Augmented Reality was all the rage.  At the Keynote Kevin Lync looked lecherously on as a miniature John Mayer video played in n AR shoebox. I can’t explain that scenario, but I can explain AR.  I wrote an article here for futurenet’s Computer Arts Projects as well as for Adobe EDGE.
• WEDNESDAY WAS MAX ‘GAME DAY’!!
• SayDesign.com’s John Say “Building Great Games with Flash”
  • Great session.  Some question I have coming out of it are;
  • How will outsourcing of Flash games work?  Does it need creativity and iterative design that can’t be outsourced well?
  • What features should must Flash Player Team add to Flash for better gaming? See my Adobe EDGE Article on “Introduction to Developing Games on the Flash Platform” for more!
  • When the Flash game engine matures towards console quality gaming, will the inovative simple Flash games die out?
  • Kongregate.com is a great site! So are casualconnect.com, mochimedia.com, nonoba.com, Flashgamelicense.com, and Adobe’s Platform Services for distribution for sharing games in the near future may be quite cool too.
• Building Browser Based MMO’s.
  • This talk is pretty similar to an Adobe EDGE Article I wrote “Creating a Massively Multiplayer Online game with Adobe Flex 3“
• Flash Platform Gaming Showcase
  • PixelBender can be hacked to help out game engines
  • Adobe Wave and other Adobe tools are geared towards gaming.  Is Adobe finally embracing the fact that TONS of Flash’s use is for gaming? (rhetorical q)
  • The Daquiring Gamemaker is cool as ice!
• Building a Flash Platformer in 90 Minutes using PBE
  • Alright now we are talkin’! A versatile, game-changing (pun intended) framework for Flash gaming.
  • Ben Garney of GarageGames fame, now of PushButtonEngine.com has built an amazing engine that can be used to build Flash games.  In 90 minutes the audience struggled to follow the tricky setup of what will eventually be a kick ass game engine.  v1.0 of the platform engine is coming soon.  So is a version of PBE’s internal project “Grunts“.
• OTHER GREAT SESSIONS
• Optimizing Flash for Iphone
  • So Adobe Announced that Flash CS5 will publish to iPhone. It will convert swf bytes into iPhone bytes (There will still be no Flash player on iPhone.  This session talked about what this all means for Flash developers and how to prepare nice code for the conversion.
  • Apps are ALREADY in the iPhone store that are created with Flash
  • The source to a few sample apps are here
  • iPhone will plat at 1-10% of the speed of a desktop PC
  • Use ‘final’ keyword everywhere possible to improve performance
  • Use static vars too
  • avoid masks, filters, event dispatching. Its expensive
  • New player features such as ‘cacheAsSurface’ will work like cacheAsBitmap but will keep that cached in the GPU for even faster runtime.  Nice!
  • A “Hello World” Project weighs in at 8 megs.  The over-the-air-download limit in iphone for apps is 10 megs.  That means you have about 2 megs to play with for your applications code and assets.

     Any thoughts I couldn’t fit in this post “Adobe Max 2009 Quick Wrapup Part 1 of 2″, I’ll add to the overflow of thoughts at “Adobe Max 2009 Quick Wrapup Part 2 of 2

Adobe Max was a blast as always. I traveled back from a 5 week trip to my hometown of Los Angeles to attend. I spoke on Monday on Architectin’ Flash Apps with PureMVC, met many new and old friends, and was bored and thrilled by ‘big’ announcements. Overall the mood was good and hopeful. I heard many who were working less or not at all over 2009, but signs of a resurgent business demand for Flash and Flex work were evident. Companies are hiring or at least talking about hiring in bigger numbers ad as wee move into 2k10 I think the top midlevel developers will be hired back first, then seniors and juniors to follow. Companies tend to hedge their bets with midlevel’ers because they have proven output without the price tag of experts. However other companies that let-go of 3 or 4 developers who want to re-hire just one, may go with higher talent to maximize the output.

EXCITING (AND NOT SO EXCITING) ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Woohooo, woweee, holy cow, MULTI-TOUCH comes to the Flash Player!  This is cool, but not really for my work  How about right-click, Adobe?
• Flex 4 & Catalyst NOT being fully released was a disappointment. Only the beta2 of each is out on labs as of Monday of MAX.
• Flash CS5 (and later Flash Builder) to publish to iPhone. I was excited, not, then excited again as I learned more. Now I think I’m not as excited anymore, but still excited. (flip-flopping here). Adobe showed Flash (10.1) playing on every non-iphone device, then showed a funny video about why Flash isn’t on iPhone (no real reason given) then announced that while Flash player is NOT coming to iPhone, Flash CS5 will be able to convert a swf into native iPhone code. It pretty much performs with all the bells and whistles you’d want in a first-version of this process/workflow but the run-time execution appears to be VERY slow. Its early though.
• While not an announcement I see that MVC Flex frameworks are taking a (temporary?) backseat to inversion of control Flex frameworks. I’m interested in IOC frameworks more than ever such as Mate and Parsley.
• During a sneak peak it was shown that when a breakpoint pauses a running Flash app, the developer can change and save the source code (of any class) and unpause and the new code folds into the running app.  This possible feature is fantastic and would save from stopping, recompiling, rerunning – during bug fixes.
• Here is more coverage of the announcements by Ryan Stewart , Red Monk , and HWM

STUFF I LEARNED AT SESSIONS (Tons of videos are posted here.  Amazing archive job Adobe!

• People use Flash to teach oil employees how to be better workers
• Adobe is WAAAAY into SAAS (Software As A Service) these days.  They are offering many things like FMS, FCS, LiveCycle Data Services, etc…
• Joshua Davis
  • He is a great mix of artiste (sic) and programmer. He reminds me that somewhere between doodling on a notepad and prototyping for a client there is plenty of room for semi-organized ‘play’ using Flash. I have a 1/2 dozen ideas of 2-3 hour projects to do for the hell of it now. He ended with “Doing stupid shit is awesome, please don’t grow up.”
  • He reminded me of sticker sheets too.
• FITC’s Unconference sessions were fantastic (full disclosure, I was one of the speakers)
  • As a speaker 30 minutes without breaks felt rushed
  • As an attendee I loved the quick info and the lack of breaks between sessions meant people arrived early and stayed late – so they saw things they didn’t know they would like too!
  • Andre Michele’s HobNox continues to amaze me.
• Flash Builder 4 Beta2 Shortcuts from getttingAndSetting.com’s (PDF).  Most are for the code editor window. Some new and some old ones here…
  • Command+3 : Its like Mac Spotlight showing all FB4 commands
  • Command+0 : Quick Outline
  • Shift-Command-R: Open Resource : Its like Mac Spotlight showing all files in workspace
  • Navigate -> Open Type…: Open Type : Its like Mac Spotlight showing all classes in workspace
  • Cntl-Alt-H: Open Call Heirarchy : Shows all the classes that call a member (and all that call those classes, etc…).  Great to do before refactoring to get a headsup on how sweeping a change will be.
  • Command +i: Fix Indentation of the selected lines. (Very cool)
  • Option + Up Arrow, Option + Down Arrow : Move selected Lines
  • Command+M: Maximize / Minimize the editor window
  • Right-Click folder in the Navigator -> Restore From Local: This can bring back a file that was deleted
  • Command+J: Incremental find (like Mac Safari)
  • Command+shift+”.” : This greys out code related to states. (Very cool)
  • In Design View, Right Click a Component like a Button -> Generate Event : This is a handy way to setup an event handler for the most common event of a component.

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): 4 Hours

AGENDA: I will be an attendee at an RMI course on Scrum. Successful projects are critical to those of us in software and web development. They’re not only critical to our jobs and careers but our long-term personal lives. We all need our projects to work- and not just for our bosses, our companies and our clients but for ourselves and our families.

Scrum works- when you get the right training from the start. Let us train you in one of the most successful new ways of conducting successful projects in just 4-short hours. We guarantee you’ll learn and apply successful techniques and tools for creating Successful Scrum Projects! Not only that, you’ll get real-world first-hand experience in putting the theory to use!

Tony Wong has been leading software projects for over 14 years; he has made all the mistakes so that you do not have to. Using his project management technique, Tony has increased project manager productivity by 400% using Scrum. Tony will share with you the best of tips, tricks and real-world secrets for creating successful Scrum projects.

DATE

• Register Now to join me at RMI Scrum Training .

TOPIC: I’m On A Boat (Teaching Adobe Flex)

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): Conference Session (TBD Hours)

AGENDA: I will be one of the instructors on a vacation destination-based training cruise through the Western Caribbean. A two day conference plus a 7 day fun in the sun cruise December 6th to the 13th 2009. What could be better? Plus your friends and family are invited.

Travel from New Orleans to Costa Maya (Mexico), Santo Tomas De Castilla (Guatemala), Belize City (Belize) and Cozumel (Mexico).

We are strictly limited to 70 attendees for this conference. Register now to secure your spot.

TOPICS: I have two amazing topics bubbling in my head. It will shock and surprise the world which one I choose (or perhaps I’ll prepare and present both).

• TOPIC 1: “What’s New In Flex 4″ aka “Why Should I Care About Flex?”
  • Adobe Flex 4* is updated with tons of must-have new features! MXML & AS3 (Flash 10) are faster and more potent, the component architecture & skinning model is game-changing, the Flash Builder 4 IDE is easier and more powerful than ever, and more! For newbies, there has never been a better time to jump into Flex, and for veterans this training will expose just what you need to augment your tool set. This will be an adapted from my “Top 10 Flex 4 Features” presentation.
• TOPIC 2: “Creating Biological Life with Flex 4″
  • I review a biological definition of life (7 qualifications such as ‘growth’, ‘metabolism’, & ‘reproduction’) and showcase a simulation of digital-amoebas that meet the criteria. The code will be available to attendees to contribute their own micro-life-forms to the project.  The high-level concept is to compare bio-life to digital-life by analyzing the Object Oriented principles and AS3 concepts which power such creatures.

AUDIENCE: Beginner to advanced Flash and Flex Developers who want to mix the joys of learning, the thrills of travel, and the rewards of relaxation.

TAKE-AWAY: Attendees will be inspired and recharged!!!

DATE

• New Orleans to Central America – December 6th – 13th, 2009.
• Leave a comment to learn more about vacation destination-based training events in the future.

LINKS

• Topic #1: “What’s New In Flex 4″ – Download the Full Source Code and Documentation (Coming Soon!!!)
• Topic #2: “Creating Biological Life with Flex 4” –
  1. Download the Full Source Code and Documentation
  2. View Video Recording of My Presentation

DESCRIPTION: The “Changing Diabetes Barometer” Website is designed to inform the user on the state of diabetes worldwide. The world map is the main navigation to learn more about each region. This is a global initiative to educate on medical best practices and knowledge across borders. It is a tool to help developed and developing nations with this disease. The system was built in Adobe Flex 3 with an architecture based on PureMVC MultiCore with a backend in .NET running a MS SQL Server 2005 and a WebORB tying it all together.

ROLE: I completed software architecture for this project based upon ready-made specifications. I trained the development team on PureMVC.

CLIENT: I worked onsite with Hello Design in Copenhagen, Denmark and Gateway Labs in Ahmadabad, India.

LINK

• CDB is Adobe Max 2009 Awards Finalist
• Checkout the CDB Application!

DESCRIPTION: The LivWorld Site promotes the LivWorld real-world doll toys. The Dazzling Dreamscape game let’s users burst bubbles onscreen. The game play is similar to the existing games ‘ChainRXN’ and ‘BoomShine’.

ROLE: I completed all programming and development for the game using PureMVC.

CLIENT: I worked onsite/offsite for Almer/Blank.

LINK: Login and play the game

• Checkout the LivWorld Site!

SCREENSHOTS

• ScreenShot #1
• ScreenShot #2
• ScreenShot #3
• ScreenShot #4

DESCRIPTION: The “Changing Diabetes Barometer” Website is designed to inform the user on the state of diabetes worldwide. The world map is the main navigation to learn more about each region. This is a global initiative to education on best practices and knowledge across borders. It is a tool to help developed and developing nations with this disease.

ROLE: I completed software architecture for this project based upon ready-made specifications. I trained the development team on PureMVC.

CLIENT: I worked onsite with Hello Design in Copenhagen, Denmark and Gateway Labs in Ahmadabad, India.

LINK

• Checkout the CDB Application!

I am writing a 4-article series on Flash gaming for Adobe’s EDGE online magazine. When each issue is release I’ll post here. Stay tuned!

• Introduction to Gaming on the Flash Platform – (Slated for October issue)
• Why Flash? Deconstructing ZOMG MMO from Gaia Online – (Slated for December issue)
• Developing Physics-based Games – (Slated for February issue)
• Monetizing Flash Game Development – (Slated for April issue).

While you wait, here are some other articles I’ve written and published for Adobe EDGE in the past.

• Learn to augment reality using a webcam and Flash CS4(August 2009)
• Creating a Massively Multiplyer Online game with Adobe Flex 3(April 2009)
• An introduction to PureMVC for Adobe Flash and Flex(December 2008)

TOPIC: PureMVC & Flex RMI Online, On-Demand, Anytime Course Available!

Click the banner above for course info or to register for this course.

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): Conference Presentation (30 Minutes – Wow, Fast!!!)

FITC Unconference at Adobe MAX: Please join FITC on October 4-7 in Los Angeles for Adobe MAX 2009. The Unconference is a free ad-on to MAX and is a way for attendees to convene in a casual setting to share ideas as well as host their own discussion groups.

• Sponsor Influxis wants to you sit back, relax and enjoy the presentations. So stop by the FITC unconference room and enjoy a free beer on them…that’s right we said it – FREE beer.
• Anyone with a MAX badge can attend!. Along with some cool FITC presentations, this room also encourages all to join us in open discussions, suggesting topics, creating agendas and participating in engaging Q & A.

TWO TALKS: I’ll be giving a talk on both the The Invisible Instrument project of mine and as well as this talk below too!

AGENDA OF MY TALK: Architect new projects of all sizes in a more scalable and maintainable way with the free & powerful PureMVC Framework. Revisit projects and easily add new features. Collaborate on teams with confidence.

PureMVC is a light framework for creating applications based on the class Model-View-Controller meta design pattern. It has a very narrow goal, to provide design patterns AND development patterns to help you separate your programming into three distinct areas; data, user interface, and the application logic. It is approachable and powerful with minimal tedium and repetition in development. While the examples shown will be specific to Adobe Flex 3 for deployment to the browser, this session is equally relevant for application developers of other technologies including Adobe Flex 3 for Adobe AIR desktop deployment.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe Flex 3 developers with equivalent ActionScript 3.0 knowledge. This is not for beginner developers or for designers; its pretty technical. Laptops are not required. Attendees will have another tool in their belt for organizing readable, efficient, maintainable projects. All source code and documentation will be available to attendees.

LINKS

• Find Out More about FITC Unconference!
• To attend the FITC Unconference get a ticket to Adobe MAX. Register Now!
• Download the Full Source Code and Documentation
• View the Presentation (Choose My Name From Dropdown)

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): Rapid Conference Presentation (10 Minutes)

MINDSHARE: I discovered Mindshare and will never be the same. Meeting on the third Thursday of every month you can rebreak your brain – opening up new possibilities. I’m now going to be a featured speaking, October 22nd, 2009.

• If Noah’s Ark had an open bar, it would be more like Mindshare…
• If World Leaders held pajama parties, it would be more like Mindshare….
• If Jamba Juice made smoothies from books, it would be more like Mindshare…

AGENDA OF MY TALK: The theremin is an electronic musical instrument controlled without contact from the player. Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, patented it in 1928 before unfortunate dealings with the KGB. Music historians hold the instrument as the birth of electronic music. It continues to be used today – especially in avante-garde rock. In this rapid conference session we’ll look at the mechanics of this important instrument and discuss the ‘Invisible Instrument’ project which I developed which recreates the interactivity of the original instrument online using a webcam and gesture recognition technology. The session will conclude with a live demonstration of the curious virtual instrument.

TAKE-AWAY: Attendees will become familiar with the history and usage of the Theramin musical instrument and inspired by the journey of a small team recreating an old invention with new technology.

LINKS

• Register today! Tickets are required.

DESCRIPTION: I wrote a new article for the latest Adobe EDGE magazine. Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer science that involves combining the physical world and an interactive, three-dimensional virtual world. Let’s take a look at augmented reality, its current uses, and its future potential. Then we’ll dig in and see how to apply this exciting technology using Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Flash Player 10, and a webcam.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS3 and Adobe Flex 4 developers or anyone interested in cool new technology.

LINKS

• “Learn to augment reality using
  a webcam and Flash CS4″ article on Adobe EDGE

TOPIC: Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth

TARGET FORMAT (Duration): Class Session (4 Hours)

AGENDA: Adobe Flex 4* is updated with tons of must-have new features! MXML & AS3 (Flash 10) are faster and more potent, the component architecture & skinning model is game-changing, the Flash Builder 4 IDE is easier and more powerful than ever, and more! For newbies, there has never been a better time to jump into Flex, and for veterans this training will expose just what you need to augment your toolset.

*Adobe Flex 4 is still in BETA. Features and syntax may change before the full release. Full release date TBD.

AUDIENCE: Beginner to advanced Adobe Flex 3 developers and Flash CS4 developers looking to learn Flex.

LAPTOP REQUIREMENT FOR ATTENDEES: [Optional / Recommended / Required] for [Note taking / Code-as-we-go / Assigned Work]

TAKE-AWAY: Attendees will become familiar with the strengths of Flex 4 and how to start a new project using the technology or migrate a current Flex 3 project. All source code and documentation will be available to attendees.

SECTIONS:

• Section 1: Overview of Flex
  • AS3 & MXML Updates
  • Flash Builder 4 (Formerly Flex Builder 4)
  • The Truth About Adobe Flash Catalyst (Codename: Thermo)
• Section 2: Top 10 Features of Flex 4 (With Examples!)
  1. Spark Component Model & Game-Changing Skinning Techniques
  2. FXG 1.0 (MXML’s Shape Drawing)
  3. MXML New Features – 2009 Namespace!
  4. New CSS & Text Support – New Features
  5. Flash Builder 4 IDE – New Features
  6. Flash Player 10 – New Features
  • and 4 more must-have features!
• Section 3: Flex 4 Applied
  • Creating Your First Project with Flex 4
  • Migrating a Flex 3 project to Flex 4

DATE

• Los Angeles, CA, USA Date Announced: 10am-2pm, Saturday August 29th, 2009. Register today! (Use Code ‘rmc’ for 25% Discount)
• Leave a comment to request this course come to your city too!

Turn Good Ideas Into Great Projects!

AGENDA: RMC’s principal Samuel Asher Rivello will bring an exclusive night of training to San Diego, California.

Rivello Multimedia Consulting (RMC) focuses on four services for Adobe Flash CS4 and Flex 3; software architecture, consulting, development, and training.

RMC will offer one premium night of training. Send an email to reserve for the night and bring payment to the event with your reservation confirmation.

Countdown: Only Weeks To Go!

Reserve your seats now! (Below)

DATES: 7PM START
**Wednesday July 15th, 2009 (Premium Night)

DURATION:
**Approx. 3.5 – 4 Hours.

PRICE:
**$99 USD Per Person

LOCATION:
**Broadway & 6th Avenue, San Diego, CA, USA (Directions & parking info will be emailed to confirmed attendees)

THANKS
**This session is brought to you with the assistance of Demian Borba of San Diego’s EFM- http://www.efactormedia.com

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 – Premium Night: Intro to PureMVC for Flash & Flex (4 Hours)

Superpower your Flash and Flex Development Skills!

AGENDA: Architect new projects of all sizes in a more scalable and maintainable way with the free & powerful PureMVC Framework. Revisit projects and easily add new features. Collaborate on teams with confidence.

PureMVC is a light framework for creating applications based on the class Model-View-Controller meta design pattern. It has a very narrow goal, to provide design patterns AND development patterns to help you separate your programming into three distinct areas; data, user interface, and the application logic. It is approachable and powerful with minimal tedium and repetition in development. While the examples shown will be specific to Adobe Flex 3 for deployment to the browser, this session is equally relevant for application developers of other technologies including Adobe Flex 3 for Adobe AIR desktop deployment.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe Flex 3 developers with equivalent ActionScript 3.0 knowledge. This is not for beginner developers or for designers; its pretty technical. Laptops are not required. Attendees will have another tool in their belt for organizing readable, efficient, maintainable projects. All source code and documentation will be available to attendees.

OUTLINE:

• Section 1: Background of and Benefits of PureMVC
  • What is a framework?
  • What is PureMVC?
• Section 2: PureMVC Applied
  • Setting up a new PureMVC project
  • Implementing all features of PureMVC
  • Extending an application with new features
• Section 3: PureMVC Next Steps
  • PureMVC vs. Other Frameworks
  • 10 Tips for PureMVC
  • What’s next?

RESERVE 1 TICKET PER EMAIL ADDRESS: Seats are first come first serve. Sorry but no refunds available after July 14th.

• Please RSVP Me: Premium RMC Training, San Diego, CA on July 15th

DESCRIPTION: I wrote a new article for the latest Adobe EDGE magazine. Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer science that involves combining the physical world and an interactive, three-dimensional virtual world. Let’s take a look at augmented reality, its current uses, and its future potential. Then we’ll dig in and see how to apply this exciting technology using Adobe Flash CS4 Professional, Adobe Flash Player 10, and a webcam.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS3 and Adobe Flex 4 developers or anyone interested in cool new technology.

LINKS

• More Info On Computer Arts Projects Issue #125
• Fine Computer Arts Projects #125 on your local magazine stand (UK, USA, etc…)

Turn Good Ideas Into Great Projects!

AGENDA: RMC’s principal Samuel Asher Rivello will bring an exclusive night of training to Venice, California.

Rivello Multimedia Consulting (RMC) focuses on four services for Adobe Flash CS4 and Flex 3; software architecture, consulting, development, and training.

RMC will offer one premium night of training. Send an email to reserve for the night and bring payment to the event with your reservation confirmation.

Countdown: Only Weeks To Go!

Reserve your seats now!

DATES: 7PM START
**Wednesday July 1st, 2009 (Premium Night)

DURATION:
**Approx. 3.5 – 4 Hours.

PRICE:
**$99 USD Per Person

LOCATION:
**Venice, Ca, USA (Directions/parking will be emailed to confirmed attendees)

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 – Premium Night: Intro to PureMVC for Flash & Flex (4 Hours)

Superpower your Flash and Flex Development Skills!

AGENDA: Architect new projects of all sizes in a more scalable and maintainable way with the free & powerful PureMVC Framework. Revisit projects and easily add new features. Collaborate on teams with confidence.

PureMVC is a light framework for creating applications based on the class Model-View-Controller meta design pattern. It has a very narrow goal, to provide design patterns AND development patterns to help you separate your programming into three distinct areas; data, user interface, and the application logic. It is approachable and powerful with minimal tedium and repetition in development. While the examples shown will be specific to Adobe Flex 3 for deployment to the browser, this session is equally relevant for application developers of other technologies including Adobe Flex 3 for Adobe AIR desktop deployment.

AUDIENCE: Intermediate to advanced Adobe Flash CS4 and Adobe Flex 3 developers with equivalent ActionScript 3.0 knowledge. This is not for beginner developers or for designers; its pretty technical. Laptops are not required. Attendees will have another tool in their belt for organizing readable, efficient, maintainable projects. All source code and documentation will be available to attendees.

OUTLINE:

• Section 1: Background of and Benefits of PureMVC
  • What is a framework?
  • What is PureMVC?
• Section 2: PureMVC Applied
  • Setting up a new PureMVC project
  • Implementing all features of PureMVC
  • Extending an application with new features
• Section 3: PureMVC Next Steps
  • PureMVC vs. Other Frameworks
  • 10 Tips for PureMVC
  • What’s next?

RESERVE 1 TICKET PER EMAIL ADDRESS: Seats are first come first serve. Sorry but no refunds available after June 9th.

• Please RSVP Me: Premium RMC Training on June 10th

Here a a few links on this new feature in Flash Builder 4 / Flex Builder 4. This feature and 9 others new features are featured in this course Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth. Follow the link to find out more, register for the course, or request the course be available in your area.

• Vectors
• Dynamic Sound Generation
• 3D (Postcards in space)
• Custom Filters w/ Pixel Bender
• MORE… http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/features/

• Flash 10 coming to a non-Apple smartphone near you in 2010 – Ars Technica
• Cool Flash Tip of the Week #3 | kreativeKING – Interactive Developer
• AH: Sound in Flash 10 (beta). Generating Waveforms, Timbre and Pitch.
• Adobe Edge: August 2008 – Under the hood with Adobe Flash Player 10 beta

Here a a few links on this new feature in Flash Builder 4 / Flex Builder 4. This feature and 9 others new features are featured in this course Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth. Follow the link to find out more, register for the course, or request the course be available in your area.

• Package Explorer
• File Templates
• Refactoring
  * ‘Move Class’ with updated references
• Class Code Hints
• Code Generation
  * GenerateEventHandler
  * Generate Getter/Setter
• Code Formatting
  * Correct Indentation
• Intellisense
  *AsDoc Popups
• Data Wizards
• New Debugging
  * Breakpoints (only break on 3rd time reached or only break if x=7)
• Flex Unit Testing
• More…)

Here a a few links on this new feature in Flash Builder 4 / Flex Builder 4. This feature and 9 others new features are featured in this course Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth. Follow the link to find out more, register for the course, or request the course be available in your area.

Great the New Text Layout Flash 10 stuff is in there! What’s more, the CSS finally doesn’t suck in Flex. Woohoo… No more Degrapha crutches needed!

• CSS Advanced Selectors – Functional and Design Specification
• Importing a text flow from an XML object in Flex 4
• Kicking The Tires of Gumbo’s Text Controls
• New CSS Selectors are supported in the Flex 4 trunk
• Gumbo CSS Advanced Selectors Are Wicked!!!

TOPIC: Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth

Here a a few links on this new feature in Flash Builder 4 / Flex Builder 4. This feature and 9 others new features are featured in this course Adobe Flex 4 (BETA) – Top 10 Features In Depth. Follow the link to find out more, register for the course, or request the course be available in your area.

FXG means two things that matter in life; you can draw with Flex (well Woop-Dee-Doo…..), and you can import (and export?) graphics with 100% fidelity from Adobe CS4 (insert non-sarcastic noise of excitement!)

• Using FXG with Google Maps API in Flex
• Adobe Edge: August 2009 – FXG and MXML Graphics: Adobe’s new graphical description languages
• AH: Custom Component in Flex 4 (Gumbo). A Knob Button – part 1.
• FXG (Flex Graphics) – The Missing Link (PhilterBlog)
• Adobe FXG 1.0 Specification