It's taken me a few days to decompress and restore to the organized chaos of my life. Okay, that's a sham - it's all chaos.

I live for this type of interaction with ideas and people within the industry, even if I do utterly suck at interacting with groups of people where I don't know anyone.... See, living in a small town in rural Pennsylvania - I'm bitter. So I have to stick with God, Guns, and Booze..... Oh wait. I can't drink.... uhmmm never mind. But living in a small town is very isolating from what is happening in the real world and it is very easy to completely lose touch with trends within my chosen field of Web and Flash design. So let's count the things I now want to work on:

• Multi-touch display
• Adobe AIR applications
• Getting better with AS 3
• Experimenting with AS 3 programming (like particle and 3d effects)
• Figure out ways to create interesting artwork in Flash (look at Erik Natzke's work and wonder no more)
• Build myself a new website
• Redevelop my blog and have run in Flash using AS 3
• Build RIAs with Flex 3
• I still would like to build better games
• Get into building components
• Be able to truly reuse my code
• Get more into OOP

Now, all I have to do is wait for cloning technology to get to the point to where I will actually be able to do all of these things before I ascend.

I had every intention of living, eating and breathing Flash while I was there too. I took all of me dev files for my new Flash site, and never even touched them. I ended being too absorbed in Toronto and other things to even sit at the computer while I was there in the evening. Many nights, after unwinding a bit and eating dinner, I just sat and watched TV while scrawling pages of ideas down in one of the notebooks I bought for doing just that - I think after all was said-and-done I had 20 plus pages of ideas and thoughts of what I could do both for work and personally with many of the things I was introduced to and learned more about.

On the way back on Wednesday I stopped outside of Lincoln Ontario at this marina where this is an old beached boat, and shot a few images which I have been meaning to do the past 4 times I have passed it on the way back. It's pretty cool, and there were some immense geese hanging out being loud too. On a creepier note, I noticed afterwards that there were these little wafts of smoke coming up from trees all over the place along the freeway - at least I thought it was smoke. I finally got a closer look at one, and they were ginormous swarms of bugs. Billions of bugs milling about in tall strands above some trees - but it only spanned a 5 to 7 miles stretch along the freeway. Weird as heck. I have never seen anything like it, and the road was too busy for me to be able to risk trying to fumble around to get my camera out. I liked it better when I thought it was twilight zone wisps of smoke.

I don't know what lies in store for me in 2009, but I could easily do worse than head back up north for FITC 2009.

As a side note: Thanks for another stellar FITC Shawn! 

I think maybe I had too many neurons firing over the day 1 activities because I woke up with a headache yesterday, and it really put a damper on things until about lunchtime. That's not to say I didn't have some good sessions though.

Day Two
Session 1 was led by Seb Lee-Delisle from Plug-in Media in Brighton, and it was top-notch for being early in the morning for everyone. The talk was on Flash pyrotechnics or particle effects and it was cool. Again I left there wondering how I could do something with my new found knowledge and source code. I still have no real idea about how I could use this stuff except in games and to start working on some AS3 experiments of my own, but this is one of those things that I love to get in on. Maybe I will get to build some more games this year....

The next session only added to my headache. The one I wanted to go to was canceled, so I chose a runner-up because it sounded interesting and turned out to be... well... ignorant. I'm not going to go off and slag it, because I am sure the gal who was on stage is a decent developer, but I didn't drive 3 hours and pay the admission to listen to someone piss and moan about their job. Boo hoo.... It might have gotten better, because I heard some dude just ranting about how he loved it, but within the time I was in there - about 10 +/- people left; and I wasn't in the mood to sit through the full hour on the off chance it became more interesting.

The rest of the day was an interesting mix of work from various places around the US mostly - and there was some wonderful work showcased. Day 2 left me wanting a bit though. The previous day was so mentally charging for me that I was hoping for day 2 to be the same way; but I am sure my headache got in the way a bit. It was great to see new works from GMUNK, Joshua Davis though - they are very talented, and it's always good to see what other folks are up to.

The last session I went to for the day was by Buck. This was an excellent sesion too - these guys build some really cool videos. I don't really do a lot of video, nor do I do any 3D (or get the opportunity too) - but as I said above, it's always good to check what other folks are up to. I can get ideas, and quite often do, from other styles or genre of work other than just Flash and Web Design.

After the day was over, I walked around Toronto a bit since I wanted to go up the CN Tower. Holy smokes this thing is big! I was up all the way to the top, and it is pretty freaking cool. I will post some more pics on flickr either tonight or when I get home.

I have yet to totally plan what is in store for me today, so maybe I should shut up and get to it. 

Tomorrow after lunch I am heading up to Toronto for the 2008 Flash in the Can. It's been 2 years since I went last, so it's overdue. I am excited beyond all recogmnition, in fact it will be a wonder how much sleep I will get tonight - kinda like Christmas Eve in fact.

Toronto is a great city too, the 3 or 4 times I have been there have all been awesome.

I have no idea what my schedule is going to be yet, I can't decide so I am just going to figure it out as I go. The best part about these conferences is all of the massively creative people that you get to interact with. I have always feel reenergized every time I come back from one of these. I went to the 2006 FITC, and FlashForward in 2004 - and I am hoping to go to Adobe MAX next year.... Although it is in November, so maybe I will get lucky and be able to do both? Probably not.....

Maybe I will see you there. 

I know this post is about a day late and a dollar short, but I have been struggling with finding time and projects to get into ActionScript 3 for about a year now - and I have finally gotten into the swing of cramming it into my head. The hardest part is not the differences, it's not the various paradigms for programming - it's just getting past my hang-ups with not being an Object oriented Programmer. I excel at Procedural Programming, and I need to make peace with that before my head esplodes.

With what I have been able to work with so far I love it. In fact I wish I had forced myself to make the time a year ago, but the fact is the time wasn't right. I now have several projects looming that will all but require me to be at least familiar with AS 3 before I can even begin them; so I have to now. A lot of the changes in ActionScript 3 are welcome changes to the various quirks that drive me crazy about Flash and AS 2. I have always been in love with Flash and what it can do, but it's been a love hate relationship. The quirks and inconsistencies I would regularly run into would drive me completely off my nutt. I know that will most likely not go entirely away - but it promises to be diminished with this new (ish) version.

I working through Learning ActionScript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide by Rich Shupe & Zevan Rosser and I have to say this is an excellent book. I had no doubt when I bought as I have always had success with Adobe books. There are quite a few concepts that I have been skimming as I am already very familiar with them, but the point was to get a basic, ground up understanding of AS 3. I have other books too, like Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock - but this is more what I need to get my head wrapped around it as a whole; which is not a reflection of Colin's book in any way - he's brilliant.

Anyway.... I am working on a new website which will eventually be ported to AS 3 as well as some universal files that I will share when they are done. I am hoping to make some components too, but we'll see how the files go. I want to make a new universal loader to load external swf files using AS 3 and SWFObject 2. As well as a couple others.

 I still have a ways to go yet, but despite that brain-pain, I am enjoying the challenge of starting something new again.

I know; you're like whatever! Banners aren't cool. They suck. They're annoying, the pop-up, pop-under, flash, blink, give you adware, and track how many times you change your boxers in a week... They're just evil right? That's why someone made those Flash blocking plug-ins for Firefox isn't it?

Well, you're all wrong. I know everyone has seen and clicked on a PointRoll served banner at some point, and it's equally as likely that you liked it. They serve up some of the hottest banner son the web, and rightly so. These guys are the sultans of web banners and they have the technology and knowledgeable staff to pack a wallop.

I just spent a good portion of my late morning hangin' with a couple of dudes from PointRoll, and what I learned simply blew me away. I thought I knew a bit about what they did, how they did it - but I was flat out wrong. They host all your banners through a partnership with Akamai, so all you have to do is drop a block of code in your placement page - and you're off and running. They can serve up Flash, and Rich media with style. I was a bit skeptical going into the meeting since I have made some Rich Media banners and know how big they can be, even with spending a lot of time optimizing - and that to me was a huge detractor from using them. A website shouldn't be hindered from fully loading by the likes of a banner; the banners should be the last and lightest thing to pop into the viewport of your browser. With PointRoll is basically is. Through creative and intelligent use of multiple file requests, they can keep the initial load to around 30k, then load the remaining Rich Media content as it is requested, rather than loading up the browser up front. The video is also sorted and served to the client based on a set of criteria including what their available bandwidth is, so they get the proper user experience based on what the capabilities are.

One of the coolest banners I saw today (unfortunately I can't find it online) was one they did with Ford for the Fusion. The banner guessed your zip code, then dropped it into a submit box where you could edit it, or just fire it off to have results returned to how many cars with details about each car were in stock at local dealerships; all within the banner interface - you never had to leave it to get the data. That is an excellent use of a banner, and goes light years beyond the early 90's style banners plastering websites world wide. I know I'm getting all worked up about banners, but these guys are a quantum leap beyond the garbage you usually get served up, and regardless of what you think about banners, the intelligent, user-centric design and implementation behind their strategy is a breath of fresh air from my inbox full of spam, and the pop-under banners I get daily.

I'm not a total fanboy though. Their BadBoy banners; you know the ones - the ones that float around the frickin' screen.... I really dislike those banners - in fact I would be happy enough if they never showed up anywhere. Sorry guys, but the BadBoy gots to go! I especially dislike the ones where the close button is every other location but where it should be, It seems like PointRoll places the close box/text in the upper right corner pretty routinely though, so it is probably some of the other guys doing that.

Check out their creative showcase and see for yourself. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• Reaper TV show game
• The Good Sheppard (with trailer)
• The Mac Ads (naturally)

It seems there is a never-ending stream of chatter about proper CSS design and implementation; the use of Standards, as it is most commonly thought of and referred to. This is usually followed by very predictable banter about how you have to make concessions for browsers that aren't compliant (almost always an opportunity to bash Microsoft), then maybe some examples of hacks and fixes to get around these issues. None of it really addresses the core issues, and no one, save a very few folks, really want to try and do anything about it or recognize that there is a problem, even among the companies who proclaim standard compliance. When there are what.... 8 popular browsers and their various available versions, how exactly do you get them all to agree? You can't. There are specifications to follow, but everything is open to interpretation and/or coding errors. So you get variations in layout in every browser and have to figure how to accommodate the new versions when they are released, because invariably the new version breaks your layout where the old one worked just fine. The solution is right in front of our noses though. Give up trying.

Flash has been around for 12 years now and is simply the most ubiquitous web platform on the planet. So why utilize Flash to create dynamic, content driven websites rather than spend weeks perfecting a finicky CSS layout that the users won't care about or notice? It's still trendy to implement AJAX solutions to look like you're Web 2.0, and to be award oriented to get selected purely on the basis that you have this amazing tableless design and CSS website. In many cases both of these motivations remove the user from the equation driven by developer based decisions on how to build the coolest website to get one more Webby. Awards do have their place, but not at the detriment of the community for which the site or application was built to service. The biggest roadblocks for developers, in regards to developing with Flash, are community driven misconceptions fueled by regurgitations of false statements and uneducated opinions. Here are some of the biggest misconceptions:

• Flash sites are too heavy and take too long to download
• Flash does not support standards in accessibility
• Flash sites are not indexable by search engines
      (I just added some updated information about Flash and SEO)
• Site statistics can't be done or is too difficult in flash
      (here's a simple example of tracking a Flash site with Google Analytics)
• Flash lacks cross platform support
• Embed code doesn't validate
      (use SWF Object already....)

The examples above are some of the most common, and as such they are some of the easiest to debunk. In most cases, improper implementation is the culprit behind a lot of problems have with Flash, indeed that is the root behind most problems with anything - but when Flash is bad... it's generally bad. The reason I say this because with all of its inherent greatness, it has flaws which are easily accessible and in the wrong hands can be made so pronounced that the site being displayed is so unusable that it becomes painful. This has very little to do with Flash as a platform though. This isn't any different than if I were to poorly implement a .NET application or a half-baked AJAX solution and call it good.

A good portion of these (and other) misconceptions lies squarely on the shoulders of the developers. A minimal amount of diligence will provide solutions to nagging problems, and to potential pitfalls while developing any website or RIA; regardless of the platform on which it is delivered. It's easy to sit back and look at what the top results are for a search and stop there, but that will get you a very narrow view. Run a quick search for problems with Flash, and see what emerges. Jacob Neilsen's Alertbox post about Flash being 99% bad is still ringing in at #4. This is scary. An article which was written 8 years ago, one that is no longer relevant is still getting top billing. It's difficult to unseat something that well rooted, and while it's not relevant to Flash development today - it was at the time, and as such has value.

I guess what I'm getting at is to use Flash! Use it all over the place. Just try to use it well. Do a bit of research before you start and get a good idea of what you will need to do before you get to the end. With that in mind, here are listings of some excellent resources for expanding your Flash toolkit.

• SWF Object
• swfAddress
• enabling the back button in Flash
• sIFR 2
• sIFR 3 (beta)
• Track Flash events with Google Analytics
• This can also easily be done with Mint
• Build accessible Flash (SitePoint)
• Adobe Accessibility Resource Center
• osFlash
• OpenLaszlo