I've been part of an Austin frog team working on some pretty deep Android dev work, and as that project has drawn to a close, I'll now be lending my Android skills to our Shanghai team for the next 6-7 weeks -- on-site! Yup, I get to spend the next month-plus in Shanghai.

Hopefully while I'm there I'll have some time to start a blog series I've had in my head -- Android Development for Flash Programmers. Or, more realistically, for Flex Programmers. You see, there are a lot of similarities between the two; and, at the same time there are a lot of differences. However, I think Android is a much easier platform for prototyping mobile applications than iPhone and as such it can be a good skill to have in one's back-pocket. I'll be approaching from a rather "superficial" perspective -- UI, motion-graphics, etc. -- not from a hardcore Java angle. There is plenty you can get done with the knowledge you'd have from Flash/Flex AS coding skills, so this route makes more sense to me (that, and I'm not a hardcode Java person -- see above )

While I'm interested to see what the much-talked-about Flash Player for Android will allow in terms of system service integration, I'm not going to hold me breath for anything major. I still think it is a good thing to learn OS-specific programming to really be able to get into the "knitty gritty".

I may not be able to get it all posted until after I get back, and will probably be silent until I return, but hopefully someone will find it interesting and helpful!

Cheers for the New Years and we'll see you in a few weeks!

g.

Here's the direct link to the MXP, and more general information is on the website.

Cheers
g.

I was very happy to see that you can use all the standard display object hierarchies to build single Sprites filled with child objects in 3D space, then perform transformations on the parent Sprite. However, one thing that the player doesn't seem to do is perform any sort of z-depth management - you still need to track layers and depth as you normally do. (Truthfully I would have been surprised if it did, as I didn't think this was a replacement for a full 3D package like PaperVision).

A question this brings up in my mind is if there are/will be methods for determining a clip's position in 3D space per the display area. Something akin to localToGlobal/globalToLocal but using 3D points. Basically, if I add a Sprite to a parent object and rotate the parent, the child object stays in the same position inside the parent, but it does change in 3D space per the display. So - any way to figure out the 3D depth of a clip? It's totally possible I'm missing something, or that there will be info when final release comes out, but I'm impatient and want to go as far as I can now.

I'm going to start playing with the new sound manipulation features later this week -- I'm looking forward to trying to build some ambient algorithmically-generated music.

Good, good stuff.

Fortunately, before things officially shut down, my boss introduced me to one Mr. Jared Ficklin (here demonstrating a nice fire-based audio visualization) which led to me securing a position as a Senior Technologist at frog design — a job that will definitely keep my interest and push the boundaries of my wee brain. This is my first week, and so far I can say that I wish I didn't have to come home and sleep at night.

The environment and company culture is quite refreshing, and every day I learn something about the frog mindset that makes me smile. It doesn't hurt that all the folks I've met all have the same love of technology and making cool things that I do! No more lone coder.

The best part — in my mind at least — is that all the things that I would do after work hours I get to do for my day job; learning new technologies, experimenting with UI/UX methodologies, fiddling around in Flash . This will definitely free up some cycles.

As for my last post, well, my ear did eventually clear up. It's a very scary thing to think "OMG, I'm a musician who just went deaf in one ear and everything is out of tune". Freaked me out a bit. All's fine now.

Happy day.

We recently finished up a project for AARP The Magazine -- a look back at 1968 via a timeline with images, audio clips, video clips, best-of lists, and a pop quiz.

The project is way deeper than it appears on the outside; there were amazing audio interviews with some of the influential people that made 1968 so special. From Bootsy Collins talking about James Brown to John Kay (of Steppenwolf) to Tommie Smith (the Olympic gold medalist who came up with the idea to do the Black Power "salute" during the medal ceremonies) -- it was awesome to get to edit the audio interviews and hear just how deeply the year affected them. It also struck me just how apathetic today's youth are. When you hear about these kids that took a stand against the war and social injustice and really DID something, and you look at the news today you can't help but see that most people talk the talk (mostly online) but certainly don't walk the walk. I got into doing music because I had something to say and wanted to try to change things around me -- and music was a great way to get into people's heads. But it seems that most people are happy to just post something online in a public forum (Digg people, I'm looking at you) and think it's doing something. I don't know... I'm old and jaded now.

In other news, I've been dealing with an ear infection for a week now -- which has kept my left ear clogged. So much for working on music! Most annoying. Hopefully it clears up soon, as my antibiotics are running out.

I've been working on developing some apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. While I've been doing mostly web-app development, I'm getting ready to transition to full-on SDK Objective-C work. I've been putting it off as I'll need to upgrade my Mac Mini to Leopard. I think I should have the means to do that soon. There are some great possibilities with the technology, so I hope I can make it shine (like it does in my head).

Finally, we're starting up VeggieAustin -- the Austin version of the vegan/vegetarian dining guide we did in New Orleans. While there are several pre-existing sites here that cover some of the places to eat, none of them seem to venture out beyond their favorite spots or get updated more than once every 8 months. We're not necessarily trying to "compete", but we see a need for something just to help ourselves out, so we're doing it "our way".

Beyond that - things are ok. Hope everyone is well.

g.