I’m staying at this hotel near Chicago O’hare airport and I go on google maps to scroll around to see what is in the area. I see this giant bullseye on the roof of a building. I stop for a moment, not knowing what it is for… then I realize it is a target logo. Brilliant. Now I know there is a Target store nearby!

This serves two purposes:

1. Online map users can see the store quickly and easily in satellite view
2. Airplane passengers see the branding and store location as they’re landing

This is brilliant — this could be the first time someone has capitalized on satellite imaging for branding.

See for yourself on google maps:
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=chicago+ohare&sll=42.00656,-87.885282&sspn=0.011544,0.028667&ie=UTF8&ll=42.007389,-87.886677&spn=0.005772,0.017853&t=k&z=17

So, if you have ideas for apple products you’re welcome to submit those ideas. But, if you want them to look at your ideas without putting them in the garbage then you have to agree that all of your ideas become Apple’s ideas.

I want the products that I use to be great, so I’m always ready to provide feedback and suggestions for free, so I agreed that my ideas would belong to apple.

Idea #1 was implemented in the iPod firmware EXACTLY as I proposed it, and if you had a 5G iPod you know that it didn’t do this originally and was added later through a software update. I don’t want money and I don’t need any credit, but it would be nice… especially in the form of a 3G iPhone when available (you can have my non-3G iPhone back).

I should note that looking back, some of these ideas are terrible… but apparently 3 of them were good enough. Here’s the document that I sent Apple:

_____________________________

Dear Apple

I have read the unsolicited ideas verbiage and I agree all my ideas become property of Apple.

I appreciate apple products for their intuitive design and usability, but here are some short comings.

1. Backlighting should be adjustable, just like on my laptop. When I am in a dark room and I don’t want to blow out my eyes, or when I want to compromise brightness to save battery power I can dim the screen. My iPod should do the same, that will give me more power to watch movies during travel. I propose if the center button is clicked again after the shuttle/scrub state then the wheel will be in backlight dimming state.

2. The back of the ipod should have a belt clip/stand that can be deployed in a way that it will sit upright on an airplane seatback table to watch movies without having to hold it. This could be an accessory but it would be nice if it was built in or at least included.

3. iTunes should allow me to flag content and re-organize which folder it will appear in on my iPod.

4. While listening to music, there should be a built in trippy video or real time rendered visualization I can watch or use to show off how great the screen is on the iPod.

5. The next generation iPod should have a 16:9 screen ratio. When I hold it vertically, the screen is much taller than wide for easy grip and click wheel usage, but when I want to watch a movie I can turn it sideways and it will flip the screen. My Nikon digital camera has a mercury switch it in to sense which way I’m holding it, the next iPod should do the same to take advantage of a wide screen and still offer the comfort of the current generation while browsing music.

6. It would also be amazing if the next generation could be the same size as my 5G except with the entire front a wide screen / touch panel. Click wheel goes touch wheel… sweet. That could open the doors for a lot of other applications, like a full QWERTY onscreen keyboard for typing emails and text messages on the go. Even if it just acted as a Bluetooth keyboard for my cell phone.

7. A built-in camera to capture video and snapshots would be awesome. This could be an accessory.

8. Support for flash lite, (adobe/macromedia’s) flash’s mobile display engine would guarantee a bunch of really cool applications could be built for the iPod. The most obvious would be skinning the UI. Even proprietary apple UIs that could be bought at the iTunes store. People pay for cell phone ring tones to customize their phone, they’ll do the same to customize/personalize their ipod interface.

8. The next generation nano should be the same size as a PCMCIA card and fit into that slot for charging/docking/protection/transportation/removable storage.
Thinking Different…

- Chad Upton

Perforce software makes a plug-in for Eclipse that makes life a lot easier when using the two together. This setup guide is directed specifically at using Perforce with Flex Builder 3.

As we know, Flex Builder 3 (FB3) is based on Eclipse 3.3.1. Since Flex Builder 2 is based on Eclipse 3.1.2, it probably won’t work – the release notes for the plug-in suggest is works on 3.2 and 3.3 only. I have not tested it, but if you were to upgrade Eclipse and use the Flex Builder plug-in then you should be OK.

Setup

1. Open Flex Builder 3.
2. Choose the following menu command: HELP > Software Updates > Find and Install.
3. Select “Search for new features to install” and click Next >.
4. Click “New Remote Site”.
5. In the dialogue box, enter the Name “Perforce Plugin”.
6. In the dialogue box, enter the URL: http://www.perforce.com/downloads/http/p4-wsad/install/
7. Click OK.
8. Click Finish. The installation should occur and you need to restart Flex Builder.
9. When Flex Builder restarts, we’ll tell the plugin where it can find Perforce on our system.
10. Choose: Window > Preferences.
11. In the left column, browser to: Team > Perforce.
12. Under “Location of p4 executable” click browse and locate p4.exe. The default location is C:\Program Files\Perforce\p3.exe.
13. Click Apply.
14. Click OK.
15. Now, locate and open the project that you wish to use with Perforce.
16. Right click on the project folder and choose: Team > Share Project.
17. Select Perforce and click Next.
18. The “Recent” field will probably be blank and that’s fine.
19. Port will be the IP address and port of your Perforce server. (ex. 192.168.254.55) If you already have P4V or P4Win setup then
20. you can find this in the title bar of the application.
21. User is going to be your Perforce username, likely given you to by an administrator.
22. Client Workspace should also be found in the title bar of P4V or P4Win if you’ve got those setup.
23. Charset can probably be left to the default (none) but may require changing in certain circumstances.
24. Click Finish.
25. You will likely be prompted for your Perforce password – the one that goes with the Perforce username you entered.

Assuming everything went smoothly, you should now be able to edit files and Flex Builder will automatically add that file to the default changelist and make the file writable so you don’t get that annoying message.

Some other useful things that this plug-in does. Go to Window > Other Views…
In this dialogue box you can open the Perforce folder and select “P4 Pending Changelists”. This view will show you the files you have opened for editing and allow you to right click on the changelist or individual file for submitting.

Also, you’re probably used to seeing error and warning messages in the Problems view. Now you’ll see info messages when some things are out of sync with the repository. For example, if you add a new file your project but it’s not in the repository then you’ll see an info message warning you. Right click on the file and choose “Open for Add” then Submit the changelist and it will be added.

I hope this makes your life easier and please send me a quick line if it did so I know what types of things you guys find helpful.

Further details on setup are available at the Perforce website: http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.073/user/p4wsadnotes.txt

Sometimes our programs have visual objects that need to be rotated. The default registration point in Flex is the top left corner, but that’s not always ideal. In Flash, we have the freedom to change that registration point — not in Flex.

We have to work around this limitation in Flex and I have seen a few different approaches. There are some blog posts out there that suggest using the Rotate effect, this seems messy to me. If you want to rotate around any point using a MatrixTransformer: Joel Connett has a great post on it here. I quite like that method, but I think I’ve found a more simple solution for center rotation.

Here’s a sample you can play with:

Click Here for Source Code

Try clicking the “show canvas” button, you’ll see a white box that surrounds the bottom right quadrant of the spiral circle. It is only that quarter of the circle which is actually in the canvas. I have placed the center of the circle at the top left corner of the canvas. The canvas will (by default) crop content that exceeds it’s boundaries; however, there is a property on the canvas called “clipContent”. Set that to false and voila.

I know this is really simple solution, but it wasn’t obvious to me until recently. Leave a comment to let me know if this helped to you.

This method works with Flex 2 and Flex 3.

Everybody loves Google because they do a great job at everything, but there are two things I noticed on YouTube.com that my fellow flash developers should avoid in their Flash applications.

While watching a video I noticed debug statements appearing in my FlashTracer window. Although it is pretty common to see similar debug statements on websites that have flash content, it should not be common and it is very easy to remove these statements for production content.

99% of these statements were typical, but there were a couple that, although funny, could be embarrassing. Look at the two lines of text I highlighted in the left column of this screenshot:

Although it is hilarious to see these statements in code from a reputable company, there are a couple reasons why they should not be there.

I avoid writing this kind of stuff in my code because most developers know another developer who has been burned by writing these type of statements and they never learn. Google can get away with this because nobody is really going to be offended and they’re their own client. But, when I’m working for a client I follow these two rules:

1. Never put anything in your code that you don’t want your client or boss to see.
2. When you do comment your code, be professional enough to omit them when you compile for production!

When you compile/publish in Flash, remember to select “Omit Trace Actions” in the publish settings to prevent your trace statements from appearing in the compiled swf. Sometimes, I might leave in a few traces so I know the version of the app that the client uploaded or other info that might be helpful for debugging problems.

Here are some other funny examples of code I have seen in other applications that should be omitted for production…

• The connection just got tea bagged - reset and reload
• Fuck bandwidth detection script its taking too long or not working so fuck it hard
• This feature does not work and crashes the player fix laterz
• HACK HACK HACK HACK HACK this scuks

The best part about the google debug statements, is that you can see them for yourself by installing the FlashTracer add-on for Firefox and the Debug Flash Player, then browse over to YouTube.com and watch a video. And, although I named this post after Google, you could also look at another example of what not to do in this article. It’s about a bunch of unprofessional comments from some Microsoft Win2K source code.

UPDATE: Google promptly removed these statements after about 130 hits to this page from google.com (not referrers, but actual native traffic from the company domain).

Nothing beats a great steak, nothing. Well, maybe a Burger King breakfast sandwich with eggs and bacon on a buttered croissant served with little hash browns that make ketchup pumps act like diet coke on a mentos binge.

There was no Burger King nearby, and it was dinner time anyway… so I went with the (waitress recommend) 18oz steak. Now, I have eaten in the same restaurant with the same waitress for the past two evenings, so she was recommending this steak because she had raport, not because it was $32 (or at least not ONLY because it was $32). There are of course more expensive steaks out there, but $32 should definitely buy a good steak.

I started with a goat cheese and roasted red pepper salad, which was fabulous. My steak came, and I paired it with Sterling Vinter’s 2004 Shiraz. Now, a rib-eye is not the most lean steak but it is extremely tasty. I had it prepared medium-well because I like it a little pink on the inside and dark on the outside.

I first tried the wine and it was great. It smelled of cranberries and was dry as this Blog post. The steak… it wasn’t great, it was unbelievable! I have had steaks in the $50-60 range before and they were excellent, but this steak was the best yet. I had two bites and my appetite was ruined. Honestly, but it wasn’t the steak… it was the conversation, and I was eating alone.

Now, I don’t usually listen to other’s conversations, but when you’re alone, male and [insert Lilith fair performer] is playing on the radio, you can’t help listening to the loud and obnoxious voice coming from the table beside you. All I wanted to do with my mouth was put it around this steak, but the loud mouth beside me wanted to tell her girlfriend all about the time she cut her finger off. I don’t know if this woman was a doctor, but the graphic detailed regurgitated in her story could have earned a pass on the board exam.

I don’t know why people have to talk about personal dismemberment during a meal, but it is one of those topics that should be completely off limits… especially when you and your neighbors are eating red meat. You’d think after 5 dirty looks in 5 minutes she would stop talking about her missing finger, and if I wasn’t such a wimp, I would have given her one of mine.

I don’t know what to call this type of gaming, but imagine playing a game (casually) over a few hours, days or even weeks as you go about your daily business. I suggest the name “Occasionally Connected Wide Area Gaming” which could be short formed as ACUA Gaming (“Aqua Gaming”).I came up with this idea after discovering Dinner Murder Mysteries. If you’re not familiar with Dinner Murder Mysteries, kits to host these events can be purchased where you buy board games. If you’re familiar with the game (or Movie) Clue, then this is where the idea comes from. People attend your event Role Playing as a Character; they have a script which tells them how to act, what to do and when. Each person has a different script which directs the outcomes of the evening. After a sequence of events, a murder will take place out of room and shortly after be discovered by someone. It is the job of everyone to figure out who committed the murder. Was it the person who discovered the body, the maid, the person who left to use the bathroom?

These events can be extremely fun for most people involved, except for a couple people, especially the person who gets murdered. Some people will know ahead of time the outcome and how it happened. In this age of digital communication there is no reason why we should snail mail invitations and instructions. What if a computer could send out all of the instructions in real time as they should be carried out. Ideally these instructions would be sent by text message (or email/blackberry) to each person’s mobile device. That way, no one would know ahead of time what was going to happen next and the instructions could be extremely up to date, referencing current issues or even using the current date and time to instruct participants.

The software itself would not be particularly immersive, like many of today’s popular games, but the overall experience could be extremely immersive. To setup this type of game there would need to be a web based console where it could be managed. The host would enter all of the mobile device contact info for each person, the date and time the event will start and other event information (will there be drinking or dinner). The server will take over from there, sending invitations to all users listing any props or costume pieces the participant will need for the event (fake gun, Swiss Army Knife, flashlight, money…etc).

At the start time of the event, users will start to receive instructions on their mobile devices: “Tell everyone you must go outside for a cigarette, ask Dr. Woz to join you. Stay outside and wait for further instructions” Dr. Woz will also receive a message telling him to go (or not) with you. A few minutes later they could receive a message telling them to drive to the local convenience store and wait for instructions. Then a message instructing them to phone Mr. Smith and tell him their car has broken down, and requesting he come pick them up. While this is happening a murder could take place back at the house. When the three other people return home they could be considered suspects, although they could claim they weren’t even at the house. Because the instructions are delivered in real time, the server could assemble the event as it goes, inserting or removing instructions to lengthen or shorten the event.

This would not be limited to murder mystery events either. All kinds of real time events could be developed such as scavenger hunts, checkpoint missions…etc. These events would be great for corporate events, dinner groups and fund raisers. The downside is that someone would have to program, test and host the software to run these events. It could also be expensive for some participants who don’t have text messaging plans on their cell phone. The possibilities are endless, and unlike other computer games it gets us out of our desk chair. Also, there could be games that intertwine with you daily life. As messages are received throughout the day or week, you could respond to them or follow their instructions. Today we play computer games; someday, computer games will play us.

• This is a
• REAL
• bulleted list

When I was creating the styles for this blog and I got to the bullet style, I decided the bullets had to really look like bullets, not pellets. I think more bulleted lists should have real bullets as their symbols!

Interest in Adobe Flex has really heated up with the release of Flex 2, and because so many people are starting to use Flex there is huge demand for training courses. I am certified by Adobe to teach Flex (among other technologies) and during my Flex courses I demonstrate a lot of useful short-cuts. I am constantly asked for a site that lists these; therefore, I have compiled a short list of the Flex Builder short-cuts I use every day:

(ordered by usefulness)

• Ctrl+Space … Content assist (aka Code Hinting) – Shows you most of the available tags or properties appropriate for your cursor position
• Shift+Enter … Adds a new line below the current line (extremely useful in mxml as you enter tag properties, this means you don’t have to hit the arrow key to move outside the quotation marks
• Crtl+Enter … Adds a new line above the current line
• Ctrl+D … Delete the current line
• Alt+Down … Moves the current line down (passing through any lines below it).
• Ctrl+L … Go to line number (popup window).
• Ctrl+Shift+C … Adds a comment around the currently selected text (MXML and ActionScript).
• Ctrl+Alt+Up … Duplicates current line.
• Ctrl+Click … Allows you to click on a class in AS or MXML and open that class file.

Indenting: Since we all use good coding form and properly indent all child tags it is important to know some tricks to this. Most code editors support multi-line code tabbing, which means you can highlight multiple lines and press the Tab key to indent all of those lines. Try that in a word processor and it will delete the text, but most code editors (Flash, Se|py ActionScript Editor and Flex Builder/Eclipse) support this. Also, you can reduce the indent across multiple lines by pressing Shift+Tab.

There are also some workflow tricks I find very useful. First, I always use “Build Automatically” available in the “Project” dropdown menu. With this enabled, Flex Builder will automatically generate the SWF and HTML file for viewing. Watch the bottom right corner of Flex Builder in the status bar for the building status; when “Building Workspace” disappears, you can simply hit F5 (refresh/reload) in your browser to see any changes you made to your Flex project. If you try to refresh or reload before the workspace has been built you will get an empty SWF file.

This isn’t a Flex Builder shortcut, but when you have the Flex Data Services server console open, you can use Ctrl+C to “Close” (shutdown) the server.

This list is by no means complete, but simply a list of my favorite shortcuts. This list will continue to grow as other shortcuts creep into my daily finger dance. To see a complete list of shortcut keys, press Ctrl+Shift+L in Flex Builder.

Chad

Whether you’re looking for a new cellphone, automobile or cable service you’re going to be offered a contract. Of course, this is the service providers way of keeping you around to recover any costs associated with aquiring you as their customer (advertising, discounts, “free” things).

So what do you do if you have to get out of one of these? A lot of sites have been popping up to help you pass your contract on to someone else who is looking for a contract like yours. Why would anyone do that? First, you probably did so ask yourself. Second, someone might want to take over your contract because…

It is often cheaper to take on an existing contract than to get a new one of your own.

If you want to get rid of your cellphone contract check out this site and this article. Most notably from that article, check out your terms of service when/if your provider changes them. Usually, you have the ability to terminate the contract at such a time. For getting out of your car lease, check out this site.

My advice, never sign a contract longer than 1 year… unless you’ve already been with that company for a number of years and know what to expect. In some cases, you can’t avoid a contract. When I signed up for Bell Sympatico (DSL) last year, they would only sign me up for a one year contract. Sometimes I wonder if it is the agent who makes up the rules, or if it is an actual policy. You should know that agents generally get a larger commision by selling you a longer contract.

Chad