Archive for category Personal
A real portfolio and the sources to go with it
Well ya it’s kinda was crazy that I am a Flash dude and that I had an html portfolio. Well that time is over!
Go see my new portfolio here : http://www.zedia.net/portfolio2010/
Now I am not a designer, so I did my best in that domain and I think I managed pretty well but you know, a designer would still have done better. There are still some tweaks I want to do: add sounds, individual urls for projects, analytics, loading indicators, add dates to projects, etc. I will continue to work on it but I thought it was good enough to show.
I built it using FlashDevelop and compiled using the Flex compiler version 4. I used Flash to make the visuals and exported those as swc to import them in my ActionScript project. I used PureMVC as my framework.
Since this is my project I can do what I always wanted to do and share the sources for it. I tried to comment it a bit and I am not saying that this is how one should code, but I have found that you can learn a great deal by looking at someone else’s code. That is what I am offering to you. You can reuse my code for whatever you want I don’t care, just don’t reuse my logo.
Here are the files:
Analytics for Mobile Applications : a good idea, six months too late
So yesterday I was talking with my friend that does iPhone applications about what data he gets from Apple about the applications he builds. It turns out that aside from the number of sales, he doesn’t have any data. I found this weird and we started talking about how it wouldn’t be that hard to build a kind of Google Analytics for Mobile Applications. In a sense, it would be very similar to the library GA for Flash except that you build a library for every Mobile SDK plus you have a webserver where the data is analysed.
It took so much time for a library of analytics to be made for Flash, I thought there might be a chance that nobody did anything like this for mobiles. So we got all excited (like so many other time), we started thinking how we would build this. But today I searched on the web and found Flurry a company that has an analytics division that does exactly this. Well not exactly how I would do it but about 85% the same. So my bubbles is a bit busted.
Flurry does it mostly right but their interface is a bit complicated and they didn’t make their analytics that specific to mobiles. There are plenty of concepts that exist in the mobile world that are new: what people do in their first and last run of the application, the number of tap (click with fingers) by session, the accelerometer, etc. And they don’t track that, yet. Also they provide an API for events, but not for navigation (pageViews in the GA world). I think navigation still has an important role in the analytics of an application than in the analytics of a website. You want to know what the users did in a certain section of your app (how many taps in the help section for example).
So all of that could be implemented and would give a better service than what Flurry is offering. The problem is that their platform is already built and even if there is not much competition (they seem to be the only ones doing this), it would still be hard to beat their momentum.
So what do you think? Should I invest time in this project knowing these risks, or should I let this go and wait for another idea?
The iPad and me
I don’t really like to do opinion pieces. On the subject of technology, like religion, sometimes it doesn’t really matter what you say; both sides never really listen to each other. I don’t want to add another pointless my side is better than yours article. But I think it is sad when people say that such and such is bad and should die. Like it is currently the case with Flash and the whole iPad brouhaha. What I think these people don’t consider is the human impact behind this.
If Flash was to go away tomorrow, I’d find myself without a job. Well, I’d need time to learn another language and then I’d find another job but it wouldn’t be the same thing. I am really glad I found Flash and ActionScript 3. This is what I want to do for at least the next 5-10 years. What I like about it is that it speaks to both my programmer and creative side. It is also fast-paced; in the web agency world, you move from projects to projects really fast and you have to keep up with technology at the same time. It might seems weird but I really like that; no time to get bored. If it wasn’t for Flash, I don’t think think I would love my job as much as I do.
After the iPad announcement I found myself a bit confused and stressed about my future. The future of Flash seemed uncertain so my future seemed uncertain to. Not uncertain because of the evolution of technology (like HTML5) but because a company decided what the outcome should be. If all Apple products stop supporting Flash, this is not good news to me. What possibilities I had would lessen. Some would say that I shouldn’t tie myself to a technology, I know, and if I have too I will learn something knew, but as I said before I really like Flash. That made me think that it’s not only companies that can choose who gets to live or to fade (technology wise). Us, as developers, can put our weight in the balance too. As long as there will be people producing get content for the Flash platform, it will continue to thrive. If I like Flash that much, I must not be alone and from reading all those article that take Flash’s defense, I think I am right. So I feel more at ease now. The future is still uncertain but certainly less gloomy.
One last thing about the iPad. Zeldman in his post states that the computer of tomorrow is a computer that is dead simple but that in return doesn’t give all powers over it for the sake of usability, like the iPhone and the iPad do. I think that a portion of the population in fact wants that. Right now this portion might be big, but I think it will shrink because it doesn’t consider that the children that are raised right now have never seen the time when there was no computers. These will be way more computer literate than my parents lets say. For that I think a device like the iPad is closer to a toy than to a tool. If it wanted to dominate the netbook market, than it will fail. We don’t really know what is the role the netbook is going to take, but by making one that is limited in its usage, you also reduce your chance of getting it right.
Well that’s all I had to say.
The post of the year
It is that time of the year where I look back and ponder. As I had foreseen, 2009 was really a great year (at least professionally but that’s another story). If my skills improved a lot in 2008 they continued to do so in 2009. I got to play a great deal with Papervision3D (roar4milk, Holiday Humanoes) and I got to modify my project workflow a lot too (I plan to make a presentation on that this year).
In numbers, I got to write 62 posts ( a bit less than once a week) and got 478 comments since September 2008. As for traffic, I am now getting 25 000 visitors a month, this is 10k less than the goal I set myself a year ago, but I don’t think it is so bad; my traffic is still growing steadily month after month. I did not write another article for InsideRIA like I wanted to, but I wrote 2 that got printed in FFDMag ( one of those I intended for InsideRIA but someone wrote on Google Analytics for Flash before me). What I am really proud of is that I got to give 2 presentations; one online and one in person at the Montreal Flash User Group. This is something I want to do more in 2010, 3 or 4 speaking engagements would be really nice. I already got an article nearly done so if I could get 1 or 2 more I would be happy. Lastly, I my traffic could increase to 35k visitors a month I think that would be enough for me. While we are at this, if I could be part of writing a book on ActionScript, that would just be the craziest.
Anyway, what I wish for the coming year is that I keep doing what I am doing. If I keep up the good work, good things will come my way, as simple as that, it worked fine in the past and I am pretty sure it will stay that way, naïvely. Blogging is all about keeping doing it.
May 2010 be as good for all of us as 2009 was good for me. Happy new year!
Trying FDT for a month
Ya I will be leaving my beloved Flash Develop to try out FDT for a month. I have been hearing a lot of good things about it and the programing department has been pushing to get everybody on Eclipse. I have tried Flex Builder before (ok, it was version 2) but I was not very impressed. Every thing seemed complicated for nothing. What I really like about Flash Develop is that it is so simple. To get you going it take 10 minutes and it is more user friendly than Eclipse (it takes less step to do something simple like start a project). Also it is easier to get Animators who are more designer in spirit to use it.
But I at least want to give it a try, so that is what I will be using (almost) exclusively for the next month. The month after I will try Flash Builder 4 and compare it. That way I will be able to make a good decision about wich editor to use.
I have started using FDT today and I have already bumped into two problems: first a simple trace doesn’t trace in the console even in debug mode (in the FCHS console and the FDB console whatever these are). Secondly the SWFViewer doesn’t seem to be the Debug player so I don’t see the runtime errors. These might be related problems and should be easy enough to fix, but it should be more obvious than it is right now.
If you know any tutorial about FDT, send them my way, I want to know everything I can about it during that month; I will read everything!
Powerflasher: How labs works
Here is another video presenting an agency. This time it is Powerflasher from Germany which is also the maker of FDT, an eclipse plug-in to code ActionScript. The video is mostly about how they divide their intern teams to have three groups: agency, solutions, labs. Agency is the work done for the client (websites, applications), solutions is for when they build a product that they can sell or own (like the FDT software or they also make a 3D book component for flash) and finally labs is where they experiment. What is done in labs usually ends up either in the agency work or as a product for solutions to work on. They also explain that for some project the traditional workflow doesn’t work. Like for experimental projects, there needs to be more flexibility because some experiments might not work. That’s why they adopt a more Agile methodology. They explain their steps to achieve this. They also mention that with a traditional workflow creativity only happens at the beginning of the project while in real life it can happen anytime.
All in all it’s a pretty interesting watch. I really like these kind of video because it tells us how other agencies are working and sometime people are reluctant to speak about this.
Link: 
Big Spaceship presentation at FITC Toronto 2009
FITC just posted videos of some of the presentations that were done this year (2009) at Toronto. It’s a shame that for some reason they removed the Joshua Davis one because he his a really good presenter. That being said I’d like to drive your attention to the Big Spaceship agency presentation. I don’t know why I missed it when I was there, but I am really happy I got to watch it in video because it really gives insights about how to run a digital shop. When I listen to presentations like this one, I don’t take everything for money, but it help shape my ideas about the topic.
The video is the last one on the right on the first line right under the video player found here: http://www.fitc.ca/media/ (it would be nice to have direct links)
So, in a nutshell, here is what they say:
- They don’t use the word creative to define designers because everybody is creative.
- Don’t hire assholes (very close to the netflix presentation)
- People in team sit together, instead of department sit together
- Great importance to culture and fun at work
- Try to include one person of every department as early as possible in a project
- They avoid using stock images or footages and prefer doing that themselves
- To increase creativity they try to spend some time away from the computer, doing analog things like with their hands (I know, that is crazy)
- They don’t pitch when the client ask for comps
- They don’t pitch when client will choose the lowest costing solution
A very interesting watch. Take whatever you want from it.
My take on decompiling SWF
I didn’t read (or listen, I don’t remember if it was a video) Lee Brimelow article on decompilation but I know he his not against it. In the same way, I also believe decompiling other’s work is a positive thing. I remember doing my first webpage (html) and to add cool stuff to it (nice javascript and strange html tags) all you had to do was to right click, choose view source and apply it in your context. Back then you were on your own, but what you would learn there you wouldn’t forget because you worked to extract the knowledge from the cryptic code. What you learned was then added to your toolbox; you could build better webpages. The entire internet grew from the view source feature.
I believe it should be the same with Flash. Every day you can see an awesome piece of creativity if you go to theFWA.com; sometimes you know how it is done, sometimes you don’t. This is the time where you should reverse engineer the work. Learn how they did it, how they solved certain problems. You should do so, not to replicate the piece, but to make it your own. Mix it with what you already know or give it a new twist; do something even better. That is how you should pay back.
The community, platform (Flash) would grow from this. People would start decompiling your work and even better pieces would be created. In the end, we would all win from this. Better creations means more confidence in the platform, more money invested into it (Adobe, web agencies) and more jobs.
If you think individually, you’ll only see the bad sides of decompiling, but if you open your mind and have a broader view, you’ll understand the benefits.
My review of FITC Toronto 2009
Well I’m on the train (not anymore) and I have 5 hours to kill so I thought I might use this time to write my recap of FITC Toronto 2009. In a general way, I liked this iteration of the festival more than last year. I think that my choice of presentations had a lot to do with it. Looking back, there are sessions I would have changed in my schedule but since they were filming most of the presentations I can just go and watch those that I heard good feedback from. The downside of this year was that I was alone so I kinda not fulfill the Connect part of the festival mission (Inspire, Educate, Challenge, Connect) but I will work on that next year.
What I learned
Here is interesting stuff I wanted to share:
- I really liked the presentation from PowerFlasher (makers of the FDT tool to write ActionScript). It gave insights on their creative process and how they deal with in-house projects. They said they would put the presentation on youtube so I will point it out when it is there.
- GAIA Framework: I wasn’t convinced before the presentation. Now I would like to try it out on certain type of project. What convinced me: the fact the it handles SWFAddress for you. I like SWFAddress a lot, but sometimes I would like it to be a physical object so that I could throw it out the window.
- Joshua Davis is an awesome presenter. If you get the chance to see him talk, seize it.
- I chose a couple of business presentations and they were probably not the best choices to make but I still got a couple of usefull links out of them:
- IconBuffet : Nice for Icons but also nice to know that they are made by Firewheel Design and given freely; nice way to get known.
- CoComment : Nice way to track your conversations, will definitely try it out.
- 37 signals : Heard so much about them that I should probably at least follow their blog
- BaseCamp : An online application to manage projects, made by 37 signals
- HARO : Help a reporter out : a nice way to get your name out there by helping a reporter and getting quoted
- VizualPV3D : Layout tool for Papervision3D that looks great. Can’t believe it was done by only one dude: Gary Stasiuk.
- Finally Colin Moock’s presentation held a couple of gems. First he his starting a company called User1 that will offer and develop the union platform which will facilitate the production of multiuser applications be it on the web or the desktop. Also he teamed up with MegaPhone, a company that provides a framework to manipulate any screen using any phone. I foresee lots of new marketing opportunities.
On a personal note
I own a HP mini 1000, one of those new netbooks. It’s a pretty nice netbook: it has a 10 inch screen, but I believe I need more than that. 10 inch is good for writting and browsingthe web, but not that good for coding. I really hope that they will develop folding LCD soon so that the laptop can stay small but the screen can get bigger.
Lastly, being in Toronto made me realize how much I like Montreal. More trees, smaller streets, no tramway; it’s just warmer. The only other city that compares (and that I have been to) is Amsterdam. I think Montreal deserves its own Flash conference.
My FITC Toronto 2009 schedule
Just like last year, I’m going to the FITC Toronto conference at the end of April. Based on my last year’s experience here is what I want to see:
Sunday April 26th
- Feed the Experts: A Sneak Peek Into the Treasure Chest of Creativity
- The Tinkerer’s Box
- Gaia Framework For Adobe Flash
Monday April 27th
- Flash Interfaces in Console Games
- Marketing Your Skillz (aka Self Promotion for the Shy Creative Type)
- Flash Player Internals v2
- Reality Cheque: Running a Freelance Business
- MTV Jackass on AIR
Tuesday April 28th
- Introduction to iPhone SDK for Flash Developers
- The Road to “Brilliant”
- The Magical Mystery Click
- Your Phone is Your Controller (and Other Multiuser Adventures)
- Technology Paving the Way for Story Telling
I tried to put more design presentation in there but it was hard, my primary interest is still programming. I also chose stuff that I have never done so that I won’t waste time listening to a 30 minutes introduction on what it is. The only conflict that hurts me is that I won’t get to see Cliff Hall PureMVC presentation. Well I can’t wait to be there.
