Two useful JSON validators here and here. I’ve always used URLVariables and XML up until now, but recognizing that JSON is a little simpler to view.
Chrome has a couple extensions too called JSONView and Pretty JSON.
GitReady
GitReady is a useful resource on learning more about Git. I’m committing to learning it day by day.
Useful Tutorial on ByteArray
I confess I’ve never used ByteArray in any of my projects, and I think I finally can see a usage for saving a value object to MYSQL in a single field as opposed to doing the work of sending out each field separately. Check out the tutorial here.
Free Computer Science Courses Online
I found a great list of free computer science courses online offered from prestigious universities like Yale and Harvard. I might not have the money to afford attending such schools, but they are offering high quality content free to the general public. I’m sure to take advantage of these sessions during my summer off.
I spent several hours watching an introductory course of programming for all level of students from David Malan.
Annoying Flash Issue in Windows XP with Limited Users
As a technology coordinator in a high school setting, I’m recently having an issue with Flash content not displaying correctly in Internet Explorer on limited user accounts. It’s frustrating because I reimaged the entire computer lab with the same ghost image and now Flash content doesn’t view correctly on all computer in the lab. I didn’t realize it when I created the ghost image because I was using an administrator account and everything viewed correctly.
I found several posts addressing the issue, but it is a pain to have to perform the same fix on all 35 computers. The steps include:
1. Running the Flash Uninstaller
2. Deleting a registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/x-shockwave-flash
3. Reinstalling Flash Player.
The Flash Argument
Adobe evangelists and Flash developers continue to argue that Flash is a fully viable development platform going forward, despite Apple’s insistence on not supporting it on iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone. With the recent updates to the Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe is clearly committed to making Flash a developer’s first choice for mobile device app development. Flash stands as one tool that can target all mobile devices from iOS to Android to Playbook. As opposed to having multiple developers with different skills sets, having one Flash developer can target multiple devices with a single skill set.
The biggest problem lies in the exclusion of Flash from the browser experience on iOS devices. This poses a serious deterrent and confusion for decision makers in corporations who want their content available on the most popular and talked about devices. These decision makers will continue to consider alternatives to Flash as long as Apple remains so popular in the mainstream and lacks Flash support. The ability to create apps using Flash is not enough. People want to be able to see their content while surfing on Safari on their iPhone.
Those committed to Flash need to commit to making killer apps and games that people want on their devices, so that people will either choose a non-Apple device or Apple will have no choice but to support Flash on their devices. One of the most significant arguments of Apple about Flash is that it is too CPU intensive. But if the mobile devices become faster and more capable in the future, this argument may not be valid. Apple originally changed their attitude toward developing apps with Flash and allows Flash Player on the Mac (despite Steve Jobs’ reluctance to install it on his machines), so perhaps when Steve moves on, we will one day see Flash support and Adobe will have positioned it well for development for all mobile devices.
Time will tell. Clearly if you’ve stopped by Hulu or MLB.com in the last year, Flash plays a predominant role in distributing interactive and compelling content.
Debugging and Tracing Variables in Flash Builder
After installing Flash Builder 4 on several of my computers, I was having some issues with debugging and tracing variables. I experienced two issues:
First, Flash Builder reported that I did not have the right Flash Player with debugger installed as shown in this message:
Flash Builder cannot locate the required debugger version of Adobe Flash Player. You might need to install the debugger version of the Flash Player or reinstall Flash Builder.
Do you want to try to debug with the current version?
A post directed me to this site, I was able to download an Flash Player uninstaller and then reinstall using the Plugin Flash Player with debugger.
Then I was experiencing an issue with Google Chrome. It kept indicating that the debugger session timed out. I found a useful post about disabling a Flash plug-in in Google Chrome using the about:plugins command.
Now, I can debug my application and see the trace outputs in the debug.
For more details on debugging applications, check out this guide.
Adobe CS5.5
It’s depressing the new marketing approach of Adobe by releasing a .5 release in CS5.5. Clearly not worthy of a full release, they are milking more money out of their loyal subscribers, instead of just offering these additional features as a free update. You can view the new versions of CS5.5 here. I used to skip a version of every release of the Adobe Suite, but now if they are going to release a .5 version every year, I guess I might have to skip several. The updates to most of their programs are so minimal from iteration to iteration, that it makes little sense to make the move. CS3 is still pretty usable today.
I know Flash CS5.5 adds more functionality for mobile devices. So if you don’t develop for mobile, there is no real value in making this additional purchase.
Clean Up Flash Project Library of Unused Assets
Some of the simplest tips are a great help.
Cleaning a Flash project of unused library items (items not on the stage) is a convenient way to identify what assets are being used over the course of developing a project. There is an option called Select Unused Items in the Library dropdown. Then click the Trash Can and they are gone.
Programming Fonts
Found a good post on the top 10 programming fonts. Check it out here.