As you may have seen, things weren’t quite the same around here today. Was it a server issue? Perhaps your browser wasn’t working properly. Or maybe the interwebs were failing! Well, it’s none of those so you’re safe. However, you should have been showing your support for CSS by going naked!

CSS Naked Day

It was a little longer than I expected, but I finally got my site back online.

Now comes the fun stuff, the changes coming to the site…

If you check out a couple of my previous posts, you’ll see I had voiced my annoyances at the fact that the Skywalker&tm; Maquette was the only Gentle Giant Maquette that was NOT released in a limited production run and was not specially numbered. I think those concerns are now validated with the fact that the pricing has been severely cut to sell the remaining units.

So much for having a truly “limited” edition Skywalker&tm; Maquette.

Other than those unpleasantries, the following statement included with the description for the Luke Skywalker maquette listing on The Star Wars Shop struck an unpleasant chord as these maquettes look so great!

This is the final of the five LEGO Star Wars Maquettes produced.

Let’s hope they change their minds and introduce more Star Wars maquettes or even an Indiana Jones Gentle Giant maquette. ;)

They’ve added the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer (#10030) and the UCS Death Star II to their sales and deals. What really shocked me was the price. A $100 discount being applied to the $300 price tag of these two sets!

Needless to say I took advantage of that deal and I highly recommend you do to!

Typically these specials are to kickoff surplus’ of new products. Or to make room for new products. There are many rumors about large sets in development and I can’t wait to see if those stories hold up to be true, but for now, we can enjoy these two great collector edition sets!

Here’s just one teaser pic of our trip so far. I’ll post up more pictures when we return.

Both have some great deals on some really nice sets. The LEGO® Shop@Home site has furniture that has been discounted up the whazoo and Toys “R” Us has a Buy 1 get 1 at 50% sale with some of those items also getting free shipping!

That could only mean one thing [hopefully]. They sold out on the pre-order.

I hope you got one while you had the chance! If not, you may be in luck. When the Vader and Stormtrooper maquettes were sold, they set aside a few to be sold after the release. And with 1,500 Boba Fett maquettes being produced, your chances of getting one should be better than how it was when the Vader and Stormtrooper maquettes were released since they only produced 1,000 units of each those.

Of course I could be completely wrong and there could be some other force in the universe that caused them to remove the listing. Let’s hope it’s not another delay or manufacturing issue.

I was going to go with the 17″ originally, but after thinking about it, the 15″ makes more sense, especially when it’s used at home. I’d want it to take up the least amount of space since it will be working with my 30″ Dell LCD and an external mouse and keyboard. And when away from home, the 15″ will be less of a hassle to lug around.

Hopefully if what the representative told me is true, by the end of next week I’ll have my new MacBook Pro. Now the question is, what to do with those damned orange computers. :D

I’m buying an Apple Computer.

There I said it. It’s done. I’ve made my decision. Time to move on and move on I must, but there’s a problem. A life decision? Well for a programmer it can be, and I’ve been using Windows for the past 12 or 13 years!

Apple is to, well apples and Windows is to oranges. One is nice and sweet, sometimes. While the other is tangy and hard to get to. The apple you can just bite into and get started. The orange, well you first have to peel it, separate the slices, yada yada yada. Enough with the cliché, you get the idea.

The first week of September I attended a training course for Flex Programming and to my surprise we were seated at Apple workstations that were running Windows XP. I had heard of Parallels and Boot Camp prior to this, but had never seen either of them in action. At first, it was strange looking at an Apple iMac that had Windows XP nicely displayed on the screen. Then the strange feeling went away and a sense of comfort set in. Other than the keyboard and mouse, everything was the same. We went through the 3 day course with no issues. These Apple Computers were running Boot Camp which is what allowed us to use Windows XP. That’s not all though, if you want, you could also install Vista using Boot Camp.

This experience left a huge impression on me. Not because it’s an Apple computer and they “should”. Instead, it was because of the power of having one computer, out of the box, with the ability to dual, even triple boot. Some of you may say that’s been around for years with Linux and Windows, but it’s not the same. It doesn’t take a scientist to know that Windows and OSX are the dominating operating systems on the market. Having both of those on one machine, running the native hardware, NOT emulated, is a gift.

I love it for a lot of reasons, but the main reasons are:

1. Some programs only work with OSX, others only Windows. Now I’m not stuck with that prerequisite. Woo-Hoo!
2. The MacBook Pro supports my 30″ Dell LCD which none of the other current laptops on the market can. What that means is I no longer need a separate desktop and laptop. I can use the laptop at home connected to my large display and take it on the road too. Brilliant!
3. As much as I bash Windows and OSX, both have their strengths, both have their weaknesses. Now I can enjoy both of their strengths, errr and their weaknesses (uh-oh).

So when Apple begins selling MacBook Pro’s configured with Leopard, which is being released tomorrow, I’ll be diving into the Apple culture, but at the same time enjoying my oranges, errr I mean Windows. :)

It’s basically Dance Dance Revolution except your fingers are doing the dancing.

The game is played by watching arrow icons move in the game and when they gets to a certain point, hitting the corresponding arrow key on the keyboard. Sounds easy? Well there’s more. Not only do you have to quickly hit these arrow keys, but the arrows are different colors as you move up in the levels. So while one hand is hitting the arrow keys, the other is switching colors. Now it just got really interesting!

This game perfectly illustrates just how much fun a simple Flash game can be and why Flash Game Developers should think about making their games as simple as possible because the last thing anyone on the web wants to do is read a bunch of instructions to play a game. And that includes us developers! If you make your games simple, but challenging you can attract a wider range of players from all ages, genders, etc. and the side effect of all that, the simpler the game, the easier and less complicated the code running the game will be. Theoretically of course. ;)

That’s my Flash tip for the day. :)

Interesting highlights for this issue:

• PicToBrick - a great piece of software that creates LEGO® Mosaics
• Star Wars AFOLs - a look at a few builders from around the world that build some truly great Star Wars models.
• Interview of Jens Kronvold Frederiksen - If you don’t know, his biggest project was the recently released LEGO® UCS Millennium Falcon (#10179). he speaks about working on this set, other Star Wars sets, and what we have to look forward to

There are but 3 of the many topics in this issue. Be sure to check it out!

The bug occurs when you type the name of a font you want to use for a TextField, into the “Properties” panel. If what you type, does not match EXACTLY with what the title of a font is in the font list, you run the risk of having the same font embedded multiple times.

Why is this important to you? Two words: Filesize Bloating. I don’t know of many Flash developers in the world that don’t care about making their files download as fast as possible and making them as small as possible. That being the case, this bug is probably important to you.

If you ALWAYS use the dropdown font selection tool, then this bug probably doesn’t affect you. Like most designers though, if you know the names of the fonts and quickly type them in, I hope learning about this bug will help you.

I’ve outlined how to reproduce the bug and see how it can affect your files. Don’t be scared by the number of steps. Even though there are many, all of them are very easy to complete.

1. Open a new document in Flash. (I used Flash CS3 Professional).

2. (Optional) Save the document. I make it a point to always hit CTRL+S to save my documents while I am working on them in case the program crashes randomly. This habit has saved me countless hours of work and stress.

3. Add a TextField to the stage using the “Text” tool. Keyboard shortcut “T”.

4. Set the font of this TextField to “Arial” using the font selector drop down menu in the “Properties” Panel if it isn’t already been set to “Arial”.

   

5. Add a 2nd TextField elsewhere on the stage.

6. Set the font of this TextField to “arial” by typing it exactly as I have, noting the lowercase spelling, into the font selection field and then hit the ENTER key. The font name will change to “Arial” after you hit ENTER even though you entered “arial”.

   

7. Add a 3rd TextField elsewhere on the stage.

8. Set the font of this TextField to “ariaL” by typing it exactly as I have into the font selection field and then hit the ENTER key. The font name will change to “Arial” after you hit ENTER even though you entered “ariaL”.

   

9. Select all three TextFields and click the “Embed…” button in the “Properties” panel. This will open up the “Character Embedding” Dialog Box.

10. Choose a few glyph categories to embed and then click the “OK” button. I chose “Uppercase”, “Lowercase”, “Numerals” and “Punctuation” for my example, but you can choose any you wish. Choosing “All” will produce the most striking results.

    

11. Go to File->Publish Settings and click on the “Flash” tab. Select the “Generate Size Report” feature. At this point, if you want to, uncheck the “HTML” option in the “Formats” tab as we do not need that file.

    

12. Publish the File by hitting SHIFT+F12 or go to File->Publish.

13. View the Size Report: The output panel should have opened up automatically showing the Size Report for the file we created. If the output panel did not open up or isn’t visible, hit F2 to show the “Output” panel. Another option for those that followed Step #2 is you can open the size report by going to the directory where you saved your .fla file. The Size Report is named the same as your .fla file with “_report” appended to the end with a .txt file extension.

    Final Screenshot

    

    Generate Size Report for Font Embedding bug example.

As you can see in the final screenshot, the bug caused the compiler to embed three instances of the same font into our published file even though they all are the same font.

Moral of the story: Use the “Generate size report” feature and check it while you’re working or when you’re done with your project!

I showed the bug to developers at the recent Adobe MAX 2007 convention held in Chicago. So hopefully it will be fixed in the next version, or even better in an update to Flash CS3. ;)

Note: I don’t recall if the bug feature was “available” in Flash MX 2004 Professional since it’s been so long since I’ve used that let alone older versions. If any of you are still using those versions or still have it installed on your machine, the steps I outline above to duplicate the bug are the same in those versions. That way you can see if your version is affected. If it is, please add a comment to my post so that I other’s can be aware of it. :)

The catalog/set number for this collectible is #66254 and is being sold for the same price of $69.99 as seen at Toys R Us.

Head over to LEGO® Shop at Home and buys yours now!

I am still rather disappointed that these aren’t a limited run of say 1,000 or 1,500 like the Darth Vader, Stormtrooper and Boba Fett maquettes. :( How about some consistency here people!

I had this past Friday off so I thought I’d pay the LEGO® store a visit. While browsing the store I peeked into one of the display windows and was shocked to see a LEGO® Gentle Giant Luke Skywalker maquette on display with a sign saying they were for sale! I was too late however. Someone had purchased ALL of them from the store earlier in the week. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to purchase the display model. Here are some pictures I took of that one that I picked up.

Sorry about the crappy pictures, it’s the best I could do with my digital camera and low light conditions.

I was shocked to see them for sale at the LEGO® retail store because the Darth Vader and Stormtrooper Gentle Giant LEGO® Maquettes were sold exclusively through the Star Wars Shop and were numbered limited edition sets. The Boba Fett maquette which is due out in January is also exclusive to the Star Wars Shop and is a low production run of 1,500 and are numbered. These Luke Skywalker maquettes are however NOT numbered. They are still listed as limited edition though and come with a certificate of authenticity. If I hear anything about how many they intend to produce I’ll let you guys know, so stay tuned.

Anyway, so this morning (Sunday) I get an email containing the Sunday ad for Toys R Us and they have them on sale! The ad stated that they were available in-store only though. So I headed down to the closest Toys R Us and was able to snag a couple brand new, sealed maquettes. :) So if you are still looking for them, looks like Toys R Us and the LEGO® retail stores are selling them although many of the stores are sold out.

I called LEGO® S@H and the representative I spoke with had no clue what they were or if they were going to be selling them on the LEGO® S@H site. So stay tuned, if I hear anything new, I’ll let you guys know!

Today they’ve followed it up with some cool LEGO® Star Wars watches!

LEGO® Star Wars Darth Vader Watch	LEGO® Star Wars Jedi Luke Watch
LEGO® Star Wars Clone Trooper Watch	LEGO® Star Wars R2-D2 Watch

Head over to the Star Wars Shop to learn more about them. They currently run $19.99 each.

I received this message from the Star Wars Shop on October 5th…

Due to an unexpected delay by the vendor, the scheduled shipping date of the following pre-order item(s) has changed, the new ship date is as follows:
SWLFLLMBF Exclusive LEGO Star Wars Boba Fett Maquette Ships Jan 2008

Ah well, another 3 months to wait.

After seeing the last 3 versions it’s well worth the wait.

For those of you unfamiliar with these LEGO® maquettes, they are 6″ tall, limited edition sculpted statues based on LEGO® mini-figures.

Don’t be fooled by all the Darkside figures, there is a Luke Skywalker Maquette in the works as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed as I hope my pre-orders are fulfilled. More details [hopefully] later this month.

If you’re looking to snag any of the sold out LEGO® Gentle Giant Darth Vader, Stormtrooper or Blackhole Stormtrooper Maquettes, head over to my eBay store It’s Not Just a Brick.

It was tough waking up today, there is so much going on within the three days! I really wish that the conference was split among 4 days instead of 3 with more time between the day and evening portions to relax. In addition, there are so many sessions that it’s very hard to make it to all of them, especially when you have a full schedule as I did. So Adobe, if you’re listening, 4 days instead of 3, got it? Thanks!

The highlight of today was meeting and chatting with Grant Skinner just before attending the session he presented which was about how to use Flash CS3 to build an AIR app. Grant Skinner is a very well known and in my opinion, great ActionScript developer.

If you’re an ActionScript developer, I highly suggest checking out AIR if you haven’t done so. AIR utilizes the ActionScript API to deploy applications to the desktop. So if you know ActionScript, you’re already on a great start to learning AIR.

Using the update to Flash CS3 which is available on Adobe Labs, it allows you to publish an AIR file from Flash CS3 Professional. With the quick updating of a few settings within the Flash IDE, you’re pretty much ready to begin porting your Flash files to the desktop. Of course building AIR applications may require the use of the extended API that allows you to interact with the users machine depending on what your Flash Application does, it’s still a very powerful and simple way of creating richer desktop applications. So if you haven’t checked out AIR, head over to Adobe Labs.

I need to go over my schedule and I’ll post some highlights from the other sessions I attended as well. Stay tuned…

Well this morning is going well so far. It is about 9:45 right now. I am posting while attending a course on ColdFusion 8.

Today we had a great keynote and sneak peeks session.

Today’s keynote showcased new tools being developed by Adobe. The strongest I felt out of the bunch being Thermo. Thermo is to Flex Designer as Photoshop is to Photographer, that is how I look at it. Thermo allows a designer to create comps for a RIA, and easily port those graphics to Flex. I emphasize “easily” because it truly was that easy. They showed a comp where they simply selected graphics, ran it through a simple conversion tool within Thermo, and created ActionScript. For example, in the comp was a rectangle that was intended to be a search field. They selected it and converted it to a text input field. And that’s it. Thermo looks at the selected item, and created a text input field, written in ActionScript using the selected graphics to skin the text input. It took all but a few seconds. It was really amazing to watch.

I didn’t stay for the entire sneak peaks session, but the one that drew some interest for me was “Flash Home”, or that’s what I remember it being called. It was a new technology that allows people to skin the UI on their cell phone the way they want and the ability to use an ActionScript API to interact with the phone, i.e. going through through your contacts, changing/animating your home screen, adding custom functionality, etc…

I need to go over my schedule and I’ll post some highlights from the sessions I attended as well. Stay tuned…