Snow and I recorded over _6 hours_ of Flash CS4 training for the designprovideo.com site! Check the main page for the series here:

http://www.designprovideo.com/tutorial/flashcs4101

There are free downloads available as well. The NED Player that the video series uses is pretty nice too. Check it out! Here’s the table of contents:

Chapter 1: Part 1
Section 1: Interface Fundamentals
01. Introduction
02. Start Page
03. Preferences
04. Document Properties
05. File, Edit, View Menus, and Using Rulers
06. Using Snapping and Window Overview
07. Document Window: Stage, Pasteboard, and View Settings
08. Panels and Workspace Layouts
09. Customizing Workspace Layouts
10. The Timeline: Working with Layers
11. The Timeline: Working with Frames
12. Properties Panel
13. Tools Panel

Section 2: Introduction to Publishing and Managing Flash Movies
14. Section Overview
15. Quick Publish HTML and Flash Movie
16. Accessing the Publish Settings
17. Flash Settings: Player and Script Version
18. Flash Settings: Global Image and Sound Quality
19. Flash Settings: Global SWF Settings
20. HTML Settings: Template Options for Full Screen Mode
21. HTML Settings: Detect Flash Version
22. HTML Settings: Dimensions
23. Working with Test Movie
24. Using the Play Command
25. The Bandwidth Profiler: Frame-by-Frame and Streaming Graphs
26. The Bandwidth Profiler: Simulate Download
27. Employing Adobe

Michael Hurwicz wrote a well-balanced review of my Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Video Studio Techniques book on CreativeCOW.net. Check it out!

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/

Oops, I copied and pasted the wrong URL! That’s the difference between Obama and McCain’s tax plans. I meant this link:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hurwicz_michael/flash_cs3.php

Michael Hurwicz wrote a well-balanced review of my Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Video Studio Techniques book on CreativeCOW.net. Check it out!

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/taxplans/

Oops, I copied and pasted the wrong URL! That’s the difference between Obama and McCain’s tax plans. I meant this link:

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hurwicz_michael/flash_cs3.php

Just got the e-mail today from iStockPhoto.com that my application for photography/images has been accepted. I guess they liked the three pictures I picked for the application. They were some of my first portfolio images, and the pics were all originally shot on black-and-white film. I’m psyched! Now if I only could magically finish all my Flash Bible revision writing, and just go out and shoot some sweet pictures.

I’ve finally posted some dates for online seminars to be presented via Adobe Acrobat Connect. My first two seminars will be about Video for Flash. For details, visit the workshop page at:

http://www.theMakers.com/services/workshops/

Hope to see a lot of new faces online!

I finally figured out what was wrong with the settings on dataride.com that caused iknowbetter.com to fail! So, I fixed the bad setting (BAD SETTINGS! BAD!) and now it’s live again!! Check out my latest video post:

http://www.iknowbetter.com/showpost.cfm?postID=174

Hopefully, I’ll have some time before summer is over to get a much more simplified UI in place.

On the weekend of September 13 and 14, I’m scheduled to teach my (favourite) two day workshop on Flash Video! Details can be found on the Rich Media Institute site at:

http://www.richmediainstitute.com/flash_video

Hope to see you there!

So, last month, during the Adobe Community Summit in San Jose, California, I had a nice visit with my cousin Karen who lives there. We had dinner at her house (where she lives with her partner Peter), and they made a comment during dinner about doing some karaoke in their living room afterwards. At first, I thought they were kidding, but my cousin isn’t exactly a jokester. Peter is seriously into karaoke, and we had a ton of fun for a couple of hours singing in the living room. Oddly, I think I caught the karaoke bug, because it’s been in the back of my mind since the trip. This week, I bought a karaoke game for the XBox 360 (which I haven’t turned on for a long time), American Idol Encore. As far as karaoke games are concerned, I think Konami (and Blitz Games) did a pretty decent job. I don’t think the 3D renderings of Randy, Paula, and Simon are all that great, and that’s probably the biggest thumbs down for the whole game playing experience for me. Oh, I guess I should disclose that I’m an American Idol fan, but that’s not necessarily why I got the branded title. I just couldn’t find many options for the XBox 360 that were karaoke style games. I’m hoping that if I practice a bit on the XBox that I’ll be in better form for the open lounge singing at Nye’s Polonaise Room with Piano Bar. Watch out Jer Thorpe! Here I come!

On2 announced on Monday some interesting improvements/enhancements to their VP6 codec:

http://www.on2.com/index.php?id=439&news_id=623

For the last six months or so, I’ve had my Francis!Francis! (aka FF) X1 espresso machine taken apart and laid out in my work area in the basement, and I’ve known for a while now that the only thing wrong with this overpriced but stylish espresso machine is a faulty thermistor. This little d0-dad simply opens/closes a circuit when the boiler reaches (I think) 125 degrees Celsius. I’ve found some close but inexact matches at various electronic parts stores online, but I would really love an exact match. Anyone know where I can grab some spare parts? (Oh, and I won’t go into the long and dreadful story of contacting customer service for seeking a replacement part and not a full blown repair requiring the whole unit to be shipped.)