25 Random Things

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at January 29th, 2009

I got hit with the 25 Random Things meme on Facebook and thought I’d repost here. Enjoy.

25 things you might not know about me:

1. I love math but suck at managing money.
2. I love the taste of black coffee and putting anything else in it aside from caffeine is a damn shame.
3. I love beer.
4. I most likely have Celiacs Disease but I am not very good at not eating products containing wheat even though I know I feel way better when I don’t.
5. I am super proud of my kids.
6. I have a blood disorder that has never been identified that has caused me to have two Pulmonary Embolisms in the last five years. And, unless they come up with something better, I will be taking blood thinners for the rest of my life. That means I am not supposed to skateboard or ride my bike because if I fell hard enough, it could cause internal bleeding.
7. I fell hard enough in 2005 and spent more time in the hospital.
8. I am really self conscious of the amount of weight I have gained due to side effects of the blood thinners.
9. I get choked up when I think about Joe Strummer.
10. I am a published author.
11. I am an Adobe User Group manager.
12. I have serious problems with organization.
13. I shave (on average) about once a week.
14. I’ve worked from home for the last four years.
15. I like the sense of calm from washing dishes or vacuuming but am not a neat person.
16. I think people should have patience with each other but if you drive slow in front of me, you don’t count.
17. I switched from years of Windows to Mac three years ago and love it.
18. If I were told all I could eat everyday forever was Vietnamese food that would be alright with me.
19. I love to write code.
20. If I could have a super power it would be the power to make people drop their lunch.
21. I daydream while I brush my teeth and will stand there brushing for 2-3 minutes before I realize I was daydreaming again.
22. I love living in Richmond.
23. I am a capable of finding the slowest line in ANY store without even trying.
24. I have almost nightly dreams since I was a kid that the sky is a living thing.
25. There is no better dessert than a Dairy Queen Pecan Cluster Blizzard.

Posted in New Blog| 3 Comments | 

Reminder – FDUG meeting tonight – 12/18/2008

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at December 18th, 2008

It’s that time again.

Just a reminder to my Flash and Flex friends that we (FDUG) are meeting tonight (12/18/2008) from 6 – 8 at ArtWorks in South Richmond.

I’ll be speaking about sharing External Font Libraries in Flash and Flex and Lou Barber will be talking about Loading External Content and Communicating with Loaded Objects. We’ll also have Lou’s wrap up of MAX 08 and the latest Adobe News.

Posted in Adobe, FDUG| No Comments | 

CS4 Trial Versions Available for Download

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at November 11th, 2008

Flash CS4 Professional
Finally! The Adobe CS4 “try and buy” verions Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and the other Creative Suite products are available for download. 30 days of full featured fun. Get them here.

Posted in Adobe, CS4| 7 Comments | 

Our New Buddy

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at October 24th, 2008

Some may remember that our dog Petey was taken from our yard back in July. He had been a part of our family for 10 years and we’re still looking for him.

We saw this guy at the Chesterfield Animal Control and couldn’t believe no one had been looking for him. He’d been there for three weeks and they only hold for a maximum of thirty days before they put them down. We threw all caution to the wind and decided to give this guy a forever home. He’s not Petey and we’re not trying to replace him, but it sure is nice to have a Boston back in the house.Handsome Devil

Posted in Family| No Comments | 

Reminder – FDUG meeting tonight – 10/16/2008

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at October 16th, 2008

Just a reminder to my Flash and Flex friends that we (FDUG) are meeting tonight (10/16/2008) from 6 – 8 at ArtWorks in South Richmond.

We’ll be discussing new features in Adobe CS4.

Posted in Adobe, CS4| 3 Comments | 

Reminder – FDUG Meeting Thurs. Sept. 23

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at September 23rd, 2008

Just a reminder to my Flash and Flex friends that we (FDUG) are having our Adobe CS4 Launch Party from 6 – 8 at ArtWorks in South Richmond on Thursday, Sept. 23.

We’ll be discussing new features in the creative suite and viewing some demos supplied by Adobe. We’ll prolly eat some pizza too, so come join us!

Posted in Adobe, CS4| No Comments | 

Thanks FUEL TV

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 22nd, 2008

Big thank you to Fuel TV for the generous schwag package I received earlier this week.

Its always nice to get product in appreciation (I’ve skateboarding since 1974). Especially when you are so far outside the target audience. Now if I could just get my Vans hook up back…

Check out Fuel TV –
web – http://www.fuel.tv
twitter – http://www.twitter.com/fueltv

Posted in Skateboarding| 2 Comments | 

It’s Official

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 21st, 2008

Adobe User Group Manager
Just realized I hadn’t mentioned that as of last month, I’m officially the co-manager for our Adobe User Group – FDUG here in Richmond, Va. Lou Barber and I have some great presentations, speakers and a few surprises lined up for the coming months so stay tuned.

Speaking of FDUG, there is a meeting tonight (08/21/2008) from 6 – 8 at ArtWorks in south Richmond. Users at any level of interest in Flash, Flex or AIR should definitely attend. The meetings are casual and there is no fee.

Posted in Adobe, FDUG| 1 Comment | 

FDUG Meeting 08/21/2008

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 20th, 2008

Just a quick reminder that the Flash Development User Group (FDUG) in Richmond, Virginia will be meeting tomorrow night – 08/21/2008 at ArtWorks in south Richmond from 6 – 8.
My old friend Kevin Power from the Martin Agency will be talking about programmatic animation in Flash and I’ll show some component skinning in Flex.

All levels and abilities are encouraged to attend. Come out and support Flash in Richmond!

Questions? Email me at brandonthedeveloper at gmail dot com.

Posted in Adobe, FDUG, Flash, Friends| No Comments | 

Removing Duplicates from an ArrayCollection

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at August 8th, 2008

I needed a Filter function to remove duplicate items from an Array Collection so I thought I’d do a quick post to share the code.


< ![CDATA[
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;

private var tempObj:Object = {};

[Bindable]
private var filterBtnCol:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection(
[{label:"Frank Black"}, {label:"NOFX"}
, {label:"Jawbreaker"}, {label:"Frank Black"}, {label:"NOFX"}, {label:"Jawbreaker"}
, {label:"Frank Black"}, {label:"NOFX"}, {label:"Jawbreaker"}]
);

private function filterCollection():void {
// assign the filter function
filterBtnCol.filterFunction = deDupe;
//refresh the collection
filterBtnCol.refresh();
}

private function deDupe(item:Object):Boolean {
// the return value
var retVal:Boolean = false;
// check the items in the itemObj Ojbect to see if it contains the value being tested
if (!tempObj.hasOwnProperty(item.label)) {
// if not found add the item to the object
tempObj[item.label] = item;
retVal = true;
}

return retVal;
// or if you want to feel like a total bad ass and use only one line of code, use a tertiary statement ;)
// return (tempObj.hasOwnProperty(item.label) ? false : tempObj[item.label] = item && true);
}
]]>

Posted in AS 3, Code| 7 Comments | 

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