Former ColdFusion team member, Mike Brunt, has written an article for the Adobe Developer Connection entitled Using ColdFusion to enhance scalability and high availability. Mike covers high availability concepts, hardware considerations, clustering, and more. This one is well worth the read.

So I've finally gotten around to playing with using a Wiimote with Flash. I started looking at the WiiFlash project but the server is Windows only and since I'm on a Mac I kept looking and eventually found MoteDaemon.

Now due to security restrictions with the Flash player, all socket servers need policy files and although the source is provided for MoteDaemon I didn't want to mess around with it in Xcode so I just made a quick AIR app that lets you play with it. The MoteDaemon included ActionScript library is AS1, so I ported it to AS3, which you can view source and download here.

To get it up and running:

1. Download MoteDaemon from SourceForge and install it
2. Run MoteDaemon and pair your Wiimote
3. Download, install and run the AIRWii test app. Then click connect.

Now you should be able to see what's going on with the Wiimote. Next step is to do something with this data :)

The AIR app also has the source included for funsies.

For a Better Community, our blog has started a Fx{r} Community! Group Fx{r} based on the need for communication among web developers, and try to support members as a means of quickly solving various problems or situations that require a technical answer, endorsed or based on experience from other virtual community and more. This group is a [...]

source package { import flash.display.Bitmap; import flash.display.BitmapData; import flash.events.Event; import flash.events.KeyboardEvent; import flash.ui.Keyboard;   import org.papervision3d.core.proto.MaterialObject3D; import org.papervision3d.lights.PointLight3D; import org.papervision3d.materials.ColorMaterial; import org.papervision3d.materials.WireframeMaterial; import org.papervision3d.materials.shadematerials.FlatShadeMaterial; import org.papervision3d.objects.primitives.Plane; import org.papervision3d.objects.primitives.Sphere; import org.papervision3d.scenes.Scene3D; import org.papervision3d.view.BasicView; import org.papervision3d.view.Viewport3D; import org.papervision3d.view.layer.ViewportLayer; import org.papervision3d.view.layer.util.ViewportLayerSortMode;   [SWF(width="640", height="480", backgroundColor="#000000", frameRate="60")] public class Portal extends BasicView { private var portalViewport:Viewport3D = new Viewport3D(); private var portalScene:Scene3D = new Scene3D(); private var portalPlane:Plane;   private var exposedViewport:Viewport3D = new Viewport3D(); private var exposedScene:Scene3D = new Scene3D();   private var mainSphere:Sphere; private var exposedSphere:Sphere;   public function Portal() { addChild(exposedViewport); addChild(portalViewport);   setupExposedViewport(); setupPortalViewport(); setupMainViewport();   startRendering(); stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN, keyDownHandler); }   private [...]

So, December has come and it began from the opening ceremony. Big hall seated just a little bit less that 1500 happy attendees. We saw flashy interactive show with industry bosses talking about beautiful spaceships flying through infinite universe on different topics. We’ve been informed on Adobe’s invasion on the screens of all devices all over the world, next year plans on software development. They also showed us Flash 10 prototype working on communicators. The show was very well directed, along with some discrepancies – say, big prototype device could not connect to home computer, but that was OK, we already caught the idea and overall impression was perfect. After an hour the conference has began, and we went to sessions. We won’t go into much details about sessions here, let’s just say they were different - from very well structured and performed to really boring ones. People were wandering around Community Pavilion, discussing things, eating and having troubles with wifi speed at the brakes between sessions. We really liked the atmosphere, very friendly and favourable for making new contacts. At the middle of the day we visited Carlos Ulloa’s presentation onPapervision3D. He turned out as a friendly and philosophical-minded person, so we made friends with him immediately, and even managed to find out some plans on the evening. Rob Bateman from Away3D and Thomas Pfeiffer from Sandy3D were there too, so we had our “flashthreedee” gang formed for whole the conference. Birds of Feather session became very important and interesting event for us. Sitting alltogether answering people’s questions, we learned a lot, it was some kind of sporting interest in the air, and we managed to find some common point in our vision. So, instead of silly fighting we shared our thoughts, answered a lot of different questions and stayed there for like two and a half hours, making friends and having fun. Thank you everybody! After that we took a short brake and then met again (competitors + some activists form the meeting), to have our time without pressure, sitting in a good restaurant where Adobe evangelists were having party too (we decided not to disturb them). Yeah, then we moved to another place, and of cource, we got lost in the city, and it was far from boring. People! Meet your competitors, it is informative and fun! Tomorrow: second conference day, how to make 1500 people happy, sleepless night before our session, and the session itself.

source package { import flash.events.Event; import flash.events.MouseEvent;   import org.papervision3d.core.geom.renderables.Vertex3D; import org.papervision3d.core.math.Number3D; import org.papervision3d.core.math.Plane3D; import org.papervision3d.events.InteractiveScene3DEvent; import org.papervision3d.lights.PointLight3D; import org.papervision3d.materials.shadematerials.FlatShadeMaterial; import org.papervision3d.objects.primitives.Sphere; import org.papervision3d.view.BasicView;   [SWF(width="640", height="480", backgroundColor="#000000", frameRate="60")] public class DraggingASphere extends BasicView { private const NUM_SPHERES:int = 11;   private var planeToDragOn:Plane3D; private var currentSphere:Sphere;   private var light:PointLight3D;   public function DraggingASphere() { viewport.interactive = true;   camera.y = 400;   light = new PointLight3D(true); scene.addChild(light);   for(var i:int = 0; i < NUM_SPHERES; i++) { var material:FlatShadeMaterial = new FlatShadeMaterial(light, 0xeeeeee, 0x2d2d2d, 10); material.interactive = true; var sphere:Sphere = [...]

So we all know people build some amazing things using ActionScript: it’s a flexible language that provides some syntactic sugar to make developer’s lives easier. That sugar, however, gives me, umm, toothaches, some of which I talked about already. So now, I’ll rant about some other idiosyncrasies of AS3 that make it an [...]

I blogged a few months ago about some great Actionscript open source or free code libraries that you should check out. In that list, I mentioned the great, somewhat outdated, but still useful Casa Framework for Actionscript 2. Well, let me repeat that endorsement, but with a big big reinforcement! The Framework has been renamed [...]

Since VectorVision was integrated with Papervision3D, it seemed only appropriate to make a Hello World demo for today. Simple, eh? source package { import flash.events.Event;   import org.papervision3d.materials.special.Letter3DMaterial; import org.papervision3d.typography.Font3D; import org.papervision3d.typography.Text3D; import org.papervision3d.typography.fonts.HelveticaBold; import org.papervision3d.view.BasicView;   [SWF(width="640", height="480", backgroundColor="#000000", frameRate="60")] public class VectorVisionHelloWorld extends BasicView { private var text3D:Text3D;   public function VectorVisionHelloWorld() { var material:Letter3DMaterial = new Letter3DMaterial(0xcc0000); var font3D:Font3D = new HelveticaBold(); text3D = new Text3D("Hello World", font3D, material);   scene.addChild(text3D);   startRendering(); }   override protected function onRenderTick(event:Event=null):void { text3D.yaw(1); renderer.renderScene(scene, [...]

Monochrome is a UK based RIA development and consultancy firm. And Monochrome's Neil Middleton explains Why Monochrome Uses ColdFusion.

I know that all the talk of the weakening economy has you down, but guess what? There is a way to pocket a ton of cash by doing what you probably already do well: building an application using Flash, Flex, or AIR that uses the Ribbit platform. Ribbit has announced the $100,000 Killer App Challenge. [...]

It’s official–Thermo is now Flash Catalyst! Ryan Stewart and I did a demo of the current (very early) build of Flash Catalyst at the day 2 keynote at MAX, and we also made a video of the same demo for this month’s issue of the Adobe Edge newsletter, which just came out today. Julie Campagna [...]

I'm not a big fan of IT analysts, and have noted so previously. I find that far too many of them are all opinion and no experience, tossing supposed expertise around with little to back it up and even less transparency, and in doing so often actually impacting buying and deployment decisions. Now to be very clear, there are exceptions. Last week in Milan I got to spend some time with RedMonk's James Governor who seems to relish breaking the technical analyst stereotype - he's direct, honest, knowledgeable, and brutally blunt, and he cares less about being popular or quoted and more about finding sanity and clarity amidst cesspools of hype and hyperbole. But, of the analysts I have met (and I have met many over the past two decades), he's the exception, not the rule. I bring this up because I was recently pulled into a conversation with a U.S. Government agency that has been using ColdFusion successfully for a long time, and has recently started working with Flex as well. Apparently, as is the case in most large organizations, multiple products and technologies are in use, and there was some discussion internally about the platform on which to build a new application. And so, the organization (I promised not to name names) sought outside expert advice by contacting Gartner who then came back with a recommendation. Before I go any further, there is something I should state quite emphatically, and that is that I fully appreciate that there are lots of options out there, and sometimes ColdFusion may not be the right tool for the job. If careful research is performed, and a decision is made to use PHP or ASP.NET or Java or anything else, well, I can respect that decision (even though I'd try to encourage the use of ColdFusion when and if I think it is the right choice - hey, I am biased, and I freely admit it). Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled programming ... Gartner came back with a recommendation, a copy of which I have read and reread. And they did not recommend ColdFusion. Nor did they recommend Ruby on Rails or Java or ASP.NET or ... So, what did Gartner recommend for brand new development instead of ColdFusion? I hope you are sitting down ... Gartner recommended the use of Perl. Yep, Perl, the same Perl that was created in the late 80s, the same Perl that has been a staple of IT departments and system admins for decades, the same Perl that primarily relies on CGI for use with web applications, the same Perl of which the current version 5 was released in 1994 (and yes, I know that version 5.10 came out a year ago and v6 is in the works). And no, I am not badmouthing or belittling Perl - it is indeed proven and battle tested and powers some impressive applications including Bugzilla and Moveable Type and parts of some impressive sites including Amazon.com and IMDb. Still, it's a pretty astounding recommendation, and one that is somewhat harder to fathom than, say, recommending PHP or ASP.NET. Ok, so why was Perl recommended? The first criticism of ColdFusion is one of leveragability, that logic created in ColdFusion can't be easily shared with other applications. Obviously, considering Web Services interfaces, and gateways to just about anything, this is flat out incorrect. I am not sure what type of integration Gartner is referring to, but I fail to see how logic in Perl is inherently more sharable than logic written in ColdFusion. The next criticism is cost, and Gartner notes that as commercial software, ColdFusion has a higher acquisition cost. Interestingly, Gartner explicitly points out that this is an acquisition cost issue, but then goes on to simply ignore any ongoing cost issues (like training time, development time, etc., even though it previously points out that a benefit of ColdFusion is that it is easy to learn and fast to develop in). In fact, the report goes on to point out that code written in Perl is more complex, and that maintenance by future developers is a potential challenge. There's more, but you get the gist of it. Gartner concludes by stating that Perl can run on multiple platforms, and then noting that ColdFusion can also run on multiple platforms, but that Perl can also run across multiple solutions. (I have no idea what that even means!). And finally, the report makes the argument that Perl is open source and thus provides a higher level of investment protection than single vendor solutions, apparently unaware that there are in fact other products (including open source offerings) that support CFML (to varying degrees). The report does not state whether or not the researchers have ever actually used ColdFusion or Perl (or any other player in the space), apparently that is not a prerequisite to actually making recommendations. I know I am generalizing somewhat, and am sure that there are analyst reports and expert opinions that are balanced and sound and well reasoned. Unfortunately, I don't seem to run into them much, which makes the reliance on supposed experts a very worrying notion. And that end of the day, analyst opinions are just that, opinions. They are not facts, they are not automatically valid, and they are not even necessarily driven by subject matter expertise. They are just opinions, albeit expensive ones. And as for opinions, well, you've probably heard the expression "Those who can't, teach". The phrase is actually rather absurd, I know many who can and teach (and many who can't and thankfully don't!). So, I propose that we update the phrase to "Those who can't, opine".

Online holiday cards are usually worth a chuckle but no one really pays much attention. At Animoto we've released a special card service that is truly meaningful because the content you send is really your own photos. It lets you create a high-quality music video from your photos instantly, then wraps it in a beautiful [...]

My fourth article in the "Project Management from the Developer's Perspective" series is up on InsideRIA where I basically rant about the importance of planning and abuse the saying Adam Boozer taught me - "OMG, what are you going to do??"

Read the article here

Adobe in a recent press release announced that it “has taken steps to reduce its headcount by approximately 600 full-time positions globally”. This was buried in the middle of a lot of other dollar-numbers, and what narks me the most is the complexity of business writing which hides the message within itself. Peter of RIAJobs [...]

As far as you probably know, just before Milan we visited Moscow hero-city, where we managed to meet legendary Anry and his team, passed through negotiations in Deluxe Interactive (quite successfully), one more time met Ivan Dembicki and his guys from NeoQB discussing current projects, and spent the night at Red Keds office, during their crazy party, discussing common future plans.     After three days stay in Moscow you begin to have trouble with militia we finally got into new aeroflot airbus and teleported to the heel of Italy. Artemy and Vladimir from Flexis joined us on board a plane and then shared a lot of funny minutes with us, so thank them very much. Italy met us with a milky fog, and a pilot even had to push the brake on a runway because of suddenly appeared another plane close to us. The road from Malpenza to destination point was filled with foggy sightseeing throught the bus window. Fiera Milano exhibition centre is unbelievable — this is a huge anthropogenic complex five metro station away from the center of Milan. Here are a lot of perking places, few events taking place at the same time, and a lot of other stuff. We even got to some fashion exhibition by misleading our way one time. There are a lot of hotel in the area, and it is very useful for attendees not to mess with the transportation issues around. Now it is popular to host small specialized parties just before big events, and Adobe MAX Europe 2008 followed that good tradition. After a registration, having our badges worn, we got to FlexCamp, where were a lot of people already, discussing latest development issues and sharing their thoughts on future of Flex. We especially liked very well structured and performed FDT presentation, at the end of which Michael Plank made cool live speedcoding, managing to recreate from scratch whole presentation project. Good job! Meantime, the conference preparation were about to be finished, and people were arriving to get their registration before tomorrow morning rush, and there were even some free stuff given away already. After attending a couple of sessions, meeting with sMeet game, and asking some hard questions “about Flash 10 coming to mobiles” to Adobe bosses, we departured to get our dinner. Pasta was fantastic, and local dry red wine became a great finishing chord to our first day in Italy.   Tomorrow: opening ceremony, first meetings, competitors session, unofficial Flash 3D beer party.

As we promised we are coming back with an article about the MAX Awards in Milano. The awards were structured in three categories: Design, Development and Envision. Here are the nominees… Design Lacoste Future Tennis (http://www.lacoste-future.com) Audi A5 by GT London (http://www.rhythmoflines.co.uk) Alfa Romeo Experience 159 by Soleil Noir (http://www.experience159.com) … and the winner is: Alfa Romeo Experience 159 by Soleil [...]

At Max Milan last week, I gave a presentation on Flex Development with Cairngorm. The presentation was based largely on the "Cairngorm: Tips and Tricks from the Experts" presentation my colleagues Peter Martin and Eric Garza gave at Max in...