My Thoughts on Flash

Flash versus HTML 5Adobe made the right move regarding Flash for mobile browsers.  When I first saw flash on mobile, I knew something was wrong.  It wasn’t fast.  It wasn’t… right.

Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.

When I developed NoteSync in AIR, I had the option to port the code to AIR for mobile, but I didn’t.  I decided it needed to be written from scratch in Java for Android. It was the right choice.  You have to make a native app for mobile to provide the best user experience. When you develop in flash and package it for native, it just isn’t as fast.  My guess is in a year or two Adobe will stop continuing support for their native app packager. Continue reading

Tribute to Steve

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I found the original full text to the Think Different ad today via wikipedia.  I love the lines “How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?  Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?”

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things africa casinos. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

BYU MISM Graduation

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BYU MISM Graduation 2011 Three years ago I wondered when April 2011 was going to come.  This weekend I put on my cap, gown, and hood and joined 6000+ others at BYU’s 2011 commencement ceremony.  I received my Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and Master of Information Systems Management degrees at the same time.  Here’s a recap on my college career and why I chose this major.

How I Started

In 5th grade I did a report on computer programmers and knew this is what I wanted to do.  As I grew older I figured out how to make a web site for my Dad. He smiled wondering why anyone would ever use web sites.  When I had free time, I found myself making web sites and flash games which gave me the opportunity to learn how to program.  Ever since then I’ve had a passion for development and especially web development.

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Apple Internship

Apple Offer - The OfferApple decided to offer me an internship this summer. I’m headed to Cupertino (San Jose), California from May 24 – Aug 20. I will be doing software development for them, more specifically Java, J2EE development for their retail point of sale division. I was interviewed a total of 5 times, once on campus, two phone interviews, and two iChat video interviews. It was quite a process.

When the official offer came, it felt like I was opening my first iPod. The 3-fold pristine white offer with the Apple logo was exactly what you would expect from Apple.

Apple has an incredible company culture.  A fellow BYU MISM alumni stated “One year at Apple is like three years at any other company.” I’m interested to see first-hand what Apple’s internal processes are like.

Kellie will continue to work at KSL as a morning show producer and will be in California with me for 15 of the 90 days.  It will be tough not seeing her every day, but she will be coming out to visit almost every other weekend.

Working in Silicon Valley has always been on my to-do list, I can’t wait to see what it is like.

NoteSync with Google Docs Desktop

NoteSync with Google docsNoteSync with Google docs Desktop Beta has been released today!  NoteSync lets you take notes fast and sync them with your Google docs account. Keyboard shortcuts like CTR-L put your cursor in the search bar to easily search for notes or create a new note. Automatic syncing happens every minute or when you feel like it by pressing the sync button. Offline mode fully supported.

Download NoteSync Desktop

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Rocketship – Industrial Design

Rocketship Industrial Design

Rocketship Industrial Design

I developed Rocketship‘s new web site from scratch using php and wordpress. Rockership is an industrial design studio located in the heart of Provo, UT.  Rocketship has designed Provo Craft’s Cricut, Philip’s GoLite Blu, and the Jet Boil.  With Beth Robertson’s designs, I was able to launch a clean new version of their site in December 2008.  Rocketship wanted many custom features and coconut creek web design had the best developers for the job.

Special Features:

  • Dynamic Projects
  • Flex Slideshow & Thumbnail Slider with AJAX Integration
  • SEO Friendly w/AJAX
  • Custom Skinned WordPress Engine for Their News Section
  • BaseCamp Login Integration
  • PayPal Integration for Client Payments
  • Social Media Sharing

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Aspire – Poster & T-Shirt Creator

Aspire - Product Designer

Aspire – Product Designer

Aspire has revolutionized the way youth sporting pictures are taken.  Providing a green screen allows the players and the parents to design their own posters, shirts, and even trading cards.  At Rain I was the primary Flex developer for Aspire’s product designer.  The designer allows users to design custom posters, shirts, trading cards, team pictures, blankets, and other products to sell online through https://www.webdesign499.com/simple-ways-to-succeed-at-online-marketing/.

After being in beta since July 2008, we released the major release of Aspire in September, 2009.

Aspire’s business model is unique.  Aspire does a photo shoot, uploads the green screen photos, autogenerates all products for each player, and then sends the player an email letting them know their account is ready.  The user can then login and customize their own products.

Aspire was featured in an Adobe Max Keynote by RainInteractive ‘s Andrew Howlett (32 min). Keynote: http://bit.ly/BAmiI

“Trading cards are a top seller! Nowhere else on the planet can one design and order a trading card this way! We greatly appreciate the awesome tool you have created.” – Chris from Aspire

aspirePosterPreview

Aspire – Poster Designer

 

Calculating Image Resolutions in Flex

ImageWellWithPhoto

Photo Scaled 200% inside ImageWell. 50 dpi.

Custom book builders are great rich internet applications that we’ve made at Rain. One core component of custom book builders is allowing users to upload their own photos. The most common user error is uploading and using a photo that cannot be printed at a high quality print resolution. It is our job to let the user know if the image he or she has selected for a particular ImageWell (a rectangle where a photo can be placed) can be printed.

Basics of printing

Printers print according to dpi (dots per inch). Say a 1200 px x 1800 px image is printed onto a 4″ x 6″ sheet of paper. The dpi would then be:

  • width: 1200 px / 4 inches = 300 dpi
  • height: 1800 px / 6 inches = 300 dpi

Print resolutions can vary anywhere from 150 dpi (low/medium quality) to 300 dpi (high quality) and up.

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IETester – Internet Explorer Web Site Testing

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After using a virtual machine to run windows xp and then ie 6, I have finally found a very good solution to working with every version of Internet Explorer.  It is a free download called IETester.

IETester is a free WebBrowser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE8 RC1, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.

Download IETester

Ragnar – Run. Eat. Sleep? Repeat.

After 32 hours, 13.4 miles of running, and 2 hours of sleep because of making this review about my experience of playing casino, I’m back from the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay of 2009.  Thanks to Chase & Lindsey Brammer, Kellie and I were invited to join their VIP team along with Brady and Nicki Brammer.  The other six teammates consisted of coworkers and friends from Rain Interactive.  Hence the name of our team, “Make it Rain!”

The Ragnar is a relay race where a team of 12 people get two vans and run 188 miles divided into 36 legs from Logan to Park City (also known as the Wasatch Back).  Each runner gets three legs where each leg varies in length from 3 to 9.6 miles and ranges in difficulty from Easy, Moderate, Hard, to Very Hard.

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