Blogger Tips and Tricks and Motorcycles Too

When I bought my first motorcycle a year ago, a 2006 Honda Shadow Sabre, the first thing I did was buy a Garmin Zumo 550 GPS for it. Cause I needed it, OK! When I took my bike to the shop, the mechanic said to me, "You know, when people buy a new bike, one of the first things they do is buy louder pipes or bigger tires, but you are adding a GPS?" Well, I'm a gadget geek and that's right, the GPS was the coolest thing out there. I of course also had to buy the XM Radio GXM 30 antennae, speakers for my helmet and a cool handyman toolkit, but I digress.

I am fairly new to blogging, being the gadget geek that I am, one of the first things I did was search for all the cool tips, tricks and gadgets out there you can use on Blogger. You can find some of them if you read on.

1. Had to think of some theme for the Blog that was personal and could be broad enough to encompass the amazing wealth of knowledge stuck in my head. Not that much really.
   
2. Setup a Google Apps Domain, because I needed to my own domain name of course. I did this through Blogger and had some real problems getting Google Webmaster tools to see my new domain and allow me to submit a Sitemap. Here's a good knol article on the issues. Incidentally, I discovered Google Apps and Webmaster tools through this and they are very nice tools.
   
3. Added jQuery Expandable Summaries to posts.
4. Created my own hacked up minimalist Blogger template with a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
5. Had to show off my basic Photoshop skills creating my classic iconic site header graphic.
   
6. I created my own Adobe icon buttons using a cool AIR application. If you don't know, AIR is a cross platform runtime that let's you create offline desktop applications. It's pretty amazing and people have created some incredible applications, a lot more and some more.
   
7. You should definitely sign-up with Technorati.
8. Submitted a Sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools.
9. I added links to my Social/Web 2.0 site buttons, gotta have those, right?
   
10. I found a few nice tools to help manage, advertise and track traffic on my blog including:

• AddThis
• FeedShot
• FeedBurner
  - If you are using Google Webmaster tools, check this out.
• Google Analytics
• Grazr

So I think I am good to go ;) Now I just need to create some great content and get everything in my head onto my Blog. I read a good point that it's easier for experts to report than reporters to become experts. I have a little expertise I can share that may be of some value. I have been a terrible troll the last few years, consuming much and giving little. I started this Blog to index my life, work and interests hoping you can find something valuable here amongst the loud buzz of the Blogosphere and my cluttered mind, which I am trying desperately to organize. I like to say that I am smart enough to know that I have a lot more to learn. I think Socrates said that. Enjoy.

MAX 2008 Cairngorm Tips Presentation

You can download my MAX 2008 Cairngorm Tips presentation I did with Peter Martin. You can download it below. Check out his new Cairngorm plug-in as well. 

• RIA Development with Cairngorm: Tips and Tricks

MAX 2008 Flex for Java Architects Lab Materials

OK, if you are trying to find the lab materials from our MAX lab, you can find them below. Click the download link on the right menu to download documents:

• Lab Handout
• Lab Files (Part 1)
• Lab Files (Part 2)
• Lab Presentation

If you have any questions drop me a line. I will be working on a new Maven archetype that will build in support for Cairngorm, Java, and ActionScript code generation. 

Are you Guilty of Truthiness

When you think you know something intuitively and you have no idea what the hell you are talking about, you might just be spouting a little Truthiness. A little truthiness can destroy a marriage, end a friendship, bankrupt a company, or send America to war with little ole Iraq. Please, let's watch the truthiness and back our talk up with facts. If your comments smell truthy, I will delete them expeditiously, but this is my blog, so I can say whatever I like :)

Life of a Geek [PIC]

So sad how true this is. I need to get out more.

read more

New Star Trek HD Trailer

I'm a closet Trekkie. I don't let too many people know. I just saw the new Star Trek trailer and all I have to say is OMG! It is going to be amazing and you bet my non-sci-fi fiance is gonna get dragged along to the midnight showing! 

Trailer!

MAX 2008 is Over!

I just finished attending my first Adobe MAX conference. It was pretty amazing. I am relatively new to Flex/LiveCycle, just over a year. I had the chance to present at MAX due to some work I did on my first project at Adobe Consulting. It took a lot of work to prepare for, needless to say I am glad it's over. I will be blogging on some of the things I learned and you can find my lab and presentation materials up on the blog as well. 

I presented with Peter Martin on Cairngorm Tips and Tricks to a full house. I was pretty nervous, but it came off pretty well I think. Peter was one of the original authors of Cairngorm, an MVC framework for Flex, and he presented a great new Eclipse plug-in to make your Cairngorm development a lot easier. I encourage you to check his blog out for more information. 

I presented my lab with Francois Le Droff from Adobe Consulting. We covered code generation techniques using Ant and Maven for Flex applications. I am planning on developing a new Maven Archetype that will use JAXB, Hibernate, and a Java to ActionScript library to create a skeleton LCDS application with code generation support. Look for more information on that soon. 

Portable RIAs

James Ward has a great tutorial on how to embed a RIA in a PDF. The basic idea is to render a PDF on the server side that embeds a Flex application. The basic steps:

1. Create the back-end data source for the application
2. Create the basic Flex front-end application
3. Create a back-end PDF generation service
4. Create a PDF with form fields that will be used to store the data
5. Modify the Flex application to read data from the PDF
6. Add a way for the user to generate a PDF from the Flex application
7. Merge the final Flex application into the PDF template

 Check it out here Portable RIAs. 

New Tour de FLEX AIR Application

Check out the new Tour de FLEX AIR application. It provides a great overview of Flex and LCDS. It includes code and language references. Stop by the new site as well, flex.org/tour.  

Thought for the Year

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead 

This is just such a powerful statement. It floored me when I first read this in a college Anthropology course. It speaks essentially about community. I think community is something that Adobe has done a great job cultivating around it's web technologies. At MAX 2008, Adobe introduced a new community building tool found at groups.adobe.com. I encourage you to check it out and participate.