DavidTucker.net http://www.davidtucker.net web development goodness Fri, 09 May 2008 12:24:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Big Changes: Leaving Georgia Tech http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/09/big-changes-leaving-georgia-tech/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/09/big-changes-leaving-georgia-tech/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 12:24:26 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=189 I have spent almost two year’s at Georgia Tech’s Savannah campus, and I have gained a lot of experience in my time there. I turned in my resignation today, because I am becoming a full-time Flex and AIR Consultant. I already have some great projects lined up in the next months, and I am truly looking forward to diving into some serious Flex and AIR projects.

I am currently booked up for the next months, but please feel free to contact me at david [at] davidtucker [dot] net if you would like me to work on a project in the future.

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/09/big-changes-leaving-georgia-tech/feed/ Custom Chrome Performance in AIR 1.0.1 http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/08/custom-chrome-performance-in-air-101/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/08/custom-chrome-performance-in-air-101/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 15:38:38 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=187 I had an AIR application that I was developing for a client around the time AIR 1.0 was released. This was a custom chrome application. When I profiled and tested the application I was less than impressed with the processor utilization. Actually, I was less than impressed with the processor utilization of any of the application I build that had system chrome set to NONE and had transparency. So, image my surprise when I did some more profiling and testing on this application (now that I am running AIR 1.0.1) to see that this issue was mostly gone.

I tried to find the actual release notes for AIR 1.0.1 to see if this was one of the issues that was addressed, but I couldn’t find any specifics (the release notes didn’t give any specifics). In all honesty, this improvement could be due to an external factor, but it appears to me that is was a fix that actually came with 1.0.1. Custom chrome applications (while not always a great decision) are now a more viable solution since this resource utilization issue has apparently been remedied.

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/08/custom-chrome-performance-in-air-101/feed/ Great Walkthrough of the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/05/great-walkthrough-of-the-flex-component-kit-for-flash-cs3/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/05/great-walkthrough-of-the-flex-component-kit-for-flash-cs3/#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 12:27:57 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=186 Adobe Evangelist Serge Jespers has a great overview of the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 on his site. He walks the user through the process of creating a Flex component from the FLVPlayback component in Flash CS3. I agree with Serge that the component kit has a lot of power - and many developers are under-utilizing it. I just used it on an application I just finished last week (more on that later).

The Flash and Flex Marriage

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/05/great-walkthrough-of-the-flex-component-kit-for-flash-cs3/feed/ Updating Multiple Wordpress Installations Programatically http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/updating-multiple-wordpress-installations-programatically/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/updating-multiple-wordpress-installations-programatically/#comments Fri, 02 May 2008 19:48:18 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=182 Shell scripts are great (of course - this is only going to work if you are on a Linux server). This script should also preserve plug-ins and themes (assuming that you keep data in the standard directories).

NOTICE: I cannot guarantee the functionality of this script. It is meant to be used as a guide. Backup your Wordpress installations before using this script.

PLAIN TEXT
CODE:
  1. #!/bin/bash
  2.  
  3. ###
  4. # CONFIGURATION
  5. ###
  6.  
  7. # List Directory Where the Update Script is Held
  8. SCRIPT_DIRECTORY=/home/david
  9.  
  10. # List Each Directory on Your Server that Contains a Wordpress Installation
  11. installations[0]=/var/www/html/blog1
  12. installations[1]=/var/www/html/blog2
  13.  
  14. ###
  15. # DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE
  16. ###
  17.  
  18. rm -Rf "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress"
  19. cd "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY"
  20. wget http://wordpress.org/latest.zip --output-document wordpress.zip
  21. unzip wordpress.zip
  22.  
  23. for installation in ${installations[@]}
  24. do
  25.         echo "Updating $installation..."
  26.         cp "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress/*" "$installation"
  27.         cp -Rf "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress/wp-admin" "$installation/"
  28.         cp -Rf "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress/wp-includes" "$installation/"
  29.         cp -Rf "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress/wp-content/themes/*" "$installation/wp-content/themes"
  30.         cp -Rf "$SCRIPT_DIRECTORY/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/*" "$installation/wp-content/plugins"
  31. done
  32.  
  33. echo "Updates Complete..."

You will have to update two settings in the script. First, you will need to update the SCRIPT_DIRECTORY variable. This will be the directory where wordpress will be downloaded and unzipped. Next, you will need to update the array of wordpress installations. Be sure to increment the number in the array.

You can download the script below. This script will not update your database tables - you will have to log into the administrator and click through the update process there.

Download Code
Update Script

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/updating-multiple-wordpress-installations-programatically/feed/ What in the World is CNN Doing…T-Shirts?? http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/what-in-the-world-is-cnn-doingt-shirts/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/what-in-the-world-is-cnn-doingt-shirts/#comments Fri, 02 May 2008 13:51:48 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=180 My boss pointed out the little T-Shirt icons next to some of the stories on CNN's site. Apparently, if you see this magical icon next to a headline, you can get a t-shirt with that headline on it. Yes... you can now be the cool guy in town with shirts that proudly display - 'Teen texts mom, thwarts burglars' or 'Campaign requires testicular fortitude'. Wow, this was a great idea....I am now in the process of switching out my entire wardrobe.

CNN\'s New News T-Shirts

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/05/02/what-in-the-world-is-cnn-doingt-shirts/feed/ Discussion of When Not to Choose AIR http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/discussion-of-when-not-to-choose-air/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/discussion-of-when-not-to-choose-air/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:17:51 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=177 This morning, I checked out the new Flickr Code site. As a part of this site was a blog post on how one of the developers at Yahoo redeveloped the Flickr Uploader (actually I think he is still redeveloping). His platform of choice to provide a consistent cross-platform application was XULRunner. He states that real choice was between AIR and XULRunner.

What were the deciding factors? In his case it came down to two things: the ability to use external libraries, and multi-threading support. In his case - I think most of his evaluations were correct. For that specific application XULRunner made sense...for now. I think many of these limitations will change in the future for AIR. However, as AIR developers we have to be able to look at a situation and honestly evaluate if AIR is the best choice for that specific use case.

You can read the post and watch a video about it here (the video of the AIR vs. XULRunner starts at about 7:00)

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/discussion-of-when-not-to-choose-air/feed/ AIR Tip 12 - Working with the SQLite Database http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/air-tip-12-working-with-the-sqlite-database/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/air-tip-12-working-with-the-sqlite-database/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:39:57 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=176 The SQLite database inside of AIR provides a great deal of functionality that can be used to create a great many different types of applications. In this article, I have placed links to the tutorials I have been writing over at InsideRIA.com on how to use this functionality (I am about halfway through this series). Let me know if you have any questions - and I can address them in the upcoming tutorials. Currently, I have covered topics such as: connecting to a database, running basic queries, strongly typing query results, and parameterized queries.

My SQLite Tutorials at InsideRIA.com

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/air-tip-12-working-with-the-sqlite-database/feed/ Performance with SQLite in Adobe AIR http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/performance-with-sqlite-in-adobe-air/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/performance-with-sqlite-in-adobe-air/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:24:19 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=175 I recently had the opportunity to develop a small tutorial application that ran queries on a good sized dataset (not huge - but 10,000 rows). I hadn't yet had the opportunity to test AIR's SQLite database functionality, and I must say that I was pleased. The application (which was a tutorial on strongly typed database results and parameterized queries for my AIR API series at InsideRIA.com) - just has a search field that enabled you to search through these 10,000 records to find a certain contact. It also auto-populates the datagrid as you type. So, if you typed my first name 'David', it would have search over 10,000 records five times.

When I search, the application's processor use goes from 2% to 22%, but then it drops almost immediately back down. Also, there is no visible delay between the search and having the datagrid populated. Overall, this leads me to believe that an AIR application could adequately handle extremely large datasets without degrading the user experience or hogging a great deal of system resources.

If you want to play with the application, it is at the bottom of the following tutorial. Also, if you download the source files, I have included the database - which might be useful for just playing around with the SQLite functionality (it was data from FakeNameGenerator.com).

AIR API - Additional Query Techniques (InsideRIA.com)

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/18/performance-with-sqlite-in-adobe-air/feed/ Amazon Developing Persisent Storage for EC2 http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/14/amazon-developing-persisent-storage-for-ec2/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/14/amazon-developing-persisent-storage-for-ec2/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:07:11 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=174 Amazon just officially announced that they are indeed developing persistent storage for EC2.

This new feature provides reliable, persistent storage volumes, for use with Amazon EC2 instances. These volumes exist independently from any Amazon EC2 instances, and will behave like raw, unformatted hard drives or block devices, which may then be formatted and configured based on the needs of your application. The volumes will be significantly more durable than the local disks within an Amazon EC2 instance. Additionally, our persistent storage feature will enable you to automatically create snapshots of your volumes and back them up to Amazon S3 for even greater reliability.

You will be able to create volumes ranging in size from 1 GB to 1 TB, and will be able to attach multiple volumes to a single instance. Volumes are designed for high throughput, low latency access from Amazon EC2, and can be attached to any running EC2 instance where they will show up as a device inside of the instance. This feature will make it even easier to run everything from relational databases to distributed file systems to Hadoop processing clusters using Amazon EC2.

Amazon has now cleared the second big hurdle for EC (with the first one being static IP's - which they recently remedied). Now developers will have to start asking the question - "Why am I not using EC2 for my RIA's?".

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/14/amazon-developing-persisent-storage-for-ec2/feed/ I Love My New iPhone But… http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/07/i-love-my-new-iphone-but/ http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/07/i-love-my-new-iphone-but/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:54:31 +0000 David Tucker http://www.davidtucker.net/?p=173 So, I waited out my old Verizon contract, and went to AT&T mainly for the iPhone. I was really excited, because I have been a big fan of the user experience offered by the iPhone. However, there was one user experience aspect that I failed to consider - AT&T's network. My user experience (at least with the calls) has been nothing but negative compared to my previous provider, Verizon. I am sure this is not the case elsewhere, but in Savannah Verizon is simply the best provider. My iPhone doesn't work at the office. My wife's Pantech Duo doesn't work at her school, and neither of our phones consistently work at home (and we don't have a home phone line - so this is a big deal). Unless something changes in the next few days - our phones are going back to AT&T and I will probably go back to my old XV6700 smartphone with Verizon.

]]> http://www.davidtucker.net/2008/04/07/i-love-my-new-iphone-but/feed/