Here is an example config/database.yml file which implements the aforementioned approach:

login: &login
  adapter: mysql
  username: _your_username_
  password: _your_password_
  host: mysql.yourdomain.com
  socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

development:
  < <: *login
  database: myclient_dev

test:
  <<: *login
  database: myclient_test

production:
  <<: *login
  host: mysql.myclient.com
  database: myclient

If anyone has a copy of the SEGA “Moonwalker” ROM or an actual disk, please let me know!

I take the loss of Michael Jackson to heart, it is very saddening and humbling to me that a man of such awesome talent could be so thoroughly destroyed. Michael Jackson was a prince in the black community, and a lesson for all black men that no matter how much talent one has, the powers that be in this system that has historically been so oppressive can, and perhaps will ultimately destroy you.

One of my favorite artists, Jeru said it best when he said, “The days blow by like dust, even men of steel rust”.

Apparently, Michael Jackson wasn’t doing so bad 2 days prior to his untimely death… we’ll miss you Mike!

I also have a VHS of a “We Are the World” rendition we did for a 3rd grade school recital, in which I was MJ … but that’s confidential

Really though, who is going to be the next Michael Jackson?!

Just for the record, I’m speaking on continuous integration in RIA development architectures

It read as follows:
Unable to transcode Assets.swf

I wasted a bunch of my own time (and some of Abdul Qabiz’s) trying to figure it out, but nothing I tried seemed to work. Of course I googled for help, and the results their were even more mystifying. The only post I could find that sounded remotely close to what I was experiencing was this: http://www.codeverge.net/item.aspx?item=100658 and even though “mac_55″ was able to get it working, he had – as he put it, “No idea why it wasn’t working before.” That didn’t help much.

I started to suspect that Flash was somehow to blame, so I tried using another existing asset SWF that I had used w/ success in a previous project. Low and behold, it worked perfectly. Okay, that’s a clue… it’s somewhere in Flash.

Next, I saved the .fla that created the SWF that was working to the desktop and recompiled… then I tried using the resultant SWF in Flex again. You guessed it, it didn’t work.

Now I was really starting to think I was on to something, Flash was creating corrupt SWFs for some reason. I had crashed Flash about 10 times earlier trying to import PSDs, so I thought a restart may be in order, hopefully to resolve some phantom memory leak. So, I restarted.

After restart, I opened the previously successful, but now failing .fla and rebuilt. I noticed a ton of errors. Apparently, when I saved the .fla to the desktop, I broke the dependency chain somewhere and caused a bunch of errors. I realized that I hadn’t seen the errors before, most likely because the Output window was buried beneath a bunch of panels. Then, I opened the .fla for my apparently un-transcodable SWF – published the movie and poop, an error. Apparently “Background” is a reserved name, and my library item w/ the linkage id “Background” was causing the error. I changed the name to “BG”, it compliled fine, and worked perfectly in Flex.

The morale of the story is: if you see the “Unable to transcode” error message, make sure you’re freakin’ SWF is building properly. duh.

Hopefully someone on the Flex team can make sure that we get a more verbose error message in Flex 4.

If you are one of the fortunate attendees of this year’s FlashForward conference, by all means say hello if you see me

This year, FlashForward is a single track conference, so that means I could potentially cover each and every seminar… I’m not promising that, but I will promise to keep you up to date on the items that are the most interesting (IMHO). I’ll be doing my best to invoke conversations with all of the speakers and many of the attendees, and I’ll be sure to take and publish plenty of notes, including of any interesting URLs or examples for people to try.

If anyone has any idea on how we might make the live blogging from the event more relevant or useful, please let me know ASAP. I’m often too busy writing code to stop and blog, but things are changing soon… in a major way. Stay tuned for updates

For those of you who don’t know, here’s the blurb on Vuvox:

VUVOX is an easy to use production and instant sharing service that allows you to mix, create and blend your personal media – video, photos and music into rich personal expressions.

http://ebayinkblog.com/2008/06/23/vuvox-on-ebay/
http://seekingalpha.com/article/82695-ebay-acquires-vuvox?source=feed

Congratulations to Brian, Jim, Belmer, and Luke… Great work fellas

Last Friday, I taught my first ActionScript class to graduate students working their way towards a Master’s degree at the Academy of Art. I must say, I’m very excited about the class of students that I have and the class of projects they are bringing along with them.

The class is diverse, offering a rich variety of projects and cultural perspectives. Yet since it is a group directed study, it is also small and intimate (8 students), a nice quality for any academic environment. All of my students want to learn ActionScript and programming in Flash, and for the most part they are all daunted, or at least put off in some sense, by the prospect of learning ActionScript 3. I look forward to helping them learn to love the joys and rewards of adhering to best practices (most of all, keeping it simple) on the way to developing fun, interactive applications in Flash.

If any Flash superstars or evangelists are planning to be in the Bay Area anytime within the next 14 weeks, and have an interest in stopping by the class to inspire the next generation of Flash developers, by all means drop me a line so that we can plan accordingly.

The opportunities are various, and span the gamut of cool things happening in the Bay Area’s technology space, but don’t let geography be a barrier… we can and will either relocate you or work with you remotely if need be.

Following is an excerpt describing the Interactive Software Engineer position(s) we have available, extracted fromthe original posting on the Metaliq web site:

Metaliq is looking for a highly creative, flexible, and skilled Interactive Engineer to be part of a dynamic team of industry leaders.

Applicant must have 5+ combined years of engineering for interactive applications. Ideal candidate will have strong skills in one or more of the following technologies: ActionScript 3 (AS3), .NET C#, Java, or comparable OOP language. Applicant should also have a base knowledge and understanding of Internet based applications (including XML and SQL/relational databases) and some hands-on experience with Silverlight, WPF, XAML and/or Flash.

As an Interactive Engineer you will be part of the Metaliq engineering team, primarily focused on Microsoft and Adobe related technologies as they specifically relate to Rich Interactive Application Development. This role will also incorporate the integration of high levels of data specifically as it relates to connecting to backend data services.

… for more info, please see the original posting.

The industry is really bubbling right now. By that I mean that it is hot, moving, lively, etc. I hope that it’s not the prerequisite for some inevitable burst as some “experts” seem to be convinced of. Again, please get in touch with me if you have any interest in the above job posting, or in working with me on smaller side projects which are nevertheless interesting and lucrative.

Interested parties may contact me at caleb.org or caleb at metaliq.com