While getting familiar with Flash CS3 Environment with AS3, I thought of trying to do a small experiment. I came up with some idea of  trying to mimic the behavior of a candle flame.

I have seen someone already did this way… way ….back then using AS2 and Flash 8 if I am no t mistaken. But this time I tried if I can actually implement the same thing using my own idea.

There were two steps that I did to get to the final thing:

1. I tried to put all the actionscript for the flame to work as well as the dragging of the candle. See the white candle
2. Skinning the candle with realistic bitmaps, coloring the flame,  and making sure the flame behaves and looks as the real thing.

On both steps, step number one did’nt really take a lot of time. Estimating it took me about less that 2 hours considering that im a bit shaky with the IDE and AS3 implementation. But the second step took about almost the same time surprisingly. I guess most of the time it was more of trial and error for getting the right color as well as behavior of the flame.

Step 1: Flash candle sturcture implementation. Resulted to 1KB swf file

Step 2: Adding skinning to the structure, looks more realistic. Dont forget to drag the candle so you can see how the flames behave. This time be careful not to get burned!! This resulted to 6KB swf file

At last and after a year that my blog has not moved. I garnered all my energy and time to put something meaty and may aid me in my future job search.
Feel free to browse through the page.

http://tomgutz.wordpress.com/portfolio/

tomgutz.com Homepage Screenshot

I got this personal portfolio/website (www.tomgutz.com) running two years ago, until i got tired of updating it. There are a lot of factors why I suddenly just stopped updating it, and the biggest one was it was time consuming followed by inflexibility. Having an all out flash site is awesome having all the animations and flashes in there. However, there are a lot of things that you’ll have to sacrifice that are readily available on HTML formated websites. This may be the reason why I now decided to have a weblog compared of updating my flash site.For the mean time i have uploaded it to Google pages until i get a decent file server. The bad part is Photos page is non-functional because google pages does not support folder creation which was needed for for the Photos page.

Here is the link. Make sure that you are flash player enabled!

Custom Flex Chart

This is my version of Google Finance Charts. If you have played with the Google Finance Chart and my Custom Flex Chart, you will notice that the interaction is almost the same, although, the looks are not. I could capture exactly how it looks like and the way it behaves, however, it will take a little more of time to do that. I some how gone to the direction of completing to what was only required by the company I am working for.

There are some dynamic elements on the chart that are a bit smart. Those are the vertical and horizontal markers. Both adjust themselves to avoid overlapping. This is completely true for the horizontal ones and partially true at the moment for the vertical markers. This is because i set the threshold to partially overlap by setting the intersection area to more than zero. But if I set it to zero then it would not even try to overlap at all.

The chart is still on a work and progress though. The chart on the background of the Date Range Selector is still to be integrated. Andas for now its kind of useless. The min dimension of the chart still has to be set. Currently it still has a bug that if you compress the its height to a minimum somewhere 100-150 pixels it would somehow go into a infinite loop inside the code. This happens since it keeps on evalutating where the horizontal markers should be placed.

Overall, for this to be competed, it will still take 2 more weeks of office work to properly style and make the interaction act more smoothly.

It was still a month before Christmas. But on the Orbe’s home where a bunch college friends plus friends and families, gathered to celebrate Christmas day after Thanksgiving. By history, this was the third time that this event will be done on the same date on the calendar. Although this was my second time to celebrate it with this group. This time, this came for me on a different perspective.

Last year’s celebration was a special one. At my age you will never fool me about Santa’s existence. But seeing it on a child’s eyes and action, you might just take back what you said and start believing.

The setup was that we all sing Christmas Carols. The best part is that we didn’t even use any minus one songs. Instruments are all live, thanks to my housemate Annalyze for being a splendid pianoist. This just brings up the memories of what we did on our childhood days of going from house to house with our goody cans to bang to the theme of Christmas songs, then ask for money after ruining their day with our carols. Anyway, it is always the “12 days of Christmas,” which was the last song in which before it actually ends, Santa’s bell starts to ring. This is the part where we as adults contribute in believing in Santa by asking the kids if the hear the sound of the bell ringing. here is where the magic start happening, somehow you don’t even need to tell them who is coming because they are already expecting him. At this point kids start to act as they experienced the shock of their life. Jaws starts dropping, smiles reach up to their ears, eyes as round as baseball, some are stiff and steady, while others starts to jump for joy, with dancing on the side. Honestly, I am not a kid anymore but I jumped for joy and dance like i don’t know what I am doing. I was stupidly fun, oh yeah!

Then as the song ends Santa starts to knock and enter the house. Adults again play their part by showing that they are also surprised to see Santa. But it was really a surprise for most of us since we are looking forward too see one of our friend dress up like Santa. For the kids it was like seeing their hero for the first time. But for the adults it gave us a reason to get a good hard laugh at our friend and enjoy the moment while we make a fool of ourselves.

The only thing I that i find really interesting as Santa talked to the kids is that they shy away and never look at Santa directly in the eyes. Its like they just committed a sin and was ashamed to admit it. Although, they ask some questions about Santa’s rain deers and where they are. And of course what grown ups do best we commit white lies about those things so kids won’t be looking for them.

Of course the main reason why Santa appeared is to give gifts. All of what Santa has on his big red bag was the contributions of every kid’s parent and every gift was named coming from Santa. Santa’s real gift was his appearance for that evening. It was more than enough since it brought unmeasurable joy and happiness to every kids heart. As Santa exits the house and bid the kids farewell, it never occurred to me that it has that kind of effects on children. It was like a wish come true to them. Even though I was not able to see Santa at my childhood, seeing it from their eyes was priceless.

This year almost all was the same…
Same date to celebrate the group’s Christmas
Same food to eat that came from Thanksgivings celebration
Same Christmas Carols
Same Santa clothes and accessories(this was actually used by guys measuring 5′7”, 5′8”, 6′1”, 5′11” tall. It was magic that we all fit in that one size)
Same gifts coming from Santa coming from parents
Same agenda to make kids jump for joy
Same 12 days of Christmas before Santa appears
..the only difference is that I play the part of Santa Claus

Since this the third time this was going to happen I have a feeling that this was the time that the kids will find out that we were just tricking them about Santa. The ages of those kids where 1 – 7 years old. Although, kids coming from 1-4 years old will still be easy to fool. However, for kids 5-7 it would be a tough one. Since at that age they start to ask a lot of questions and start to wondering why things happen like that.

As I dressed up, I have no idea that it was not easy to put the outfit on. Plus, your vision is so limited since you have to cover most of your face to avoid that kids recognizing you. I have to even avoid looking at the glasses that I borrowed since it has real high grade in it. It was also hard to move since the costume was really uncomfortable. I have to put one pillow under my shirt and try to balance it so it would not drop off. The boots itself was just a cover but not actually a shoes. I had to put slippers underneath it since wearing shoes underneath it would not cover the whole shoes. I just was thankful that it still shaped like a shoes even i wore slippers underneath, I tried not to bent it that much just to have it stay in shape..

After wearing the costume as I wait for my que to knock on the door, I was waiting outside the house wearing that ridiculous costume, and it was not even the month of December. And yes it is not even Holloween or Christmas yet. So, every time a car passes by i tried to hide from bushes, walls and corners. Thank God! Nobody saw me.. I hope!

As I hear my que, I started ringing the bell. It sounded like a ice cream vendor’s bell and it even looks like one. But the good thing is that no kid inside the house knows about it or they may actually think why Santa has that kind of bell. So, as the “12 days of Christmas ends,” I knocked on the door a couple of time. Actually I was not sure if someone would be opening the door for me. So I knocked a couple of times until I became impatient and I opened the door for myself, hahaha. And by force of habit i almost removed my slippers at the doorstep. Good thing that it didn’t came out so quickly, and i remembered i should not be doing it. So as I take a step inside the house, there it was, kids running towards me with eyes wide open, jumping for joy, shouting Santa’s name, one kid even gave me a hug. And on the other hand, the adults were laughing their hearts out. Honestly that moment was overwhelming that I almost forgot to say my few words which was HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS. Fortunately it wasn’t to late and i said it. I almost walked like i usually do since I was a bit confused. I really wanted to laugh with the other adults though but i tried hard not to. So one of the adults escorted me to the sofa then I started to open my red bag and distributing gifts. There were some kids questions asked. It gets tougher and tougher until some of the adults try to tell them no more questions for this year, haha! funny. It was even harder that one of the kids actually asked me if i read his letter for me. Haha! I just said yes and try to follow my instincts of what he would be expecting me to answer. He even asked if i read the back of it. I’m sure there is something in there but likewise i still said yes for whatever it meant for him. Then good thing I was able to bail out before being ask for more questions.

All in all, last years pre-Christmas celebration was the best one but playing the part of Santa beat it by a hundred points and definitely a priceless moment for me. Aside from that, I get to check one item on my 101 list as well as having great fun doing it. I am thankful that I didn’t screw-up the setup and reveal Santa’s real identity. And for the next person in line, I’m sure its going to be tougher and I hope we can keep up and play it right for years to come.

Here is the the video for that pre-Christmas celebration.

Pics from Dan’s camera 1, 2, 3
Pics from Caloi’s camera

When I am developing components on Flex the first thing that come to mind is “How it should look like?” or “How it will behave?” As we know it takes time to code such look and feel from scratch and testing every change we do just to validate if the outcome is what is intended. So to cut off such trial and error overhead, I decided to collect all the Flex UI Explorer out there. Hopefully this saves me time in my development when facing the usual questions.

Filter Explorer

Flex 2 Style Explorer

Flex Style Explorer

Flex 2 Component Explorer

Folsom Street Fair by definition from friends who told me about the event, was a festival where gays come over to a common place, to kink around. And of course it was nothing compared to the San Francisco Gay Parade, which is way way more suttle. This actually took place around the street of folsom spanning about 8 blocks which happens yearly at every last week of September.

Being thankful that i was accompanied by two other friends which by the way, we are all straight guys, we braved ourselves and open ourselves to whatever we may see in there. We did had a hard time looking for parking, but even though we were just going rounds in that area a lot scenic people can already be seen. Scenic by my definition are in terms of extraordinary, weird, funny, and entertaining. In the end we ended up on a more expensive parking lot costing about $20 which we tried to avoid. But we rather take it rather than take too much time going in rounds. But in the end we got it free? oh yeah! because no one was around to take our money. Not that we really did try to avoid paying, but i guess it was weekend and no one was there to actually tend to customers. So, hooray! hooray!

We really didn’t expect to pay an entrance fee of $5 (not that we mind) , since we didn’t know there is such. Thank God that we did bring a couple of change since i don’t usually bring some. So i guess its meant to be to participate in the event. But being a thrifty person i am, i always wonder where my money goes after i give it to someone. Well after surfing around and reading more about the fair, the entrance fee that i was talking about was actually a donation which benefits a lot of non-profit organizations, which actually helps humanity and all. So i guess my 5 bucks goes a long long way. Cool! money well spent.

Coming from a conservative culture, it is truly an eye opening experience, plus i get to prove what my friends told me about it. First i was shocked and could not believe that people would actually do it. What it means is that they are plain NAKED on the streets. Yes! you read it right. From the moment i entered the gates of the fair it was like watching a non-stop action movie. You pay attention to what is happening, to the details and you constantly feel jittery, where if someone goes on your blind side and shouts aloud, it will definitely make you jump 6 floors. Anyway, friend’s stories was true to every detail. People do get naked in there and you could actually see that they enjoy doing that in there. Majority of them were gay men while some are gay women. Well some of them were not that completely naked but they do actually wear piercings, colars, and tatoos on their privates, band aides for nipples, Some leather clothing but actually exposing.. still their privates, some hand cuffs, chains, and all sorts of things that you’ll see in an S & M store. In some instance when you stare too much on their privates you will see them that they actually treat them as another individual. Pets maybe? or some other guy named Joe. Honestly from how they decorate them to what they actually to them. I saw some stroking, patting, to making them lift weights which makes them what i think. I guess whats lacking in there is actually if you could talk to it. Sometimes it really gets frightening if the guy has actually a huge dick! Plus he is a big guy. It just gives you the notion that he could grab you easily and do whatever he want, Hell! God no! just thinking of it gives me the creeps. But don’t get the wrong idea that i despise or any gay would actually do that on the spot, but well i guess with proper permission i guess they will, but its just some of my crazy ideas while I am there. I didn’t see some hard core action though, only mild ones like kissing torridly, taking turns to whip each other, bending over while the other guy is at his back (but no penetration).

Well after two hours of strolling in the festival i guess i had enough of it, and did feel a bit of a head ache. It was the same with the friends that came with me. I’m a bit surprised though when my mentioned that he is having a head ache while i was feeling the same. Well i guess it was the price to pay for a straight guy from a conservative culture coming to an event like this. Well there is no remorse or some sort. I did enjoy my 2 hours stay there. And I would definitely come with others for years to come. But would never do it alone, Hell no!

Well to end this experience by chance at least i get to take a picture with a nice looking babe. Too bad she was gay women (lesbian) i think. never really asked since i think it was taken for granted that it was a gay event. Too bad also that it was taken from my trustee smart phone, since the camera we brought ran out of battery. Picture quality is not that great but enough to capture a good souvenir.

Here are the other pics.

I have been scouring the web for an article or a topic about how to somehow maximize the Flex’s AdvancedDataGrid columns header text space, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find even one article about it, or maybe i wasn’t that thorough or not that lucky to bump into one. Since we all know as a default, the AdvancedDataGrid columns uses an extra 20 pixels on the rightmost of the column header for the sort indicator, however, it is unlike the basic DataGrid which only takes that space when triggered to sorted. I really am not sure how come the guys from Flex did not create the behavior of column headers from the AdvancedDataGrid and basic DataGrid similar. I’m sure there is a reason behind it for better or worse. So basically this posting tells you on how to customize the AdvancedDataGrid column headers to behave like the basic DataGrid

Default AdvancedDatagrid

Custom AdvancedDatagrid

There is one problem though in this sample implementation. On initial Paint or Draw of the Grid, the customization i made has not taken effect. So you need to resize the grid columns of the leftmost table to repaint the headers. Eventually after doing that you’ll see the customization i made. I have solve this actually but for this simple demonstration ill leave it be.

Demo | Source

Links: AdvancedDataGrid, AdvancedDataGridColumn, AdvancedDataGridHeaderRenderer, AdvancedDataGridSortItemRenderer

I have been planning to do this for a long time now. And at last I have harnessed enough strength and courage to do this HA!HA! But basically the soul purpose of my blog would be a way to share my experience and knowledge mostly on the skills used on my job. And somehow I hope writing it down those things helps me remember them and of course helps other people.

So anyone who reads this, I hope you learn from me or maybe i learn from you from your inputs. Feel free to drop me a comment, suggestion, or just leaving a sweet greeting.