Sape’s Blog

I made a simple AIR app to upload pictures to my buddy’s online photo gallery, Katana Photo Groups.  The AIR app is very basic (first workign version released); but it does in fact work.  So this is what you do:

1. Select directory to upload pictures from. OR
2. Drag and Drop files onto app.
3. Slecect the pictures you would like to upload.
4. Login to KatanaPG.
5. Click upload to upload pictures.

The above order clearly isn’t set in stone, but it gives you a basic idea of how the application works.

After that your pictures will be uploaded into your Inbox. You will need to already have a KatanaPG account for this to work.

It uses FZip (Actionscript zipping library) to compress the images into a zip and then uploads the zip to Katana.  I hope to had some basic images editing, drag and drop support, and it also needs some optimization.

Here is the package: katanapgair.zip

You will need Adobe AIR to run this.

UPDATE:

Added drag and drop from the PC and also fixed some memory issues.

I added some updates to the Magic Deck Builder.

• Double click on a card to see a detailed view of the card.
• Keyword search, so if you want to search for “slivers” type it in and only slivers will show.
• Added mana images and the ability to sort cards by mana amount in the Library Grid.
• Can save decks (only for the current session) and double click on decks to simulate the different ones.

Still need to develop the database and get all those card images in there…

Yesterday we interviewed some kids for our summer pilot “Game Academy.” We are basically trying to teach kids how to make games, and specifically make games on XNA (for XBOX 360).

The first girl was not interested at all. So Jeff was all bumbed. The second one, Del, comes in and immediates says, “Hey, why do you have an XBOX controller?” He’s on board from the get go! Next were 3 more girls, uh oh.

Courtney comes in, nervous and with Grandpa needing to go to work. We quickly gauge she enjoys using computers and let her grandpa get back to work. Melissa is next. She is a cheerleader and skateboarder, who likes Mattalica and Grand Theft Auto (just like Candace!). Brittany is the last one of the day, and she is very nervous. Once we told her what we wanted to do, she couldn’t stop smiling!

In conclusion, 4 out of 5 students super excited to learn how to make games. Score! Now I need to learn how to do it!

P.S. I just finished combining a chase camera, and split screen. Meaning: 2 players can fly separate planes around the screen with the camera following their own plane! I will post it a little tutorial when I clean it up, but here is the ChaseCamera and SplitScreen examples I combined.

The guys at work and I like to play Magic The Gathering. After a while, we started to want an easier way to make and organize our decks. Most use spreadsheets, others nothing and hope the deck works out. Some how, after “Evil Jar” stayed up till 3:32 AM looking for “Deck Builders,” he wanted to make one. Me, being bored and looking for something to do, decided to try and make on Flex. I decided not to deal with the database yet, just creating the interface; and since everyone else is dumping that on him, I conned “H” into being the DB guy.

So the Magic Deck Builder is up and running. Just for playing around and so “Rat Bastard” can tell me how he likes it! (There is also a link to the right under “Apps.”)

This is a little “Hello World!” with a button tutorial for Jeff, since he was having trouble with Flex. So, Jeff, start a new project in Flex Builder. Let’s call it, “HelloSape”. Now, go to the Design view of HelloSape.mxml and drop in a Label, fill in the ID with “sapeLabel“, and fill the Text with “Hello Sape!“. Now drag in a Button next to the Label, fill in the Button Label field with “Goodbye!“, and fill in the On click with “DoClick()“. Switch to Source view.

Enter this code above the Label:

<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
private function DoClick():void
{
sapeLabel.text = "Goodbye Sape!";
}
]]>
</mx:Script>

Save and run the application! Click the button and it should change the label!

At work we have our passwords expire every 90 days, but some people are off-site and do not get the friendly Windows log-on reminders that your password is expiring in, say, 14 days. So my boss thought, “Hey, it would be cool if AD could send out a email to everyone saying their password will expire! Sam, make one!”

So after googling around, I found some posts at CodeProject and some other places I can’t remember, and made a little Windows console app that reads in an XML file for the settings (AD server, email, etc) and sends an email to those whose passwords are expiring in the given number of days. And here is the C# Studio Express Solution…

adpassexpnotifier.zip

public void HelloWorld()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
}