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A bit of an odditiy occurring where it looks like a connection via remoting is dropping off inconsistently on one call. I want to check the event log file to see what is happening. This was the only item on it found and right now, we can't see any entries in the event log. Using service capture I can see that the repsonse doesn't come back. But on the server end, the response is sent. Anyone know of any way to check the logs or determine what is happening to the connection?

Stumbled across what I would consider an odd gotcha with ContextMenu's that I didn't see documented when I searched anywhere. You are allowed 15 custom items for a context menu. In flash 7 - it appears that the separatorBefore = true , when applied to a custom item , is considered a customItem. IN flash 8 this is not the case. In fact, both players will show the customItems, but in 7, items over the 15 limit will not fire the callback assigned. Here is some code to illustrate. It will work in 8 perfectly fine. Not the case in 7. // WORKS IN BOTH 7 and 8 var my_cm:ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(); for (var i = 1; i<=16; i++) { var menuItem_cmi:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem("Item"+i,shoutingOut); my_cm.customItems.push(menuItem_cmi); } this.menu = my_cm; this.menu.hideBuitInItems(); function shoutingOut() { trace("shout out"); } // DOES NOT WORK IN 7 var my_cm:ContextMenu = new ContextMenu(); for (var i = 1; i<=16; i++) { var menuItem_cmi:ContextMenuItem = new ContextMenuItem("Item "+i, shoutingOut); if (!(i%2)) { menuItem_cmi.separatorBefore = true; } my_cm.customItems.push(menuItem_cmi); } this.menu = my_cm; this.menu.hideBuiltInItems(); function shoutingOut() { trace("shout out"); } //--------------- Sorry about the code formatting, I need to get something going on that.

Apparently, I'm male- at least according to this one source. I was interviewed via email for a site that picks out popular blogs in the "blogosphere" - and I guess I failed to mention that I was a developer of the sans wang nature. Check it out - Interview with Stacey Mulcahy. It totally made me laugh but made me wonder how I break the news to my parents.

Today is mine. I now have a right to mock a younger generation and relish the good ole days of Galaga and Gauntlet.

This new site Comcastic which I think is a product of a collaboration between new daddy Branden Hall and Eric Natzke, is simply inspiring with the physics engine alone. It you haven't checked it out, you really should. Its one of those sites that will re-invigorate your inner creative child. Kudos guys.

But I might be now. I finally got around to checking out Keith Peter's latest effort - "Making Things Move" - part of the Foundation series put out by Friends of Ed. From what I've managed to get my dirty little hands on and find the time to give it the attention it deserves - I have to say, its pretty great. Before this goes to Keith's head, I'll tell you why: Preface: Like many other people out there, when I first ventured into animation with AS, I had no idea where to start. I was impressed I could do that, but it hardly impressed the creative types who were all "easing!slinky!elastic!gravity!". Then I discovered Bit-101. And then I learned, from the tutorials to the experiments Keith posted. In fact, in the introduction to flash class I teach at the local college, I always refer students to his work when they ask about the topic we never have enough time to cover. Great things about the book: 1. It addressed the various versions of AS So you're brand spanking new to flash. You look for tutorials or sample fla's on something like Flashkit or Ultrashock and you see a lot of Flash 5 - Actionscript 1 code. You can still use this book. So you use AS2 and keep everything in classes which you import. You can still use this book. Don't underestimate how hard it is , and will continue to be to effectively cover the various version of AS without completely confusing the reader in the process. This book addresses the versions without creating an even greater learning curve for the user. 2. Get what you want quick - Formula Cheatsheets. I don't need to go through and understand how a frame loop works and is created. I just need the formulas - the goods. Give me that and let me go play. I can do that easily - as all the applicable formulas are listed at the end of the chapter. 3. Educates without Patronizing I might be advanced, I might be a beginner. I'm never made to feel that I'm being patronized which means I'll get much more out of the book than quicker. In a nutshell, it looks pretty solid. Its nice to see a book by him, rather than a chapter:) Hopefully the next book I can review will be Grant Skinner's -his great instructional style would transfer seamlessly onto paper.

So when they release those articles on devnet, you probably shouldn't bookmark them intending to come back and read them when you have time to breathe and can ingest it. Just make the time now. Had I read the articles in detail, I would have immediately known what the issue was that I was troubleshooting. When I heard about the new approach to garbage collection in the new Flash, i thought - that makes sense. I wasn't wary of it like I might be the new security sandbox restrictions - where you might have to make changes to accomodate for it. I thought great,improvement in performance, thank you very much MM. Today I ran into an issue tho, that had to do with the new garbage collection. Its pretty big to explain , but needless to say once I figured out the reference was still lingering about creating a problem - then it was pretty easy to solve. But it had me scratching my head - why would this be fine in flash 7 and not 8. Makes me wonder how many other things will be affected as a result. In theory if you take out your own trash you don't have to depend so much on Flash cleaning up after you. Anyone experience new bugs as a result of the new garbage collection approach and if so what are they and how can they be avoided?