Something that has bugged me a few times, but I needed to figure out this time, as a Flash beginner, is that because everything is an object (and thus an instance of a class, including primatives) you more often than not (unless using primitives/statics) bind everything because you're always passing variables by reference.
Rediscovering audio and what may have fallen by the wayside
I've been thinking over the last couple days, no idea why really (although somewhat spurred on by a look at the Meridian Audio website) but I started to think about the quality of the music that I listen to. Being quite interested in home cinema (and more recently in audiophile equipment) I realised when I got my latest Sony F3000 amplifier and Monitor Audio Monitor 3 speakers that I was starting...
Expecting leftParen before something where there is nothing?
An ActionScript Compiler bug that I discovered today (that has been open for 5 years according to Adobe! ) whereby a compliation error caused in one timeline script will cascade to another without an appropriate warning as to where it was generated.
Call to a possibly undefined method addFrameScript
I decided that I should start posting some of the little niggles that I come across everyday, and the solutions that I've found, so that other people can find them somewhat easier than I may have (although that means years of PHP problems have been lost in the mists of time!) addFrameScript is an undocumented method (does not appear in the ActionScript Language Reference) that allows you to...
The Open University
It's coming up to a couple months now that I have been working for the Open University, and in comparison to my last place of work it's actually been pretty plain sailing! I'm working in a media division of an e-learning department, whereby most of the teams are akin to design agency teams in a sense with their own editors, designers, artists, project managers and developers.
Returning to the nest
After what seems like forever, I saw my cousin graduate from Cambridge University on Saturday, with my grandparents in tow (who have been staying with us for a few days now) and my aunt, uncle and his brother and wife. Very proud moment for everyone I think, emphasized somehow by the fact my family (or the family that I acknowledge, but that's another story) is Chinese, but all-round a fantastic...
Last British Grand Prix at Silverstone
Many moons ago I decided that once again I quite fancied going to the British Grand Prix, so was lucky enough to work a 4-day week in my first week at my new job and pop down. Well, I say pop down, living in Northampton makes it quite easy to get there (plus knowing the local roads makes it easy to avoid everyone who doesn't) but choosing to sit on Luffield Terrace again meant we had to go there...
Finally a break from it all
So at last, after almost 2 years, I finally managed to get a break from work (either my day job or freelance) which in a roundabout way only happened because I quit my job! My previous employer wasn't particularly liberal with my annual leave (I had to take most of January off so that I didn't lose all my accumulated leave, and even then I carried over the maximum amount) so to fit in a break...
Locked out
Looking back it seems pretty funny, but I wasn't having the best of times when I locked myself out of my flat on Sunday evening! Since I'm living in temporary accomodation at the moment there are all sorts of locks to open between the front door and my room; 2 on the front door and 2 on the room door. However you can't actually lock yourself in the room, as one is a Yale lock and the other can...
Budget
Like most people in England (or anyone who works at least) will have heard about the new 50% tax bracket, which has apparently won over public support because it taxes the rich. If I'm honest, it seems pretty dumb. Rich people already pay a ridiculous amount of tax, taxing them a little bit more (and proportionately to population it won't affect all that many people, or make that much money)...