The video of the presentation I did at Apollo Camp the other day on using HTML and Script Bridging in Apollo is available on video.onflex.org. Props to Mike Chambers for enduring the extremely long encoding process. I will be releasing the source code for all the applications I showed in this presentation shortly. I just need to find the time to clean up the code a bit, and to fix a couple of bugs.

MapSnap was one of the first Apollo applications I wrote which incorporates HTML. It lets you look up addresses on a Yahoo map, and save the maps as a PNGs to your desktop. It's a very simple application, but I think it makes for an excellent example. MapSnap demonstrates the following: The general structure of an Apollo application. The use of system chrome. Stopping a window from resizing. Loading local HTML content. Script bridging (calling into JavaScript from ActionScript). Encoding a PNG.

The Apollo Alpha is now available on Labs, along with a lot of good resources on the Labs wiki. Yes, I know my blog has been silent recently, but that's primarily because I've been working with technology that hadn't been released yet. Now that the Apollo Alpha is live, I can start posting all kinds of tips and tricks, sample applications, and code snippets.

Mike Chambers interviewed me the other day about what I do on the Apollo team, and asked me to show a couple apps I've been working on. You can check it out the Google Video, or download the mp4.

I'm working on a new Apollo application, and I've been having some fun with data binding in Flex. In case you haven't used data binding yet, it is simply a way to bind an object to a component so that changes to that object are automatically picked up by that component, and the component automatically updates itself appropriately.

I'm sure most Firefox users are familiar with Live Bookmarks by now -- bookmarks that point to RSS feeds, and update themselves as the feed is updated. Firefox 2 has now introduced Live Titles -- page titles that also update themselves. If you're using Firefox 2 and you want to see an example, go to woot.com and bookmark it.

I've been getting tons of requests for more information on the Adobe $100 million venture capital investment plan. We now have a page up on the site, so if you're interested, check it out. Don't be put off by the last paragraph which talks about non-disclosure agreements. That's a pretty standard investor disclaimer, and nothing to worry about from a reputable company. Good luck!

MAX is always fun, but this year is going to set a new standard. If we can have a blast in Salt Lake City (three years ago, was it?), imagine how much fun we're going to have in Vegas. Adobe has a lot of cool projects in the works that we're going to showcase at MAX. Of course, I'm a little biased toward the Apollo sessions (one of which I'll be giving). There will also be plenty of Apollo demonstrations, samples, and announcements. Let me know if you're going to be there.

There's a little known protocol out there called the "dict" protocol which enables clients to connect to a dictionary server and query it for definitions. Servers can (and usually do) host multiple dictionaries, many of which are specialized. For instance, a single server might host the "freedict" standard dictionary, some translation dictionaries, a thesaurus, and maybe a dictionary specific to computer jargon (FOLDOC: The Free Online Dictionary of Computing).

Personally, I'm a Subversion fan. I started off using CVS for version control many years ago, then moved to Subversion, and have since been perfectly happy. But the Apollo team (along with most other teams at Adobe) uses Perforce, so I've been having to adapt. I actually like Perforce in general, but there are two things that really bother me: I don't like how you have to check files out (or add them to a changelist) before you can edit them.