Archive for Books
April 18, 2008 at 1:07 pm · Filed under Actionscript 2, Actionscript 3, Adobe, Books, Flash, Flex, Mobile Development, OSFlash, Personal
About a month ago Aral Balkan mentioned he wasn't finding the time to write a chapter on SWX for an upcoming Friends of Ed book, so I offered to step in to write the chapter for The Essential Guide to Open Source Flash Development on SWX for Flash and Flash Lite.
It is an honor to be a part of this book with such open source Flash community members as Chris Allen, John Grden, Wade Arnold, Carlos Ulloa, Moses Gunesch and others. You can read bios of all the authors on the book's bio page.
I am wrapping up the last round of review this weekend, and the book should be published and available in July. You can pre-order the book on Amazon.com today for about $31.
July 19, 2007 at 10:51 am · Filed under Actionscript 3, Adobe, Books, Flash, Flex
According to Mike Downey and Ryan Stewart, Colin Moock's Essential ActionScript 3.0 is the bestselling O'Reilly book and number four (or five now?) on Amazon's best seller list.
I had previously posted about my problems finding a copy of the book, including the major delays by Amazon.com. Apparently others are having the same issues (see the comments at the bottom of Mike's post), which I am sure is a result of unexpected popularity on Amazon's part. Either way, if you are still wondering why you can't find a copy of the book -- now you know!
June 22, 2007 at 9:01 am · Filed under Actionscript 3, Adobe, Books, Flash, Flex
Today I woke up to an email from Amazon.com informing me that Colin Moock's new book "Essential ActionScript 3.0" was going to be delayed until August 24th. The book is still listed on their site as available for pre-order without an estimated shipping date, and after checking Powell's Books (Portland's famous bookstore) and Borders' website, I have found that neither of them list an available date.
So if you are like me and have been waiting for this book to come out for months now... it looks like the wait will continue. Sadly, I have a feeling that due to Moock's overwhelming success with his prior books, many developers are waiting for the release to learn AS3. Because of this, I can't help but think that the delay in releasing this book has the potential to slow the overall adoption rate of AS3 in the interactive community.
April 17, 2007 at 2:42 pm · Filed under AIR (Apollo), Actionscript 3, Adobe, Books, Flash, Flex
The Pittsburgh Flash Users Group (specifically Ben Pritchard) has posted an informative podcast interview with Colin Moock (author of Essential ActionScript 3.0 from O'Reilly, among others). The podcast does a great job of providing a behind-the-scenes look at the writing of a book, as well as general thoughts from an industry leader on the Flash Platform. If you have also been wondering why the book hasn't hit shelves yet, Colin provides some thoughts on that as well.
Also, as a bonus check out Colin's notes from his upcoming FITC talk, "ActionScript 3.0 and Flash CS3", here:
http://moock.org/lectures/ActionScriptAndFlashCS3/
January 10, 2007 at 2:04 pm · Filed under Books, Design Inspiration, Flash
For the past few months I have had several of Taschen's Web Design series books sitting next to my desk. I often spend a few minutes flipping through one of them when I need to take a break from coding, and I always get inspired.
These small-format books offer what they promise: screen grabs of (usually) well designed and well thought out sites. And at less than $10 a piece, it's pretty easy to build up a collection.
What I enjoy the most is that there is very little discussion on the sites. Every book starts with one or two case studies, but after that you get just a screenshot, tools used, budget (hours and/or money) and people involved. It allows me to form my own opinions on the site, and the ones I am interested in I'll go check out online.
Pick one up if you get a chance. If you are in Portland, Oregon, Powell's in the Pearl District has the whole collection on the floor with the art and design books.
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