John CrosbyTag: John Crosby
Ever sit through 8, 10 or more hours of training and come out feeling like it was a big waste of time? Regardless of the instructor and class content, there are some things that you can do to improve and benefit from any training that you attend.
The following 5 tips are based on observations that I, as both a trainee and trainer, have found to improve the experience and overall learning retention achieved from training sessions. These benefits apply to both short, 1-2 hour sessions, as well as longer, 3-5 day sessions. So take note and see if these improve your next training experience.
Make sure the training uses labs for practical experience
Your training is for more than just passing an exam, right? If you want to learn how to do your job well, make sure whatever training you invest in provides real experience performing tasks with hardware, operating systems, and networking. Even better, find training that combines this hands-on experience with practice exams, expert video instruction, and written reference material for a complete training package. There’s more than one way to learn, so be sure to incorporate different methods in your training. Each method will build on the others and reinforce what you’re learning.
Don’t limit yourself to the prescribed steps
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go through the steps. Go through them, and then after that, add in your own changes ideas and tests. This will give you a better and deeper understanding of the concept.
Make sure you get the fundamentals
Before you venture out on your own, away from access to an instructor, make sure you understand the main processes and concepts. That way when you are on your own, you will be able to more quickly resolve issues and problems without having to “start from scratch”.
Ask questions
Make sure you are getting the training you want and need. Let the instructor know when you have specific questions or when you’d like to discuss something further. Instructors love to help. Lead them to where they can help you the most.
Create context
If the content doesn’t relate to what you are currently working on or something you have worked on in the past, it will more difficult to retain. Look for ways to relate the training material back to you. Email yourself ideas, code snippets and thoughts as reminders.
Don’t stop after the training is over
Make sure you review and use the materials and information you were provided. The more you use and review, the more benefit you will gain.
Excited about your next training session now? We thought you might be.
Check out the training that RealEyes offers. Or, you can contact us directly about custom training and consulting for your specific needs.
Load testing service API’s got you down? How about load testing PHP-based, AMF service API’s? Thought so. Fear not, because John Crosby recently posted his findings about two AMF load testing tools he says are great! He’s talking about soapUI, and loadUI, the free-of-charge, open-source tools created by the fine people at SmartBear.
John shows you how to use these tools, walking you through step-by-step as you set up a project, configure an AMF request, and set up load testing using soapUI. He also walks you through load testing with loadUI.
It’s clear that John is pretty excited about the handiness of these two load testing applications, and he’s already looking forward to integrating them with our Continuous Integration (CI) system. Stay tuned for more on that soon! For now, happy testing!
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MAX!
There’s a great deal of excitement in the AIR here at RealEyes Media as the premiere Adobe conference of the year-Adobe MAX 2011, rapidly approaches! This Saturday, October 1st, the epicenter of design, media, and development will be Los Angeles California, as Adobe settles in for the 3rd year in a row at the L.A. Convention Center, and the beautiful Nokia Theater L.A. LIVE. The Adobe MAX conference has always been the place to listen to and meet world-renowned speakers, learn about the latest tools and techniques, and connect with potential clients, new partners, and old friends…and this year is no exception!
If you’ve ever been to MAX, you know that Adobe pulls out all the stops for this event. Keynote addresses are given by the biggest names in tech and entertainment. In case you haven’t already heard, the musical entertainment for this year’s MAX Bash will be provided by the band Weezer!
A chance to learn from the best
Whether you’re a designer, developer, or business strategist, MAX is an environment that deepens your expertise, and ultimately makes you more productive in your work. Every skill and experience level is welcome during this Five-day learn-a-thon. Whether you’re someone who’s never opened Photoshop, or you’re interested in creating high-tech video players destined for multiple devices, there’s something at MAX for you.
Learn about multiscreen development with Realeyes’ own David Hassoun, John Crosby, and Jun Heider
The last few years have seen a steady upswing in multiscreen application development, and MAX has responded to this trend by providing developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with the best resources for learning how to rise to the top in this environment.
Realeyes Media is pleased to announce that Jun Heider, David Hassoun, and John Crosby will be speaking at MAX! Be sure to check out the following sessions:
David Hassoun & John Crosby – Video Player Development for Multiple Devices
“Learn how to create compelling, robust, and high-performing video player experiences for desktops, tablets, and smartphones including HTML5 and Adobe AIR for iOS. This lab for developers will step through what’s needed to develop and optimize the video experience across all devices. Using Adobe Flash Media Server on the back end, you’ll use Adobe Flash Builder and Open Source Media Framework to create video players that just work. Explore how to tune hardware acceleration with Stage Video to optimize battery life.”
- Are you attending this session? Would you like early access to the sample files? We can help out. Sign up here to download the files.
- Register for Adobe Max 2011
Jun Heider – Multiscreen Project Best Practices
“Prepare to take the next step in multiscreen development. Review important considerations in planning multiscreen projects geared toward efficient code reuse and workflow. Also, see how to structure projects to match the strategy chosen to fit the application’s use case. By the end of the session, you’ll walk away with an understanding of how to start architecting your multiscreen Adobe Flash Platform applications and build them using Adobe Flash Builder.”
- If you’re attending this session you can sign up here to receive the presentation materials from Jun’s session.
- Register for Adobe Max 2011
These guys know their stuff, so if you’re interested in developing applications that are destined for multiple screens, be sure to attend their sessions, ask questions, and meet them in person-you won’t be disappointed!
Can’t make it to MAX? Attend “Mini-MAX”!
Here in Denver, the Rocky Mountain Adobe User Group traditionally provides an annual “mini-MAX”, for those who couldn’t make the trip out to California. Those that were there give us their take on the conference, providing us with a remote insite into MAX’s highlights. Join us on 11/08/11 at Casselman’s - 2620 Walnut Street in North Denver, CO, as well as every 2nd Tuesday of the month throughout the year to talk all things Adobe!
Flex 4.5 provides some pretty slick updates and enhancements, the least of are the of Mobile components and the ability to easily slam out some pretty nice mobile apps. The first thing I’d like to talk about is a new concept, the ViewNavigator. The ViewNavigator provides some pretty intense functionality such as view management.
What is the ViewNavigator?
The ViewNavigator keeps track of your views. It does this by keeping your views in a list. To add a new view you ‘push’ the view into the list, to remove a view you can ‘pop’ a view out of the list. You can think of it as a stack – first in, last out – and the last view in is the visible view.
Pushing a View into ViewNavigator's 'stack'
Popping a view out of the ViewNavigator's 'stack'
Using the ViewNavigator
Using the view navigator is a pretty straight forward process of capturing a user interaction, such as a button click, then pushing the new View into the ViewNavigator’s stack.
For example, let’s pretend that you have a new Flex mobile project. The default view of that project has a button, that when clicked should display another view named MyNewView. MyNewView also has a button, that when clicked returns you to the home view.
Home View Component
In the Home View component all you really need to worry about the click handler on the button:
label="NEXT" width="100%" click="navigator.pushView(MyNewView)" />
The click handler calls the pushView() method on ‘navigator‘, a property available from the View class, passing it the class name of the View that you want to display. We’ll cover getting data into that view and transitions in other posts. The creation of the new View & default transition are all handled by the framework.
MyNewView Component
The MyNewView View component is basically the same thing:
label="BACK" width="100%" click="navigator.popView()" />
You call popView() on the ‘navigator‘ property which removes the view from the stack displaying the Home view again.
Here is a quick screen cast of an application using similar code:
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