Legend of Zelda redux

In the past I have asked you to watch the guild. Mostly because it is a fun web show and partly because it has Felicia Day (also a good reason to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog). Those same two reasons, and because Felicia day mentioned it on Facebook, had me check out the Legend of Neil. The name itself didn't tell me anything about the show. Immediately upon visiting the show's site though told me all I needed to know. The Legend of Neil is a show loosely based on the original Legend of Zelda. A game many people of my generation look upon fondly. In Game Informer magazine's 200th edition they listed the the top 200 games of all time and Legend of Zelda came in at number 1.

Kill Link!

The Legend of Neil twists these happy memories a bit. Mostly by loosely basing it of memories of the game rather than going back into the game for research. They then pervert by well thinking,"what would a drunk guy who got transported into the game because asphyxiated himself with the controller probably see in game?" Maybe Zelda is less caucasian than the games would have us believe. Perhaps the fairy's are a bit frisky.

Did I mention that the fairy is played by Felicia Day? It's not a role I would expect to see her in but according to Sandeep Parikh ( the Guild's Zaboo ) this is the type of improv she does all the time. In fact the first episode I watched was The Legend of Neil's musical episode where a spoof of "My Favorite Things" gets a little uncomfortable for a more normal elf. Legend of Neil, Season 2, Ep. 3 -- The Musical

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Spoofs | Legend of Neil

The funniest line comes in early when Felicia the Fairy says, "Oh, i don't know. I'm not really into online musicals".  Nice. [ad#Google Adsense] I've now watched the whole 2 seasons of Neil and am hoping for a season 3. Have you seen Legend of Neil? What were your favorite parts? There are lots of other classic video game shows floating around the web, what do you like.  All I can say is this made me want to play Legend of Zelda again and now my 6 year old is learning about games through one of the games I grew up with. Sweet.

If you liked this post please subscribe to myRSS Feed and/or follow me on Twitter. If you only want to read my Sunday Funnies posts subscribe to the Sunday Funnies feed. Until next time, thanks for reading and Kill Link!

The Year Ahead For Flash

2010 is looking to be an exciting year in the world of Flash. For the first Flash Friday post of the New Year I thought I would go over some of the big new things I am looking forward to in 2010.

Flash Player 10.1

Flash truly goes mobile this year and this is made possible by many of the changes in flash player 10.1. Many performance optimizations have been made to the player to allow better performance and this will help out, not only mobile, but all forms of the flash player. Mobile devices also require new interface methodologies and thus flash player 10.1 will be able to handle multitouch events and gestures. This is huge in mobile but will also be making a difference on the desktop with another thing I am looking forward to AIR 2.0.

AIR 2.0

Flash Player 10.1 is at the heart of the newest version of the AIR runtime. Along with some of the other benefits of Flash Player 10.1 such as gesture events there are some AIR only improvements. As a former audio professional the access to the Microphone sound is exciting. Other stuff I'm looking forward to are global error handling, detection of USB devices, more sockets and file promises.

Flash Builder 4

Flex builder is being rebranded as Flash Builder and there are lots of changes. I've been a fan of Degrafa for a while so the new graphic changes are something I'm looking forward to. The new spark architecture will take some getting used to but the design flexibility will be nice.  Though I've got an e-article available on Amazon that will be mostly worthless, the better integration between Flash Builder and Flash CS5 will make my life much easier.

Flash CS5

The big thing with this new version of Flash CS5 is IPhone application development. Unfortunately, at this time it looks like that's the closest that the I-platform is coming to having flash in 2010 unless something major changes. Everyone else having flash in the mobile market may be the  catalyst that makes this happen. Speaking of a catalyst...

Flash Catalyst

I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Better integration between a design tools and Flash Builder. I've loved using Flex Builder since Flex 2 and Flash Catalyst will ( hopefully ) make a dramatic change in our office workflow. Also, this could be a boon for user experience architecting if all is done correct.

So what else is coming? What are you looking forward to? I've only touched on what Adobe has announced here but maybe you've heard a rumor. [ad#Adobe Banner] If you liked this post please subscribe to my RSS feed and/or follow me on Twitter. If you only want to see my Flash Friday posts you can follow the subscribe to the Flash Friday feed. How's that for alliteration :) Until next time keep on coding.

The Blue Man - Awakening my Sacred Masculine

The eight metaphor in The Hidden Spirituality of Men - Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine is The Blue Man. The words alone might make you think of the Blue Man Group. Other than Intel commercials I don't really know much about them, but maybe there is something to their bright blue  faces. The first time I read this chapter I noticed how the metaphor itself comes from meditation induced visions of a blue man that represented strong spiritual imagery. Inspired I did a limited, but purposeful, meditation on the Blue Man as I drifted off to dream land. It was then that I had a powerful dream which I covered in an earlier blog post. I was looking forward to rereading this chapter and seeing if, once again, I would have a dream of significance.

What is the Blue Man?

The Blue Man, as I said before comes from two different stories. One of Swami Muktananda and the other of Hildegard of Bingen. Both tell of being in some meditative or prayer state and seeing a vision of a man in blue or a man bathed in sapphire light. To them the man represented God and all things it was pure love and compassion. Not only was it God in all things but it was God in them while at the same time being themselves in God.

When I originally read this metaphor and pondered what it was saying, my Western mind that has been surrounded by Christianity went to the concept of Jesus as Christ. As a devout agnostic who has often bordered on atheistic beliefs I made a jump that many Christians might find uncomfortable. Could it be that Jesus, instead of being the son of God and God itself was really just a normal person who took on embodying the blue man. From that thought I jumped to prophets from other religions as well, they all could be blue men and the rest of us are so deaf to our own divinity they look like Gods to us. When I reread the chapter I saw that the author said as much in his own writing .

Expanding our Consciousness

If the Blue Man is God in all things, God inside of us and in turn ourselves in God, every thing in God then a whole new world opens up to us. We can look at all the crisis in the world without being overwhelmed. We can instead look and see opportunities to make a difference in the world and for others. What may start as anger can be honed by our compassion and turned into positive action. [ad#Books Banner]

The Blue Man and The Spiritual Warrior

In my post about The Spiritual Warrior I brought up the topic of a great work several times. What I never really touched on, probably because I needed to reread this chapter to understand, is where does the warrior come up with his great work? The Blue Man is the answer. The Blue Man is a creative energy that can take a man's anger and mix it with compassion to come up with a path for the warrior to walk. In the book, the author used the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. to show how they took their anger, wrapped it in compassion and made social art.

The Blue Man as an artist

The Blue Man is an artist. In the examples of Gandhi and King he is an artist that creates divine works which positively impact society. All art can do that, and for some who think they are not artists the first step is finding their artistic voice. Through the practice of speaking through art a man can find and strengthen his voice. As he gets stronger that voice can make a difference in somebody's life. Perhaps this is where the Blue Man Group got the inspiration for the name of their troop. A voice without words, only art.

Just Add Compassion

I can't stress enough the value of compassion in my own spiritual journey through this book thus far. It has improved the quality of my personal relationships - with my wife, my two boys, my family, my friends and my coworkers. When I have seen a problem, usually in my own communication with others, I've been reminded to add compassion and things have become easy. Compassion has me give up my need to be right or sometimes, when I have a little compassion for myself, it has me be more joyful.

The Blue Man is all about compassion. It is almost as if he is there asking, "How can you be more compassionate?" Christian's might ask, "What would Jesus Do?" After all, Jesus was a Blue Man or at least I think so. Making a difference with compassion has you let go of being right and making others wrong so that you can actually connect with people and not only make a difference but and impact. Perhaps the people you touch will take some of that compassion with them.

Conclusion

So far, I haven't had another significant dream or vision as I've reread this chapter. However, I have only re-finished it tonight so if an epiphany comes I will be sure to share it with you in the morning. But I would like to hear about you. Have you had any visions that you might relate to The Blue Man? If so, what was it like? Was the color blue prominent and/or powerful in the vision? I would love to hear about other's visions as they seek out The Blue Man. After all, it is the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one - what a great time to have a vision to live into. [ad#Google Adsense] If you liked this post please subscribe to myRSS Feed and/or follow me on Twitter. If you only want to read my Wednesday Warrior posts subscribe to the Wednesday Warrior feed. Until next time, thanks for reading.

Lance Burton: glass and bottle routine

In honor of my last JAMM post of the year ( and decade for that matter ) I thought I would revisit the magician recognized in my first JAMM post ever. If you followed the link you realize that my Just Another Magic Monday posts go back before the start of this blog ( but not really that far back in time ). At the beginning of my personal magical journey I found Lance Burton, who is still one of my favorite magicians. He has a lot of great routines, so how does one choose a routine to share. As with comedy and magic, it's all about the timing. This being the JAMM post before people go out and celebrate the new year, possibly in a bar but most likely with some drinks, I thought I would show his Glass and Bottle routine. There may be more slick routines out there for this but Lance performs in a way that just makes it look easy. He is a true master magician. [ad#Ellusionist] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPELYkYsNk&w=500&h=405] If you liked this post please follow me on twitter and/or subscribe to my RSS feed. If you only want to see my JAMM posts you can subscribe to the Just Another Magic Monday Feed.

White and Nerdy Green Screen Dancing

I've been listening to Weird Al Yankovich since the days of Eat It and Like a Surgeon. Of course then I grew up and started listening to ( and occasionally trying to make ) serious music. Also, one of my teachers in college was Travis Shredd ( of Travis Shredd and the Good Ole Homeboys ) so I still had a comedic music outlet. But I missed some of his music for a while. As nerdy as I am I missed such great parodies as Its All About The Pentiums ( Its All About The Benjamins ) and The Saga Begins ( Miss American Pie ). A couple of years ago though I saw him pushing a new album, Straight Outta Lynwood. This interested me because of the title of the album. Was he actually talking about Lynwood, WA?  No, he couldn't be. Could he?

Probably not, there are plenty of cities named Lynwood and at least one is in California. The big hit from this album was a parody of the song Ridin' Dirty called White 'n Nerdy. I've listened to the song and watched many videos because I can relate ( probably too much ).

About a month or so ago I found a green screen take from the video shoot online. This shoot is a one camera shot of the whole song with Al rapping while Donny Osmond dances in the whitest and nerdiest way possible. Take a gander and enjoy. [ad#Google Adsense]

White & Nerdy (Take #1) from waymoby on Vimeo.

wmode:gpu not a magic bullet

At my current work, Provis Media Group, we do a lot of video for the web. We've had a lot of success with larger format video than is usually delivered via the internet. When Flash Player™ 9.0.115 came out allowing fullscreen h.264 video delivery things really took off. Quality went way up and we were able to deliver 720p+ content over the internet. In full screen it looked great. However, when we shrunk a video smaller than its true size some artifacting would occur. Really, it wasn't that terrible but we pride ourselves on the quality of video we deliver, especially since most of it is done in house. When flash player 10 came out we noticed 2 new wmodes, direct and gpu. Both were suppose to affect drawing performance on the screen and we thought gpu mode should improve the quality of our videos. In order to be sure we had to test it and compare it to the default mode that we almost always use.

Test after test proved that there really wasn't any noticeable difference. In fact, wmode=gpu didn't provide any noticeable playback difference but it did affect the player. [ad#Adobe Banner] The more we read, the more it sounded like wmode=gpu really wouldn't do much for most people until Flash Player™ 10.1 ( currently in beta 2 version on Adobe labs ). Installing Flash Player 10.1 did improve performance on the CPU ( which is awesome ) but their still wasn't a difference from the default.

In the end the best thing to do with our video was to turn smoothing on. This actually made a dramatic improvement. In Flash Player 10.1 you get enough of a performance increase to make this work on even slower computers than before.

So wmode=gpu still may not be a magic bullet unless you control the playback platform but turning on smoothing gives you good performance if you are having artifacting when your videos get resized. You still need to be concerned about cpu performance ( for now ) but flash player 10.1 will really improve that.

If you have had different results or even the same, I'd love to hear your experiences. If you celebrate Christmas today then Merry Christmas and to everyone Seasons' Greetings and Happy Holidays.

Our Cosmic and Animal Bodies - Awakening my Sacred Masculine

For this week's Wednesday Warrior post I will be taking you along on my journey through the 7th metaphor from the book The Hidden Spirituality of Men - Then Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine by Matthew Fox. The 7th metaphor is titles "Our Cosmic and Animal Bodies" it discusses how we are all made of star stuff and other cool stuff about the body. It discusses the importance of respecting our bodies animal nature. Also discussed are exercise and food from a different perspective than you have probably heard in a long time, if ever. As a spiritual journey we do talk about our bodies chakras. As we see some all these amazing aspects of our spiritual bodies me may see an imbalance in your body awareness. This chapter and journey will also discuss recovering that awareness.

The Amazing Human Body

Scientifically speaking ( and sounding rather spiritual ) our bodies are made of star stuff! ( See the video at the end for a tribute to this statement ). Throughout our lives we probably hear all sorts of amazing facts about our bodies, from how many times our heart beats, to the strength of our bones, to the amazing control our brain can have over our body. Even with this information we still, most likely, go throughout our day without giving its fascinating abilities and nature a second thought. The fact that we don't have to think about it is really just more proof as to how amazing it is. If we start with a sense of awe and thankfulness for our bodies we can move through this metaphor quite easily.

Body as Shadow

In our modern culture we often lose this sense of wonder about our bodies. Early on in life we are taught to dismiss the joy of using our bodies. We are taught to settle down, to sit still. And while the brain is a part of the body, our relatively new focus on using just that is hindering our body whole ( including the brain ). What synapses aren't getting connected as we sit still? ( Says the guy who is sitting still typing this blog post :) ). We are animals and we need to move. My 6 year old practically vibrates he needs to move so much. It helps him think and focus if he moves while he is using his brain. Thank goodness my wife is homeschooling him, the school system we currently have has no clue what to do with our animal requirement of movement ( except P.E. ). Perhaps this lack of respect is a part of some of the health problems in our culture. Surely we can see the link between motionlessness and obesity. The more we train ourselves to sit still when we are young, the more difficult it is to move when we are older. How would our culture look, how would we look physically if we once again started to honor our bodies? [ad#Google Adsense]

Our Sacred Bodies

Some people seem to already honor their bodies and often proclaim that,"My body is a temple." What does that mean really? For them it might mean that they exercise regularly and maybe they have a good diet. If we take it further, and look at the spiritual context of this statement we can see more. According to dictionary.com a temple can be anything from a building devoted to some public use to any place or object in which God dwells. Though the last one comes from Christianity and I am not much of a Christian I believe that definition holds the most power. If your body is an object in which God dwells how would you treat it? Maybe for you, you might start to dance. Not a bad idea, dancing is awesome exercise and has a very ancient spiritual history. For myself, this chapter and questions like this finally had me run. I had tried to run in the past for sure, but I never took it seriously. I have never seen myself as a runner and in this space of my body temple I recreated myself as one. I found the Couch to 5K program ( C25K ) and I have been following it strictly, running 3 times per week. Running in the rain, the wind and the freezing cold. Some days have taken me as many as 5 attempts to complete, but I did keep trying until I completed them.  I am now on week 8 and this past Monday completed day 1. If you haven't checked the schedule, that's 28 minutes straight of running. Not only did I gain running ability, but I also gained many positive side effects. Running has been the thread for me that has connected, I believe, all the metaphors from this book in some way. In fact, at some point I will discuss how running has affected me in greater detail including its relationship to the 10 metaphors. After I complete the C25K program what's next? I don't know, but running has always been the beginnings of properly training parkour so next I'll probably create myself as a traceur.

The Many Languages of the Body

If you want to communicate with someone how do you do it? You might think it is with words, but studies have shown that a majority of communication is body language. In this book Matthew Fox let's John Conger speak about 7 different languages we have, only one of which is actual verbal communication:

• Instinct
• Sensorimotor
• Vocabulary
• Innate patterns recognized by psychology
• The artistry of senses
• Signs and symbols

All these different methods of communication require our bodies for some of the communication.

Continue Reading this article...

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Food - Holy and Cosmic

Not only are the movements of our body incredible but so is that which we use to fuel our body. Our bodies are made from star stuff and so is the food take in. Plants have taken the energy from the sun and grown. Animals have eaten plants, or other animals, to help them grow. We eat both plants and animals to make ourselves grow. Of course we do, we are animals ourselves. In the end we feed the plants as our bodies decompose in the ground. Ashes to ashes, (cosmic) dust to dust. This food chain, this cycle of life is so beautiful in it's simplicity. In the Hunter Gatherer metaphor I mentioned how some cultures thank an animal for giving their life so that we may live. In rereading this chapter I saw that, even though I don't say grace before a meal this practice could help me both spiritual and in raising my 2 boys ( a spiritual journey unto itself ). Through being thankful to animals who gave their lives and standing in awe of the universe for providing the fruits, vegetables and grains we can offer up good fodds to our body temples.

The Chakras: Rediscovering our Sacred Bodies

I some trouble fully connecting with the concept of chakras. However, the second reading of this chapter gave me more insight into chakras as junctions of energy. If our bodies are a temple, these are the places that our spiritual energy meets to create. I won't get into the details of each chakra as there are books galore on the topic and this book ( buy it if you haven't already! ) is only a place to start but I will speak to the concept in general. All these metaphors in the book overlap in different ways and the chakras seem to be the overlap between Our Cosmic, Animal Bodies and the Spiritual Warrior. From the connection to the earth, to the strength of inner values, the wisdom and the powerful force to be reckoned with chakras have the pieces that make up the warrior. [ad#Books Banner]

Recovering Body Awareness: Four Practical Steps

Like many of the other metaphors in this book you might get into the chapter and see that there is a missing in your life but the how and what of rebalancing is missing. This section is a good start and I found it very helpful. Step One: Grounding - Before I created myself as a runner, I did get a book called Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. It helped me a lot in my form ( which helped me when I became a runner ) but it wasn't a program so its benefits at the time of reading were limited. The lessons in it are invaluable to me now but one in particular was a warm up that he talks about which is specific to being grounded. So now, as I run, I am present to being grounded and thus connected to my green man and mother earth. Step Two: Boundaries - Boundaries are important, but we have less and less practice at honoring them with others. This book has a specific exercise you can try, but you can start by learn your personal comfort zones with different types of people and honoring your own. Also, boundaries aren't about keeping people out. The same way that rules in a pro wrestling match are there so you know when the heel is cheating, boundaries are there so you can let people in when you care for them. Without proper respect for boundaries and their role you miss that important aspect to interpersonal relationships. Step Three: Breathing - Sorry to go back to my practice of running again but this is a huge thing I've gotten from running. Respecting my breathing and breathing consciously have been vital to running itself and given me practice for steadying my breathing in other parts of my life. Conscious breathing is important, not only to exercise but to many forms of meditation and relaxation. That is probably why so many people have taken to Yoga, where breathing and relaxation are the core of the workout. Step Four: Feeling - Reach out with your feelings. Feelings are emotion mixed with physical sensations. To feel something means to both be sensing something you are touching and to have emotions about something. For myself, fatherhood has sent this power into overdrive. I've always been more of a feeling guy but those two little boys have brought my emotions to the surface. This tells me that the image of a "real" man who doesn't cry is false. There is too much spiritual energy wrapped in your emotions that to not feel is to not really be a man. It is scary, especially to feel around people who are not your family but it is powerful. Start to look at this, not as a weakness but as a strength. It doesn't mean you need to get soppy over every terrible written sappy cliché in a movie, but it does mean you can start to connect with the world and people around you on a more emotional level.

Conclusion

This metaphor finishes up with the author sharing a poem and discussing our physical bodies in relation to our spiritual bodies. The poem is a good reminder to love our bodies. Not just the body whole, but the body parts as well. From our head to our toes to our heart, lungs, liver and more we have much to be thankful for. As for the relationship between our spiritual and physical bodies, common teaching says that our spirit resides in our bodies. The author, and I agree with him on this, says that is backwards. Our physical bodies are actual inside of our spirit. Its hokey, but when someone says they can see your aura it is really your spiri(ual body) which is actually on the outside. I'd like to think it is the way in which people are still with us, even after their physical bodies are returning to the dirt to feed the plants.

And now for something a little different. The spirituality of science, because we all are made of star stuff ( and that is so frickin' cool! ).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk&w=500&h=405]

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If you liked this post please subscribe to myRSS Feed and/or follow me on Twitter. If you only want to read my Wednesday Warrior posts subscribe to the Wednesday Warrior feed. Until next time, thanks for reading.

The Gift of Magic - Just another magic Monday

In my attempt to keep with the theme of the holiday season this week I tried to look for some holiday magic. A search for holiday magic in google let's you know all the different things that magic means to people. In some ways that is enlightening. Holiday or Christmas illusion does not yield much better results. Feeling a bit disheartened in my quest, I almost gave up. Then I remembered something I had heard from one of Jeff McBride's videos. Magic is a gift. Then I searched for ,"The Gift Of Magic". One of the first things I found was this video which shows how much of a gift it has been for one magician by the name of Bill Rollins. It seems he had the good fortune to attend McBride's Magic and Mystery School and decided to write a poem and share it via youTube as a thank you. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrOd-8tWhqg&w=500&h=405] This poem is awesome, and could almost move into one of my Wednesday Warriors posts. The issue of mentors is often a big missing in this world. But as they say

When the student is ready the teacher appears

For any of you interested in magic, here is a little Hogwart'sesque advertisement video for the school. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpZOHNkMmSg&w=500&h=405] [ad#Ellusionist] And for those of you buying gifts for the magician in your life ( eh, hem - I think my family knows who I am talking to :) ) and wish to give them the gift of magic they do have gift certificates available. For those of you more magically inclined though, remember that magic is a gift that we bring into people's lives. So give joyfully this holiday season.

Have a magical season :)

Holiday Shopping with Bean

Rowan Atkinson is a comic legend. If you love British comedy you've probably seen him in something. One of his shows was called Mr. Bean, and this even made it into a mainstream US release as a movie called Bean a few years ago.  Given that this is the week before Christmas and things will be crazy, I thought I'd lighten up your Holiday stress a little with Mr Bean shopping for the holidays. Enjoy :) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNTAtmbXBWo&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1]

Decreasing load times with RSLs

[ad#Adobe Banner]Every Flex application that you create uses the same class files. Some of these are your class files, some are other libraries you have included and then of course you have the files that make up the Flex framework itself. One of the constant complaints I hear about Flex apps ( and flash in general ) is that it takes too long to load. One reason for the long load times is that every Flex application needs to be sure it has all the classes it needs, so all the necessary classes get compiled into the SWF. So, even if the same classes are used in most of the applications you create you are reloading that data again with every new application that gets loaded. Not only is this reloading of data bad for your application but much of what gets reloaded is the Flex framework itself. The fact that it gets reloaded with every Flex application out there means it is adding to bandwidth use on the internet and thus bad for the image of Flex and Flash. Before you give up and start exclusively building AJAX applications, I'd like to introduce you to runtime shared libraries (RSLs).

RSLs were introduced in Flex to allow common libraries to be extracted from Flex application SWF files and put into their own files. That way the Flex apps that use classes from the library(ies) would be smaller and the classes would only need to be loaded once for all the SWF files that need them. Originally there were only two types of RSLs, signed and unsigned. Basically this is still the case but unsigned RSLs are now split into standard and cross-domain varieties while signed RSLs are now referred to as Framework RSLs.

The great thing about the signed, Framework RSLs ( and to a lesser extent cross-domain RSLs if the location used is the same ) is that once someone has loaded the RSL of that Flex SDK on their system, they shouldn't have to reload it for any other app that requires that RSL. In other words, if someone has used another app that required the same Flex SDK (3.2, 3.3, 3.5, etc ) RSL as your app requires then your application will benefit with faster load times ( and vice versa ).

For today's post we are going to focus only on using RSLs. I will save the lesson on creating them for another post if there is interest. Because of this fact I will explain how to use the framework RSLs specifically, but the same technique can be used with standard and cross-domain RSLs.

Using the framework RSLs is actually quite easy. It is even easy enough to take existing live apps and set them up to use RSLs in an effort to decrease load. I made one of my clients, extremely happy by doing this one little task.

In the Flex Build Path screen of project properties window select the Library Path tab ( you can also do this when initially setting up a project ). At the top of you should see a ComboBox labeled Framework Linkage: and you are given the choice of Merged into code (the default) or Runtime shared library (RSL). Select Runtime shared library (RSL). If you are going to have your RSL files in the same directory as your SWF, then that is all you need to do, as your RSL files will be in your bin-debug/bin-release folder along with your application SWF. For the Flex 3.5 SDK these are framework_3.5.0.12683.swz and framework_3.5.0.12683.swf. The SWF is just a backup for the SWZ.

[ad#Google Adsense] If, however, you want to put your RSL into a different location on your server, or on a different server altogether, you'll need to take a couple extra steps to let your application know where to look. The framework RSL files will still show up in your bin-debug and bin-release folders next to your application SWF but it will look for them in a different location. To make these changes you'll need to go to the tree view labeled Build path libraries: and open the node for your flex SDK ( in my picture it says Flex 3.5 ) and then open the node that says framework.swc. Select the node that says RSL URL: and click the Edit... button on the right that probably just became enabled. The only thing you want to edit here are the deployment paths.

When editing the deployment paths for BOTH the SWZ and SWF files, you have the ability to edit 3 things:

• An input field labeled - Deployment Path/URL:
• A checkbox labeled - Copy library to deployment path
• Another input field labeled - Policy file URL:

The deployment path input field is the path to your SWZ or SWF file. Relative paths are acceptable and I recommend using them. The copy library checkbox is used to tell Flex Builder whether or not to include the SWZ or SWC file in your bin-debug/bin-release folders. I like to uncheck this once I already have a copy of the SWZ and SWC available somewhere else because I'm not a big fan of having multiple copies of the exact same file on my computer. The policy file field is used for RSLs served from different domains. It is the path to the appropriate cross-domain policy file. As such it needs to be an absolute path. Cross-domain policy files are out of the scope of this document but more info can be found at: http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/security2_04.html#139879.

Now that you have set up your project just upload the RSL file(s) to the appropriate location and everything should be ready to go. You probably noticed quite a difference in file size and on subsequent loads should see an improvement in loading time. However there is one problem that is common with RSLs.

Usually you will get an RSL error if the RSL files aren't where your application SWF is expecting them to be. An easy enough problem to fix. The problem arises in that you won't  be able to recreate this error if you already have the files in your cache. Another hiccup is that, while standard and cross-domain RSLs are stored in your browser cache, signed framework RSLs are stored in the much lesser known flash cache. The flash cache is the location shared objects are stored in. It can be managed via the Adobe Flash Player™ Settings Manager's Global Storage Settings tab ( available at: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html ). Just uncheck the store common Flash components to reduce download times checkbox while testing to make sure you load the framework RSL every time instead of pulling them from your cache.

I highly recommend using the runtime shared library for the Flex framework on all your Flex projects. This will speed up the load time of all Flex applications online that are set up to use them and that is good for all of us. The other reason is that there are some drawbacks to using RSLs and the framework RSLs don't really suffer from any of them. In fact from the looks of beta 1 and beta 2 of Flash Builder 4, the framework runtime shared libraries are going to be set by default and they'll be served up by Adobe's own servers. I hope this remains true upon release as it will greatly help Flex apps and their image in the developer community. [ad#Adobe Banner] If you liked this post please subscribe to my RSS feed and/or follow me on Twitter. If you only want to see my Flash Friday posts you can follow the subscribe to the Flash Friday feed. How's that for alliteration :) Until next time keep on coding.