Peter Elst

Earlier today Mike Chambers released his cool MXNA feed scroller desktop application that uses the MXNA ActionScript 2 Library and MXNA WebService to retrieve data from the aggregator.

Just noticed that Eric Dolecki has a customized version running on his site and I’ve just prepared a screensaver using that same application. Now you’ve got no excuse not the be up to date with the wheelings and dealings of the Flash community!

Click here to download the screensaver!

I meant to blog this earlier, the MX Europe 2004 conference in London has been postponed from September 2004 to January 2005 effectively making it the MX Europe 2005 conference

The speakers list is shaping up nicely, it’s a shame we still have so many months to wait!

As some of you might already now, I’ve been researching CSS and v2 components quite intensively over the last few months.

Inspired by an experiment Søren Jepsen sent me through that was based on my workaround for using external CSS files on components I’m now working on a set of classes that allows for easily customizing components. The classes will also support absolute and relative positioning for components through CSS as well as the ability to add your own custom style definitions.

I hope to post some examples soon, if you’re interested in trying out the classes drop me a line and I’ll keep you posted as soon as it is ready for testing!

I’ve just come back from a business trip to Cardiff, Wales. Never knew train rides could be so tiring, all in all I spent about 5 hours getting there (Brussels to London Waterloo, the tube down to Paddington and train to Cardiff Central).

Public transport in the United Kingdom isn’t all that bad as people tell me. Once you get your head round all the various available train fares you’re all set. I did take off-peak trains but the service was great and didn’t have a single delay.

Arriving in Cardiff Central, the first thing that struck me was all the Welsh signs. Couldn’t help thinking I had just arrived in a modern version of Lord of the Rings surrounded by people talking an Elvish language (read the fairy-like creatures, not the King of Rock ‘n Roll), the distinct lack of pointy ears brought me back to reality. Upon closer inspection there actually is a link between the Welsh language and Tolkien.

Got a quick look at the Millenium stadium, Cardiff castle and the City Hall before going out to dinner. Great food, lovely people and friendly cabbies … what more could you want!

I stayed at the Holiday Inn down by the Bay and went out in the morning for what turned out to be a very productive meeting before heading back to London in the early afternoon. This left me with enough time to do some further sight-seeing, did the Thames Walk by the South Bank and headed over to my favourite gallery at the Oxo tower (featuring a glass exhibition by Ioan Nemtoi).

Back in Waterloo station I bought myself “The Science of Discworld” by Terry Pratchett (English editions are hard to find in Belgium) and the all-essential “London A-Z” street atlas.

The UK just keeps getting better, can’t wait for my next visit!

Grant Skinner will be in London from the 24th to the 26th of May with his Flash MX 2004 Enterprise Development workshop.

This is an opportunity you definitely won’t want to miss, in the three days he’ll cover topics including object-oriented design and analysis, design patterns, usability and application architecture. I doubt you’ll find a more indepth course on enterprise Flash development by a well-known authority on the subject anywhere else.

The workshop is organized in cooperation with Bits & Pixels, you can find more information and register online at the following url: https://secure.bitsandpixels.co.uk/training/grant/