Chakra Media blog

Apollo was released on labs a yesterday so I downloaded and installed the Apollo Runtime as well as the Flex extensions and the and the SDK. This seems like a really cool technology, being able to use my existing web skills (Flash, Flex, HTML) to build rich Internet applications that are first-class citizens on the desktop. I can’t wait to give it a try. There was a cool demo by that maniac Lee Brimelow on his Flex blog using PaperVision3D in a full transparency Apollo app. Check it. I’ve been following PV3D for the past few months and there’s some really talented people from all over the world who are involved in pushing it forward, with new people signing up everyday. It’s exciting to see the open-source movement pushing Flash in such a cool direction. Hopefully I’ll get some free time soon to post a few demos of my own…

I had the pleasure of meeting a talented writer by the name of Nathan Myers at my regular morning hangout/office.  Nathan writes for some major surfing publications and is currently working on a piece for the LA Times on Eric Jordan and 2Advanced.  He asked me if I’d heard of EJ and 2A (what web designer hasn’t?) and asked if I’d like to read a rough draft to check for errors and give some feedback.  Nathan didn’t know much about Flash before starting this article and wanted to make sure his terminology was accurate (which was for the most part).  Anyway, since the article isn’t out yet I won’t comment on it’s contents (I will say it’s good though!). If it comes out on the web, I’ll link to it.  The point of this post is after reading about Eric Jordan and 2A I was reminded about his other job as a DJ and how he puts out free (as in beer) monthly sets of music for people to download on his site Neverrain.  I’m not a huge techno fan, but I find this music is great to work to.  I’ve been super-busy these past few weeks and this helps me get down in the trenches and just start hammering on the never ending pile of tasks.  His latest set is called Shade & Aura and he’s released Volume 1 which is the darker of the two mixes. Check it out.