Defence Mechanism

I’ve been playing with Tumblr for the past few days. I have to admit I really like it. It suites my rather eclectic posting style. It makes it pretty easy to post images, movies and quotes. Emailing in images is particularly cool.

Check out my Tumblelog here: http://defmech.tumblr.com/

It’s learning Actionscript 3 time for me so I thought I’d share a few things I’ve discovered lately.

First: Buttons.

Here is an example of a custom button. There is the built in SimpleButton class but sometimes you just need to roll your own.

This assumes you have a linked MovieClip in your Library with it’s class set to TestBtn.

package {

	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;

	public class TestBtn extends MovieClip {

		function TestBtn()
		{

			// UNLESS BUTTONMODE IS SPECIFIED AS
			// TRUE, YOU'LL GET NO HANDCURSOR
			this.buttonMode = true;

			// IF YOU WANT TO HIDE THE HANDCURSOR
			//this.useHandCursor = FALSE;

			// STOPS THE EVENTS BUBBLING TO THE OTHER
			// MOVIE CLIPS CONTAINED IN YOUR BUTTON
			this.mouseChildren = false;

			// ADD THE MOUSE 'ONCLICK' EVENT
			this.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, onClick);
		}

		private function onClick(event:MouseEvent):void
		{
			// TRACES THE NAME OF THE BUTTON CLICKED
			trace(event.target.name, 'clicked');

		}
	}
}

I love the internet. It’s got such useful info on it.

I like how you can get away with using “cheap” special effects because the video quality is low. Great idea.

Spotted today in a local Gamestation. No wonder they aren’t selling very well!

Renault Crash protection: Ballet

Pretty cool advert for Renault. Must’ve cost a few quid.

Citroën: Rubik’s Cube

Again, another cool advert. Obviously CGI but pretty nifty anyway.

It’s beautiful weather here in sunny Glasgow today. But look what’s going to happen at the weekend! Typical, I want to get out on the new bike and Mother Nature has other plans!

Update: Actually the weather turned out pretty good. Managed a half day at Carron Valley and a full day at Glentress.

At Dog we’ve just finished a small toy for Cumbria University.

It allows you to upload a picture of yourself and super-impose it into a magazine cover. Once you’ve done that you can download it to your computer. See as I’ve super-imposed Jaime Pressley into VAGUE magazine!

URL: http://cumbriadreamspace.com/dreamshot/

• 1 x Cod Liver Oil Capsule, 1 x Zinc tablet washed down with a shot of Yakult.
• Half a glass of Pomegranate juice
• Bowl of Organic Muesli with a touch of Organic Honey and semi-skimmed milk
• Glass of Orange Juice (Not from concentrate)

What’s yours?