DeeGeeBlog

Back in 1983, I got a Commodore Vic 20 for my 16th birthday. I fiddled around with Commodore BASIC a little, even subscribed to Compute! magazine. But one of my favorite experiences then was IFR Flight Simulator.

I spent hours upon hours with that simulator.

Fast forward to 1999, and I reaquainted myself with the flight sim world with Microsoft Flight Simulator 98. It was the first time that I learned about computer upgrades, as my then not-too-shabby 1.6 MHz CPU / 2MB video card / 32 MB RAM machine couldn’t quite keep up with FS98′s graphics requirements.

Then came FS2002, FS2004, and FSX. Loved them all.

Screenshot of IFR for Commodore, circa 1983.

Screenshot of FSX, taken 2010.

I’ve tried my hand as a virtual airline pilot with Pacific Airways, but while I loved their board community and fellow sim pilots, the flying experience wasn’t a strong draw.

Cut to January 2011, when I installed JustFlight’s Air Hauler. This is how flight simming should be. Love the hobby so much, I decided to make a web portal for my fictitious Air Hauler based cargo line based in Hawaii with locations on the Big Island, Oahu, and Kauai, Mahalo Air Transport.

What makes this new web product significant for me is that I’m really digging into web technologies more than what I’m comfortable with currently. First off, I’ve decided to construct the website in a php framework. I’m relying on jQuery and javascript much more than I have.

The Microsoft Expression Blend folks have done a smash-up job providing excellent video tutorials for folks new to Silverlight. I began their “5 Day” Blend training and just completed my first published Silverlight application, a video player for a fictitious product.

As someone who’s spent time with Adobe Flash and ActionScript 3, I can see how Microsoft’s Blend can give Flash a run for its money. One great feature that’s immediatly apparent is that you don’t need to know how to code (C# or VisualBasic) in order to create an application with some interactivity in Blend/Silverlight. With Flash, without knowing ActionScript, the best you’ll have is a heck of an animation. AS is required in order to script user interactivity with the application. Not so with Blend.

Here’s the finished, published version of my first Silverlight video player!

The chairman of the Everett (Washington) High School class of 1961 Reunion Committee approached me to do a full site reworking, as well as social media campaign in order to publicize and organize their upcoming 50th reunion extravaganza next year.

Their current (45th Year Reunion) site is EHS1961.com. I’ll assume the site’s hosting and redo the site overall. I’ve started a Facebook group for them. I also plan on creating a great, fun spinning record animation as well as full website functionality.

I’ve completed a sort of mock-up for the opening record animation. The reunion details will be on the record label, this is more of a proof of concept work.

More to come…

Updated 7/18/2010: I believe that all the functionality I’ve wanted for this project is fully incorporated! Go to this page (http://www.dongarber.com/flashassets/guitarsolo/guitarsolobacktracks.html) to play your very own guitar solo in A minor pentatonic, in either blues or metal guitar amplifier effects, and with a bluesy or a hard rock backing track to inspire you to create some jams!

I’ve had a load of fun working on this project. It’s a solo guitar playing application, using ActionScript 3. My newest added feature: two amp models, Blues and Metal. Click the image below to go to the application’s webpage.

Click the toggle switch on the Marshall amp to select either a warm bluesey tone, or the shredding of metal!

I’ll provide an in-depth look at the actionscript I wrote to create this app later. I’d like to give out thanks to two folks: Gary Rosenzweig’s video tutorial at FlashGameU.come made developing my toggle switch an absolute snap to code. And Travis Roof, whose awesome drum application I found a few weeks ago served as the spark for me to create my own guitar playing actionscript application.

Also, kudos and thanks to for his excellent discussion about Reacting to Certain Key Presses (assigning keyboard presses as event triggers). AS3 supports only a few keys by name, and to specify which individual keys you want to use as function triggers, you must determine their keycode. I learned about this here.

It’s Not Finished Yet

I want to add a few more features: A backing track to jam to; some more amp models (sounds), maybe some string/note animations.