However, what I did notice was the glaring omission in new features: a quality network for the iPhone in the U.S. Unfortunately, Apple continues to partner with AT&T in the U.S. While other carriers would have the new support for MMS in a little over a week, AT&T won’t have it until the end of the summer (let’s all hold our breath). When the tethering feature was announced, AT&T was not even mentioned which was heard very clearly by those attending. Until Apple adds the new feature of un-tethering itself from AT&T or AT&T gets their act together and provides a quality network for the iPhone, I’m not getting one. I’m not sure which is more likely to happen, but I’m guessing it will be Apple that makes the first move.

I was already hesitant to get an iPhone because of the experience my good friend and neighbor has with the iPhone. When he needed a new laptop last year, he converted to the Mac. I’d been touting Mac for a couple of years and influenced by the fact that I’m his tech support, he took the plunge and he is really happen he did. At the same, he time decided to switch to the iPhone. While he loves the features and usability of the iPhone and it’s interaction with his Mac, he has been very unhappy with the plethora of dropped calls. It’s not unusual that our phone conversations have to be restarted one or more times due to his iPhone disconnecting.

What makes this even more frustrating is that it happens probably most frequently when he’s at home and not moving around when he’s on the call. His complaints to AT&T have fallen on deaf ears. He was informed that he signed a contract that had a place on the form indicating only “moderate” coverage in our area. I guess I have a different perspective of moderate coverage. They say moderate, I say crappy. Since I live 7 houses away from him, I also fall into the crappy–sorry moderate–coverage area. This was confirmed by looking at AT&T’s coverage map for my area. Just so you know, I don’t live in a rural area or in any kind of metropolitan fringe area. I live in Sacramento in a very populated area pretty close to I-80 and probably about 1.5 miles from a large AT&T office. ( The AT&T office just happens to be on the edge of the “good” coverage area.)

Another item of note regarding my friend’s iPhone AT&T disappointment was AT&T hinting to him that they would sometime soon have an improvement to their network to better support the iPhone. With the information presented, and missing, from today’s WWDC keynote speech about the iPhone, that doesn’t seem very likely.

With crappy coverage, behind the curve with iPhone features such as MMS and possbily never tethering support and who knows whatever other features that Apple develops for the iPhone that AT&T will take forever or may never support, don’t expect to see me with an iPhone anytime soon.

I just started learning Flash a couple of weeks ago. I decided that I wanted a little more pizazz in my photo pages on my web site. I had originally created the pages using Ajax and some Javascript which I think had a pretty nice look.

My earlier incarnations of photo pages used frames to contain the albums, thumbnails, and the photo. Using Ajax, I was able to get the flexibility without using frames. I also created a zoom in feature with Javascript. I had thought about using Flash originally, but at the time I thought I would have to build in all of the photos into the Flash application and I wanted something that would be dynamic. When I added a picture to my portfolio or photos pages, I didn’t want to have to update Flash. In addition to the work I thought I would have to do, my HTML pages (served by PHP) used the same code with a different query string to serve up either the portfolio or the photos pages. I thought I would have to create two different Flash files. The other minor issue was at the time, I didn’t have Flash.

A couple of things changed so that I decided to change my photo pages to use Flash. I found out that Adobe had a special so that I could upgrade my CS3 design standard to CS4 design premium for a little more that just upgrading to CS4. The upgrade to premium added Flash to the suite (as well as other applications). The second thing was that I found out that Flash could read a XML file and dynamically load the images—somewhat similar to how I was using Ajax to load my albums when selected.

Thus started my Flash and Actionscript 3 adventure. I have fallen in love with Flash because of what it can do and I know I’ve only scratched the surface. I really enjoy the power of Actionscript 3 and the ease of use of Flash CS4. The integration with the rest of CS4 is also very nice. I was extremely pleased with so much information and examples of how to accomplish different functions in Flash. It’s amazing the availability of tutorials. One amazing site is http://gotoandlearn.com. In my project, I learned from several tutorials on the site including the information about Pixel Bender, the 3D picture Carousel, XML, and tool tips. I also find many other sources of useful information and tutorials. Since I am using Actionscript 3 and particular using a Document Class, some code I had to adapt, but it was still extremely helpful.

I am continuing to learn many aspects of Flash and Actionscript for both fun and to be able to add to my skills to improve my hireability. I am also considering Flex Builder to code Actionscript, but I’m still not sure of all of the benefits and spending the money.

So after all that, back to my first reusable Actionscript 3 class. It’s a tool tip that is created dynamically based on the text (including HTML formatting) and the requested width. It has several options for customization including background color, line style, corner radius, pointer location (side and position), and pointer size. The text can be formatted using the TextFormat class or the StyleSheet. The text can be set using a text or htmlText property. It needs Flash Player 9 or later. I am open to suggestions for additional features or information regarding problems found. More information, documentation, a demo, and the download is available here. You can see it in use here. Hover the mouse over the blue information icon. I hope you find it useful.

Both before and during this process, I’ve read stories regarding people losing out on job opportunities because of what was on their own site, Facebook, Twitter, or wherever. Others, such as Michael Phelps, have gotten into trouble from what was posted on the web by others. So how do you decide what to put on your site? How do you determine if the information that you want to include will help get you the job or prevent you from getting the job?

For example, when I had some friends review my new site design, it was recommended that I take off my Twitter feed from the front page in case I were to post something on Twitter that might not be politically correct (my words—not hers). While I try not to be inappropriate on my Twitter posts, I decided to remove the Twitter feed. (After all, why ask for recommendations from people you respect if you are not going to listen to them?)

After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided to fall back to my normal philosophy about deciding what to include on the site. As a rule, I will not say something behind someone’s back or, in this case, on the web that I would not be willing to say to their face. This isn’t to say that I never say anything that gets me into trouble, but I think it serves me well most of the time.

Hopefully, I’ve been successful in deciding what to include and how to present it. The new site is in it’s infancy and will continue to evolve as I think of new things to include and possibly learn new techniques on how to do them.