I'm really excited to announce that Nicolas Cannasse will be writing with the rest of us at ActionScript.com. If you don't know who Nicolas is, you may have been living under a rock for the last couple of years. Nicolas Cannasse is the guy that wrote MTASC, the ActionScript 2.0 compiler that made FAMES style development possible. MTASC made it possible to write full fledged Flash applications without using the Flash IDE.

In recent days, he's been working on (and looks about to complete a first release) of a much more ambitious project. His latest work haXe (http://www.haxe.org) is a unified web development language. Imagine writing ActionScript 2.0 all the way from the server-side database connection, to the client (including all JavaScript and Flash). That's what haXe is. If you already know ActionScript 2.0, you could be writing haXe code in almost no time.

Look for more news on haXe directly from Nicolas Cannasse at ActionScript.com

I don't mean to double post between sites, but I want to be sure to get the word out that the "Battle of the Script: 2006" contest at ActionScript.com is coming to an end this weekend. We've had some great entries, but I also know that most Flash developers are more the "cram the last minute" than the "plan the previous month type". So I wouldn't want this to escape anyone's attention. The grand prize is the ultimate Flash developers tool box of $500 cash, a registered copy of PrimalScript Enterprise edition, as well as the ultimate ActionScript library from O'Reilley and friends of ED (including Flash Hacks, ActionScript Animation, Essential ActionScript 2.0, Flash 8 Essentials and Object Oriented Programming with ActionScript 2.0). It's an awesome prize package. Four other winners will also receive similar cash and prizes.

Ten lines of TextScript Injection code could win you an awesome toolset. Even if you're just sitting around Sunday afternoon, you should consider breaking on off for the team. You never know. You could be the next ActionScript superstar! You may even have a little fun along the way :)

To my shock and surprise, it looks like we're done with the big move of ActionScript.com to it's new dedicated server. We had SO much trouble doing the move on January 1st 2006 (new target host failed at the same time the legacy system failed) that we were really expecting the worst.

This time, although the site skin/design/layout changed, we're still using the same content management system, so the layer of complexity of changing platforms was removed from the migration. Basically, we had the old server redirect everything to the new server by IP address while the DNS propagates. Now that the DNS change is mostely complete, it looks like we're all good.

The content management system is DotNetNuke, and it's performing exceptionally well on the new server. We've got the capacity to support 100 times our normal traffic without dropping a request. In the worst case scenario that we publish something that gets dugg or slashdotted (unlikely to happen, but you never know) it would only cause the server to pause a second per requests. This is much better than the performance we had on our previous host.

With speed and power comes responsibility. Now that we're in charge of our own webserver, if it goes down, it's probably going to be our fault. But I'm much more comfortable with that than leaving it to a help desk team on the other side of the globe.

On January 1st, we moved ActionScript.com from a PHP content management system to a deployment of DotNetNuke. The system has worked out well for us, but our host, however, has not. As we look to extend the website, it's become completely clear that it's time to get off of a shared hosting solution and grow up into a fully dedicated managed hosting solution.

We're hoping to get everything in place this week, so that we can start propogating the DNS this weekend. There won't be any downtime on the site (hopefully), but once we start the migration, we'll either have to shut down comments and the forum or put a notice up that any posts will be lost as the DNS change takes effect.

In the end, you should notice a major change in the performance of the ActionScript.com website. HeavyFlash is already hosted on this server and it's been performing wonderfully (even when dealing with the digg effect)

I wasn't sure (what with April fools over the weekend) if this was a hoax or a real thing. Google updated Google Earth yesterday to include wicked high resolution pics of Las Vegas. What I found interesting is that the images don't seem to be satalite images. They are clearly taken from a(n) airplane(s) based on the angle and resolution of the images. They are high resolution, but you can clearly see the sides of large buildings that you wouldn't be able to see from a satalite. It's cool, you can see the dolphins in the Mirage swimming pools. You can even see individual people and cars. But after seeing the somewhat low altitude (compared to satalite) images, I was curious to see how Google could mend the images of the Stratosphere tower. The thing is so freakin' tall, it would have stuck out far across the images on Google Earth. But aparently Google Earth had no problem just erasing that problem out of existance.

I thought maybe I was just seeing it incorrectly. Clearly the shadow of the Stratosphere tower is on the ground. Maybe I'm just not seeing the top down image correctly. So I measured where it should be based on other shadows.

Turns out, it is in fact gone! Someone call David Coperfield!!! Where's Lance Burton!?! Round up the usual suspects!!!

Not just a little bit gone. It's Bo-Shank Freakin' Vapor! I'm not sure if Google has had a look at the Stratosphere investment portfolio, but suffice it to say, if you're planning a trip to Vegas, go see the volcano or the pirates instead. There's nothing to see up here.

There is all but one leg left where the majestic Stratosphere once stood. We'll miss you Stratosphere. It's almost like we never even knew ya.

A couple weeks ago Benjamin Mace told me about a friend of his that he was trying to get involved in writing for the Flash community. The friend he had in mind was Bob Clagett, the co-founder of Velocity Works and the mastermind behind the Choppers Inc. website.

Bob has a really interesting attention to detail in his projects. His websites look great, function great, but what makes him so unique is the way everything flows. Nothing “just appears” on stage. Everything that is displayed on stage “arrives” with its own flourish. He’s been a Flash developer since Flash 3 and has been doing database driven Flash development since Flash 4. Over the years, he’s really developed a distinctive style and an amazing talent.

So, the awesome news is that Bob has agreed to join us at ActionScript.com! He’ll be writing about his work and experiences with Flash over the years and contributing to the community with his insights.

To my total shock, my entry in Turdhead’s ActionScript Poetry contest got dugg. Not just a little dugg but full on front page dugg. Never underestimate the number of geeks out there.

Anyway, submissions are still open (for today only) at Turdhead.com.