We are specifically looking for a Flash developer for the various projects that we work on. Our main product Blackbox is an AIR application developed in ActionScript3 with quite a few additions written in C++. While it is our biggest project, it will not be the only project that you will work on. Of course you can also contribute to our open source MonsterDebugger and work on projects for clients such as Universal, Science Center NEMO and the NPO (Netherland Public Broadcasting).

Necessary experience:

• ActionScript3
• Adobe AIR
• Object Oriented Programming

Extra credits for the following:

• Flex 3/4
• Flash Lite
• (X)HTML/CSS
• PHP5 + MySQL
• Javascript
• XML
• C++

For more information here is a detailed description or you can take a look at our vacancies page.

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to become a Monster and work together with other Monsters on Blackbox? Leave us a message at Paul [at] deMonsters.com or call Paul at +31 6 1500 4448.

Don’t be afraid, we won’t bite.

GRAWH!

This Thursday over 20 different speakers are all set to inspire the audience on various different subjects. Divided over the three session tracks there are speakers such as Dave August from OOO-ii, Ralph Hauwert, Group94, Layar, Hanazuki and our good friend Tobias Mannewitz from KARAKTER. Not to forget the Adobe Evangelists Serge Jespers and Jason Levine who will hopefully show some cool new stuff from Adobe. And to top it off there are also three tracks of workshops where you can get your hands dirty with Unity 3D (Paul Tondeur), FDT (Maxim Zaks), Photoshop (Deke McClelland) and much more.

Obviously we are very excited that we are amongst the group of people who are presenting during the Adobe User Group XL. During the Monster session, Paul and Ferdi will talk about and show Blackbox. We will go into design decisions we have made over the last couple of months, what direction we are going into with Blackbox and will lift the hood a little to show how Blackbox actually works.

We hope to see you at the meeting next Thursday, if you haven’t gotten your tickets yet you better hurry since the event is almost sold out, which was to expected considering the very good price of only € 75,- for the entire day. You can read more about our session here (dutch). If you are there, please come and roar at us Monster style!

July 3rd: Paul speaking at the 14th Adobe User Group meeting "Young Talent". Photo by Roy del Vecchio

• Eugene: Json tracing bug
• Mozart Petter: Memory monitor bug
• Eric Woods: Auto refresh inspector
• Oknoeno: Display quotes correctly
• Mavrisa: Better Vector support
• Torben: PureMVC compatibility
• Justen: Smaller minimum window size
• Patric Lauber: Display HTML tags correctly
• Mansour: Bug in the initialize function
• Jerry: XML with CDATA support
• Bartek Drozdz’s: Renamed the enabled property
• Mario: Shift modifier on the numeric steppers
• Tim: Auto scroll the traces
• Ruy Adorno: Protected instead off private methods
• Steven Sacks: Added De MonsterDebugger to GAIA

(If I forgot your name please drop me a message and I’ll add you asap)

Additional to the fixes we’ve added an offline buffer that stores your traces when De MonsterDebugger AIR application isn’t connected. This way you’ll never miss a trace again. Also our own Monster Joost Harts updated the memory monitor to give you an overview of all the traces and memory profiling during the time you are debugging your application.

We hope you like the new update and continue to submit your bugs, features and wishes to our GetSatisfaction page. Check out the new version of the MonsterDebugger. Have fun debugging!

New: De MonsterDebugger on Twitter
In case you use Twitter and like to talk to us directly about the MonsterDebugger, make sure you follow @MonsterDebugger.

One more thing…
It’s been almost a year since we started working on the current version of the MonsterDebugger and we’ve reached the limits of what we can do with the current version. There is no stable way to squeeze more features into the current structure. That is why we’re very excited to announce that we started working on the next major version of De MonsterDebugger: version 3.0!

Version 3.0 will be a huge step forward in speed (6 times faster at this moment!), stability and extensibility. It unfolds a whole new playground with almost limitless possibilities where both Monsters and you guys out there can create exciting new features. We’re working on an easy-to-learn plugin system where you have the possibility to hook into our client and interface and start creating your own panels, filters, monitors, etc. To give you an overview we sketched out this super secret sneak model for you:

MonsterDebugger 3.0 super secret sneak model

Another major update is the use of a socket connection between the client and the AIR application. The first tests already show a huge speed boost compared to LocalConnection (the current connection).

So now is the time to tell us your deepest debugging desires! Leave a comment, submit your wishes on the GetSatisfaction page or if you’re ever near our cave in Amsterdam drop by and meet with us in person.

GRAW!

Warning: the following short article can be concidered extremely geeky.

Most designers will agree that Apple has created some of the loveliest icons over the past years. By creating the first dock icons they really set a trend. Apple managed to bring this sweet style to the iPhone by creating the home screen filled with detailed touchable icons to start the apps we use daily. These lovely detailed icons sometimes distract me from the cute tiny icons that help so much giving the user the little bit of extra feedback needed to make the iPhone user experience worthwhile. That’s why I like to share my favorite iPhone OS 3.0 icon with you and tell you how to enjoy it on your own iPhone.

iPhone OS 3.0 added a couple useful but not that exciting new features like copy/ paste and undo. The icon I’m talking about is hidden in the new spotlight functionality. Rather it’s hidden beneath the keyboard when using spotlight. It’s the magnifying glass icon next to the home screen dots. To fully enjoy the simplicity and beauty of this magnifying glass icon you have to do the following interactions:

1. Press the home screem button. It is visible but hard to see knowing the icon is 26% white on a black background:

2. Slide towards spotlight:

3. Slide an inch back towards the app icons until the keyboard drops down. Keep your finger or thumb down on the iPhone and there it is!

To enjoy it even more (yes, it is possible) just make a screenshot (press home screen + sleep button at the same time) while you slide from the home screen towards spotlight. It is possible to take screenshots of in between views of different home screens, but it’s not possible to do this while you are between the home screen and spotlight. Instead you take a screenshot of a keyboardless spotlight screen. Thus now you can not only enjoy the cute icon, but you can also zoom in!

Now you know about my favorite iPhone icon, what about yours?

PURRRR!

De Monster stickers
Ferdi and Paul will be speaking at Flash at the Lake in Zürich next week and Paul will speak again at the Adobe User Group (Dutch site) in Amsterdam the week after. During both events we will demo the first working version of Blackbox and introduce Blackbox Stream. To celebrate this Monster milestone, since last time we publicly showed anything besides the MonsterDebugger was during Flash in the Can in Amsterdam, we decided to make the first Monster goodies: De Monster stickers (detailed version).

During both Flash at the Lake and the Adobe User Group the stickers can be yours. Imagine having your own Monsters at your side, knowing they won’t be hiding under the bed or in the closet but anywhere you want them to.

If for some reason you won’t be able to make it to these events but you do want to get your hands on some cool Monsters, send us an envelope containing another envelope (please add enough stamps) with your name and address on it and we’ll return it filled with Monsters.

Business cards
Since we’ve been creating new tiny Monsters, we thought it to be a good idea to also update our own Monsters. First results can be seen below (detailed version):

Maybe you notice the orange Monster (me) is missing. This is because we’re making a case out of the creation process. During the entire process Joeri used the first Blackbox prototype to document all his steps and thoughts. Most of his design decisions are about concept art, aesthetics, usage of light and color, but also strategic decisions for the future. At the moment Joeri and I are working on this case, so hopefully we can share this very soon on this blog.

Little bit about Joeri

To give Joeri the credits he deserves, I want to end this article by telling a little bit about him. Joeri Léfevre is a part time Monster who helps us by making Monster concept art and illustrations. He has an MA degree in Game Design and works part time as art teacher at Utrecht School of the Arts. Coming September he will be taking classes again at the Classic Academy for painting in Groningen to grow even more skill wise. In case you wonder, yes Joeri does a lot of freelance work so feel free to contact him or us if you want to hire him. By the way, this is his portfolio.