PXL Blog

I made a big disclaimer on the Attest website because I wanted to clear up one issue with this software. There is but one complaint that I've received for Attest in it's few months of being on the market....the activation sucks! Yup, I couldn't agree more. Let me explain and hopefully clarify the situation.

The Problem:

• Once you purchase Attest the activation process is manual. You have to follow the instructions and email me your machine's hash code (provided via tiny button click upon starting Attest).
• I then have to take about 30 seconds to generate an activation code for your machine and email it back to you, at which point you have full access to Attest.

Not a big deal? Sort of. It's actually a pain in the backside for developers who are used to instant activations upon purchasing (I know I'm used to it) and it's a pain for me to have to enter everything manually and email each and every customer a unique activation code.

So why not automate the activation process?
That's a simple answer....Download.com stinks! The company I used for copy protection has everything in place to automate the full process, but Download.com's tech support would have to actually have to DO SOMETHING to make it work. I don't typically like to gripe about things, I'm rather a live and let live type of person, but I have to say this whole ordeal has cheesed me off a few times when I've come across the few really impatient customers. By far and large, 99% of the people I've delt with who bought Attest could not have been nicer, and they really surprised me with their professionalism, and understanding about this annoying problem of manual activation.

I've met tons of developers like myself from all over the world, many of whom I still stay in contact with and try to help them out as they seek their Adobe Flex Certification, and likewise, they give me tips on how to make Attest 2.0 even better. And of course, there's always the "one in every group" who are completely impatient, demanding, and not to mention, they don't seem to actually read instructions at all, which just complicates the whole matter

In my view, if you're going to take the Adobe Flex Exam, and you're going to purchase Attest, you may well want to read all that you can and soak up any knowledge available. Like I said though, those customers have been extremely few and far between, and for all I know, they may have just received a speeding ticket by some egotistical cop and they're just unleashing. Who knows?

Many people have been totally thankful for Attest and have asked what other books, info and products I would suggest to help them get certified. I figured I'd post a quite definitive list of the best tools I've come across to help you acquire your Adobe Flex 2 Developer Certification:

• Adobe Flex 2 Training from the Source: by Jeff Tapper (Author), Matt Boles (Author), James Talbot (Author), Ben Elmore (Author), Mike Labriola (Author).

• Beginner to intermediate level: This book is an awesome way to get started learning Flex 2. It'll start you off with the very basics, all the way to the more complicated server interaction, custom components, etc. If you haven't read it yet, I highly reccommend it. You'll build an ecommerce application all through the book and by the time you're done, you'll have a solid understanding of Flex.

• Total Training: Adobe Flex 2: Rich Internet Applications by James Talbot

• Beginner to intermediate level: All of the Total Training DVD's are an awesome way as well to learn Flex and study for the exam. There's also Adobe Flex 2 Advanced Visual Programming by Leo Schuman, as well as other DVD's.

• Flex 2 Essential Training by David Gassner Lynda.com videos.

• Beginner to intermediate level: David Gassner spells out Flex clearly and precisely, right to the point and no wasting time. There's quite a few videos from the Lynda.com series, and there are new ones for Flex 3 new features.

• Programming Flex 2 by Chafic Kazoun (Author), Joey Lott (Author)

• Beginner to intermediate level: This book is another comprehensive guide to Flex 2. You will not walk away from it without having started on a path to greater understanding.

• ActionScript 3 Design Patterns: by William Sanders (Author), Chandima Cumaranatunge (Author).

• Intermediate to advanced level: This book is not for beginners. If you have a good solid understanding of Flex 2 and AS3, this book should be your next move. Now you learn how to make sense of it all. It's not enough to learn how to fill an array, or use an arraycollection. How do you keep your app's state on the client side and your views separate from your business logic? This book will show you many great, time honored techniques to help you build your AS3 applications in a more developer friendly manner, lest you get too excited from the other books and start building apps that have you chasing seemingly endless, recursive bindings, and hunting down warnings in FB2. Now you learned to ways of the Force, a powerful Jedi will you become!

Then, when you're all ready to get certified, you feel that you're a Jedi worthy of Yoda's admiration....only then would I suggest Attest to you. It's not a learning tool, it's a way to gauge your readiness for the actual Adobe Exam. And above all else, for those who skip over instructions like ya ya blah blah....to them I would suggest......

RTFM

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