Joseph Labrecque

I’m taking a moment to highlight the Visual Media Center at the University of Denver and the relatively new weblog maintained by its Director, Leslie Trumble.

The VMC works very closely with those of us on the DU VAGA development team and most of the feedback we receive about the application originates with users from this area.  This week, Leslie writes about two pretty large additions to the application environment; the inclusion of PicLens on digital object search results,  and a standalone application that I’ve been heavily involved in this summer called the DU VAGA Projection System.

What may be of interest to most of my readers is that the DU VAGA Projection System [VPS] is written using Flex and ActionScript 3 for deployment via Adobe AIR.  Though it is not the first application from the university built for the AIR runtime (see the Fridlyand Kiosk software), it is certainly the most complex.

The software takes advantage of a few AIR-specific capabilities including the ability to integrate with the operating system in terms of hardware discovery (and the flexibility to adapt to various configurations), the power to read and write files to a local hard drive, and extensive use of windowing technology.  This application also makes heavy use of Coldfusion 8 and Flash Media Server 3.

I may be writing more on this software and other efforts at the university in the near future.  In fact, many of my recent posts were born directly from work on this specific project.

Visit Unmasked.

I’m really not one for posting random thoughts all over the place- but it is interesting to think over some of my activities while on parental leave one year ago and contrast that with what life is like now- how things stand and where things are going.

Work at DU is good. It’s been very busy and that is a major concern. We should be hiring someone soon to take some of the load off. There is no shortage of interesting projects. I get to work with Flash, Flex, AIR and the rest- a really nice environment to use my skills. It’s difficult to see myself working in a more corporate structure at this point.

I’ve also been very active with teaching- way too active. It’s a nice source of extra income but if I take on too much it becomes a burden rather than a pleasure.

My work through Fractured Vision Media has really blossomed this year. I’ve partnered with ZStream Media Services on a rather large project building an interactive media delivery system for Blockbuster, La Quinta Inns, and potentially a number of other clients. The framework we’ve created is pretty extensible and the initial development will hopefully wrap us soon as we are seeing a nationwide release beginning this week.

Personal projects have been sparse. Just no real time with all the other stuff I have going on. One item that I am very pleased with is the completion of a new audio collection “A Prison of Oneself” which I am releasing through FVM. I’ve worked on material for this release off and on since 2003(!) and have put in far too much work to let it rot in my archives. I sold a number of copies of “August” back in 2000 and with much better distribution through the internet, I believe I can recoup the small amount of money I’ve put into this project fairly easily. I set up a crappy MySpace Music account to help advertise and network with artists I’ve worked with when I was more active with this stuff. The album should be available for purchase within the next week or so.

All in all, it has been a pretty successful year. If I can look back next year with the same amount of optimism- I will be thrilled!

My wishes for the new year involve the following:

1. Become more introspective and considerate of personal time, personal projects, and the inner-life.
2. Continue growing Fractured Vision Media as a multimedia services entity.
3. Become more fluent in ActionScript 3.0 and related technologies while expanding focus once again to design aspects of my many projects.
4. Generally become a better father, husband, and human being…

Happy New Year!

My official title at DU has been changed to Senior Multimedia Application Developer- very nice!

This new title is much more reflective of what I do on a day-to-day basis and I’m very pleased with the designation of “senior”- an indicator of my years of experience working in this field. We have been going through a lot of changes recently as a unit. While things are a little rough at the moment- in a few months time I envision a very solid production.

Guess I’ll need new business cards printed up… eventually.