My co-worker (Thomas Bredillet) and I started using it immediately for our purposes which seemed to work wonderfully. However, it’s still in Beta mode and there are a few missing features, one of which is a way to test the database locally.

We couldn’t find a simple solution online using Java (since our back-end is Java) that would emulate DynamoDB, so we decided to create our own and call it Alternator.  It’s a fairly simple implementation and it’s only a first draft right now.  Since we’re using it on a day to day basis, are are continually improving it where we can but any extra help would definitely be appreciated.

Join us for an evening with Mike Chambers & Lee Brimelow from Adobe.  This will be a good opportunity to speak directly with Adobe, ask questions, and discuss recent changes around the Flash Player.

The Future of Flash – Mike Chambers

In this session, Mike will lead a discussion around recent changes and announcements around the Flash Platform. He will then spend some time laying out the roadmap for the Flash Player, and discuss the direction in which the player will evolve, including the general focus of the player and the ActionScript language and AVM (ActionScript Virtual Machine). In addition to discussing the Flash roadmap, we will be showing off the latest Flash and Adobe AIR content, give some sneak peeks on upcoming releases, and setting aside plenty of time for open discussions and Q&A.

Adobe Gaming Technology – Lee Brimelow

In this session Gaming Evangelist Lee Brimelow will reveal the latest technologies being worked on by Adobe for game developers. They will show how these technologies allow developers to create casual 2D games in addition to AAA 3D games. Current best practices will also be discussed.

This will also be streamed on my ustream channel for those who can’t attend in person.

I’m not saying 2011 was bad; I’ve gone to speak at conferences, I created an HTML5 demo application which is still in use today, I created a successful Parsley workshop, became my niece’s Godfather, went to work in Australia for 3 months and visited Vietnam on the way back to New York where I’m spearheading the engineering side of a start-up company.  Still, I can’t shake the feeling that I haven’t accomplished as much as I could or should have.  Maybe it’s because I have a lot of projects and ideas in my head, but I just can’t seem to finish or even start them in some cases.

One thing that did change in 2011 is that I became a notorious note-taker.  Anything that came to mind which peaked my interest, I wrote down somewhere; for the most part in Google Tasks.  Maybe it’s the sheer number of ideas (hovering around 60 right now) that just seems to sit there or maybe it’s the fact that in the last year I haven’t expressed myself creatively in a proper form.  I’m hard-pressed to remember the last time I brewed beer or played the bass for that matter.  One of the few creative outlets that is still kicking around is cooking, which I love, but I hardly have time to do it or so it seems.  I need a new plan, a change of perspective and greater focus.

I needed to re-brand myself and this website is the first step to that.  I’m not just talking about the design of the site (which will be changing a lot in the next few months) but the content as well.  Since this site has been created, the content has always been very technical and, let’s be honest, dry because of the subject matter;  I plan to change that in the coming months.  Not only will there be tech how-to’s and interesting tidbits, but I will strive to add musings, opinions, creative projects and the occasional video; this website will become a hub for my upcoming creative experiments.

All I can do now is hope that you will follow me on this venture and wish you all a happy new year.