Unlike most other computer languages, when ActionScript code fails, it fails silently. If my code sends an undefined argument to a function, there is no crash, no alert message, nothing scary.

Overall, this is a good thing. If my live swf hits a bug, it might work just fine, no one is the wiser and life goes goes on blissfully unaware.

This behavior has a downside, however. The bug that is ignored now might cascade into a serious problem later -- in the next frame or in some code far away from the source of the problem. And I'm left scratching my head trying to figure out the original source of the problem in my code. The appearance of the problem and the source of the problem may be far apart.

I was working on a website that needs to adapt to bandwidth. To really test it, I had to run it over the Internet -- the 'simulate download' feature didn't cut it in this case. And, I don't have a dial-up modem anymore. Furthermore, the adaptive features needs to work over a variety of bandwidths.

I found a cheap, very useful tool: Netlimiter 2. The pro version is only $30. There is also a lite version. With this tool, you can limit and/or monitor the bandwith and bytes downloaded for each application and each ip address.

Paul Colton has ported my Flash 8 wood texture code to AFLAX. It's amazing that it works so well. He must have figured out some sneaky, under-the-hood code to make it work (sneaky in a good way). Still blows my mind.

In addition to creating typical Flash movies, here's another possible use for AFLAX: Flash Forms for PHP (or ASP.NET for that matter).

Until recently, I had no idea what Flash Forms were. But a couple nights ago, I attended an mmsug meeting where Derek Versteegen demonstrated some work he's done with Flash Forms and how they work.