Joel Hooks is a Flash Platform developer with experience in Actionscript 3, Flex, and Python. Joel spent the first 13 years of his professional career as a 3d animator and graphic designer working on computer-based training applications from that perspective. His interest in programming goes as far back as "TELL TURTLE" and he has always been interested in the technological challenges related to developing software making work a little bit easier. With the introduction of Actionscript 3, Joel finally found a platform that allows him to architect useful tools while fully leveraging his experience as a visual artist. Joel is passionate about technology and enjoys exploring the landscape of frameworks, libraries, and tools that make his work constantly fun and challenging. Joel currently resides in Fort Worth and works as a Flex consultant for Universal Mind providing clients with oodles of clean code and a focus on test driven development solutions. Joel can be found blogging on various Flex development topics at http://joelhooks.com. Outside of developing software tools Joel owns a photography studio http://visualempathy.com with his wife who also collaborates on the raising and nurturing of his four home-educated children aged 13 to 4. Lindsey Fallow (aka Stray) has spent the past decade exploring science and technology as a writer, software developer, and television personality. Following an undergraduate degree in Manufacturing Engineering, she fronted a science show for 8-12 year-olds on Disney, and went on to become a reporter & Associate Producer for Tomorrow's World (the BBC's #1 prime-time UK science and technology show) from 1998-2002. She's stood on the top of the Golden Gate bridge, fed sharks, filmed brain surgery, flown in military planes, and been bitten by a baby tiger, but is the most excited by far when her 16-year-old stepson 'gets' new math concepts. A Flash developer since Flash 4, Stray blogs on ActionScript, test driven development and the programmer's brain at xxcoder.net. She is a core contributor to the Robotlegs framework, and actively pushing the ActionScript community to aspire to excellence through the try{harder} collaborative-learning format.
