Monthly Archive for March, 2011

Seeking job and friends!

29/03/2011
MyPlace
About a year ago I decided I had to leave Spain. Why?
New cultures, new people, new projects … ambition.
Analyzing my profile I decided that San Francisco Bay Area should be the first option because  it is known for cultural diversity, its tolerance and to be the cradle of numerous start ups and projects of all kinds but especially in the internet world and technological.
So 3 weeks ago I landed in SF in search of new opportunities and experiences. And I’ll be here until my visa ends in June.
I am aware of the difficulty of finding a job without the appropriate visa (I need sponsorship) and with a non conventional technical background.
At least if I have no success I want to use my stay to meet as many interesting people as possible.
This post is therefore to appeal to anyone who would like to meet with me and talk about anything (Flash, Internet, new technologies, San Francisco, life, the world…) or want to go running, hiking, rock climbing, partyng, start new projects, whatever! (cheap)
And, of course,  is a call to anyone with a job offer for me (in SF or the other side of the world)!
Xavi Vives – Curriculum Vitae.pdf
Please, share this post (especially if you know people in SF Bay Area or know of someone who could be interested). Thanks.
If you want to know more about me you can also find me on Linked-in and Twitter.

How to insert and properly display AdMob on Air for Android

17/03/2011

Android and Flash can make money
Notice that this is just an extension of the work made by Terry Paton (@terrypaton1) in his tutorial AdMob adverts in AIR for Android applications. Check it for an introduction.
I ‘ve made a simple class using Terry’s code and adding some extra functions.
You can download it here: AdMob.as
Basically all you have to do is create an instance of AdMob class passing  the URL where your adMob html is placed and an stage reference.
var ad: AdMob =new AdMob("http://yourAdMobURL.com/",stage);
you can also use updateAd() function to change the adMob html or refresh the previous url.
ad.updateAd("optionalNewURL");
You can download an html adMob template here. Just change the publisher ID and the colors.
How to make  the ads are always displayed?
When the ad is already working,  there is a big deal because sometimes the ad is showed and sometimes not.
I was dealing with this for a while. I tested the html page where the ad is placed with an iPod  Touch and the ads was displayed all the time. In Android devices the ad was displayed only sometimes but when runs in one, runs with the rest. If the adMob was in test mode the ad was displayed without problems.
So, what is the problem? It is quite simple. There are no enough ads.
If you are a publisher you can choose where you want your ad be displayed. You can choose between iPhone apps, iPhone sites, Android apps and Android sites. Seems that there are not enough publishers interested in sites visited with Android phones.
The best solution I found to this problem is to create a “House ad” in the adMob “Sites and Apps” menu.
This is an ad that we can link to where we want and will be displayed when there is no “normal ads” to display.
Once you create it, go to “Sites and Ads” page , click edit on the “House ads” column. Turn “House ads” on, and save settings.