This has got to be the longest preloader ever – the amount of time I have left until I’m out of the Navy:

[kml_flashembed movie=”/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/lifeloader.swf” height=”100″ width=”250″ fversion=”9″ /]

Which reminds me – here’s a handy AS3 class to create a countdown from now until some chosen date (passed as constructor argument):

CountDown.as

package com.onebyonedesign.utils { public class CountDown { private var _targetDate:Date; public function CountDown(d:Date):void { _targetDate = d; } /** * * @return An object with the properties: days, hours, minutes, and seconds */ public function getTime():Object { var now:Date = new Date(); var secs:Number = (_targetDate.getTime() - now.getTime()) / 1000; return secondsToTime(secs); } private function secondsToTime(secs:Number):Object { var min:Number = Math.floor(secs / 60); var hour:Number = Math.floor(min / 60); var day:Number = Math.floor(hour / 24); min = min % 60; hour = hour % 24; var sec:Number = Math.floor(secs % 60); var days:String = day < 10 ? "0" + day : day.toString(); var seconds:String = sec < 10 ? "0" + sec : sec.toString(); var minutes:String = min < 10 ? "0" + min : min.toString(); var hours:String = hour < 10 ? "0" + hour : hour.toString(); return {days:days, hours:hours, minutes:minutes, seconds:seconds}; } } }

Quick usage:

package { import com.onebyonedesign.utils.CountDown; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.TimerEvent; import flash.utils.Timer; public class CountdownExample extends Sprite { private var birthday:Date = new Date(2008, 11, 28); private var cd:CountDown; public function CountdownExample():void { cd = new CountDown(birthday); beginCount(); } private function beginCount():void { var timer:Timer = new Timer(10000); timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, showCount); timer.start(); } private function showCount(te:TimerEvent):void { var time:Object = cd.getTime(); trace ("Only " + time.days + " days until Devon's birthday!"); } } }