Joseph Balderson has been fascinated by computers and programming since picking up LEGOs and disassembling nearly every appliance he could find as a child, progressing on to electronics, microcontrollers, and robotics as a teen. This interest took a detour in his college years, when he attended art school and studied poetry, philosophy, and graphic design. When he discovered Flash 4 in 1999, Joseph found his true vocation, one that would allow him to combine his passions for art and science, design, and programming under one roof. That passion has led Joseph through an evolution of roles throughout his career, from graphic designer to web designer, to Flash designer, to Flash developer, and finally, today, as a Flex and ActionScript developer. Joseph has held various positions throughout this time, from a jack-of-all-trades for a dot-com in the early days of the Web to a bank employee, Flash freelancer, and hired temp. Joseph's interests in communication and writing also led him to a position as staff writer and authoring partner at Community MX in 2005, writing biweekly tutorials on Flash and Flex technologies to this day. Joseph also served as Professor of Multimedia Studies at Humber College in 2005-2006, teaching Flash and ActionScript. After a stint as an Adobe-certified corporate instructor in 2006-2007, Joseph resumed his freelance career to focus on consulting and writing. He has since participated as contributor and technical editor on a number of book projects, and has been involved in the construction of Flex and AIR rich Internet applications for a number of startups and consulting agencies. Joseph is now a freelance Flex and Flash platform developer living in central Ontario, Canada, in the Georgian Bay area. He spends most of his time in his home studio dreaming up ways of making cool stuff with Adobe technologies. Joseph's work and blog can be viewed at http://www.joeflash.ca.