Max 2007 Keynote: Day 2
This is the day to be at the keynote. It was BY FAR a better showing. I’ll let you read on instead of iterating all of the hype I feel today. 😀 Read on.
Flex Builder 3 Pricing Changes
When I first heard of pending changes to FB3 I was pretty nervous. It wasn’t about affording the new version but Flex has been hit SOOOOO hard regarding pricing (even after it became free…people hated the FB2 pricing for some reason; well…reasons included comparison to other tools, etc) that I was concerned that Adobe would mess up and price it bad again. Well…NOPE! 🙂
“Ted Patrick posted the Flex Builder 3 pricing changes”:https://www.onflex.org/ted/2007/10/flex-3-beta-2-lower-price-flex-builder.php and I’m QUITE pleased.
Basically, get it for $250 (Standard; no charting, profiling, automation, etc) or $699 (everything Standard doesn’t have). The SDK is still free but now you can get rocking for a whole $200 less than you could with FB2.
BEST PART? $99 upgrade from FB2!!! NICE!
Great work and bravo, Adobe!
MAX 2007 Keynote
Here we go…I put the rest of this post in the extended section so jump over and keep up! 😉
MAX 2007 Keynote: HERE WE GO!
Alrighty….it is keynote time!! I’m sitting in the third row and am loving the vibe. I have some video of the room and opening preso (nice animation showing different apps, etc). This is a nice setup for sure.
**Quick Review of Yesterday**
I TA’d the _Adobe Flex and ColdFusion_ then went to the welcome reception (videos of “Robert Hoekman, JR”:https://www.rhjr.net and “Phillip Kerman”:https://www.phillipkerman.com coming soon). “Michael Hagel”:https://www.michaelhagel.com (who I’m also rooming with) and “Alan Rother”:https://alan.rotherfamily.net talked geek with me for a while as we mingled with a few other folks. The next thing on the list was the community dinner which was GREAT! “Tom Jordahl”:https://tjordahl.blogspot.com/ was at our table so we had some good CF talk going. The filet mignon was GREAT and the potatoes were AMAZING! Great dinner!
Well, I could go on but they are ramping up to get started so…new blog post coming in a sec!
MAX…here I come!
I’m at the airport squeaking out this post before group A finishes and group B (my group) starts loading. 🙂 I wanted to get here earlier and write this eloquent post about how my life is about to transcend…{insert scratched record noise}…WHATEVER…I’M GOING TO CHICAGO! 😀 lol
See you there! Keep an eye out for a lot of posts this week. I blog a lot when I’m at conferences and they usually include “WOW…THIS IS SWEET!” type posts. I’ll try to keep’em a bit to the point this time around. 😉
Uh oh…group A is moving fast…gotta run! {insert Speedy Gonzalez running noise} lol
To Command or not to Command
I’m contemplating an approach to this IM/Chat application I’m about to build and the “Command Pattern”:https://www.johncblandii.com/2007/09/desert-code-camp-day-1.html came into mind. Here are my thoughts…please respond and let me know what you think of the approach.
WebORB Kinda Rocks!
The “WebORB Preso by Mark Piller”:https://www.johncblandii.com/2007/09/azfpug-september-meeting-webor.html was given tonight for “azFPUG”:https://www.gotoandstop.org. I knew the majority of the info Mark talked about having toyed with the product before but there were a few things I didn’t know. On the “WebORB Mailing List”:https://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/flashorb/ I have made numerous comments about licensing (has been months but you should be able to find it in the archives). Well, now I see why it has the price tag(s) it does and definitely see the benefits of using it.
First, I didn’t know you could stream videos from it. That gives you Flash Media Server capabilities…very nice.
Secondly, I didn’t know you could use Remote Shared Objects (for sharing data between connected clients). [another feature of FMS]
Thirdly (is that a word? lol), I didn’t realize WebORB generated messaging code. So, you can go from 0 to 59 with the last 1 being your own custom UI. That’s great and for those not familiar with messaging, it is a way to allow data to be pushed to clients vs the client apps constantly polling the backend for data.
All of this is possible through .NET, PHP, Ruby, Ajax, and Java. Very nice!
The guys at “Midnight Coders”:https://www.themidnightcoders are doing some great work. I highly suggest looking into WebORB. Their admin console truly kicks butt!
UPDATE:
I forgot to add Silverlight to the technologies you can use WebORB with. 🙂 They haven’t released it yet but they are working on it.
I’m on the market… – Client Response
I’ve had a few clients email or call wondering if they were a part of the “I’m on the market…”:https://www.johncblandii.com/2007/09/im-on-the-market.html post. Well, I won’t post a list of who is on or off but I do want to clarify a few things.
# That was purely a vent based on events from the whole year and based on a collection of projects running concurrently.
# Katapult has way more good clients than bad. We seriously enjoy some great relationships with local dev’ companies, Fortune 500’s (and lower), and other dev’ companies throughout the country.
# As stated in the post, it isn’t the people but how the business runs or how my clients client requires things.
# I’m not anti-NDA but it would be nice to take credit for some of the award winning things we’ve done. Yep, others taking credit, receiving awards, and not throwing us a bone at all.
As for Katapult, a few people (not just clients) have been confused here too.
# I’m not shutting down Katapult.
# Katapult will still do a light amount of client work (very, very light).
# Katapult’s focus will be on “our products”:https://www.katapultmedia.com/products.cfm (only a couple listed there). We have 6 products, logos and all ready to roll, and all of them have been on hold for client work. Finalizing these products is a top priority.
Hopefully that clears up a few things. If you are a client and you are reading this/the last post, feel free to ask if I was talking about you. I will definitely be open and answer honestly.
Thanks.
5 Copies of CFWACK Volume 1
I didn’t expect the books today but I got’em. One of the perks of writing in the series is 5 free copies of each volume. The covers look even better in person than they do on Amazon. 😀 This is cool but I can’t wait until Volume 2 is in my hands.
Google Sued For Crimes Against Humanity
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
and
HA!
“Read more”:https://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/21/google-sued-for-crimes-against-humanity/ and draw your own conclusion. 😀
LMBO
LMBO
LMBO
🙂
azFPUG September Meeting: WebORB Preso
https://www.gotoandstop.org/index.php/2007/09/23/september-07-meeting-mark-piller-on-weborb/
I’m excited about this meeting. I’ve been around the WebORB community for a while now but have yet to really get into it. This preso will help me take the first step(s) into the world of WebORB by seeing an end to end solution as presented by Mark Piller (the man over at Midnight Coders).
Hopefully you’ll come out or join us in the Connect room!
I’m on the market…
…and will be joining someone’s team here soon.To clearly explain the why, what, and when I’ll break this down into a few sections.
(full explanation on the next page; kinda long)
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Flex 3 Cookbook site
I just found out about this so I figured I’d let everyone know since it looks like a great resource.
Several people know I love “Peter’s work over @ blog.flexexamples.com”:https://blog.flexexamples.com and this is along those lines. “Flex 3 Cookbook”:https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=homepage&productId=2 is a site hosted on adobe.com which allows the following:
* Find solutions to your Flex-related problems.
* Publish solutions you have created for the greater Flex community.
* Comment on solutions created by others.
* Opt for a chance to have your solution published by O’Reilly.
(source “Adobe.com”:https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/communityengine/index.cfm?event=homepage&productId=2)
This is also akin to the “ColdFusion Cookbook”:https://www.coldfusioncookbook.com/categories “Sir Camden”:https://www.coldfusionjedi.com hooked us up with about a year ago or so.
Silverlight VideoBrush Example
Scott Barnes is a very vocal evangelist at Microsoft. He “blogged about using masks and a VideoBrush in Silverlight”:https://blogs.msdn.com/msmossyblog/archive/2007/09/17/silverlight-masking-demo.aspx and “posted the example here”:https://www.mossyblog.com/SilverlightMaskDemo/.
This example is a HUGE reason why I love the video support in Silverlight. Being able to create a VideoBrush and place that brush in multiple locations (see how Scott used the brush as a reflection) is sweet!
Check out the example…it is simple but nice.