MXNA Upgrade: In Progress ( New Hardware and CF8 )

DIGG IT!     5 Comments Published Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 12:19 PM .

I am sure most are aware of the downtime on MXNA this week. Since 2008 began, we have been seeing ever increasing downtime on the site as the demand on the server has skyrocketed. This week the server was taken offline and is being replaced by a pair of servers and upgraded to ColdFusion 8. The new server software Apache/CF/MYSQL is being configured as I write this and it should hopefully be up and running early next week if not sooner.



For me MNXA is such a vital source of information. It's downtime has been very frustrating as I really enjoy seeing what the developer community is up to.

Hopefully with the new servers and software, MXNA downtime will be a thing of the past!

Cheers,

Ted :)

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Flash Player Mental Model - The Elastic Racetrack Revisited

DIGG IT!     0 Comments Published Friday, April 18, 2008 at 9:24 AM .

Sean Christmann has posted a excellent article revisiting one of mine from 2005. The article gets very fine grained about the elastic racetrack metaphor and goes into detail in regard to how AMV2 handles things.







Great work Sean!

Enjoy,

ted :)

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Finding domains with Flex: brandgopher.com

DIGG IT!     6 Comments Published Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 8:44 PM .

I really like this app, it is a very simple use of Flex. I have yet to see another domain name search system use 'as you type' searching but it is effective at brandgopher.com. The text input field took me a second to find but once I did, I found 3 good domain names worth registering:


Check out brandgopher.com

cheers,

ted :)

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Intuit adopts Flex for QuickBase Developer Program

DIGG IT!     2 Comments Published at 8:29 PM .

Today Intuit announced Flex support in it's new hosted QuickBase service and QuickBase Developer Program. I am continuously amazed at the scale and quality of the projects adopting Flex.



Great work Intuit!

Cheers,

Ted :)

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Adobe MAX 2008: Lab Computer Survey

DIGG IT!     1 Comments Published at 9:30 AM .

Make sure to get your input in about the Labs (was Hands-On) computer survey below for MAX 2008. The MAX team is scaling up the Labs at MAX as we are seeing a growing demand for training and want MAX to meet customer needs. We decided to effectively double the number of Labs at MAX since they are almost always sold out and computers are often limited. We have dedicating conference space at San Francisco Marriott 100% to Labs, 11 rooms with over 40K square feet. There are 3 Mega-Labs at MAX that hold 500 people each and 8 Labs that hold 100 people. Compare that with 8 training rooms holding 50 people each last year!


This change also simplifies the Sessions at MAX as they will all be located at Moscone West just a block away. Logistically this simplifies how MAX is organized from the ground up.

I will be covering the changed for Sessions and Camps in a later post. MAX is changing for the better based directly on the feedback from last year. It will be the best yet!

Thanks,

Ted :)

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MAX 2008 - Lab computers: Yours or Ours?

DIGG IT!     3 Comments Published Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 2:39 PM .

We are expanding the Labs (was Hands-On) at MAX 2008. The team has a question regarding Lab computers.


Thanks,

Ted :)

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DARE 1.0 BETA (MAC) - The Adobe AIR Development Web Server

DIGG IT!     6 Comments Published Wednesday, April 09, 2008 at 7:42 AM .

At the onAIR tour I have been talking to many HTML/JS developers and one thing struck me as odd. HTML/JS developers do not compile and in many cases the ADL/ADT command line tools are very alien to them. With HTML/JS/AJAX development you simply hit refresh to test your creation but with Adobe AIR you must run ADL or ADT. I think this eliminates a ton of HTML/JS developers from being really effective with Adobe AIR and thus during the onAIR tour I have been writing a server called DARE.



What is DARE?

DARE is a local http server that makes it easy to create, test, and package AIR applications. It allows you to develop and test using your HTML/JS tools of choice and just a web browser. You can even use the "Refresh" button to test and package your application.

Why DARE?

There are tons of HTML/JS/AJAX developers that never use the command line. DARE lowers the barrier to using Adobe AIR effectively.

+ Developer + AIR = DARE :)
+ Sounds like AIR is in the name but isn't. :)

Directions:

1. DOWNLOAD DARE 1.0 MAC HERE
2. COPY the DARE Folder into Applications
3. Run DARE (a browser will pop-up )

Before DARE can run or package AIR applications you need to copy the AIR SDK into DARE. Directions are shown when DARE starts up.

I will be releasing the Windows version of DARE soon but wanted to get those on MAC up and running first. I will also be fixing some known issues and making things much more stable. I am also going to see about licensing the AIR SDK so that configuring DARE is much easier.

Feedback:

Please email me feedback or bugs on DARE here.



Special thanks to FastIcon.com and Dirceu Veiga for the killer dinosaur icon for DARE.

Cheers,

Ted :)

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Adobe MAX has a new URL: MAX.ADOBE.COM

DIGG IT!     8 Comments Published at 3:00 AM .

MAX has a new home online at MAX.ADOBE.COM. The past few years of MAX have been hosted on custom urls, (adobemax2007.com and adobemax08.com). As our first item for this new year was to get MAX a permanent subdomain on Adobe.com.

MAX.ADOBE.COM

I really like MAX.ADOBE.COM as it is a simple URL, it is easy to remember, it works across multiple years, and supports our online plans for the annual event (more on this as things shape up).

As a side note, there have been over 200 sessions posted in the call for sessions/speakers and in reviewing the sessions thus far it looks awesome.

Enjoy MAX's new home at MAX.ADOBE.COM!

Ted :)

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AdobeTV - tv.adobe.com

DIGG IT!     0 Comments Published at 1:42 AM .

Today Adobe launched a new Flex site called AdobeTV (tv.adobe.com). The site hosts many videos for creative professionals and works seamlessly with Adobe Media Player (also launching today).

Check out the videos.

Ted :)

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Flash Player Public Bug and Enhancement Database is now online!

DIGG IT!     1 Comments Published at 1:33 AM .

Today Adobe officially launched the public bug base for Flash Player at http://bugs.adobe.com/flashplayer/. This has been a very long time coming and I think it will do wonders for the quality of Adobe Flash Player as developers can enter bugs and enhancements directly and watch the status of their requests. The bug base is the same one that Flex uses and is JIRA powered.

I highly encourage you to get an account to bugs.adobe.com so that you can file enhancements and log bugs. Obviously software development is anything but a perfect science and by expanding the number of users reporting bugs, the quality of Adobe Flash Player is sure to rise.

Great work Player Team!

Ted :)

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Google App Engine and the Services Revolution

DIGG IT!     6 Comments Published at 1:08 AM .

Scalable stacks for service creation have been so few and far between. Unless you want to shell out big $$$ for N servers (read 5+), load balancing, clustered storage/database, and staff to all that gear running smoothly, scalable service creation was really out of reach for most developers. Google enters the market for service creation with App Engine and my take is that they have hit a sweet spot with this early release.



Here is my list of great features:

1. Local development and testing
2. Python with Standard Library and Django Framework access
3. Scalability is built in
4. Free for Small to Medium services
5. Custom domain support

Instead of mucking with machine images, you simply focus on your application logic and the service does the rest. Additionally Google is providing key services like Big Table for data storage and retrieval.

As a python fan it is great to see the language as a first class citizen at the heart of Google's new service. Python has been an essential part of Google since day 1 and they have been ever present at every Python conference I have attended recruiting like mad.

I will be exploring App Engine over the next few week. It looks like a great solution for scalable service creation.

Great work Google!

Ted :)

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"AIRpache" - A Simple AIR development server

DIGG IT!     8 Comments Published Friday, April 04, 2008 at 6:48 AM .

I have been working on a little project that I just showcased at the onAIR event in Amsterdam via DANNY DURA's QIK.COM ACCOUNT. "AIRpache" is a local web server that simplifies development of AIR applications. The web server handles all signing, packaging, and debugging of AIR apps using a web browser. Check out the video:



I will be posting the code here on Monday in Brussels after testing this weekend.

Cheers,

Ted :)

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ILOG Elixir Flex Components

DIGG IT!     16 Comments Published Wednesday, April 02, 2008 at 9:50 PM .

One of the more interesting developments in the world of Flex is the entry of ILOG Elixir. ILOG is one of the top component companies in the world and specialized in visualization components. They have been quietly working on a great component set called Elixir which includes many of the top most requested components. Lets take a deeper look:


3D Charts - View Source
This demo shows 3D line, area, column, bar, and pie charts. Many of the feature settings available on each chart can be interactively manipulated to test their effects.


Gauges and Dials
This interactive gallery illustrates the broad range of possibilities for circular gauges, linear gauges, and dials.


Map Displays - View Source
This example of a business management dashboard combines many different ILOG Elixir components: Map Displays, Gauges, 3D Charts, and Radar Charts.


Gantt Charts - View Source
This interactive demo explains how to visualize the allocation of resources using the ILOG Elixir Gantt Chart. It displays the schedule of absences for employees.



Organization Charts - View Source
This presentation displays an ILOG Elixir Organization Chart for an example company. It also illustrates how an ILOG Elixir component can be synchronized with other Adobe Flex components—in this case, a tree and property sheet.


Treemap Chart - View Source
This ILOG Elixir Treemap Chart demo displays business data for hundreds of companies, and allows users to manipulate the chart to reveal trends and outliers in the data. A traditional list view is shown alongside the treemap and the two views are synchronized.


Radar Charts - View Source
This presentation compares distinct data points from multiple countries using an ILOG Elixir Radar Chart. The radar chart's properties can be adjusted.

I met up with the ILOG Elixir team at the onAIR event in Paris yesterday. We met very briefly (way to short in fact) but they mentioned they would be in attendance at 360Flex in Milan. I would really like to find a way to better highlight components like Elixir. In many cases developers just do not know that these great products exist.

Kudos to the Elixir team for such a great component set for Flex.

cheers,

Ted :)

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