Ted On Flex

8.1 Megapixel Camera for $160

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:25:00 +0000

It seems amazing to me that camera prices have fallen so rapidly yet the cameras are capable of so much more. I am headed on vacation this week and decided to get a new point and shoot camera. Shockingly the same Panasonic Lumix camera I paid for 2 years ago costs 70% less and actually has more features. In the small I got an inexpensive 8MegaPixel camera but in the large I am wondering about the overall market effect of commodity low cost high capacity digital devices. I think we are seeing the arrival of the real digital era where everyone is transferring high quality images using very low cost devices. Add a 2GB memory card to this for $24 and I have a really great camera setup for under $200, scary.

The digital tidal wave is arriving.

It is also cool to think that these same cameras might one day be programatic and run Flash via the Open Screen Project. Fun Fun!

And now PhotoShop Express allows you to edit your Flickr images.

cheers,

Ted :)

Next Dreamweaver - A killer app for HTML/JS/AJAX

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:44:00 +0000

Every once in a while I peek over the fence to see what the HTML/JS camps at Adobe are working on and was I in for a suprise. I really believe that the next Dreamweaver release is a killer app for HTML/JS/AJAX design and development. It is rare for me to label something a killer app but I have never seen first class tooling for html/js like this before.

The team has made several key product decisions, embedding Webkit, that have resulted in some amazing features and workflow for building web pages (dare I call them that anymore). I visited with Scott Fegette and he briefed me on what they were working on and showed a demo he did at Web 2.0 recently. In the demo he previewed a page and then paused JavaScript allowing you to both see and edit the current DOM in place. It is hard to explain but it is like FireBug on steroids and made editing very complex interactivity very easy. The puzzler is that this is just 1 of many new features and workflows for both developers and designers.

More to come!

Ted :)

Verizon on Flex 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:41:00 +0000

Verizon just released a new Flex 3 application for selling ringtones and ringbacks. The site is excellent and the use of transitions and dynamic data is visually stunning. It is one of the best Flex apps I have seen in a while. It also is also one of the first full ecommerce experiences in Flex that I have seen. You can search, preview, and buy any ringtone or ringback on Verison online. Way cool!

VERIZON MEDIA STORE

Cheers,

Ted :)

Flex 4 - Enhanced States

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:21:00 +0000

The Wiki over at opensource.adobe.com is in full swing and recently the States enhancements were posted here I really like the changes as states were so complex to think about and edit without the design view. The new inline States allow you to declare state changes within components using a simple syntax and some new attributes. Before you had to define all the delta values externally within a state tag and this was very hard to edit by hand. Here are a few examples:

Inline States Syntax ( Note use of "includeIn" and "excludeFrom" ):

<!-- Given the states A,B,C -->
<m:states>
   <m:State name="A"/>
   <m:State name="B"/>

   <m:State name="C"/>
</m:states>

<!-- This button will appear in only states A and B -->
<Button label="Click Me" includeIn="A, B"/>

<!-- This button will appear in states A and B -->
<Button label="Button C" excludeFrom="C"/>

State specific attributes:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="library:ns.adobe.com/flex/halo" 
   xmlns:m="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" layout="absolute">

    <m:states>
        <m:State name="landState"/>
        <m:State name="airState"/>
        <m:State name="waterState"/>

    </m:states>
    <mx:VBox id="vbox">
        <mx:HBox>
            <mx:Button id="land" label="Land" click="currentState='landState'" />

            <mx:Button id="air" label="Air" click="currentState='airState'" />
            <mx:Button id="water" label="Water" click="currentState='waterState'" />

        </mx:HBox>
        <mx:CheckBox label="Helicopter" color.airState="0xFF0000"/>
        <mx:CheckBox label="Motorcycle" color.landState="0xFF0000" />

        <mx:CheckBox label="Car" color.landState="0xFF0000" />
        <mx:CheckBox label="Airplane" color.airState="0xFF0000"/>

        <mx:CheckBox label="Train" color.landState="0xFF0000" />
        <mx:CheckBox label="Boat" color.waterState="0xFF0000"/>

        <mx:CheckBox label="Submarine" color.waterState="0xFF0000"/>
    </mx:VBox>
</mx:Application>

Object Based Properties:

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="library:ns.adobe.com/flex/halo" 
   xmlns:m="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009">
    <m:states>
      <m:State name="default"/>

      <m:State name="glow"/>
    </m:states>

    <mx:Button label="Button" click="currentState=currentState=='glow'?'':'glow'">
        <mx:filters>

            <mx:DropShadowFilter distance="9" />
        </mx:filters>

        <mx:filters.glow>
            <mx:GlowFilter/>
        </mx:filters.glow>

    </mx:Button>
</mx:Application>

<!-- Alternatively the above code could be written using
     state specific nodes -->

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:m="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"

xmlns:mx="library:ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">
    <m:states>
      <m:State name="default"/>
      <m:State name="glow"/>

    </m:states>

    <mx:Button label="Button" click="currentState=currentState=='glow'?'':'glow'">
        <mx:filters>
            <mx:DropShadowFilter distance="9" includeIn="default" />

            <mx:GlowFilter includeIn="glow"/>
        </mx:filters>
    </mx:Button>
</mx:Application>

I especially like the simplicity of the new states. States were a very hard feature to use larger scale but the changes in Flex 4 really look to be a step in the right direction. I guess the more obvious thing for me is how open we are about sharing key information on a release so far in advance. We have done alphas before with Flex but being able to see inside of the early prototype stages is very cool. Trust me when I say that there is a ton more to come.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Feed Me - Feeds.adobe.com Launches

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:42:00 +0000

Thank God, the new feeds.adobe.com is up!! It was like someone had turned off the air. Special thanks to the team that put in a ton of work on getting feeds.adobe.com. I know Christian Cantrell, Mike Chambers, Ben Forta, Jonathan Wall, and many others worked hard to make this happen. Also the time frame for this massive architecture change is really impressive. To go from a single server to 7 inside of 2 weeks time is really amazing.

Here is the new architecture:

1 - Load Balancer
5 - Apache + CF8 Clustered
1 - Database Server MYSQL
1 - Feed Aggregation Server (reads all RSS and populates database)

vs

1 - CF6 + MYSQL + Apache

Thanks for being patient during the downtime! 7 times as many servers are running feeds.adobe.com so hopefully downtime is a thing of the past.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Open Screen Project and Duran Duran

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Last night my girlfriend Linda took me to see a Duran Duran concert in Concord. It was a funny flashback to the 80's and aging rock stars aside, it was great fun. At one point in the concert the band went into a slow song and the lights dimmed causing the audience to pull out their phones and a few remaining lighters. The thing that struck me was there was a single computer on stage, an Apple MacBook Pro, and easily 5,000+ phones in the air. That really hit me and seeing so many programmatic devices with a user interface was really stunning.

To say it isn't drop dead essential that Flash Player and AIR support these screens is an understatement. It is a massive opportunity to release the creativity of the Adobe design and development community on making these screen experiences better.

5,000 screens vs 1 computer

Open Screen Project

cheers,

Ted :)

Screens Gone Wild!

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:14:00 +0000

It is really great to see Adobe open up and todays announcements on the Open Screen Project are nothing short of revolutionary. There are tons of screens out there and today we removed the key barriers to seamless compatibility for any screen, TV, Mobile, Computers, Consoles, DVR's, and all the rest. Developing content for devices is very hard and often the licensing for device runtimes is a huge barrier to use. In removing the barrier for device porting, protocol and format use, and use of the spec to create alternate runtimes it allows Flash Player to reach much farther. It also opens the door to the larger task of format standardization.

The way I see it Adobe/Macromedia was a self contained ecosystem and with the Open Screen Project we are tearing down the walls allowing the garden to escape and grow wildly. The web is going to get much richer, more interactive, more collaborative, and much more fun as a result.

It is a great time to be an Adobe designer and developer!

Go Flash Go!

Ted :)

MXNA Upgrade: In Progress ( New Hardware and CF8 )

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:19:00 +0000

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 :)

Flash Player Mental Model - The Elastic Racetrack Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:24:00 +0000

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 :)

Finding domains with Flex: brandgopher.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:44:00 +0000

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:

fooboard.com
adobemax.net
adobeted.com

Check out brandgopher.com

cheers,

ted :)

Intuit adopts Flex for QuickBase Developer Program

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:29:00 +0000

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 :)

Adobe MAX 2008: Lab Computer Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:30:00 +0000

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 :)

MAX 2008 - Lab computers: Yours or Ours?

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:39:00 +0000

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

Lab computers: Yours or Ours?

(Click to Answer)

Thanks,

Ted :)

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:42:00 +0000

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 :)

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

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:00:00 +0000

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 :)

AdobeTV - tv.adobe.com

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:42:00 +0000

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 :)

Flash Player Public Bug and Enhancement Database is now online!

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:33:00 +0000

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 :)

Google App Engine and the Services Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 08:08:00 +0000

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 :)

"AIRpache" - A Simple AIR development server

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:48:00 +0000

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 :)

ILOG Elixir Flex Components

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:50:00 +0000

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 :)

Adobe MAX 2008 :: 3 Days, 120 Sessions Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:08:00 +0000

Three days ago I posted on the call for speakers and session for MAX. I checked the database today and there were 120 sessions posted since last Friday. If you want to speak at MAX, you should post your session here.

From the looks of the session posted MAX is going to be really great this year.

Post your session!

Cheers,

Ted :)

Book Love: Beginning AIR by Rich Tretola

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:33:00 +0000

WROX is working on a great series of book highlighting Flex and AIR. There are 5 new titles shipping and in development. The latest is "Beginning AIR" By Rich Tretola. Rich is a great developer and I would highly recommend checking out his new AIR title.

Congrats Rich on the great book.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Hello AIR/Flex Builder on Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:12:00 +0000

This morning we launched the Alpha release of AIR for Linux and an updated Flex Builder for development on Linux. It is great to see Adobe providing both runtime and development support on Linux for Web applications using Flash Player and Desktop applications using AIR.

I am in Madrid at the onAIR tour today. I am going to be filming developers for the next episode of 30onair.com website.

Writeups:
CNET Article
ReadWriteWeb
Universal Desktop

Go Tux!

Ted :)

ADOBE MAX 2008 - Call for Speakers and Sessions

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce the official Adobe MAX 2008 Call for Speakers and Sessions. We are looking for the best sessions and speakers for MAX 2008 in North America, Europe, and Japan. I would like to encourage you to post a session that you would like to present or attend at Adobe MAX 2008.

We will be reviewing all sessions posted and make sure the best of these are at Adobe MAX 2008. I am looking forward to reviewing your sessions.

Thanks for helping making Adobe MAX 2008 the best yet!

Regards,

Ted :)

SlideRocket on Flex 3 - 250 Trial Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:24:00 +0000

I am a huge fan of SlideRocket and Mitch Grasso and his team have done an amazing job. As an presentation editor it is comparable with PowerPoint and Keynote but is in the web. SlideRocket is also a great use of Papervision3d as many of the transitions are using the 3D ActionScript API that it provides. Better still when I saw video and animation on sides it really brought home the fact that this is Flash Player at its best.

Trial Account Sign-up

Mitch was kind enough to give me 250 trial accounts for readers of my blog. I am sure you will like the application, it is an amazing use of Flex 3.

Mitch amazing work!

Regards,

Ted :)