Ted On Flash

Design++

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:32:00 +0000

As a followup to "Design an Application like a movie" I wanted to highlight the fact that design and interaction design has become the new standard. Today it is very hard to ship an app or propose an app without a fluid, cinematic user interface. Sure there are still areas where POF (Plain Old Forms) will do but more and more design++ is the new requirement.

If you look at all the leading applications and platforms, cinematic and well designed is built in. Iphone has it, Pre has it, Twitter clients have it, Safari has it, Kindle has it, OSX has it, even Windows 7 has it. This level of quality is really the new baseline for releasing an application for end use. Users really require a simple easy to use visually pleasing system for daily use.

At Adobe we have been working to shift apps from being developed to being designed. If you take a careful look at Catalyst it flips the % of design and development work within an app. Where development was 80% of an app, it is now 20% and Design/Interaction was 20% is now 80%. I have long thought as a platform Flash needed to better leverage the designers on Adobe's platform (10M+) and combined with an ecosystem of developers above 1M+ we would reach critical mass. In essence, Catalyst is game changing as it allows design to become the defining factor.

Now folks can dispute the value of how things are designed or the usability of product ABC but design and interaction are here to stay as the new requirement of anything software.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Design an Application like a Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:19:00 +0000

When an end user steps up to use an application, the whole experience end to end is like a movie. The user does this, then does that, and then that other thing all using various states of an application. Now although different users perform these scenes in different order, designing each scene should be thought about with the same precision as designing a movie scene. We tend not to design around usability like this, instead we think about the raw things the user needs to do rather than the whole scene experience. I keep wondering if an application would be more usable if there were a script written for each scene of the application. Instead of building use cases, you would build a script to visualize the user completing tasks end to end.

I find it interesting that both Director and Flash as development paradigms based on non-linear timelines/scenes, more so, Flex and Catalyst have adopted a development paradigm largely based on application states. Thinking about an application in terms of scenes or states can really change the overall usability of your application. How do the states flow together, what does the user during each scene, and do these scenes flow together well?

Adobe recently released a new toolset for scriptwriting called Adobe Story. The toolset is based on Buzzword but is specifically designed for script writing. The hidden agenda of the app is to get scene metadata into a video production workflow at the very start of design which leads to a cool end result over the production whole. I am going to explore designing an application using Adobe Story to see if the paradigm works for application design as well as it does for scene design and scripting.

Regardless of how the experiment turns out, I think my Actors, Roles, and Scenes will be better thought out.

Cheers,

Ted :)

My intellectual property and Why Adobe a great place to work!

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:15:00 +0000

I have worked for Adobe for 3+ years now and it remains a really great place to work. It goes without saying that I love my job but working for a company redefining web, design, and applications is awe inspiring. Recently I had a case where my personal software development collided with Adobe's IP policy for employees. See I have been exploring other platforms and learning Objective C for iphone development on the side during non-work hours. My hobby has resulted in a few iphone apps being developed, 5 to be exact. As an Adobe employee I signed all intellectual property rights to Adobe when I joined the company, which is smart of Adobe considering that the entire value of the company walks in and out of the doors every day. When you manage that much intellectual property, policies like this are just good smart business. So when I went to publish my iphone app, I talked to my manager which started a long process with HR and legal over what to do.

Who owned the iphone app intellectual property?
Was it possible for me to own it even given the work was done during non-working hours?
hmmmmm?

So the end result was the creation of a new internal process at Adobe where any employee can apply for IP rights for their creation. I applied and have been approved for the 5 applications I am writing and Adobe has granted me IP rights for all the apps. The gesture and support mean allot to me and the result make Adobe a much better place to work. Better still the projects, although personal, have really helped me understand the market and the need for Adobe to monetize applications and the need for a first class developer program.

If you have every thought about working for a great company, take a look at working for Adobe, it is a great place to work.

Adobe Careers

So the first app is called GolfLevel and it is the first golf green reading application for Iphone. It is a fun app that gives you an accurate read of the golf green to improve you putting. What is cool is that every bitmap within the app was built with FireWorks saved as PNG. You can check out the app here

The next app BallStar (game) should be approved this week. I will post on the app when it hits the appstore.

Thanks Adobe!

Cheers,

Ted :)

Problem Solving

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:48:00 +0000

One of the key parts of software development is problem solving. Like most problems in the real world software, problems can be broken down into many nested smaller problems and thus become much easier to solve. Breaking problems apart requires a deep understanding of the problem at hand and in many cases this is actually 80% of the problem itself. Once you understand the problem, writing a solution is pretty easy.

In my experience, to fully understand a problem you need to wrestle with it a bit. This requires some level of a throw away solution as you learn how something works. I tend to plan for throw away versions when major problems are identified within a software project. Generally it pads the development schedule and gives ample time for understanding and solving problems. Many lump these together as one thing but in reality understanding a problem and solving it are very different things. The only thing you need to watch out for is when "understanding the problem" code make it into a main build when this should really be rewritten.

Have you ever lost code? Why is it that you can recode a solution so quickly the second time? The second time you understand the problem at hand and solutions are easy to write when you understand them. Better still the 2nd solution tends to be more thought through and is most often cleaner with optimization built in (vs created early, read evil).

Breaking problems into smaller parts can be very hard to do. Getting from A to G requires you to solve BCDEF but what are BCDEF in terms of problems? I tend to make a procedural list once I have identified the larger TODO. A-G is a TODO item but solving BCDEF isn't. I typically make a check list of the things that need to happen to solve the TODO level problem. It helps me see the smaller elements in context with the larger problem. In many cases these smaller parts are helper methods and small data management tasks or UI related tasks. Here is a simple case:

TODO:
Load DataGrid with Data

Checklist:
1. Create http networking
2. Make call to server
3. Create server result in XML
4. Return result to client networking
5. Parse result data set
6. Clear out data in DataGrid Component
7. Create Typed Objects from XML data results and Add to Model
8. Set Model to DataGrid

The todo is simple but the checklist within really reads like code. I typically make the checklists for any solution inline as comments and write code around them. It provides some structure as I write code and the nature of the problem is within the documentation/code before I write any logic. This also allows you to build test cases and really helps close the quality gap. You need to know for sure that a problem is solved and testing is the only real way to know for sure.

So in a nutshell, break problems into smaller problems and plan to write some "understanding the problem" code before you write a solution. These simple steps have really helped me write logic faster with fewer errors over the years and I am sure it well help you solve the many problems you run into.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Development Islands

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:06:00 +0000

In 1996 I found myself ocean kayaking in Patagonia Chile. Our group, 15 of us, would wake at 5am to paddle from point to point across many small island inlets on the 30 day kayaking trip. The experience really stuck with me as we had to be very careful watching the weather conditions whenever we crossed open water. Crossings are the most dangerous element of ocean kayaking as you are exposed and weather can rapidly change for the worse. As strange as it sounds, this experience is identical to management of risk in a software development project. This model, development islands, has provided me a great way to think about software projects and the risk bearing decisions within the development process.

I have always found it ironic that in order to make progress writing software, you actively need to destroy/break the software you already wrote to make progress. At any point during development, 95% of the time software is in a non-working state becasue as you code, software clearly is broken. These areas during development I call crossings and the islands are the safe stable builds within a project. Looking at the larger picture software projects can be thought of as a large series of crossings between islands (stable builds) heading towards an unknown island where everything works perfectly. Here is a picture to help:

Obviously a project starts somewhere and makes build after build until it is complete. Along the way the project can fork into several parts so teams can work on aspects in parallel or at times things can fail. With every crossing you get closer and closer to this ideal endpoint yet at every part of development the project is at risk.

In looking at the larger picture, the ideal case is to make many small crossings where the build stays functional as much as possible. I do not believe that a project should ever reach an unworking state and that a developers role is to constantly have a safe island to return to and begin another crossing should one fail. Under this model the crossings represent feature/aspect development time and help you think about the many decisions on how a project gets broken apart. I use todo lists to define these crossings in advance of development but seeing things like this really changes the strategy. Breaking development tasks down into the smallest possible crossing becomes the key to the system.

How quickly can you get part of this problem solved into a stable build?
Can you build part of the project without the larger whole and integrate it in later?
Is this a component that I can license/reuse to save me development risk?

So next time you crack open a project, think about it in terms of Development Islands. Development Islands has changed how I think about projects, how I plan them, and how I executed them in development. Hopefully it will help you too.

And next time you get the chance go ocean kayaking, you will see what I mean. :)

cheers,

Ted :)

Development TODO Lists

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Over the past few years I have found that keeping an updated prioritized TODO list for app development is really essential. The TODO list habit started out of the need for me to stay focused but evolved into prioritizing what I was working on ranked by risk. Software development is essentially a game of risk management as any part of an application can quickly become very complex and suck the life out of your development schedule. We have all been there, the aspect you think will take the least time time ends up taking the longest for some odd reason. The TODO list helps me stay focused on the high risk elements early and forces me into a fail early, fail often model of development. I really like getting the hard problems out of the way first and slowly working towards an ever more stable release with constant lower risk refinement.

Here is how I manage my TODO list:

1. Write a list of all TODO items in the application each must have a defined completion point ( what is complete here? ).
2. Rank these by risk ( How hard are these items? How long will they take? Have you done this before? )
3. Work top to bottom on the list
4. Keep this TODO in version control within the build

The practice has really helped me built lots of different software projects and has made "What should I be working on?" much easier to answer at any point during development. It also is super handy for long term projects where you WILL forget what you were working on and what needs to be completed. I do know some developers that do this inline in the software application but I really like having a separate document for printability. Wasting a peice of paper on a priority list of TODO's is very high value in my book.

So take some time and write out a TODO list for the application you are working on. It really clears your head and allows you to focus on what is important in your app.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Where community and Catalyst meet

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:10:00 +0000

I have set-up an new application on Adobe Groups for sharing skins made with Flash Catalyst. Given the limitless design options when creating skins I thought it might be great to share skins and see what others come up with.

Having a defined set of skin elements on a hidden state within Catalyst really makes prototyping easy as design elements are just drag and drop.

Some sample skins:

If you build a skin in Catalyst or just have a cool ui to share.

Post them here.

Ted :)

Acrobat.com Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:06:00 +0000

From the team that brought you Buzzword comes Adobe's new online presentation tool, Adobe Presentations onto labs. It is great to see this online and even better to know the engineering quality put into the app itself. It goes without saying that Buzzword really redefined document editing in browser and the same is true with Presentations. The presentations app has gone by codename "Boardroom" during its 2 year development and having watched this project from inception it is great to see a nice balance of features. Overall a presentation editor is a document editor and with Buzzword at its core Presentations is built on a solid foundation.

Try out a sample presentation

Congrats to the Presentations Team on their labs launch.

Next stop Excel!

Ted :)

June Adobe User Groups Tours

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:57:00 +0000

The evangelist team and user groups around the globe are poised for the month of June as we start one of the largest Adobe User Groups tours to date around Flex 4 and ColdFusion 9. We will be hitting 119 cities many in parallel throughout June talking about Flex 4 and ColdFusion upcoming releases.

Here is the tentative list of cities we are visiting with:

June 1, 2009:
St. Louis, MO, US
San Jose, CA, US
Santa Rosa, CA, US

June 2, 2009:
Poland, Cracow
Spokane, WA, US

June 3, 2009:
Ottawa, Ontario, CA
San Diego, CA, US
Oxford, UK
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rockville, MD, US

June 4, 2009:
Harrisburg, PA, US
Pittsburgh, PA, US
Warsaw, Poland

June 5, 2009:
Yerevan, Armenia
Barcelona, Spain
Mexico City, MX

June 5, 2009:
Karachi, Pakistan

June 6, 2009
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Vienna, Austria
Hong Kong, CN

June 7, 2009
Los Angeles, CA, US
Atlanta, GA, US

June 8, 2009
Washington, DC, US

June 9, 2009
Boston, MA, US
Florian�polis, Brazil

June 10, 2009
Bucharest, Romania
Buenos Aires, Argentina
New York, NY

June 11, 2009:
Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN, US
Dublin, Ireland

June 12, 2009
Bloomington, IN, US
Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

June 13, 2009:
Bangkok, Thailand

June 14, 2009:
Berlin

June 15, 2009:
Seattle, WA, US
Las Vegas, NV, US
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Of Emirates
Taipei , Taiwan
Munich, Germany
San Diego, CA, USA

June 16, 2009
Raleigh, NC, US
Albany, NY, US
Hamburg, Germany
Munich, Germany
Omaha, NB, US
Sacramento, CA, US
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Birmingham, UK
Salem, OR, US
Fairfield, CT, US
Augusta, MA, US
Lafayette, LA, US
Dayton, OH, US
Albany, NY, US

June 17, 2009:
Toronto, Ontario, CA
Perth, Australia
Red Bank, NJ, US
Fortaleza, Brazil
Portsmouth, NH, US
Los Angeles, CA, US
Hartford, CT, US
Kansas City, KA, US
Orange County, CA, US
Melbourne, Australia
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Gent, Belgium
Cleveland, OH, US
C�rdoba, Argentina

June 18, 2009:
Torrance, CA, US
Bogota, Colombia
Nashville, TN, US
Rockford, IL, US
Toronto, Ontario, CA
Chicago, IL, US
Pittsburgh, PA, US
Pasadena, CA, US
East Lansing, MI, US
Madison, WI, US

June 19, 2009:
Los Angeles, CA, US
Nashville, TN, US
Tempe, AZ, US
Chennai, India
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

June 20, 2009:
Hyderabad,India

June 22, 2009
Sydney, Australia
Sofia , Bulgaria
Bloomington, IN, US
London, United Kingdom

June 23, 2009:
Singapore
San Francisco, CA, US
Milagro, Ecuador
Boston, MA, US
Tel-Aviv, Israel
Boise, ID, US
Zagreb, Croatia
Salt Lake City, UT, US
San Antonio, TX, US

June 24, 2009
Houston, TX, US
Exeter, Devon, UK
Denver, CO, US
Istanbul, Turkey
Philadelphia, PA, US
Copenhagen, Denmark

June 25, 2009:
Phoenix, AZ, US
Pavia, Italy
Switzerland, Zurich
Tampa, FL, US
Austin, TX, US
Macon/Warner Robins, GA, US
Lisbon, Portugal

June 26, 2009:
Rochester, MN, US
Minsk, Belarus
Dallas, TX, US

June 27, 2009:
Columbia, SC, US

July 2, 2009:
Salvador, Brazil

July 13, 2009:
Rockville, MD, US

July 15, 2009:
Cairo, Egypt

June will be a very busy month, make sure to stop by and checkout the user group meetings in your area.

Cheers,

ted :)

MAX 2009 Site Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:03:00 +0000

On Tuesday 32 members of the MAX team visited Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) and LA Live in preparation for MAX. The site visit is the first time we get the entire team together and we go through every detail of how to organize the physical event into the space. LA Live and LACC are at the center of a revitalization project in downtown Los Angeles. Over the past 3 years nearly all the surrounding buildings have been renovated and many new lots apartments have sprung up. The center sits in 4 parts, LACC (big convention center), Staples Arena (Where the LA Lakers play), Nokia Theater (concert hall), and LA Live (restaurants and entertainment venues). One thing that stood out this year is Nokia theater. It is easily the largest space we have ever done keynotes/awards/sneaks in and it should be a great venue.

We really have a great team working on MAX this year and combined with a great venue, MAX 2009 will be the best one yet.

See you at MAX 2009!

Cheers,

Ted :)

FITC 2009 Toronto - A Preview of Adobe Flash Catalyst by Mark Anders

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:57:00 +0000

I am onsite at FITC in toronto recording the event in partnership with Shawn and his team. I grabbed Mark Anders session and posted it online for viewing. An hour ago he gave his session on "A Preview of Adobe Flash Catalyst". It is easily the latest info available on Flash Catalyst and provides a deep look into the product in development.

Note: The audio from this video is set a bit low as there was some popping in the mic. We have since fixed the recording issue.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Positives and Negatives

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:48:00 +0000

I am very lucky to have many positives in my life ( Linda, family, friends, co-workers, community, work, charity ) but lately I have come to have a fuller understanding of the effects of negatives. Positives and negatives behave similarly in that each breeds more of the same. Each and every day we each choose to be positive or negative and that choice either results in more positives or more negatives returned.

Over the years, I have been negative towards competitors and lately negative towards an entity that used 600+ of my articles for SEO purposes without permission. In every case, when I have been outwardly negative it has always resulted in negatives returning to me 10 fold. Negatives breed more negatives. Right or wrong is never the issue; but rather that if you throw a stone (even if it is not the first), you should expect to get hit in the head by 10 times the stones that you throw. Negatives in this light are really a waste of time because they multiply before they are returned to you.

So starting today I am choosing to work on the positive, talk about the positive, and choose to bring more positives into my life.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Flash Penetration on Adobe Groups

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:40:00 +0000

We have a Google Analytics account on Adobe Groups and I have been reviewing statistics weekly. In the month of March, here are the stats related to Flash Player detection:

Flash Player 10.0 r12 = 39.68%
Flash Player 10.0 r22 = 24.34%
Flash Player 10.0 r2 = 6.73%
Flash Player 9.0 r124 = 11.65%
Flash Player 9.0 r151 = 4.79%
Flash Player 9.0 r115 = 2.92%
Flash Player 9.0 r45 = 1.47%
Flash Player 9.0 r47 = 0.95%
Flash Player 9.0 r28 = 0.60%
NOT SET = 4.51%

Basically, 70.75% are Flash Player 10, 22.38% are Flash Player 9, and 4.51% have not setting.

What is interesting to me is that 100% of the players detected support ActionScript 3 and only 4.51% were not detected. This data was collected from March 1 - March 26, 2009 in a pool of 56,896 visits and 39,927 unique users.

What is also interesting is the browser used:

FireFox WIN = 34.63%
IE WIN = 34.14%
FireFox MAC = 11.63%
Safari MAC = 11.62%
Chrome WIN = 4.44%
All others below 1%

Long story short 4.51% of the visitors to Adobe Groups are robots!

Cheers,

Ted :)

MAX 2009 in Los Angeles and Online (no MAX Europe in 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:55:00 +0000

Despite the challenges presented by the economy this year, Adobe is excited to be moving forward with our largest designer/developer event Adobe MAX 2009. MAX will take place October 4-7, 2009 in Los Angeles and online. We will not hold a unique Europe event in 2009, however, we are actively exploring options to make the Los Angeles event more accessible for our worldwide community.

MAX Europe has been a real success for Adobe and it is our intention to return to Europe in the future. Personally having been a part of every MAX Europe event, I know how important the event is to our global community. In order to make MAX a more global event, I want to encourage everyone, regardless of location, to participate in the "MAX Call for Sessions and Labs".

We are actively working to bring Adobe MAX to a far larger audience online in 2009. In 2008, we recorded MAX sessions and published them on AdobeTV for everyone to view. To date, MAX session content has been viewed by over 250,000 users, 50 times larger than physical MAX attendance in 2008. This year will be taking the online experience to the next level.

See you at MAX 2009!

Ted Patrick
Content Lead - Adobe MAX

AmFast Remoting for Python

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:48:00 +0000

AmFast is a new AMF0/AMF3 encoder/decoder for Python.
� AmFast's core encoder and decoder are written in C, so it's around 18x faster than PyAmf.
� The encoder and decoder accept user-defined Python objects that allow customization of the encoding/decoding process.
� Supports custom class mapping.
� Supports remoting with NetConnection and RemoteObject.
� Remoting headers can be exposed to callable targets to allow for quick implementation of authentication and other AMF features that rely on headers.
� Supports data persistence with SQLAlchemy, including remotely-loadable lazy-loaded attributes.
� Supports Actionscript code generation for mapped classes.

Project Page

It is really great to see how opening the AMF and RTMP protocols have really improved integration with server languages. To exchange objects makes development so much easier.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Flex BugQuash - Live from Seattle or Online via Connect

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:43:00 +0000

The first Flex BugQuash is happening all day March 28 at Adobe Seattle and Online via Connect. Join the community, Mark Anders (Keynote Speaker), Ryan Stewart, and the Flex team in fixing bug within the Flex SDK. Software is by its nature an imperfect science and often small defects exist. With enough eyes, bugs are much easier to see, understand, and eliminate. BugQuash is about the the community getting involved in the quality of the Flex SDK and contributing back to Flex as Open Source. Get involved, here are the details...

REGISTER NOW

Website:
http://www.bugquash.com/

When:
Saturday, March 28th, 2009
10:00 am - 8:00 pm PST

Where:
Online via Connect or
Adobe Systems Inc
1st Floor, Adobe U Conference Center
701 North 34th St.
Seattle, WA 98103

Agenda:
9:30 am - 10:00 am Registration and setup assistance
10:00 am - 10:30 am KEYNOTE: Mark Anders, Senior Principal Scientist, Adobe Systems Inc.
10:30 am - 8:00 pm Bug Quashing Goodness
12:30 pm Lunch served
5:00 pm Dinner served
8:00 pm Prizes

There is no cost for this event. Adobe is providing meeting space, prizes, food, and a great SDK for us to work on as a way to say thanks to all the incredible community members who participate.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Adobe MAX 2009 - Call for Sessions and Labs

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:18:00 +0000

If you would like to propose a session or lab for MAX 2009, we have launched the official Adobe MAX 2009 - Call for Sessions and Labs. There are 34 proposed sessions/labs posted as of this morning in the Call for Sessions and Labs database. The MAX team will be reviewing the proposals ongoing and selecting the best sessions and labs to make MAX 2009 the best MAX yet.

PROPOSE A SESSION OR LAB FOR MAX 2009

MAX 2009 Los Angeles CA - Oct 4-7 2009

Details:

Adobe MAX 2009 Call for Sessions and Labs will end April 15, 2009 midnight PST.
MAX team goal is to have all sessions, labs, and speakers selected by May 15, 2009.

Looking forward to reviewing your session and lab proposals.

See you at MAX 2009

Ted :)

Flex 3.3 Released!

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Time to update your Flex SDK's!

3.3 Flex SDK Download
3.3 Release Notes

Cheers,

Ted :)

Facebook and the Flash Platform ESeminar

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:30:00 +0000

This past Thursday I presented with on "Facebook an The Flash Platform" at an Adobe online E-Seminar. Here is the recording and all my sample files and presentation for use.

RECORDED E-SEMINAR

SAMPLE FILES

FACEBOOK-ACTIONSCRIPT-API

And if you are interested in playing some Solitaire on Facebook, here is the app I wrote and presented in the e-seminar.

ACE SOLITAIRE ON FACEBOOK

Enjoy!

Ted :)

Headed towards the finish line, Safari 4 takes the lead!

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:40:00 +0000

If you haven't downloaded Safari 4 beta, it is easily the best browser for the Mac. I was using Firefox with Yslow + Firebug but the new Safari 4 development tools make this combo look less than ideal. You can debug JavaScript, profile JavaScript, see download times and file size with one click and the graphs are visually impressive. It makes it easy to explore the DOM and CSS on existing and sites in development.

Safari 4 Feature list

Safari 4, worth a download.

Cheers,

Ted :)

Adobe on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:28:00 +0000

If you haven't checked out Serge's post on Adobe on Twitter there are about 2x more twitterers listed since he posted. Here is the list:

ADOBE ON TWITTER

Here is the team I am on:

Developer relations
Ed Sullivan: http://twitter.com/esulliva
Rachel Luxemburg: http://twitter.com/rlux
Ted Patrick: http://www.twitter.com/AdobeTed
John Dowdell: http://www.twitter.com/jdowdell
Stacy Sison: http://www.twitter.com/ssison

Great list Serge!

Cheers,

Ted :)

20% off at Adobe Store for NA User Group Members

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:29:00 +0000

The community team has gotten a single use discount for North American User Group members on the US Adobe.com online store. To use the discount you need to contact your user group manager for details and fill out this form on Adobeinfo.com. Here are the full details.

We are working hard to bring this discount to other User Groups worldwide in the near future.

cheers,

Ted :)

Eclipse E4 M1 SWT: JAVA to AS3

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:59:00 +0000

The Eclipse E4 M1 milestone release has some interesting bits in it for Flash development. It seems that the SWT project has added compilation support for SWF from JAVA. Write your app in JAVA and publish as SWF to Flash Player.

The cool part is that you get full JAVA development in Eclipse with all debugging and tooling but you get a SWF file on publish.

It will be interesting to see where this goes especially given it is in Eclipse E4.

Here are some screenshots:

Last image looks like they are translating to AS3 and running MXMLC! Go Flex.

Cheers,

Ted :)

MindJet Launches MindManager Web ( 100% Flash mind mapping online )

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Today MindJet launched MindManager Web, the online version of the popular mind mapping software. What is cool about it is that it has an identical look and feel to the original MindManager. Actually it makes me wonder when they replace the desktop version with an AIR app.

Worth a look.

Cheers,

Ted :)

New Apps on Adobe Groups: Jobs, Calendar, Messaging

noreply@blogger.com (Ted Patrick) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:10:00 +0000

We have been busy building applications on Adobe Groups. Today we are launching three applications on Adobe Groups:

Calendar - A global calendar of community events
Jobs - A global job board
Messaging - Inbox on your profile and user to user messaging

The apps are very simple but are integrated seamlessly within the Adobe Groups site. If a job is posts to a User Group, it is surfaced in the Jobs app, if an event is posted it is ported in the Calendar app. The key is that all posts on Adobe Groups are tied to your online profile and thus everything you contribute is automatically credited to you.

We have several other applications in development for launch in the coming months:

Decks - Share your presentations on Groups.
Books - Share book titles on Adobe tools and technologies.
Showcase - Show off your latest designs and development projects on Groups.
Code - Share sample code, snippets, projects on Groups.
Video - Share videos on Groups

We really want to fill Adobe Groups with great community content. If you have ideas of apps and want to get involved please email me at ted@adobe.com. Since Groups is managed online, it is easy to get community members involved to build custom applications and we are happy to share.

More to come!

Ted :)