In my haste to put up the video and run to present my session, I apparently placed the wrong video up. Oops! Sorry. Here's the right one.
Archive for February, 2008
(I live-blogged this during the keynote; there may be typos, inaccuracies, etc. It has not been proof-read.)
Mike Downey takes the stage.
Mike's going to show us some sneak peeks today that haven't been shown before.
Adobe released Flex 3 and AIR a few hours ago and Mike's kicking off the keynote with a history of AIR.
AIR allows web developers to use existing technologies (HTML, AJAX, Flash, and Flex) to build desktop applications.
(Mike's showing us examples of AIR applications - you can find AIR showcase applications on Adobe.com.)
One of the examples is Analytics Reporting Suite for Google Analytics. It uses Flex and the charting components to display data from Google Analytics and output PDFs, etc.
There's going to a be a dot release of AIR later this year. And they want to frequently update the AIR runtime.
(Serge Jespers has taken the stage and is showing us Flex Builder 3, which also just shipped.)
Serge shows us how you can easily skin Flex components using Photoshop. He creates the various states of a button component in Photoshop (he could also have used Flash, Illustrator, or Fireworks) on different layers using a naming convention and then uses the Import Art feature in Flex Builder 3 to import the PSD and automatically skin the button component.
Next, using the Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3, he is making a Flex component from a Flash movie clip. After creating the Flex component (SWC), he adds it to his project's Library in Flex Builder and he can now use the component just like any other Flex component.
(You can download the The Flex Component Kit for Flash CS3 from the Adobe Exchange.)
Finally, he's showing the Create Application from Database example (basically, scaffolding for Flex) using a simple MySQL database and PHP.
(This is very cool and is the sort of generic server-side support that was previously lacking in Flex Builder.)
And finally, finally ("do we have time for one more?") he is showing us the Export Release Build feature for reducing the size of your Flex applications (Flex Builder now creates a debug version by default). This reduces the size of the SWF from 370K to 270K when the debug code is removed.
Next, he creates a new Module of one of the panels and then loading it in at runtime. He uses the new ModuleLoader tag to load in the new module. The original file is now reduced to 163K.
And finally, he is demonstrating the Flex framework caching feature. You can create a runtime shared library for the Flex Framework. The framework is then not included in your application's SWF but loading in dynamically at runtime. This brings down the size of the SWF to 50K. (And the Flex framework is cached so if a user has been to any Flex application before, it won't be loaded again.)
(Mike's back on stage.)
Flash Player 9 penetration is now on 98% of all machines (and it got there faster than any other piece of software ever; it was released in December 2007).
Mike's giving us an overview of the latest Flash 9 Player update (Movie Star) and the new FMS 3 and FMIS3 servers.
Richard Galvan takes the stage. He's the Flash Product Manager. He's going to show sneak peeks for Astro and Diesel.
(OK, I recorded the sneaks using Seesmic. I'm going to embed the video in the next blog post.)
I'm running off to present my own session in a few minutes.
Linux is an operating system that's used mainly by hardcore geeks who think in binary and don't mind spending hours compiling their own device drivers. Oh wait, sorry, the year is 2008, not 1998. Scratch that, today, Linux is the operating system that came pre-installed on my easy-to-use Asus Eee PC and my flashy little Nokia N800 Internet tablet.
Both of those devices, by the way, are excellent candidates for my dream video blogging machine. The N800 more so than the Eee PC.
Both the Eee PC (at least the 4GB model I have) and the N800 have internal web cams and WiFi. They're both tiny enough to carry around easily (far more so than a full-size laptop like my MacBook Pro), and, in the case of the N800, the camera actually swivels around so you can shoot your subject while looking at the screen.
And they both support Flash Player 9.
So, budding video bloggers, grab your N800s, connect to Seesmic, and start vlogging away, live, from anywhere with a WiFi Internet connection.
Not so fast. They're a slight niggle. The web cam on neither the N800 nor the Eee PC works with the Flash 9 Player for Linux. (And, reportedly, the same holds true for the newer N810.) In fact, according to reports on the Net, you would be hard-pressed to find a web cam that does work well with Flash Player 9 on Linux.
The problem is that Flash Player 9 on Linux supports an outdated interface (Video4Linux 1) for connecting to web cams; leaving the built-in web cam in many newer devices, including Nokia N800 and the Asus Eee PC, unsupported. What Adobe must do is add Video4Linux 2 support to Flash Player on Linux.
As video blogging becomes mainstream, I can't help but feel that Adobe is about to miss another chance in the mobile arena by not implementing proper web cam support in the Flash Player for devices like the N800 that run Linux.
If I was Nokia, I would be talking to Adobe right now about what we can do to realize web cam support for Flash Player 9 on Linux as soon as possible and start pushing the N800 and N810 as the perfect live video blogging tools.
If I was Loic Le Meur, I would be emailing Adobe about how important this feature would be for my popular Flex-based RIA, Seesmic. I would probably also be on the phone to Nokia too to have Seesmic included as a standard application link in the N800 series OS.
And, finally, if I was calling the shots at Adobe, I would be redoubling my efforts to get proper web cam support into the Linux version of the Flash Player as part of my mobile strategy. I would make it a priority to support and encourage the use of Flash-and-WiFi-enabled Linux devices with web cams, coupled with Flash applications like Yahoo! Live and Seesmic, as low-cost live video blogging and real-time web news-gathering and reporting tools.
Devices like the Nokia N800, N810, and Asus Eee PC are already on the market and in the hands of content creators. With an update to Flash Player 9 on Linux that implements proper web cam support, we have the chance to give them a whole new use case and make the Flash the de-facto standard platform for mobile video blogging.
It's almost midnight, I haven't yet packed for Amsterdam, and the taxi's booked for 6am tomorrow to take Stephanie and me to the airport. So why the heck am I blogging?
Don't forget to scribble in my session, Beyond the Buttons, into your schedule for Monday and come to the Influxis party on the first night at Heeren van Aemstel to watch our band, Phlash5, perform.
See you at FITC Amsterdam!
*Goes to pack...*
This sounds awesome: Photo Dropper is a Wordpress plugin to find and add Creative Commons licensed photos to your blog from Flickr.
I haven't tried it yet but I'll update this post once I do.
Read more about Photo Dropper on ReadWriteWeb.
Update: Had a chance to install and test the plugin. It's cool, especially for a Version 1.0 but a few shortcomings are immediately visible. For one thing, once you've added a photo, you have to edit it via the HTML. It would be cool if you could change the settings (size, etc.) after adding it. Also, it would be really great if you could resize the photo or crop it (these are pretty hefty feature requests that might hopefully make it into future versions). An easier feature request to implement would be to see what the various sizes are (S, M, L) in pixels and to be able to specify alignment/float values.
I just read a blog post and watched a screencast about a new Flash framework called Gaia and I like most of what I saw.
For one thing, it uses SWFObject and SWFAddress and thus forces developers to use good practices when embedding their Flash applications (via progressive enhancement) and makes sure that applications support deep linking (thereby visibly disproving a popular myth that just refuses to die).
Flex Builder and the Flash IDE can learn a lot from Gaia when it comes to supporting good practices. Both Flex Builder and the Flash IDE should use SWFObject and SWFAddress and it baffles me why they do not to this day.
Their site states that the Gaia framework is available in both AS2 and AS3. I did see some timeline code (AS2) in the screencast that made me cringe a little but I haven't had a chance to play with it myself (give a guy a break, it's almost midnight!) I assume that the AS3 version uses the document class and code behind.
From what I've seen, Gaia looks like a very pragmatic front-end framework for Flash developers. I plan on looking at it in more depth when I get a moment and I suggest that you do the same.
Paul Boag held a phone interview with me on Singularity while I was walking around the lobby of the awesome Uni Mail building at the Univerity of Geneva on the first day of LIFT.
Listen to the interview on the latest Boag World episode, Utopia.
Paul does amazing work in translating the latest web news into terms that non-techies can understand on his excellent show and I'm delighted that he is going to be presenting a session at Singularity.
I met Robin Wauters at the LIFT conference in Geneva recently. He's organizing a very interesting conference in Brussels called Plugg.eu. I asked how I could help and ended up becoming a media sponsor.
The conference will take place on March 19, 2008 in Brussels, Belgium.
If you look on the right, you'll find a little badge that links to Plugg.eu. In making the badge, I created a simple Wordpress plugin. If anyone else wants to help promote Plugg.eu, you can download the Plugg.eu Wordpress Badge Plugin (.zip; 2KB) here.
After installing the badge, go your Widgets settings and you can choose from the various badge types that Robin has available.
I believe that there was a time when I didn't have my future planned out months in advance. I know it involved a lot of skateboarding and hanging out with friends! 
Looking at my schedule for the next month or so, I feel like I'm in the calm before the storm.
Things are kicking off this weekend with FITC Amsterdam. I'm presenting a session there and our band, Phlash5, is performing at the after party.
After FITC, I'm back in Brighton for two days, before I fly off to Ireland to attend a one-day WebCamp on Social Network Portability and the blogger's talk dinner.
Unfortunately, I can't stay for the whole Blog Talk conference as I'm meeting Colin and a bunch of Flash/Flex developers at an informal chat at the BBC before flying off to Austin to attend my very first SXSW. I'm thinking of popping over to San Fran for a quick chat with my friends at Adobe afterwards (note to self: you may want to arrange flights for that, Aral!) Depending on how long I stay in San Fran, I may or may not get to attend Then, it's back to Brighton for BarCampBrighton2 on March 15th. I really do want to attend, not least because Singularity is sponsoring the first day's breakfast.
After I return from SXSW, I'm going to be teaching a one-day Introduction to Flex course on the 21st of March and finishing off this mini-conference spree with the talk I'm giving in Scotland titled Bare-naked Flash: Dispelling myths and building bridges at the Highland Fling conference at the start of April. I'm really psyched at presenting there as it means I'm also going to get the chance to hang out with my friends Paul Boag, Christian Heilmann, Chris Mills, Simon Willison, and Gareth Rushgrove (whom I very recently met at Andy's lovely housewarming party).
I have no conferences planned for April and May and I hope to keep it that way as development for Singularity will be in full swing at that point and the only other conference I'm currently confirmed to speak at at the moment is Scotch on the Rocks which isn't until June.
(And there I was thinking that organizing an online web conference would mean that I would travel less this year! Go figure!)
And with that, I'm off to London to attend this evening's Second Chance Tuesday with Niklas Zenntröm.
Update: Just made some changes to my schedule. Namely, I'm canceling the Flex course (not enough interest and not enough time) and I'm not going to attend Plugg (though Dave's still going to represent Pistach.io) so I can focus my energies fully on Singularity.
Update: Unfortunately, I've decided to cancel this course so I can better focus my energies on organizing Singularity.
I'm teaching a one-day introductory Flex course titled Hot Shots: Introduction to Flex, on 21st March, 2008 in Brighton (Hove, actually).
The course will cover the fundamentals of Flex. No prior Flash or Flex experience is necessary. However, if you have previous Flash and/or ActionScript experience, you will be able to build upon that knowledge while learning about Flex and good practices in developing Rich Internet Applications.
If you have no prior ActionScript 3 knowledge, taking Colin Moock's free AS3 training in London on March 3rd before attending this course will not hurt (but is not required).
The day-long seminar will take place at The Werks in Hove.
Tickets are £199+VAT early bird (until Feb 29 or until the five tickets at this price are sold; once they're gone, they're gone!), £249+VAT regular price.
Read the seminar description and sign up to attend at Amiando.
Read testimonials from previous Hot Shots students.
View the full course outline in PDF format.
This is probably the last chance I'm going to get to teach a course this year so if you've been waiting to get into Flex, I can think of far worse ways to do it than to spend a day with me in sunny Brighton.
Recent Comments