Thoughts, ramblings and ridiculousness of Daryl Ducharme
Daryl Ducharme is an entertainer by nature, a tech muse by trade, and a walking dad joke. He's got lots of ideas that he'd like to share and he wants to hear yours.
So I have been an avid Adobe user for quites some time now. I've been using their tools for many years and, even though I'm not much of an artist, I've been known to use Photoshop from time to time. So when I saw someone link a video that said "Fotoshop by Adobé" I had to check it out. Even if it was bad, being an Adobe nerd I might get a chuckle or two.
It's been a long time coming but Adobe has finally announced a beta, 64 bit version of flash player 10. Get this, it is only available for Linux ( at this point ). Linux fan boys can now relish in the fact that they are getting some special treatment. Of course it is still not open source so many won't be happy.
The comment thread on slashdot should be interesting.
If you are interested, checkout the Flash Player page at Adobe Labs.
Unfortunately, for those developing on Linux ( like me ), there are no plans for a debugger version. Oh well, I guess I'll stick with the plugin wrapper.
Monday was the official first Day of the Flex 360 conference here in Atlanta, GA and so far it has been a blast. I took some classes on FlexUnit, Custom Components, the Ribbit API and building a brand as an independent developer. Then after the classes we had the Adobe party that was the party to mark the release of Flex 3, AIR and Blaze DS. ...
The first class I took was on Flex Unit, a unit testing library for Flex, Flash CS3 and Actionscript 3 files. I got to see a good workflow for using it, including automation using apache Ant. I also learned about a relatively new testing framework called dpUnit that I really want to check out. It's created by the guys at Digital Primates.
The second class I took was about creating polished custom components. In this class the presenter used the example of FlexMDI, a window management system that he was a part of creating, to show some of the important things you need to take into consideration when creating a reusable component. A great presentation and I got to see some of the inner workings of an awesome library for flex.
The third presentation I went to was about the Ribbit API, a way to handle telephony through flash. With this system you can make and receive calls, as well as make and receive messages. There are also some new features of the system coming through the pike. It will be fun to see what I can create with this API.
The final presentation was led by a Doug Mccune and from Scale Nine, Juan Sanchez. It was all about building the brand that is you. It reinspired me to build the Daryl Ducharme brand. Let's just say, I think I will be blogging more about Flex, AIR and other fun related topics.
After that we walked over to the Stats sports bar for the Adobe party to celebrate the release of a few products in the Flex family. Don't forget the official launch of Flex as an open source project. This party had a ton of people and we all were talking Flex, AIR and related issues. It's nice to just be able to geek out sometimes. Some people played Rock Band and Guitar Hero until they closed the private lounge area we were in. Good times, I just wish I had a chance to talk to more of the people at the party. Well, there are 2 more days to this conference. I better get to bed so I can get the most out of all the sessions tomorrow.
For those who do not know AIR stands for Adobe Integrated Runtime. It is Adobe's way of taking your Flex, Flash, Javascript and HTML knowledge and allowing you to create desktop applications. It is very cool technology that should have version 1.0 coming out soon. Always touted as cross platform, AIR has really only worked on 2 operating systems Windows and Mac. However I just read a post on the Adobe Blogs that says they are looking for pre-beta release testers for AIR on Linux. ...
AIR on Linux will allow Adobe's technology to spread more in the open source community, which has often belittled Adobe for its proprietary ways. As Adobe opens up more and more, mainstream users of Adobe products might see the possibilities available to them in Open Source software. Since Apps that are built on the AIR platform could be run on Windows, Mac and Linux - these apps could help people make the transition. So if you are interested in helping to get Penguins into the AIR then visit James Ward's RIA Cowboy blog to found out what you need to do.
When I returned to work from my lunch trip to the gym there was a rather non-descript package waiting at my desk for me. As I opened it up I realized it was from Adobe, welcoming me to the Flex Developer Community Champion team. Nerdy me got very excited. ...
A few months back I was taking part in one of Adobe's Flex E-Seminars. At the end of the seminar a slide kept being shown talking about the Developer Community Champion program. I contacted Suzanne Nguyen at Adobe to find out more and was pointed to the registration/application page for the program. After signing up I received an automated response and then nothing, until today.
Inside the box was what I will henceforth refer to as the kit ( above ). The kit contains the Programming Flex 2 book by Chafic Kazoun & Joey Lott, 2 Total Training DVD ROMs for Flex, a medal and some wierd toy that I'm sure my kids will love. Like other people who have receive the kit, I already had the book. However, the copy I currently have is actually property of Provis Media Group so I will probably keep this one at home for a reference. The DVD ROMs should be good, especially the one on advanced viaual programming. That's an area I have not put much work into yet.
What does this mean? Well according to Adobe my role as a Champion entails the following:
Provide Code Samples
Create Technical Articles
Create Components
Developer Code Camp
Friday Flex Forums
On Demand Webinars
E-Seminars
Host Local “Flex Jams”
Blogs
Speak at Events
When I first signed up my Flex articles occurred more often. Now that this has begun, I will be writing some more to start holding up my end of the bargain. As other things come up I will post them here.