-Mr

See you all there!

-Mr

Xdrive Desktop Lite was just presented last year at Adobe MAX 2007 and was selected this year as a semi-finalist in the Adobe MAX 2008 awards. I also released an ActionScript 3 library wrapper for the Open Xdrive JSON API, which will also be defunct after the end of the year. I feel a little loss from this news, but I am also looking for what comes ahead.

Good bye Xdrive my old friend… hello new Flex opportunities!

-Mister

Though I didn’t know it at the time, moving to Los Angeles also changed my personal life and many of the goals I had initially laid out. Was it an overall positive move, maybe. I didn’t get as far as I truly wanted with the community connections. I had hoped our corporation would sponsor 360Flex and other community events. Things change at big companies in ways that are not always what you want, and you just sort of have to suck it up. Not unlike the changes in your personal life.

I am looking forward now to new opportunities. I learned that working for the “man” in a large corporations on a permanent basis is definitely not what I want. I want to experience a variety of development opportunities with Flex and AIR. I want to do more consulting and test the contracting waters for a while. I now have direction and new hope for controlling more of my own future. I love to create, Flex and AIR are both my canvas and my paint for creating. I am looking forward to making some great things in the year to come and looking forward to changes to come.

I am fortunate of one thing, working with Flex and AIR have given me choices and opportunities that other development areas may not have. Things might be tight with the economy, but our field is still rolling strong as more companies turn to this technology to deliver compelling applications. I hope our technology area is spared from the economic troubles ahead and development opportunities abound next year.

Here’s to new beginnings and to always discovering more about yourself in everything you do.

-Mister

Google came out with another post today to answer questions around indexing Flash content. The question answer section of the post was great until you get to the very last question:

Q: What are the current technical limitations of Google’s ability to index Flash?
There are three main limitations at present, and we are already working on resolving them:

We’re already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!

Hmm, if Google doesn’t index JavaScript and you use something like SWFObject to embed your Flash then you are pretty much back to where you were before Google made the improvements. For issue 1, this might not be a problem for smaller gadgets on 3rd party sites, but you don’t want your main application site to have that annoying click through problem caused by the patent law suit by EOLAS against Microsoft. Remember those times, before the issue was solved with JavaScript. For issue 2, your content will get indexed, but it won’t be considered part of your Flash content, this might effect some metrics or Omniture reporting (which means money).

Well, I guess its partial good news, at least they say they are working on those issues.

UPDATE:

Adobe announced at Max that it was working with Google to finally be able to track Flash applications. Google posted a new blog article on the subject here.

- Mr

However, this is changing rapidly, Bangalore is going through great growth from all the companies moving here and trying to establish themselves. New services and jobs are sprouting up in all directions. Next month there will be a brand new airport opening and soon to follow will be a metro transit system. I am not sure I can judge Bangalore as good or bad, but only that is outside my perception, I do not possess the cultural or historic knowledge to view Bangalore other than as an outsider. The people I work with are generous and thoughtful, they are happy and that happiness must come from some knowledge about Bangalore that I don’t yet posses, but I can accept that there is something more below the surface.

One thing I do know, they like Megadeth and I think hard bands in general. The weekend I depart Bangalore, Megadeth will arrive. So the mystery of this bands longevity has been solved at least for me, they are here, where IT is flocking, where people are merging to live lives and work. Megadeth, like me, are remnants of the 80′s, and here we both are. I suspect as people read this post they assume I am completely “off my head”, or that the vegetarian diet has deprived my brain of essential fatty substances to function. Rest assured I am my wits and I am just letting this post flow from me as I too am just going through a transitional state. One can not visit a place for so long without some inevitable change.

I have some time left here to ponder and see where my mind is upon my return. I will then have a moment to reflect back to this time in Bangalore and perhaps find something more meaningful to say. Unfortunately, my departure in a week or so means I will miss Megadeth. But for those of you from the west traveling here at the end of the month, pick up some tickets, see what happens when you mix hard rock with new tech and just a dash of old culture…its got to be interesting.

- Mister

Oxygen is build with Flex and AIR technology and uses the open Xdrive API.  Xdrive will soon release version 1.2 of the JSON API. Oxygen is running this latest JSON release. Oxygen is a great concept piece as it shows how easy it is to take your web-based Flex applications and port them to the desktop.  Oxygen shares about 90% of the same code as Bluestring (Bluestring.com).

Another cool application is called Wormhole.  Its basically a mashup with AIM and Xdrive API’s.  This application really takes advantage of the system chrome features in Flex and offers a very geeked out way to share files (think Stargate).   If you are in the Los Angeles area and have some time, stop by the FITC conference and check out all of the presentations. My presentation description can be found here along with my speaker profile.   The presentation slides are listed below using Adobe Share:

- Mister

Another puzzling thought is why did Adobe develop share to begin with?   You have a lot of existing vendors in the storage service provider arena already, in fact, you have many that use Adobe’s existing software to develop tools around storage and sharing.  So it is strange that a software company decided to compete with companies that already use its software to provide the same service (Bluestring by AOL is one example).   Does this mean that Adobe intends to become an online service for storage, document editing (Buzzword) and media editing (Remix and Photoshop Express)?  

I mean, its cool that the applications Adobe builds use their own software (Flex, Flash, etc.), but when they start competing with other companies using also using Adobe software to provide  similar services (aka, the bread and butter of those organizations), then I am wondering what will be the outcome? Is Adobe to become a huge conglomerate that not only provides services and software, but competes with its own food source for resources? What’s next, Adobe phones?  Of course I am joking.  I love Adobe and I love their products.  I guess as Flex developer, I’m just comfortable with Adobe providng me with the tools to create applications and not competing with the tools I create.  I could totally be misreading this move by Adobe, which is most likely the case (I say this so that a big black panel van with tinted windows doen’t pull up beside me one day and take me away).

Well, time will tell for sure.  The storage business is extremely expensive (bandwidth, banks of servers) and there are a lot of established companies already out there with storage and sharing services that offer more space and possibly a lower cost (Xdrive, Box, Mozy, Bluestring, Amazon S3) with sharing capabilities and API’s.  For now, the Share API looks to be a simple to use and easy service providing minimal sharing capabilities and less complexity than some other API’s. 

We got an invitation to the Adobe MAX 2007 conference in Chicago. We will be located in the AIR Park next to the big red bus. We are actually setup on astro-turf and a picnic table, can’t beat that . We will also have a chance to present some of our experimental Adobe AIR application. Stop by the AIR park to chat us up.

The biggest news from the conference (I think) is the acquisition of Buzzword by Adobe. This gives Adobe a online Flex document editing tool to complete with other big companies moving document editing to the web.