Yes Virginia - Adobe does listen to Slashdot

Today I saw a comment on Slashdot (my all time favorite online community) that made me realize just how far Adobe has come.

“The mere idea of higher ups at a previously assumed Big Evil Company paying attention to discussions on Slashdot (with critiques here often ruthless, multifaceted, and heavily biased towards consumer interests) is pretty shocking, and heartening.

If this signals a major shift in Adobe's operating culture, I think it's cause for celebration.”

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=539834&cid=23263596

Yes - it is true. In fact, we regularly peruse Slashdot to find out the latest, brutally honest opinions from the hardest to please tech-heads. I doubt we'll ever satisfy everyone but to recap, Adobe is definitely on the right track. PDF to ISO, The ActionScript Virtual Machine (VM behind Flash PLayer) open sourced via SourceForge, the Open Screen Project, The Flex Compiler open source project and BlazeDS are just a few examples of Adobe putting community and developers ahead of corporate greed. So what does this mean?

• Anyone who complains that Acrobat Reader is bloated is free to (try to) write a new PDF reader that works faster.
• Anyone who thinks the Flash Player is too slow is welcome to help.
• Anyone who wants a bug fixed in the Flex SDK can fix it for themselves and others.
• We all get to work together to build a cool technology stack that works for us.

Maybe I sound too much like an optimist or a hype. I do have faith in our company and really love working here. I love the change that is occurring and having a CEO and CTO that understand Slashdot and actually take time to read and take in what is being said.

What's next? Flash on the iPhone? Please already!!!

;-)

The Open Screen Project rocks the RIA world!!!!

Today Adobe announced the Open Screen Project, a major step forward to drive rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices and consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project is supported by technology leaders ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics, Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers including BBC, MTV Networks and NBC Universal. The ASP removes barriers to adoption for all companies including:

- Removing restrictions on use of the Flash (SWF) and Flash Video (FLV/F4V) specifications

- Publishing the device porting layer APIs for Adobe Flash Player, enabling third parties to more easily embed it in devices

- Publishing the Adobe Flash Cast protocol and the Action Message Format (AMF) protocol for robust data services

- Removing licensing fees – making the next major releases of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR for devices free

- Working with partners to enable the client technology to be updated over the network to maintain consistency as we continue to innovate

- Working with partners to enable open access to web content and rich Internet applications by users across devices and networks

Web 2.0 Expo San Fransisco Materials

I will be shortly uploading the materials from the following two talks at Web 2.0 Expo:

1. Flex and AIR Boot Camp
- 25 code projects with source code [Download]
- instruction guide to present these [Download]
- PPT Slides (Feel free to use and re-label) [Download]
- Flex/Air Cookbook - Feb 2008 [Download]
- Bootcamp projects in MS Word with additional instruction [Download]

2. Ontologies for the Enterprise
- PDF version of slides. Note that you must check with John Sowa and Adam Pease before re-presenting these slides. [Download]

3. Specific Flex or AIR source code
- AIR Apple Shaped Application - no chrome, runtime morphing [Download]
- AIR Backwards Countdown Timer - counts backwards until specific date [Download]
- AIR FullScreen - app to mimic PPT presentation w/integrated demos [Download]

4. Misc Stuff I promised a few people
- 6 songs from my Band 22nd Century (zipped) [Download]

Please feel free to take the materials and use them to present. I'll post the URL's here once done.