LiveCycle ES Hosted Beta is now Live!

I got a great internal email today from Matt MacKenzie. In preparation for the next release of LiveCycle ES, Adobe is running a pre-release program and we invite you (see qualifier) to participate. We are providing our strategic customers and partners with early access to a hosted LiveCycle ES system on LiveCycle Developer Express to ensure an exciting and high quality release.

What’s new?

A vast number of improvements have been made to LiveCycle ES. A sample of some of the new features includes:

· Improved development and authoring tools, including the introduction of Action Wizard in LiveCycle Designer and changes to Process Designer to make team development possible and process design more intuitive

· Improved end-user experience development including LiveCycle ES Service Discovery for Flex Builder and a re-engineered Form Guide Builder

· Improved support for document assembly of XDP-based documents as well as PDF Portfolios including a new Document Builder interface to generate DDX commands

· Improved administration and platform maturity with improved backup and recovery support (hot backup), Health Monitor, expanded platform, database, and full 64 bit JVM support

· Improved out of the box solutions for Review and Commenting workflows which include Content Services

How do I get involved?

The goal of this early preview of the next version of LiveCycle ES is to provide our preferred customers and partners with the opportunity to preview the next release of LiveCycle ES. By participating, you will have access to:

· “What’s new” presentation

· Feature Spotlights (short recording of LiveCycle ES engineers presenting the new features)

· Access to your own hosted system with LiveCycle ES Server and Workbench pre-configured

· Test cases that will guide you through the new product areas accompanied with a survey to collect your feedback

While we always strive to drive quality releases, the goal of this early preview is to collect your valuable feedback on the usability enhancements that we have added to this new release. We will also be running a public beta in early summer to solicit testing and quality feedback.

TO DO: Immediately register yourself in the pre-release program here <http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=prerelease_interest> to ensure you get access to this early preview of the next release of LiveCycle ES. Please note that it may take up to 24 hours to activate your account.

How to get started?

Once you have registered, you will receive an email confirmation with information on how to access the prerelease.adobe.com site. Adobe is taking another big step in cloud computing by offering you a completely hosted environment to test our early version of our next release. We have our prerelease.adobe.com site ready to go which will provide you with access to a hosted system, support forums, bug & enhancement logging and tracking, documentation, etc.

Access to the hosted server on the LiveCycle Express system is very easy. Log on to the prerelease.adobe.com site where you will find a short welcome note. Here you will find a link to our Getting Started page that contains all of the information you need to get started with your very own hosted system.

Some guidance:

The prerelease site supports online forums. Please use the forums when you have a general question or suggestion that you feel other testers can benefit from. We would also encourage you to look at the forum posts prior to submitting a question, as someone may have already found an answer.

If you have questions or need help, please contact me at dnickull at adobe dot com.

We look forward to your feedback and appreciate the time and energy that is invested to help improve the quality and usability of our product

Search Engine Optimization Tricks and Tips condensed.

I have written quite a bit on the subject of search engine optimization a.k.a. SEO. Not everyone agrees, nor do they all understand the depth of what is going on (including me) but there are many more points that the experts do seem to agree on. Since my posts on the subject are sort of all over the place, I have condensed them here. Of course, you can always go to google.com and search for "search engine optimization tricks" and the articles should come up within the top ten or so. By the way, that particular term ("search engine optimization tricks") is one of the hardest to get in the top ten for since everyone who is really knowledgeable about SEO and does it professionally knows that their prospective clients search for that term. Me? I just give the advice away for free.

Before anyone uses these to "trick" Google, know that doing so will often result in helping nobody. After all, what is the use of having a website selling some medication come up in the top ten results for someone seeking to read about golfing or fishing? Yes, you might be able to do this, but it will not benefit you and it will not benefit the readers so don't bother. I have said this before and will say it again, Google's ranking system is very fair and if you want your sites to do better, use proper enhancements, not black magic tricks. I have never had to resort to anything underhanded to gain #1 spots and keep them. Some examples? Search for these terms in Google and click to either the sites that points at this blog or back to Adobe.com: SOA White Paper, Enterprise Developer Resources, Sombrio (goes to my friend's site), Search Engine Optimization Tricks, Adobe cloud computing, understanding REST, Adobe MAX 2009. Note that some of these will change over time (as they should) as new works become available. In the past, I have helped clients get #1 for bicycle, mountain bike, aromatherapy, yoga, skiing, mac and more.

Here is a list of some relevant posts on the subject made in the past.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/07/searchable-flash-some-early-tips.html
Some tips related to Flash SEO.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2007/06/seo-search-engine-optimization-tricks.html
8 quick tips anyone can implement.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/10/flash-search-engine-optimization-tricks.html
A recap of a talk I did on Flash SEO at the Web 2.0 conference in Berlin. Slides included.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-seo-tips-to-save-you-tons-of-work.html
Some general tips to save you work by really understanding some of what Google ignores.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2009/01/flash-search-engine-optimization.html
A video of how Ichabod indexes SWF content in different states. Note that as Beussery noted in the comments, this is now old and there are still major questions about how Google actually uses content it grabs.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/10/flash-seo-research-google-does-use.html
A report on Google's use of Ichabod (code name) for indexing SWF content.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2008/06/duanes-world-tv-episode-3-live.html
A pointer to a video tutorial of how Google tracks searching and click-through traffic.

If this still is not enough, try Google's site. They pretty much tell you exactly what you will need to do to help elevate your rankings.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

There are also some other people who I consider of guru status (we don't always see eye-to-eye but generally they are very knowledgeable):

Danny Sullivan
Beu Blog

Anyways, this is enough information to get you higher than you are now in the rankings.

My next work is some trial studies to determine how well SWF content ranks against HTML content given the same context. This study is ongoing and has to be totally uncontaminated by people searching for or linking to it so I cannot divulge any secrets, but I will share all when ready.

I am also working on cracking the codes within the Google page results. If you search google.com for a term, you will find some cryptic strings within the source of the results page like this:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FArchitectural_pattern_(computer_science)&ei=Lv2lSYXeL8TMnQePtZWjBQ&usg=AFQjCNHZFyB7San73Hj6Lb0zkcUbGq_N0g&sig2=nNH5vIakDgirDg8dMpz7RQ

Now note that this is often different on most geographical, temporal, and browser/OS combinations, but you can generally find these strings:

ei=AOKlSaLSBMTMnQfhs5GjBQ
usg=AFQjCNHtxRnR1RWVZrM6TD0uYFmK8GWFTA
sig2=eFYPDz8WzdtLw9OB_y00qA

The middle one, starting with AFQjCN will be in most search results however the 7th letter often changes. If I search in Vancouver, I nearly always get an "H" but others have experienced differences.

I highly suspect that this is anti-spamdexing technology engineered by Google and returns a hash value based on an IP address and timestamp, making it impossible to gain click through success. It is probably impossible to get around or spoof but nevertheless presents an intriguing puzzle.

I recently posted a challenge to a few people such as Danny Sullivan, Tim O'Reilly, Dick Hardt, Matt MacKenzie, and others to see what they got as the 7th character. The results varied.

Google can track what you click on. This means that over time, search engine results can be tracked and dynamically adapted based on who clicks on what. The actual mechanism is far more complex than such a simple algorithm, however, as ontology classifications are mixed in along with other ways to determine how each result should be treated in future searches.

Using a different machine and browser combination from a different IP address, I also found this little snippet of code in the source:

a href="/url?q=http://www.answers.com/architecture&r=67&ei=EAGmSY7pO5DZnQfsxb3jDw&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNGEcgqgfjDs8O9JnDVraTEt07mqQQ"
in particular, compare the value of usg=AFQjCNHZFyB7San73Hj6Lb0zkcUbGq_N0g to this value

usg=AFQjCNHZFyB7San73Hj6Lb0zkcUbGq_N0g
usg=AFQjCNGEcgqgfjDs8O9JnDVraTEt07mqQQ"

Can it be a coincidence that the first 7 characters are the same? The odds against this are 52 to the power of 6 or better than 1 in one quadrillion +. This is based on only observing upper and lower case letters. If you include numeric values the number is much higher.

When I clear my cache and cookies, the value changes yet the first 6 characters remain the same:

usg=AFQjCNF6pTl1_OknMH4NN88IVnlugECBBQ

If these values do not change, it is possible that the first 6 characters are based on some unmutable part. At first I thought perhaps it was the search itself so I changed the search term yet got this response:

usg=AFQjCNF_5AxdU_kbNpKl21c1VcXmXRLnGA

This is an interesting and probably ultimately pointless exercise, but I am the type who does crosswords and picks up Rubik's Cubes when I see them (best time to solve ever was 5'30" flat).
Mental Masturbation? Perhaps. There is probably a document somewhere outlining exactly what it is but I prefer to figure it out on my own.

Understanding REST

There are a lot of people talking about REST (1) yet very few actually have taken the time to read Roy Fielding's thesis about it. This blog post will attempt to explain REST in a simplified manner to convey the basics. Please do not consider this authoritative however. REST means different things to different people at this time and this blog post is based on REST as per Fielding's work.

First and foremost, REST does not equate to HTTP and XML. REST is an architectural style. Encapsulated within the REST style are several key principles governing network architecture. While the HTTP/XML confusion reigns in most articles, it is in fact possible to write an HTTP and XML interface to a resource that does not comply with the principles of REST.

REST can be simplified down to the following:

1. REST begins with the notion of a null architectural style (imagine that there is only a "thing" with no discernible detail). From this emptiness, the first constraints of REST emerge. A client-server architecture is the first emergent principle; a separation of all into two concern groups. This allows each group to evolve separately and scale across multiple domains (similar to SOA).

2. REST then adds the principle of stateless binary relationships. In section 5.1.3 of his dissertation, Fielding writes "each request from client to server must contain all of the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server". These types of requests are also termed "idempotent". Inference? Any site using cookies or stored contexts is not compliant with REST.

3. REST does make the possibility of caching available to improve efficiency. While not violating the principles of stateless invocations, client side caches can be used to allow reuse of information.

4. Uniform interfaces and uniquely identified resources are pivotal to being RESTful. Having a uniform interface between components (such as the use of certain methods like GET, POST, PUT and DELETE in protocols like HTTP), enables implementations to be decoupled from the service interfaces. This principle is also embodied in Service Oriented Architecture, which perplexes me why so many people compare SOA to REST.

Fielding writes more about the subject in section 5.1.5 "In order to obtain a uniform interface, multiple architectural constraints are needed to guide the behavior of components. REST is defined by four interface constraints: identification of resources; manipulation of resources through representations; self-descriptive messages; and, hypermedia as the engine of application state."

5. A resource is explicitly defined as "the intended conceptual target of a hypertext reference" and later in section 5.2.1.1 as "any information that can be named...". The first of these definitions seems to concretely link HTTP to REST yet there are arguments that hypertext is used here in a generic manner. In fact, later in section 5.2, it quite explicitly states "REST ignores the details of component implementation and protocol syntax in order to focus on the roles of components". Nevertheless, the way to interact with resources is via representations of the resources, as per 5.1.5. Note that Resource is defined in W3C terms as "any thing that can have an identifier".

6. Resources are identified with a URL or URN. Note that in this case, the URL should be constrained to be free of non-uniform interfaces (such as http://www.domain.com/someOperation?operation=manipulationByURL&moreOperations=notAllowed). This style of manipulation of data elements through invocation of non-standard operations is the anti-pattern or REST. REST therefore can be contrasted to Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) which generally encapsulate the notion of invoking a procedure on a remote server.

REST is an abstraction of all these architectural elements plus a few more within a distributed hypermedia system such as the Internet. Now here is the one sentence summary:

REST-based architectures communicate primarily through the exchange of representations of the state of resources through uniformly defined interfaces.

Try saying that 5 times fast.

So is it possible to define RESTful services for SOA? Absolutely. Do you have to use XML in REST? No.

There is a lot more about REST that you should look at in detail but I think this captures the gist.

Don't believe me though - read about it here yourself. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm

References:

(1) Fielding, Roy Thomas. Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Irvine, 2000

Ontology advice needed for SEO playground.

OK - I am a geek. A nerdling. Social misfits do stuff like this just to prove it can be done. Here is my current question du jour.

I am right now placing First Order Logic (FOL) binary and n-ary relationships into the associations binding for labeled relations in a test metadata facility (Registry-Repository). I am doing this because I got sick of Computational Intelligence researchers just talking about this and not actually coding and doing something to solve the problem so the Canadian cowboy instinct to code first and see where problems arise has taken over. Search technologies on the web have kind of plateaued. With no real competition, are Google and Yahoo going to keep innovating search to the point where a 3-word search term can find a needle in a haystack? I do not think so but it is not outside the realm of possibility. While researching some advanced SEO topics, I started realizing that fuzzy logic and quantum computing patterns have not yet been optimized for NL programming heuristics.

I have run into a problem that I would appreciate input on. My goal is to bind something like this (From SUMO - thanks to Adam et al for doing the hard work).

(=>
(instance ?OBJ Object)
(exists
(?TIME1 ?TIME2)
(and
(instance ?TIME1 TimePoint)
(instance ?TIME2 TimePoint)
(before ?TIME1 ?TIME2)
(forall
(?TIME)
(=>
(and
(beforeOrEqual ?TIME1 ?TIME)
(beforeOrEqual ?TIME ?TIME2))
(time ?OBJ ?TIME))))))

..to a registry-repository node instance to allow folksonomy tags to reference the upper level ontology classes that the folksonomy tag owners believe they belong to. Additionally, each instance of a folksonomy tag may have * relationships to other ontology classes or even other folksonomy tags. The latter relationships can be defined in terms of constrained relationship tags like “synonym, disjoint, etc.”.

I want to represent all upper ontologies; however some of them contain subtle nuances between their terms. Dolce, SUMO and others have defined binary relationships like transitive, intransitive, reflexive, irreflexive, symmetrical as well as some partial ontologies. The problem is that there are no namespace qualifications for these so I want to introduce that into my work. I was planning on just using the root URLs for each work however there are versions possible in some of the work.

I would like this to be in the form of (upper_ontology_identifier)+(version_or_instance)+(uuid) as a classifier followed by the term label such as “transitive”. I will probably use URIs for the UUID.

Question:

Has anyone ever come across a similar problem and if so, how did they solve it?

Thoughts and comments welcome too.

More SEO tips to save you tons of work

I have noticed that some of my previous tips on SEO have generated huge amounts of comments. This one for example has generated over 100 comments although I have deleted most since they were blatant advertising.

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2007/06/seo-search-engine-optimization-tricks.html

I want to share a little secret to those who are still adding comments with links in hopes of building up link equity.

"Google does not follow links in blogger comments!"

Surprised? Don't believe me. Check it out for yourself. The first comment on the page above is from a company called Wavestech. They claim to be an SEO company but obviously do not understand the statement above. You can check out who links to you in Google buy going to http://www.google.com and doing a search in this format (note no space between 'link:' and domain name):

link:www.domainname.com/

Of course, replace "domainname.com" with the actual domain name. To verify whether or not wavestech has anyone linking to it, check out their results:



http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=link%3Awww.wavestech.net%2F&btnG=Search

Dang!! One result. I wonder how much time they spent replying to comments in the last year and wondering why they are not elevated. Another company called 123seoservices.com tried it too but they have no results and no link equity.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=link%3Awww.123seoservices.com%2F&btnG=Search

The rule of thumb here is simple. There are no easy and quick ways to get to #1 for any search term. You have to pay your dues. Let the natural path take you up there. If you make a good site, with good information, it will find its way to the top of the pile eventually. Take "SOA" as an example. Try a search for "SOA White Paper" on Google.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=soa+white+paper&btnG=Google+Search

The number one result for this is a white paper I co-wrote for Adobe.

www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/Services_Oriented_Architecture_from_Adobe.pdf

We did not get #1 by spending hours making comments on others blogs. We spent the time writing a well researched paper that tries very hard to explain message exchange patterns in SOA without pitching products. This time was much better spent making a good paper and letting people search for it, find it and get it to #1 in Google by its reputation.

People linked to it because they liked it and thought it served a purpose. There are 137 links to that paper:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=link%3Awww.adobe.com%2Fenterprise%2Fpdfs%2FServices_Oriented_Architecture_from_Adobe.pdf+&btnG=Search

Google engineers also monitor networks for patterns. It is easy for them to spot a pattern to catch cheaters. Even if you crack the hashcode algorithm (I think I am very close now) for the cryptic string you get back in search results to track what you click on, your spike in traffic would be caught if you used it. Better to spend the energy creating good work that people want to use.

Advice:

Spend time making quality sites; do not try to cheat your way up to the top. Cream rises naturally to the top. Put the energy into creating good content.

FLARToolKit - 3D Flash augmented Reality

During the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to get to attend and work the booth for Adobe in the Expo area. A lot of people hate booth duty but I personally love it. It's really where we get the best, most honest responses from members of the public, and it gives us a chance to poll how our corporate image is fairing.

At the booth, I demoed FLARToolKit. FLARToolKit (source code) is an AS3 version of ARToolKit. ARToolKit was a C library that enabled augmented reality; however the Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR compatible version, FLARToolKit, is not merely a port of the original C version. FLARToolKit is ported from a Java, version which is called NyARToolKit. (NyARToolKit seems to execute much faster than the original C version after the great effort of nyatla.)

FLARToolkit will detect the marker from an input image and calculate the camera position in three-dimension space. Something like Helper library are planned, but further processing (like synthesizing the 3D Graphics) needs to implemented by yourself. You can try a demo of it here at General Electric.

While at the booth, we got awarded the "Best in Show" award from Web Professional Minute, sponsored by Peachpit Press. This image links to the video.

My colleague Lee Brimelow took the concept one step further and has now produced an excellent tutorial on how to use the FLARTookKit for AS3 (Flash/Flex/AIR) developers.



If you haven't seen Lee Brimelow's GoToAndLearn website, it is a must see.

New LiveCycle Video Tutorial

This video show how to remotely invoke services using the APIs and SOAP endpoints. This contains step by step instructions for setting up the project, writing the code, and compiling and running the application.

UPDATE: If you cannot see the video, I have now posted it to Google video here:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=2601122249633361252


Watch Adobe LiveCycle ES Java Service Invocation in Tech & Gaming | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Invoking the LiveCycle ES 8.2.1 Distiller API from Java

Scott MacDonald and I created a tutorial to help LiveCycle ES developers better understand the process around using the Quick Start guides available from the LiveCycle area of the Adobe Developer Connection. In this tutorial, you will learn how to download and configure the code samples, configure the right JAR files, set user permissions, and invoke a LiveCycle ES SOAP endpoint to convert a PostScript file into a PDF file.

Before you start:

You will need to ensure you have the following on your local drive. I used a MacBook Pro laptop to conduct this lab.

• Java JDK 1.5 – ensure your environment variables are set as per the instructions from the LiveCycle ES documentation
• Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede)
• The LiveCycle ES Client SDK JAR files. You will need the following JAR files to make this lab work:

/*
* This Java Quick Start uses the EJB mode and contains the following JAR files
* in the class path:
* 1. adobe-encryption-client.jar
* 2. adobe-livecycle-client.jar
* 3. adobe-usermanager-client.jar
* 4. adobe-utilities.jar
* 5. jbossall-client.jar (use a different JAR file if LiveCycle ES is not
*    deployed on JBoss)
*
*  These JAR files are located in the following path:
* {install directory}/Adobe/LiveCycle9.0/LiveCycle_ES_SDK/client-libs/common
*
* The adobe-utilities.jar file is located in the following path:
* {install directory}/Adobe/LiveCycle9.0/LiveCycle_ES_SDK/client-libs/jboss
*
* The jbossall-client.jar file is located in the following path:
* {install directory}/Adobe/LiveCycle9.0/jboss/client
*/

 


You will also need the third-party JAR files to use the SOAP stack rather than EJB endpoints. If you want to invoke a remote LiveCycle ES instance and there is a firewall between the client application and LiveCycle ES, then it is recommended that you use the SOAP mode. When using the SOAP mode, you have to include additional JAR files located in the following path:

/*
{install directory}/Adobe/LiveCycle9.0/LiveCycle_ES_SDK/client-
*  libs/thirdparty
*/

 


For information about the SOAP and EJB mode, see "Setting connection properties" in Programming with LiveCycle ES.

For complete details about the location of the LiveCycle ES JAR files, see "Including LiveCycle ES library files" in Programming with LiveCycle ES.

1. Open up Eclipse and set up a new Java project by choosing File > New > Project.

2. Select Java Project.



3. Type a name for the project and click Finish.



4. When the new project opens in your workspace navigator, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac) on the src folder under the project.

5. Choose New > Package.



6. Type a name for your package (I used “org.duanesworldtv.samples”) and click Finish. This step is important because it keeps your class files distinct from other class files with the same names under your workspace by namespace qualifying them.

7. Right-click on the package name you just created (under your project) and choose New > Class to create a new class file.



8. In the New Java Class dialog box, type the name for your class (I used “CreatePDF”) and click Finish.




9. You should see some skeleton code under your new project. Highlight all code below the package name and delete it.

10. Replace the deleted skeleton code with this source code:

package org.duanesworldtv.samples;

/*
 * This Java Quick Start uses the following JAR files
 * 1. adobe-distiller-client.jar
 * 2. adobe-livecycle-client.jar
 * 3. adobe-usermanager-client.jar
 * 4. adobe-utilities.jar
 * 5. jbossall-client.jar (use a different JAR file if LiveCycle ES is not deployed
 * on JBoss)

 * 
 *  These JAR files are located in the following path:
 * /Adobe/LiveCycle8/LiveCycle_ES_SDK/client-libs
 * 
 * For complete details about the location of these JAR files, 
 * see "Including LiveCycle ES library files" in Programming
 * with LiveCycle ES
 */
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.util.Properties;
import com.adobe.livecycle.generatepdf.client.CreatePDFResult;
import com.adobe.idp.Document;
import com.adobe.idp.dsc.clientsdk.ServiceClientFactory;
import com.adobe.idp.dsc.clientsdk.ServiceClientFactoryProperties;
import com.adobe.livecycle.distiller.client.DistillerServiceClient;
 
public class CreatePDF {
 
 public static void main(String[] args)
 {
  try
  { 
            //Set connection properties required to invoke LiveCycle ES                                           
      Properties ConnectionProps = new Properties();
      ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_DEFAULT_SOAP_ENDPOINT, "http://{your_server_IP}:{HTTP_PORT}");
      ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_TRANSPORT_PROTOCOL,ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_SOAP_PROTOCOL);          
      ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_SERVER_TYPE, "JBoss");
      ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_CREDENTIAL_USERNAME, "{username_of_privileged_user}");
      ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_CREDENTIAL_PASSWORD, "{password}");
  
  // Create a ServiceClientFactory instance
  ServiceClientFactory factory = ServiceClientFactory.createInstance(ConnectionProps);
  
  DistillerServiceClient disClient = new DistillerServiceClient(factory );
  
  // Get a PS file document to convert to a PDF document and populate a com.adobe.idp.Document object
  String inputFileName = "/Users/duane/Desktop/eclipse/workspace/JavaOne2009-docs/test.ps";
  FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(inputFileName);
  Document inDoc = new Document(fileInputStream);
   
  //Set run-time options
  String adobePDFSettings = "Standard";
     String securitySettings = "No Security";
     
     //Convert a PS  file into a PDF file
  CreatePDFResult result = new CreatePDFResult();
  result = disClient.createPDF(
    inDoc, 
    inputFileName, 
       adobePDFSettings, 
    securitySettings, 
    null, 
    null
   );
      
     //Get the newly created document
     Document createdDocument = result.getCreatedDocument();
      
     //Save the PDF file
  createdDocument.copyToFile(new File("/Users/duane/Desktop/eclipse/workspace/JavaOne2009-docs/DuanesWorldTest.pdf"));
  }
  catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }
 }
}

 


11. When you paste this code into your project, you will notice several red Xs beside various lines. This is because you have not yet imported any of the LiveCycle ES JAR files.

There are a couple of gotchas you need to know about with respect to these JARs.

First, the JARs must be from the same release of LiveCycle as the instance you are going to connect to. JARs from 8.0, for example, might not always work with an 8.2.1 instance.

Second, the JARs are in various locations and not always easy to grab. (See above for the exact locations.)

We put our jars into a parallel directory that we created under our Eclipse workspace called “JavaOne2009_libs”. This allows us to easily use these JAR files for multiple projects.



12. To add the JARs to your project, highlight the project name in the navigator tab, then right-click and open the project Properties dialog box.



13. Select Java Build Path and then the Libraries tab. Click Add External Jars. Select all the JARs under the “thirdparty” folder (for SOAP only – these are not required for EJB endpoints invocation). You will also need to import the Adobe LiveCycle Client JARs. (Note: In the image below we have highlighted some extra jars because we plan to add more class files to this project later.)



14. Once your JAR files are added, your build path should look similar to this:



15. Click OK, check any warnings in Eclipse, and correct as needed.

16. Now locate the lines of code that set the connection properties. They are at around line 14 and look like this:

//Set connection properties required to invoke LiveCycle ES
Properties ConnectionProps = new Properties();
ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_DEFAULT_SOAP_ENDPOINT, "http://{your_server_ip}:{http_port}");
ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_TRANSPORT_PROTOCOL,ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_SOAP_PROTOCOL);
ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_SERVER_TYPE, "JBoss");
ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_CREDENTIAL_USERNAME, "{username_of_privileged_user}");
ConnectionProps.setProperty(ServiceClientFactoryProperties.DSC_CREDENTIAL_PASSWORD, "{password}");

 

17. You will have to change three values. The first is the server IP address and port. If the server is on the same machine, http://localhost:8080 should suffice. Change it as required to match your server's location.

18. Next, you will be required to supply a username and password of a user with the right privileges. We used the username "kvarsen" because it is installed by default when you install the LiveCycle ES samples. The matching password for kvarsen is “password”, all lowercase.

To run the code in this tutorial, however, you will need to update the roles assigned to kvarsen. To do this, you must have administrator access to the LiveCycle Server you wish to connect to. Log in to the adminui at http://{your_server_ip}:{http_port}/adminui. For example, ours was http://duanesworldtv.org:8080/adminui. Once inside, navigate to Home > Settings > User Management > Users and Groups.



19. Type the user's name in the Find text box (for Kel Varsen, type “varsen”) and click Find. The user's name will come up in the list with a hyperlink. Click on the name to show what permissions the user has.



20. Click the Role Assignments tab.




21. This will bring up a screen that shows all the roles and permissions that this particular user has. For this tutorial, you want to ensure that Kel Varsen is privileged with the PDFG (PDF Generation) service. (In the screenshot below the user is already assigned the PDFG User role; your setup will likely not show this yet.)



22. To find the appropriate roles, click Find Roles, which will bring up a list.




23. Locate and select the PDFG User role, and then click OK. You can then log out of the adminui console.




24. You are almost ready to run the code. Back in Eclipse, you will notice two lines of code that contain path references. One is a reference to a PostScript document. You need to change this to correspond to an absolute path to a PostScript document on your hard drive. The path we used is:

// Get a PS file document to convert to a PDF document and populate a com.adobe.idp.Document object
String inputFileName = "/Users/duane/Desktop/eclipse/workspace/JavaOne2009-docs/test.ps";

 


25. Replace this path with a path to a valid Postscript file.

26. You also need to specify the path used to save the file when it comes back from LiveCycle ES. This is around line 72 and looks something like the code below. Change the path to a location on your system for which you have access.

//Save the PDF file
createdDocument.copyToFile(new File("/Users/duane/Desktop/eclipse/workspace/JavaOne2009-docs/DuanesWorldTest.pdf"));

 


27. Now run the application. You should see the console output working with no errors. Go to the location you referenced in the previous step and you should find a file there titled “DuanesWorldTest.pdf” or whatever you named your file.

Congratulations – you have just invoked your first remote SOAP endpoint using LiveCycle ES!

Adobe Stimulus Plan - free product, learn Flex in one Week!

During the last year there has been a worsening financial crisis. While some may look at this as a bad thing, I look at it as opportunity. Have you ever thought about upgrading your skills? Wanted to work in high tech? If you recently lost your job, now might be the time - and Adobe (and the evangelism team) is here to help!

Fact: Flex and AIR developers are in short supply! Don't believe me, look at the search result below. Over 1.7 million results for "Flex Developer Wanted".

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=flex+developers+wanted&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

Inference: there is more demand than there is supply for skilled IT workers.

Rationale: Think about why. As the economy got worse, big firms failed and got acquired by others. What is the first thing they want done? Integration of computer systems and re-branding, both of which require programmers and architects. The demand is out there.

Solution: We are giving away FREE Flex Builder licenses to anyone who has recently been laid off. You can simply go to this location and apply:

https://freeriatools.adobe.com/

Of course, free tools don't just build stuff themselves so we need to help out even more and train you. I have taken it upon myself to do this and I have made a full day of training available here.

http://www.web2open.org/courses.html

On top of that, I have started some full day, hands-on intensive courses for those who want to learn how to use Flex Builder. There are two events scheduled.

Vancouver - May 28 - Full day 100% free Flex, AIR camp (details)

Berlin - June 14 - Full day 100% free Flex, AIR camp (details TBA)

and

Possibly a third at Hamburg. If you are interested in Hamburg training in the time frame of June 15-25, please drop me a comment here. Ja - ich kann auch Deutsche sphreche und ich liebe gut Deutches Bier!

I will also entertain coming to other cities around the world to help train those who are interested in changing their lives and joining us. We are all part of a global community and it is only an illusion that we are separate. What harms you harms me. What helps you helps me. Pay it forward and good karma shall be yours.

On top of that, Adobe has made one full week of video training available to take online. See here for details:

http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2009/03/learn-flex-in-one-week.html

Oh yeah - did I mention this is all free!

WOOT!

Registration open for free Flex/AIR training in Vancouver

Last month I blogged about a free developers day of training for Adobe Flex and AIR. The date has been set at May 28 and the registration is open:

http://flash.meetup.com/110/calendar/10129317/

This course will be largely hands-on and everyone there will build several applications and complete labs to get trained in RIA web development.

There are limited slots available and in the first hour almost 1/7 of the seats has gone. Register now!

Become an Adobe affiliate

Fan of Adobe? Want to make some extra cash? You may not be aware of this but there is an Adobe affiliate program in place to allow anyone to make money by referring customers to Adobe technologies.

Anyone (except Adobe employees!) can signup and direct folks to the online store -- any purchases made after referral receive a 6% commission. That's over $40 for a single copy of Flex Builder Pro.

Here are details on the program:

http://www.adobe.com/buy/affiliates/

I can finally talk about my Apple Microwave

I have been part of a group of people who were selected to test Apple's move into the consumer appliances market. While being under NDA has been difficult, it officially ended Mar 31, 2009 and I can now share the results (and where you can order one - below). It makes sense for Apple to move in this direction, after all - they have dominated the phone and TV market places. Moving to Microwaves, Fridges and Stoves is a logical next move for the consumer electronics giant, joining companies like Sony, General Electric, Siemens and others. If Apple's past reputation is anything of an indicator, I think they will be a serious threat in this marketplace. My experience was very good.

I was selected to preview the new Apple Microwave. Let me tell you - this is no ordinary appliance. Apple has integrated components from their computer platform such as Bluetooth, network access, pinhole cameras and a range of other sensors. The Apple Microwave is so easily integrated with their other products, you can actually use it with your iPhone (as long as you're within Bluetooth range).



How it works:

The Apple microwave has a small pinhole camera which transmits images on Bluetooth. These can be picked up with a standard iPhone or iPod as well as any Mac laptop that is Bluetooth enabled. The Microwave also has sensors that probe the surface temperature of the dish you are cooking and even track it as the food turns on the turnstyle. The images are overlayered with temperature readings.

Nits:

- In Canada (and most of the rest of the world) we use Celsius. The current model I tested only had Fahrenheit. I am sure this will be fixed in the next release. See image below. The number in the top left-hand corner is the timer showing 33 seconds left.



- There is a delay in transmitting images to the iPhone (I haven't tested any other BT device). Note that in the photo below, the rotation of the food shown on the iPhone is about 2.5 seconds behind the rotation of the food on the turnstyle. The rotation in this case is going clockwise.



- I would also like to see network connectivity to monitor thawing food from other rooms in my house.

Summary:

I love it. I haven't been asked to give it back yet and I would not want to. Apple is supposed to open up their beta program later this week. Keep your eye on the following URL where you will be able to apply. I am not sure how much the final consumer pricing will be.

http://www.apple.com/microwave/

LiveCycle Error Code Dictionary Online

Have you ever worked with Adobe LiveCycle ES and got error codes like the following?

ALC-DSC-031-000: com.adobe.idp.dsc.net.DSCNamingException: Remote EJBObject lookup failed for ejb/Invocation provider at com.adobe.idp.dsc.provider.impl.ejb.EjbMessageDispatcher.initialise(EjbMessageDispatcher.java:97) at com.adobe.idp.dsc.provider.impl.ejb.EjbMessageDispatcher.doSend(EjbMessageDispatcher.java:130)
... 10 more

If so, you know the frustration of not having anywhere to look it up. Well - that has now changed. Next time you get one of these cryptic messages, jump on over to


http://help.adobe.com/en_US/livecycle/8.2/errorCodeReference.pdf

Note that not all error codes are on this but it is a great start! Happy debugging.

Free full day Flex/AIR/Flash Camp in Vancouver-Berlin!

We just booked a room and can now confirm that there will be a full day of 100% free hands on training for RIA development in Vancouver, BC May 28 at Vancouver Harbor Centre. The day will run from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with a possible evening event with a live band. The venue will be the Fletcher Challenge Canada Theatre (room 1900) in Harbour Centre.

While we have not yet confirmed all speakers, the lineup will likely include Peter Armstrong (Author - Flexible Rails, RoR and Flex guru), Andre Charland (CEO - Nitobi, PhoneGap), Doug Schmidt (Effective UI and Moose killing shovel wielding Ninja), Clive Goodinson (Pixton), Ross Ladell and others. For RIA development, this is the one chance in a year of seeing all the top Vancouver developers under one roof. Bring your laptops and code along! You'll likely leave with tons of new code samples and ideas.

Call to action!

We want to make this a community driven event - if you want to present a code snippet, please email me! We'll try to make the afternoon presentations democratic.

The day will be 100% community driven and hands on. Anyone is welcome to join. We have not yet set up a registration site but in the meantime, please email me dnickull at adobe dot com.

There will also be a similar event in Berlin, Germany in June 2009 sometime between June 15-19 2009. Ich liebe Deutschland!! I have already booked my flight.

As for Vancouver, the Vancouver Flash/AIR/Flex User Group is simply one of the best groups ever. Here is a shot of me and my homies hanging out after last month's User Group meeting.

Adobe MAX 2009

We finally announced the MAX 2009 event schedule. Ted Patrick sent out the message this morning.

"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."

Form Design 2008 Courseware Online

At the last three MAXs, I have given a talk on form design called "Forms Gone Wild". Despite the talk's title seemingly indicating that a bunch of forms went down to party in Florida for spring break, it does contain some great tips and thoughts for form designers. Every year I update this talk based on really bad forms. If you come across any bad forms that might be candidates for the talk in 2009, please send them to me at dnickull at adobe dot com.

http://tv.adobe.com/MAX-2008-Design/Forms-Gone-Wild-(2008)-by-Duane-Nickull.html#vi+f15383v1076

Boycott FOX!

Fox news has sunk to a new low in disgraceful behavior. Canadian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan. Many other Canadians, including myself, are working on projects to help the US government. We are all making sacrifices to root out evil and terror and confront it. Our troops are getting the hardest tasks and holding their ground (as we did in WW1 and WW2).

Last night Fox news crossed the line. The comments of Greg Gutfeld, host of "Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld," a round-table chat show that airs late night on weekdays on Fox News, have evoked outrage among the Canadian public. The message I am writing is don't mess with us. We are there to fight a war on terror. Fox news is now mocking our sacrifices? The majority of Canada *were* behind the US until this came out. Now the US needs to do something pretty fast about Fox.

Here is what he said:

"Once their Afghan mission winds down sometime in 2011, certain members of the Canadian military are looking to take a much-deserved break. And by certain members I mean all of them," Gutfeld said.

"Meaning, the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white Capri pants."

"Why don't we just invade this silly little country (Canada)"

These comments were made almost 7 days ago by Gutfeld. We are outraged!!! They have come to the top of the news when Canadians were showing respect to four soldiers recently killed in roadside bombs blasts in southern Afghanistan.

Gutfeld better not come to Canada. I am now going to call my cable provider to make sure Fox is unbundled from my cable.

Critical patch out - please use!

A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this issue is being exploited.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9 update to Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1. Adobe recommends users of Acrobat 8 update to Acrobat 8.1.4, and users of Acrobat 7 update to Acrobat 7.1.1. For Adobe Reader users who can’t update to Adobe Reader 9.1, Adobe has provided the Adobe Reader 8.1.4 and Adobe Reader 7.1.1 updates. For more information, please refer to Security Bulletin APSB09-04. Adobe now plans to make available Adobe Reader 9.1 for Unix by March 24.

more ...

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-03.html

Social Networks are not new or the rage of Web 2.0?

Social networks have been around since we have had societies. Everyone has a social network. Even if you have no friends or contacts with anyone else, you still have a social network (in this case of one person - yourself).

So why do people think Web 2.0 is social networking? The epiphany I had is that "declaring" our social networks is what is really new. This is done via a variety of platforms for various types of relationship circles. MySpace, Plaxo, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on are ideal platforms for these declarations. Each platform has its unique appeal.

What is leading to the end of this phenomena is that people are tired of having to redeclare every relationship every time a new platform comes out. It is long overdue that OpenSocial becomes the lasting monument whereby we can create our declarations once and have them syndicate outwards based on a permissions-based system. So what is stopping this from happening? Simple - a general lack of understanding of binary and n-ary relationships. Here is what I mean.

Here is a declaration: I am friends with Dave Watson.

So what does this really mean? In short, the truth is plain and simple - I have made a unilateral declaration that Dave and I are friends. Why is this potentially errant? Pragmatics and inference errors are abound. We don't know if Dave reciprocates that statement. Is the relationship asymetrical or even traversable? Is it reflexive? Do Dave and I have the exact same definition of "friend"?

You can see how this quickly becomes ambiguous. The solution is to use an upper-level or mid-level ontology to help people understand the nature of these declarations and guide them to correct use. I wrote about this two years ago after a Web 2.0 conference in Berlin here.

James Governor wrote about this pattern of declarative living in a chapter for our upcoming book on Web 2.0. He realized this concept more than two years ago. I guess it took me a while to figure out what he was talking about but the genius of his thinking is still bringing new realizations on a daily basis. Just like I am declaring in this blog article today!

Is IBM buying Sun a good move or bad?

There are rumors about IBM perhaps negotiating to buy Sun Microsystems. They are nothing more than rumors at this point yet one cannot help but ponder if this is in fact a good move for IBM. Java, ODF, *nix based operating systems galore are all commonalities. On the other hand, what revenue stream does Sun have? How much redundancy is there? Who will now keep Java from forking?

What do you think?

The dangers of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a collectively authored work purporting itself to be an accurate depiction of our history. What I am seeing more and more is that Wikipedia is a dangerous tool whereby a handful of editors can singlehandedly rewrite major portions of our history. It is often cited as a reference of absolute truth, which compounds this danger.

I have personally encountered several instances of having truth censored by editors. One such case was ebXML. I chaired the Technical Architecture group and also helped write several of the specifications including the Technical Architecture, Registry-Repository, and Core Components specifications. Wikipedia reported as fact that ebXML had only 4 parts when it in fact had 6 parts. When I changed this to reflect what actually happened, some editor (who shall remain nameless) removed my contribution and changed it back to 4. Only through perseverance and pushing the issue was I able to succeed in a compromise. It now reads:

"The original project envisioned five layers of data specification, including XML standards for:

* Business processes,
* Collaboration protocol agreements,
* Core data components,
* Messaging,
* Registries and repositories

All work was completed based on a normative requirements document and the ebXML Technical Architecture Specification."

This is still obviously errant as these are not and were never considered "data" specifications. There were 6 parts to ebXML plus the normative Requirements document. The page is riddled with errors. I cannot change it as my IP has apparently been suspended for "vandalism" (I guess that is what they call "writing the truth" in Wikipedia language). Yes - I could easily use another computer or IP address via VPN to change it but why bother?

The real danger here is that people who lack any reference to ebXML and use this as the single authoritative source for knowledge will leave with the wrong impression. What happens when those people turn out to be university professors, scholars etc? Simple - history is rewritten reflecting non-truth.

Wikipedia is one of the most dangerous institutions in our time. As people such as myself gradually concede and give up trying to make Wikipedia accurate after being whittled down by years of naive editors who think they control their petty fiefdoms, the truth becomes lost and replaced by the editors' version. This reminds me of a quote from Randy Rampage, the front man for a band I play in called "Stress Factor 9":

"you're getting what you pay for when your info is free"

Of course, you cannot look up Stress Factor 9 on Wikipedia as it was deleted. The reason was explained as follows:

23:42, 7 December 2007 Marasmusine (talk | contribs) deleted "Stress Factor 9" ‎ (CSD A7: Article does not indicate subject's importance or significance: content was: '{{db-band}} {{Copyedit|date=September 2007}} :''For other uses of the acronym, see DOA''. {{Infobox musical artist | Article does not indicate subject's importance or significance"

When I helped contribute to this page, we noted that the singer for SF9 was Randy Rampage, one of the founding members of DOA. DOA is a legendary punk band that influenced a huge section of modern music including everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bif Naked. They are often considered to be the founders of the "Hardcore" sound. Also of note in SF9 was drummer Ray Hartman, the first drummer for the premier metal band Annihilator.

Note that on Randy's personal page, there is a link to Stress Factor 9 including my stage name "Duane Chaos". The link to my band's home page has also been removed as it was deemed insignificant. I wonder how that should be explained to the 100,000 + people who have downloaded our music or come to see us live?

The short end of this stick is that we (society) are having our collective history rewritten by a handful of editors who make decisions about what is important and what is not, what is truth and what is not. Even when confronted with facts, they are often unwilling to accept defeat and allow their own personal views to be recorded as fact.

I am not alone in this criticism of Wikipedia. They are many like me who have had our voices silenced including university professors and many more.

The press and media are watched by watchdog agencies. I think it is time we do the same with Wikipedia.

Epic day skiing!

I've been working like a dog (more like a dog that only works and never plays) so today I took off to grab some fresh powder at Cypress Mountain, only 35 minutes from my Vancouver home near the beach. This was an epic day. Snow was being puked out of the clouds, not bad visibility, and no one on the mountain.

I tried out my new Head Xenon Xi 10.0s. They are simply an amazing ski. In deep powder you can close your eyes and carve, even in semi tracked-out conditions. I found myself jumping quite a bit higher as confidence was way up. This is a shot taken in the air (super fast f-stop).



This shot was on the chair lift. I am smiling although you cannot tell.

28 AIR applications for AIR Developers

Benjamin has been busy again. If you are an Adobe AIR developer, check out this page.

http://speckyboy.com/2009/03/05/28-adobe-air-apps-for-designers-and-developers-need-some-air/

Computational Intelligence takes huge leap forward

Skynet is here!

Well not quite but there is an important development on the computational intelligence front this week. The launch of the Wolfram Alpha system should be written in history as a key event in the pursuit of computational reasoning. While some pundits in the press think it is just another challenge to Google, the true magnitude of the genius behind this is only the beginning.

Stephen Wolfram is an outstanding mathematician. He has engineered the Mathematica system, which, in the words of Semantics and Ontological guru John Sowa, "is the premier mathematical computing system available."

I have been working with the Ontolog Forum for years and we have argued back and forth whether this type of application is even possible. The consensus seems to be it should be possible but none of us can wait until May 2009 when anybody will be able to ask the Wolfram Alpha a factual question and see the results of that question being answered by formal reasoning or computation from material available on the WWW.

Following is Wolfram's summary of the project:

http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/

The link below is a testimony by someone who has had hands-on
experience with Wolfram Alpha and seems to believe it has not yet failed:

http://www.twine.com/item/122mz8lz9-4c/wolfram-alpha-is-coming-and-it-could-be-as-important-as-google

This is such a foundationally cool development in the computational intelligence circles and it is creating even some mainstream buzz. What we have discussed and theorized for the last 8 years in the Ontology Forum has apparently come to fruition – a queryable code base using JIT resources classified by FOL and formal set-theory predicate calculus. A machine that emulates a human being able to answer questions by harnessing statements on the web. Imagine!!

This is not the end all for semantic research as there are still lots of un-factual statements on the web, however, what is really impressing me, is that the Wolfram Alpha should apparently be able to resolve conflicts in logic and assess which statements are true and which are not by accessing various resources. While rudimentary and likely comparatively slow (to Google) in process, this is akin to a child just learning to speak and dynamic algorithms could eventually build its knowledge into a true artificially created sentient force capable of reasoning.

Next on my todo list? I want to get on the alpha list!!!

This is, in short, beyond belief and probably an important evolution in our history. Skynet is here!!!

Why I love my ISP

Shaw High Speed Internet just rocks. Not much else I can say other than see the graphic below. On top of this, a human usually answers the phone within 3 minutes if you ever need service or technical help. In this day and age, that sort of exceptional combination gets my business.

Media not reporting full truth about financial markets

I watched the financial news this week. Every news media outlet reported more or less the same story. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was below 6500 this morning and the subject lines are "Dow Jones industrial average drops below 7,000 for first time since 1997". This is bad but it stops short of telling the whole story.

This comparison uses a linear graph across a temporal variance. The problem is that this excludes inflation. If you inflation adjust the Dow Jones IA, you have to go back quite a few more years. For example, if the Dow was 6,304.87 on December 13, 1996 (as reported by Google Finance), and the inflation rate since 1996 averages around 2.8%, then the inflation adjusted bottom we would have to cross today would be 9,027. Whoops!! What are we at today? 6450 right now?

So what does this mean? Well, I started to do some rough calculations. Without going into all the details, I could not quite find where the inflation adjusted equivalent of today's index was specifically as I did not feel like researching the annual inflation rates to make the calculations, but I did surmise it should be around 1993-5.

The Dow in general though is only accounting for the top 30 stocks on the NYSE. To get a fuller picture, I prefer to use the S&P index. This tells a more thorough story as it is a value weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large cap common stocks actively traded in the United States.

Take a look at the graph and tell me where you find a year where the S&P index is inflation adjusted to where we are today. The graph is here.

Be vigilant - question everything including this blog post.

Why I am blocking China and who to blame

Today was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I have been getting spammed from China for years and years. I have blogged about this before and also pleaded with Chinese officials to crack down on their citizens who spam. I get approximately 100 or more spams a day from China. Most of these get stripped out by our spam filter but at least 20 get through. The one today was from sino5@cnmould.com or "Elva" at Sino Holdings Co., Ltd. www.sinogroupe.com. I have asked these distinguished individuals to stop spamming me before but they just cannot stop. Well, now you can blame them for me now blocking all *.cn traffic from my servers. Yes - you heard me correctly. I have configured many of my email accounts to take all email originating from a *.cn domain and drop it to devnull (meaning it will *never* be seen by a human being).

I hate to have to take this drastic action but spammers like Sino Holdings are to blame. They think it is their right to send out millions of emails to people every day assuming we are interested in their injection molding processes. This costs us money!!! Our economy cannot stand to see another 1-3% of people's productivity wasted every day and mobile costs racked up for emails going to our phones that we don't want.

At the same time I do this, I am going to make one more plea to the Chinese government to treat these people like the criminals they are. If not, others will follow my lead and legitimate businesses in China will suffer as they will not be able to communicate with us. This is not the economic time to risk such barriers to global trade and spammers are hurting us all.

If you are in China and wish to communicate with me by email for legitimate reasons, you cannot do this with a *.cn domain name and will need to find another way. I am also contemplating doing the same with *.ru and *.kr (Russia and Korea) as a way to force legitimate businesses to petition their government to clamp down. These three countries are the "Axis of Spam" due to lax enforcement of regulations. The governments really need to re-think how this will harm their economy as I am sure that spam filters already assign higher probability to emails originating from their countries.

Sorry for doing this but I had to. If you want to retaliate against someone, try Sino Holdings at the URL above. It is their fault. I am sure Elva will be happy to take your complaints.

Adobe Cloud Computing now available!

It is official! We're live and open - http://livecycle.express.adobe.com. Adobe LiveCycle ES running on the cloud. How cool is that? Very!

How it works:

LiveCycle ES has both a server component and a desktop workbench. Workbench is configured to talk to the server and the server knows the context of how to talk back to the workbench. In the cloud configuration, a small application called LC DX (Developer Express) sits on the same machine and intercepts all communications to localhost: and translates it to speak to the corresponding LC ES server instance in the cloud. It actually talks to a proxy on the other end so neither the server nor workbench are aware of where the other is. In fact, they both think they are talking to their counterpart at a different location so there is no complexity. Brilliant, simple and clean architecture!

The 1.1 release of Adobe LiveCycle ES Developer Express introduces support for LiveCycle ES 8.2.1 running on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition within Amazon EC2, using JBoss 4.2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express. The new Windows-based virtual instances can be selected in the instance type pulldown menu of the "Start Instance" dialog. I blogged earlier about this here:
http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2009/01/adobe-cloud-computing-livecycle-es.html

Here is the screenshot:



The Windows-based virtual instances of LiveCycle ES are configured with all of the same features as the existing RedHat Linux-based virtual images, including support for BAM, Contentspace, and PDF Generation using OpenOffice. The backup/restore behavior of the Windows-based virtual instances is identical to the behavior of the existing RedHat Linux-based instances.

The 1.1 release also contains a collection of bug fixes and usability improvements.

The LiveCycle Express Networking Application (client) has been updated to include a TCP port forwarding rule for Remote Desktop connections to the new Windows-based virtual instances. With the networking application connected to the instance, Remote Desktop connections can be made to "localhost:3390".

How to work with Adobe

Thanks for reaching out to the Adobe Flash Platform team.

As an evangelist, I spend a lot of time trying to connect people outside the company to the right program inside of Adobe. This is often a win-win scenario. As outsiders, however, it can be daunting to find the right program. This blog post is an attempt to aggregate some of the more important resources for external people to work with at Adobe. I will add more as they become available or people can ping me to add them (just use the comment form to add more).

We want to ensure you have what you need to get started with Adobe! Good luck!

This document outlines the key programs and activities you can leverage from Adobe to be successful with our platform.

Click here to learn more about the Adobe Flash Platform: http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform


PROMOTE YOUR OFFERINGS TO THE COMMUNITY

Customer Success Program: http://www.adobe.com/go/csp
The Adobe Customer Success Program (CSP) works with innovators and business leaders to highlight how organizations use and benefit from Adobe solutions.

Adobe Site of the Day: http://www.adobe.com/go/showcase
Developers can submit applications to be included in the Adobe Site of the Day. This submission allows us to use it in other marketing areas, like the Edge newsletter.

Flex.org: http://flex.org/post_items
Flex.org aggregates Flex news from a number of sources, and allows community members to contribute their own content as well. Learn more: http://flex.org/post_items

The Solution Partner Program: http://www.adobe.com/go/gntray_comm_partners
The Adobe Partner Program is designed for companies that provide solution-based sales, system integration, services, or extended products based on Adobe technology.

Adobe Marketplace: http://www.adobe.com/go/marketplace
Adobe Marketplace is a place where developers can publish their AIR applications for users to download. Learn more: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/air_marketplace_faq.html

Community blogs: http://feeds.adobe.com
Add your feed to the Adobe blog aggregator to make sure the community at-large is receiving the latest news on your offerings. Additionally find active community members including Adobe evangelists who may be interested in learning more. Learn more: http://feeds.adobe.com/FAQ.cfm


ACCESS SOFTWARE FOR EVALUATION

Adobe Labs: http://labs.adobe.com/
Labs provides developers with the opportunity to experience and evaluate new and emerging innovations, technologies, and products from Adobe. Learn more: http://labs.adobe.com/about/

Adobe Pre-release Program: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=prerelease_interest and currently open prerelease opportunities are listed here - http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Prerelease

The goal of a Pre-release Program at Adobe is to solicit early feedback on new features and bugs in order to produce a unique and a bug free product that can deliver maximum results.

Also: The Solution Partner Program (http://www.adobe.com/go/gntray_comm_partners)


SUPPORT AND TRAINING

The Adobe Developer Connection: http://www.adobe.com/go/join_adc
The ADC serves as the central resource for information on Adobe developer technologies, providing tutorials, samples, and documentation to guide and instruct developers. Learn more: https://www.adobe.com/devnet/

Adobe Enterprise Developer Program: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/aedp/index.html
Provides developers, architects & forms designers with support, software and tools to build and deploy enterprise solutions built on a SOA, leveraging Adobe technologies.

Adobe Support Programs: http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/
Flex, Flash and AIR support programs for developers and enterprises include technical help and information on planning, workflow and deployment. Learn more: http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/connect_preso/

Adobe Forums: http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/
Adobe Online Forums are for the Adobe community's peer-to-peer discussions of both Adobe and formerly Macromedia products.

Adobe User Groups: http://groups.adobe.com
Adobe Developer User Groups provide a forum of support and technology to web professionals at all levels. Whether you're a designer, a seasoned developer, or are just starting out, Adobe User Groups strengthen community, increase networking, unveil the latest technology innovations, and reveal the techniques that turn novices into experts and experts into gurus.

Adobe Training and Certification: http://www.adobe.com/training/
Whether you want to improve your skills, projects or resume, Adobe training and certification programs and resources can help you achieve your goals.

Flex in a Week Video Training Series: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/
A week-long, video based online training program for developers. This self-paced program is free and is intended to help developers accelerate their Flex learning.

Also: Solution Partner Program (http://www.adobe.com/go/gntray_comm_partners), Community Blogs (http://feeds.adobe.com)


PARTNERS

Partner Finder: http://partners.adobe.com/public/asn/partnerfinder/solutionpartner/
Use the Partner Finder to locate an Adobe Solution Partner to help extend the value of your Adobe technology investment and drive your business with tailored solutions.

The Solution Partner Program: http://www.adobe.com/go/gntray_comm_partners
The Adobe Partner Program is designed for companies that provide solution-based sales, system integration, services, or extended products based on Adobe technology.