Andy Updegrove has written:
"The Wall Street Journal and Information Week reported this morning that EU regulators have announced a third investigation into Microsoft's conduct on the desktop. This latest action demonstrates that while the EU has settled the case against Microsoft that ran for almost a decade, it remains as suspicious as ever regarding the software vendor's conduct, notwithstanding Microsoft's less combative stance in recent years. The news can be found in a story reported by Charles Forelle bylined in Brussells this morning. According to the Journal, the investigation will focus on whether Microsoft "violated antitrust laws during a struggle last year to ratify its Office software file format as an international standard." The article also says that the regulators are "stepping up scrutiny of the issue." The Journal cites the following as the type of activity it will look into."
My take:
Dear Microsoft:
Why not just adopt ODF like the rest of us? If it falls short, you can participate in a well established standards process and explain to all of us why ODF needs to change. We'll listen and maybe we'll learn from you. OOXML is going to make the Office XML of era 2000 look elegant by comparison.
PLEASE: work within the community, not by yourself.
Friday, February 08, 2008
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Adobe Tech Summit
I wish I could talk about all the cool things going on at the 2008 Adobe Tech Summit. Unfortunately, this is largely an internal show and a chance for Adobe engineers and inventors to mingle and share ideas. To me, this is probably the single largest gathering of really intelligent people I have ever witnessed.
More later.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Flex, AIR teams at Adobe Rock!!!
I have been using the latest build for Flex Builder 3 beta 3 (available for free download here) for my latest set of speaking engagements and personal development. I want to publicly acknowledge that this is by far the greatest version of Flex Builder ever made. The Adobe team responsible for this, including such greats as Matt Chotin, Mike Potter, Luis Polanco, Robert Christensen, Adrian Ludwig, and all the developers have done an outstanding job.
Just making a great product isn't the whole story. The team I work on (Technical Evangelism) is probably the most nit-picky group for any product team to cater to. On top of that, they have around 50 beta testers who are regularly dishing out feature requests, bug reports, and a host of other demands on their minds.
There are hundreds of others who I cannot name here on my blog who have worked on Flex Builder 3. To honor their work, take the Flex Builder 3 public beta 3 for a test drive. If you want a mini-cookbook of Flex and AIR projects, with full source code, please email me (dnickull at adobe dot com) and I'll send it over. It also has a script to show you how to take full advantage of the new features in Flex Builder 3 and the latest AIR 1.0.
Just making a great product isn't the whole story. The team I work on (Technical Evangelism) is probably the most nit-picky group for any product team to cater to. On top of that, they have around 50 beta testers who are regularly dishing out feature requests, bug reports, and a host of other demands on their minds.
There are hundreds of others who I cannot name here on my blog who have worked on Flex Builder 3. To honor their work, take the Flex Builder 3 public beta 3 for a test drive. If you want a mini-cookbook of Flex and AIR projects, with full source code, please email me (dnickull at adobe dot com) and I'll send it over. It also has a script to show you how to take full advantage of the new features in Flex Builder 3 and the latest AIR 1.0.
Glowing review of Web 2.0 book
Scott Mark has offered a glowing review of our upcoming O'Reilly book "Web 2.0 Design Patterns".
"Duane, James, and Dion captured a high-speed drive by of all things 2.0, carefully deconstructing all of the cool tools we’ve been having so much fun with recently. They setup the book with a dissection of some flagship Web 2.0 properties, and contextualization of key memes. Next they define applicable models for capturing Web 2.0 in a pattern language. One my favorite aspects of this chapter was the use of “low end” modeling techniques - such as concept maps, and HTML
Read more here.
"Duane, James, and Dion captured a high-speed drive by of all things 2.0, carefully deconstructing all of the cool tools we’ve been having so much fun with recently. They setup the book with a dissection of some flagship Web 2.0 properties, and contextualization of key memes. Next they define applicable models for capturing Web 2.0 in a pattern language. One my favorite aspects of this chapter was the use of “low end” modeling techniques - such as concept maps, and HTML
Read more here.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Canada at War: History repeats itself
Warning: This is an intensely political post!
Within Canada, there has been a lot of debate on whether Canada should be in Afghanistan after 2009. For the record, I 100% support our troups being deployed in this country with the goals of keeping the Taliban from re-surging and helping build a free an independent Afghanistan. Our army is made up of professional soldiers, not people being drafted. I am proud of what they represent as peace keepers. The only Caveat is that what has been reported in the general media about the conditions pre and post invasion are roughly true, which I do believe in this instance they are.
For those of you who do not think Canada is a force to be reckoned with militarily, look back to WW2 and WW1. Canadians have a long history of running to the aid of those who are in the most dire needs. Most of my friends and others who I know here are willing to give up their lives for something we see as crucial to world peace. In WW1 and WW2, Canadian forces played a crucial part by taking on the toughest of the tough challenges that others either wouldn't do or had failed at. In World War One, Canadians succeeded in taking Vimy Ridge despite catastrophic loss of life. To portray the adds, here is the text from the official Canadian government archives:
Now we are at a third cross roads of our military history. Once again, Canadian troup's have been deployed to the worst areas of a military conflict. In this case it is South Afghanistan. As reported by Reuters:
"European allies' refusal to deploy to Afghanistan's dangerous south and east has opened a rift with Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and others which, along with the United States, have borne the brunt of Taliban violence."
So far, 78 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have died since Ottawa deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2002.
SO WHAT IS OUR MISSION?
Simple - a society can be judged by how it cares for the weakest members who are unable to care for themselves. Throughout world history, Canadians have generously donated their resources to people from other countries in times of peril. It is a cultural norm to help your neighbor in Canada. Many of us see the global community as an extension of our own communities. When people who cannot defend themselves against tyranny need help, we are there. If the cause is just, we tend to pitch in. Note that we carefully avoid Iraq due to it being deemed an illegal war by the majority of Canadians.
WHAT WE WANT:
First - world peace. Yeah - this is an idealistic goal but it isn't that what everyone wants? However, to get there, evil must be confronted. The Taliban cannot be allowed to murder with full impunity. The citizens of Afghanistan must be given the right not to be killed. The Clash song "Know your Rights" is relevant here. If I may quote "Number 1: You have the right not to be killed! Murder is a crime!"
NATO nations - please help us here. We helped you in two world wars. Millions of young Canadians lost their lives in the cold, icy Atlantic waters, on the slopes of a foreign land and wherever we were called. We answered your call for help. No we need you.
Our mission in Afghanistan runs out in 2009. Our government has asked for other nations to help in rebuilding the country. We need to help women achieve the rights they deserve there. We need to provide people hope and a future. Peace and prosperity cannot be achieved if the Taliban return.
Within Canada, there has been a lot of debate on whether Canada should be in Afghanistan after 2009. For the record, I 100% support our troups being deployed in this country with the goals of keeping the Taliban from re-surging and helping build a free an independent Afghanistan. Our army is made up of professional soldiers, not people being drafted. I am proud of what they represent as peace keepers. The only Caveat is that what has been reported in the general media about the conditions pre and post invasion are roughly true, which I do believe in this instance they are.
For those of you who do not think Canada is a force to be reckoned with militarily, look back to WW2 and WW1. Canadians have a long history of running to the aid of those who are in the most dire needs. Most of my friends and others who I know here are willing to give up their lives for something we see as crucial to world peace. In WW1 and WW2, Canadian forces played a crucial part by taking on the toughest of the tough challenges that others either wouldn't do or had failed at. In World War One, Canadians succeeded in taking Vimy Ridge despite catastrophic loss of life. To portray the adds, here is the text from the official Canadian government archives:
Vimy Ridge was a key to the German defence system. Rising 6l metres above the Douai Plain, it protected an area of occupied France in which mines and factories were in full production for Germany. It was a linchpin covering the junction of the main Hindenburg Line and the defence systems running north to the coast of the English Channel. Since capturing the Ridge in October 1914, the Germans had been building fortifications to add to its natural strength and dominance.
The slopes of Vimy Ridge favoured the defenders. Because the incline on the west was gradual, many of the Canadians would have to attack over open ground, where they would be prime targets for artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire. They would face three main defensive lines, consisting of a maze of trenches, concrete machine-gun strong points that had hedges of barbed wire woven around them, and deep dug-outs, all linked by communication trenches and connecting tunnels. As well, there were vast underground chambers, some capable of sheltering entire German battalions from Allied shells.
The Commander of the Canadian Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, planned an assault on a front of seven kilometres by all four of his divisions abreast. To reach their final objectives on the far side of the Ridge, the Canadians would have to capture the commanding heights of Hill 135 and Hill 145, which formed its crest. By April 12, 1917 the Canadians controlled the entire ridge, at a cost of 10,602 casualties (3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded).
During the Second World War, Canadians again suffered heavy losses for a nation that was young and not part of the original conflict. We were there!Ross Munro of The Canadian Press, assigned to cover the Canadian troops in Britain, went ashore with allied shock troops storming the Dieppe beach on August 19, 1942, to get this first-hand story of the war's biggest commando raid.
"For eight hours, under intense Nazi fire from dawn into a sweltering afternoon, I watched Canadian troops fight the blazing, bloody battle of Dieppe. I saw them go through the biggest of the war's raiding operations in wild scenes that crowded helter skelter one upon another in crazy sequence. There was a furious attack by German E-boats while the Canadians moved in on Dieppe's beaches, landing by dawn's half-light. When the Canadian battalions stormed through the flashing inferno of Nazi defences, belching guns of huge tanks rolling into the fight, I spent the grimmest 20 minutes of my life with one unit when a rain of German machine-gun fire wounded half the men in our boat and only a miracle saved us from annihilation."
Now we are at a third cross roads of our military history. Once again, Canadian troup's have been deployed to the worst areas of a military conflict. In this case it is South Afghanistan. As reported by Reuters:
"European allies' refusal to deploy to Afghanistan's dangerous south and east has opened a rift with Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and others which, along with the United States, have borne the brunt of Taliban violence."
So far, 78 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat have died since Ottawa deployed troops to Afghanistan in 2002.
SO WHAT IS OUR MISSION?
Simple - a society can be judged by how it cares for the weakest members who are unable to care for themselves. Throughout world history, Canadians have generously donated their resources to people from other countries in times of peril. It is a cultural norm to help your neighbor in Canada. Many of us see the global community as an extension of our own communities. When people who cannot defend themselves against tyranny need help, we are there. If the cause is just, we tend to pitch in. Note that we carefully avoid Iraq due to it being deemed an illegal war by the majority of Canadians.
WHAT WE WANT:
First - world peace. Yeah - this is an idealistic goal but it isn't that what everyone wants? However, to get there, evil must be confronted. The Taliban cannot be allowed to murder with full impunity. The citizens of Afghanistan must be given the right not to be killed. The Clash song "Know your Rights" is relevant here. If I may quote "Number 1: You have the right not to be killed! Murder is a crime!"
NATO nations - please help us here. We helped you in two world wars. Millions of young Canadians lost their lives in the cold, icy Atlantic waters, on the slopes of a foreign land and wherever we were called. We answered your call for help. No we need you.
Our mission in Afghanistan runs out in 2009. Our government has asked for other nations to help in rebuilding the country. We need to help women achieve the rights they deserve there. We need to provide people hope and a future. Peace and prosperity cannot be achieved if the Taliban return.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Talks for WebManiacs 2008!
I have agreed to do two talks for WebManiacs 2008 in Washington, DC this spring (May 19-23).
The WebManiacs 2008 conference schedule has been finalized and registration is open. Early bird pricing ends Jan 31. Consisting of a two-day ColdFusion conference ("CFManiacs") coupled with a three-day Flex conference (FlexManiacs), hosting over 70 speakers and 130 distinct topics (some of which are hands-on), WebManiacs promises to have the most comprehensive coverage of Flex, AIR, and ColdFusion at the lowest price. Seating is limited, so folks should register early in order to get into the more popular sessions.
My sessions are architectural in nature:
1. SOA and BPM, a practical approach to business automation
Abstract: This session will discuss Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as
an architectural paradigm then pose some interesting architectural questions
about the pragmatic relationship with Business Process Management (BPM).
While many consider BPM a part of SOA, it is in fact not and the presenter
will clearly explain why. It is, however, often the end state sought by
those who pursue SOA as an architectural model and hence has a close
relationship with SOA.
The topics covered will include identifying services by modeling
business processes to spot services used by more than one process, the
question of how much process state a service should be aware of, reuse vs.
repurposing, various standards approaches to SOA and BPM, as well as a case
study of large scale SOA for powering Enterprise 2.0 type applications.
2. Web 2.0 patterns, models and architecture
Abstract: Many enterprises seek knowledge of the design patterns used by
successful Web 2.0 companies. This session starts with Tim O'Reilly's list
of Web 2.0 examples and distills the abstract architectural patterns
behind the examples. By using the patterns notation, the core knowledge of
the design principles is preserved in a template which can be reused in
multiple contexts.
Duane will also show the evolution of the client server model into a 5-tier
model based on the consistent concepts of most successful Web 2.0 patterns.
The model serves as a useful starting point for anyone designing either
business models or technology for Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 model is also used to
illustrate a reference architecture. This abstract set of technology
components allows developers to start thinking about the types of technology
decisions required for building Web 2.0 projects.
***************************
Hope to see you all there!!!
The WebManiacs 2008 conference schedule has been finalized and registration is open. Early bird pricing ends Jan 31. Consisting of a two-day ColdFusion conference ("CFManiacs") coupled with a three-day Flex conference (FlexManiacs), hosting over 70 speakers and 130 distinct topics (some of which are hands-on), WebManiacs promises to have the most comprehensive coverage of Flex, AIR, and ColdFusion at the lowest price. Seating is limited, so folks should register early in order to get into the more popular sessions.
My sessions are architectural in nature:
1. SOA and BPM, a practical approach to business automation
Abstract: This session will discuss Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as
an architectural paradigm then pose some interesting architectural questions
about the pragmatic relationship with Business Process Management (BPM).
While many consider BPM a part of SOA, it is in fact not and the presenter
will clearly explain why. It is, however, often the end state sought by
those who pursue SOA as an architectural model and hence has a close
relationship with SOA.
The topics covered will include identifying services by modeling
business processes to spot services used by more than one process, the
question of how much process state a service should be aware of, reuse vs.
repurposing, various standards approaches to SOA and BPM, as well as a case
study of large scale SOA for powering Enterprise 2.0 type applications.
2. Web 2.0 patterns, models and architecture
Abstract: Many enterprises seek knowledge of the design patterns used by
successful Web 2.0 companies. This session starts with Tim O'Reilly's list
of Web 2.0 examples and distills the abstract architectural patterns
behind the examples. By using the patterns notation, the core knowledge of
the design principles is preserved in a template which can be reused in
multiple contexts.
Duane will also show the evolution of the client server model into a 5-tier
model based on the consistent concepts of most successful Web 2.0 patterns.
The model serves as a useful starting point for anyone designing either
business models or technology for Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 model is also used to
illustrate a reference architecture. This abstract set of technology
components allows developers to start thinking about the types of technology
decisions required for building Web 2.0 projects.
***************************
Hope to see you all there!!!
Monday, January 21, 2008
InsideRIA site on O’Reilly Network is live!
InsideRIA has just launched! My good friend Andre Charland (Nitobi) is the lead blogger.
It’s a gathering place for thought leaders in the RIA field. (See http://www.insideria.com/experts.html ). The site will be an ongoing conversation about RIA technologies including Flex, AIR, and AJAX – the experts will be continually posting their opinions, cool findings, and technical information to the site. The other leader of the site, another good friend Rich Tretola (Everything Flex and Community Manager/Editor), is an expert in his field.
These guys are off to a good start! Please take a visit.
It’s a gathering place for thought leaders in the RIA field. (See http://www.insideria.com/experts.html ). The site will be an ongoing conversation about RIA technologies including Flex, AIR, and AJAX – the experts will be continually posting their opinions, cool findings, and technical information to the site. The other leader of the site, another good friend Rich Tretola (Everything Flex and Community Manager/Editor), is an expert in his field.
These guys are off to a good start! Please take a visit.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Flex 3 and AIR pre-release tour
Flex 3 and AIR are getting close to launch and in preparation, the Adobe Flex/AIR product team is traveling to select cities to show off the great new features and help prepare us for this exciting launch.
Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.
Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you have been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR during this special pre-release tour. Plus, in addition to giving away some one of a kind Flex/AIR branded schwag,we will also be raffling off a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional (pending availability) and a full commercial copy of CS3 Web Premium at some of these events!
Kevin Hoyt
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:00pm
Denver
http://www.ria5280.org
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:30pm
Phoenix
http://www.gotoandstop.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
Salt Lake
http://www.flexusergroup.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm
Albuquerque
http://www.nmaug.com/
Monday, February 04, 2008 at 6:00pm for 7:00 start
Pittsburgh
http://www.pitcfug.org/
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 1:00pm
Cleveland
http://www.clevelandmmug.org/
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 7:00pm
East Lansing
http://www.theflexgroup.org/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:00pm
Milwaukee
http://www.milwaukeeaug.com
Ben Forta
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm
Orlando
http://adogo.us/
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
Atlanta
http://www.affug.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:00pm
Raleigh
http://www.triangleuserexperience.org
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 7:00pm start
Nashville
http://www.615flex.com/special-events/
James Ward
Monday, February 04, 2008 at 7:00pm
Minneapolis
http://www.mnswf.com/
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 6:30pm
Chicago
http://www.augchicago.org/
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 6:00pm
Kansas City
http://www.kcdevcore.org/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:00pm
St. Louis
http://www.flexandfusethearch.com/
Dave Gruber
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 8:30am for 9am start
Washington, DC
http://www.useadobe.com/Flex3.cfm
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 7:00pm
Philadelphia
http://www.phflex.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
NYC
http://www.nyflex.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
Boston
http://www.bostoncfug.org
Ted Patrick
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm
San Francisco
http://bacfug.org/
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 5:30pm
San Jose
http://www.silvafug.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 7:00pm
Los Angeles
http://www.laflex.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
San Diego
http://www.sdcfug.org/
Duane Nickull
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 6:00pm
Vancouver
http://www.flashinvan.com/
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 5:30pm
Calgary
http://www.flexcalgary.org/
Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 7:00pm
Edmonton
http://efug.org/
Adam Lehman
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 7:00pm
Toronto
http://www.torontoflex.org
Mike Potter
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm for 7pm start
Ottawa
http://www.ottawaflex.com/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:30pm
Montreal
http://www.montrealadobeusergroup.com/
Ryan Stewart
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm for 7pm start
Seattle
http://www.seaflexug.org
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:00pm
Portland
http://pdxria.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
Sacramento
http://www.norcalflex.com/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 7:00pm
Las Vegas
http://www.vegasflex.org
Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.
Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, extending rich applications to the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write desktop applications using the same skills that you have been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to see and hear about this highly anticipated release of Flex 3 and AIR during this special pre-release tour. Plus, in addition to giving away some one of a kind Flex/AIR branded schwag,we will also be raffling off a copy of Flex Builder 3 Professional (pending availability) and a full commercial copy of CS3 Web Premium at some of these events!
Kevin Hoyt
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:00pm
Denver
http://www.ria5280.org
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:30pm
Phoenix
http://www.gotoandstop.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
Salt Lake
http://www.flexusergroup.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm
Albuquerque
http://www.nmaug.com/
Monday, February 04, 2008 at 6:00pm for 7:00 start
Pittsburgh
http://www.pitcfug.org/
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 1:00pm
Cleveland
http://www.clevelandmmug.org/
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 7:00pm
East Lansing
http://www.theflexgroup.org/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:00pm
Milwaukee
http://www.milwaukeeaug.com
Ben Forta
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm
Orlando
http://adogo.us/
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
Atlanta
http://www.affug.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:00pm
Raleigh
http://www.triangleuserexperience.org
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 7:00pm start
Nashville
http://www.615flex.com/special-events/
James Ward
Monday, February 04, 2008 at 7:00pm
Minneapolis
http://www.mnswf.com/
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 at 6:30pm
Chicago
http://www.augchicago.org/
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 at 6:00pm
Kansas City
http://www.kcdevcore.org/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:00pm
St. Louis
http://www.flexandfusethearch.com/
Dave Gruber
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 8:30am for 9am start
Washington, DC
http://www.useadobe.com/Flex3.cfm
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 7:00pm
Philadelphia
http://www.phflex.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
NYC
http://www.nyflex.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
Boston
http://www.bostoncfug.org
Ted Patrick
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm
San Francisco
http://bacfug.org/
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 5:30pm
San Jose
http://www.silvafug.org/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 7:00pm
Los Angeles
http://www.laflex.org/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:00pm for 6:30pm start
San Diego
http://www.sdcfug.org/
Duane Nickull
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 6:00pm
Vancouver
http://www.flashinvan.com/
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 5:30pm
Calgary
http://www.flexcalgary.org/
Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 7:00pm
Edmonton
http://efug.org/
Adam Lehman
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 7:00pm
Toronto
http://www.torontoflex.org
Mike Potter
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm for 7pm start
Ottawa
http://www.ottawaflex.com/
Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:30pm
Montreal
http://www.montrealadobeusergroup.com/
Ryan Stewart
Monday, January 21, 2008 at 6:30pm for 7pm start
Seattle
http://www.seaflexug.org
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 6:00pm
Portland
http://pdxria.com
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
Sacramento
http://www.norcalflex.com/
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 7:00pm
Las Vegas
http://www.vegasflex.org
Monday, January 14, 2008
From OMG in Orlando: Event Driven Architecture
Today I am sitting in on Robert Covington's (CTO, Rhysome) talk on SOA and EDA. Event-Driven Architecture is an interesting animal however the current models I have seen ignore a grand unification of architectures into a definitive definition. The wikipedia definition sucks in a way that would make vacuum cleaners jealous.
What Robert covered today is the issue of event context within the realm of Complex Event Processing (CEP). The latter is great work, largely spearheaded by David Luckham, professor emeritus at Stanford. I have been working on an idea called IDEA (Intelligence Driven Enterprise Architecture) which combines the best of SOA and EDA. The gist is below.
The idea (pardon the pun) is that EDA can be divided into two major components - the event generation and detection (shown on the left) and the event processing (shown on the right). It makes architectural sense to keep them separate as it leads to more scalability within enterprise architecture.
The core model illustrates how events (instances of one specific event type from the meta event class), are generated and caught. This diagram is high level and leaves out things like the event message dispatch, the event bubble model (usually split into unicast and broadcast via subscription), the event capturing and subscription mechanisms. The causality relationship between events is a core evolution of complex event processing. Causality relationships can be one of many types, however in order to process them more accurately, the event context (the set of specific circumstances in which the instance of the event occurred) is very important to feed to the event processing side (everything to the right of the inference engine).
During Robert's talk today, I had several epiphanies, one of which was that perhaps it is time for some formal standards work in this area.
Thoughts?
Friday, January 11, 2008
New Adobe SOA White Paper
Myself, James Ward, Laurel Reitman, and Jack Wilber have finished producing a new white paper on SOA. The paper is licensed under creative commons so anyone can take it, post it where they want, and do with it what they want as long as attribution is preserved. The paper is available here (in PDF of course):
http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/Services_Oriented_Architecture_from_Adobe.pdf
The paper looks into specialized messaging patterns for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Most people still mistakenly believe that SOA is limited to request-response. Such is far from the truth as most standards work on SOA now recognizes alternative patterns such as subscribe-push and probe-match.
Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural paradigm and discipline that may be used to build infrastructures enabling those with needs (consumers) and those with capabilities (providers) to interact via services across disparate domains of technology and ownership. Services act as the core facilitator of electronic data interchanges yet require additional mechanisms in order to function. Several new trends in the computer industry rely upon SOA as the enabling foundation. These include the automation of Business Process Management (BPM), composite applications (applications that aggregate multiple services to function), and the multitude of new architecture and design patterns generally referred to as Web 2.0.
The latter, Web 2.0, is not defined as a static architecture. Web 2.0 can be generally characterized as a common set of architecture and design patterns, which can be implemented in multiple contexts. The list of common patterns includes the Mashup, Collaboration-Participation, Software as a Service (SaaS), Semantic Tagging (folksonomy), and Rich User Experience (also known as Rich Internet Application) patterns among others. These are augmented with themes for software architects such as trusting your users and harnessing collective intelligence. Most Web 2.0 architecture patterns rely on Service Oriented Architecture in order to function.
When designing Web 2.0 applications based on these patterns, architects often have highly specialized requirements for moving data. Enterprise adoption of these patterns requires special considerations for scalability, flexibility (in terms of multiple message exchange patterns), and the ability to deliver these services to a multitude of disparate consumers. Architects often need to expand data interchanges beyond simple request-response patterns and adopt more robust message exchange patterns, triggered by multiple types of events. As a result, many specialized platforms are evolving to meet these needs.
Enjoy~
http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/
The paper looks into specialized messaging patterns for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Most people still mistakenly believe that SOA is limited to request-response. Such is far from the truth as most standards work on SOA now recognizes alternative patterns such as subscribe-push and probe-match.
Service Oriented Architecture is an architectural paradigm and discipline that may be used to build infrastructures enabling those with needs (consumers) and those with capabilities (providers) to interact via services across disparate domains of technology and ownership. Services act as the core facilitator of electronic data interchanges yet require additional mechanisms in order to function. Several new trends in the computer industry rely upon SOA as the enabling foundation. These include the automation of Business Process Management (BPM), composite applications (applications that aggregate multiple services to function), and the multitude of new architecture and design patterns generally referred to as Web 2.0.
The latter, Web 2.0, is not defined as a static architecture. Web 2.0 can be generally characterized as a common set of architecture and design patterns, which can be implemented in multiple contexts. The list of common patterns includes the Mashup, Collaboration-Participation, Software as a Service (SaaS), Semantic Tagging (folksonomy), and Rich User Experience (also known as Rich Internet Application) patterns among others. These are augmented with themes for software architects such as trusting your users and harnessing collective intelligence. Most Web 2.0 architecture patterns rely on Service Oriented Architecture in order to function.
When designing Web 2.0 applications based on these patterns, architects often have highly specialized requirements for moving data. Enterprise adoption of these patterns requires special considerations for scalability, flexibility (in terms of multiple message exchange patterns), and the ability to deliver these services to a multitude of disparate consumers. Architects often need to expand data interchanges beyond simple request-response patterns and adopt more robust message exchange patterns, triggered by multiple types of events. As a result, many specialized platforms are evolving to meet these needs.
Enjoy~
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Web 2.0 presentation tops 6500 views in 8 weeks!
I just found out that my presentation from the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Berlin event has garnered the 4th highest score of all the sessions and has now been viewed almost 6500 times in the 8 weeks since the event. Needless to say, I am humbled by this and hope the upcoming Web 2.0 book has equal success.
If anyone wants the original PPT content, please just drop me a line at dnickull at adobe (dot) com and I'll send them over. In the spirit of community, these are open and free for anyone to use, modify and present. Cheers!
If anyone wants the original PPT content, please just drop me a line at dnickull at adobe (dot) com and I'll send them over. In the spirit of community, these are open and free for anyone to use, modify and present. Cheers!
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The way to deal with Scammers and Spammers
I have had a lot of requests for a post I made to the CRIME Hackers board back several years ago documenting more ingenious ways to deal with spammers and scammers. The original post is still available here. The relevant parts read:
I usually spoof the email address of another known spammer or else put
the email address of a law enforcement agency that is tasked with
stopping the Nigerian Scams. These guys send out so many emails they
will never know who they sent to or not.
The spoofing idea is a new twist on an old school fax-spam retaliation
scenario I used to do in the late 1980's. The office I worked at used
to get hundreds of Spam faxes each week. We would note the return fax
numbers of the biggest perpetrators, then change our fax machine to
spoof a fax coming from them. I would then tape four pieces of paper
into a big loop with the words "Buy" "More" "fax" and "Paper" on them
and transmit the fax to another fax spammer. The machine would chug
away until it used up all the fax paper at the receiving machine. I am
sure this started more than one fax "war" between the spammers.
Although I abhor spam in any way shape or form, I usually rationalize
retaliation against known spammers in this manner, by using a
combination of creativity and social engineering for personal amusement.
Hey - we have to get something back from these people ;-).
cheers
D
I usually spoof the email address of another known spammer or else put
the email address of a law enforcement agency that is tasked with
stopping the Nigerian Scams. These guys send out so many emails they
will never know who they sent to or not.
The spoofing idea is a new twist on an old school fax-spam retaliation
scenario I used to do in the late 1980's. The office I worked at used
to get hundreds of Spam faxes each week. We would note the return fax
numbers of the biggest perpetrators, then change our fax machine to
spoof a fax coming from them. I would then tape four pieces of paper
into a big loop with the words "Buy" "More" "fax" and "Paper" on them
and transmit the fax to another fax spammer. The machine would chug
away until it used up all the fax paper at the receiving machine. I am
sure this started more than one fax "war" between the spammers.
Although I abhor spam in any way shape or form, I usually rationalize
retaliation against known spammers in this manner, by using a
combination of creativity and social engineering for personal amusement.
Hey - we have to get something back from these people ;-).
cheers
D
NOTE: Use at your own risk!!
Free LiveCycle ES Developer Licenses
Hey all you LiveCycle ES tire kickers! I've got a few remaining LC ES DVD's with special developer licenses sitting in my office. You can install and use LC ES to create solutions (just not production - see the license as the authoritative source of license) and show your bosses cool stuff. If you want one, ping me fast as they are going quickly.
dnickull at adobe (dot) com
This is the real thing - full blown Enterprise SOA platform coupled with a complete Java BPM solution, governance (BAM) and great design tools. J2EE heads will love this.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Dr. Dobb's loves LiveCycle ES!!!
Dr. Dobb's (one of my favorite software publications) named 98 finalists for this year's Jolt Product Excellence Awards (read here). These were all selected by an esteemed team of industry insiders, columnists, and technology leaders.
Dr. Dobb's panel of judges have selected the best product known to enterprise architecture circles - Adobe LiveCycle ES. It is the first product listed under the category of Enterprise Tools.
Other Adobe awards were given for ColdFusion 8, RoboHelp, Device Central and Captivate 3.
For anyone wanting to try LiveCycle ES, I have a box of 34 DVDs left with developer licenses. These licenses allow you to install the full suite and use it for testing, development purposes. If you want one, please ping me at dnickull at adobe dot com.
About the awards:
"For the past 17 years, the Dr. Dobb's Jolt Product Excellence Awards have
been presented annually to showcase products that have "jolted" the industry
with their significance and made the task of creating software faster, easier,
and more efficient. Jolt Cola, the fabled soft drink quaffed by software
developers for sustenance during project development marathons, sponsors the
awards presentation."
Dr. Dobb's panel of judges have selected the best product known to enterprise architecture circles - Adobe LiveCycle ES. It is the first product listed under the category of Enterprise Tools.
Other Adobe awards were given for ColdFusion 8, RoboHelp, Device Central and Captivate 3.
For anyone wanting to try LiveCycle ES, I have a box of 34 DVDs left with developer licenses. These licenses allow you to install the full suite and use it for testing, development purposes. If you want one, please ping me at dnickull at adobe dot com.
About the awards:
"For the past 17 years, the Dr. Dobb's Jolt Product Excellence Awards have
been presented annually to showcase products that have "jolted" the industry
with their significance and made the task of creating software faster, easier,
and more efficient. Jolt Cola, the fabled soft drink quaffed by software
developers for sustenance during project development marathons, sponsors the
awards presentation."
Monday, January 07, 2008
Great Flickr Perl hack from Matt!
I saw this on Matt Mackenzie's blog. This is great and takes me back to the good ole' perl 4 days.
Today I decided that I would like to backup my flickr account to my Mac. After a few attempts at using a Java based UI tool "FlickrBackup", which had terrible network performance for some reason, I fell back to my trusty old Perl skills. Here is what I did:
Its pretty much that easy.
Today I decided that I would like to backup my flickr account to my Mac. After a few attempts at using a Java based UI tool "FlickrBackup", which had terrible network performance for some reason, I fell back to my trusty old Perl skills. Here is what I did:
1. Install Net::Flickr::Backup
To install this module, open up a terminal and type:
"cpan" (not the quotes)
"cpan" (not the quotes)
When CPAN loads up, type:
install Net::Flickr::Backup
Its pretty much that easy.
2. Go to Flickr.com and create an API key. Create one for a web application, and enter pretty much any valid url as your callback. I know, its not a web application...just do it, k?
3. Get an auth_token. This is harder than it needs to be, but here is how I got it done:
- First get a frob. This page shows you how to do it manually. Mac OS X has a terminal command, "md5" that you can run to make your api_sig value. for example:
- First get a frob. This page shows you how to do it manually. Mac OS X has a terminal command, "md5" that you can run to make your api_sig value. for example:
md5 -s 000005fab4534d05api_key9a0554259914a86fb9e7eb014e4e5d52permsread
Which would yield a MD5 hash of: f2c52fb8fd3124314227bbc0f48003d3
Which it turn would mean the auth url needs to be like:
http://www.flickr.com/services/auth/?api_key=9a0554259914a86fb9e7eb014e4...
http://www.flickr.com/services/auth/?api_key=9a0554259914a86fb9e7eb014e4...
Once the URL is constructed, paste it into a browser, and approve access to your account. Once you approve, flickr calls your callback url. I just made my callback a bogus url like http://mattmackenzie.com/authdummy/
Friday, January 04, 2008
eBay Flash/Flex widget contest!
This just in from Mike Potter: eBay is launching a Flash and Flex widget contest where developers can win one of five prizes of $10,000. The details are here.
and:
http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/widget_build_off_contest/
Bits and bytes:
-Contest starts on January 15th, and runs until Feb 22nd.
-Widget must be embeddable on a web page
-Widget must be built using Adobe Flash or Flex
-Widget swf file cannot exceed 200kb
-Widget must use eBay Shopping API only
-Developer’s brand must be within an area no larger than 3,000 square pixels
and at the bottom of the widget
- eBay shall have the right to market and distribute the winning Entries
through the eBay Affiliate Program without additional compensation to
Entrants for such usage.
Get Flex from Adobe labs now. Good luck.
and:
http://ebay.promotionexpert.com/widget_build_off_contest/
Bits and bytes:
-Contest starts on January 15th, and runs until Feb 22nd.
-Widget must be embeddable on a web page
-Widget must be built using Adobe Flash or Flex
-Widget swf file cannot exceed 200kb
-Widget must use eBay Shopping API only
-Developer’s brand must be within an area no larger than 3,000 square pixels
and at the bottom of the widget
- eBay shall have the right to market and distribute the winning Entries
through the eBay Affiliate Program without additional compensation to
Entrants for such usage.
Get Flex from Adobe labs now. Good luck.
LiveCycle ES: We're all in!!
LiveCycle ES had a great year in 2007 and every indication is that 2008 will be even better. 2007 marked the year Adobe is now recognized as a formidable enterprise software vendor. In poker terms, we're all in. Our customers are quickly realizing that the service oriented approach to integration (inherent in LiveCycle ES architecture) has many advantages, and have embraced it as their preferred solution for Enterprise 2.0. To clarify, Enterprise 2.0 is an adoption of the Web 2.0 design patterns and architectural patterns by large enterprises. The fact is that LiveCycle ES has now started being used by these enterprises who have decided to embrace the Web 2.0 patterns and required the services tier to power their new web applications and RIAs. Hey - don't just believe me, check out our customer list.
So why are Bruce Chizen (Adobe's past CEO) and I so happy in this picture? I can only speak for myself but after celebrating Adobe's 25th anniversary with a great performance by Skateboarders, BMX guys and other stunts, supplemented with food, drinks and a great performance by Smash Mouth, I am left with a realization that Adobe is just a really awesome company. Not only is it a great corporate culture, but from a business standpoint, all the years of careful architecture, planning and (most importantly) listening to what our customers need in their infrastructures has paid off. LiveCycle is growing. We now have a special developers license available and if you want a free DVD to try it out, contact me and I'll personally send it to you (dnickull at adobe dot com).
The guy on the right above, along with our current CEO Shantanu, deserve a lot of credit for fostering a vision to move Adobe from the desktop to the enterprise. Enterprises might want to pay attention to this direction to understand how to deliver Web 2.0 patterns to their customers.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
How cool is LiveCycle BAM ES?
LiveCycle Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) ES is so cool, rockers everywhere are wearing the shirts and singing about it!
Actually, this image is from our 25th Anniversary party last month in San Jose, CA. The band Smash Mouth played (including some Van Halen covers) and that is only part of why Adobe is the coolest company in the world to work for.
Nevertheless, BAM is really amazing. Many people who want SOA governance should really be looking at LiveCycle BAM. SOA brings business functionality (capabilities) and business clients (needs) together via services. Monitoring the state of business processes that use services is a very valuable part of any mature SOA infrastructure. It blows people away that Adobe has this SOA component dialed but we've had tons of smart guys like Arun, Alex, and Kumar all working hard on this stuff for years.
LiveCycle BAM administrators and process participants can quickly identify bottlenecks, check progress, and view other process information to provide a 360-degree view of a business transaction. 
Actually, this image is from our 25th Anniversary party last month in San Jose, CA. The band Smash Mouth played (including some Van Halen covers) and that is only part of why Adobe is the coolest company in the world to work for.Nevertheless, BAM is really amazing. Many people who want SOA governance should really be looking at LiveCycle BAM. SOA brings business functionality (capabilities) and business clients (needs) together via services. Monitoring the state of business processes that use services is a very valuable part of any mature SOA infrastructure. It blows people away that Adobe has this SOA component dialed but we've had tons of smart guys like Arun, Alex, and Kumar all working hard on this stuff for years.
LiveCycle BAM administrators and process participants can quickly identify bottlenecks, check progress, and view other process information to provide a 360-degree view of a business transaction.
LiveCycle BAM ES includes three major components:
Performance dashboard
Provides continuous visibility into all of your critical business information through an easy-to-use interface for customizing metrics, setting alerts, and drilling down to detailed data.
BAM Workbench
Allows system administrators to quickly and easily set up data integration, analytic models, and end-user dashboards to present current corporate information, historical data, or aggregated views.
Analytics server
A streaming data store for continuous data integration, as well as engines for multidimensional analysis, dynamic modeling, business rules execution, and exception and alert reporting.
My German interview with "Die Welt" (The World)
http://www.welt.de/webwelt/article1496004/Wie_das_Web_2.0_die_Gesellschaft_veraendert.html
"In der "New Economy"-Zeit hat Duane Nickull zwei Internetfirmen an den Start gebracht und erfolgreich verkauft. Daneben war er war an der Entwicklung mehrer Internet-Standards beteiligt. Zudem verantwortete er die Electronic-Business-Strategie der Vereinten Nationen. Zuletzt trat er als Co-Autor der Buches Web 2.0. Design Patterns. A Vision of the New Internet Patterns and Models in Erscheinung, das Januar 2008 in Deutschland erscheint."
Friday, December 28, 2007
Adobe Top Ten in Open Source
According to CNET News.com (link), Adobe is ranked in the top ten for open source.
Excerpt:
Adobe Systems was one. It's long been a powerful proprietary-software company, but its acquisition of Macromedia led to a new sharing ethos. Shortly after a major donation of script-execution code to the Mozilla Foundation last year, Adobe announced in April the open-source release of its Flex tool for Flash programming.
As an Adobe employee, I cannot overstate the importance for Adobe of being open. As our Linux strategy has been greatly improved in 2007, we have also become aware that the next generation of the Internet (what some are calling Web 2.0) will be largely built on open technologies. I mentioned this in a recent German interview with Die Welt.
This group of technologies, to me, is comprised of the following:
1. Open Source - software you compile and can modify to do what you want. Bugs fixed when you want them and nightly builds.
2. Open Standards - software and protocol specifications designed to integrate systems and enable interoperability. Such standards must not only be not controlled by a single vendor in the end, but also be part of a free and democratic process, have multiple implementations to verify the standard, and be pervasive.
3. Open APIs - sharing the functionality. The basis of the new web is SOA, an approach to architecture to match needs and capabilities amongst disparate domains of ownership.
4. Open roadmaps and bug databases - to help us help ourselves.
I am proud to work for a company that recognizes the importance of these aspects and listens to its developers and users.
Happy new year!
Excerpt:
Adobe Systems was one. It's long been a powerful proprietary-software company, but its acquisition of Macromedia led to a new sharing ethos. Shortly after a major donation of script-execution code to the Mozilla Foundation last year, Adobe announced in April the open-source release of its Flex tool for Flash programming.
As an Adobe employee, I cannot overstate the importance for Adobe of being open. As our Linux strategy has been greatly improved in 2007, we have also become aware that the next generation of the Internet (what some are calling Web 2.0) will be largely built on open technologies. I mentioned this in a recent German interview with Die Welt.
This group of technologies, to me, is comprised of the following:
1. Open Source - software you compile and can modify to do what you want. Bugs fixed when you want them and nightly builds.
2. Open Standards - software and protocol specifications designed to integrate systems and enable interoperability. Such standards must not only be not controlled by a single vendor in the end, but also be part of a free and democratic process, have multiple implementations to verify the standard, and be pervasive.
3. Open APIs - sharing the functionality. The basis of the new web is SOA, an approach to architecture to match needs and capabilities amongst disparate domains of ownership.
4. Open roadmaps and bug databases - to help us help ourselves.
I am proud to work for a company that recognizes the importance of these aspects and listens to its developers and users.
Happy new year!
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