Air Canada Executive First Class Rocks!

On my recent trip home from Europe, I finally got the chance to try Air Canada's new executive First Class suites. The picture below does not do it justice. See the three D Flash at http://www.marketel.com/aircanada/Executive_First/index.html



Special thanks to Melonie, Natalie and Dean for being the best hosts on flight 897 yesterday!

Code your way to get into MAX 2008 for free!

Adobe is making a special offer for those of you who are holding off on contributing to the Open Source Flex SDK.

* For every 3 bugs where we accept and commit your submitted patch, we will purchase an Adobe-related book from your Amazon wish list (once you've had your 3rd patch accepted we'll reach out to you to find your wish list).

* For the first two contributors to have 10 patches committed, we'll pay for your MAX 2008 registration (any region).

The full details are posted at http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Flex+3+Contributions

Searchable Flash - some early tips

Adobe announced this morning (I am in Zurich) that it is has worked with Google and Yahoo! to improve search engine capability to reach inside of the Flash (SWF) file format. You can read the FAQs here.

So how does it work?

This is being done via a headless Flash reader that can extract strings from Flash and use them to build an initial page ranking and string array for each page. The string arrays themselves are then fed into Google and Yahoo! ranking algorithms where they will give the page an initial ranking for each tree. Exactly what is indexed and what rank the search engines will give it is yet to be seen. Don't automatically assume everything in SWF is now at par with HTML text.

For example, a large vector-based drawing of the word "Washington" will not likely make you rank high as it is still not text. Cognitive capabilities are not easy to bestow upon machines (which is why Captcha works so well).



Why you might be excited

Without doing anything, the engines will use some of your text values in SWFs and possibly adjust your rankings for certain terms. This is a good thing for people who have not yet learned how to get Google and Yahoo! to use static content for their indexes. In cases where your unique text content has previously been inaccessible, there should be improvements.

Why you might not be so excited

Initial page ranking is not the silver bullet it once used to be. As soon as searches are performed and your content comes up, both Google and Yahoo! will still dynamically adjust your score based on a multitude of conditions. I have outlined several of these tips in this blog post already. Duane's World Episode 3 also has some tips and tricks on how to use Google's dynamic page ranking algorithm to move up the ladder.


Some tips and tricks:

Flash developers who took care have had their content indexed all along. Using XML or XHTML data providers with strings in them and a link from the index.html shell was a great way to get stuff indexed and still generate good page rankings. From your main SWF, you simply just used the XHTML file as a data provider and parsed it with E4X (ActionScript 3's XML parser). That way the same raw data was both indexed by search engines and also used by the application. Those developers who took this care might now be trumped by those who will get lucky and have high rankings.

Flash developers, like HTML developers, still need to understand that the pages that point at your content have a lot to do with your dynamic rank. Content is still king too. Make sure you have your keyword well researched before betting the farm on it. For example - how many people performed unique searches on that term? Is it an unambiguous term?

This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable — they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

One of the best ways to achieve a higher ranking is to examine other Flash sites and see what they have done. Sombrio is a good example. If you search for this in Google, the Sombrio Clothing Company comes up #1 out of about 2 million.

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

Note that if you read this, then click on Sombrio Cartel, you are actually helping maintain it at the #1 place. Google will see the above string as a search in true REST style, then track what you click on, bounce rates etc.

Peter Elst also noted some additional concerns here. He wrote:

The concern I have here is that URL requests to the backend will get indexed, those URLs getting exposed in search queries or spider bots hitting those URLs could cause issues. Its not like in HTML content where the search engines can ignore form submit URLs, there is no such context in a HTTPService or URLRequest.

True. Once again, developers owe it to their clients to learn more about how the systems work. Note that Google currently does index some content and you can try this search by clicking here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=sombrio+filetype%3Aswf&btnG=Search

More on this later. I am going to try some experiments to see what is possible.

Gig tonight, then off to Zurich, London

Maybe this should be a tweet? Just sitting around getting ready to load in to the BackStage Lounge to play tonight. Basses all packed, tuned, new strings etc. Tonight should be packed and a fun gig - the BackStage Lounge is one of my favorite venues. We also are playing some new material tonight as well as covering some Monster Magnet, Sex Pistols, Ramones and others. 

Microsoft ODF workshop? Cool!

Today I received the following email from the OASIS Open Document Format (ODF - the standard behind OpenOffice.org) Technical Committee list. This is most welcomed and surely shows that Microsoft is receiving the message loud and clear that ODF should be embraced and not destroyed. I applaud their invitation to get developers to test out ODF support.

This email is public record on the ODF Technical Committee email archives:

"As you know, Microsoft has recently announced support for ODF in the next service pack for Office (SP2 for Office 2007, expected to be released in the first half of 2009). In conjunction with that announcement, we would like to invite all members of the OASIS OpenDocument Format TC and subcommittees to a 1-day DII workshop on how Office will support ODF. The workshop will take place on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in Redmond, Washington.

This event will be an opportunity for you to see an early demonstration of our ODF support, meet members of the Office PM/dev teams responsible for ODF support, and hear how we're looking at document format interoperability in general. We're looking forward to the opportunity to get to know each of you and to learn about your view of these issues, and the day will include plenty of unstructured discussion time for those purposes.

The Forum will be an all-day event on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, followed by a hosted dinner event at a nearby location. We're still working out the details of the day, but it will include three general types of activities:

- Presentations from members of the Office product team, to explain our approach to ODF support and demonstrate some of the specific functionality we're planning.
- Hands-on lab time, to give you an opportunity to try out a pre-release version of our ODF support.
- Discussion time, so that we can hear your feedback on topics of interest to document format implementers.

If you are interested in attending, please let me know by June 30th by sending email to (dmahugh) at microsoft*dot*com. We will have limited space, so I wanted to extend this invitation to the ODF TC members first so that we can accommodate as many of you as would like to attend. We will provide additional information regarding logistics, local hotels, etc to confirmed attendees.

This event will provide a unique opportunity to see firsthand how Microsoft is planning to implement ODF support in Office, and we hope that you will be able to join us. If you have any questions or need additional information, please let me know.

Best regards,
Doug Mahugh

The SOA Reference Architecture work Inspected

This Dilbert cartoon really got me thinking about the last time we presented the SOA RA work at a conference.

Why your luggage might be broken ;-)

I was standing at Vancouver International Airport watching luggage being automatically mangled by their conveyor belt. A few of us filmed it while offering a commentary. Very funny only if YOUR luggage was not on this flight.

RANT: Rogers Home Phone Sucks!!!

I came back from Ottawa today and found that my home business phone had been disconnected by Rogers.ca. I checked and actually re-paid the full balance of the last bill, thinking I had somehow missed it. Upon closer inspection, it turns out I have already paid the bill - TWICE!!! I challenge Rogers to prove otherwise as I have the records! As a result, I really feel everyone needs to know how really sad Rogers customer service is.

I got on the phone with "M", a representative. She is obviously in a call centre because she cannot grasp simple facts like people need their business lines to survive and lines that are errantly disconnected should be immediately re-connected. Her "manager" has to approve it and make the transfer but their internal system crashed.

Rogers is not quite as bad as Telus, but they are getting close. Shaw Cable on the other hand is a shining example of great customer service. At Shaw, a human actually answers the phone. When I phone the number printed on my Rogers bill, I get transferred to between 2-5 people before someone from the "right" department can attempt to understand. This reflects really badly on their ability to survive long term IMO as it both wastes their employees' valuable hours and annoys customers.

I am left in the lurch right now, having paid over $300 when I actually owe less than $200 and I'm still without a phone. Will update later.

Don't do business with Rogers for home phone if you do not have to. Same for Telus.

Duane's World TV - Episode 4 is live!

In this interview, we feature great indy music from Eddy Bugnut (with download links) and talk to Robert Horne, SAP/Business Objects evangelist, about their adoption of Flex and AIR for the front-end to SAP systems on a global scale.

The code and tunes segment works with an associative array (also multidimensional array) and binding it to a Flex chart. The source code will be made available to anyone interested by emailing me at dnickull at adobe dot com.

Enjoy!

Working with Video in Adobe Flex Builder 3

This video for the Adobe Developer Connection just launched showing step by step how to build a video project in under 4 minutes.



The source code can be downloaded here. There are about 30 projects in total with complete source code you can download.

A future episode of Duane's World TV will also feature this segment and interviews from the European Broadcasting Union meeting in Geneva, CH.

AIR 1.1 is out!

Version 1.1 of the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is now publicly available. Adobe has released a FAQ sheet to bring developers up to speed on what has changed. Here are the main topics:

1. AIR has been translated and can now be localized into ten additional languages (English only for 1.0). The new list of languages now includes Japanese, French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, English, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese. I presume this probably also translates into where the most AIR activity is so if you want your language supported, get active. DISCLAIMER: I am just guessing.

2. Coinciding with the above language support, the AIR APIs and file formats have been updated to enable AIR-based applications to be localized and International keyboard input is now supported. I haven't had time to play around with this yet but will try to get some code samples together in the days to follow.

There is also added support for localizing the name and description attributes in the application descriptor file. This means that the app name etc. will be available in the localized language. Also introduced is support for localizing error messages, such as SQLError.detailID and SQLError.detailArguments, in the SQLite database and the addition of a Capabilities.languages property to obtain an array of preferred UI languages as set by the operating system. Note that the <mx:html> button labels and default menus, such as context menus and the Mac menu bar, have been localized to all supported languages as well. C'est une nouveux dialog en Francais ici!



3. AIR 1.1 is GB18030 certified. GB18030 is the registered Internet name for the official character set of the People's Republic of China (PRC) superseding GB2312. This character set is formally called "Chinese National Standard GB 18030-2005: Information technology -- Chinese coded character set".

4. Security Upgrades. A new certificate migration feature is available that allows developers to migrate their applications between different digital signing certificates. Read the documentation on how this works.

Developers - If you use Flex Builder 3 to build Adobe AIR applications, you will need to manually update the SDK. Instructions on how to perform a manual update are described in the Flex Builder TechNote. You can find out more about Flex 3 and the Adobe AIR 1.1 release on the Adobe Developer Connection site.

While AIR 1.1 is a dot release, it represents a significant step forward in AIR capabilities, and its development required a significant effort from the core AIR team and from teams around the company. The Adobe AIR team deserves a huge round of applause.

Settled - the argument over which technology is best

Another week, another ten billion blog posts from people telling each other (is anyone really listening?) which technology is best. I have been watching this pattern for a long time but today I got really riled up over one that made some distorted claims about Flash.

Regardless, today's experience gave me an epiphany. Which technology is best? Simple - the one that people can use. Wasn't that like an IBM ad from two decades ago?

What made me realize this?

1. I sent over a PPT file to some guys from Microsoft. I work for Adobe but I honestly love Powerpoint. Powerpoint is a great tool and easy to use - people use it. Sure I could have sent over PDF but I didn't. I have seen Apple employees give talks using PPT instead of Keynote too.

2. I re-read part of Microsoft's XML Paper Specification and realized it is published in PDF. Right tool for the right job.

3. The guy complaining about Flash works for a company that used Flash on the front page of their company's website. I think Microsoft also still has some of the best Flash experiences on their site too.

4. I was asked internally to answer a set of customer questions about Flex vs. AJAX. I responded stating that I don't see why there even has to be a competition. Adobe loves AJAX, so do I.

Technologies that people use rock! People use technology that is the easiest choice to do the job. People use technologies they are familiar with. My mom still won't use a cell phone but has adopted the internet. People use whatever interoperates with the status quo. Without this, none of the other arguing would even be read since we would be outside doing something else instead of sitting in front of computers all day.

Hmmm - never mind.

Have a good weekend!

ISO puts OOXML on hold?

(Disclaimer: I am not pushing any opinion, just trying to wade through the facts).

There is a confusing issue happening with OOXML, the Microsoft-proposed ISO (apparently) standard for XML Office Documents. In the past, many people feel it has been rushed into the standards process and represents a sham in the standards development industry. I disagree slightly with this view as most SDOs have very transparent and accountable processes in place. ISO's processes are documented. Microsoft has the same ability to use the rules and processes as others do. I have not seen any concrete evidence that they have violated the standards process, only vague accusations. If you have any concrete examples, please leave them here as comments with links.

For those who have not been following along, OOXML is a format for Microsoft Office (like Microsoft word or *.doc format except in XML and zipped). It has been proposed as a standard at ISO and "fast tracked" to become an ISO standard. ISO itself has rules in place which state that only one official standard shall exist for each category or domain/purpose. Apparently the purpose and scope of OOXML is sufficiently different from the Open Document Format (an OASIS standard and open format supported by IBM, Sun and many others such as OpenOffice.org). ISO has approved the standard as noted here:

http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1123

Nevertheless, on Slashdot this story appeared yesterday:

"schliz alerts us that ISO, in response to the four appeals (Venezuela, India, Brazil, South Africa) filed in recent weeks, has put the OOXML standardization process on hold. Here is ISO's press release, which says that ISO/IEC DIS 29500 will not be published for at least "several months" while the appeals process goes forward."

This was followed by a somewhat cryptic update:

"Update: 06/11 10:13 GMT by KD : Reader Alsee points out that the fourth officially recognized appealing country is Venezuela, not Denmark as originally stated. The protests of Denmark and Norway are being disregarded, as they do not come from the administrative heads of their national organizations."

Now I am confused too. The official ISO release clearly states:

"Four national standards body members of ISO and IEC – Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela – have submitted appeals against the recent approval of ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML formats, as an ISO/IEC International Standard."

A letter in Danish (http://osl.dk/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/AFD/ISO_klage_maj08.pdf) seems to be made incorrectly (officially I think you have to use English, Russian, or French to communicate in the United Nations or ISO) yet carried with it the weight of the nation. The official Danish Standards organization (and hence ISO voice) did not make the complaint - it was made and sent to that organization. Having dealt with Danish SDOs before, I know they take this stuff seriously so I have sincere feelings that the heart of the Danish SDO might be on side on this case (Disclaimer: my opinion, not fact). Note that officially, ISO does not recognize the author of the letter, OSL - an open source group. As translated and reported on Groklaw,

"(The letter in question) states that ISO rules were broken, there was no consensus in Denmark, and that the Fast Track process "has been formally annulled for 2 months now - since the 29th of March, where the specification should have been sent to the national standardization organizations. The basis for a fast track procedure is no longer present, and I therefore expect ISO to pick up the case again." Read on for the full letter, and for clarity, it's a letter of protest, not an appeal from the standards body. However, it's a letter from a member of the technical committee who participated in the BRM and who raises serious concerns."

I cannot find an official response from ISO to this letter anywhere. So what about Norway? Norway's protest seems to be more official at least according to Scuttlemonkey's post on slashdot:

"I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman (of 13 years standing) of the Norwegian mirror committee to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34. I wish to inform you of serious irregularities in connection with the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (Office Open XML) and to lodge a formal protest. You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway's vote from No with comments to Yes."

The alleged letter is documented at http://blog.abrenna.com/formal-protest-against-norways-yes-to-ooxml/. If an acting chairman's letter, written in English, is not official I have no idea why.

So where lies the truth and what will happen? I researched ISO's process of dealing with protests. It is at http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink.exe/fetch/186605/customview.html?func=ll&objId=186605&objAction=browse&sort=name. Ironically, this page does not seem to conform to web standards and I need some plugin to view the content. In short, Roger Frost, ISO's Manager of Communication, has stated publicly in the release the following:

"In accordance with the ISO/IEC rules governing the work of their joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, the appeals are currently being considered by the ISO Secretary-General and the IEC General Secretary who, within a period of 30 days (to the end of June), and following whatever consultations they judge appropriate, are required to submit the appeals, with their comments, to the ISO Technical Management Board and the IEC Standardization Management Board."

I guess we all have to wait and see. Prediction? This stall will have no effect on the overall status of ISO approval of OOXML. Microsoft has claimed it will add support for the Open Document Format (ODF) and that should quell some of the opposition. There has been a lot of resources and energy wasted on this debate. Regardless of the outcome, here are my predictions:

1. The fact ISO approves or does not approve OOXML will have little effect on it being put into future versions of Microsoft Office.

2. No one who is anti-Microsoft will not suddenly be pro-Microsoft just because of approval from ISO.

3. Real standards are, in part, ipso facto adoption and use. ISO's stamp does provide some additional credibility but due to the press about this, I doubt will have any serious impact on people's opinions who have been paying attention. Those who have not paid attention may get suckered by the "yes - it is a standard" spiel however the reality is that Microsoft Office is a standard today, with or without ISO stamps.

4. The real issue is that several governments have made statements governing software purchase which limits purchases to standards. If MS office supports ODF, will it be legal to be purchased by most governments? Probably yes. Will they use the ODF format or OOXML for document persistence? You take a guess.

Comments? I'd love to hear other arguments.

The Sex Pistols need your Money! What about Music 2.0?

Fresh from the horse's mouth - the Sex Pistols (or whoever owns their IPR) have launched the first ever Pistols website. I wonder how the people who have the "other" official Sex Pistols site feel? The site has tons of stuff for sale and some cool content, but it reminds me of Johnny's honest quote about why they re-united for a tour in 1996 - "We want your money."

What about Music 2.0 - isn't it going to save the artists?

The recording industry is still floundering in its inability to grasp the reality of the Internet. I made a blog post about this on Mix2r.fm yesterday and wonder what the new model will be. I guess more bands are going to be touring and releasing more of their merchandise from their closets (good for us). The Sex Pistols official site lists a special DVD coming out June 30 titled "There'll Always Be An England". I'm gonna order mine - if Johnny needs my money I'll lend him a quid any day but the DVD is well worth it (Disclaimer: I have not seen it yet). Johnny - next time you're in Vancouver pints are on me!!

So what do you do if you are someone famous (or formerly famous) like John Lydon, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, et al. to earn money today? Your royalty cheques are getting smaller, labels are dropping your content, you've got songs starting to appear on "Best of " CDs. What I'd like to see is some of these guys start to realize that they can monetize the respect the fans have for them by means other than merchandise or unique performances. I'd like to see some of them start to offer their services on sites like Mix2r.fm. I'd love to be able to offer Glen Matlock $1,000 to play bass on a track on my new CD and since this can be done virtually, he can probably pull it off in minimal time and upload his track to mix2r.fm. I'd like to see more open source music donated by some of these artists but also stub recordings with abilities for users to donate money back if they use it. Why doesn't Johnny sample his voice and allow people to mix it into their music for a suggested price? I'd pay!

Anyways, I want to order my official copy of the DVD before they're gone and I have to rip one via BitTorrent because some nitwit miscalculated how many copies they can sell. ;-)

Peter Way - R.I.P.

One of my best friends from high school died in a motor cycle accident. Peter was full of life and loved all. I cannot express in words what this loss means.



Sleep well sweet prince...

22nd Century at the Railway Club

Here are some photos from our recent gig at the railway club. Special thanks to Sarah Wark for taking these! We also uploaded some new songs to Mix2r.fm.




Tim, Glen & me playing Let Me Be



Banging out a Punk-metal version of "Echo Beach".



Covering 'Surrender' - Cheap Trick.

Duane's World TV - Episode 3 live

Episode 3 is now live. In this episode, I talk about Search Engine Optimization. Some of the tips are talked about on a previous blog post however a lot of the information is new including an interview with the gurus at 6s Marketing.



Note that the tricks of search engine monitoring are linked specifically to the Google personalized search page but do apply to regular page rankings as well. Why else do you think Adobe got #1 rankings for such terms as "SOA White Paper" and "Enterprise Developer Relations"?

Adobe MAX 2008 Information

MAX 2008, or more formally "Adobe MAX 2008", is going to be huge this year given we sold out last year.



MAX 2008/2009 has been announced and will be held in the following cities:

MAX 2008 North America
San Francisco, California
November 16 - 19, 2008

MAX 2008 Europe
Milan, Italy
December 1 - 4, 2008

MAX 2008 Japan
Tokyo, Japan
January 2009

MAX is an experience unlike any other, presenting opportunities for designers, developers and architects to connect with the people who matter. MAX 2008 will be the ultimate MAX and track sessions are being sought now.

SUBSCRIBE:: MAX 2007 Sold Out!


Subscribe now to the list so you don't miss out. Last year we capped it at 4,200 and had to turn people away. Subscribe today.

GET INVOLVED:: Suggest a Session



For MAX 2008 we are accepting ideas and suggestions. Use the link above to suggest something.

Sponsor:: Give to the Community



MAX has a limited number of high level sponsorships available. As always, these tend to go fast. Use the sponsor link above to let MAX 2008 know you want in.

Duane's World TV Show Episode 2 out today!

Show two airs today. It features multiple guests and outtakes from my trip to India and also has step-by-step instructions to build a Flex - Yahoo Map using the new AS3 SWC in Code and Tunes. The show's focus is on "Community in Software Development". Hope you enjoy. Please leave any feedback below.

Developers Tools and Examples for Flash Player 10

Yesterday, Adobe announced Flash Player 10 with tons of really new features (yes - Linux too). But - there didn't seem to be any way for developers to get into the action yesterday.

Luckily, Lee Brimelow (The Flash Blog) sent me this link to an excellent video explaining how you can use MXMLC (Flex Compiler Shell) to write some samples that use the new capabilities of Flash Player 10.

If you really get stuck - consider going to the Flash Player 10 public forum.