Adobe MAX 2010 - Final LiveCycle Sessions

This will be the last blog post before Adobe MAX 2010.  Every week Technoracle has been picking a new LiveCycle ES session and promoting it as the "Pick of the Week".  Unfortunately, this approach hasn't really done justice to the entire slate of LiveCycle related topics available at MAX this year.  As a result, we are publishing the remaining sessions below.

Again, if you have never been to MAX, please consider it as a place where your tech skills get an annual boost, where really cool new stuff can be learned, and where we share the latest news.  See you there in 5 days!

Advanced Dynamic Form Design

Join author J.P. Terry for a hands-on lab covering advanced form design techniques and his latest tips and tricks. For instance, you'll learn how to add an auto-completion feature to a PDF form that provides relevant suggestions as the user...

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Building Composite Rich Internet Applications

Join product experts and learn how to build an enterprise composite application using Adobe LiveCycle Mosaic ES. Discover how to assemble and integrate multiple enterprise applications on the client side while ensuring user interface integrity of your enterprise look and...

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Building Model-Driven Forms

Get an introduction to Adobe application modeling technology, and learn how to define a single data model that can be leveraged by multiple form types, including PDF forms and forms created in Flash. Attendees will learn how to build a...

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Building Real-time Collaborative Applications: LiveCycle Collaboration Services Deep-dive

Learn about the client-side architecture of the Adobe LiveCycle Collaboration Service development model, which enables peer-to-peer, collaborative apps with Flex and Adobe AIR. See how to structure your Flex apps to enable synchronized, multiuser participation, complete with rich audio/video communication...

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Creating Enterprise RIAs: From Design to Implementation

Use best-in-class tools to create an enterprise RIA that enables users to browse and view documents, connect to a document management store, display a master detail list (of users, customers, invoices, or similar), and display associated secured documents. You'll learn...

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Delivering Repeatable Solutions with Deloitte Consulting and Adobe Enterprise Solutions

Learn how Deloitte Consulting has leveraged the Adobe Flash Platform and Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite to develop highly repeatable solutions for citizen engagement management at state and federal government agencies. By attending this session, you'll find out how Deloitte has...

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Developing a LiveCycle ES2.5 Application

This program for enterprise developers combines 1.5 days of introductory preconference training on LiveCycle ES2.5 (Enterprise Suite) with a full conference pass to MAX 2010.

The preconference lab, "Developing a LiveCycle ES2.5 Application," is an essential introduction to developing user-centric applications...

Read more »

Extending LiveCycle ES for Java Developers

Join product experts and others as we work through the process of creating a Plain Old Java Object (POJO) that will be packaged and deployed to the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite service container as a custom component. Once your component...

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FutuRIA: The Convergence of Rich Internet and Enterprise Applications

Hear top design professionals explain how to unlock new value hidden in complex enterprise systems through the expression of user-centric goals in design patterns. You'll learn how Adobe is converging solutions, platforms, and tools to help you better serve your...

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Hidden Gems for the LiveCycle Community

Hear from Adobe insiders and learn about the hidden gems and community resources that can help you build, share, and leverage the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite developer ecosystem. This session will review the Adobe Developer Connection program, the latest Adobe forums,...

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Improving the User Experience: Contract Servicing Improvements at Northwestern Mutual

Find out how Northwestern Mutual improved customer service in its Service Request Center by leveraging Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite and other integrated technologies. By intelligently providing access only to those forms applicable to a specific contract, the financial services company...

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Introducing Flex and LiveCycle Integration

Learn how to take advantage of the built-in hooks between Flex and Adobe LiveCycle ES, building a web-based, data-driven application. You'll create complex data models using the latest modeling elements and exchange data between Flex and LiveCycle via built-in LiveCycle...

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Rapid Development using LiveCycle in the Cloud

Learn how Adobe has embraced Amazon EC2 to deliver a comprehensive cloud offering for Adobe LiveCycle ES2. Hear from product experts how the cloud is quickly becoming the definition of rapid application development environments, with the ability to start up...

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Realizing Great Customer Experiences with LiveCycle ES Next

Hear how focusing on user experience can improve the value of the enterprise applications you deliver. Also learn about architectural changes in the next release of Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite as well as new features in servers, client runtimes, and...

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Strengthening Adobe’s Enterprise Platform with Day Software and Open Development

Learn how the combination of Day's leading web solutions and Adobe's enterprise portfolio provides a unique opportunity to developers: a unified web content and application delivery platform. By introducing web content management, digital asset management, and social collaboration to Adobe’s...

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The Convergence of Flash and PDF: Interactive Statements

Explore the innovation in PDF and Adobe Flash and how these two technologies converge to enable the next generation of correspondence. Learn how to speed up the development of a correspondence application, leveraging the new Interactive Statement Solution Accelerator within...

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The Mobile Enterprise

Hear from product experts and discover how you can extend your enterprise to iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices by leveraging the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite platform. The session will include best practices for integrating business processes, accessing...

Read more »

Transforming the Value of IT for Government through Modernization at South African Revenue Service

Come see how the South African Revenue Service (SARS) provides improved benefits and services delivery to customers through online, automated tax filing. e@syFile is a set of Adobe AIR applications that leverage the Flash Platform and Adobe LiveCycle to enable...

Read more »

Three great LiveCycle@MAX picks

For the LiveCycle@MAX pick of the week for Oct 11, I am going to break tradition and highlight three separate sessions instead of one.  The links lead directly to the formal descriptions and registration. 

This first is a case study based on repeatable patterns.  I am a huge fan of case studies as they give attendees the opportunity to not only learn what went right, but also to learn what could have gone better and avoid making the same choices.  The session entitled “Delivering Repeatable Solutions with Deloitte Consulting and Adobe Enterprise Solutions" is bang on with a deep dive into real world experiences. In this session, attendees will learn how the $26B company drives the success of its customers using Adobe LiveCycle, the Adobe Flash Platform and more.  Deloitte has a long history of working with Adobe in the enterprise, specifically around LiveCycle ES, and their expertise is something we can all learn from. 

The second case study is more specific to an individual enterprise. “Transforming the Value of IT for Government through Modernization” will give attendees insights into the experiences of the South African Revenue Service and learn how this historically rich country leveraged Adobe LiveCycle and the Adobe Flash Platform to implement one of the first and largest Adobe AIR applications ever delivered.  

The third case study is entitled “Improving the User Experience: Contract Servicing Improvements at Northwestern Mutual”.  This one I want to attend myself to learn how this $21B company is transforming how it does business with its independent brokers using Adobe LiveCycle. 

Speaking of LiveCycle, the LiveCycle@MAX tracks are over half sold out.  The word seems to be getting out that LiveCycle developers are in ultra high demand and MAX is the one place per year where a complete LiveCycle training program is available for developers.  See you there!

LiveCycle ES Pick of the week for Adobe MAX 2010

This week, Technoracle is picking a session that is related to LiveCycle ES yet very specific to the client technologies. In fact, this is probably one of the more important sessions for Adobe LiveCycle Developers to attend given the rise in exploit attempts based on the ISO PDF standard. Join product experts Steve Gottwals and Suchit Mishra as they help separate fact from fiction in the buzz around Adobe Reader security. They will outline the motivation behind Protected Mode and give a demonstration of Reader running in the sandbox. They will also discuss how Reader Protected Mode works and how it can protect end users from Internet attacks via malicious PDF files.

Sandboxing Adobe Reader: Protected Mode

Join Suchit Mishra, Acrobat lead security researcher, and Steve Gottwals, group product manager, as they help separate fact from fiction in the buzz around Adobe Reader security. We'll outline the motivation behind Protected Mode and give a demonstration of Reader running in the sandbox. We'll discuss how Reader Protected Mode works and how it can protect end users from Internet attacks via malicious PDF files.

Tracks: Envision, Design, Develop
Audience: Architect, IS/IT, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Product: Acrobat
Speakers: Suchit Mishra, Steve Gottwals
Times:
Wednesday, October, 27th, 8:00 am - 9:00 am

Also - please don't forget that Technoracle is giving out 99 special LiveCycle developers tattoos!  If you want one of these, you have to:

1. Register and attend at least one LiveCycle session;
2. Find Duane Nickull in the hallways; and
3. Say the pass phrase "Canada won the Gold"

See you there!

RIA Unleashed in Boston November 11-12

RIA Unleashed is the premier event for Adobe Flash, Flex, AIR, and ColdFusion developers in the New England area. This year the event has expanded to two days, November 11th and 12th. Day one is devoted to your choice of hands-on training in areas such as Flex, Flash, AIR, AIR for Android, and ColdFusion. Some highlights of day one include Scott Janousek covering AIR for Android, Mike Labriola teaching component development in Flex 4, and Bob Silverberg on ColdFusion 9 ORM.

Day 2 is the conference day, featuring 4 tracks and over 20 sessions on Adobe technologies and development. This is the best event to get all the scoop on the announcements and releases from Adobe MAX. Speakers from Adobe include Ryan Stewart, Adam Lehman, James Ward, Greg Wilson, Christophe Coenraets, and Terrence Ryan. RIA Unleashed also features some of the most well known and respected members of the Flash, Flex, and ColdFusion developer communities including Jesse Warden, Jesse Freeman, Raymond Camden, Charles Schulze, Brian Diette, Jeff Tapper, and Chuck Freedman among others.

Registration is currently just $200 for both days--that includes the hands-on training, conference day, the Thursday night party, and lunch on both days. You can also just attend the conference day sessions for only $75. Tickets are limited at both prices, so get them before the price goes up. Also, the hands-on training has limited seating, so register soon before it fills up. Keep in mind, this event sold out early last year, so register soon!

Full details at: http://riaunleashed.com
Register at: http://riaunleashed2010.eventbrite.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/riaunleashed
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/riaunleashed

LiveCycle ES Pick of the week for Adobe MAX 2010

This is a new post in a series of ongoing recommendations for various LiveCycle ES sessions at Adobe MAX 2010.   This week I want to showcase a session by Paul McNamara and Philip Copeland.  Since Adobe LiveCycle ES has been available on the cloud, I have been regularly using it and trying to get developers to see how easy it is.  From my perspective, the cloud based offering is clearly the single best way to get an instance of LiveCycle ES up and running to develop against.  The program is available to anyone in the Adobe Enterprise Developer Program and this session is a must attend if you are interested.  Here it is:

Rapid Development using LiveCycle in the Cloud

Learn how Adobe has embraced Amazon EC2 to deliver a comprehensive cloud offering for Adobe LiveCycle ES2. Hear from product experts how the cloud is quickly becoming the definition of rapid application development environments, with the ability to start up a server instance with no hardware or software investment. You'll learn how this approach provides a low barrier and faster time to development. Also hear best practices as we walk through development to staging and production in a completely hosted manner, featuring a case study to illustrate the process using an application currently deployed on Adobe LiveCycle Managed Services.


Tracks:    Develop
Audience:    Architect, Partner Decision Maker, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level:    General Audience
Product:    LiveCycle ES
Speakers:    Philip Copeland, Paul McNamara
Times:   
Monday, October, 25th, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Tuesday, October, 26th, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Register here!

Video: LiveCycle at MAX with Secret Intel!

This is video explains details about a special giveaway that will transpire at Adobe MAX 2010 in Los Angeles, CA! Basically, we have 99 specially designed LiveCycle developer tattoos that are going to be given away by those who know the secret phrase "Canada won the Gold!" and also are registered for at least one LiveCycle ES class.   In order to get one, you will also have to find myself or Valerie Snider-Lynch on the grounds of MAX before others get the giveaway.

Keep in mind that the LiveCycle sessions are filling up and selling out fast but there are some still with room in them such as "Extending LiveCycle ES for Java Developers", which walks through creating a custom component and deploying it to the server, then using it within a process.

LiveCycle ES Pick of the week for Adobe MAX 2010

Continuing the weekly series of LiveCycle@MAX picks of the week, this week we selected a track for developers and community members to learn more about where to find special interest content related to Adobe LiveCycle ES. For those who do not know Dan or Marc, they are major forces within the LiveCycle community. Dan is putting together the core LiveCycle@MAX content for Adobe MAX 2010. Marc Eaman is the guru behind the Adobe Enterprise Cafe. Adobe Enterprise Café helps you stay in touch with the enterprise community, receive news, find information, and aggregate content related to Adobe LiveCycle ES (Enterprise Suite), Acrobat, Connect, ColdFusion, and the Adobe Flash Platform in a timely and customized fashion. Targeted at developers and technical staff, Café is the one tool you need to search across the entire community knowledge base and stay in touch with the Adobe teams. Technoracle encourages you to download and install the Adobe Enterprise Cafe from this URL.

Here is Technoracle's Adobe MAX pick of the week:

Hidden Gems for the LiveCycle Community
Hear from Adobe insiders and learn about the hidden gems and community resources that can help you build, share, and leverage the LiveCycle Enterprise Suite developer ecosystem. This session will review the Adobe Developer Connection program, the latest Adobe forums, and the developer website and include demonstrations of tools including Enterprise Cafe, Tour de LiveCycle, and Developer Express.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Creative Designer, Partner Decision Maker, Web Designer, IS/IT, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Product: LiveCycle ES
Speakers: Marc Eaman, Daniel Heick
Times:
Tuesday, October, 26th, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Wednesday, October, 27th, 9:30 am - 10:30 am

These will fill up fast so register here now!  See you at MAX!

Adobe MAX AIR Code Camp - Second Instance Added!

Adobe MAX 2010 staff informed James Ward and me that our AIR 2 Code Camp sold out last week.  While we were stoked, we realized that this means there is a lot of people who will miss out on it.  To solve this problem, Sarah Eaton added a second instance of the lab.   The second instance was added this morning and is already starting to fill up as space is limited.  If you want to take this course or you're even just thinking about it, we recommend you book it now to reserve a seat.


Adobe AIR Code Camp
Attend this mega-lab for a comprehensive, hands-on dive into Adobe AIR for Flex 4 developers. You'll learn how to use the latest features of AIR by building several applications on your own computer, and leave with source code for more than 12 applications. We'll cover using the microphone class, writing to a local drive, launching a native process, and more. The lab includes a sneak peek at developing AIR applications for the Android OS. The courseware is modularized so beginners can follow along.


Tracks:    Develop
Audience:    Architect, Creative Designer, Application Developer
Skill Level:    General Audience
Products:    AIR, Flash Builder, Flex
Speakers:    James Ward, Duane Nickull
Times:   
Tuesday, October, 26th, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (SOLD OUT)
Wednesday, October, 27th, 1:30 pm - 5:30 pm

UPDATE!

The second instance is now also sold out.  After Adobe MAX, I promise that the assets will all be shared via this blog including complete access to source code.

A worry about HTML5. Fragmentation.

I am very stoked to see HTML5 coming on so strong and I'm feeling like the web is going to be full of new possibilities.  The HTML spec has been stagnant far too long and its new features, combined with CSS, JavaScript, AJAX and other peripheral technologies will be able to do some pretty cool things.  There is one trend I see though that is worrying.  FRAGMENTATION!!

I have looked at a few HTML5 examples.  One of them I went to see is apparently financed by Microsoft at this URL: http://www.beautifulexplorer.com/  I clicked on the link using Firefox and got the following message displayed.

This is not the only time I have seen such a message.  I went to see Apple's HTML5 gallery and this is what I saw.

Oh - and there are similar messages from Chrome sites done in HTML5 such as http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/.

OK.  Adobe loves HTML5 and I think it is a great thing for the web if the standards are adhered to. Having worked for standards for over a decade, I know the standard must be written in a manner that multiple implementations are 100% interoperable.  What will harm the web is if sites start becoming specialized or optimized for different browsers.  Most people shouldn't have to download and use different browsers for different sites.  I am worried because I saw this trend with CSS.  There are still nuances between the manners in which different browsers handle various CSS declarations (just ask anyone who has recently skinned a Drupal site).

My ask for HTML5 is as follows:

1. Let's make sure we all work together to create a good standard for HTML5
2. Let's ensure that we have consistent implementations.  If the W3C recommendation is ambiguous, those who note the ambiguities have a responsibility to work this out at the standards development table so the web does not become fragmented.
3. Let's ensure that the enumerated lists of codecs for things like video is not fragmented in HTML5.
4. Let's not start mixing HTML5 specs with O/S specific hardware acceleration features that break interoperability.

I trust standards and I am going to remain optimistic about HTML5's future.  I am presuming that the current state is only a temporary one due to the fact it will take some browsers a while to fully implement the specification (which is understandable).  Nevertheless, it means a great deal to Adobe, as the leading tools provider for web development, and it means a lot to me personally and I felt I had to say what I said here.  Let's move HTML5 into the next generation and do it right!

Dimmable 120 volt LEDs for the house?

In the past there have been multiple articles on Technoracle about energy efficiency and ideas for greener, lower footprint living.  Recently we came across a number of really cool LED products that advertise they are ready to replace conventional bulbs and save consumers money while using far less energy.  We're going to test a number of them over the next year and report back.

The first item is a 120 volt, 2 watt LED Dimmable G16.5 Decorative Globe.   This is a product from TCP, which is advertised as a medium base that throws off Halogen white color.  We have ordered two of these (Cost is $17-18 each) to test to see if they do pay for themselves, which we suspect they will.

Click here for more info and how to order

The second is a comparable product, which is also dimmable. It has slightly more power (rated at 3 watts) and is the dimmable G16.5 Decorative Globe with Candelabra Base.  This product also advertises Halogen  white light.  Our hope is that both of these are able to do the job of regular light bulbs while saving money and throwing off a light that is indistinguishable from conventional bulbs.  

Both of these are advertised as comparable to a 15 watt conventional bulb.  These should therefore be effectively reducing electrical bills by 80% and lasting much longer.  Given conventional incandescent bulbs last around 2 years and cost $1, these should have an ROI of around 4 years based on 1500 hours per year at 8c/kwh.

Technoracle will also begin testing some LED Ceiling Lights to replace conventional Halogen designs. 1000bulbs.com has these on sale for 50% below retail price today so we will order a few and report back.

Weekly LiveCycle@MAX Highlighted Session!

Every week leading up to Adobe MAX 2010 we will feature a special Adobe LiveCycle ES related session on Technoracle.  This week's session is very special and unique in two facets.  First, it is the very first time a LiveCycle ES 2.5 lab has been offered to members of the general public.  This in itself is reason enough to attend this session as it gives developers a head start over the rest of the pack in terms of getting familiar with the next generation of LiveCycle.  Second, this is a complete A-Z hands on lab covering a ton of material over 1.5 full days.  This makes it the longest session we have ever offered at a MAX event.

This session is already nearing sell out capacity so if you are going, please register as soon as you can.

Developing a LiveCycle ES2.5 Application
This program for enterprise developers combines 1.5 days of introductory preconference training on LiveCycle ES2.5 (Enterprise Suite) with a full conference pass to MAX 2010.  The preconference lab, "Developing a LiveCycle ES2.5 Application," is an essential introduction to developing user-centric applications with Adobe LiveCycle ES2.5. LiveCycle ES2.5 allows both business and IT professionals to visually assemble end-to-end processes, which when combined with rich interfaces, create engaging applications that unify systems and people quickly and flexibly. We'll present an end-to-end use case bringing a rich Internet application (RIA) and a LiveCycle application together. You will learn about the LiveCycle IDE, the Admin User Interface, and the LiveCycle ES2.5 solution components as we guide the participants through the development of this comprehensive use case.

We strongly recommend this training to those new to LiveCycle ES2.5, or those who would like a refresher, in order to get the most value out of the more advanced LiveCycle topics that will be presented during the MAX event.

Tracks:    Develop
Audience:    Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level:    Beginner
Product:    LiveCycle ES
Speakers:    Chantal Richard, Valerie Snider-Lynch
Times:   
Saturday, October, 23rd, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Sunday, October, 24th, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Here is a video from Chantal Richard highlighting some more reason why this session is a "must attend" event.

Why Cyber Crimes are Thriving in Canada and Profitable

It is no secret.  Cyber crimes are growing in most countries.  In 2009, cyber crime in America grew 22%.  According to the US Treasury Department, Cyber Crime Has Surpassed Illegal Drug Trafficking as a criminal money-maker.   The trend in Canada is unknown but I would bet it follows the same growth pattern.  Statistics Canada, where my tax dollars go to fund this type of research, seems incapable of making any report on cyber crime since 2002 available.  While not publicly available, I saw a report yesterday during an ITAC call that showed reported incidents increased to over 200,000 incidents per month!  That is reported.  Now imagine the ones that are unreported.

I suspect the crime incident numbers are much higher due to our total lack of infrastructure to deal with cyber crimes.  While this seems like a brash statement to make, I make it from practical experience.  Earlier this year I found myself as the intended victim of a cyber crime.  I quickly realized what was happening and collected all the evidence that any prosecutor would require to punish the scammers.  I had a phone number I could call them at, an internet address, IP address, saved emails and recorded telephone conversations.  I tried to report it.  Guess what???  Not one single agency in Canada was willing to take any action against the criminals.  Vancouver City Police said not their concern, call the RCMP. RCMP Fraud department and various other departments reacted with a belief that PhoneBusters was properly equipped to handle this.  Upon contacting PhoneBusters, I quickly realized they only take reports.  Again, not one single agency would lift a finger to go after the criminals.

But hey - don't take my word for it.  Consider this:

Scenario: Imagine you just found out that your IT systems are being scanned and attacked right now and you have information about exactly  who and where the attack initiates from.  You find out that it is a criminal group who is responsible for other crimes and they are not relenting.   What do you do?

Exercise:  Try to find any authority in Canada (Police, CSIS, phone busters, etc.) who will actively take the case and go after the attacker (prosecute, arrest, stop, etc.).  Call the local police, RCMP, etc. on the phone, explain the scenario above and ask them to get involved and do something.

Reality:  You will not find one single organization that is willing to do anything.  They all refer you to someone else who at most will take a report and do nothing.

This is very sad and is why the crimes are growing.  What we need is a rapid response team who will actually be available to do something.  Otherwise, Canadians and Canadian companies are going to only be victims while the bad guys make $ millions.

In the meantime, criminals have a free run on Canadians and can basically do what they want for fun and profit.

Find merchant accounts at Meoneris.com

Flash on mobile, the facts.

Yesterday morning I got an email from fellow Adobean Danny Winokur in my inbox discussing the state of the union with respect to Flash on the mobile. The synopsis of the conversation went something like this.

Flash Player 10.1 is now beginning to ship in volume on many smartphones.    Many of you may have seen the attached full page Motorola ad which ran on Friday in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.  There are other similar ads being planned by major carriers and handset manufacturers.  This is the culmination of years of co-development to migrate Flash (not just Flash light) to the mobile.  Some have criticized Adobe for not doing this earlier but the reality is that the technology just wasn't ready earlier (hardware, software and infrastructure).

As the masses are starting to understand that video performance challenges on mobile devices, the truth has started to emerge that many of these issues are not isolated for Flash.  Many of the technical issues are a function of the hardware capabilities and the drivers which expose them.  Just for one example, if you take the same video with the same encoding and use any other player technology, and it is likely to perform about the same or worse than when played using Flash (the abc.com problem stems from code on their site which tries to use the hardware decoder for two snips concurrently, while the hardware only allows one - a constraint shared by any player on this hardware).

Flash video performance, along with other video experiences on mobile, should substantially improve.  We are all in still in the genesis days of mobile and the truth is that a consistent experience over multiple screens and devices is a lot of work.  As Adobe rolls out improvements such as StageVideo in future releases, allowing video to be sent directly to the screen (instead of being returned to the Flash Player) after being decoded in hardware, these experiences will get better and better.  This point, among others, is made articulately here:
http://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/articles/the-five-key-myths-about -html5.html?page=1. 

As others have right noted, the way to get great performing video on mobile devices is for content publishers to encode in ways that are supported by mobile *hardware*.

I don't expect the naysayers to be quiet any time soon.  Several of my brethren on Slashdot have already complained bitterly about the intrusion of Flash onto their devices.  The reality is that it is the users choice.  Adobe, as I understand it, has never been concerned about forcing things on users.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.  The exec's I talk to seem quite concerned about people having the choice.  If they don't want Flash, they can turn it off.  I myself turn of a lot of features on my Nexus 1 Android device when I am not requiring them to save battery life.  When I want my GPS data, I turn it on.  Flash is no different (although it has been architected and engineered not to squander device resources when not in use).   Long live choice!

I am stoked about the future of mobile. It took me a while to get there but now that we are rolling it out, many of the enterprises I am working with are bombarding me with new ideas for extendingh their infrastructure to mobile.  Some of these are simply items like extending a Livecycle ES business process to a Droid device or as complex as dynamic routing changes in task assignment due to geo-location.  Very cool.

LiveCycle@MAX pick of the week!

This week, I have selected what could be one of the single best sessions at MAX 2010.  Not only is this session extremely relevant to a lot of enterprises as they migrate some enterprise functionality to mobile, it is also taught by my long time friend and business partner Matt MacKenzie along with Stacy Young.  For those of you who do not know Matt, he is an extremely talented architect and probably the smartest developer I know.  Stacy's credentials are simply too long to list and is every bit as talented at Matt!

Matt came to Adobe with me as part of the Adobe acquisition of Yellow Dragon Software and has moved steadily up the rungs of the LiveCycle team.  He is now heavily involved in the outreach of core LiveCycle functionality to mobile platforms.  This is a session I want to attend and trust me, this will sell out fast.  Register today here if you plan to attend.  This one already has a second session added due to popularity and IMO will fill up fast.  

The Mobile Enterprise (click on title to see the official listing)



Registration LINK HERE

Hear from product experts and discover how you can extend your enterprise to iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices by leveraging the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite platform. The session will include best practices for integrating business processes, accessing shared content, and developing forms for use on mobile form factors.

Tracks:    Develop
Audience:    Architect, Partner Decision Maker, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level:    General Audience
Product:    LiveCycle ES
Speakers:    Matt MacKenzie, Stacy Young
Times:   
Tuesday, October, 26th, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Wednesday, October, 27th, 8:00 am - 9:00 am

Serge launches MAX Un-awards!

My friend and fellow evangelist Serge Jespers has just released a new "widget" for MAX.
It's not really a traditional widget anymore but a personalized interactive video where you can create a MAX un-award. I have already won awards, most notably for "Hardest Working Evangelist" and "Most Timid Developer".




Every video generates its own tweet so if you see a cool video in the player, just click on the share menu and post it on Twitter or any other social network.

Have fun! See you at MAX!

LiveCycle ES Pick of the week: A Case Study

In the past few months we have been selecting a new LiveCycle@MAX track to promote as the Pick of the Week via Technoracle. One type of session that provides a lot of value is the case study so this week we are proud to present the following track.

Just as a reminder, whether you are a business person, developer or architect, if you are planning to attend MAX in 2010 and want to take a serious dive into LiveCycle ES, it is highly recommended to register ahead of the deadlines. In addition to saving money, you will likely find out that the selection of available sessions is far greater the more you book in advance. Several of our sessions sold out in previous years well ahead of the deadlines.

This week's pick:

Transforming the Value of IT for Government through Modernization at South African Revenue Service

Come see how the South African Revenue Service (SARS) provides improved benefits and services delivery to customers through online, automated tax filing. e@syFile is a set of Adobe AIR applications that leverage the Flash Platform and Adobe LiveCycle to enable manual and electronic tax filing. The solution delivers one form that is used in multiple channels, including print, web portal, branch/on-demand print, and offline via AIR. Using the system, SARS achieved 100% application adoption in two years and now collects in excess of 35 billion rand per month, equaling 60% of the South African revenue.

Tracks: Envision, Design, Develop
Audience: Architect, Partner Decision Maker, IS/IT, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Products: AIR, Creative Suite, Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flex, LiveCycle DS, LiveCycle ES
Speakers: Rob Pinkerton, Barry Hore, Christopher Belford
Times:
Tuesday, October, 26th, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

I'll see you there!

Flash Player 10.1 really a major release?

Having used Flash Player 10.1 for a while now, I am blown away by the number of very cool advances. Most of these are subtle yet some are of staggering implication. Recently, I came accross a video made by Neil Trevett from NVIDIA where he discusses GPU acceleration in Flash Player 10.1. The video showcases how Flash Player and NVIDIA offload work from the CPU to the GPU (NVIDIA’s ION chip). The results are very impressive, enabling Flash Player to provide HD video on a range of devices — even the smaller netbooks.

As Neil says, “Flash Player 10.1 is a real advance for Flash Player, actually much more than the ‘dot one’ would indicate.” I am tending to agree with him. Here is the video:

Adobe AIR Launchpad - WOW!!!

So it seems that while I was sitting in the hospital, my colleagues were designing and delivering one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The Adobe AIR Launchpad kick starts any RIA project by allowing you to import a pre-built project with the major functionality groups you need. The URL is http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/airlaunchpad.html ( you are going to want to download this as soon as you finish reading this blog). According to the labs website:

"Adobe AIR Launchpad is a new desktop tool that helps Adobe Flex® developers get started building desktop applications deployed on Adobe AIR. Simply run Adobe AIR Launchpad and select the capabilities you need; Adobe AIR Launchpad will create a ready-to-import Flex project with your selected features implemented in a way that can be easily modified and extended. You can use the resulting project as a starting point for your AIR application."

I decided to try it out. Since I have been sick my imagination seems to lack a bit so I just picked a random set of things for the application. You can drag and drop icons and select the application descriptor file settings from the main GUI as shown below:


From the next wizard menu you can select items like global error handling, detection of idle time or network capabilities etc.

and finally, the ability to select some standard types of things many developers would use.



and generate your project!


I imported and opened up the resulting project and found all the generated code and assets neatly placed into the same directory structure I would have used. Very cool!

I did have one small red X in the project which was thrown as the compiler did not recognize "e:UncaughtErrorEvent".

It turns out I failed to read the instructions (seems to be a major pattern in my life) that clearly instructed me to use the Flex SDK 4.1. I just wanted to post this here in case anyone else, like myself, believes reading the manuals are only a last resort. I can hear my teachers back in school now:

Duane. You must read this great novel about a Spanish guy named 'Manual'.


From Technoracle, Adobe AIR Launchpad scores a solid 9/10 for the first release, largely due to the fact it saves lazy developers like me a lot of work!

MAX Pick of the Week

Well, I am not really fully back at work but since I have a computer in front of me, figured I'd get a little work done. Every week (barring the hospital stay) I have been promoting a different MAX 2010 Livecycle ES session. This week, the session I will promote is one I am co-leading with Scott MacDonald. If you do not know who Scott is, he is the guy who writes most of the Livecycle ES Quickstarts and has a full depth of knowledge when it comes to LC ES. If you've ever needed to integrate LC ES with CMS or invoke an API remotely, you need to meet Scott!

This session is for anyone who has worked with Livecycle ES and found a need to extend it. It can be quite daunting your first time and that is why we have put this session together. Building and deploying a custom component and integrating Livecycle ES with other J2EE environment applications should not be feared. Once you have the know how, it is actually very easy due largely to the great architecture and abundance of collateral to help you. This session will impart this knowledge to attendees and you'll walk away with more than your money's worth for a 90 minute session.

Here is the session - register now:

Extending LiveCycle ES for Java Developers

Join product experts and others as we work through the process of creating a Plain Old Java Object (POJO) that will be packaged and deployed to the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite service container as a custom component. Once your component has been deployed and activated, you'll then explore several invocation methods (SOAP, REST, and Remoting) to call your newly available service.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Advanced
Products: Flash Builder, LiveCycle ES
Speakers: Duane Nickull, Scott MacDonald
Times:
Monday, October, 25th, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

See you there!

UPDATE on Meningitis/Kidney failure

Hey everyone. I am so humbled by the thousands of comments, messages, emails, SMS's etc. I have received. I am truly the luckiest person alive to have so many great friends and it made a huge difference when I was sitting in the hospital room alone. You’re all correct – I’m gonna kick this sickness in the arse so hard it won’t come within a 1,000 KM of Vancouver. Cannot believe I was even thinking of letting this thing make me a victim.

So I got the renal biopsy done on Thursday and the first results were in Friday AM. The unbelievable is happening - > my own kidney’s seem to be starting to heal themselves (prognosis was less than 5% this would happen). The Creatinine score fell from over 350 to 314 with no treatment. It’s too early to tell if this is a real trend or not but I’m gonna ride this wave as if it is. There is still a long road ahead to full recovery but the best thing happened. I got discharged from the hospital after two weeks and am now getting treated as an outpatient. This means I get to be at home to recover. I still have to have daily blood tests and monitoring done so it will be a while before I am back to full speed.

I also set a short term goal to be able to play with 22nd Century on Sept 2nd at the Backstage Lounge for Jesus Krysler’s CD release party along with Blackburn X and Helmz Deep. Focusing on this show as a goalpost will help. I hope you'll join me there.

Again – I really want to thank you all. Please accept apologies if it takes a while to individually thank you but know you made a huge difference.

Peace love and chaos!

duane