daveb: code

i ♥ macromedia studio · Sep 20, 08:46 pm

every few years they come out with fantastic new products that make me fall in love with them again.

however, i have two computers on my desk every day. my beige, boring, crashy, monolith of a peecee, and my shiny, silver, aquified, stable little powerbook.

my understanding of the macromedia licensing agreement has been that as long as i’m not using both machines at once, i can use 1 license of the software on both machines. i pay once, use once. just so happens it’s two different pieces of hardware. that’s why they shipped 1 cd with 2 operating systems last version. (this may be in utter error, and if so, forget i ever said anything…)

this has proved very handy, as i’ll often drop some work on my laptop and take it home with me. without shared licensing i’d have to spend an extra thousand dollars so i could work for an hour at home in the evening.

i can appreciate that software piracy is a growing concern, and is really cutting into profits. i want to support macromedia and their products and i like spending my corporate dollars on them. however, it’s hard to justify a second license where i didn’t have to purchase one before.

maybe if i use the products just a little more my amore will spring the bounds or my wallet and pour cash into the coffers of MM.

Categories: code / web | comments?

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mr. sparkle ≠ flash · Sep 16, 11:40 am

microsoft is trying to step on the toes of macromedia+adobe Flash with sparkle. sparkle is like flash, but has better support for 3d, is authored in XAML (an xml format) and can bind directly to SQL databases. the applications can be extended using C# code, which can be developed in visual studio in tandem to graphical development.

sounds like a dream development environment. and for now it is. sparkle will only run on the upcoming Vista operating system, due end of 2006 (unless it gets turfed and rebranded again). and only on the peecee. and only with a huge video card.

but still, you can develop rich internet applications that users can run in a browser or download that can potentially rival current desktop software development. this sounds like the ideal format for someone like intuit to develop their wildly popuplar tax applications in. users could either download or run the same application in the browser. all the content would come from a database, and the interface would be delicious.

but is it really better? read here to find out more

short answer: no. reality is always better than dreams.

although you can get a sneek peek at the microsoft expression family here

but don’t try and view it on mozilla, or a mac, or… you get the idea.

for fun: try counting the number of times the word “vapour” appears in the above presentation.

Categories: code / web | comments? [6]

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Tiger - for better or worse? · May 10, 09:23 am

definately better.

i installed tiger a few days ago, and so far i love it. it’s $129 to ‘upgrade’ but i’ve never bought an upgrade i enjoyed more.

a few favorites:

the search. best implementation i’ve ever experienced. fast, powerful – gives me all the information i’m looking for. took a while to index on first install, but i do have 100,000 items on my computer for it to look through and categorize. if i type “paul bellows” it brings up my brother’s contact info, any emails sent to him, any word docs that include his name, and the URL to his website.
dictionary – fully integrated dictionary based on The New Oxford American Dictionary (great if you speak English). if you ctrl+click on anything with dictionary enabled (Mail, Safari, TextEdit) you can look up a word in the dictionary. if you select a word and hold down ctrl+apple+D you get a contextual dictionary menu popping up. if you keep ctrl+apple pressed you can move your mouse around to other words for a definition.
widgets – they seem alright at first, i don’t think i’d use any of the prebuilt ones, but custom widgets! that’s where the money is. as soon as ebay creates one to track and monitor your sales, and FedEx creates one to monitor your packages they’ll become a whole lot more productive.
mail – i read and send a lot of email during my day. right now i’m using outlook 2003 for the peecee at work, and mail at home. the integration and feel of this app far surpasses outlook 2003, and the speed is quite considerably better.

a few bugs:

i think tiger eats my battery. paul mentioned i said “it makes my battery slower” which i’m not sure i quite understand. but i know my battery management is not as good as it was.
external displays – whenever i plug in an external display my Bluetooth Mouse Connection Wizard pops up. a quick thing to close, but uh … weird.
hungry. an upgrade install of tiger ate my friend gregg’s imac. he had to send his data to his lifeboat/ipod until he could get hardware rectified. but i’m hoping that’s not common.

see all 200 new features

Categories: apple / code | comments?

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creative uses of technology for the visually impaired · Apr 19, 10:36 pm

the bbc is reporting on a new study from queen’s university that is using creative ways to make use of technology.

many people with visual impairments, especially those that onset through disease or that occur later tend to stay home more than they go out. the goal of the research is to improve access to information through technology.

part of that research is making use of touch screens and audio clues, but there is also the possibility of using mobile devices as audio guides.

[Mr. Marshall] ...said by embedding devices in public areas like shopping malls, they could advertise the position of shops when a blind person with an enabled personal data device passed.

“However, people with blindness or other form of disability are not able to take full advantage due to the inaccessibility in the technology itself.

“If the problem of inaccessibility is not solved, the discrepancy, known as the digital divide, will become bigger as information technology advances,”

this research is part of a three year study that could end up changing the way people with visual impairments interact with, and make use of technology.

Categories: code / web | comments?

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adbe + macr = macrobe · Apr 18, 08:43 am

so adobe announced they bought macromedia.

i’m excited that now i might be able to buy Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Flash in one package, instead of buying two to get the four tools i need.

however, i’m scared what might be if the two companies merge poorly. GoLive is a terrible application. Dreamweaver was just getting good, and Macromedia has about a thousand products on the go now, so i’m curious to see where the duplication will be nixed.

here’s my hope:

Illustrator trumps Freehand.
Dreamweaver trumps GoLive
Photoshop stays, and Fireworks trumps ImageReady.
The new oligarchy buys Quark, and the love child of InDesign and Quark is the next product they market.
Flash trumps … SVG? (ahem, snicker)
Director is. it just is.

The rest of it can stay the same, Acrobat, Breeze, Captivate, RoboHelp, etc.

none of this will likely occur quickly, as the merger isn’t going to happen until the fall, and i’m sure product development cycles can’t be changed too quickly. but still – i’ve got nervous excitement laughter.

official info on the merger

Categories: web / code | comments? [2]

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