Stacy Sison who does a lot to support all the Adobe User Groups around the world has arranged for group members to be able to see the MAX keynote sessions live online.
To do that you must register first. If you are interested please go to Max Online register.
There were two great changes to the Scotch on the Rocks conference this year. For me the first was the timing. I am usually away during the Bank Holiday week so I have missed the conference on previous occasions for that reason. This year it was one week later so I got to go for a change.
The other was that it is moveing from place to place with days in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. So I didn't have to travel to see some really great presentations.
For me the highlights were:
I thinks the Audience were stunned by the demo of Flash Catalyst even if nobody liked the new name for Flex Builder.
It was also good to meet a few of the people who I have interacted with on here and twitter over tha last year. I'll write some stuff about the presentations soon.
My colleague Roger Panton is starting a new user group which will focus on Business issues. The first meeting on Wednesday 11th February 2009 will focus on how Agile software development methods can improve the development process. The meeting will be held at Adobe's London Office at 4pm.
The agenda is:
If your business relies on continual maintenance or development of web based software and you are looking for a more cost effective way to keep up with the pace of change, then you should join our group free of charge.
Who should attend? Programme Managers, IT Managers and Finance Directors. During and following the meeting there will be networking opportunities and refreshments.
To register your attendance at this inaugural meeting please email Roger Panton on roger (AT) objectiveinternet (DOT) com.
More details at http://groups.adobe.com/groups/56ed4d12d4/summary
I don't know what happened after that as he is no longer with us, but yesterday I came to use the machine for the first time and it turned out to be running in developer mode. No licence key was installed. So I tried to enter the key but got a cryptic: The Serial Number entered is not valid.
I double check everything and it seems valid but still fails.
So I take my life in my hands and call Adobe... 020 7365 0733. Remember that number..... Navigate the options to option 6.
Talk to a guy in India he checks the licence key. Yes its valid but an upgrade so asks what the original licence key was. I can't find the box. Remembered that my business partner was tidying up recently and took some old stuff to the Access Storage Shed. Adobe can't help without the old licence key.
Hang up with Adobe.
Drive to the storage shed search though and find the CF package with old licence key. Drive back to the office.
Call Adobe 020 7365 0733. Navigate the options to option 6. Speak to someone else in India, yes both licence keys are valid. They say please call another number 020 7365 0735.
Voice response system again, navigate the options to option 6. Please call 001 415 252 9080.
I call tech support person who explains that although I have a valid licence it is a volume licence and can't be used with a CF copy downloaded from the normal Adobe web site and will only work with a copy downloaded from the Licencing web site.
I don't have access since this copy was purchased by my business partner and he is out of the office. Adobe support advises me to call 0207 365 0733..
Looping......
I just read an interesting article on ColdFusion in Computerworld. It highlights the recent improvements in CF8 and its positioning for Web 2.0.
They said they were not planning to challenge Microsoft but the headline on the BBC web site says it all.
At MAX today several announcements were made. My favourite is share. A new web site allows you to share documents among a group. It features previews of the documents pages done with a Flash interface.
On the word processor front I have recently be studgloing with Word 2007. Its always been needlessly complicated and overkill for what I need in a word processor. The latest version seems to fight me at every turn. All the features I want are hidden way down in the menu structure or completely removed from the menu altogether.
I was trying to number some paragraphs last week. There seems to be no way in word 2007 to do it easily. In earlier versions I could just set paragraph numbering on. In 2007 you actually have to type the numbers and then Word sort of undertands that you mean number my paragraphs.
Other times it assumes you want to number paragraphs just because the line starts with a number, when you really just want a number ate the start of the sentence.
I would realy like a small lightweight wordprocessor.
Adobe have launched a new look to what was the devnet website.
It has a new name - Adobe Developer Connection (ADC) and has a lot of new features that I haven't had time to fully explore it yet.
It even has a number of social networking features to allow developers to communicate with each other and even comes with a AIR Application that helps track Flex Bugs.
It also offers a number of developer newsletters and facilities to share Flex ideas through the Flex Cookbook.
For future releases of the ADC, Adobe are looking at ways to increase participation, with features like rating, tagging, and commenting of content. Adobe say that they want to enhance the visual presentation of content and make it easier to find technical resources quickly.
Adobe want you to sign up and join in. Looks interesting.
The XD Team is working with companies who want to push the envelope. Including RIAs and Mobile phone interfaces in Flash and Flex. Now working on new Flex components.
Mike and Tom outlined a typical scenario involving the development of page wireframes, then graphic design, then code in Flex or HTML. They then showed a series of new techniques and thinking that would allow much better user interfaces to be developed.
I have arrived in Washington for the Flex Maniacs Conference. The Plane arrived quite late after a 2 hour delay in London because of the Rainstorm at Heathrow. But that means that I had a good night sleep and am feeling good to go for the start at 7:15.
There is an old chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times".
We certainly seem to be in those times at the momement. I havn't been blogging much but that not from lack of material. Much more from being stunned or overwhelmed by the tide of new stuff heading our way.
Is it because I am a bit older than many of the people who build web sites or is it just that I remember the 1970s when "Future Shock" was talked about but still a distant distopian vision?
In reality I have made good progress with the new Photoshop CS3 and about to start on Fireworks 9. (Or is it CS3?)
Anyway among the interesting things flowing this way this week is an analysis by my old friend Robin Bloor of Microsoft's Vista Sales and an interview on the BBC with Adobe's Bruce Chizen. The transcript of the interview is also available.
