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April 20, 2005

April 20 2005

Adobe Flash CS2

In Jason’s roundup of the Adobe-Macromedia acquisition, he alludes to Tim Bray’s comment that Adobe may drop Flash, and proffers Ajax as an alternative for web developers — a bit of jumping the gun, if you ask me.

Last fall, Kevin Lynch, the Chief Architect of Macromedia, asked to meet with me regarding my work on the Gmail API, under the guise of hinting at potential employment opportunities in the Experience Design group *. Essentially, he and his associate, an ex-Microsoft guy they poached from the ASP.NET group, wanted to know how the Gmail Ajax system worked, and how it worked so quickly. We also covered their new Flex platform, their take on the Lazlo project (supportive, but would ultimately rather see all efforts focused on Flex), and uses of the XML socketing support that was introduced in Flash 5.

Most of the conversation is relevant to Jason’s roundup, so here are my notes:

  • Flash may not be as much a lame duck as Tim made it out to be. It was obvious that Macromedia was well aware of the flat revenue generated by Flash, and was introducing Flex as a means to bring in fresh business through the professional services arena.
  • Macromedia was definitely concerned about the arrival of high-profile Ajax applications as a major equalizer to the XML-socketing support offered by Flash. Since most web applications do not require the “always-on” capabilities of sockets, Ajax quickly became a viable (and free) alternative to providing asynchronous client-side callbacks. Kevin specifically wanted to explore the possibility of hooking into the Ajax system with Flash, via Flex.
  • Ajax, in its currently form, falls very short of being an adequate replacement for Flash. Font support, image sampling, vector graphics (try animating a simple line using CSS) — the list of exclusive Flash features goes on and on, such that Flash will remain the platform of choice for design-heavy interfaces until other technologies like SVG make their way into the mainstream.

* I think I got played by Macromedia here. During the meeting, Kevin offered to “hook me up” if I found any of the job openings to be interesting. He sent over an email with a couple jobs links, to which I replied with interest to one of them. No response. I sent 2 more emails over the next few weeks, but never heard from him again. Seems like they were just digging for some free information.

Update: Kevin emailed me in response to this post:

…am concerned that you think I may not have been forthright with you — I was very open with you and connected you with openings that I thought might be a match, but apparently they weren’t. I’m sorry if the team didn’t reply to you, they should have done that.



3 Comments »

  1. Macromedia may be a bit concerned about Ajax competing with Flash’s XML socketing

    http://johnvey.com/blog/2005/04/adobe-flash-cs2…

    Trackback by kottke.org remaindered links — April 20, 2005 @ 5:32 pm

  2. The naming of “Ajax” and “XML socketing” all seems too fancy. Aren’t we just talking about HTTP POSTs/GETs of payloads that may or (more likely) may not be formatted as XML?

    Comment by pb — April 20, 2005 @ 6:26 pm

  3. Adobe and gmail

    Some interesting industry gossip. Why would Adobe want to know so much about gmail?…

    Trackback by Firefox — April 21, 2005 @ 10:17 am

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  • Michael Paterniti penned a lovely eulogy for Bobby Fischer, the former chess champion who died last year.

    This was the beauty of Bobby Fischer's mind, even then. The boy made very clean, simple lines out of very complex problems, and when the trap was sprung, his style of chess became so transparent you could instantly recognize its brilliance: efficient, organic, wildly responsive and creative.

    Also worth a look is a short 1957 profile of Fischer in the New Yorker, written a few weeks after he won the US title at 14. (via snarkmarket)

    (link)

  • A company called Fandrich & Sons buys cheap grand pianos mass-produced in China, upgrades them so that they sound more like expensive hand-made European pianos, and sells them for a reasonable price.

    With his higher-end grands -- which the Fandrichs named "HGS" for "Holy Grail Scale" -- they start with pianos built in China. He and his workers gut the piano, replacing the hammers, felt and bass strings with German and American parts. They reinforce the underbelly of the piano by installing short ribs -- spruce beams between the existing main ribs.

    Using a computer program designed in-house, the keys are reweighted across the board to eliminate friction and even out the response. The reweighting gives the Fandrich pianos their signature touch, one that some players have described as buttery, effortless.

    In automotive terms, the Fandrichs are "trying to upgrade a Hyundai to run like a Bentley, for the price of a Honda". (via girlhacker)

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  • Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a recovering sex addict. As part of his rehab process, he wrote a note from the addict inside of his head:

    I will make Benoit lie and manipulate and chase sex every hour of every day, until he can't feel anything anymore, until everything good and decent about him is removed. He needs me. His life is boring when I'm not in charge. I control him. I keep him numb so he can function. I make him feel good, and I make him feel worthless. The minute he steps out of this stupid rehab, I'll start whispering in his ear. That's all it takes -- whispers. I win. I ALWAYS win.

    (link)

  • A Canadian pig farmer came up with an interesting solution for herding pigs. Instead of using heavy wooden "chase boards" to guide the pigs, she used a length of fabric of the same color, allowing a single person to do a job once done by many.

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  • Compare and contrast: a map of the center of the world's population (currently located in the northern part of south Asia) and a global accessibility map, which shows the travel time to major cities. (via lone gunman & stamen)

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  • Sports Illustrated named 2008 the best year ever in sports. In my best links post, I said that three 2008 sporting events stuck out in my mind but this article reminded me of one more: Jason Lezak's amazing anchor leg in the 4x100 freestyle.

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  • Is there a mini Stonehenge under the waters of Lake Michigan?

    In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones - some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon -- 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan. If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old -- coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.

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  • Photographs of an abandoned London. Turns out that the streets of London on Christmas morning are extraordinarily empty. Details here. (thx, peter)

    (link)

  • A wide-ranging and carefully considered list of the top 50 special effects shots in movies. The Matrix bullet-time effect doesn't make this list because:

    An effect extraordinarily limited in what can usefully be done with it, it has nonetheless been flogged to death in the 10 years since The Matrix.

    The Burly Brawl from the second Matrix movie thankfully didn't make the list either, likely because the whole thing looks like a cartoonish video game (and not in a good way). The only quibble I can think of: maybe Titanic should have been on there somewhere? (via fimoculous)

    Update: Titanic actually made the worst effects list. (thx, rob)

    (link)

  • Photos of the abandoned soundstage for The Wire.

    So I found out yesterday that the soundstage for "The Wire" still existed. I wasted no time in visiting it and was there almost less than 24 hours. It's one of my favorite TV shows ever and I had to see this before everyone ruined it. The building is also scheduled for demolition and they are going to build a super market on it.

    (thx, hurty)

    (link)

  • The trailer for Objectified, a new documentary film about industrial design by Gary Hustwit, who also made Helvetica.

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