johnwilker.com

The Cloud isn’t all that

Something struck me as interesting this morning. I’ve written two articles for the new Flex Authority Quarterly Update, and we used Buzzword to hand the articles. The Author writes, shares with editor, who shares with tech and copy editors. Then we do the dance of copy/technical editing and review.

The other day, Editor in Cheif Jeff posed a question. “Move to word, from Buzzword?” There were a few reasons, easier approval/dismissal of tracked changes and comments, etc.

as of this morning there are 13 messages in that thread, all saying “Yeah, Word is fine.”

Many of the authors cited being able to work offline as a major plus for Word.

I gotta say I agree. I love Google Docs,  I use buzzword for 360|Flex and The Flex Show, but there’s something to be said for being able to work when there’s no WiFi. Like aboard planes, trains and automobiles, in the backwoods, at the ski resort, etc. There’s still a lot of the country, let alone world that are offline, so sometimes it’s nice to not have all your tools rely on the cloud. I use MobileMe to keep my macs in sync, I also make use of my iDisk a lot! I sync the entire thing locally, because I’ve wanted to work and guess what, not online, no iDisk. Thankfully iDisk syncing doesn’t completely suck, so it’s a pretty good experience.

As an example, when I was in Japan earlier this year, WiFi was non existant. I never saw an access point once. The hotel didn’t offer it, they had a ethernet cord in the wall for $15 a day. The Starbucks (yes, really) had none, the local coffee shops, had none. I suspect because everyone’s phone had internet, and they text and IM through that. While being offline isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially on vacation, it’s nice to have the option. I didn’t.

I think we’re in an interesting time; on the one side we have Adobe, Microsoft, Google, et al. pushing for Photoshop online, Buzzword, Office online, google docs, google reader, etc. They’re pushing really hard to make us want to be online all the time. To only edit docs in the cloud, to store our docs, our emails, our RSS feeds, etc all in the cloud. However on the other side of that “go online” agenda is the reality that wifi isn’t everywhere. Laptops don’t ship with built in cellular modems (OK some small few do), and tethering plans range from free to really expensive, if you have a phone that can even do it. The truth is, we’re offline a lot. More than I think Adobe, Google and Microsoft would like to think.

In my opinion we’re still quite a ways from a place were “being online” is a ubiquitous condition. I think the real technology winners will be the companies that can make their offerings work in both worlds. Buzzword as an AIR app. Google docs syncing locally through Google Gears. I actually saw a gDocs offline gears app, but haven’t seen it in a while, and the 1 time I tried to use it, it wasn’t remotely in sync, not sure if I needed to open it once in a while to sync or what. I assumed since it was gears it’d be in sync from the last time I was online? Guess not.

What do you think? Are you using only cloud based tools? Still using Word or Pages, etc to keep things locally where you always have access?

Tags: Cloud Computing, RIA

Thanksgiving in the mountains

Nicole and aren’t really Thanksgivng people. In CA we’d go for all you can eay Sushi (usually the only white folks in the place), but in CO that’s a bit tougher. We still try to get sushi, even if it’s not all you can eat.

This year we headed up into the mountains, for a little time away from the city. That sounds overly romantic, like we headed off to some small log cabin with no utilities. Actuall we went to Breckenridge to a condo at the base of Peak 9, with Wifi (it sucked, thank god for EVDO), and a kitchenette.

We didn’t get Sushi, since Mountain Flying Fish wasn’t opened, but we did enjoy an incredibly tasty meal at Blue River Bistro. Get the Creme Brulee!

Who woulda guessed that there’d be so little snow? Last year the resorts were screaming bloody murder about the lack of snow, so we all knew what was up. I guess this year they decided to keep their traps closed. There was 1 run open at Peak 9, a few on peak 8. The entire town of Breck was snow free on Wednesday and Thursday.

Finally Friday saw some awesome snow. We woke to it coming down, and it continued to fall all day, making the runs AWESOME, blessing and curse, that.

We got some good runs in, but man, PEOPLE SUCK. I know I’m not the only person on the mountain, but really folks, you aren’t either.

We did pick up some cool gifts for folks for Christmas, so that was cool and did enjoy yummy food. All in all the bar for Thanksgiving has been raised for us now!

That said, we’re not hitting the slopes in November anymore. Not worth it.

Tags: skiing, Thanksgiving

MAX ‘08 Day 1 Recap

Looooooooong day.

I’m about to pass out, but wanted to get my thoughts on MAX ‘08 day one down on paper.

For Tom and I, MAX San Francisco, started on Sunday. We ran some errands, put stickers on our fliers for 360|Flex Indy, and then headed over to Moscone for some socializing. We hit up the community leader mixer thing, which was awesome. Congrats to the team that organized it.

Monday morning we hit up MAX bright and early, setting up our 360|MAX Unconference area, which is a cool area.

Enter the Keynote. So, oddly enough the keynote didn’t start until 9:30 am, yet the doors opened at 7am. I found it a bit weird since breakfast was just sandwiches.

The keynote was good, I gotta admit, The pre show dude was AWESOME! (video above). Shantanu and Kevin are both great presenters I have to say. Kevin more so, he’s very casual, and seems to be pretty unflappable, even when things don’t go the right way.

The information in general was pretty much what you’d expect, “State of Flash” type stuff, blah blah. One cool thing was some future tech they demo’ed as strictly early labs internal, but really sweet! Screens that know what’s going on around them, even where they’re pointed. I’d post a video, but then it occured to me, it might not be fully “open to the public” I can’t imagine why, but ya never know. It was cool though!

OK, the rest of the day.

Tom and I were pretty much tethered to our unconference area, which went really well. Slow start, but I think we’ll start seeing more people as the word gets out more.

Our sessions were all kick ass, especially Mate and Degrafa, which really pulled folks in. Tuesday has a bunch more killer sessions!

The bummer is not being able to wander around as much as I’d like. MAX for me is walking around the halls, finding people to chat with. This time around, I gotta chat with those who come to us.

The general session for TUesday is supposed to be Gumbo, Thermo, and future goodness. We’ll see. I’ve got my Thermo and gumbo installed to play with.

360|Flex Indianapolis MAX discount!

Also for MAX attendees, make sure to swing by and see Tom or I. We’ve got 100 tickets to 360|Flex Indy, for only $100 each. That’s $150 or so off our lowest possible price. Available only during MAX, so there’s only two days left to get this price!

Tags: Adobe Flex, Adobe MAX, Conferences

360Flex Camp New Jersey wrap up

Meant to write this up sooner, but been a busy week at work.

New Jersey was our, first Flex Camp, so it had a few lessons learned to go with it.

1. Don’t red eye it the morning of the event. Tom’s flight was an hour late, then we had to get from JFK to Montclair State, in Jersey!

Driving in New York is definitely an experience, :)

Also, don’t plan FlexCamps around major financial meltdowns, that’s bad for attendance.

We had a great turn out, not huge, but given the price and the financial meltdown, I think the turn out was awesome. It was a great group; speakers and attendees.

The topics were all stellar!

The after camp party, well beers and appetizers, was great. It’s always nice to hang with the folks who give up their time to hang with us. Love it.

If you’re interested in hosting a Flex Camp, but don’t want or don’t know how to do some of the legwork let us know.

Tags: 360|Flex Camp

360Flex Camp New Jersey Arrived at JFK, sitting

The joys of having a business partner in another state/time zone; we don’t fly together, and rarely do we ever land at the same time when we fly places.

Case in point, today. We both red-eyed it to New York (JFK) for day two of 360|Flex Camp NJ. I arrived at 5am. Tom doesn’t arrive until almost 8. Nothing sucks more than killing time at an airport. Especially, i’ve found, doing it at JFK. I left the secure zone (first mistake) since I wasn’t sure which gate or terminal he’d be arriving at. Outside the secure zone, unlike DIA, SFO, or ATL. There’s not much going on, at least not at the terminal I’m at.

Power outlets seem to be as rare as unicorns, so by the time we arrive at 360|Flex Camp, I’ll be juiceless, LOL.

Ah well, two Dunkin Donuts dounts and a coffee, and I’m slightly coherent and mostly conscious.

w00t! By the way it’s not too late to register for 360|Flex Camp New Jersey! Register now or at the door (Cash or credit card only)

Tags: 360|Flex Camp

360|Flex Camp New Jersey THIS WEEK

w00t!

Tom and I will be in Jersey this weekend for 360|Flex Camp New Jersey. Jason from NJFlex, is working with us (or us with him) to put together what should be a really kick ass 2 day Flex Camp. Friday is a full day of training, by Flex Super stars, Farata Systems! Day two (Saturday) is a full kick ass day of Flex content, ranging from customer components, to Drupal integration, to Flex builder performance! It’s gonna rock!

It wouldn’t be a Flex Camp without SWAG, so we should have some pretty cool stuff for everyone, plus a fun after event get together for everyone to hang out and relax and chat!

Make sure you register! Space is limited and it’s gonna be a great event!

See you in Jersey!

Tags: 360|Flex Camp

Miss 360|Flex San Jose? Don’t miss 360|Flex Camp New Jersey

Tom and I are working with the NJFlex crew to bring 360|Flex to the east coast in a 2 day Flex Camp.

If you missed San Jose, or have never been to a 360|Flex event, this is the perfect chance to get a taste of what everyone is talking about.

Day 1, Flex training from Farata Systems

Day 2, Flex Camp action with sessions, food, sponsors, community! You name it!

Register now! Space is limited! 360|Flex San Jose sold out, no reason New Jersey won’t!

Tags: 360|Flex Camp

Taking my presenting to a whole new (nerdy) level

I was bummed I couldn’t try this out in San Jose, but turns out the MacBook Air has a bunk audio port, and Frank’s Workday preso needed audio, so we had to move our keynote deck to his box. Not to mention Ebay blocks the port for Bonjour so my iPhone and MBA couldn’t see each other.

But next time, damnit, I’m gonna be a keynote/iPhone enabled presentation making foo!

I picked up Stage Hand/Stage Manager on the App Store, and I gotta say, it’s damn cool!

You gotta install a helper app on your mac, but once that’s done, bam! You’re controlling your slide deck from the iPhone, reading your presenter notes on the iPhone screen.

Once you pair the two apps, you an pick a starting slide, turn a timer on and off (good for my upcoming Ignite).

Supposedly you can use a cool highlighter to interact with the preso, but I haven’t figured that part out yet, so not sure.

The UI is a bit rough on the phone, if you have additional effects/transitions, they show up in the slide counter as x/y, but you can’t really tell what’s there or what they are. It’s still young though, so I’m sure it’s gonna get better.

I definitely give it a thumbs up. If you’re a frequent presenter, I think it beats the Apple remote, and certainly the space bar.

Tags: 360Flex, iPhone

iPhone apps dead Uh No!

Jake posted this the other day.

First let me say, I don’t read crunchgear, i don’t read giga Om. No offense to Om, or the Arington Army, I just don’t need my news or info from them, there’s other sources, and the below is why I read them.

This is cust-pasted from Jake

Both Om and Erick have concerns about basically the same issues:

• Too many apps are being downloaded to be manageable
• Email is the killer app for the iPhone
• Usage is minimal, perhaps in only 5 minute bursts
• Users aren’t using the apps daily

well duh. It’s christmas morning! I’ve downloaded butt-loads of apps, some make the cut, some don’t. There’s thousands of apps out there, 80% of which are pretty lame, and wonky, and will sell a few copies and that’s that. They’ll stick around, or go away.

Email is the killer app. It’s the killer app on the crackberry, on the laptop, on the Windoze mobile devices. DUH.  Frankly I’m not thrilled with the email app the iPhone comes so for me the killer app is everything but email, including red.green, Shazam, pandora, internet radio tuner, etc.

And yeah, I use them all in small bursts. Who sits around and stares at their phone for hours? Who sits and uses pandora for an hour exclusively? who IMs exclusively for an hour? Even with my Crackberry I didn’t IM on it exclusively. When mobile I’d fire it up check in, chat a bit if needed, and move on. Same as I do with my iPhone now. So I’m lost as to why Om and the CG team think using an app in a burst is some how an indicator of death. Oh and Omni focus, laptop or iPhone. I open, look at, mark things off or add things, and close.

Use what apps daily? Crazy lighter? Jared? I don’t use photoshop daily either, nor Flash or Dreamweaver, or Pages, or Numbers, or any number of apps onmy Macbook Air. They’re still installed, ready when I need them. How is the iPhone different? I personally don’t want 20 home screens, but you could if you felt the need. That’s teh beauty of mobile devices, why pick/choose when you can have what you want, and if you only need it once a quarter, or blue moon, or leap year, it’s there, where you want it.

Don’t pay too much attention to either of these articles - they’re focused both on the writer’s personal usage patterns and the very short term view.

I couldn’t agree more. I’m guessing both writers carry their install discs with them everywhere since they don’t see a reason to have apps available. Maybe both moved from Motorola razors to iPhone? I really don’t know but coming from one smart phone that had crappy apps, and few, and oh yeah crappy. to the iPhone, I can only say, it’s sad that they have the influence and readership they do. They clearly can’t see the forest for the trees in this matter.

I see the iPhone as the next major platform for apps. I’m working on one for 360Conferences (well learning Obj-C first) and can easily think up a few more I’m sure. The potential, even with Apples retarded stiffling NDA, and terrible app store practices, is huge!!

Tags: iPhone

Long time no post

The other day my wife IM’ed me, “Your blog is broken or something.” turns out, when you don’t post in like 2 months, it has nothing to show.

It’s been a busy few months; Tom and I wrapped up 360|Flex Europe, and immediately dove into 360|Flex San Jose 2008. After Milan, my wife and I spent an extra week in Italy, hitting Venice, Florence and Rome.

I got home, started a project with Esria, attended Software 2008, and now am finally enjoying being home.

My project is one challenge after another, but I’m learning a great deal, so it’s almost worth it :)

Software 2008 was an experiment to see how I worked with a potential client (free trip to Vegas, can’t complain) so that might bear fruit.

I was also in San Jose for a day last week, get this. Denver -> Vegas, vegas -> San Jose in the AM,  San Jose ->Vegas in the afternoon, Vegas -> Denver in the evening. That’s some seriously frakked up travel. On top of that, i worked all night the night before on my project, so I didn’t go to bed at all. w00t!

Aside of a trip to Japan, followed by another trip to San Jose (friend’s wedding) my traveling is mostly done for a bit, I love to travel, but these past few months have been killer!

Tom and I have some interesting things on the horizon too, interesting enough for me to want to accelerate time a smidge to see what happens. I’m not jynxing anything by saying what’s up, but I’ll say this, we’ll be at MAX in a bigger way than “attendee” or even “speaker” Should be really cool.

The other thing, well I don’t even know how to make a hint about so you’ll just have to wait, the same as me to find out. To quote that not very good Jim Carry movie, “How will it end?”

Tags: 360Conferences, 360Flex, Software 2008