My take on the iPad – Might as well join in
Despite what my more fervent fanboi friends think, I don’t hate the iPad.
As the organizer of a conference for iPhone developers, I can’t wait to see what they do with the iPad. I can’t wait for panels on the differences, etc.
This post isn’t about that. This post is about me as a techy, power user consumer. The exact person the iPad isn’t for.
Alex Payne captures my thoughts on this really well. From a Flex Developer standpoint (Yeah that’s right hater, Flash!) I think Doug sums it up well.
I’m not gonna lie I let the rumor mill wind my expectations up more than I should have.
Looking Forward, Looking Back
It’s been an interesting year. More so than normal years. It’s also the end of a decade, so I’ve got some thoughts on that too. Fair warning. This is a longy.
Decade first:
in 2000 I worked for a company that was basically an IT Staffing firm that decided to get into software. I worked internally on a web app that would (in their terms) revolutionize staffing. I bailed, they failed, it was 2000, that happened a lot to a lot of people and companies.
I spent most of the 2000’s as a programmer, first doing ColdFusion, then moving to Flex. It never occurred to me to try out M$ tools, or any other. I liked Macromedia (Now Adobe) offerings and stuck with them.
The TSA – Killer of Air Travel
So I was reading about the Nigerian dude that tried to blow up that plane… A few things came to mind about the TSA and the current state of air travel. You can see one post on the subject here. Are we safer now than in pre TSA days? Bombers seem to be getting on planes still, and people are constantly talking about “Oh snap, I’ve been carrying this knife thru airports for years, totally forgot”
Wil Wheaton said it best “It’s only a matter of time before the TSA decides that passengers simply will not be permitted to board airplanes. You know, for safety.”
One more tool in my Travel toolkit – Network Location
One of the things I hate about travel (And I really do love traveling) is my laptop doing things I don’t want it to do, because it doesn’t know we’re traveling.
Thankfully, what I assumed was just a natural state of affairs, I had no control over, turns out to be a completely manageable process, thanks to Network Location. I would have never known this app existed, if not for twitter. Someone (I don’t recall who) pointed out the One Finger Discount site, and after looking over the offerings, I was clicking purchase.
It was especially good timing. I was leaving for a trip to San Jose, so I’d get to test the app out. Set up is really straight forward. You define your locations (Home, Office, Travel, Starbucks, etc)
The things that get me, are printers, Time Machine, etc. When I’m traveling for work, I almost always have my portable HP printer, so I’d like to not have to remember to change printers.
Events, fun and why i do them
360|MAX
Adobe MAX is the annual “geek out” for those of us doing anything with Adobe technologies. It’s a huge event, costs a metric buttload, and is usually pretty over the top. It’s also hugely fun, and a great way to see folks who don’t come out for other events typically. It’s also nice to attend an event that I’m not organizing, or at least not organizing much of.
360|Conferences does an unconference at MAX, to bring some community to the event. It’s always a good time, we get some great speakers to give us some time and share what they know. It was really cool this time that we had some more interesting topics; Arduino/Flex interaction, How a rock band uses Flex/AIR and even iPhone in their performances, etc.
It was a good time.
Next time, we’ll limit talks to 30 minutes. It’s about double the sessions, but I think 30 minutes is a good time slot, we can get more great topics going.
The funnest part of my job (If I can call it that) is doing different types of events. They’re not just always the same event over and over. Even 360|Flex and 360|iDev, while super similar, and based on the same ideals, are vastly different. Then throw in Ignite, 360|FlexPress, and hopefully a Festival of Books, and it’s just a great time bringing people together!
Palm – So close yet so far
So that long and drawn out story, is the crux of why Palm is likely to not be around next year. The Pre certainly won’t be. You can’t dick developers around and show them no love, and expect them to flock to your platform. You can’t air creepy ass commercials and sponsor Burn Notice, and hope that makes your device compelling.
You can’t follow Apple’s lead and hope somehow it works for you. Palm should have looked back over the iPhone’s life, at every complaint, and shortcoming, and the Pre should have delivered every single one right out of the gate. Did they? No.
I’m putting it down for all the internet to see, The Pre, and likely Palm aren’t long for this world… I’ll add one caveat. Either get a new Developer Relations guy, or take the lame chains off, and let him do what he wants, how he wants, to get people interested in the Pre, and do it NOW. I know I might as well have said, if Vulcans land and show us Warp
Calling Mobile developers
For those that might not have heard, Tom and I are organizing InsideMobile, the end of this month.
InsideMobile is a 2 day event, starting Sunday July 26th with a full day of hands on training in Palm Pre/Mojo SDK, PhoneGap, and even mobile app design.
Why I bought an iPhone 3GS
I’ve got my 3GS (so space any more in the name) now. It’s great.
I just got it, literally, a few days ago. No I didn’t rush out to order one at WWDC after the keynote. I didn’t go wait in line at an Apple store, or any other variation on fan boy-dom. Oh and I could have, because I nver bought a 3G and bought my 2G on ebay, so I’ve been contract free for a while.
No longer.
I wasn’t sold on the 3GS. for one thing, it’s still aesthetically ugly IMO. It’s plastic, which I don’t like. I don’t like it because plastic feels crappy. I don’t like it because when the 2G came out, Apple made a big deal about plastic sucking and the aluminium body being so nice. I agree.
360Flex Indy, done
It was nice for Tom and I to share that InsideRIA, InsideMobile, and 360|iDev are in full force effort mode, coming in rapid succession this summer, starting in July. We’ve partnered with O’Reilly for the first two, and that’s crazy exciting. Tom and I have been working with our Pal Steve at O’Reilly on this idea since mmm well it probably started on the Ebay Town hall patio at the first 360|Flex, yeah it’s been a while in the making. The partnership should really open some door’s for O’Reilly and 360|Conferences.
Telemarketing is NOT something you have to do!
I’ve been stewing on this for a while now, and I can’t hold it in any more. Cold Calling, and in general telemarketing, SUCK!
I’m going to pick on conferences for two reasons. 1. it’s my business, and 2. Conferences most definitely should be be telemarketing, other businesses shouldn’t either, but conferences?!
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