Via her majesty. Using brainpower alone to control computers. I was kind of dismayed to hear they are already working on a wireless system. The whole cyber, wire’s in you, Johnny Mnemonic thing was always a future fetish of mine, but the last thing I’d want to do is apply Neosporin simply because I was plugged into Unreal for 8+ hours at a LAN party, and my neck got infected.
Blessing & Curse
The wet tears are clouding my vision. I furiously eat over-peppered, 5 hour old franch fries combined with the sweetness of a 180 calorie Hawaiin Punch (canned in Florida), hoping the odd combination will stem the flow of the horrible reaction I get from petting that damn cat. Instead, my sinus’ release, and my breathing becomes ragged as I constantly inhale to stem the flow.
…the whole time I’m frustrated. Being a geek, knowing shiot you can capitalize on in a year, still leaves you with little to do right now… assuming you’ve already capitalized on what you thought of last year, or are still working for another 6 months. Either way, being in the mix of tech things allows you a futurist’s ability to know what opportunity tomorrow holds.
I’m a man of action… at least, I keep telling myself that. And yet, there are so many things “coming down the pipe” that I’m afraid that my complacency while friggin’ waiting will cause me to become a lump in the middle of the road when the next waves of change come, crushing me into a sludge, which operating at the same speed attempting to reconvene my mass in an attempt to catch up to the current technology curve that changed in a blink of an eye. I get the same feeling everytime a new version of Flash is released. I wonder how the .NET people feel… or is that VB people. Geez, does that mean Flash people will start changing tech-species too?
I look at how service based architectures, inside of companies, are changing how things work. At this point, my experience has been with online stuff, but it’s funny… almost horrifyingly sobering to see their expectant attitudes towards occasionally connected content requiring to have some form of offline content… something, anything beyond a 404. Oh yeah… duh… I think to myself. I’ve been in the whole occasionally connected “thing” for awhile now. Well, if I have, I’ve taken little, tangible lessons away from whatever dellusional escapade I went on. Maybe I’m being too harsh. It is my first occasionaly connected project, but you would think I’d would of already had practice that would pay off. Guess not.
Still, I see where Macromedia is going with Central positioning, not placing. With all the made-more-visual trip ups of Avalon, it’s nice to have the extra time for better digging in. I guess, most of us, feel that for the here and now, are expectations are pretty high. We’ve raced so fast to the top of the hill, and kicked mad 180’s off of it, and are like, so… uh… Macromedia, gonna make a bigger hill? But instead, they go off and build shock-absorbers, market knee pads, chisel their back-ho’s teeth. (They invest in a new way to develop Flash form-based applications, build other technologies based on the Flash player, and enhance the current version of Flash).
I know that Central’s “time” isn’t now. Flash’s is, but Central’s isn’t. Director had his, and Authorware before that. For a geek, having your favorite “prog” have it’s time is a big deal for stroking your ego. My problem is… my attention span is about the length of a sneeze (yes, 2 of them), so my green pasture syndrome kicks in, and I wonder what’s next. I can seen Central as the next big thing, but my current job puts a monkey wrench in things. I’m building my own version, but way more specialized to my needs, and that is: our app is customized to the current technological goals. Less techno-bs, our Flash GUI is based around our web-services, and vice-versa. So, there are some Central elements, but nothing as large as the scope as Central in trying a plethora of needs. However, the repeating pattern I’m seeing is companies use service based architectures internally.
…and that is not what Central is based on. I hear that in a year, most business’ will be based on service based architectures (CNET/ZDNET, other biz-tech things per Erik). A fuggin year!?
As far as I’m concerned, Centrals main capacity in terms of value as it applies to me is a nice platform for building applications around web services. With some new tech rumblings coming down the pipe, I can see how Central’s technical challenges are being annihilated before it even breaks out of the infancy of a v1 app… an awesome stride.
But wtf is public AND useful? I can think of a couple… if I sat here for about 5 minutes, maybe a few… I’m sure people could commit even more over time perusing Central MX’s archives.
I shouldn’t have to think, though. There should be 50 million services making you drool and lament because of lack of time, lack of energy, lack of a clone. I don’t want to wait a year while this stuff is so bloody commonplace that it’s a matter of finding the time and place to plan out your attack, and execute within a reasonable couple week timeframe.
Securing a foothold, fortifying positions, ensuring future victories… don’t fight the battle unless you know you can win. Sun Tzu? Whatever, close enough. I agree with the decision.
I don’t want to wait a year.
AfterEffects to Longhorn: Repeat of History?
Talking with my co-worker Frankie about future plans I had heard about for AfterEffects and Longhorn. No, can’t remember where I heard it, but basically, plans for outputting either it or Premiere to Longhorn. Now, without getting into the nitty gritty details, basically envision your animation/composition (parts of it) are rendered in realtime via Longhorn. Since the animations are built into the OS for hardware + software accerleration, you have a new platform for distribution.
That, however, is not the point of this post. I think a few of us can remember an animation program that slowly obtained scripting and over time morphed into a totally different product. Flash. If I were Adobe’s CEO, the interjection and further development of the javascript ‘esque abilities in AfterEffects would be awesome if some of your “comps” (think Flash Graphic symbols) were scriptable with C#/VB when you exported to Longhorn. That’d be fuggin’ tight.
Job Market Full Circle
Summer of 2001, even before 9/11, the job market was pretty bad. I remember seeing my college colleagues drop like flies on a mailing list setup via our professor. Her majesty and I were the only ones out of a group of 10 left with jobs. Industry events were typically somber affairs as meetings got less and less enthusiastic about new work, and more about is there work, who do you know, and frankly can I have a job?
“Will design and/or code for food” was the mantra of the day.
Fast-forward 2 years to today. At the Atlanta Macromedia Users’s group watching the Breeze presentation from Macromedia about upcoming products and features.
7 Flash positions. Seven. Absolutely nuts. Everyone in the room was so apathetic when the job announcements were made, too, because … well, most of them were hiring vs. being talent to hire, me included (looking for 2). The same held true for after meeting networking, and the need for contractors. I don’t carry business cards for a reason.
This won’t last long kids… Flash is hot; milk it!