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  • 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.

  • Drinking Tip

    When doing shots, don’t keep your gum in your mouth. First, it absorbs the salt, and becomes pretty nasty to chew. Later, it retains Tequila flavor when you least want it. bleh, poo, blaaaahh….

  • Need a Flex Author: Part Deux

    I have a Flex book writing opportunity. If your interested, hit me up!

  • Failed Online Music Store Silver Lining

    Via Flex-mx.com.

    Although the music store project was put on hold, and from the sound of things, for another 2 years (until 2% becomes something around 11%+ as far as online sales vs. traditional CD’s based on the history lesson of retail vs. online sales), the awesome point I take away from this is that Flash was chosen as the technology vehicle to create the front-end of an online music store, a competitor to Apple’s iTunes.

    That’s powerful.

    That decision alone sets a precedent in garnering trust & confidence in using Flash to develop powerful applications. Considering the project was started early 2003, and looking around at all the Flash developer jobs, one can see this as merely one positive ripple.

    Sounds to me like it was the right decision to put the project on hold, but a shame we couldn’t also have a proof of Flash technology taking large companies’ visions and using them as a competitor against Apple, Sony, Microsoft, etc. That’s still just awesome.

    Additionally, considering the investments of 2002, a horrible year for me business wise, it still sounds like many of the big guys are still looking for the pioneers to do what they do best; get the arrows in their backs so the big boys can better plan their strategies. There is so much opportunity out there…