Life As An Evangelist » Duane “Chaos” Nickull

Flash on mobile, the facts.

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I got an email from fellow Adobean Danny Winokur in my inbox discussing the state of the union with respect to Flash on the mobile. The synopsis of the conversation went something like this.

Flash Player 10.1 is now beginning to ship in volume on many smartphones. Many of you may have seen the attached full page Motorola ad which ran on Friday in the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. There are other similar ads being planned by major carriers and handset manufacturers. This is the culmination of years of co-development to migrate Flash (not just Flash light) to the mobile. Some have criticized Adobe for not doing this earlier but the reality is that the technology just wasn't ready earlier (hardware, software and infrastructure).

As the masses are starting to understand that video performance challenges on mobile devices, the truth has started to emerge that many of these issues are not isolated for Flash. Many of the technical issues are a function of the hardware capabilities and the drivers which expose them. Just for one example, if you take the same video with the same encoding and use any other player technology, and it is likely to perform about the same or worse than when played using Flash (the abc.com problem stems from code on their site which tries to use the hardware decoder for two snips concurrently, while the hardware only allows one - a constraint shared by any player on this hardware).

Flash video performance, along with other video experiences on mobile, should substantially improve. We are all in still in the genesis days of mobile and the truth is that a consistent experience over multiple screens and devices is a lot of work. As Adobe rolls out improvements such as StageVideo in future releases, allowing video to be sent directly to the screen (instead of being returned to the Flash Player) after being decoded in hardware, these experiences will get better and better. This point, among others, is made articulately here:
http://www.streaminglearningcenter.com/articles/the-five-key-myths-about -html5.html?page=1.

As others have right noted, the way to get great performing video on mobile devices is for content publishers to encode in ways that are supported by mobile *hardware*.

I don't expect the naysayers to be quiet any time soon. Several of my brethren on Slashdot have already complained bitterly about the intrusion of Flash onto their devices. The reality is that it is the users choice. Adobe, as I understand it, has never been concerned about forcing things on users. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The exec's I talk to seem quite concerned about people having the choice. If they don't want Flash, they can turn it off. I myself turn of a lot of features on my Nexus 1 Android device when I am not requiring them to save battery life. When I want my GPS data, I turn it on. Flash is no different (although it has been architected and engineered not to squander device resources when not in use). Long live choice!

I am stoked about the future of mobile. It took me a while to get there but now that we are rolling it out, many of the enterprises I am working with are bombarding me with new ideas for extendingh their infrastructure to mobile. Some of these are simply items like extending a Livecycle ES business process to a Droid device or as complex as dynamic routing changes in task assignment due to geo-location. Very cool.

LiveCycle@MAX pick of the week!

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:11:00 +0000

This week, I have selected what could be one of the single best sessions at MAX 2010. Not only is this session extremely relevant to a lot of enterprises as they migrate some enterprise functionality to mobile, it is also taught by my long time friend and business partner Matt MacKenzie along with Stacy Young. For those of you who do not know Matt, he is an extremely talented architect and probably the smartest developer I know. Stacy's credentials are simply too long to list and is every bit as talented at Matt!

Matt came to Adobe with me as part of the Adobe acquisition of Yellow Dragon Software and has moved steadily up the rungs of the LiveCycle team. He is now heavily involved in the outreach of core LiveCycle functionality to mobile platforms. This is a session I want to attend and trust me, this will sell out fast. Register today here if you plan to attend. This one already has a second session added due to popularity and IMO will fill up fast.

The Mobile Enterprise (click on title to see the official listing)

Registration LINK HERE

Hear from product experts and discover how you can extend your enterprise to iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices by leveraging the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite platform. The session will include best practices for integrating business processes, accessing shared content, and developing forms for use on mobile form factors.

Tracks:    Develop
Audience:    Architect, Partner Decision Maker, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level:    General Audience
Product:    LiveCycle ES
Speakers:    Matt MacKenzie, Stacy Young
Times:
Tuesday, October, 26th, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Wednesday, October, 27th, 8:00 am - 9:00 am

Serge launches MAX Un-awards!

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:04:00 +0000

My friend and fellow evangelist Serge Jespers has just released a new "widget" for MAX.
It's not really a traditional widget anymore but a personalized interactive video where you can create a MAX un-award. I have already won awards, most notably for "Hardest Working Evangelist" and "Most Timid Developer".

Every video generates its own tweet so if you see a cool video in the player, just click on the share menu and post it on Twitter or any other social network.

Have fun! See you at MAX!

LiveCycle ES Pick of the week: A Case Study

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:40:00 +0000

In the past few months we have been selecting a new LiveCycle@MAX track to promote as the Pick of the Week via Technoracle. One type of session that provides a lot of value is the case study so this week we are proud to present the following track.

Just as a reminder, whether you are a business person, developer or architect, if you are planning to attend MAX in 2010 and want to take a serious dive into LiveCycle ES, it is highly recommended to register ahead of the deadlines. In addition to saving money, you will likely find out that the selection of available sessions is far greater the more you book in advance. Several of our sessions sold out in previous years well ahead of the deadlines.

This week's pick:

Transforming the Value of IT for Government through Modernization at South African Revenue Service

Come see how the South African Revenue Service (SARS) provides improved benefits and services delivery to customers through online, automated tax filing. e@syFile is a set of Adobe AIR applications that leverage the Flash Platform and Adobe LiveCycle to enable manual and electronic tax filing. The solution delivers one form that is used in multiple channels, including print, web portal, branch/on-demand print, and offline via AIR. Using the system, SARS achieved 100% application adoption in two years and now collects in excess of 35 billion rand per month, equaling 60% of the South African revenue.

Tracks: Envision, Design, Develop
Audience: Architect, Partner Decision Maker, IS/IT, Web Developer, Application Developer, Business Decision Maker
Skill Level: General Audience
Products: AIR, Creative Suite, Flash Builder, Flash Player, Flex, LiveCycle DS, LiveCycle ES
Speakers: Rob Pinkerton, Barry Hore, Christopher Belford
Times:
Tuesday, October, 26th, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

I'll see you there!

Flash Player 10.1 really a major release?

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Having used Flash Player 10.1 for a while now, I am blown away by the number of very cool advances. Most of these are subtle yet some are of staggering implication. Recently, I came accross a video made by Neil Trevett from NVIDIA where he discusses GPU acceleration in Flash Player 10.1. The video showcases how Flash Player and NVIDIA offload work from the CPU to the GPU (NVIDIA’s ION chip). The results are very impressive, enabling Flash Player to provide HD video on a range of devices — even the smaller netbooks.

As Neil says, “Flash Player 10.1 is a real advance for Flash Player, actually much more than the ‘dot one’ would indicate.” I am tending to agree with him. Here is the video:

Adobe AIR Launchpad – WOW!!!

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:00:00 +0000

So it seems that while I was sitting in the hospital, my colleagues were designing and delivering one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The Adobe AIR Launchpad kick starts any RIA project by allowing you to import a pre-built project with the major functionality groups you need. The URL is http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/airlaunchpad.html ( you are going to want to download this as soon as you finish reading this blog). According to the labs website:

"Adobe AIR Launchpad is a new desktop tool that helps Adobe Flex® developers get started building desktop applications deployed on Adobe AIR. Simply run Adobe AIR Launchpad and select the capabilities you need; Adobe AIR Launchpad will create a ready-to-import Flex project with your selected features implemented in a way that can be easily modified and extended. You can use the resulting project as a starting point for your AIR application."

I decided to try it out. Since I have been sick my imagination seems to lack a bit so I just picked a random set of things for the application. You can drag and drop icons and select the application descriptor file settings from the main GUI as shown below:

From the next wizard menu you can select items like global error handling, detection of idle time or network capabilities etc.

and finally, the ability to select some standard types of things many developers would use.

and generate your project!

I imported and opened up the resulting project and found all the generated code and assets neatly placed into the same directory structure I would have used. Very cool!

I did have one small red X in the project which was thrown as the compiler did not recognize "e:UncaughtErrorEvent".

It turns out I failed to read the instructions (seems to be a major pattern in my life) that clearly instructed me to use the Flex SDK 4.1. I just wanted to post this here in case anyone else, like myself, believes reading the manuals are only a last resort. I can hear my teachers back in school now:

Duane. You must read this great novel about a Spanish guy named 'Manual'.

From Technoracle, Adobe AIR Launchpad scores a solid 9/10 for the first release, largely due to the fact it saves lazy developers like me a lot of work!

MAX Pick of the Week

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:59:00 +0000

Well, I am not really fully back at work but since I have a computer in front of me, figured I'd get a little work done. Every week (barring the hospital stay) I have been promoting a different MAX 2010 Livecycle ES session. This week, the session I will promote is one I am co-leading with Scott MacDonald. If you do not know who Scott is, he is the guy who writes most of the Livecycle ES Quickstarts and has a full depth of knowledge when it comes to LC ES. If you've ever needed to integrate LC ES with CMS or invoke an API remotely, you need to meet Scott!

This session is for anyone who has worked with Livecycle ES and found a need to extend it. It can be quite daunting your first time and that is why we have put this session together. Building and deploying a custom component and integrating Livecycle ES with other J2EE environment applications should not be feared. Once you have the know how, it is actually very easy due largely to the great architecture and abundance of collateral to help you. This session will impart this knowledge to attendees and you'll walk away with more than your money's worth for a 90 minute session.

Here is the session - register now:

Extending LiveCycle ES for Java Developers

Join product experts and others as we work through the process of creating a Plain Old Java Object (POJO) that will be packaged and deployed to the Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite service container as a custom component. Once your component has been deployed and activated, you'll then explore several invocation methods (SOAP, REST, and Remoting) to call your newly available service.

Tracks: Develop
Audience: Architect, Web Developer, Application Developer
Skill Level: Advanced
Products: Flash Builder, LiveCycle ES
Speakers: Duane Nickull, Scott MacDonald
Times:
Monday, October, 25th, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

See you there!

UPDATE on Meningitis/Kidney failure

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:11:00 +0000

Hey everyone. I am so humbled by the thousands of comments, messages, emails, SMS's etc. I have received. I am truly the luckiest person alive to have so many great friends and it made a huge difference when I was sitting in the hospital room alone. You’re all correct – I’m gonna kick this sickness in the arse so hard it won’t come within a 1,000 KM of Vancouver. Cannot believe I was even thinking of letting this thing make me a victim.

So I got the renal biopsy done on Thursday and the first results were in Friday AM. The unbelievable is happening - > my own kidney’s seem to be starting to heal themselves (prognosis was less than 5% this would happen). The Creatinine score fell from over 350 to 314 with no treatment. It’s too early to tell if this is a real trend or not but I’m gonna ride this wave as if it is. There is still a long road ahead to full recovery but the best thing happened. I got discharged from the hospital after two weeks and am now getting treated as an outpatient. This means I get to be at home to recover. I still have to have daily blood tests and monitoring done so it will be a while before I am back to full speed.

I also set a short term goal to be able to play with 22nd Century on Sept 2nd at the Backstage Lounge for Jesus Krysler’s CD release party along with Blackburn X and Helmz Deep. Focusing on this show as a goalpost will help. I hope you'll join me there.

Again – I really want to thank you all. Please accept apologies if it takes a while to individually thank you but know you made a huge difference.

Peace love and chaos!

duane

Spinal Meningitis (not Spinal Tap)

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:22:00 +0000

Friends – I want to thank all of you for your immense support during the last two weeks. The support and well wishes from friends and family was extremely critical for me to have while being in an isolation chamber in a hospital thinking I was dying. Right now I am on a short reprieve of 12 hours ( must be back at VHG at 07:00) but wanted to write to update you all on what has happened and the current status.

Basically, in the early morning hours two weeks ago, I was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital with near paralysis and severe pain in my head and torso. This was a complete shock as there was no prior indication anything was wrong and I have enjoyed great health most of my life. After several tests including a spinal tap to retrieve spinal cord fluids, the diagnoses came in as Spinal Meningitis. For those of you who do not know this illness, 70 percent (http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbmening.htm) or more of bacterial meningitis cases were fatal before antibiotics were developed and with antibiotic treatment, the fatality rate has dropped to 15 percent. The hospital basically pulled out all the stops to rid me of this disease.

Unfortunately, in doing so, they introduced a wide spectrum anti-viral medication into my blood stream. My kidneys reacted very badly and I currently have a creatinine count of around 357 (when I came into the hospital, the count was 62). 300 + is a very bad score indicating kidney impairment (ref: http://www.medicinenet.com/creatinine_blood_test/article.htm). Currently the doctors are trying to find both the exact reason for the high creatinine count as well as a cure. Tomorrow morning I will get a kidney biopsy (basically a series of 6 drill tests through the kidneys) to try and find exactly what has gone wrong. The results will not be known for a while (Monday maybe) and I will update here.

I want to acknowledge the support of my wife and all my family and friends. There is nothing specific we need at this time so please just well wishes and if you really want to do something, be nice to a random stranger tomorrow. Knowing my life is influencing people I do not know in a good way is the best gift you could give.

Thank you again.

Peace, love and may your code compile on the first try!

SOA has not failed, Adobe’s Enterprise Software successes

Duane "Chaos" Nickull — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:09:00 +0000

Recently I have seen more than a few people jump on the "SOA has failed" bandwagon. My perception is different. I have actually seen many platforms that adopted the core principles of SOA, as defined by the OASIS Reference Model for SOA, flourish and owners reap large rewards.

Adobe's own platforms are a primary example of this. Having recently written about the differences in patterns of SOA vs REST within the Flash Platform, I now feel compelled to point out that SOA is far from dead. In fact, I received an internal email today within Adobe that clarifies this point. The email outlined the percentages of the top companies that are using Adobe LiveCycle ES or other Adobe enterprise software. This was published in last week’s Adobe internal business intelligence website and while I cannot divulge the raw data sources, I believe this to be accurate.

Fact: Over 27,000 Companies use Adobe Enterprise products (Connect, Flash Builder, LiveCycle).

Fact: These products embrace the concept of services to enable consumers to gain access to blocks of functionality encapsulated within the software. Acrobat Connect is even deployed using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

All Industries
22 of the top 25 global companies, as measured by Forbes, use Adobe Enterprise products.
23 of the top 25 U.S. companies, as measured by Fortune, use Adobe Enterprise products.
23 of the top 25 European companies, as measured by Forbes, use Adobe Enterprise products.

Banking Industry
7 of the top 10 global Banks use Adobe to deliver better customer experiences.
16 of the top 20 U.S. Banks use Adobe to deliver better customer experiences.
23 of the top 25 global Banking companies, as measured by Forbes, use Adobe Enterprise products.
20 of the top 20 U.S. Banking companies, as measured by Fortune, use Adobe Enterprise products.
10 of the top 10 European Banking companies, as measured by Forbes, use Adobe Enterprise products.

Insurance Industry
24 of the top 25 global Insurance companies, as measured by Forbes, use Adobe Enterprise products.
7 of the top 10 U.S. Insurance companies, as measured by Fortune, use Adobe Enterprise products.

This does not sound like SOA is failing to me. In fact, far from it. Services will be around for a long time in the future. Why? The concept of services is durable. It will be relevant over many generations of the same technology and it will also be a form of architecture practiced in new technologies.

One of my friends recently stated that "SOA is dead" then followed it up with "long live services". This caused my brain to spin a bit. If an architecture has services, wouldn't that make the architecture ipso facto service oriented? Perhaps I missed something?

If you are new to LiveCycle ES and want to get up to speed, do not overlook the benefits of coming to Adobe MAX 2010. Be warned however that space is filling up fast.

Final synopsis: SOA is not dead. Services will continue to be the dominant action boundary between capabilities and consumers of those capabilities who may be from disparate domains of ownership.

Long live SOA!!!