Sunday, April 27, 2003
Sean vs Jesse 12:36 PM
Quite an interesting debate going on between Macromedia evangelist Sean Cornfield and .NET evangelist Jesse Ezell about what is the best platform for Rich Internet Applications: Flash Remoting or .NET. To see where it all started, read Jesse's blog about the limitations of Flash Remoting.
To me, it's apples and oranges. Flash is a front end and .NET is, well, a framework. But at the end of the day, there are results you can achieve with Flash that simply cannot be duplicated in .NET. The gist of Rich Internet Applications, I think, is that web sites can and should behave more like the desktop applications we're already familiar with. NewsDesk is a perfect example of this. NewsDesk was coded entirely in C#. But it's still a desktop app that requires the user to install the .NET Framework. This limits its distribution to late-model Windows computers.
Now imagine a program that offers a NewsDesk-style application that doesn't require the .NET Framework - one that can be installed on any operating system and that also runs dozens of other applications within the same interface. Sound familiar? (Hint: Macromedia Central.) What will developers use to create such applications? Flash MX. Plus Flash Remoting. Plus ColdFusion. Plus Java. Plus .NET. (See, Jesse? There's room for everybody.)
Don't get me wrong: I admire the power of .NET. But even the best-made .NET applications still resemble a mass of disconnected pages to the end-user. If you've ever tried searching for something specific on microsoft.com, you know what I mean. Web sites should behave like applications. They should have a Help menu with a searchable index. Isn't this, after all, the Holy Grail of web design? A seamless user experience?
Of course, even Flash has its limitations - for instance, bookmarking favorites and using the browser's Forward and Back buttons. But these limitations can be overcome. Take the Macromedia Exchange. Users can click the "Add to Favorites" icon to save a list of their favorite extensions, much like Amazon's Wish List. As the Web evolves, I expect that users' expectations will change, too. Eventually, the browser as we know it will no longer exist. We'll have always-on high-speed Internet connections and simply launch our favorite applications. Some will access the Internet, some won't. But the distinction between Web apps and desktop apps will disappear: the experience will become seamless.
I think that's what originally appealed to everyone about AOL. You could spend hours on it without even realizing you weren't "surfing the net." But even when you did visit a web site, you never left the cleverly branded AOL application. One-stop shopping. It may be several years before broadband enables experiences that rival desktop apps, much less consumer products like PlayStation, TiVo and cable television. But when that day comes, I have no doubt that Flash will be the platform of choice. Heck, the product is only seven years old. By the time Flash 12 hits the shelves, the convergence of computers, television, cable and radio will be complete. All our favorite content will be delivered across the Internet. Movies, games, books, music, education. Maybe by then I'll have saved up enough money to buy Visual Studio...
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Wednesday, April 23, 2003
DevNet Resource Kit Volume 3 5:40 PM
For those of you who are DevNet Pro and DevNet Essentials subscribers, yesterday Macromedia released DRK3. To quote Mike Chambers:
"This is our best DRK so far. It contains over 21 resources for Flash, Dreamweaver, and for the first time, ColdFusion. We think these new resources will shorten development time for common tasks and make some new things possible."
For starters, I like the idea of the Record Pager Custom Tag, since I just hand-coded recordset paging in ColdFusion the other day and it was a pain. The Calendar CFC and new Flash MX components also look interesting - especially the TextField component and ActionScript Data Validation Library. If you use ASP.NET, the Reference extension and new form controls for Dreamweaver MX are long overdue.
All right, I take back what I said about the new subscription model. The DRKs are worth it.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2003
JD on Central 10:06 AM
John Dowdell has more news about Macromedia Central. Apparently, Macromedia got swamped with beta requests. Instead of a few hundred, they got thousands.
This has forced Macromedia to broaden the Central beta, offering the first crack to a chosen few later this month, and a wider, developer SDK beta some time to follow. Already I see an obstacle to a Central project I had in mind: the inability to access the local file system for uploads. However, it seems likely that this will change before the final release. The good news is, Macromedia Central applications are built in Flash MX. According to the Breeze presentation, Central will ship with Flash components to enable developers to create a consistent user interface across applications. Best of all, it supports web services. I can't wait to get my dirty little paws on this.
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Sunday, April 20, 2003
youngpup.net 7:10 PM
Wow. Have you seen youngpup.net? This may be one of the best DHTML/CSS-driven sites I've ever seen.
This is what I meant when I said that many of Flash's effects can be accomplished by clever use of Dynamic HTML and style sheets. There's a lot of good free source code at youngpup, including javascript routines for client validation, sliding menus, pop-up windows, and watermarks (ypChaser). You can even download the entire site. I tested youngpup.net in IE6 and Netscape 6.2 and everything seems to be cross-browser compatible. Don't forget to spin the dial...
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Friday, April 11, 2003
Customer Service, Part 2 9:29 AM
Big Brother is alive and well. Apparently, because I used the "S" word in my last blog, Sprint and TrendMicro's InterScan software have refused to send it. Here's the InterScan message:
The attached message contained language that has been deemed inappropriate and was not delivered.
And here's the message from Sprint's mail server:
************* Content Filter Notification **************
The following mail was blocked since it contains sensitive content.
Source mailbox: xxxx@newman_zone.com
Destination mailbox(es): xxxx@mail.sprint.com
Policy: Prohibited Word Filter
Action: Quarantine
Sender, Content filter has detected a sensitive e-mail.
******************* End of message *********************
It's so objectionable, apparently, that Sprint can't even say "inappropriate." Instead, my missive is referred to as a "sensitive" email. I always thought I was sensitive, but it's nice to know that some automated corporate free-speech-filtering software concurs. Remember, people, content filtering is good for you. You want your ideas filtered. There are a lot of crazy people out there. Communists. Hippies. Card-carrying members of the ACLU! You must be protected from these evil-doers.
I'm reminded of Brando's line from "Apocalypse Now":
We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!
All I can say is, shit, if I had known that, I would have watched my language.
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Thursday, April 10, 2003
Been there, DevNet 7:08 PM
Been working on a project and haven't had any time for blogging lately. But I've got a few things to rant about.
1) I finally received DevNet Essentials in the mail the other day and - guess what? - no DRK1. I should have read the fine print. Now I'm going to have to shell out another 100 bucks for it. Argh...
2) Finally persuaded my hosting provider to install ColdFusion MX, but Flash Remoting doesn't work. Turns out Macromedia, in its infinite wisdom, elected not to include support for Flash Remoting on "multihomed Microsoft IIS servers" by default. Translation? I'm shit out of luck. Fortunately, Macromedia does offer this workaround, but so far my hosting provider doesn't seem very interested in workarounds.
[Start rant:] At what point did the service industry's motto change from "The customer is always right" to "Take it or leave it"? Seriously. Where was I when this happened? Shouldn't this have been on the cover of Time?
3) Recently, I decided to switch my satellite provider from Dish Network to DirecTV. Why? Because it took over a minute to download program information. I don't want to wait sixty seconds to find out that I've already seen this episode of "World's Most Amazing Police Chases." (I'm convinced there's really only one episode - they just keep renaming it.)
Before signing up with DirecTV, I phoned Dish Network and asked if they could upgrade my system. No. I asked to speak to the supervisor. He told me I'd have to pay $100 to upgrade my receiver. I said, "All right, I'm switching to DirecTV." [cricket...cricket] Cut to a week later: DirecTV is installed and it's great. None of the problems I encountered with Dish Network. It's a little pricier, but worth it. So I called Dish Network to cancel.
"Whaddaya mean, 'cancel'?" they said.
"I mean cancel. I got DirecTV."
"Why didn't you say something?"
"I did. I phoned. I even asked to talk to a supervisor. He said tough luck."
"Well, you must have talked to the wrong person."
[That's right, it's my fault.]
"We'll upgrade your system and give you three months of HBO and Showtime. Free."
"That's the deal I got with DirecTV."
"Six months."
"Plus it's installed in two rooms."
"Nine months."
"Two rooms, two receivers..."
"Twelve months, but that's as high as we go."
"Too late. It's already installed."
Truth is, it took The Cable Guy three visits to install the dish. At least he didn't force me to go jousting.
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Thursday, April 03, 2003
SQL Server Tip 2:54 PM
Has your 120-day trial of SQL Server 2000 expired? Fear not. A friend has informed me of a clever - and we think legal - workaround. When the trial version of SQL 2K expires, you are unable to administer your databases on SQL Server. However, the Visual Database Tools, such as Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer, do not expire. What good are the tools without a database? As my friend discovered, you can still use the tools to manage remote databases, such as those on your clients' servers. Big deal, you say?
According to my friend, you can also use SQL Server's Visual Database Tools to manage MSDE databases on your local computer. (You can download MSDE, also known as SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine, free from Microsoft.) I'm not 100 percent sure this is legal, but so far, I can't find any documentation on the Internet suggesting otherwise. Of course, this only applies to using MSDE on a development server. If you install MSDE on a production server, then you're probably breaking the law. However, I'd advise against that anyway since MSDE is optimized for 5 users.
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