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March 30, 2006

Microformats Extension for Dreamweaver

Very cool- the WaSP Dreamweaver Task force has released a beta version of the Microformats Extension for Dreamweaver, currently supporting hCalendar, hCard, rel-license, rel-tag and XFN. Not familiar with microformats? Catch up here.
This is an awesome example of how the WaSP task force not only helps advise and steer our products in the right direction to keep improving standards-compliance and accessibility, but roll up their sleeves and get directly involved. To quote extension developer and WaSP Strategy Lead Drew McLellan:

"Whilst a lot of our effort to date has been to work alongside Macromedia (after all, there is little point us tell you to use standards if the tool makes it hard to do so), there are some things not reasonable to expect the Dreamweaver engineers to tackle right away.

One such example is Microformats. As a rapidly evolving area of development, it makes sense to implement support as an extension rather than wait for another product cycle to come around only to find the state of the art has changed. Extensions are fairly quick to implement and can be easily updated with time.

The DWTF thought it would be good if we produced some basic extensions to help provide support for Microformats in Dreamweaver. A public beta is available today."

Right on.
You can read more about the Microformat Extensions for Dreamweaver - and download the current beta - from the WaSP website. Make sure to leave feedback and suggestions as you dig into it, of course. Thanks, Drew!

Posted by sfegette at 03:55 PM | Comments (4)

March 29, 2006

Pimp my TODCon Video Sessions

Indeed- as Jesse notes, I'm going to be speaking at TODCon 2006 in sunny Orlando, Florida this May, on both Optimizing Video for the Web (focusing on the front-end production of video that's headed towards digital delivery), and Delivering Flash Video (focusing on the latter half of that workflow- all the various ways you can rip up FLV video inside a Flash project). Although both will be based on material I've covered in prior presos, outside of the topics I'm considering the details for these 'open source'- what do you want to hear about under those two 'bucket topics'? Armed with the knowledge that I'll be using Flash Pro 8 and After Effects 7 for these sessions, pimp 'em out, folks- I want to make sure and cover the topics you REALLY want to know about.

Expected changes are such, of course- I plan to cover more audio cleanup/processing in my first (Optimizing) session, for example- as well as an extended section on keying (i.e. green/bluescreen removal) to expand on all the questions I got after my FlashForward Seattle preso. But I'll save any further tweaks/additions for addressing feedback I recieve from you.

Regardless of my presentations, TODCon Orlando should be a great conference all the way around- I personally love going to TODCon because the speakers are always top-notch, the setting is far more 'intimate' than the bigger conferences, and they always pick a great location year to year. See you there!

Posted by sfegette at 10:44 AM | Comments (6)

March 16, 2006

Flashforward 2006 Slides Posted

For those who were interested in a quick post-conference recap, I've re-posted the FlashForward 2006 slide deck for my Optimizing Video session, although note these are really just illustrations, pictures and bullet points that serve as a backdrop- the real presentation is what comes between the slides, both on the mike and in After Effects... ;-)

http://adobe.breezecentral.com/optimizingvideofortheweb/

(note: you'll probably want to hit 'Pause' and key through the slides at your own pace- Breeze tends to... well, Breeze thru 'em quite rapidly. I also recommend re-zooming your window to get it at full resolution.)

I'm on tap to present an updated version of this session at TODCon '06 in May along with another session focusing on the Flash side of the process, so if these slides pique your interest, make sure to show up and witness the full dog-n-pony show live and in person.

Posted by sfegette at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

London Bridge Studios - new Flash site

Seattle's famous London Bridge Studios just got a change of owners, and are opening up to the public after 13 years of private ownership- launching a new Flash-based site to give a virtual peek inside.

If the name doesn't ring familiar to you, I first heard London Bridge's trademark tones during the Seattle 'revolution' in the early 90s, with artists like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Mother Love Bone recording their most popular albums there. An amazingly warm, ambient room for rhythm sections - sure wish I'd had the chance to lay down tracks at LBS back when I was slinging a bass for a living myself. Enjoy!

Posted by sfegette at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)

GoToAndLearn Forums launched

Another link I missed while on the road last week or so- Lee Brimelow's awesome Flash tutorial site GoToAndLearn() just launched new companion forums for discussion of all the great educational content Lee's been ripping out. Definitely worth a visit, and if you haven't had the opportunity of diving into Lee's site before now, drop everything and click this link now. Seriously. Great stuff.

Posted by sfegette at 12:30 PM | Comments (5)

Sony Online - new PSP/PS3/Flash 8 sites

Two great new sites for Sony platform-gamers from Sony Online Entertainment/Station launched recently, that PSP freaks and PS3-hopefuls will find very interesting. (Did I mention they both leverage tons of Flash 8-specific features, too?)

First up- Untold Legends - Dark Kingdom, a PS3 game based on the popular Untold Legends series (I really enjoyed the PSP-based title, Untold Legends - Brotherhood of the Blade and am looking forward to ripping into it's sequel). Real-world physics are a big part of the game - and the website - this should be a really fun one.

Next, the Gods and Heros: Rome Rising website- an online RPG based in the world and mythos of ancient Rome, designed by Stieg Hedlund (lead designer of Diablo II, a personal fave), and co-published between Sony and Perpetual Entertainment. Although I usually avoid MMORPGs simply due to the amount of time they consume (can you say time sponge?), this looks like a really well-done game. I've heard really good things about the innovative combat system and squad-based development in the game, and must admit their teaser site (linked earlier) has me pretty curious.

Check 'em out!

Posted by sfegette at 12:08 PM | Comments (2)

LA Flash UG Portal Redesign

Just got a ping that the LA Flash User Group website just got a MAJOR upgrade- with RSS feeds and Flash-specific content aggregations, iCal support for their event schedules, it certainly looks like Fingerprint Media has been working overtime the last few weeks to put a new face on one of my more regularly-visited UG sites- nice job!

You can check out the new LA Flash site/portal here.

Posted by sfegette at 11:38 AM | Comments (3)

March 13, 2006

New-look WaSP site launches

It's official - the brand-spanking new redesign of the The Web Standards Project (WaSP) website was launched today at the SXSW open meeting! Jeffrey Zeldman cut the 'virtual ribbon' live on stage, and we got to witness the launch up on the projector screen while many of us liveblogged it (like this) in a key-tapping frenzy. You can thank Andy Clarke for the design (although he respectfully asks you blame Andy Budd instead, if you don't like it... lol!). Check out the new WaSP site, and most importantly- get involved! Great job, all. I'd rave more, but the meeting's still going on... ;-)

Posted by sfegette at 03:53 PM | Comments (14)

SXSW Day 2/3 Update

So much going on here at the Austin convention center it's hard to keep up- so I didn't (heh). Instead, I figured I'd post my personal highlights over the last 2 days, give or take.

Sunday, 3/12/06

Monday, 3/13/06 (today)

More from the show later today, I'll be hitting the WaSP panel and meeting starting at 3:30 (roughly an hour from now) and it should be a lively discussion on both sessions. Right now I need to find a power outlet in a BIG way- over and out...

::static::

Posted by sfegette at 12:27 PM | Comments (3)

March 11, 2006

Cote on Corpoblogging

The day seems to be progressing quite well over at the BarCampAustin con (though I'm definitely putting in the hardcore sneaker mileage today between the two locations!) - I'm sitting now in Cote's BarCampAustin session on corpoblogging, which is a very interesting subject to me. At the moment, the discussion is centered on the high-level challenges of being an individual voice amidst a large corporation- great subject, and one I certainly have a few opinions on myself... ;-)

It can be a real challenge to balance the social responsibility of working for a company that supports a blogging culture alongside the need to be honest, direct and 'real' in one's communication. Personally- I decided several years ago to keep my business opinions on this 'official' weblog, and my personal scribblings/annotated del.icio.us links/digg stories/etc. posted on my personal weblog (found here), but there's a lot of varying opinions on what's best for all concerned. As I'd been blogging on my personal website for a couple years before Macromedia even opened the blogging gates, this was more a concern when starting my 'corpoblog' than in changing how I was already blogging on a personal level. Whereas I used to post a few snippets on my personal weblog about the workplace, once I decided to 'go corpo' the split must made the most sense, personally.

Although I sometimes feel incredibly schizophrenic separating my brainstreams and opinions this way, in meatspace I've always made an effort to keep my personal and professional lives as separate as possible, so my blogging habits are really more a mirror of my own reality. I don't often bore my close friends in the 'real world' with day-to-day work discussions, nor am I particularly a fan of opening up my personal life for discussion in the office. But opinions in the room here vary greatly on this topic, and by no means do I find my solution one that applies to other personalities and situations.

So... how do YOU manage your professional vs. personal interests and opinions as a 'public voice'? It certainly helps me in volumes that Adobe has maintained a quite open and supportive attitude towards public-facing staffers like myself - so I do feel personally inclined to return the favor by keeping my more caustic and generally work-unrelated banter posted away from their servers - but not having the (mis)fortune of working for less tolerant companies in the past, I'm really curious as to how others have juggled the conflicts of interests that arise as a 'corpoblogger'.

Do tell?

Posted by sfegette at 11:20 AM | Comments (2)

SXSW day 1, morning adventures

Fighting off a fuzzy head from very little sleep, I headed over to the BarCampAustin site at 7am today to slap together an audio solution for the three 'zones' of the room. It's always a challenge to wire up a room you haven't seen before, but a few spliced cables later, I think they're set up for the day! I'll be headed back over in the afternoon to check in and hang out, but had to cut and head over to the main SXSW site for the first set of panels at 10am.

Coffee has sunk in, and I'm now in my first SXSW panel - "Traditional Design and New Technology" - chaired by AIGA's Liz Danzico and featuring panelists like Mark Bolton (BBC), Toni Greaves (Razorfish), Khoi Vinh (New York Times Online), and the always-dangerous Jason Santa Maria (who recently supplied the logo/branding for social bookmark newcomer Ma.gnolia).

I've been out of the design world for quite a while on a personal level and find this panel very intriguing as a look into new media design from the perspective of 'traditional designers'. Having worked in conjunction with traditional design/marketing groups I know I've had to take a 'print design' and graft it onto a site/online experience more times than I care to count. In the instant-gratification world of web design & development, it's become all too common to multipurpose design like this to speed up delivery of online assets/experiences, but this 'shortcut' process doesn't necessarily realize the potential of the interactive/online medium.

Mark Bolton summed it up well for me- we're not necessarily engaging the emotional response and connection with a viewer by leveraging the potential of motion, audio and interactivity as core tenets of the design process as well as we should. It's really interesting to hear varying opinions on this subject- great first session.

That being said, I'm going offline to listen more closely to what's being said. Back a bit later...

Posted by sfegette at 08:32 AM | Comments (2)

March 10, 2006

BarCampAustin

On a day where the local San Francisco weather actually saw snow, I'm quite glad to be in 90+ degree Austin Texas for SXSW 2006. But today was not as much about SXSW as it was setting up for BarCampAustin, my favorite anti-conference, running in parallel Friday night (tonight) through Sunday. Although I'll be spending most of my time at SXSW, I've been spending good chunks of my Friday helping whurley set up for the event at the Thistle Cafe (6th and Lavaca, if you're in Austin), and expect to be going back and forth between the two quite a bit. Tonight kicks off the BarCampAustin pre-event party/meet-and-greet session, starting at 7pm.

Tomorrow the BarCamp 'anti-con' begins, with a wide variety of speakers all day in three(!) 'zones' of the club, each of which we're going to be hooking up tomorrow morning with projector stations, wireless mikes, and (hopefully) Breeze simulcasts of the speakers from each zone. If you're looking for a party to hit tonight in Austin make sure to swing by the Thistle Cafe after 7pm and say hello, given how much whurley's Blackberry was ringing today I sense it's going to come unglued. ;-)

More details and photos from the con(s) as the weekend progresses, of course...

Posted by sfegette at 03:50 PM | Comments (4)

March 08, 2006

Headed to SXSW Tomorrow

Can't wait to get to Austin, Texas tomorrow for South by Southwest Interactive- it's been YEARS since I've hit a SXSW (was a touring musician with a mop of waist-length hair the last time I was at SXSW, in fact). Along with the WaSP task force sessions and Web Awards (in which Adobe's own Jen Taylor will be presenting the "Best in Show" award, no less!), I'm really looking forward to soaking in the experience, talking to as many people as possible, and hitting as many sessions as I can squeeze into a day without exploding.

If you're going to be in Austin and want to meet up, either shoot me a message in the SXSW Directory application(for attendees only- requires login) or drop a comment here and I'll try to meet up with you onsite!
(be sure to include your email address if doing the latter - it won't be published in the public comments, FYI)

I'm not speaking/presenting this trip (refreshing!), and will probably be hanging out at the lounge/day stage cafe between 3-4pm on both Sunday and Monday for the Studio/Creative Suite presos, FYI (to answer questions/etc.). I'll have my recording gear on hand, so if you have any particularly pointed questions/comments/suggestions for Adobe - or in general - track me down and get your opinions recorded. I'm all ears.

See you in Austin!

Posted by sfegette at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

Ely Greenfield's new blog

In the blogrush around the Flex/Ajax Bridge project, the fact that Flex developer Ely Greenfield has just kicked off his new weblog may have slipped past you in the chaos. Ely's the evil genius behind the Flex/Ajax Bridge, and although he's threatened to kick off a blog before now focusing on Flex-related topics, today he closed the deal.

So- make sure to check out and bookmark Ely's blog 'Quietly Scheming' (great name!), and don't forget add it to your favorite clientside aggregator - that is, if you're not hopelessly addicted to MXNA like all the rest of us blog-trolling saps. ;-)

Posted by sfegette at 06:51 PM | Comments (3)

Flex/Ajax Bridge - now on Adobe Labs

Want to leverage the communications and rich-media capabilities of Flex alongside the rich, browser-centric goodness of AJaXian applications? Then check out the Flex AJAX Bridge project- now live on Adobe Labs for immediate download - (to quote developer Ely Greenfield) "a small, unobtrusive library of code that you can insert into a Flex application, a Flex component, or even an empty SWF file to expose it to scripting in the browser". If you've been watching the Developer Center closely this afternoon, you may have already caught it slipping out.

In a nutshell, this is the Flash/Javascript Integration kit++.
(if you don't know what I'm talking about, click here.)

Incredibly cool (and a bit of a surprise, even for myself)! So go get your mitts on the bits ASAP, and make sure to check out the sample application here to see examples of the Flex/AJAX Bridge in full effect (note- this sample app requires Flash Player 8.5, which you can also get from Adobe Labs - but you've already downloaded the Flex 2 Beta, haven't you? ;-)

Posted by sfegette at 05:22 PM | Comments (2)

March 02, 2006

Flex 1.5 hot fix available for MSIE update

Both a hot fix and tech note for Flex 1.5 were issued today, addressing recent updates to the way active content is accessed in Microsoft Internet Explorer. An excerpt from the technote (links to the hot fix downloads can be found within the full technote, of course):

"Microsoft's update to Internet Explorer was published on February 28, 2006. This update changes how Internet Explorer handles some web pages that use ActiveX controls. Certain web pages, including the default Flex wrapper page for Flash Player, may require users to manually activate ActiveX controls by clicking on the control or using the TAB key and ENTER key.

More information on this update can be obtained from Microsoft at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945.

Posted by sfegette at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2006

My FFWD session slides - coming soon

Thanks to everyone who packed into the Adobe tech room at Flashforward Seattle for my session on optimizing Flash video this afternoon- it was a blast! As usual I ran a bit long on time, but not too long- but there's so much to say on the subject of optimizing video I could have probably rambled on for another hour. Let me know what you want to hear about next, of course.

Since so many of you asked for them afterwards, I'll do my best to convert and post the slide deck from my session at some point next week before I'm off again to South by Southwest in Austin- although the real guts of the preso is in my hyperactive babbling and After Effects hacking. In that respect, the slides may still be handy and useful to those who didn't attend, but those who were attending today- you got the best parts of it in person and this should help supplement your note-taking well. Keep posted.

I'm currently dropping off all my optical gear at the hotel before heading back out to the Flashforward film festival, which should be a complete blast. I've only heard rumors, as this is my first Flashforward, but given how well the event's been running so far I fully expect my expectations to be eclipsed. The only regret I have so far is that I mainly took video gear this time out, so I haven't contributed yet to the FFWD Flickr group, slightly more embarrassing given the fact that my own photostream has been at a standstill for about a month. Promise I'll get on that shortly, too.

I'll be wandering around doing 'pickup' interviews of random attendees tomorrow (for a side-project I haven't fully crystallized just yet - be sure to come over and say hello if you see me) and sitting in as many sessions as I can, but for tonight- I'm all eyes and ears. Blow me away, you Flashforward filmmakers!

Posted by sfegette at 07:09 PM | Comments (5)