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October 28, 2004
Director Case Study: eLECTIONS: Your Adventure in Politics
Just a heads up for everyone, we just posted a new Macromedia Case Study that outlines how Director and Flash were used together to create educational content about the political process here in the United States. It's a quick read worth taking the time for, plus you can check out the content yourself, have a look:
eLections: Your Adventure in Politics
Cheers,
Tom
Posted by thiggins at 12:09 PM
October 26, 2004
Join us for a Director Get-Together in New Orleans!
Together with Integration New Media, we would like to invite those of you in the New Orleans area, and those attending MAX to a Director get-together. This will be an opportunity for Director developers to meet-up and talk.
When:
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 at 7:00pm
Where:
Kabby's Sports Bar
Hilton New Orleans Riverside
Two Poydras Street,
New Orleans, LA 70140
1-504-561-0500
The evening will start off with a little Macromedia/Integration New Media quiz game! This will be your chance to showoff your Director knowledge and to win some great prizes, including Director and INM merchandise and INM product licenses. There will also be a little something for the first arrivals so be sure to get there early!
If you would like to join us, please let me know so we can reserve enough space (add a comment to this post, thanks).
Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Tom
Posted by thiggins at 11:43 AM
October 22, 2004
Changing Job Roles
Some of you might be quick enough to have noticed that I recently updated my email signature and am listing myself in a slightly new job role. I wanted to take a moment and explain the change so folks outside of Macromedia understand how Emmy and I will be working together as Product Managers for both Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player.
Until recently I was the Product Manager for Director whereas Emmy was the Product Manager for the Shockwave Player. In this arrangement I personally felt that my talents and experience weren't being used as I would have liked and so I asked to speak with folks about a change. My key strengths lie in being close to the product, in using Director and Shockwave every day, I am not robust when it comes to handling the business side of things and as such I wasn't performing at the level I prefer.
The fallout of our discussion was that Emmy would take over as Product Manager for both Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player while I would transition into a role of Technical Product Manager for both Director and Shockwave. This allows us to work together a bit more efficiently and play to each other's strengths.
So all in all there's nothing drastic in this change except that folks can be assured that I will find myself "in the saddle" a bit more in Director than I have been the past few months. I feel like my favorite toy was taken away from me as I was off working on other more management/business related items, but no more! That's all, we're both still here to help out and answer questions so drop us a line anytime.
Peace and have a good weekend all.
Cheers,
Tom Higgins
Technical Product Manager
Macromedia Director and the Shockwave Player
Posted by thiggins at 04:20 PM
October 04, 2004
X Prize won! Privateers go to space!
Ok folks, this is completely unrelated to Macromedia's software tools but this is some news that really excites me personally. I come from a science background, having obtained a degree in physics and pursued part of a masters degree in the same field, and so the news that Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites and Mojave Aerospace Ventures LLC have officially won the X Prize is of particular interest.
The X Prize is a $10 million dollar prize that was to be awarded to the first private venture into space. The idea was that only through private commercial innovation will space travel become something that the masses can enjoy. Burt Rutan, a talented and revered aircraft designer, designed and led the construction of a truly revolutionary aircraft which as of today, Monday October 1st, 2004, officially claimed the X Prize by completing its second trip outside of Earth's atmosphere within a two week window.
One of the more interesting bits of information about this effort is that it is all privately funded, no government backing was allowed in order to have won the X Prize. That means that private financiers with deep pockets were needed, and of note is the fact that a majority of the $20-30 million US dollars invested in this projector came directly from of Microsoft fame. Wow...
It's all very exciting and to me serves as a critical milestone in human kind's quest to break the bonds with Mother Earth and explore the vastness of outer space. If you're interested in reading more, here are a few links to start with:
Ansari X Prize Website
Scaled Composites Website
Mojave Aerospace Ventures LLC
I'm personally thrilled at this development, don't think it could have happened to a better team led by a more deserving man, Burt Rutan. Please read about it.
Posted by thiggins at 10:06 AM