Hey guys last night I got my invite key to the blist beta site. Its a pretty interesting Flex app for sharing a database with friends, family and really anyone you want to. Anyway if any of you guys are interested in seeing what they have built comment below and I will share the love.
I really want to know what you guys think of this app and how you might see it useful to you. Right now I am not seeing how I could potentially use it but maybe I am missing something. Mostly I see myself browsing docs others are sharing. Maybe it would be fun to keep some tutorials I want to put together in a blist doc. That way all you guys would be able to edit and improve the code in them. To build a better database of scripts we all regularly use. Whata you think?
Update: The guys at blist put up there live demo from DEMO today if you are interested in watching it also.
and wondering what is gong to be happening with flash. And if you guys are going to be killing off the mid to low flash developers as time goes by and on into the new flash players etc?
So here is my questions:
Why are we making it more difficult for non programmers to pick up actionscript and play with it? It used to be so easy for many types of designers/developers to open flash and instantly get a lot out of it. It seems like you have wanted to cater to the few that bitched about actionscripts non traditional programming format and not to the designers turned developers. Now we have gone into the AS3 days where we can't code on buttons (which is fine for me but maybe hard for others) and we can hardly code on the timeline for that matter. We are needing to start hiring engineers almost to develop flash sites now because its become so complicated to understand this new programming language. I mean this is what made flash so amazing in the past. I went to art school and got a job dong flash. And in two years I could code great sites and simple games. Now I am able to do about anything in AS2 but moving to AS3 has been a huge leap cause OOP is a completely new concept. And I think it is for MANY non traditional developers and developers wanting to pickup a product like flash WAS.
What does this mean to the future of flash? Are we going to see the traditional advertising flash sites start to fail due to budget and demand for creative engineers (which are few and far between) that want alot of money. Are you guys developing a product for app developers? Or for the MASS amounts of AS2 developers out here creating great creative work. I mean do you think flash would be where it is if it wasn't for designers to be able to open flash read a few tutorials and start tweaking code. The imperfections of actionscript coding style is what made it so appealing to SO many people worldwide. No longer can a creative director understand how to tweak a AS3 site without a tremendous amount of ramp up time to learn OOP concepts.
This new community you are trying to build is great for Flex/AIR but terrible for Flash. The creative appeal is falling away and now becoming a DEVELOPERS playground and not a 'devigners'/designers playground. You are going to find less and less designers converting to developers as time goes on making the gap that much wider between the two. And much harder for businesses to communicate between the two departments. Which will again kill the creative appeal to flash. All I ask is please be careful what you do with our precious flash. And don't forget about the mass amounts of developers that made flash what it is. By coming from a design background to become self taught flash developers who helped create the product you have today!
Wicked! The guys at wired.com and Matthew Hurst from MS Live Labs put together a kick ass flash piece to show you how our blogs work and get the posts to new vistors like YOU hopefully. Its kinda fun to see in a graphic! Go on over wired.com and check out the piece!
Hey guys so I finally got around to buying the Mac Heist Bundle today. In case you haven't heard about it its a neat promotion they are doing to help out some charities and also give away a bunch of cheap software. Alot of it is great software to share with friends who are wanting to learn some highend products but there are a few really great tools for more experienced users. One I am most excited about is CSSEdit. A friend of mine recommended it a while back and I have been meaning to try it out. The package also includes a nice screen capture tool called Snapz Pro X. It will be the true value for me out of this bunch, cause I've been needing a tool for doing some screencasting and since the bundle is $50 bucks and Snapz is usually $70 it was hard to pass up. I can't wait to try them out! Maybe I will post a screen cast or two about them. Oh and last but not least is 1password. This might be a neat tool to toy with but I am skeptical of its security and what I could be giving up if someone was able to access it would be catastrophic.
Update:
Shewww... well its all over and I'm installing the new iPhone firware as I post this! Can't wait to play with the new features. I hope that it will store my login to gmail now! I'm sick and tired of having to login like 60 times a day to check my mail on there. Ok not that much but still. Bleh!
What do we think? We got a new Macbook, the Macbook Air, and also Time Capsule which I cannot wait to get my hands on one. I hate having to have my notebook plugged into a USB to be backing it up with Time Machine. I know, I know pick your battles but damn it is 2008 let's start using all this great technology we have available! Oh and the new Apple TV and the new movie rental deal which sounds ok. New apps for the iPod Touch thats a great addition to that product. Glad they decided on that. But most of all I can't wait to start using the iPhone 1.1.3 updated phone. Since I have one it will affect me the most right away.
Well I guess that's it for now. I'll try and post some more as news unveils today and people get their hands on some of these products.
Oh and last thing? NO CD DRIVE on the macbook air?!?!? WTF? That's going to be something to see how people like that! I mean really? Remote disc drive? Can an office have like 10 machines setup to use one disc drive then? To weird for me right now. But I am glad to see them add the gesture pad. Can you make that a firmware update to my macbook pro? please?!?!?!
Check out the Apple MacBook Air commercial also. Lots of Fun!
So I did some work for Uniden GPS, and cordless phones for their booth at CES this year. Supposedly some of my animations were going to be in the interview they were doing with FOX 4 but they didn't quite get the spot I was hoping for! Errrr any way its kind of funny. Here is the link http://tinyurl.com/393sf9. Once there you have to click on 'North Texas Company Leads in Phone Industry'. Its seriously WAAAAAY in the background. Grrrrr so so close. Oh well maybe next year but for those of you that made it to CES maybe you got to see them! They were all built with Fuse and they run really smooth. Its great to be able to animate with Fuse it makes creative changes quick and painless. Thanks Moses!
Hey I thought I'd let you guys know there is a pretty great interview on thefwa.com where the interview mr. doob. Its a fun read to see what he is up to and a little insight into his life. If you're not familiar with him you should be. He is on the PV3D team, works for Hi-ReS, and has a great blog and demo site at mrdoob.com. Anyway its kind fun to notice how close most of us flash guys really are in personality and things we enjoy and are proud of. Jump on over to thefwa.com and check it out. Enjoy!
So I'm sure all of you are fully aware that the Consumer Electronic Show (CES 2008) is going on right now. So I'm not going to give you the 411 on all the news cause there are plenty of places to find all the info your heart desires. I just wanted to touch on a few things and say how exciting it is to see what all the new year has to bring us in the technology world! Lots of new devices running flash/air/flex apps. And just a huge barrage of new TV's and awesome announcements.
What have you guys seen that you're excited about? Can't wait to hear!
About Me
Name: Corban Baxter. I am a full time flash developer and lover of all technology, gadgets, art, photography, interface design and life in general.
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