Another year...so wat?

It is Jan 1, 2009! Happy New Year everybody!

By now, the new year celebrations are almost over. Some 25% of the people are at work punching on their keypads cursing their boss' for making them work today, another 10-15% of the people are still asleep after the party, some 3-5% of the people are thinking that they will change this year and make 2009 really count as a big year for themselves, around 10% of the people are busy doing things they love and spending time with the family and finally there are 10% of the mass who, like me, think "It is another year..so?"

I will be a year older, may sit at the same seat talking about the same kind of things, it will be the same even this year. Nothing much is going to change. People will still fight, kill and the tolerance levels will still decline. People will still talk about events that terrorize and keep us worried. What is really there to celebrate? "New Year Resolutions" is the most over-rated, hyped phrase, says Jim..and Jim is right!

The above paragraphs of this post might make you think I am a total loser, huh? Well, I am not. I live a happy and successful life with my family. It is just that the whole "New year buzz" has got me thinking a bit. A lot of it seems so artificial to me.

2009-01-01 is a great day to reflect upon the past and make changes to make today better. I remember a saying – "You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future."

AIR, Water and Fire!

As the world keeps turning, people are getting poorer and the application world is getting richer! The Economic depression is certainly getting messier by the day. Adobe cut about 600 jobs, Google cut some jobs too and looks like that is going to continue for a longtime. Companies that were once in the forefront of business development are stepping careful. A lot of people I know don't know where they are headed. Well, I do hope things get better now than never!
Eventhough I couldn't attend Adobe MAX 2008, due to the obvious cost factor, I made sure that I stayed up with the latest news! "Thermo" finally got its real name - "Flash Catalyst" and the "Flash Platform" was announced! I know I am quite late in blogging about it, but, I am not covering the MAX :)
"Rich Applications" (not just the web!) always interested me. I was really happy when those old "formy" looks were thrown out of the window. "UI" gave way to "UX" and the world is a better place to live. When colour was introduced, application power wasn't lost..infact.. apps became more powerful. We have the best of both worlds - a fast growing powerful web and a richer more functional desktop. I started my professional life as a designer and thought Flash was just a "Splash screen" menace. Well, those were the days of the dial-up! Within a couple of months, I was swearing by Flash (Flash 4 then)! It never crossed my mind, back then, that Flash would become a whole platform - the web, the mobile, the desktop..world domination?!?? ;-) Today, my world revolves around Flash, Flex and AIR.
Eventhough I am only developing my 2nd application in AIR, I've grown to love it. My first app was an MP3 player. I am not really proud of the player, but, its my "Hello World" app! The app (more of a utility) that I am working on currently is called "Fetch". In a nutshell, its a sort of a Favourites Bar which syncs with your desktop, del.icio.us and google bookmarks. It is a simple application to make. I just love working with APIs. My next app is a more complicated one - a Project Management Tool to me and my colleagues with our day-to-day work. Its more of a personal project that I am still in the process of creating specifications and project flow. Theres a lot of studying before that, since, this is sort of custom built. Interesting times ahead!

Flash CS4 - Yet another review.. its different!

Yeah, this is yet another review of Flash CS4, but, its different! Most reviews I came across talked about the same things - kinematics, new UI, 3D, Share my Screen feature, Object-based animation, the all new and improved font rendering engine etc. All these are fine and really..truly amazing and awesome. But, there are those little things that haven't been discussed about much. I just thought I'd put them together. So, here goes..
INSTALLATION: Ok, so, the first thing one notice's is the installer. Installing 888MB worth of an application takes longer than I expected. ON my Vaio, it took nearly 45mins. I am not sure why, though. Also, the 2 file
installation setup is kinda strange. GUI: The new interface I thought was kewl. The panels are still a bit.."grumpy". Personally, I would have preferred the Properties panel at the bottom. Maybe because I am used to it. So, I docked the panel at the bottom. As is the case usually, I clicked the panel header and the panel didn't open. It still sat there collapsed. I tried pulling it up, which, didnt help either. After a few tries, I gave up and docked the panel back to the right-side. 2 days later, I got an idea and tried that out - I expanded the Properties panel on the right-side, undocked it and docked it to the bottom. This time, it worked! The next time I started up Flash..the panel
wouldn't expand. So, I tried the same thing dock to side, expand, dock to bottom, click to expand.. it didn't work. I decided to leave it on the side. The thing is.. usually.. lets say, for expample, I want to change font for 5 static text. I could have the Properties Panel expanded and select each text to change font. Now, if I had to do that, the Properties Panel would collapse each time a textfield loses focus and I need to re-expand the Properties Panel to select the font...takes a minute more now, huh?I love the new breadcrumbs. They are movable and really kewl to move them around in order of preference.
COMMON LIBRARY: This was something that disappeared for about 3 versions of Flash. Now, its back and with lots more. It used to be a pain to search for sound effects, now, thanks to Adobe, we have lots of them! Thats awesome!
COMPONENTS: When the V3 components were introduced, I really thought they gave added a lot of value to the interface. Skinning was really easy! I am still wondering why useful data components like Webservice component and the XML Connector component didnt make a comeback... in a different avatar maybe. Ofcourse, clever developers would make an XMLParserClass and keep it in the code library for maximum reuse :).
CREATE NEW SYMBOL: Did you know that the "Create new Symbol" (comes up when you Insert>New Symbol) window has undergone a makeover? Well, it has..and its something really good. On Flash CS4, you get to select the symbol type from a combobox, which replaces the radio buttons. The panel also includes a link that you can click on to choose the Library folder into which you would like to put the symbol. Its something I wished for (in my mind and heart..not in the official wishlist). Most designers and some developers don't take the time to organize the library. Also, you now have the "Enable guides for 9-scaling" option right below this symbol folder link and the "..sharing" options make it into a "Sharing" panel and the "Linkage" panel has been organized a bit differently. The "Export.." options have come above the "Identifier", "Class" and "Base class" fields. Another thing.. remember your tutor used to always say - select the "Export in first frame" option...? thats now.. "Export in frame 1".
THE INSERT MENU: Have you noticed some of the items disappear from the INSERT menu? Well.. check it out, Yo! "Timeline effects" have gone poof! They have been ravamped to the MOTION PRESETS panel. Simple animation is a mouse clicks away! No spending time on tweening bouncing ball! Ok, so now, the INSERT menu has the "Tweens" - Motion, shape and classic tween.
DOUBLE-CLICK ON THE FPS AREA IN THE TIMELINE TO GET DOCUMENT PROPERTIES WINDOW: If you double-click now, you end up going into the edit mode to change the FPS. You would now have to select the stage and click the Properties Panel. More clicks per second.
TRANSFORM PANEL: The famous Transform panel now has the 3D rotation stuff added. For precise X, Y and Z's..contact the Transform panel.
SEARCH: Thats an awesome feature! You can search the document and you also have a search in the Library! If those symbols are not named "sssss_" or "xyzzzztween" etc.. you can search them!
COPY FONT NAME FOR ACTIONSCRIPT: You didnt notice that in the Commands menu? Go, take a look! I don't know if this is a great feature. Clicking on it would copy the font name to your clipboard..and.. you can
paste it just about anywhere. Its the same as copying the font name from the Properties panel. Thats some of it. I haven't come across more. When do, I shall update the list right here!
To sum up, would I pay some $699 to buy Flash CS4? As a developer? As a budding animator?... I dont know. Maybe I could still use cheaper 3rd party tools.. PaperVision 3D? Hmmm. I was just taking a sort of an opinion poll among my friends and colleagues the other day we saw the demo. This is the majority feeling! Whatever it is.. I still love Flash and would still buy it when I collect enough money! :(