scott fegette » Technology

facebook

Scott — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:51:47 +0000

I’m torn. I generally avoid spending too much time on social media sites cause they’re a huge time-suck, but Facebook has become a bit too addicting lately. It wasn’t as big a deal a year or so ago, but it seems that a global New Year’s resolution was for all the Facebook holdouts to finally join up. Which has been really, really awesome. I’ve connected with some people I haven’t seen since my elementary school years in Virginia, lost compatriots from Musician’s Institute, and all the cool people from high school I haven’t seen in years.

For years, I’ve gotten used to interacting with high-tech/web colleagues via social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and the like, but the deeper life connections being made within Facebook are just too strong to avoid. Staying in touch with industry colleagues is great- don’t get me wrong – but the depth and breadth of connections on Facebook trump any of the other social sites hands-down.

So- I’m probably going to find myself posting on Twitter less and less, and Facebook more and more (especially as FB can send Twitter my status updates anyway). Interesting.

iPhone SDK – February

Scott — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:08:34 +0000

The ‘Hot News’ page on Apple.com has some good news for iPhone owners- according to Steve Jobs, you can get your hands on an official iPhone/iPod Touch SDK in February ’08. Reportedly the delays were mostly security-related concerns, as Nokia’s third-party application signing plans were referenced (Adobe AIR M5 applications also require code signing, for what it’s worth), but you can read the short but sweet note and the details on Apple’s site right here.

Configuring Dreamweaver CS3 for AIR Coding

Scott — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:09:58 +0000

If you’re using Dreamweaver CS3 but hesitant to get started with AIR development, I put together a very quick one-off screencast showing how to configure DWCS3 for AIR previewing and deployment using the beta AIR Extension for Dreamweaver (available on Adobe Labs).

This screencast covers installation and general functionality of the extension, and should get you up and running quickly. From there, it should be a snap to start leveraging your existing XHTML/JS/Spry/CSS skills to write sweet desktop apps using the AIR runtime.
Enjoy!

Desktop RSS with AIR and Spry

Scott — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:51:04 +0000

Notorious Aussie rebel Andrew Muller has written up a great article on building an AIR RSS viewer using Adobe’s Spry framework for the plumbing. Although he’s using Aptana in the article, Dreamweaver users have it just as easy (if not a bit easier) following the same steps, as obviously Spry’s much more integrated with DW CS3 than any other dev tool at the moment. You just need to grab the Adobe AIR extension for Dreamweaver CS3, which you can pick up for free (in beta form) at Adobe Labs.

Minor modifications to use Andrew’s article with DW CS3:

Install the AIR Extension for DW CS3 via the Extension Manager.
I suggest creating a unique site definition for each AIR app, to help keep assets managed well
Build the RSS application in Spry using either Andrew’s explicit instructions in code, or supplement that workflow with the visual Spry tools in Dreamweaver for a richer coding/GUI experience
Preview the application using Dreamweaver’s “Preview in Browser” toolbar menu > “Preview in Adobe AIR”
Package the application using the “Package in Adobe AIR” command from Dreamweaver’s Site menu.

Simple, quick and easy! And great little article to get your feet wet with AIR and Spry. Make sure to give Andrew some props if you like the walkthrough.

XRAY IE Beta Available

Scott — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:32:02 +0000

Again proving his boundless reserve of energy and innovation, John Allsopp has just announced an Internet Explorer beta of XRAY, his sweet little page instrospection bookmarklet I noted last week in it’s initial Firefox-supported release. Just one more reason why you should run – not walk – to John’s site and download this little gem postehaste. Just hit the first link above, drag the ‘XRAY IE’ link to your bookmarks toolbar in IE, then revel in your newfound page element wisdom.

Awesome stuff. Thanks again, John- XRAY kicks some major butt.

My iTunes – Flash Widgets

Scott — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:58:25 +0000

Amidst all the new iMac/iLife/iWork iNews this week, I somehow missed this little tidbit (thanks to JD for the nod)- Apple’s new ‘My iTunes’ site offers several downloadable/embeddable page widgets to share your iTunes prefs with the world- and said widgets are delivered in Flash format.

Widgets and code snippets like this aren’t quite breaking news, but given all the chatter recently about what Apple ISN’T doing with Flash today (most notably the iPhone, of course), I found this a rather interesting example of some cool things Apple IS doing with Flash.

XRAY – Box Model Introspection

Scott — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:10:38 +0000

Does John Allsopp ever sleep? I swear, between developing Style Master, speaking at conferences, and general Microformats evangelism among his other pursuits that guy is so packed full of energy he makes me feel like a cardboard cutout of myself.

John and WestCIV’s latest venture is XRAY- a small JS bookmarklet you can use to quickly introspect the box model for any element on a page. Whereas Firebug is the ten-ton-monster of site introspection, XRAY is light and easy to use (and just as handy)- just click the bookmarklet on any given page, and you’re shown the entire CSS inheritance hierarchy for the clicked element, it’s dimensions, etc. Beauty and simplicity in a small bookmarklet.

Right now XRAY is only supported in Safari 2/3 on OS X (with some caveats for Windows Safari), and all Mozilla-variant browsers on OS X and Windows (Firefox, Flock, Camino, etc). Howver, reportedly an IE version is also in the works. Any way you slice it, XRAY is a must-have utility for anyone doing serious browser-based work, and you should install it right now. Seriously. And make sure to give John some props/feedback while you’re at it.

Still reading? What are you waiting for?

Twitter/AIR Tastiness

Scott — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:01:52 +0000

Twitter’s popular these days, that’s for sure. I’m hooked, at least – and have been for over a year now. And although there’s many very cool third-party clients you can use to consume your tweets, two recently came to my attention that use Adobe technology to deliver your regular tweet fix – TwitterAIR and Spaz.AIR.

First, Aaron West’s sweet TwitterAIR app gets the strong nod-and-wink for being the first AIR Twitter app I’d seen (and damn nicely done, too). Respect.

Secondly – but not least – Spaz.AIR uses both the AIR runtime as well as the free Spry framework from Adobe (along with some JQuery) to do it’s magic. A double shot of Adobe technology in that little package, that’s cool in and of itself.

Now to be perfectly honest- I primarily use the Iconfactory’s Twitteriffic as it both integrates with my menu bar well, and Growl for system notification (mainly, I’ve been using it for so long it’s just become part of my workflow), but were I to rethink it all – which I might – either Spaz or TwitterAIR would be my successors of choice. Boo ya!

CSS Advisor/Cookbook Posts… in Eclipse

Scott — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:22:17 +0000

Using Flex Builder or Eclipse to do your hacking? Well now, thanks to Giorgio Natili and the flexdevelopers.it crew, you can now get updates from the CSS Advisor and Flex Cookbook directly within the Eclipse IDE. Just download the free RSSPanel Eclipse plug-in here, and get started. Handy- nice work!

Jesse James Garrett at MAX 07

Scott — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:05:09 +0000

While preparing to return to work next week after my sabbatical (which now seems far too short!), I was very stoked to get a Twitter message from Ted Patrick that Adaptive Path‘s Jesse James Garrett will be hosting an inspirational session at Adobe MAX 2007 this year in Chicago! Besides being President (and a founding partner) of Adaptive Path, Jesse is best known for coining the term ‘Ajax’ and by doing so, helping to define a new era of browser and standards-based web experiences. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he has to say (and really hope my own speaking slots don’t conflict with his).

If you haven’t signed up for MAX 2007 Chicago yet (Sept. 30th – Oct 3rd), trust me- it’s going to hit a whole new level of cool this year. Get all the details at the conference site, and hopefully I’ll see you there!

(And I’ll also be back in full force on Monday, so warm up your feedreaders. Lots to talk about.)