ASVGuy::SWFBlog

Happy New Year!

I wish you all a happy, healthy and wealthy 2010!

2009 has been the year I've learned by experience that health is the most important of all there is. So, take care!

'Apple App Store is an ongoing karma leak'

"How did Apple get into this mess? Their fundamental problem is that they don't understand software."

An excellent essay by Paul Graham.

ASV is 9 today...

So I haven't been posting lately.

I was obviously busy, but main reason was (as I have written before) I didn't want to sound like trying to sell more copies of ASV using my blog, and I didn't want to post off-topic, but any on topic useful bits of info I could share was un-shareable. What was left was Adobe press release like news, like the recent Flash CS4 10.0.0.2 update, but I decided I didn't want that long ago.

Of course, I can always post about hot topics of the day, like recent Flex Builder name change to Flash Builder. Well, I hate it and I think it's wrong. Adobe is exploiting the 'Flash' name and I think it will not help the 'Flash' brand or the platform. A totally, absolutely wrong move - will cause lots of confusion in the long run* (so I totally disagree with KP on this one). OK I said it, it won't change anything (other than maybe some people with strong feelings about this will start not having good thoughts about me).

A few months ago I even did an off-topic test blog to see if I can really post at least daily. I saw that I could.

Anyway...

Today is ASV's 9th anniversary. I had to post, because I realized if I didn't, some people might get wrong ideas about us, ASV, ASV's future etc. We are on pre-release for quite some time now, for various reasons, but we are working and alive just as we always have been (We released last pre-release ASV just 16 days ago with improved SWF 10 and AS3 support). Second of all, I call myself 'ASV Guy', so this makes this post appropriate. And 9 years is quite a long time for any product.

I don't know how often I will post here, hopefully my next post will not be exactly this day next year...

* Unless Adobe is getting ready to 'phase out' Flash IDE, the authoring tool, which would be a worse (or probably the worst) move and Lee Brimelow says this is not the case.

Blog comments...

I moderate all comments. That surely stops any spam reaching 'published' state and to you, but I have to deal with them all. Most spam and inappropriate comments are not interesting at all. Here are two comments I received for my last post in succession:

Comment:
--------
Always enjoy reading this blog. Please keep up the good work.

Commenter name: jamie
Commenter email: anonymous@anonymous.com
IP address: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx

IP address shows this one's from Florida. There's no email, no pharmacy URL etc., nothing that would raise the red flag, but it doesn't have any real content either. I guess this one might be from a spammer checking out if he can post a comment. I can even amuse myself thinking it's from someone real who enjoys reading my blog...

The next one is a bit nasty:

Comment:
--------
Im sorry to hear that your quitting smoking Burak , if theyres anyone
who deserves lung cancer its you .

My new years resolution is to releace and promote as much copys of ASV
as i can . Poetic justice as far as im concerned now you know what it
feals like to have your work stolen

regards

Commenter name: Raymond
Commenter email: esdrftgyhuji@sedrftg.com
IP address: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx

Raymond is from Texas, as it seems by looking at his IP. Obviously he doesn't know how to spell and he uses a QWERTY keyboard. I'd guess he's rather young. He ends kindly with his 'regards'. His email address really isn't random. You can guess the QWERTY layout even when someone is just pressing random keys wildly to make up a fake address, his address is not random in that sense, he probably keyed the address in neatly one key at a time... He uses a capital for my name and for sentence starts, which I find quite rare for this kind of a comment. Is he really angry or is he working for a cigarette company, I cannot decide. He's after 'poetic justice', hmm, I don't hear that phrase frequently, maybe he's a bit older than I first thought... What do you think?

Raymond, I'm sorry if someone stole your work, but your comment is very rude. (And I had my work stolen, cracked, key generator-ed, translated to obscure languages, many times. I assure you I know how it feels).

Happy new year and about this blog...

I wish a happy new year to you all. To be happy, most probably you'll need health and wealth. I plan to quit smoking in 2008. This will surely bring some health and wealth. I'm sorry for non-smokers, as they won't be able to copy my great plan :)

Anyway, I didn't blog at all in December, apart from this post. There were quite a lot of news from Adobe, Flash Player release, AMF3 specs release, lots of betas from Adobe labs... While spreading the news is nice too, and most probably it's good for my business, I've not been entirely happy blogging 'news'. What original content can I blog? 'News about our software'. That would be the last thing I'd want to do, besides, our software each has their news blogs... 'Interesting bits about SWF format, Flash Player, etc. we encounter'. That would be nice, but probably that would not be too good for our business. We need to keep our edge, where we have it. On top of this, blogging is not easy, you need to care, it takes time, too much time (not that I've been properly blogging). I can't keep this blog as 'Flash news' and have other blogs too...

So, as I intended to do exactly one year ago, in 2008, I'll be blogging freely. I hope this way, this blog will be better content-wise, even if it won't be as focused as before... Thank you.

Where to get Adobe Reader?

Not at adobe.reader-download.org as Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard Products Documentation links you to.

On that page, as of this writing, Microsoft offers documentation in XPS and PDF formats. PDF versions of the documents are smaller, but getting the reader is made extremely hard for the novice user.

On Adobe Reader Distribution page it says: 'Third-party websites must link directly to Adobe.com for the download of Adobe Reader software'. But the logo can be downloaded without an agreement.

Is this an honest mistake? Frankly, I don't think it's Microsoft's official policy but their culture makes it so easy to make these kinds of 'evil mistakes', I think it's very likely that this was done intentionally.

Note: If you want to download Adobe Reader go to Adobe.com and click on the link.

Silverlight Developer Poster Instructions

Brad Becker of MS gives instructions for the 'Silverlight Developer Reference Poster' PNG he posted: "Print this out in color and put it on your wall." Read it carefully, black and white won't do and you must put it on your wall :) Do Silverlight developers need such clear(!) commands instructions? I guess, without the instructions, some would print it b/w and some would put it on another thing which is not-a-wall. And, OMG, probably some wouldn't print it at all and will try to get it free from MS at conferences...

Have a look at the poster PNG, and see what the 'Silverlight 1.1 developer reference' consists of... It's nice as a promotional poster but call it a 'developer reference' and I'd be insulted if I were a Silverlight developer.

- Hey, Silverlight developer, what's the tool for Silverlight developers?
- Wait a minute, let me check my reference poster on my wall... hmm, yes, it's 'Microsoft Visual Studio'.

- What can yoıu tell me about XAML Parser?
- XAML Parser?!? Oh, yes, it's a 'subset of WPF'
- And...
- It's in the ellipse thingy titled 'presentation Core'
- Oh, you are a great developer! I worship you master!
- (Thanks to my color ''Silverlight 1.1 developer reference' on my wall.)

Seriously, if you are a Silverlight developer, can you post a comment and tell me if you'd put this on your wall or not? (Note: comments appear after moderation).

Oh All Mighty Microsoft...

I'm on a roll (thanks to The Register), another post that will make you check your calendar to see if it's April 1st! If you are thinking of upgrading downgrading to Vista, read this:

"Seven weeks ago, when we first reported Vista was causing many machines to stall indefinitely while deleting, copying and moving files, we were sure the problem was caused by a bug that would be fixed relatively quickly. After all, Vista is Microsoft's flagship product. It's also an operating system. And everyone knows deleting, copying and moving files are among the most basic tasks any operating system can set out to do."

It may be the DRM infection causing this some say, I must add. I wouldn't be surprised.

Cease and Desist Adobe! (and Microsoft and Apple and Real)

It's not April 1st, right? Let me check the date again because I find it hard to believe these guys... Read the story at The Register for a good laugh! In short, these guys developed some DRM and claim that Adobe, MS, Apple and Real are in violation of the law (DMCA) because they are not using it! This is absolutely stupid, I'm utterly speechless...

Apple lacks ethics = iDead for me...

Are you an Apple fan? Think again. Thank god I didn't 'switch' or purchased any Apple products.

For me, with the iPhone announcement, Apple made it clear they don't have any ethics. Because there is already an iPhone phone on the market by Cisco! (Because Cisco is big enough, they are now sueing Apple).

How dare any company, knowingly, announce a product in the same category when there's already one with the same name? Totally unacceptable for me.

Can anyone defend this move? It's not a simple trademark dispute, this is like knowingly killing a man without any respect for the laws, and shouting 'bring on the trial' assuming you'll get away with it because you are powerful...

It seems Apple tried to negotiate with Cisco over the name before the announcement, it didn't work out (at least it was not finalized), but Apple did this anyway. Here's what Apple says:

"Apple's the first company to use the iPhone name for a cell phone. And if Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're very confident we will prevail."

I'm inclined to believe this is not true, because it's so stupid. They are both Phones! Does this mean someone can use 'iPhone' name for 'red cell phones' or 'dumb cell phones' category? Come on...

Anything that begins with 'i' apparently belongs to Apple, Apple thinks. Does your name, your company name, domain name or product name begin with an 'i'? You are not safe. The big bully may come and get it anytime - especially if it sounds cool. They'll try to negotiate at first but if it fails, they'll take it by force. I wonder how many of us can sue back...

iPhone issue may be settled between Apple and Cisco, but it won't change what Apple has done... My code of ethics dictate that I shouldn't help anyone without ethics earn money and power, so Apple is dead for me. I will never use an Apple product, even if somebody pays me for it, unless Apple publicly apologizes, accepts their wrong doings and promises not to bully anymore.

I'm quite surprised not seeing similar posts to this one. Do you think what Apple doing is acceptable? Can you still love Apple? Still think Apple is less evil than MS? If so, I feel sorry for you...