This West Coast time thing is starting to wear me down plus it is raining AGAIN!!! So much for sunny California. Just when I get used to the time change I will be heading East. Ugh. In any case, this morning is Flash Video and Next Generation Mobile Applications. Should be pretty cool. I didn't elaborate much on yesterday's General Session when CEO of Adobe, Bruce Chizen, came out but they are committed to driving the next generation of apps. So don't worry, Flash IS NOT GOING AWAY nor is DREAMWEAVER. Well....gotta get a coffee.

CERTIFIED!!

After another long sesson on e-learning and using Macromedia's Captivate and Breeze products I thought it was time to take the Macromedia Certified Developers Exam. The Exam took about an hour and fifteen minutes with 65 questions. I can now report that I am a certified Macromedia developer. It was a good feeling to have accomplished this since I have been using Dreamweaver since 1997.

I noticed that there were alot of people from Europe here. It seems there is a strong Flash following growing world wide. Also, I noticed alot of people are here as new webpage developers. That is cool since these tools are, as Ze Frank, making the 'common man' do more. After 10 hours my mind is a bit mush so I decided to get a bite to eat and get ready for more tommorrow.

The Vision of Macromedia

We had an 1.5 hour presentation on the state of "Macromedia". Great presentation on the current and future vision and it was definately INTERESTING. All the things we discuss in class whether it is 110, 250, 256 and 402 all play a role. First, the CEO of Macromedia talked about the continued improvement of the web as an experience and that they are committed to bringing tools that make that happen. Flash and Flex play a big role here.

With that said, what is Flex. Flex is that tool that will build on Eclipse which is a great Java authoring tool. So instead of creating boring GUI's, you will now have the power of a Java programming language with a front end like Flash. Impressive. Not only do they want Flash (aka Flex) on a Macromedia language they have it on SAP. Once again, providing for a "rich internet" (RIA's) experience.

Once we got past the talk on SAP, we saw Kevin Lynch, chief software engineer for Macromedia, get up and talk about how this will all come together in mobile devices. Creating content for cellular phones is definately in their overall strategy. Flash Lite will be updated and so will a new Flash Player. Even though the US is behind the curve, as compared to Asia, with 'cool' handheld devices, it is coming and developers need to be able to create rich internet content for these mobile devices.

Lastly, the CEO of Adobe, who recently purchased Macromedia came out. What a surprise! he was saying how impressed he was to see 3000+ developers attending. He also stated that the committment to the developer and their customers will stay the same. But he also alluded to the vision.... Macromedia sees a much more 'rich interactive web'. I will talk about this some more in my next post.

Arrived

Welcome to my blog for keeping you up to date on MAX 2005 what I am seeing at this major technology conference. So, I did arrive. After a loooong flight, waiting for my bus and then getting to my hotel, I got to Anaheim's conference district. I'm about 1 mile from the conference center. It never rains in California but this week it is. Ugh! In any case, I am seeing all sorts of folks from the web development world. There are hundreds of people if not thousands.



It's about 840am and my first session starts at 9:15am. WHAT IS NEW IN FLASH 8. At 1030am we are sitting in on a General Session hosted by the CEO of Macromedia. And he is talking about the shape of things to come. I'll keep ya posted.