Month: January 2010

Here ‘s yet another well written blog by Rachel Luxemburg that looks like a petition to Steve Jobs. So?

Such write-ups won ‘t have any effect on the Apple ‘s decision about Flash Player. It ‘s a cold blooded decision, and if the real reason for not letting FP on iPhone OS is to keep control of the applications and have a cut from the iStore, writing blogs and I ‘m also a big fan of Adobe software typing this comment on MBP and want Flash Player to be on iPhone and iPad. So?

Open letters won ‘t help. Begging won ‘t help. For some reason, Leonard Cohen ‘s words come to mind:

Ah but a man never got a woman back

Not by begging on his knees

Or Id crawl to you baby

And Id fall at your feet

And Id howl at your beauty

Like a dog in heat

And Id claw at your heart

And Id tear at your sheet

Id say please, please

Im your man

If Flash Player really performs poorly on iPhone OS, as John Gruber describes , than it can be resolved only by two people: Apple ‘s and Adobe ‘s CEOs.

Lee Brimelow, a respected Adobe evangelist published a really cool blog showing how some Web sites will look like if the Flash Player support is turned off in the Web browser. So? There ‘s an iPhone version of CNN that shows videos using Apple ‘s QuickTime instead of Flash Player.

If Apple will insist on having 100% control as to what software can run on iPhone/iPad, they ‘ll force third-party developers to bend and find the way to play by the rules. If you are a small software vendor, do you want to ignore the market of 50 million of hot devices (iPhones)? Even if you are a large software vendor, you still don ‘t want to ignore this market, and Adobe found a brilliant way to get into developing software for iPhone OS and offering it in iStore in ActionScript in CS5.

Something ‘s gotta give.

I “m proud to consider myself an upper middle class American . Why am I so proud about it? Because I haven “t been born in an upper middle class American family. I came to the USA 18 years ago with $200 in my pocket on a visitor “s visa. Don “t rush reporting on me to the Immigration authorities. I was legal in this country each and every day since. Then came the work visa (H1B), after that the green card, and back in 2001, I became an American citizen.

Our family consists of me (silver 15 rdquo; MacBook Pro), two sons (black 13 rdquo; MacBook and a silver 13 rdquo; MacBook) and my wife (post World War II Windows PC own by her employer, a filthy rich international bank). I also have an iPhone.

To complete the picture, I need to mention, that occasionally I “m getting separated with my MacBook Pro. For example, last week I “ve been skiing in French Alps and didn “t get it with me on the slopes. Its battery absolutely sucks: 90min and I bought it only a bit more than a year ago. My smarty pants son David told me that it “s my fault ndash; I shouldn “t be keeping MacBook plugged in most of the time as the battery needs to get regularly fully drained.

Thank you very much, but the batteries in any laptop suck big time. A colleague of my purchased a 17 rdquo; MacBook Pro because it has 6-hour battery. No way, Jose. I “m not going to be carrying this grand piano with me all the time. I “m on the plane quite often and want my computa to be up all the time (this stupid seatguru.com lied to me twice about the AC outlets on the planes).

Now, give me a sec for a self promo ndash; in month I “m flying to Belgium teaching a class (8-hr flight) followed by the 6-hour flight to San Jose, CA to speak at 360Flex conference .

By this fall I hope to find a reason to purchase for myself a new 13 rdquo; MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM and Static State Disk drive. To make my wife happy, I “ll give her my 15 rdquo;. These are the long term plans.

Now, let me try to explain why should I purchase an iPad as soon as it becomes available.

Two months ago, our friend called me telling that her daughter Sandra, a UPenn freshmen, wants a MacBook. Sandra “s mother also carries a Blackberry and knows how to use Google. A quick search revealed her that she could “ve bought a decent Window laptop for half the price. She called me saying, “You know, I “m really proud that Sandra was accepted to UPenn, but can you give me a reason, why should I spend my money on Mac rather than PC? rdquo;I thought for a split second and replied, “Because it “s cool rdquo;. Sandra ‘s mother replied, “Got it rdquo;.

Why people buy Mercedes cars if Hundai will also take you from point A to point B and, actually they will change oil and transmissions for free for many years to come? Why? It “s elementary, Watson! Because you want to enjoy the ride! Have you ever heard that solid chunk-sound when you close the door in Mercedes? Can you compare it to those Jingle Bells of Hundai?

Do you know what a life is without worrying about installing anti-virus programs? Have you ever used an OS that “s created to be so intuitive that you can “t believe how they could “ve made it so proactive? Do you know that we, Mac OS users don “t have to remember an entire directory tree structure and make twenty clicks to find that picture of your lovely wife Natasha? Guess what? I just start typing in a little spotlight field N,a,t hellip;.Here you go!

Do you want to enjoy the ride or you are one of these masochists Linuxoids who scream, “We want free and open source software, or else hellip; rdquo; As someone put it, “Only those who don “t value their time can say that Linux is free rdquo;.

I “m OK with using a high end proprietary software and gadgets. And Apple is the company that exceeds my expectations so far. I love my iPhone even though AT amp;T sucks as a phone provider. Verizon is better. So what? Droid-shmoid hellip; NOT COOL ENOUGH. Who said that a cell phone “s main feature is to make a call and maintain a steady connection? It “s so Ninetieth hellip; I want a slick device with a choice of dirt cheap 140,000 applications. iPhone fits the bill.

Yesterday, there were two major shows on TV: Steve Jobs presenting iPad and Obama with his first State of the Union address. Obama got really lucky that Apple “s announcement was not scheduled at the same time. You know what I mean.

By now, you should be warmed up and irritated enough thinking, “Enough already, what about the iPad? rdquo; OK, I “ll give you some random thoughts.

1. iPad is not a replacement of any notebook. It doesn “t have Microsoft Office. Most of the computer users can “t live without it.

2. It doesn “t have Eclipse IDE either. This will make it useless (as a computer) for half of the software developers of the planet Earth.

3. They claim up to 10 hours of battery life. Based on the history of Apple, I would assume that you “ll achieve such performance only if you turn that device on, put it on the table and leave it alone. The light will go off in 10 hours. If this doesn “t sound like a reasonable usage pattern, the battery in the new iPad will, probably last for 6 hours, which means three movies on my plane to Belgium. I “ll spend the remaining two hours drinking wine and eating other airplane gourmet food.

4. Now I “m going to have to pack into my bag both MacBook and iPad. The latter doesn ‘t have USB so it needs the mothership computer anyway. Don “t try to sneak through the metal detector carrying iPad in the pocket like this.

5. The Sony eReader becomes the most useless gadget I have in the house. People say that Amazon “s Kindle becomes a joke too.

6. Flash Player is not supported. Because of this I lost my $20 bet with Jesse Warden. Apple is afraid of letting a plethora of the Flash applications and games without getting their cuts as they do with all applications in iStore. Excuses that Flash Player drains the battery and takes all CPU (who cares on a single-process OS?) are not serious. To get yourself prepared to the iPad experience, got to Safari Preferences and uncheck the Enable Plugins. You ‘ll see how the Web sites that use Flash Player look like. If you are too lazy to do this on your own, enjoy the ultimate browsing experience over here. But this picture with broken pictures in place of Flash Player content doesn ‘t give you the real story though.The popularity of the device will force some of the third-party software vendors to change the way they deliver their content. For example, CNN Web site has an iPhone version, where they display videos using Apple ‘s QuickTime player instead of Flash Player.

7. If you are in a software development, learn how to program for iPhone/iPad. I “m getting there. No need to learn this ugly Objective-C. Adobe “s CS5 and ActionScript is all you need.

8. Yesterday, I went to Staples (they have low prices) and noticed a sexy 10 rdquo; Toshiba netbook for $399 with a 10-hour battery. So? Where are the killer apps? Not cool enough.

9. Five years from now, most salesmen, UPS drivers and police officers will carry not those sturdy-and-ugly pads they have now, but iPads.

10. The iPad doesn “t have a Webcam. No video “Hi, mom! rdquo; on Skype. No funny faces on instant messengers either.

11. The next version of iPad can be customized. No, I “, not talking about pink iPads for girls. The spot where you “d expect a WebCam can be used to hold a nice size diamond. Since every woman will carry an iPad anyway, a diamond will indicate that she “s engaged.

12. The cheapest version (Wi-Fi, no 3G) goes for $499. This all you need as long as you won “t think about this device as a replacement for your main computa. Of course, if you are a commuta, spending long hours on the bus or train browsing through a fresh newspaper on iPad makes sense if you can shell out yet another $30 for the 3G data plan (a funny option of $15 for 250Mb can be ignored) . Otherwise, go with Wi-Fi iPad. By setting the entry price so low, Apple wants to kill the competition – why get something regular for $399 if you can own a high-end accessory for just one bill more?

13. If you are a music fan, you have you 160GB iPod anyway, so it “s hard to justify why purchase more than 16GB of storage in iPad? OK, get 32GB model if you have some spare cash.

14. Remember, an iPad is an addition to your gadgetry, not a replacement for anything.

15. Twenty years ago, back in Ukraine I dreamed of having a personal computer at home. What kind? A computer, you, moron! Any computer would make me happy. Here in America, people are dying from making choices each day and now we have one more – the iPad. Please do me a favor and watch this 20-min talk by Barry Shwartz, which, hopefully, will help you in making this choice.

The day before iPad announcement, after reading about Apple “s quarterly results, I purchased some AAPL shares at $203. The last time I purchased any stock was 9 years ago. I “ll keep it for a while.
 Let ‘s see if I should ‘ve stayed away from the stock market for another 10 years.


Consume, consume, consume. Edward Berneays (Sigmund Freud “s nephew) has great followers who know how to convince you that your life will be miserable unless you purchase yet another gadget. This time it “s iPad. Don “t think too much. Just get it, will you? I sure will.

The time of my winter vacation has arrived. Have you ever had a lower back pain that lasted for two weeks right before your skiing vacation? The question was if those stupid muscles are needed while skiing on the slopes of Alps.I can tell you for sure – they get tense when I sneeze.

Our plane with about 20 amateur kamikaze landed in Geneva, Switzerland on time and our old time friend and travel agent Dora was meeting us with the bus with other 30 people who came to this pretty boring city a day earlier. Our ski resort is located in up French Alps in two hour bus ride.

BTW, Seatguru lied about electric outlets on our plane. Second time in then last month.

The plane landed on time, but our ski bag didn “t. While submitting the claim at the lost and found, I explained that we are kinda need skis as we are planning to start skiing tomorrow. They politely answered that if the bag won “t be delivered to your hotel within than 24 hours, we “ll get 100 Swiss francs. I asked, “What if they “ll never find our bag? rdquo;

“Don “t worry, they will. If not, call Swiss Air for further arrangements. rdquo;

The problem was that my wife has also packed two pairs of ski pants , gloves and socks in the ski bag. This is the case when traveling in a large group helps. We “ve borrowed most of the stuff we needed from other people and rented skis.

The bag has arrived to our village two days later. Now I want more than a hundred franks.

I “m writing this after four days of skiing and the weather was great. I “ve been wearing wide stretchable belt, which helped with my back. So far there were not too many casualties in our group: one twisted knee, one bronchitis, and one serious lower back pain (not mine). These poor three things watch TV, eat, drink and try enjoy seeing happy red faces of skiers returning back from the slopes daily.

Actually, there was one more accident that we witnessed and participated in. Our group was sliding on the narrow but almost flat slope. All of a sudden, two of our ladies noticed legs and skis flying down into the woods. We stopped and told our instructor about this. He went into the woods. Sure enough, there was a 65-year old women laying in the snow between the trees. She was scared, her face was scratched, but she was alive! Here “s the picture of our instructor (in red) helping her out of the woods.

On one slope there was a large bump followed by a smaller one followed by a steep slope. A group goes one by one and this lady passes the first bump, but makes a sudden stop in a doggy style scared by an unexpected steep slope. The man who was skiing behind her passes the first bump and then hits this lady “s ass with his head. The man fell but the lady didn “t. She said, “No wonder, this is my favorite position rdquo;. This was funny.

One day, I was boarding the chair lift with two women from our group. We spoke Russian, and noticed a guy who clearly wanted to talk and jumped into our chair lift the last minute. We asked him in Russian, “Where are you from? ” He proudly replied in Russian, “From Moscow. And you? “. I said, “We are from the USA “. The guy exclaimed, “It ‘s so horrible! “.

Having been to Moscow a month ago, I didn ‘t get it. IMHO, if I would compare living in Moscow vs. New York, I would prefer the latter hands down. He also added that he ‘s skiing with a friend who was a poor skiier, and he left him skiing alone. Five minute later, he stared to ask the hotel and room number of our ladies. They didn ‘t tell him the room number, which is nice, because one of them was my wife. Oh, those Russians! Today, I was sitting at the chair lift with five other people. When the lift is about to arrive to the top, someone usually raises the bar so everyone can get off the chair. I said, “Raising the bar. rdquo; A teenage girl sitting next to me immediately replied, “AT amp;T rdquo;. Originally, this was the motto of Cingular , but AT amp;T purchased both Cingular and their motto.

Two more days of skiing and back to work. I love France in general, and Alps in particular.

Drinking coffee and not in Starbucks:

Heineken promises to entertain me. Yeah, right! As you can see, I ‘m not a college kid anymore. My fun begins with Hennessy XO.

On the way back, Swiss Air offered a wide variety of movies to every passenger. Unfortunately, the software development has been outsourced, and French, Germans,and other passengers had to make a tough decision while selecting a language of the movie.

My blogs about last year ‘s skiing are over here .

I ‘ve read an interesting article by Felipe Gaucho called “Good Java developers deserve better salaries “, where he states that employers have to increase salaries for Java developers. Unfortunately, in the market economies such demands won ‘t work.

In enterprise IT no one just raises salary if there is a way to hire someone else for less money. It ‘s just not in the corporate culture where people are treated as nameless resources. Have you ever wondered why policemen get lower salaries than Java developers even though people in the uniform risk their lives on daily basis? It ‘s because there are many people who apply for jobs in the police. Preparing a mediocre policemen takes about the same time as preparing a mediocre Java programmer. The same holds true for good policemen and Java developers. Market rules. If no one will want to go to police, their salaries and perks will increase.

Today ‘s trend is to move software development to India, where potentially 1.2 billion of people can become Java developers (they ‘ll outsource all other trades to Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand). Not all of them will be good Java developers, but applying 20/80 rule, 240 million will, and they will lower the prevailing wage for sure.

Luckily, things are different in small companies and startups where GOOD Java developers are still treated nicely. So, if you need better pay and are ready to work harder, leave the corporate world and find a mom and pop software shop (make sure they have stable and positive cash flow).

After teaching our popular advanced Flex master class in New York, Boston, Toronto, London, and Moscow, we are hitting the beer capital of the world: Brussels, Belgium. This class is scheduled for the first days of March, and we hope that Flex 4 will be officially released by this date. Our book Enterprise Development with Flex should hit the book stores by then too.

To take advantage of the early bird prices register early at http://bit.ly/59DdIU.

If you can ‘t make it to Brussells, I ‘ll be glad to meet with you at 360 Flex in San Jose, CA on March 7-10, where I ‘ll be presenting on one of the topic from this master class.

If you can ‘t make it to San Jose, I ‘ll be very happy to meet you at Flash and the City conference in May in New York City. Most likely I ‘ll show you a really cool way of embedding a Flex application into a PDF file to be played by Acrobat Reader.

If none of these dates/locations work for you, you can always invite us to teach this class privately on site in your organization almost anywhere on the planet Earth.

Recorded a new episode for the No BS IT audio podcast: “Whores, pimps, and other IT resources “: http://nobsit.libsyn.com

Happy New Year!