MAX North America 2007 Notes
Oct. 1-3

See also:
    http://blog.adobemax2007.com/ (official MAX blog)
    http://adobemax2007.com/na/ (main MAX NA site)

These are simply my raw notes, in reverse chronological order (newest first). I'd be grateful for corrections to any obvious problems/omissions; my email is markcoppock@gmail.com. Thank you!

abbreviations:
    ... (an ellipsis means I missed something here)
    < > (what appears in angle brackets is something I may have heard wrong)
    DW: Dreamweaver
    FP: Flash Player
   
 

Making AIR Apps with Flash
Grant Skinner

get his resource notes at gskinner.com/talks

 - gTimer: project tracking app (see photo)
 - kiosk uses
    - ex: BBC green screen app
 - Buzzword online word processor, AIR version upcoming
    - licensed the spell check library in Flash to include spell check functionality in buzzword

- transparent backgrounds in Flash, so in AIR apps made in Flash can have it as well

 - RichFLV app; viewing and editing flvs on the fly

To make AIR apps in Flash:
 - download and install the Flash CS3 update for AIR at labs.adobe.com
 - open/create an .fla
 - change publish settings, from Flash 9 to AIR 1.0
 - ...

 - uninstall any old ...
 - actually read the release notes

The AIR API
 - (see slide 13)

 - shows simple Hello World demo, takes ~5 minutes

 - shows/does a code walkthrough with a more complex app/utility, for dragging a jpeg into its window,

Director 11 Sneak Preview

also see the Meet the Development Team notes below

my count: 55 attendees

 - new platforms
 - unicode support
 - Flash Player 9 / Actionscript 3 support
 - Mac Intel/ Vista
 - DirectX9

Rick Jones, <marketing>

Why D11?
- multimedia authors/developers/kiosk creators
     ex.:demos.immersivemedia.com
 - educational content authors
    ex: explorelearning.com
 - game developers
    maidmarian.com/sherwood.htm
 - need more capabilities than are available in Flash (shows comparison table)

- not Dir or Flash, Dir and Flash

- get Director back in the cirriculum

Tridib Ray Chowdhury, Director of Engineering
 - 'fascinated' by the community's continued support, (given Adobe's seeming indifference--my words)
 - thank you for the brickbats sent--the last thing he wanted was indifference

Product demo:
 - same UI elements as the other CS3 tools
 - message window tabbable
- full unicode support (shows pop-up options for Korean, Japanese, Chinese; in scripts, member names, etc)
 - new script browser, displays scripts in a tree form
 - paint window(s) in subtabs  under the same tab level as the stage -- better screen management
 - nine new bitmap filters (glow, bevel, emboss, sharpen, edge detection, convolution, ... )
 - displacement map filter
 - (experiences fatal error)
 - perlin noise filter
    - demos appling a dynamicly (sp?) generated animating noise pattern mapped onto a sphere
 - fixed bugs in the multiuser xtra

D12, D13
 - improved audio (much better, not the best possible)
 - 3D: no one else is doing it <in this way>
    - how do you make 3D easy? accessible?
    - looking to concentrate on Director's specific strengths--3D, and its usability aspects

(long discussion between user and Tridib--see video [http://staff.explorelearning.com/pfaff/workshop/dir11_max2007/index.html])

 -  a lot of  sites which (run Flash) ... were actually prototyped in Director

Q: added Yahoo (Toolbar) to Shockwave install, kind of screwed it up for developers
A: (talks about online 3D games) .. Shockwave on 60% of the world's machines; Flash is on 95% ... one of the things we want to target this year is to figure out how to increase our penetration

Q: all the cool stuff that Director had first, e.g. imaging lingo, is now in Flash
A: that is history, the question is where do we go from here

 - large beta program, they allow anyone on it who asks to be

 - how do we make a business out of this ...

Q: 3D?
A: one of the things we are definitely looking at [for v12/v13]

Q: Havok xtra?
A: hope to have good news in the coming days

Q: integration with the other Adobe products?
A: double-click on Photoshop castmembers to open in PS with their original layers

Q: revisions/expansions to lingo?
A: ... everything you can do in lingo you should be able to do in js  ...

Q: people don't choose Dir because of lingo
A: Dir teachers say new developers coming from non-technology backgrounds pick up lingo much faster than they do javascript

Q: an xtra development kit?
A: ...

Q: why not incorporate xtras
A: have to choose where to assign resources, if these xtras exist, <why?>

 - final release this year
 - 40 people on the team, <20 engineers, 20 QA>

Advanced CSS, Practices and Theories
Joseph Lowery, WebAssist VP of Marketing
jlowery@webassist.com
author of all the CSS Bible series books, CSS Hacks and Filters
his presentation file

worked with Eric Meyer to release CSS Sculptor

Visualizing your CSS layout
 - break page into primary divs
 - one common approach: divide page horizontally first, then subdivide regions into two or more columns
 - he demos this in a Fireworks comp

Dreamweaver's 'Insert Div Tag' command allows choosing to wrap the selection

set shorthand options in DW preferences

reset declarations:
 - see meyerweb.com, search for 'reset' to see the history of determining the ideal reset declaration
 - universal selector:
       * { margin:0; padding:0; }   --- too general, includes form elements which can be awkward

 - recommended minimal reset statement:
      

faux columns: basic theory
 - different methods for fixed widths and for liquid width columns
 - fixed width:
    - though height of the background image doesn't matter size-wise, older browser have problems rendering the repeat-y if the height of the repeating image is too small (so use at least 10px height repeating background image [audience member suggestion])
 - liquid width:
    -  (see slide)

Advanced selectors: descendent
 - ex.:
    -
Descendent selectors

Pseudo-classes

in DW, ctrl-click on a tag in the tag selector to change/add/revise its class/id

LVHA
 - for keyboard users, add a:focus. So, it's now
    - LVHFA (mneumonic: Luther Vandross Hits Fabulous Arpeggios)

Flash Player Detection and Embedding: An Open Source Solution
Geoff Stearns, Google/YouTube, author of SWFObject
Michael Williams, Flash Player Engineer, Adobe, author of FP Detection Kit

making Flash content work with web standards

needed a solution to handle inline Flash plugin detection and embedding

MS resolved their lawsuit with Eolas and may be rolling back their 'click to activate' issue. Eolas has a patent on 'Active Content'.

some inherently bad thing using javascript to embed Flash

web standards: separate content from behavior
 - html, css, javascript
 - progressive enhancement

problem is, how do you make Flash content fit in, since Flash can be any of these: content, animation, style

when using Flash as content, you want ot represent that content as html somehow. This is what the object tag is <supposed to be> for

doesn't make sense to use the object tag when you want to use it for style

swfobject does the style + behavior part really well, but not the content part

swfobject2 fixes this

Adobe Detection Kit
 - pros
    - integrated into Adobe tools
    - tested extensively     
 - cons
     - doesn't follow web standards
    - awkward integration with Express Install

Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) bobbyvandersluis.com/ufo
 - pros
    - W3C compliant
    - accessibility and search engine friendly
 - cons
    - requires javascript
    - large (10k+)

SWFObject blog.deconcept.com/swfobject
 - pros
    - easy to integrate
    - single js include
    - seamless integration with Player Express Install
 - cons
    - requires js

still need to be logged in with admin access on windows machines

The New Open Source Swfobject Project

Goals:
 - unify existing embedding libraries for FP
 - resolve common porblems and complaints about existing solutions

swfobject2 beta at code.google.com/p/swfobject

use express install

so2 advanced version (see presentation) dynamically puts in the object and embed alternate content

release version in the next few months, then Adobe will test this and integrate it into all its (CS4) products

see testing procedure on the site above

extension for Firefox to test different versions of the player (flash switcher?)

with the current version of FP, users will no longer ever have to reboot after upgrading

for FP bugs, complaints, etc., post comments to the swffix blog and Michael (Adobe) will see and address

YouTube about to start using a 'swfobject lite'

YouTube is hiring
 

XML 101

Robi Sen
Twin Technologies

XML is for the clean separation of data, metadata, and presentation
 - easy to be read by both humans and machines
 - a language for writing other languages
 - made to be extended
 - used for everything, everywhere, all the time--not always a good thing

When to use;
 - exchange data
 - share data (though *not* in place of a database)
 - store data
 - create languages
 - RSS, ATOM, XHTML, WML
 - Web Services
 - abstraction layer

when not to use XML:
 - low bandwidth (xml is information bloat)
 - when you need fast or high performance
- when you're dealing with data that should be in a relational database
 - when xml's benefits are not actually requirements for your project

use CDATA to <insert code>.
     - ex: <description>...

Dynamic XML with ColdFusion 8
 - CF is the easiest tool to make XML <from database data>
 - use the CFXML tag

XML nodes/tags
 - just like XHTML nodes
 - <node>...</node>
 - <node />

Attributes vs. nodes
 - sue attributes
     - simple properties
     - use attributes when you don't want it to be extended
 - use nodes
     - complex properties
     - maximum flexibility

well formatted xml
 - single root node
 - proper nesting
 - use only LF, not CR LF
 - encode special characters ('<', '>', etc.)
 - use a validator

escaping xml content
 - <![CDATA[ code, html, etc. that you don't want to the validator to flag ]]>

xml namespaces
 - provides a unique persistant ID
 - ...

syntax enforcement
 - Dreamweaver assists this with code hinting and validation

xml schema vs. DTD
 - DTD is the old way, assigned in DOCTYPE

a schema is itself xml (get an example)
 - see the W3C schools schema tutorial
 - in your schema, you can define your own datatypes for your xml
 - there are good tools for creating your schemas graphically (not from Adobe though)

XSL: CSS on steroids

(get his presentation files)

Spry is an excellent means of working with XML within DW

Sneak Peaks
 
Visual Communicator
 - video production tool:
    - chroma key
    - teleprompter
    - live streaming through Flash Media Server
    - switches b/t up to 3 cameras
  (appears to be from the Serious Magic purchase last year)

Pacifica is VOIP, peer-to-peer technology in the Flash Player

Flash Home for Mobile
 - demos *good* UI on a Razr (Verizon), done in Flash
 - power of Flash, access to data, access to the device

Photoshop Express (online consumer version of PS)
 - built in Flex
 - online image manipulation using Flash Player
 - *very* cool, iPhoto-like
 - easy-to-use history-type palette
 - slideshows, embeds, etc

Flash
 - new stage rendering core built on Player 10
 - can see live video at authoring time
 - better WYSIWYG on stage, less need to preview
 - easier timeline use
 - tweening bezier adjustment: no more keyframes
 - 3D-style bones in shapes *and* movie clips
 - inverse kinematics

PDF
 - javascipt and Flash combined within a PDF
 - dynamic content with reliable
 - live interactive collaboration
 - can sync to others' views (zoom, page, etc.) of the document
 
Flex applications, Flex Builder on Linux
 - alpha on labs.adobe.com

Flash on C/C++
 - C/C++ > AS3 > SWF > Flash/AIR

Content-Aware Image Resizing and selective erasure
 - Shai Avidan demos his concepts at http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/66481/detail/
 - can be used to change video aspect ratio

Mapping with AIR 

Flex native mapping:
 - ESRI/ArcWeb
 - FreeEarth
 - ....
 - poly9.com

Intro to Actionscript 3
Chris Florio
Professor of Interactive media
New England Institute of Art
Director - Passion Records

presentation (.swf): https://share.adobe.com/adc/document.do?docid=86078649-7129-11dc-b75f-151d3f6d9313
demo files: https://share.adobe.com/adc/document.do?docid=2c1677d2-7129-11dc-b75f-151d3f6d9313

 - calls Thermo an interactive version of PS
 - every time you need to do something and can't figure it out, check the help files
 - timeline the same; gotoAndPlay() the same
 - no more code directly on buttons or MovieClips
 - different ways to do events, including listeners, but much more consistent overall
 - much faster performance
 - more like other languages
 - better error reporting
 - Papervision 3D much faster, better, cooler
 - better for AIR apps
 - more verbose
 - more complex to learn, but easier once you do
 - can't mix with AS1/AS2

Top 10 List for migrating to AS3
1. new event model
2. using the timer
3. property syntax - no underscores; 0 -1 rather than 0-100;
4. working with Display Objects - Display class: MovieClips, anything that appears onstage
5. strict data typing and return types
6. depth management
7. loading external data and media
8. loading symbols from library
9. using the graphics package
10. creating and managing classes

 - 'attachMovie()' is deprecated in AS3

Event listeners:
1. ...
2. ...

 - linkage: when you set linkage on a library symbol, it automatically becomes a class
    - ex: when you set linkage for a library symbol called screen, a Screen class is created. To get an instance on the stage with AS:
           var screenInstance:Screen = new Screen();
          addChild(screenInstance);  // this is what puts it on the stage
          screenInstance.x = 200;
          screenInstance.y = 95;

 - For animating in AS3: Book: Making Things Move

Consistent way to load anything:
 - URLRequest Class (new)
 - Loader Class

 - ex:
    function loadImage(event:MouseEvent):void {
    var pictLdr:Loader = new Loader();
    var pictURLReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest("templegame.jpg");
    pictLdr.load(pictURLReq);
    pictLdr.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, imgLoaded);
    function imgLoaded(event:Event):void {
        //this will remove whatever is at the first level of screen
        //Instance but will not stop the stream of an FLV playback component
        //you can do this with the methods of the FLVPlayback
        //or netStream classes.
        screenInstance.removeChildAt(0);
        screenInstance.addChild(pictLdr.content);
    }
}

 - the import statement is always required for anything not in the Flash class


New AS3 Classes
 - ex (file called Ball.as):
     package { // always start with this
    import flash.display.Sprite;  // the new Sprite class. A sprite is a movie clip without a timeline
   
    public class Ball extends Sprite {  // class name must match the file name; first letter in upper case
        private var radius:Number;
        private var color:uint;
       
        public function Ball(radius:Number=40, color:uint=0xff0000) {
            this.radius = radius;
            this.color = color;
            init();
        }
        public function init():void {
            graphics.beginFill(color);
            graphics.drawCircle(0, 0, radius);
            graphics.endFill();
        }
    }
}

 - to use this:
    var circle:Ball = new Ball(Math.random()*50,Math.random()*0xFFFFFF);

Experience Online Video like never Before with  Adobe Flash, AIR and H.264
David Hassoun
Principal, RealEyes
see his article on adobe.com/devnet
(get his powerpoint)

the new Flash Player ('Moviestar'):
 - H.264 movs will play in it
 - AAC/AAC+ audio (M4A and MP4)
 - meta data tracks; ex. cover art, text, file/format data
 -  supports  96kHz and up to 48 tracks, seek points (key frames)
 - now both  video and audio supported by the NetStream object
 - cue points not currently supported in H.264 in MovieStar v1.0
 - multicore support; without any coding changes can see a 30% performance increase
 - full screen mode with hardware acceleration
 - a new API to specify a rectangle portion of the stage to scaled up to full screen for better performance
 - true 1080 support possible on most modern dual core machines
 - H.264 doesn't support alpha channels
 - special accommodation required for streaming: moov atom
 - his .ppt file has AS3 code for streaming

Creating Interactive Video with After Effects and Flash
Michael Coleman
Product Manager, Adobe after Effects
see recording and files at http://blogs.adobe.com/keyframes/

example project: a micro-site for a mountain bike race
 - client wants video combined w/rider data
 - ...

AE concepts:
 - 3D text
 - anim presets
 - motion tracking
 - parenting
 - track mattes (using one channel's alpha channel to mask another channel)
 - markers
 - flv encoding in the render queue, including alpha
 - can use .swfs as source footage in AE

Flash authoring concepts:
 - importing .psd
 - importing video
 - basic actionscript
 - embed cue points

demo in AE:
 - double-clicks project panel to open import dialog
 - drags video in project panel onto comp icon
 - uses animation preset on text; uses Bridge to browse the presets, with previews (very cool); double-clicks in Bridge to apply to current AE comp (!)
 - chose text on a circular path
 - U (uber) key opens any layer options having to do with <paths?>
 - much improved path bezier editor
 - demos motion tracker to track animating text loop to moving rider
 - moves the entire collection of rendered motion tracking points by dragging the group
 - creates a track matte and parents the current motion tracking data with the pull-down to the right of the pickwick tool
 - new CS3 feature: AE markers can be Flash Video cuepoints
 - AE batch rendering fully scriptable

demo in Flash:
 - imports .psd, all PS layers become Flash layers
 - can bring in .psds as MovieClips and assigns instance names
 

General Session 10-2-07

Bruce Chizen, CEO address

Steven Webster, Enterprise
 - the experience behind the glass
 - LiveCycle ES, the back end to a RIA front end
 - MFG.com
    - Flex part of the whole ES suite
    - create 3D PDFs from CAD drawings on the fly as the items get ordered
    - in this case, Java-based
 - LiveCycle Designer: creating RIA with form data
    - Guide Builder like Flex Builder Design view
    - can dynamically manage user access to individual forms
    - Workspace ES: Flex-created sub-app of LiveCycle
    - free version of LC available

Doug Mack
 - Scene 7 just aquired by Adobe
 - leading 'On Demand' rich media publishing system
 - enables creation of enhanced web experiences
 - input media elements, output Flash/Flex/PDF/HTML
 - ex.: gucci.com, every image dynamically sized and rendered by the server from master high-res images
 - the designer can take the content from granted and concentrate on creating the best experience
 - ex.: teamworkathletic.com, all customization and personalization done live on the server, dynamically rendering photorealism
    - user/customer can upload their own logos etc. to imcorporate dynamically, with texture
 - upload content, design how it works, receive a URL
 - QVC AIR prototype: very cool

Andrew Shebanow
 - SHARE beta, file sharing
 - 1GB
 - can choose open or limited access (like google notebooks)
 - alternative to emailing large files
 - keeps track of who you've shared each item with
 - Bridge-like interface
 - share.adobe.com
 - can embed shared items, in a very cool interface, in your web pages
     - resizable
 - all done in Flex
 - Flex APIs
 - will integrate with Buzzword

Danielle Deibler
 - PACIFICA beta
 - voice and video conferencing service, integrate with videos, photos, etc.
 - VOIP, peer-to-peer technology in the Flash Player
 - Flex components
 - this is a service that lets you can integrate voice and media sharing with your existing RIAs

Nigel Pegg
 - 'CoCoMo'
 - new version of Connect
 - client UI now entirely in Flex
 - Connect as a service with APIs
 - real time data messaging
 - real-time AV streaming
 - ...
 - shows Flex coding example--pretty simple
 - Shared white board
 - adobe.com/go/adc

Thermo beta
 - to allow designers to create RIAs (Flex apps) and make a smoother workflow with developers
 - imports layered .psd file, gets converted to MXML; retains text and font information
 - 'convert artwork to': text box, button,scrollbar, etc.
 - full Flex Builder Editor within it
 - 'convert artwork to list' command to quickly work up some dummy data for testing
 - timeline to adjust transitions/rollovers etc. visually
 - auto lorem ipsum generation for dummy text/data
 - AE-pickwick-like way to bind controls to what they control
 - it's all Flex, and designers can do what they want and then hand it off to a developer

Mike Sundermyer: Experience Design (Adobe calls this XD)
 - Adobe announcement: Inspire site: xd.adobe.com (alpha version)
 - ex.: how Adobe Media Player was designed

video of the biggest Flash device: an InteliSea yacht; all onboard controls and monitors done in Flex

Technology Roadmap:
 - moviestar beta on labs
 - Scene7 now
 - 2008: AMP, AIR 1.0, Flex Builder 3, FMS 3

Case Study: ESRI Geospatial Application Using Flex
Mansour Raad, ESRI
arcwebservices.com
thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com: download his presentation there

sign up for beta at esri.com/flex

 - geoRSS
 - Poly9: created Flex component for vector 3D data
 - MXML is so powerful, ordinarily stay with it instead of actionscript
 - mashups in Flex
       - brought Garmin on a bike ride, ended up with a .gpx file (xml)
       - can add/sync photos in the code
 - with ESRI, you don't worry about the base maps--just your data
 - dynamic distance generation. ex.:
 - free version of the ArcWeb services for non-profit
 - client-side spatial searches, leveraging power of the Flash Player
 - server side: ex.: .getDriveTime()
 - Ajax solution
 - 'smart' dynamic text parsing to find the locs indicated in text. ex.: mapping headlines
 - SIMILE ___: amazing spacial *and* temporal (timeline) mapping app from MIT
     - (code behind: code as a superclass to the stack; google the blog)
     -Ze-Po (Zero Powerpoint): see Wired
 - shape files at http://vanrijkom-flashlibs.googlecode.com/shp...
 - creates curved lines between points with Graphics.curveTo and by overriding the draw() method
 - in 24 hours, built an web-based admin app to assist the city of Minneapolis help reroute traffic after the bridge collapse; this was doable with ArcWeb and Flex
 - numerous options for route finding--avoid stops, etc.
 - www.ci.minneapolis....
 - arcwebservices.com 

Meet the Development Team: Flash Video

Q: Flash video encoding in the Flash Player?
A: 'We want that too'

Meet the Development Team: Director 11

Rick Jones, Director of Marketing

Tridib Roy Chowdhury, Director of Engineering
 - 'hard core C programmer', on Dir. team one year
 - entire team from Bangalore
 - Dir. developers he's met have customized Dir. extensively
 - 20 years of programming background
 - challenges for v.11: Intel Mac and Vista
 - unicode
 - four biggest feature requests: 3D, 3D, 3D, text: text xtra <in new version>
 - in Vista, built in DirectX 9 support (not all capabilities)
 - talks a lot about how Dir. works for games, will be 'much faster'
 - describes 'releases 12 and 13', just trying to decide which features will go in which releases
 - nine bitmap filters
 - changes to publishing workflow
 - new feature: ___
 - javascript now completely compatible
 - javascript dictionary along with Lingo dictionary
 - uses they've identified: online games, eLeaning, software prototyping
    - where to invest time?
    - make easy for *new* users
 - forums dominated by the games developers
 - finding that 3D is becoming important for non-game uses; examples: eLearning, photo albums
 - Shockwave penetration 60%, 'not great'
 - what separates Director from all other platforms?
     1. extensibility
     2.
 - new version supports the Flash 9 Player (not Flex)

Q: we use Director as a Flash wrapper (when we need the buddy API functions). will these work in D11?
A: 'we expect most will work', 'in touch with...trying to get in touch with the developers there'

Ellen Wagner (Adobe Worldwide eLearning Solutions; ewagner@adobe.com):
 - trying to get the Shockwave ecosystem back on track
 - sees 'serious games' as the next wave of eLearning (see white paper)
 -

 - Michael Abrams, game developer/C programmer, using Director for 6 months: 'Director is bar none the easiest point of entry for new game developers'

Q: Director expensive
A: Rick Jones: we're 'actively addressing' this in the next version, ex: $99 student version

 - code snippets for all lingo and javascript functions

Q: include SQLite, like in AIR?
A: Very good point. We've looking at it.

Meet the Development Team: Dreamweaver

 - Q: Spry/Contribute working together?
 - A: 'looking at it'

 - Q: plans/thoughts on supporting other AJAX frameworks?
 - Q: Dreamweaver / Subversion? Compare with Aptana
 - A: 'can't talk about specific plans <for future releases>
 - A: 'shifting our focus toward a more robust coding tool'

 - Q: improve secure db connections? between PHP/MySQL?
 - A: 'most difficult to debug'

 - won't be supporting .NET and JSP server behaviors in the future

 - Q: HTML email doc type? i.e., font tags, old style markup to accommodate email clients

 - Q: Flex-type instant error alerting?
 - A: How often do you want this? Reply: on save

 

Creating Flash Screencasts in Captivate 3
Joseph Ganci, Pres. & CEO Dazzle Technologies
blogs: joeganci.blogspot.com, elearningdeveloper.blogspot.com
joeganci@dazzletech.com

 - can capture in multiple modes simultaneously (software demo, assessment mode, training mode)
 - timeline is good, unlike Flash's timeline
 - can force <keyframes> during recording by hitting the Print Screen button
 - if you record narration while doing the demo, make sure to leave a clean pause between slide changes
 - record temp/placeholder narration while recording the screen, even if you plan on rerecording final narration afterwards
 - multiple-languages for captions; CP creates an XML file to contain each language's text
 - 'group' feature for slide column
 - in publish settings, don't always choose to compress the .swf
 - extensive accessibility features
 - Authorware-style branching
 - he demos a simple maze game done in CP, moves the icon going through the maze with the arrow keys
 

Pixel Perfect Precision
Grant Hickson, Infragistics (http://adobemax2007.com/na/speakers/listing/#hinksongrant)
 - demo files at https://share.adobe.com/adc/document.do?docid=01f895ff-79cc-11dc-b75f-151d3f6d9313

 - uses Fireworks to create UI elements for forms creation in Windows Forms and .NET
 - uses 'pages' feature in FW instead of powerpoint
 - common UI approaches:rounded corners, subtle beveled edges, simulated reflections, subtle shadows, gradients
 - tabs: glassy/shiny, textured, soft gradients
 - understanding how FW creates clean gradients allows you to create sharper, less sloppy effects
 - zoom in to show indiv pixels, turn on grid set to 1x1 (my note: PS also!)
    - make sure your rounded corners are created with the corner on an even pixel
    - look at the path points, make sure they're snapped to the 1x1 grid
 - download the new gradient panel from devnet; allows precise adjustment of gradient points
 - native vector-based rendering controls, including blending modes, transparency
 - exporting to Flash
    - create mockup, identify unsupported rendering techniques (ex., gradient nodes vs. opacity nodes)
   

Extensibility Options for DWCS3
Lori Hylan-Cho (http://adobemax2007.com/na/speakers/listing/#hylan-cholori)

(get presenter's powerpoint file)

 - difference b/t pseudo elements and pseudo element name (ex.: firstLine)

General Session 10-1-07

 Adobe Developer Connections adobe.com/devnet
    - INtronetworks: adc.intrornetworks.com


Shantanu Narayen: COO
    - great experiences adapt to the user
    - demos experiences on nokia n70 (for 'middle aged people'); then a ui on the same phone for 17 year-old audience
    - 'less is still more': focusing on *simple*; demos premiere express web ap: MTV Video Remixer;
    - 'movement has meaning'
        - demos 'glide UI' transistion in an Adobe Media Player app
    - 'create an experience, not a UI'
       - demos Adobe Tour Tracker: live bike racer tracking on topo map with video, stills and chat
    - 'The Internet, Remixed'

Kevin Lynch
    - Video: over 70% web video is Flash
    - H.264 in new Flash Player
    - working with yahoo on this
    - Adobe has tools for all aspects of video production and distribution
    - 'Moviestar' new Flash Player supporting HD formats up to 1080p; 720p demo looks very good
    - yikes-cool interactive drag-thru video demo on halo3.com/believe/shell.htm
    - Adobe Media Player: new desktop flv player
       - d/l from labs: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mediaplayer/
   
Ben Forta: ColdFusion 8
    - ex.: volunteer.unitedway.org:
       - creates custom PDFs based on your personal data who enter in a form
       - demos CF integration with DW and DW's Spry framework
       - CF ships with (a) LiveCycle engine, so you can compile Flex apps within it

Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
    - desktop-online app creator using web technologies (DW, Flash, etc)
    - scrapblog.com: easy online scrapbook/photobook app
    - DW extension available to create AIR apps from DW (http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Dreamweaver_CS3_Extension)
    - demos AIR app that allows salespeople to add/revise info at salesforce.com thru a simple destop app

Heidi Williams - Flex 3
    - Profiler
       - debugs memory and performance issues
       - new Refactor > Rename command
    - Language Intelligence
    - Advanced Data Visualization Comps
       - Advanced Data Grid, very smooth
    - Flex Framework Caching
       - cache the entire Flex framework in the Flash Player on first download, subsequent downloads much faster

AIR contest winners for best AIR apps
    - Spaz.AIR
    - Ora Time Tracker
    - Agile Agenda
       - like smoother, simpler MS Project
    - ...
    - ...
  
Ebay AIR app now available; others: AOL, Disney Parks, FedEx, frog design, PayPal, etc.

Disney Parks (travel agency) app by frog design:
    - one goal: help agents easily organize and keep track of all the stuff for clients, 'avoid the clutter of email'
    - (photo)
    - easily combine various media items for clients' quotes; can compile into a custom PDF


other AIR examples:
    - email app
    - Google Analytics realtime site info
        - on-the-fly PDF creation
    - drag and drop rich content between AIR apps (XML, tables from excel, etc.)
    - facebook IM (WaveIM, can download)
    - music mixing app (digimix)
    - Nickelodean puzzle app (have to find the pieces from the site: drag them from the webpage to the AIR app)
    - 'AOL Top 100 videos'; optimized fo rmulrticore processors
    - very cool word processor: 'buzzword'; AIR app built in Flex Builder (buzzword company just bought by Adobe)
        - opens .doc files:


MTV Adobe AIR Challenge

Anthropologie.com
    - Flex-created version of their catalog/checkout
    - AIR version: very smooth and easy to use
       - can add your own notes to the catalog
       - use color picker or color wheel to instantly show all items that match that color

FP9: '90% of the world downloaded it within a year

next Flash Player: 'Astro'
    - *much* advanced text layout support
    - native support for perspective transforms
        -  demos on-the-fly video transforms
       - demos live x-y-z transforms on three superimposed animated movieclips
       - demos live twirl filtering, blend modes on anim movie clip