Getting Started With Adobe Edge

I’ve recently gotten my hands on Adobe’s latest lab product, Edge Preview 1.  Adobe Edge is an animation tool that harnesses the power of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript in the ever-growing post-Flash world.  While playing around with it last night, I’ve noticed it’s designed very much like current versions of Adobe Flash.

To be honest, do I believe that this is the Flash killer? Absolutely not. Do I believe that this will serve as a replacement where Flash once dominated? Yes, yes I do.  My theory with the Flash Platform is that as the language is becoming more powerful and is more used in the application development world, Flash’s original use as a simple animation tool are near over.  The Flash Platform, in my opinion, will be used in mobile markets as an all-in-one solution to cross platform development for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry devices.  I also see the platform becoming a strong game engine, again, for mobile. Adobe AIR is also great for desktops and has come a long way since I first started using it a few years ago.  The potential for Flash is still there, but not in the ways it was once best known for.

Here’s a video from Mark Anders giving an overview of Adobe Edge. Enjoy!

Have any of you tried Adobe Edge yet? What are your thoughts? Flash developers, will you be using this as an alternative to some of your current workflows?

Mostlyjunkfood and A Lesson Learned

All right, folks. This is actually something I helped work on a few months ago as I was wrapping up my studies at UWSP.  I met Marc from mostlyjunkfood from a posting on the WordPress Job Boards.  Initially, the problem posted was an SEO issue,  which was quickly resolved, but there were some other issues with the website.  First, the background image was roughly a 1024×768 image being used as a background for a website.  Second, there were many images on the site that weren’t optimized for the internet.  Third, there were a number of WordPress plugins that were bogging the website’s load time.  Here’s a few things that were done to improve the site performance:

• Instead of using a large image as a background image for the website, I took a slice of the image and made it seamless using GIMP.  After that, I applied the new image as the background image and utilized the repeat-x and repeat-y properties for CSS. This reduced load size by over 700 KB.
• The header image, as well as a few other images on the site, were not properly optimized for the web.  The header image alone was over 800 KB before it was optimized.  I’m a firm believer in the Export Wizard feature available in Adobe Fireworks (and you should be, too).  After the image was optimized with the wizard, the size of the image is now roughly 10% of the original size
• For plugins, all unnecessary plugins were removed, and some were replaced with better alternatives. For example, the original caching plugin was replaced with Hyper Cache, one of the best performing caching plugins out there (want proof? Here it is from Tutorial9.)

After those fixes were applied, I was pretty dang happy with the performance, and so was Marc, but there was one more problem: the home page would load, then jump to the middle of the site.  I was afraid that it was something broken in the WordPress install and began talking with Adam from WebMovement, LLC about possibly re-installing WordPress, but Marc found the solution! It turns out the lazy loading feature in the Digg Digg plugin was the culprit and disabling the feature alleviated the issue.

One thing to always remember with WordPress, or any other CMS, always check the plugins.  Typically, a plugin or plugin setting is the culprit in any common CMS issue.  Had I gone and disabled the Digg Digg plugin, I likely would have found the issue. It’s an easy piece of troubleshooting that’s just as easily forgotten.

For all of you out there that enjoy hip hop, indie, or music in general, be sure to check out what Marc and the gang are up to on mostlyjunkfood.com. They always keep the content fresh and have been great to work with!

Abobe CS5 and Automatic Updates with Windows

Ever since I installed Adobe CS5 on my Windows XP desktop, I’ve always run across a problem with Adobe’s Application Updates feature that’s new to the CS5 suite.  Originally, I was under the belief that I had a CS4 process running that was conflicting with the updater software.  I checked for instances of Bridge CS4 and CS4 updater processes (I still run Cs4 era applications) or services and found nothing out of the ordinary.  With all my efforts I was still plagued with the following:

This issue continued to haunt me until about 30 minutes ago when I visited the Services panel and noticed that my Workstation service had been stopped.  For many updating clients, this service is crucial.  The description of the service states

Creates and maintains client network connections to remote servers.  If this service is stopped, these connections will be unavailable.  If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

Sounds like a pretty big deal, am I right? I decided to start the service and try my luck, even though the updater problem didn’t seem related to a Workstation issue.  Lo and behold, my updates worked!

For those of you that would like to check and see if you are facing this issue, do the following:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel (The Control Panel Opens).
2. Double Click on Administrative Tools Icon. ( Administrative Tools Folder Opens).
3. Double Click on Services Icon ( The Services Panel Opens).
4. On the Right side of the Services Panel is a list of services available for the computer, arranged in alphabetical order.
5. Scroll down to the service “Work Station” (Probably the second last or last of the list).
6. Right Click it and “Start” the service.
7. Run the Updater again.  It should work!

While this issue was targeted for Windows XP users, this issue could reside in any version of Windows.  My updates downloaded and installed immediately without any other hiccups.

Do any of you have issues with Adobe’s automatic updates that you cannot resolve?  Feel free to let me know by leaving me a comment.

Writing Simple Backend Scripts For Flash Builder In Dreamweaver CS5

This video tutorial demonstrates how to write simple scripts to send data to a Flex application using Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 and PHP.

New Posts Are Coming!

New posts will be up starting Monday. I’ve been very busy. Really, I have. Monday’s post will highlight some of what I’ve been up to.  Catch you on the flipside.

To keep you occupied, check out some of these videos about the upcoming Creative Suite (CS5) from Adobe:

Terry White’s 5 Favorite New Photoshop CS5 Features

Terry White’s 5 Favorite New Dreamweaver and Flash CS5 Features

Terry White’s 5 Favorite Flash Catalyst Features

Enjoy, kids.  See you soon.