MikeKollen.com

Salesforce.com + Adobe Flash Builder = Amazing UI for SAS

2009-10-28T11:07:00-07:00

Salesforce and Adobe just announced Flash Builder for Force.com. There is a developer preview available now with the release sometime in 1H 2010. Developers will be able to create Web 2.0 UI views and widgets, tied to the Salesforce.com cloud quickly and easily.

Video Preview:

Inspiration for Developers From Rafael Nadal

2009-04-20T22:05:00-07:00

I really enjoy playing and watching tennis. From Connors (Determination / Cool), Chang (High School), Roddick (Serve / USA), and now Rafael Nadal (Mental, Physical Giant, & Federer Dominator). If you have had a chance to see Rafael Nadal on the red dirt he is a Gladiator / Matador of the highest order. Playing tennis on clay is the most demanding surface mentally and physically.

Want proof?
http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=vOnNfa44P5k&feature=channel_page
http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=LRu6_Hwf8rM

Rafael Nadal is the greatest clay court player of all time, but will probably end up as the greatest tennis player of all time barring injury. So how does this relate back to developer skills and the trying times we live in. The fact he is constantly trying improve and relentless in his determination. (Olympic Gold Medalist, Wimbledon and Australian Open Champion)

Here are few quotes about and from him:
Rafael Nadal:
"All the hard work, the dedication I put into it was well worth it. And that is what sport is really about. A victory tastes amazing only if it is the result of hard work."

"But I know everything is very difficult. Every title, I know how tough it is to win every one. "I don't know if I'm going to win more. "You never know when that (will) stop. So you have to be precautious, be humble, and continue working."

Peter Bodo, tennis.com Senior Editor
"Twenty-two is a pretty young age to claim you're the greatest ever, at anything ... This inability to slow down, lose interest or rest on his laurels is a key to understanding Nadal, and it points to some of his extraordinary virtues as a competitor. Chief among these is his sheer love of tennis combat."

"Why should Rafa even care? ... because it isn't about checking things off a to-do list (de-throne Roger Federer; win Olympic gold, take the title in Melbourne. . .), it's about loving your job, which for me means going out every day to prove that I'm the baddest hombre on the planet."

"No player in our era has shown such a profound and simple love of competition, and it's that devotion to the process that has enabled Nadal to transcend the stereotype of a 'clay-court specialist.'"

Psychologist Allen Fox, author of "The Winner's Mind" and a former touring pro:
"You know he's never going to quit, and it's a nasty prospect .... Nadal has a throwback head to the old guys. Jimmy Connors was probably the last of the bunch, where he went after every point"

Nadal's Davis Cup teammate, Feliciano Lopez:
"He's very ambitious and has demonstrated that he wants it more every day," Lopez said. "In spite of everything that he's already achieved, he still has the same attitude and desire."

Two-time French Open finalist Alex Corretja
"Everything that he's obtained no longer satisfies him, and because it doesn't, what he seeks is to repeat and to win again," Corretja said. "That makes him the greatest one."

Ben Franklin (Couldn't resist)
"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

What impresses me the most about Nadal is his intelligence, drive, commitment, hard work, humility, and hunger for learning.

Here are developer parallels I see from Nadal's character and core attributes:

Determine to become excellent at Object-Oriented Programming (See Java, Flex, or .NET Platforms)
Don't stagnate, constantly be learning. Try learning new programming language like C#, Java or new OO framework
On your programming problems, persist until you succeed. Don't give up and get help. A genius is someone who stay with the problem longer
Reinvent yourself constantly and solidify base skills such front-end, middle-tier, and database skills.
Be working on the right objectives and highest value activities
Get exercise regularly, do what it takes, be creative, consistent, and smart to make sure you exercise
The human body was not designed to spend so much time in front of computer

Adobe® Flex? Builder 3 Pro for Education Is FREE!

2008-10-10T08:32:00-07:00

Adobe Flex Builder which is about $800 IDE is FREE for education. You can go to www.flexregistration.com if you are student to request a copy. Eligibility
Adobe Flex Builder 3 Pro is available for free to all education customers. This includes all students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions. Excellent job Adobe!

Flex 3 Advanced Data Grid

2008-03-03T23:07:00-07:00

This is an enchanced version of the Advanced Data Grid example from new Flex 3 Training from Source book, written by Adobe curriculum architect Matt Boles. As my students were working through the code, we added the following enhancements:

Advanced Summary Renderer using a Canvas gradient with special thanks to Dirk Eismann for his slick gradient component
Using a Canvas to use left and right for labels
Some Flex CSS fun

View Example | Source Code

Screenshot:

Macworld 2008: iPhone 2.0 with Steve Jobs and Kevin Lynch?

2008-01-19T16:39:00-07:00

When Mark Drew and I were getting live updates this week from Macworld and the iPhone came in at number #2 of 4 items Steve Jobs had on his list, we knew 2007 Macworld was going to be tough to top. My late Christmas present from Uncle Steve was going to be much later, especially since the major tectonic event was going to be movie rentals for download. With all the major movie studios involved in rental downloads ... there was no way Apple was to steal any thunder from that. Here's how I was hoping the Macworld keynote went on Tuesday ... Steve Jobs at #4, "I would like to invite Kevin Lynch and Ted Patrick to announce Flash Player 9 for the iPhone. This will allow you to build RIA Web 2.0 apps for the iPhone. Adobe has a been good friend over the years to Apple and we can't be happier to partner with them on bringing a superior web experiences to the iPhone. Kevin and Ted why don't you demonstrate all the cool apps that have been built for the iPhone from companies like Ebay, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SlideRocket, Universal Mind, Effective UI, and Google. (They demo the apps and finish) It is great to see apps flowing beautifully across the iPhone, browser, and desktop. Congratulations to Adobe and Apple customers for this long overdue announcement. This is a really special day for Apple, even more amazing than Complete U2 for the iPod." We are also announcing 3G, multiple carriers, 16GB and 32GB hard drives, GPS, and voice recognition. The analysts go crazy and Apple and Adobe hit all time highs by Friday. I then wake up from my puddle of drool hearing that the major upgrades for the iPhone was bigger fonts and new backgrounds. :) BTW, Apple's stock dropped 15% to 20% this week, apparently the market wasn't as impressed as some of the Mac Kool-aid drinkers. Let's hope by summer iPhone 2.0 becomes a reality and please remember your dear friends at Adobe by bringing the Flash Player 9 to the iPhone.

Adobe's Acquistion of Buzzword Thoughts

2007-10-18T20:31:00-07:00

I certainly think that Buzzword is an amazing Rich Internet Application and according to Adobe's PR, "How will Buzzword be integrated with Adobe's other online document services? Buzzword will integrate with Adobe's document services in stages. The first step is to extend support for PDF output and gradually integrate with future releases of Acrobat Connect, Create Adobe PDF Online, and Adobe Document Center." I would however like to see this as Flex 3 component, potentially even for purchase to integrate with Flex apps. Frankly, it would make one of the best Rich Text Editors out there. They do need to recoup their investment, but could share the RIA Flex technology wealth by charging for the component.

Flex Prodigy?

2007-02-11T01:52:00-07:00

Will we someday be hearing about a future Flex prodigy? Possibly. Grant Skinner is what I consider a Flash prodigy. His gModeler application was leaps and bounds ahead of anything that I had seen built with Flash. It still has merit and utility today. As well his Flash symphony showcased over on Incomplet. I also consider the Flex alchemy of Ely Greenfield to be of superior effort, quality, and creativeness. I have the privilege of studying and teaching the results of his software engineering feats on the Flex Charting components. These components are some of the strongest Internet based charting solutions that exist and are being used by large companies such as SAP, stock brokerage firms, and other financial institutions. What was the genesis that inspired these thoughts ... I am listening to the immense talents of Jay Greenberg's Symphony # 5 & Quintet for Strings, who is only 15. He has already recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra.

As a new father, I hope to create an optimal learning environment for my son's interests. Maybe Flex will be among them.

Here is parting thought from child prodigy, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,

"With every lost hour, a part of life perishes." "Deeds make people."

Very few can be prodigies, but we can draw inspiration from their work. What will your deeds and body of work look like in the end?

Java Legend Bruce Eckels' Thoughts on AJAX, Flex, and Applets

2007-01-31T22:38:00-07:00

Here is an awesome blog post from Java and C++ legend Bruce Eckel. This is a must read! It succinctly describes why AJAX and Java applets have fundamental flaws that will be very difficult, if not, impossible to overcome for building Rich Internet Applications. He also does this in a historical development context. His conclusion contains a full endorsement for the Flash Virtual Machine running Flex applications.

Excerpt:
"One of the most appealing things about Flex is that Flash was created with the idea of UI first. In a very real sense, it’s a domain-specific language (DSL) for graphics, multimedia, and UIs, whereas most other solutions have been languages with UI libraries tacked on afterwards.

Because of this design goal, Flex and Flash provide a complete, unlimited, flexible tool to build user experiences. From the standpoint of a programmer’s time investment, you can learn a single language for building UIs without worrying about running into problems or limitations later—issues like:

Installation problems
Constraints on what you can create
Sudden steep climbs in the learning curve

There are plenty of fancy components that you can just drop in and use?the Flex Framework (part of the free download) comes with over 100 components."

Flex 2: 2007 Application of the Year Award Candidate

2007-01-25T00:32:00-07:00

The latest upload to Ted Patrick's Flickr Adobe Flex UI photo gallery is:

Intelisea

This application is absolutely stunning! It is used for monitoring sea vessel & control systems for safety and security. It contains several innovative screens for monitoring the engines, sea state, weather, lights, cameras, data analysis, flood control, electrical, vessel security, and more. I am almost ready to give out the Flex 2: 2007 Application of the Year award right now and call it game over. Click here to see a demo. There are several custom components that were created in this application that make extensive use of Actionscript 3 and OO. The design / UI layout is superb and looks very easy to use. This application gets a big time A+ and major props the Intelisea company and their Flex development team. It is exciting to see sophisticated business applications/models being built with the Flex platform.

Awesome Library of Flex UI Screenshots on Flickr

2007-01-24T01:10:00-07:00

Ted Patrick has created an excellent collection of Flex 2 UI screenshots over on Flickr, from companies such as Kodak, Harley Davidson, Wharton School of Business, Yahoo Maps, Sony Ericsson, Nationwide Bank, Fidelity Mortage, ESRI, Intelisea, and Madza to name a few. Check out what companies are already creating with Flex 2. Keep in mind there are several companies like The Boeing Company which are incubating new Flex 2 applications that will be hatched later this year or ones that are not for public consumption (Like most of the apps that I build :) ). These screenshots are only the tip of the Flex iceberg and are excellent for inspiration and study.

Guess What? I Got a Fever & the Only Prescription is More Cairngorm!

2007-01-23T23:24:00-07:00

Don't Fear the Cairngorm Framework
(a conversation deep inside a Fortune 50 company at a training session)

(MK) Mike Kollen - MVC Cairngorm & Mach-ii Instructor
(GF) Gene Frenkle - Procedural & Aspiring MVC Programmer
(EB) Eric Bloom - Procedural & Aspiring MVC Programmer
(BD) Buck Dharma - Procedural Programmer
(A) Alan - Procedural Programmer
(B) Bobby - Procedural Programmer

(GF): ... can I just say one thing?
(MK): Say it, baby. Say it.
(GF): I'm standing here, staring at Mike Kollen!
(MK): CMM compliant and Instructor of the year baby!
(GF): And if Mike Kollen wants us to learn Cairngorm, we should probably learn more Cairngorm!
(MK): Say it, baby!
(GF): And, Bobby, you are right - I am being selfish. But the last time I checked, we don't have a whole lot of applications that use Cairngorm.
(MK): I gotta have more Cairngorm, baby!
(GF): and I'll be doing myself a disservice -- and every programmer in this company, if I don't learn the heck out of this framework.
(MK): Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more Cairngorm!
(GF): Thanks, Mike. But I think, maybe if I just leave.. and, maybe I'll come back later, and we can learn that Cairngorm framework.
(MK): Aw, baby..
(EB): Gene, wait! Why don't you learn that framework right now. With us. Together.
[ everyone agrees ]
(GF): Do you mean that, Eric?
(BD): He speaks for all of us.
(GF): Thank you.
(MK): Babies.. before we're done here.. y'all be using gold-plated laptops.
(A): What does that mean?
(MK): Never question Mike Kollen! Program it baby!

[ the class starts up again, this time Frenkle is learning Cairngorm in tune with the programmers. Close-up on Gene as he types his laptop to freeze-frame with graphic:]

Procedural Guy : Gene Frenkle: 1950-2006
Cairngorm Guy: Gene Frenkle Born 2007 -

A different version of events can be seen here

New Year's Resolution

2007-01-08T23:47:00-07:00

Blog more! I have been busy as you can see for obvious reasons in the pictures below. My corporate students tend to get most of my time and code examples. I will do my best to contribute more to the general community. I will be teaching ColdFusion, C#, and Java with a Flex 2 UI architected with the Cairngorm framework. Look for code examples with this focus this year.

A Future Flex Developer is Born

2006-12-31T23:38:00-07:00

My son was born on December 2nd 2006 (my Christmas present came early). He is in excellent health and likes listening to his mom play the piano. Being a dad is really amazing and a huge blessing. Props to Matt Chotin's slide show application that I was able to use for the baby pictures with a few modifications. Here is picture of my boy:

The Newest Flex Developer

2006-08-06T21:41:00-07:00

The most amazing things come up on those darn ultrasound machines! The baby was already thinking of getting started with Flex and dreaming of code. He recommends that you learn Flex and is already half way through the 3,274 pages of Flex documentation.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
   xmlns:kollen="*">

   <kollen:NewChild gender="Male" dueDate="12/01/2006"/>

</mx:Application>

Okay, maybe the dad has really bad Photoshop skills. Hey, it's a boy and yes he will choice when he decides to learn Flex. :)

Reactor is complete sorcery!

2006-05-29T03:15:00-07:00

Okay, I am completely impressed with Doug Hughes' Reactor model framework. I was seriously contemplating writing a code generator for Mach-II that would create the bean, gateway, DAO, and possible listener object, (I still may do the listener piece) but I am really glad I checked this out first. This is completely insane, procedural programming looks farther and farther away in the real view mirror. I can't wait to cook up some examples with Flex 2.