New TIP Postings - Coming Next Week!

I talk to a fair number of people who either work with Servoy or FileMaker Pro (or both!). I was recently talking to a person who was evaluating Servoy and because I've worked with both tools for so long, I find myself doing things "automatically" - that are often a revelation to the less experienced.

In that vain, I'm going to be posting some Tips for both Servoy users and FileMaker users - and probably some generic Tips as well.

What kind of tips would you like to see?

Swiping While Wiping

There's been a ton of hand-wringing and pearl-clutching in the publishing industry - and the blog universe about the "death of printed media." Everyone from media moguls to tech industry pundits to radio talk show hosts (yes, I know - radio is dead too - but that's for another post) - have been complaining about how the printed page is doomed - only to be replaced by (gasp!) electronic versions.

Credit, Debit or Smartphone?

Lately there's been a lot of noise about NFC - better known as "Near Field Communications" coming to smartphones here in the US. "What is NFC" you ask? It's basically a "contact-less" way to pay for things. There's a little transmitter that will transmit your payment information to a reader so that you don't need to swipe a plastic credit/debit card.

More Talking, Less Typing

Lately I've been trying out a couple of these "dictation" type of applications (Lord knows I do enough typing every day!) - and I have to say, that overall, I'm not very impressed. There is the Google Voice Recognition - that works OK for simple things you're searching for - but a complete mess when you're trying to dictate, let's say an email to someone.

ICANN (andSoCanYou.com)

Well, the governing body for Internet top level domains (also called TLD's) like .com, .org, etc. took a historic vote yesterday that will allow anyone with $185,000 (and $25,000 annually after that) come up with their own TLD.

Short Rant: Let The (Adobe) Air Crashing Begin!

Adobe announced today that they are releasing Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 - that, according to Adobe, will allow developers to write Android, Blackberry Tablet and iOS applications using their proprietary ActionScript scripting language.

Of course Flex is free (and open source) - but there's always a catch. From Adobe's site:

While Flex applications can be built using only the free Flex SDK, Adobe® Flash® Builder™ software can accelerate development through features like intelligent code editing, step-through debugging, memory and performance profilers, and visual design.

So... if you want to use Flex to code a mobile application and if you want a code editor, a debugger, or if you want to use a GUI interface for it... and ummmm... actually USE it, you'll need Flash Builder 4.5 ($699).

Yippee! Now I can expose ALL my data, both desktop AND mobile to the super-secure Adobe Swiss cheese platform!

Ummmm.... yeah - and what happens when Adobe issues massive patchalooza (like they did last week) for all the 13 zero day flaws that were in there for who-knows-how-long? Will those exploits show up in the mobile version(s)?

Can you just patch Flash Builder... and then do you have to re-build all the executables on all platforms? Then re-release a new version in Apple App Store, Android Store, and RIM Store?

Perhaps a few good books on HTML5 and CSS would be a better investment.... I'm just sayin'...

Portable Media - The Beginning of Apple Domination?

Last Friday I blogged about Chrome OS and the pontificated on life using only browser-based applications. I was thinking over the weekend about the impending release of iOS 5 and Lion for the Mac - and I came up with an interesting theory. Could Apple being trying its own hand at an instant-on, lightweight OS "experience"... ummmm... "for the rest of us?"

Could You Live Your (Computing) Life Only In The Cloud?

So the first batch of Chrome OS computers started shipping this week - one by Samsung and one by Acer. They're basically like a standard laptop, albeit an under-powered one - think netbook specs. They both have about a 12 inch screen, weigh under 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg), have a couple of gigs of RAM, a solid state 15-20GB hard drive, a SD card reader, couple of USB ports (no ethernet), built-in WiFi (no ethernet - but Samsung has a 3G radio option) and a built-in webcam/microphone. They both retail for about $350 (WiFi only) to $500 (WiFi + 3G).

The Cost Of Free

I recently setup a website for my wife's new business (Avocado Diva) - and, being
the family geek, I had free reign to use whatever technology I wanted to. I also
needed to do all the "normal" stuff - get the domain, set up the hosting, set up email accounts, ftp accounts, etc., etc.

Short Rant: Adobe - Patch THIS! (UPDATED)

Holy crap. Really? ANOTHER set of patches for Flash? This is the second time in 9 days that Adobe has issued a "zero-day" patch that affect Flash (and also, Google's Chrome browser that includes Flash). Oh yeah, and it also updated Adobe Reader and Acrobat fixing 13 MORE vulnerabilities at the same time.

If you use Gmail - you REALLY, REALLY need to make sure that you've got the latest patch - because on June 5th Adobe issued an "emergency" patch to fix a vulnerability that would allow nefarious baddies to steal your Gmail login credentials.

I don't know about you - but I have more than one device that uses Flash. I use Google's Chrome browser at work (3 Windows machines), at home (2 Macs + 6 virtual OS instances) - and I'm just getting pretty damn tired of updating all this stuff - all the time. But yet, if Adobe comes out with a "critical" patch - and you ignore it - your machine might get hacked - or your identity stolen.

Really? Identity theft from a browser plug-in used to play media or display a PDF document?

I'm especially worried about those "less technically savvy" people in my life - since I'm the "family IT guy." If they don't patch, it means I'm going to have to do all kinds of stuff to un-gunk their computers - because (technically inclined brethren) you KNOW they DO click on every single "pretty picture" on every single site they visit on the inter-web.

Now, I love PDFs - don't get me wrong - and because reader is now installed on 95%+ of all computers in the world - getting away from using it will be a challenge.

For those of you who are really smart out there - why don't you come up with a PDF to HTML5 converter that would just bundle up the PDF into a double-clickable HTML document? At least then we could be free from the eternal Adobe Patch Cycle...

... until someone hacks HTML5 readers... sigh.

UPDATE June 17, 2011 - Well, it seems as though the good folks over at Mozilla are SICK of the buggy Adobe Reader as well - and are going to build an extension (and eventually put into the codebase)... wait for it... a 100% HTML5/JavaScript PDF rendering engine! Hot off the wire from ComputerWorld:

Mozilla is working on a project that will add PDF rendering to Firefox using HTML5 and JavaScript, eliminating the need for users to run Adobe's own plug-in.

We can only HOPE the other browser folks get behind the open-source pdf.js project as well! God speed Mozilla folks!

Back To The Future

Yeah, I know it's June... and yeah, I know I've been slacking in blogging lately. In honor of half of the year being gone (already!) - I've decided to make a new Half Year's resolution to be more consistent in my blogging. So... here goes:

IE9 "INNOVATION!"

DOH! I just noticed that my last blog here was 6 MONTHS ago... ummm... oops - my bad. (to my loyal 10 readers - I'll try to be better about updating this thing on a more timely basis)

So Microsoft just released Internet Exploder 9.0 and a "special" download site beautyOfTheWeb.com. Now, let's get this out in the open right from the start - I am NOT a huge fan of Internet Explorer. In fact, it's such a bloated, slow and outdated piece of crap that I've long since changed the default browser on every computer I touch to Chrome.

Before I get hate mail from die-hard Mozilla users - it's not that I dislike Firefox - it was the "cool kid" and unlocked the door of the tyrannical IE lock-in suffered by so many for so long. However, Google's Chrome browser simply blew the doors off Firefox in terms of performance, simplicity and elegance. To be fair, Firefox 4 is just about ready to be released - so we'll see how it goes - but for now, for me and mine - Chrome is the bee's knees.

OK, so I hope you get the fact that I like Chrome. A lot.

What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah - IE (small internal groan - followed by a sigh).

It was with great fear and trepidation that actually downloaded and Installed IE9 on my Windows 7 box. I was expecting the "usual" 10 minute download of the installer, the 20 minute install process, the inevitable reboot, etc.

BUT - the download process was pretty easy - they have a little "shell" downloader (like Chrome) app that comes down and actually does the download/install. The installation process itself was actually pretty quick (less than 5 minutes)... I was beginning to think it was going to actually be a "good" experience!

Did Microsoft finally "get it?" Did they finally realize that customers hate bloatware? Did they actually give a crap about the... dare I say it... "user?"

Answer: nope.

You STILL have to do a restart. After you install a BROWSER. In 2011.

Really.

"Well, it IS Microsoft after all", I tell myself. It's almost reassuring that they have kept the process somewhat familiar regardless of how screwed up it is... but I digress.

After installation and reboot, I'm finally ready! IE9! Here we GO!

What the ??

Did I launch Chrome by mistake? (I literally had to check the task bar)

Wow. Microsoft managed to copy Chrome! Gone are all the "crap bars" that hose it all up (like Chrome). Gone are the menus, replaced by a cute "gear" icon (hey, they couldn't use a "wrench" like Chrome - that would be "copying"). You can type in address bar to perform searchs (like Chrome). The rendering speeds ARE significantly and noticeably faster than IE8 (like Chrome). They added process isolation (so if one tab crashes - it doesn't take the whole app down - like Chrome).

Hmmmmmm... it actually doesn't suck.

It's like Chrome - but rather than using an open-source, standards-based HTML rendering engine - they're still using their closed-source, Windows-only, born in 1998 "Trident" engine. And, although Microsoft claims they've updated it to support CSS3 and HTML5 - you gotta' just KNOW that they're "embracing and extending" (read: making stupid, incompatible changes to standard tags and putting in new ones that no other browser supports).

Microsoft doing a browser update can cause a number of different responses - depending on what camp you find yourself in:

If you're a casual user: NO IMPACT - you're probably still using the default IE 6 that came with XP and either your computer is so filled with viruses that you've given up using it - or you don't actually use it to surf beyond your webmail.

If you're a web developer: HAIR ON FIRE ALERT! Refill your Starbucks card immediatelty - because now you have to support yet ANOTHER incompatible version of IE!

If you're a die-hard Microsoft-only shop: REJOICE! You can now actually "load pages quickly". Make sure you update all your customers/users immediately - and for goodness sakes make sure that you immediately hard code all your external-facing sites to only render in IE9!

If you're a die-hard Mac/iOS user/developer: IGNORE - the Mac team at Microsoft uses the same Safari/Chrome WebKit rendering engine in the Mac version of Office 2011.

So, do I "like" IE9? Sure. It's a helluva lot better than IE6, IE7 or IE8! But that's like saying Windows 7 is better than Vista. It IS. But it had BETTER BE!

The inspiration for this post was not that IE9 came out. It was all about a very insulting quote by Dean Hachamovitch (the head of the IE development team) came out with:

"Other browsers dilute their engineering investments across systems," Hachamovitch said. "Because we focus exclusively on one, IE can make the most of the Windows experience and the hardware."

Ummmm... excuse me? Yeah, you're right, Dean... why the hell would you want to support other platforms? Why would you want the same browsing experience across multiple devices? Why would you want to go with a standards-based approach - when everyone at Microsoft KNOWS that closed-source and proprietary is the future.

Using The RIght Tool (Without Becoming One)

WOW. Who knew one little blog post could generate so much mail! =)

It was great hearing from some long-time (and long-time-no-talk-to) FileMaker friends from the past - and it was also great (and somewhat surprising - in a good way) to hear from so many of my Servoy friends about their concern that I "have dumped Servoy".

"Dumped Servoy?" WTF??

NOTHING could be farther from the truth! In fact, I'm working in collaboration with Scott Butler and his company iTech Professionals to create an entire video training site and Servoy CERTIFICATION Program! The project is at Servoy University.com - and we're really excited about it!

I'm very pleased and touched that so many of you folks have reached out to re-connect, to voice your concerns and to lend support.

Just to clear up any confusion - my position today is the same as my position has been for the past 15 years…

...wait for it…

USE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB. (period!)

For a long time in my past I had only a single tool in my professional toolbelt: FileMaker. When you have only a single tool (and know it inside out, frontward and backward) - let's call it my "hammer" - then you tend to see everything as a nail. Every customer. Every job. Every opportunity.

There are lots of people (and I was one of the chief instigators) who did almost un-holy things with FIleMaker - and came up with some of the most outlandish work-arounds known to human kind in order to justify the (wrong) position that "FileMaker can do anything."

While it's technically true that you can FORCE FileMaker into SIMULATING almost anything you can think of or do in other tools - the fact of the matter remains that you should use FileMaker when the situation (and customer and budget and timeframe) are a good match for that particular tool.

It's exactly the same for Servoy.

Just to BE CLEAR on what I think of Servoy:

Servoy is an absolutely stunning piece of software that I personally (along with Jan Aleman, Jan Blok, Johan Compagner, Sebastiaan van Erk, Maarten Berkenbosch, Yvo Boom and Andy Rooswinkel) spent many fun, hard, exciting, bloody, glorious years turning a lump of clay in a hotel room demo into a "proper", profitable company with offices all over the world. It's probably one of the best/hardest ventures that I have been involved with in all my years in business. I believe that Servoy's rapid development, single code-base deployment to native and web, platform independence and NOW even open-source to boot - is absolutely one of THE best tools (if not THE best!) for creating GUIs into SQL databases on the market today.

The reason that I'm "officially" adding FileMaker BACK into my toolbelt - is because I don't want to fall back into the same position as I was back in "early" FIleMaker-only days - I don't want to see everything as a (bigger and more powerful and cooler) nail.

I DO appreciate your thoughts and suggestions!

(Feel free to get in touch if you want to express your opinions, have suggestions - and DEFINITELY get in touch if you have customer leads and paying work - in either tool)…

Everything Old Is New Again

Over the last 6 months or so - I've been getting a fair number of requests to do FileMaker Pro work.

Yeah, I know! Right?

I worked on some pretty cool projects for a wide variety of customers - and found that getting back into FileMaker is like riding a bike - you just never forget.

Sure, a LOT has changed in the product over the years - and there have been many excellent improvements (can you say Script Triggers, Conditional Formatting and Functions!), and you can now specify a calculated result for just about everything in the world (yay!).

But somehow FileMaker, Inc. has managed to keep most of the "good stuff" that makes FileMaker... well, FileMaker. It's still fairly easy to use (just don't get me started on table occurrences!), the scripting engine is the same (with more and better functions available) - and the Server product is just much better than in the "old days."

After doing so many years of Servoy-only development, I must admit it was a bit of "an adjustment" getting back into developing projects in FileMaker. A lot of the keyboard shortcuts that my mind had (somehow!) managed to remember still worked. Defining fields and setting validations, global fields, auto-enter options and all the rest were just as I had remembered.

In the few times that I got stuck with a function or script (looked logical - just didn't "work") - I was able to easily find the answer in one of the many FileMaker "superstar" sites (BrianDunning.com, AngelCityData.com, FileMakerMagazine.com, FMForums.com, FMPro.org, etc, etc.).

I found that I had to get myself back in the "FileMaker mindset" when creating scripts... where there is usually only one or two routes to get from A to B - and normally only one way from A to C. I also had to remind myself that when finding data you need to actually go to a layout that's based on the table you're data is in... but once I got back into the "mindset" - everything went as smooth as silk.

Along the way I was able to re-connect with some very old and dear friends from years past - and have had the chance to chat with people that I literally haven't talked to in 5 or 6 years (sometimes longer).

Although I was unable to attend this year's FileMaker Developer Conference in San Diego - I'm looking forward to have a beer (or two) with some old friends and looking forward to learning all the new, subtle tricks from today's "young guns."

To celebrate Clickware's re-entry into the FileMaker services/consulting/training arena - I wanted to contribute SOMETHING to the FileMaker community at large. So, I've put together a new series of 4 videos aimed at helping FileMaker developers deal with end users who may be new to FileMaker, and hopefully, reduce the amount of "How do you do a find" support questions.

The videos are FREE, and I have some other ideas for a "Developer" series as well - so if you have ideas about a FileMaker-related video you would like to see - please email me and I'll see if I can get it going.

I guess the pundits are wrong - you CAN teach an old dog new tricks! Rock on, FileMaker 11!

iPad: Now I Get It

I'll admit it: I just don't "get" the iPad.

I mean, I have a Mac laptop and an iPhone - do I really need an oversized iPod Touch as well? I can take my laptop (or iPhone) into the living room and surf while watching TV, I can stream all the content I want, control my iTunes with my iPhone... take pictures, connect to social media, Skype and IM where ever I am - so why the heck would any rational person $500-$800 for an oversized iPod Touch?

Answer: because they've used one.

This weekend my buddy Edward Callaghan (from London) came to visit - and although we gave him constant ribbing about being from "Great" Britain and for kicking England's butt in the Revolutionary war - he did bring 2 pieces of gear that I don't own: the iPhone 4 and an iPad.

I played with the new iPhone (loved it!) and also scoffingly gave the iPad a quick test drive. I mean, it was cool and all - the screen is great, it works (literally) like a giant iPhone (minus the talking bit and camera bit) - and was nice. I wasn't convinced it was $600 nice, but it was nice.

Then on Saturday morning when everyone (including Edward) was still asleep - I decided that I would give the iPad and extended test drive - and surf for the latest news, play some media files, etc.

Boy, was I surprised: that thing rocks!

The browsing is very fast (similar to my laptop's speed), the screen is beautiful and bright (like my laptop screen), the on-screen keyboard is big (and in landscape mode almost as big as a regular keyboard), it has all the same pinching and zooming and swiping controls as the iPhone (although no multi-tasking yet), and there is a special version of Apple's iWork suite that was optimized for the iPad.

I'm not running out to the store to get one (it's always good to wait for the 2.0 version of new Apple hardware) - but my kids will be needing their own computers soon - and once they get multi-tasking - I can get two iPads for the price of a single laptop.

There's a reason Apple sold 3 million of them in 80 days (and 1.75 million iPhone 4's in 72 hours)...

Looks like I'll have to dust off my "Objective C for Dummies" books and get to writing some code!