Awesome. Lifehack.org (not Lifehacker, but still cool) has a round up of 13 word processors. Which one wins?

My favorite, by far, is the newly-launched Buzzword, recently acquired by Adobe. Buzzword runs in Flash, and I generally hate Flash (in fact, I use the Flashblock extension in FireFox to disable Flash-based content by default). But Buzzword uses Flash incredibly well, providing a usable word processor that’s stunningly gorgeous.

In fairness he also tries out a number of mobile word processors which wouldn’t stand a chance. But that’s exactly why Flex kicks ass. You can build something that drops people’s jaws. You can create some crap also, but if you have a great team you can build mind blowing applications that make people who use Flashblocker stop and start using your app. I’m stoked we bought Buzzword.

Go for the digg and thanks to Ted for the link.

I wasn’t at Javapolis and I’m not the person who talks to the Java community (that would be James Ward, who needs a raise). However this post by a Javapolis attendee captured really well why I love my job and why I came to work for Adobe:

I think everyone should learn at least one lesson from this keynote: evangelists are good for courses, are good for teaching people the basics of the technology. But at a keynote you have to do much more, you have to make people dream of what they would be able to build using a new technology. And to do that, you have to find out people who actually use the technology to build something great, like Stephan did.

It actually bums me out that I haven’t been able to do more Flex. I was talking with Tom and John at the Ribbit Platform Release Party and they mentioned that I wasn’t talking as much about Flex. That sucks because Flex is awesome and after traveling around with the Thermo team I know we have some cool stuff planned for Flex 4. But the best part of my job is that I get to see what other people build. I’m not the best developer (by a long shot) but our technology enables some really fantastic things. I get to see those before everyone else. When I’m lucky I get to show them. I’d much rather put customers in my place when showing off cool things, but I get paid to travel around and show off things, so when they can’t I’m more than happy to do so.

As the Thermo evangelist I’m hoping I get to plug back into the Flex community. You guys kick ass. And we’ve got good things planned for you.

I helped out with an Adobe marketing campaign today and we got into a good discussion. We were looking at taglines for the campaign. Basically they read us a paragraph, then showed us a simple phrase (2-3) words and got our thoughts on it. One of the taglines had the word “Web” in it. Most people with me thought web was too narrow because they associated it with a browser and they felt what we’re doing with things like AIR goes way beyond the “web”.

I totally disagree. I think web has been analogous to browser because that was most people’s main entrance point to the web. But that’s just not the case any more. AIR apps are still web apps. Even Microsoft Office is more tied to the web than it ever has been before with things like Sharepoint integration and collaboration features. I think Web has gone way beyond the browser and become what it was meant to be.

What do you think of when you see the word Web?

[tags]web, browser, rich internet applications[/tags]

For some reason today there has been a lot of talk about Twitter and whether it is or isn’t relevant. Unfortunately the negative has floated to the top and Scott Karp’s explanation of why Twitter isn’t valuable is currently on the top of Techmeme. It all started with an observation by Jeremiah Owang about how Twitter is starting to drive traffic and become a flashpoint for good stories. Scott’s post is accurate, when taken in the heat of the moment, Twitter isn’t the most “high yield” activity out there. There are better ways to spend your time than looking at what everyone is up to on Twitter.

But that’s the beauty. I can do a quick check of what my Twitter friends are up to and not feel bad if I’m missing Tweets. I have a great Twitter crowd. I get a lot of cool information and I get to connect with them on a level that goes beyond their blog or general “web presence”. Interesting tech people are using Twitter and I get to hear about their kids, their day, their thoughts on a topic and a bunch of other things that I think are interesting because I think people are interesting. Twitter is a much more personalized version of the web for me. I’ve gotten beers and gone to events with people based only on what I’ve seen on Twitter. That’s incredibly valuable to me as a person.

So Twitter has always been important to me. Then came things like Tweet Scan. Tweet Scan is the most valuable market research I can do as an evangelist. Curious what people are saying about Adobe? Right there. What are people saying about rich Internet applications? Done and done. I can even find people that are talking about me so I can respond to them. Twitter is little snippets of what real people are thinking. That helps me connect with people that are interesting and doing a lot of different things. If you measure Twitter in terms of short term value then you miss the mark. The web is all about connections and Twitter streamlines that process. I love being able to see what my followers are doing because they’re real people and they have interesting lives. That’s why I love Twitter.

[tags]Twitter, personal[/tags]

One of my favorite tutorial sites back when I was messing with Photoshop was good-tutorials. I’m in the process of creating some AIR and Thermo backgrounds so I was back over there today checking it out and I noticed they have a Flash section (as well as a lot of developer sections). A quick glance at some of the Flash content looked like it was aimed at beginners for the most part, but if you’re like me (a Flex developer) who can’t do much with Flash, this looks like a good bet. I’ve always been really happy with the Photoshop tutorials they have.

[tags]Photoshop, Flash, good-tutorials[/tags]

It’s always difficult to track how popular rich Internet applications are amongst developers but the influx of events is a pretty good indicator that we’re still going strong. The latest is initRIA, a developer-focused conference in Bangalore, India that will cover Flash, Flex, JavaFX, Silverlight, OpenLaszlo, and Ajax. The conference is organized by the Bangalore Flex User Group but most of the major RIA players have a big presence in India so I think this will be a very diverse event.

Here are the details:
What: initRIA
When: Sunday, December 16th
Where: HoneyWell Technology Solutions, Doralsanlplaya, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560076

Seats are limited and as of this post there are 46 slots left, so it’s probably a good idea to get your name in and register. If you’re planning on attending, let me know, I’d love to hear a report from the event.

[Via Brajeshwar]

I’m in San Jose this week for the Adobe Sales & Marketing conference and some other internal meetings and luckily while I’m down here Ribbit is having their Platform Release Party up in San Francisco. I love what these guys are up to and I was stoked when they asked me to speak for a few minutes as part of the festivities. If you’re in San Francisco on Thursday, you owe it to yourself to stop by. Here are the details:

What: Ribbit Platform Release Party
When: Thursday, December 13th, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Where: 535 York St, San Francisco, CA 94110

[tags]Ribbit, Personal[/tags]

If they roll this out Alaska Airlines will have a 100,000+ mile a year flyer for life. I have a lot of Seattle pride. I love living there and I love almost everything about the city. Alaska Airlines’ big hub is in Seattle so most of the nice airport features revolve around Alaska flyers. Unfortunately I fly a lot of international so I’ve always been a Star Alliance guy (United/US Airways) but I feel bad I can’t support Alaska.

So Alaska Airlines, if you get wi-fi on your planes you will have one additional customer and you’ll help me with my Seattle sweep.

[tags]Alaska Airlines, Travel, Personal[/tags]