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Delta shows how outsourcing is a great way to ruin customer relationships

By James Lockman on September 23, 2011 5:49 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

As I wait for my 3:48 flight to Portland Maine to depart sometime after 6:30 due to a "mechanical issue," I was surprised by a Delta representative who came to ask if everything was all right. I told her that no, it was not all right, and that Delta's business decision has once again made me question whether to continue my relationship with the airline.

Like so many of its competitors, Delta outsources the small market routes to regional carriers. When those planes break down or the regional carrier can't provide crews, then it is Delta who is the bearer of bad news. Since I, as a customer, can't distinguish between Delta and the partner, my trust in Delta erodes every time I fly.

To contrast, I had a flight earlier this week between Atlanta and JFK. That flight had a new plane with in-flight television, on-time departure, and a friendly and attentive crew. Between major hubs, flying with Delta is often a great way to go, but not when travel to a smaller airport is required.

My ask of Delta (and the other legacy carriers) is that they stop pretending to serve us in the smaller airports. Leave that to the carriers who care about the smaller airports, like Southwest and JetBlue. Allow the regional carriers to stand on their own, and I bet we would see a drastic transformation in their level of service.

RIM sets up BlackBerry PlayBook Bus in NY

By James Lockman on May 3, 2011 8:17 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

RIM, the makers of the BlackBerry Playbook, set up shop today on the corner of 34th and Broadway. Their bus and sidewalk tables allow the curious to kick the tires, so to speak, on their tablet computer. I can say that the device is a delight to hold and use. Its operating system is a leap forward for mobile computing, with additional gestures and true multitasking. Its video capture and playback is stunning, too.

My son, Arthur, and I each developed apps for PlayBook under a developer challenge that RIM issued last fall. Now that the SDK is up to speed and Flash Builder 5.5 is out, apps are being made fast and furious. I am working on a blog entry on my Adobe Blog about using Flash CS5.5 and Flash Builder 5.5 to build one app and deploy it painlessly to iPhone, iPad, PlayBook, and Android. I am amazed at how easy it is to get the project done now.

Even the Menorahs are reduced in these lean times...

By James Lockman on January 5, 2011 11:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Walking down 9th avenue this afternoon, I was amused to see the attached menorah painted on a restaurant window. I guess that the painter wasn't looking at a Hanukkah menorah when painting the image. OK, Hanukah was a month ago, so maybe they're slowly weaning the customers out of the season. Probably not.

Adobe MAX 2010 best conference I've ever attended

By James Lockman on November 3, 2010 6:30 AM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

Trust me, I've been to a lot of conferences over the years. I've been an attendee and a speaker and an organizer, so I've seen these things from all angles. Adobe MAX 2010 in downtown Los Angeles topped them all.

Let me talk about different aspects of the conference, so that you can get a feel for how great this was. From the hospitality side, there were helpful guides everywhere you went. People with signs and clipboards and smiles, so that you could easily find your way to the proper place for the next great thing. I had many conversations with these docents over the week, and they were as pleasant at 7:00 am as they were at 10:00 pm. Yes, it's LA and everyone's in show biz, but great job with the staffing.

We were well fed, and not with piles of junk food and beef jerky like I've seen at previous MAX conferences. Fruit, beverages, and sweets in moderation for snacks, pizza and beer when appropriate, and great party food for the mixers. The Grab and Go breakfast of coffee and donuts was the only thing I found lacking, and opted for Starbuck's breakfast. No strikes against MAX, though, since I wasn't expecting breakfast anyway.

As for venue, the LA Convention Center is a huge facility with a tremendous number of classrooms, meeting rooms and exhibit spaces. Every room had ample seating, clear views of the presenters, and good audio support. I had the privilege of working with Patti Sokol as a TA for some of her classes, and the classes went very smoothly with help from the event technical staff.

As an Adobe Community Professional, I was treated like a king. We had access to the front of the general sessions, so I got to sit in the third row and be close enough to the speakers to hear them without amplification.

Now. About the content of the show...

Wow.

Just that.

Wow.

The general sessions revealed technology for mobile, video and web that will keep Adobe ahead of the pack for years to come, despite the buzz over HTML5 and CSS3. When the dust settles, businesses will continue to require proven, protected delivery methods that can help them make money, not just stream videos for free. We saw content displayed on tablets from Apple, RIM, Samsung, and others. In fact, it was almost like a pharmaceutical convention with all the tablets!Kevin Lynch, with the help of Martha Stewart (whom I met and with whom I had a very nice conversation in the lobby of the JW Marriott after the general session) demonstrated new publishing technologies for those tablets as well. Seeing the InDesign logo on stage during the General Session was a big boost for my confidence in Adobe's plans for traditional design and print.

Of course, the fact that they gave everyone a Droid 2 and a Logitech Google TV unit helped to keep enthusiasm levels high.

You can review many of the sessions athttp://tv.adobe.com/channel/max/max-2010/ Adobe TV's MAX 2010 Channel. You can learn more than you'll ever want to know about the Flash platform, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, and Flash on mobile and television. You'll also learn about what's coming in the next year or two, and get a sense of what Adobe's partners like RIM, Google, Motorola, and others are doing with these technologies to raise their devices to a whole new level of astonishing.

I went to many sessions and labs over the week, and was most impressed by two distinctly different technologies: AIR for TV and a preview of a possible new web design tool.

I was fortunate enough to get into one of the Make Your First AIR for TV application sessions, and spent an hour creating a quick Flash movie, exporting to AIR, and getting it to play on a Television set top box. We got to keep the developer set top box as an incentive to go and create some apps, so I just may have to do that. I also went to a Samsung talk about the future of AIR on their televisions and Blu-Ray players. I firmly believe that having Flash and AIR on these set top boxes and Blu-Ray devices will make Televisions the next iPhones when it comes to apps. Adobe also unveiled its InMarket service, which helps developers get their apps into a broad array of app stores. I plan to take advantage of this myself, and while I don't expect to get rich with a TV app, it might just pay the cable bill.

I saw a preview of a new web design tool for graphic designers. I am not sure how much I can say about it, so I won't say much. I will say that it is definitely a game changer for helping traditional designers transition to designing for the Web. I overheard more than one "oh... my... God!" and "Can I have this NOW??" and "Where has this been all my life?" comments during the session. Keep your eyes open for something wonderful from Adobe for Designers.

After the show, I felt more than inspired to be in this business. I felt uplifted and reinvigorated. The bickering over Flash and HTML5 has been draining all around. To see how exciting technology can be and how wonderful the results of innovation can be when great tools are put to work by smart people makes the trip to LA and MAX 2010 the best conference I have ever attended. Period.

Sears parts direct wasteful in its return policies

By James Lockman on October 17, 2010 7:32 PM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

Image via Wikipedia

I ordered some engine push rods for a Sears Garden Tractor that I own. I ordered them based on the manual that came with the tractor, and expected that the part numbers in the manual would indeed refer to the proper parts. Apparently, the part numbers have changed or the manual that I have is incorrect, so the parts I ordered were not the correct push rods. In fact, their proportions were about twice the length and diameter of the proper push rods.

I went online to find what went wrong, and began with the tractor part number, and was able to drill down into the engine and and select the proper parts. Calling the toll free number, I was offered many apologies, but they were only going to allow me to return one of the push rods, despite their being in their original packaging. I argued that they had been purchased based on their manual, and eventually, I got the entire purchase refunded and ordered the new part.

But here's the wasteful part.

I asked how to return the push rods to Sears so that they could be sold to someone who needs them. The person on the phone told me that it was "not cost effective" to actually accept the parts back into their inventory, and to "throw them in the trash."

I was shocked by Sears' attitude. I understand that the return postage probably costs more than the value of the parts, but it's the principle of the thing! We used to have a parts depot here in Portland, so we could compare parts before purchasing to ensure we had the right parts in hand. Now, if the parts don't fit, throw them away.

Shame on you, Sears. I'll think twice before purchasing a Sears branded piece of yard equipment again.

Video compositing excellence in the MAX Unawards #AdobeCP

By James Lockman on October 17, 2010 5:29 PM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

Image via Wikipedia

This is a great bit of technology based on a Flash Media server. We were asked to make an acceptance speech for a fictitious awards show, and to try to use a Star Trek theme for the speech, since Leonard Nimoy is hosting the REAL MAX awards this year. Contestants upload a video shot from their webcam, and the server injects it into some canned content. Of course, there's moving text from the entry form that gets added as well, so it's not just a "put it in a square and there it is" kind of video compositing.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to watch and vote on my entry.

I mention this because it shows clearly the power of Flash and its delivery platforms to not only deliver engaging content, but also to facilitate creating that content on the fly. The application asks for a few pieces of information (your name and contest category) and proceeds to grabbing some video. The application detects all of the video inputs available on the machine and displays them in a grid. The contestant then chooses the feed they want to record, and they're off to the races. Very simple, and with just about every laptop and tons of desktops having webcams built-in, there's some interesting business applications here.

When doing this exercise, I think of companies in hospitality, cruises, vacations and the like who might use this kind of service to get people excited about taking a vacation. Ride a roller coaster, stand on the edge of a volcano, or even shake hands with a dead movie star. Then, share it with your friends as you book the real life experience (well, not the shaking hands with the dead star, of course...). Pretty slick. It also provides a way for venues to use viral methods to promote their services by putting guests into videos that feature themed overlays (like Cinderella's castle or the gateway to the Pirate's Den) and letting them post the videos to YouTube directly from the venue.

Very cool, Adobe.

Adobe MAX 2010 promises a glimpse into what's possible

By James Lockman on October 17, 2010 4:58 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I am a person who follows what Adobe is doing as closely as I can, but since it has so many technologies under its umbrella, it's hard to keep on top. With this in mind, I look forward to Adobe MAX 2010 in Los Angeles, which starts next weekend.

MAX came to Adobe by way of Macromedia. It had been a developer's playground where Flash, Flex and ColdFusion developers got together, sat in dark rooms, and coded their hearts out for a few days. Also, there were awards, seminars, hands-on labs, and a constant supply of snacks.

After Adobe and Macromedia merged, it wasn't clear to us who were coming at it from the Adobe side whether it made any sense. I had the good fortune to attend a few years ago when Adobe Creative Suite 3 was new, and presented a day long deep dive session on the then state-of-the-art design suite. We designers and printers felt very much on the margins of things during that week, although as a guy who enjoys a few lines of code from time to time, I attended several of the "Make your first..." {insert your favorite technology acronym} "Application!" sessions. Wow, what an eye opener.

For those of us stuck in color booths on press checks, entrenched in marketing speak, or worrying about dotgain and ink dry times, MAX represents a whole new world of exciting possibilities.

This year, the conference is in Los Angeles, and while I am indeed working the show again, there will be ample time to sit in on those "make your first..." hands-on sessions and see what I can do. Since my first MAX, though, I have become a pretty decent PHP and MySQL guy with a solid understanding of CSS. I have also gotten very, very excited about Flash Catalyst and Flex, as well as the HTML5 features in Illustrator and Dreamweaver. I continue to be amazed at what can be done with InDesign, which looks more and more like the Swiss Knife of all media document production as it evolves.

What's exciting about this MAX is that as a designer/printer, I'll not be an outsider. There are many programs designed just for us, and that have been selected to expose us to other revenue streams for our companies as well as ways to branch out of our narrow design cubicles. New features in Design Premium aside, the real ticket to success lies in the Master Collection and the additional video, web and mobile content you can create with it.

I hope that more traditional designers realize this and don't think that MAX is just for code geeks anymore. Come to the conference and you'll be glad you did!

HTML5: Not ready for prime time?

By James Lockman on October 7, 2010 8:18 AM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

Paul Krill of InfoWorld wrote an insightful article today about whether web sites should migrate content to include HTML5 features. He quotes Philippe LeHegaret of the W3C, who says:

"I don't think it's ready for production yet," especially since W3C still will make some changes on APIs, said Le Hegaret. "The real problem is can we make [HTML5] work across browsers and at the moment, that is not the case."

Later on, while remarking that we will eventually see less and less of Flash and Silverlight,

"We're not going to retire Flash anytime soon," Le Hegaret said. It will take years before all Web clients support HTML5, he said.

I agree with Le Hegaret and with Krill. Issues like Digital Rights Management and consistent appearance across browsers will provide developers and brand owners enough incentive to stick with technologies they know and understand when it comes to actually making money with their web sites. While Apple Computer believes that HTML5 is now, it is clear that HTML5 is yet to come.

Interestingly, in recent months, Adobe has made changes on its own web site to reduce the amount of Flash that is used to display content on its prominent customer-facing pages on its site. You won't notice these changes if you have Flash installed, of course, but instead of seeing those "missing plug-in" messages on your iPad, you'll get a non-Flash version of these pages. While less interesting and not interactive, these pages provide the customer with a more positive experience at adobe.com.

I have written before about HTML5 not being ready for Prime Time. I am glad that I am not alone in thinking that while it's nice to experiment with the chemistry set, it's best to get the descriptions of what's in the bottles first before mixing.

Enterprise Car Rental wins 5 stars in my book

By James Lockman on September 26, 2010 6:55 PM | 1 Comment | No TrackBacks

My trip to Seattle was going great until I got to Seattle. There, I learned that all of the luggage from the Portland, Maine connection had been lost or misdirected in JFK, so I am without the majority of my clothes. Thankfully, My Prescient Wife, Rori, hinted that I should split my clothes between my carry-on and my checked bag. My mother's experience this summer while traveling to Germany of being without luggage for a good portion of her trip was also on my mind, so I had kept one change of clothes in the carry-on as well as all of my toiletries. I must assume that JetBlue will find the bag and get it here sometime tomorrow.

With this news weighing heavy on my mind, I get on the Enterprise bus to go get the rental car. When I hand the agent my reservation (that had been made my Hewins AAA Travel in Portland, Maine, from whom I had specified Enterprise), he showed me that it was in fact for Hertz. Imagine my delight when he asked me if I had rented with Enterprise before, and I told him that I had a corporate account and that I rented locally in Maine about once a month. Having found my account, he was able to match the rate and get me out the door in about 5 minutes.

Hooray, Enterprise, for redeeming one part of this trip. Next time you need a car, give them a try.

Adobe releases HTML5 extension for Illustrator CS5 on Adobe Labs

By James Lockman on September 13, 2010 7:50 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Adobe released an extension to Illustrator CS5 that enables greater SVG interactivity and better export for HTML5. While Flash Catalyst enables communication between designer and Flex developer, the Illustrator HTML5 Plug-in Pack enables communication between designers and HTML5 developers.

The SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphic, format has been around for a long time, and Illustrator has been able to write SVG for about as long as the format has been around. The plugin enables creation of certain tags that allow HTML5 pages to render on different screen sizes, include CSS, enable variables in the design attributes, and more.

It works in combination with the HTML 5 Pack for Dreamweaver CS5 that was included in the Dreamweaver CS5 11.0.3 update. It can also produce stand-alone HTML, but in practice, artwork will be handed over to a developer for coding and inclusion in larger applications. According to the User Guide,

Using the HTML5 Pack you can do the following:

Parameterized SVG
Multi-screen SVG
Mark object as canvas in SVG
Export named character styles as CSS
Export artwork appearances as CSS
Include Selected Graphic Style as CSS in SVG

Here's a summary of what's possible.

Parametrized SVG allows a designer to create objects with variable attributes. These might include fill and stroke color, opacity, and a few others. As variables, the developer can then address these programmatically after the designer hands over the artwork.

Multi-screen SVG allows a designer to create different versions of their design that will then display on the appropriate screen. For instance, we are all familiar with iPhone apps that switch from Portrait to Landscape mode. Multi-screen SVG enables a designer to design for those orientations and also for specific screen sizes. This will help designers create more consistent designs across multiple mobile devices.

Marking an object as a canvas in SVG allows the designer to designate an object as a canvas. This will rasterize the content within the canvas and make it available for the developer in javascript or other scripting languages.

Exporting character styles and artwork appearances to CSS does just that. Character Styles become CSS that the developer can use to maintain consistency when they are creating new elements in the application. An object's Fill, Stroke, Opacity, Gradient and also the absolute position and dimensions are also exportable as CSS.

You can also Include a Graphic Style as CSS in your SVG. Using this option, the designer can send graphic styles that aren't currently used in the artwork, with the expectation that the developer will enable and disable these styles programmatically. Using this option, the designer can designate exactly how objects should appear under specific conditions, and then the developer can enable that behavior.

Why is all this important? One of the most challenging parts of developing content for the Web and Mobile devices is that the designers and developers speak different languages. This language barrier is very real; developers sneer at designers who don't know how to code, and designers can't understand the ham-handed way that developers carve up their work to turn it into functional code. Any tool that helps designers better inform developers of their desires, and also enables developers to use the content that developers provide without having to carve it up will empower both sides to work more productively and harmoniously.

Over at Forrst, I asked who is likely to use this new feature. While I haven't gotten feedback yet (it's only been a few minutes!) I anticipate that there will be a lot of interest. Whether there is widespread adoption depends on how well the plug-in works in real-world situations. I look forward to the results of the survey.

« New Software Stuff | Main Index | Archives | Quality of Life »

Recently in Opinion Category

Delta shows how outsourcing is a great way to ruin customer relationships

RIM sets up BlackBerry PlayBook Bus in NY

Even the Menorahs are reduced in these lean times...

Adobe MAX 2010 best conference I've ever attended

Sears parts direct wasteful in its return policies

Video compositing excellence in the MAX Unawards #AdobeCP

Adobe MAX 2010 promises a glimpse into what's possible

HTML5: Not ready for prime time?

Enterprise Car Rental wins 5 stars in my book

Adobe releases HTML5 extension for Illustrator CS5 on Adobe Labs

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