Viewing by month: October 2004
The Grapes of Wrath
Yes, I know it's punny, but I couldn't help it!!! I spent all day Saturday at Amity Vineyards picking grapes. Yep... picking grapes. Amity Vineyards has a Harvest Party every year where poor suckers like us get to go see what it's like to work in a vineyard, and I'll tell you, it's damn hard work. I believe we picked a grand total of 10 tons of grapes off of 3 acres, which Myron Redford will use to make Pinot Noir and other tasty wines.
So why did I pick so many grapes that I still have a hard time making it down the stairs two days later? Because you get wine at employee prices (after all, I was an employee for a day) and if you come back the following year you get a free bottle make from the grapes you broke your back picking. Not only that, but Myron's wife makes a fantastic dinner, and all the wine you can drink is free. Needless to say I'm glad I wasn't driving home, because I was fat, happy, and thoroughly inebriated on some of the best reds I've had in a long time. I brought home 8 bottles, and I ain't sharin....
Macromedia Offers NCL Option for Flex
Macromedia today announced a Non-Commercial License option for Flex. This should make it easier for developers to start getting into Flex-based development, so we can all find out what it's really capable of :). You may just end up seeing a Flex-based UI for Dan's Shorts.... oooooooooohhhh... who knows :). They also have a nifty little page that will help everyone understand exactly what an NCL license is, so we can all figure out if we're eligible.
Macromedia Announces Captivate
Macromedia has just announced Captivate, the replacement for RoboDemo, and what a replacement it is. I've been using Camtasia for some time for doing instructional movies, but will most likely be switching to Captivate once it actually goes on sale :). They've added support for simulations, in-line audio recording, live screen capture on click-and-drag actions (sorely missing in RoboDemo) as well as the ability to import all of my old Camtasia recordings and convert them to Captivate movies.
A biggie for some folks will be that Captivate now exports to Flash MX 2004 right out of the box. In RoboDemo this was an additional plugin (and additional purchase), but it's now part of the root product.
You should also check out the prouct demo from Silke Fleischer, the Captivate Product Manager, which includes a walk through of the entire product, as well as a full simulation (another new feature of Captivate). You can also see lots of TMMs being goofy, and who doesn't love that....