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Hi Folks!

I’m back again into my web world for a brief, enjoyable moment.  I’ve had the chance to throw together a photo site for basic portfolio utilizing the power of JQuery with some neat transitions and features.  However, I’ve ran into the all time problem that many have experienced:  When adding W3 Total Cache and measuring my grade performance against some of the top cool page speed tools I found quickly upon testing the speeds that the lightbox had completely broken.  There isn’t a work around for this as of yet, but we shall see if there becomes a fix allowing the two to play together.

In terms of some of my developer insight into page speed tools, I prefer Yahoo’s Chrome plugin over Google’s Firefox only plugin – which I don’t understand why they didn’t provide for chrome…  anyway, the thought of Google being topped by Yahoo is a bit uncomforting.

In the mean time, yes I do have an alternative minify solution.  What is it?  The Better WordPress Minify of course.  It is similar to the WP Minify but is somewhat of an upgrade to it.  One may find that it supports different minify features, but it will still score you a couple points on the page speed/optimizer tools.  That’s all we’re looking for anyway isn’t it?  Make that Grade A or B+ website in accordance with all the standards?

More to come as development continues.  If you’d like to check out the project in works, take a gander at RiFFPhoto.com as I’ll be integrating the estore over the coming week.

TTFN

Yes, the time has come.  After 750 employees in North America and Europe find themselves walking the virtual streets job hunting they’ve found that it’s not Freddy haunting them, it’s Flash!

I don’t know that I have the whole scoop – but let’s review the past quickly:

• It’s very apparent that Apple was not about to accept flash upon their fix for the hacked FRASH version that lived once upon a time on a previous iOS.
• Following that, some small things were in work with Adobe to attempt something for a Flash version for iPhone but were quickly dismissed.
• Finally, Microsoft decides to nix it from future OS revisions.
• The final straw, Adobe makes it public that Flash will die a horrible and painful, long, and suffering death as they layoff.

Apparently there will be some light at the end of the tunnel.  Or it may be more of a flickering candle… as Adobe “invests” itself into some PC and mobile development, they blatently state that they’ll be gearing towards newer, more promising endeavors per their recent blog focusing on their “aggressive contributions to html5″.

Meanwhile, folks are left without jobs and it seems other developers are beginning to squirm to prove themselves in the marketplace.

It’s apparent that the future of 85% of mobile media/web/apps are NOT going to be in flash.  (wow who would’ve friggin guessed it!?) Rather, development will be geared towards the new HTML5 standard.

While I, personally, understand that the current flash and flex developers who utilized flex for development CAN create mobile apps using flex even now, it appears that there has been a new stereotype assigned that flex developers are not Apple developers.   It may be more of an objective or subjective decision that Android developers have a different mindset on what Apple users would want… but that can definitely be argued since mobile devices are so similar in function now.

Morale of the story: Don’t label yourself a previous Flash developer extraordinaire and hope to get a freelance contract for iAds… much less should a flash/flex developer seek the opportunity to jump into some new HTML5 business without starting out with the tid bit freelance.com type small jobs to prove your existence.  Ok.. that’s a bit harsh, perhaps that’s just my personal prejudice towards non-flash mobile development.

The same rule has applied and continues to repeat itself in history, “You should be able to get anywhere, from anywhere.”  That applies to not only how the designer should structure a site, but the ease and capability for users to navigate easily and quickly.  Take two steps back and apply the statement – the user should be able to get to your content from anywhere, meaning any computing device, be it a PC/Mac/Pad/Phone/touch device.  That seems to have been forgotten, but it’s ever evident in consumers’ subconscious.

Lastly, I’d like to leave you all with a thought.  Here in Denver, the RIA advertised the upcoming “Future of Flash” event to be held for the 360 Flex developers group.

If I remember right, we filled the entire 3 ballrooms of the Marriott… just take a gander at the location selected for this event.  Also, make note of the type of location Flash will make its final debut:

 

Many of you have had the unique privilege of re-installing/formatting/etc. and ended up with a case-sensitive OSX.  Then the reality of Adobe’s asinine requirements hit you.

 

That horrible red exclamation feels just about as frustrating as a blue screen of death!  It might as well since the ONLY approach provided to us by Apple is to completely reinstall.

I searched for options to convert and Adobe’s plans to fix this issue… but in the end here in 2011 it’s the case of, you should have been aware of this.  I’ve used Adobe CS and always had my mac setup correctly until a recent hard drive crash (thanks Apple for making me replace my 27″ iMac hdd after 1 year) and must have missed that setting.

More of a gripe than a blog I suppose, but since I found it frustrating and wanted some up to date info on if there were options yet, thought I’d share that there is not.

CS5 case sensitive Status quo: back up your stuff (NOT RESTORE via Time machine), reinstall Lion.

*Hopefully before you upgraded, you grabbed the InstallESD.dmg from your Lion install.  If not, you get to either wait for the download period or go to the Apple “genius” bar to hope they’ll get to you to reinstall it for you.

If you don’t know how to grab the Lion install to burn to disc, you’ll need to FOLLOW THIS TUTORIAL.

In the end, I’m back up and running.  Also, since my reinstall comes a couple newly discovered (some new but some have been around) apps that are pretty great:

A beautiful editors that has incorporated a huge set of tools from FTP tomy buddy Macrabbit’s CSS Edit 3 which has been a fav of mine for some time!  I’ve utilized dreamweaver for web editing, at least until I found CSS Edit.   So just take it from me that this app pretty much rules for synchronizing and preview options that may convert you as well.  (minus those who care to keep dreamweaver on the table for their flash dev).

 

After having bounced between Cyberduck, Filezilla, and multiple other tools in search of a convenient and nifty pain relieving FTP, I came across Transmit.  I can’t say it’s the most awesomest out there, but it is as far as anything I KNOW OF… The option to mount a disc, sync, and save fav’s in the beautiful interface they’ve provided just makes me smile everytime I see it.  Of course, if anyone knows a better product to use, please offer your suggestion.

That’s all for now!  Off to editing my portfolio in hopes of one day launching a complete site!