I'm very excited to announce that my latest video training title is now available on lynda.com!

Recorded earlier this summer, the 4.5 hour course discusses and walks you through wireframing, storyboarding, interactive HTML prototyping, in a far more in-depth manner than my Essential Training title is able to. I also introduce you to creating Flex skins, exporting MXML and exporting FXG.

I had a lot of fun putting this course together and I think it will be a great resource for anyone wanting to learn more about using Fireworks for prototyping web and other interactive projects such as AIR applications.

Here's a quick run down of the main lesson topics:

• Rapid Prototyping Options in Fireworks
• Wireframing
• Storyboarding
• Multi-page Mockups
• Adding Interactivity
• Creating AIR Prototypes
• Creating Flex Mockups
• Going Further with HTML Prototyping

If you're interested in how to maximize Fireworks' potential as your mockup tool of choice, I hope you check out this course.

Well, MAX San Francisco has come and gone. What an experience; 5000+ geeks attending a single event!

Seriously, it was a great event and I had the opportunity to meet and mingle with many new people. There were also a few networking opportunities as well. Both my Fireworks Mock Up labs were full, and I saw several other very interesting sessions and labs. I for one, was very impressed by the number of Fireworks sessions that were available.

Yep, the secret is out! :-)

On my return, I was informed by a very happy publisher that 28 copies of my book sold in the MAX Store during the event, which made me very happy as well.

I know I promised pics much earlier, but I've just gotten around to getting them online. So if you want to see a few shots from the event and a few from the aquariums at the California Academy of Sciences, head on over to my flickr site.

Enjoy!

Well day 1 has come to a close (for me, anyway) and it was quite a whirlwind!  The keynote session this morning was pretty cool. There's some pretty amazing stuff happening with AIR, FLEX and Flash in terms of development projects from companies like Disney Interactive and the New York Times Company.

I thought MAX was big last year; the attendance this year is even higher! I'm told there are over 5000 people attending the event.

I ran my first Fireworks Mock Up lab this morning and it went over very well. I'm very happy to not ethat both labs are at capacity (50 people per lab). It is so awesome to see this kind of interest in Fireworks!

It's been a blast hanging with friends; Danilo Celic, Joe Lowery, Alan Musselman and Aaron Beall, Stephanie Sullivan and Greg Rewis and may others. I haven't seen some of these people for months (or longer) so it's nice to get a chance to talk face to face.

This evening, Alan and I tooled around a bit in his car, taking a few night shots of the Bay Bridge and just enjoying the local scenery.

I'll post some photos soon on Flickr and update you when they're online.

 

There is a bill which passed in the US congress which is H.R. 5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008. I'd contacted my congressman about the bill and my concerns over the bill. I've received a reply which I would like to pass on here:

---

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So ... I suggest people start getting familiar with the copyright office...

TODCon will be here very soon. Yep, I'm counting the days. OK that's not the secret.

It'll be great to hook up with some CMX friends and regular TODCon attendees and speakers. Well, that's no secret either.

I've written the last three CMXtraneous blog posts! That's more of a shock than a surprise, though. 

I'm pretty stoked about the Fireworks public beta. The Fireworks engineering team has done a phenominal job. It's to the point now where I don't like going back to CS3. Yeah, not really a secret there either, the way I've been blabbing all week long about it.

The secret is my second TODCon session. It will be a live demo of the new features in the Fireworks Public beta! We'll look at some of the cool features you've read about in my recent articles as well as Kim Cavanaugh's piece on the Path panel. Based on what you've read and heard this week, I hope you pull up a chair for my session.

Alan Musselman from Adobe will also be presenting a session on Fireworks. He'll no doubt have some very awesome and cool stuff to share as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll be the guy with the loud shirt and - new this year - a limp (sprained my ankle and pulled a tendon a couple weeks ago YEOUCH). Feel free to have pity on me and buy me a martini or at least help me to the gift shop for a new fashion statement. ;-)

In less than one month, geeks will gather in Sunny Florida to catch some rays, share some laughs and learn a whole whack of geek stuff. Yep, TODCon is coming. I can't say enough positive things about this event. It's certainly opened up opportunities for me in my business, and the size of the event means you've got a great chance of hanging with your favorite authors or speakers, or making new connections to help you in your business.

There are some pretty interesting topics on the agenda as well (and I'm sure there will be a few surprises.) I'll be doing two sessions on Fireworks (Ok, that's no surprise).

The Wyndham Resort is a very nice place to spend a few days as well. You walk into the grounds area and forget how close you are to the hustle and bustle of Orlando.

So if you're in the mood for a break, and want to justify it as a business expense, TODCon may be just right for you. You get it all, sun, fun, education and networking in a nice little package.

 

<soapbox> 

Just a little update to Ray's article today. After receiving many negative comments on his blog, emails from CMX and a not-so-subtle email from me, my article has finally been removed from the offending blogger's site.

Thank you to the CMX subscribers - and partners - who helped in this matter by posting comments on the blogger's site. You guys are great!

In an email response from the blogger, he stated, "...i had already your name in the end of this article..."

Yet again, this individual completely missed the point. Attribution is  not a replacement for permission. Copying is not a form of flattery.

And hey, if you've ever seen my loud shirt collection, you'd know I wasn't that much into flattery, anyway.

Why the score of 2 - 0, you ask? Well, at the same time I found this blog site, I also discovered a commercial software site which had not only republished another of my articles, but had edited the article in such a way that it seemed I was endorsing the product. One email to them and the article came down. Ironically, at THAT point they asked how much it would cost to reproduce the article.

Fat chance.

</soapbox>
 

Some months ago, I wrote about my interest in a new audio book category, the podcast novel. These novels are similar to those movie serials of old (Flash Gordon, Lone Ranger), radio serials of not so old (The Shadow, Green Hornet) and TV mini-series of today. Their popularity has grown and many of the authors have earned a certain amount of fame (if not fortune) by writing and narrating their own books in serial form.

Some of these podcast novel authors are now going from cyberspace to the printed page! Yep, they're signing book deals for the novels they used to narrate for free. I think this is pretty cool.

Scott Sigler's sci-fi (and ultra violent) podcast novels can be subscribed to for free on iTunes, but he now has a book deal for the print release of his novel, Infected, coming out in April.

Seth Harwood's film noire private detective podcast novel, Jack Wakes Up is also now in print.

J.C. Hutchins, author of the Seventh Son Trilogy will see the first of the trilogy, Descent, hit the printed page this summer.

What I love about all this is how things got started; online, free, serialized but complete, versions of the books. These authors, and others, I am sure (I'm a sci-fi geek so my interest only extends so far, I admit), gained a following, a fan-base online and their hard work has paid off. It's a geat example of how new media is affecting the way things are done.

Check out iTunes or Podiobooks.com for a long list of podcast novels in a variety of genre's. Give yourself a break from the same old, same old on your iPod.

Personally, I'm hoping to dump a bunch of these onto Tom Green's iPod before our camping trip this August, and delete his Abba collection in the process . . .

Ok, I'm in Kansas and I thought we're pretty good with online business tech stuff - I have to file, monthly, on my income, etc. I can do this online which is quick, convenient and saved me a stamp and a check (EFT payment). Now, I'm no fan of taxes, but it is the law and not paying is more painful than paying, so I've been faithful to make the payments every month before the due date (errr.... on the due date) and get the yearly required paperwork in too. Each transaction has a confirmation ID and each monthly form is stored, electronically, on their site. I can see that I've paid for the entire 2007 year, have everything filed, etc...

However, today I get a call from the Kansas Department of Revenue - I wasn't there, so I call back when I get in. It is a long distance call and they are only open from 9am to 5pm. I have voip service, so I dial away. I'm put on hold. (insert elevator music here with brief interruptions telling me how important my call is to them...)

Mike answers the phone, I chat a little letting him know why I'm calling, give the case number and wait. He asks some questions to make sure I'm the right guy (you know, that hard to get information, like the address of my business...) - after he's certain I'm not some stranger calling to make good on a government debt for someone else, we proceed to figure out why they called....

"Sir, we don't have your filing for all of last quarter no the payment for the last quarter either"

I'm a little shocked, I know I paid, I saw the money leave my account, all he can tell me is I need to get the right paper work in. They do have my yearly, which has the exact details for my monthly, but we won't go there - having the government actually make the connection between the yearly and monthly reports is asking too much. I mutter something and then get off the phone. By this time, I've loaded up the Kansas on-line payment system and just got to the section about my payments. I call back.

May answers the phone. I give her the details like I did Mike. As we progress, I tell her I've got the electronic confirmation numbers for the payments. I give those to her. She says she sees them, but she can't open them (huh?) and tells me I'm late and fees are assessed , which I suspected, and that, if those were the reports, I'd need to call someone else to get it figured out. Oddly enough, they know I did make a payment and they know that the payment made matches the figure they said I didn't pay in December. Again, this is a leap they cannot grasp. I'm given another long distance number to call.

Kevin answers the phone. I tell him the issue and he's able to figure out that, yes, I did make the payments and yes, the confirmation numbers are for the transactions I said they were for and, yes I filed on time. However, he can't do anything about it. The money was credited to the first quarter 2008, mind you, we're not allowed to file for the first quarter until it is over which is in two weeks. I need to call someone else and, yes, it is a long distance number again. I need to call accounting and tell them that Kevin in the electronics division said it was OK and verified the payments (and since there is only one Kevin, I think they may check on that). See, someone in accounting mis-keyed the information in to the wrong area. Several thoughts went through my mind, but the ones I can print involve:

• Why am I fixing this problem? I did what I was supposed to do.
• Why can't the revenue department open the confirmed electronic transactions?
• Why can't Kevin call accounting himself and fix the issue?
• Why can't Kevin just fix it himself?
• Why couldn't May or Mike have called Kevin and then accounting to fix the issue?
• Why couldn't May or Mike have fixed this themselves?
• By the time this is done, I'll have spent more time resolving their foul up than the entire bill is worth
• When I screw up, as they thought and billed me for, I'm charged, who pays me for their screw ups?

In any case, I had to leave for an appointment before I could call accounting, something I'm "looking forward to" the same was you look forward to a root canal. Luckily, they will find in my favor and reverse the charges and all, but, man what a waste of time...

Well, it continues to happen and I'm not surprised. This time an open source company, mySQL, is bought by another company, SUN. I am curious, given the open source product development, as to the profits. See, a long time ago I heard a proprietary software developer laugh at the open source movement, something like "Someone is going to make a lot of money off of that and it won't be the contributors". Well it seems those words came to pass. The owners of mySQL are raking in a fortune while those who made it happen (the little people) got to participate.

Compound that with companies, like facebook, which use open source tools, like mySQL and who sell parts of their company for millions - you've just got to wonder - how can I get a staff of people working for an open source project I own for free so that I can sell the company, who owns the main copyright of the open source project, years later for millions?

To the point of the purchase, I do wonder what this will hold for mySQL? What will SUN do with the project? Will it become like Red Hat's distro for Linux - all for profit entries with the source files for the distro off somewhere else? Will the pre-install licensing change? One thing is for sure, the mySQL is open source, so they can't change that - and it will still be widely used and installed for some time to come. I would love to see the database make it to the next level of maturity and include enterprise level functionality (beyond what it has now) that will make it a slam dunk decision for most applications. What I think would also be really awesome would be an application distribution, like MS Access, to bring it to the desktop or to be married to Java somehow and made inter-operable with the language! Now that would be cool!

As reported in the CMX Newsletter, an article about the IRS tax code delves in to the Section 179 deduction for office equipment. Reviewing the article, I found it to be a little simplistic and, perhaps, only accurate should you find yourself in the highest tax bracket - and a s-corp like you should be :). It also works for sole props and partnerships, but those are BAD business setups anyway. C-corps don't get the same complete benefits as an s-corp (due to pass through profiting), but they still benefit.

The basics of it is the government, in their infinite wisdom, decided that computers have a FIVE YEAR business life... FIVE YEARS (I had to repeat that because it is so ridiculous - the average machine from five years ago used 256 Megs of RAM, had under 100 gigs of HD space, was the first releases of the Althon XP or Pentium 4 series processors and ran windows 98, 2000 or the brand new XP (or NT, I suppose - we've had therapy to block out all references to WinME). The Mac's where still using Mac Classic 9.2 and OS X was released as OS 10.1). Personally, I upgrade every other year or about 18 months at the shortest. So I have a series of mothballed PCs that, if I sell or dispose of, I have to do some accounting voo-doo on to account for the Section 179 deducation. Having said all of that (after climbing down from the soapbox), the section 179 is a quick way to deduct what you spend this year on what you bought. While I don't grasp why the government does depreciation (I bought it, why do I have to deduct the cost over five years ... why can't I do the same with income...) - we really don't have much of a say on the matter. So, here is what you need to know:

• Deduct up to $25,000 in capital equipment purchases as section 179 deductions.
• Forecast your upcoming income verse your income this year - if you will be in a higher tax bracket (say you just started and you're in the 10% bracket and next year you'll be in the 29% bracket as you'll kick butt because you're a CMX subscriber and can get work done quicker and make more money) it may benefit you in the long run to deduct the income off of the 29% tax rate instead of the 10%. Simpler, if you have $1000 to deduct at 10%, you've saved $800 worth of income at 10% taxing or $80 worth of taxes; if you deduct $200/yr for 5 years, you pay that $80 the first year, but the next year you write off $200*.29 or $58 and again for the next three years ($58*4) in tax savings (so it comes to $232 in overall tax savings verse $80)
• Predict who will be the president in the upcoming election and their position on business and taxes, getting the money now may be the only time you can get it - or getting the deduction over the years should tax rates spike may have a better payoff.
• Check with your accountant on the ramifications of selling or disposing of any equipment purchased under the Section 179 category.
• Keep in mind, other equipment, like furniture, have longer depreciation times, some, like software, have shorter (although check to make sure you can deduct software under 179 codes, it seems to go off and on as to if you can or can't) when making your decision on if to use the depreciation or not.

The depreciation tax laws where originally developed in the 1950's, tweaked a few times here and there - clearly the manufacturing and technology systems have changed - no longer is everything built rock solid nor moves as slow as it was in the 1950's. However, the government remains the same, slowly changing. Perhaps the best thing, as a small business, you could do would be to lobby your federal representatives to change the laws to exempt small businesses (under $10M) from all depreciation and/or, just eliminate it all together.

If you have read my most recent article, Tools for Designers: del.icio.us and Flickr', I made mention of starting a CMX Blog piece for anyone interested in sharing their design and inspiration tools,resourceful solutions for their business, and for self-organizational purposes.

Please leave a comment on this post to share your thoughts. I look forward to seeing what you're up to and if I can get new ideas and be inspired by your ideas.

Happy blogging!

Seems Comcast thinks that they can interfere with your web usage on their network.  Apparently, if you have Comcast, you no longer are paying to use the bandwidth as you want - Comcast has determined various applications and services just aren't allowed.  Things like peer-to-peer file sharing, other VOIP providers, Lotus email and FTP.

So, if you have Comcast and you've been noticing things not working right, it isn't your computer - nor your browser (for once!) - it is your ISP meddling in what you are allowed to do.  Most likely they have a government mandated monopoly where you're at too, so you can't move to an ISP interested in just giving you service.  If you have Comcast, make sure you let them know you do not appreciate their business practice and, if you can, leave.

Comcast violates net neutrality with this move and if those with Comcast don't make it an expensive business decision, other ISPs may feel emboldened to do the same.  If they are taking an inch and not stopped, they will eventually make sure the only Internet service we get will be through their mutual business partners... 

PHP.net announced (a while back) that PHP 4 is at end of life and will end all support by the end of the year (2007). If you are still using PHP v4 and haven't considered an upgrade, now would be a good time to do so. PHP 5 has been out for years and it is stable and solid. Many applications are being written to take advantage of the new features in PHP 5.

They are promising security updates until 2008-08-08 on a case-by-case basis, but after that, it is all done. From a security standpoint, you have to upgrade before that as exploits beyond that point will not be fixed leaving your website and contents vulnerable to malicious attacks.

Good luck and start now so you can migrate safely before you are forced to because of security reasons.

This past Sunday, I peered into a world of the unknown, often unseen and clearly alien!

Where was I?

I was speaking at a conference for small boutique owners learning about web design and development.

It all started out when I exited my plane in Raleigh, North Carolina and made it to ground transportation for the shuttle to my hotel. Sparing no expense, we were staying at the Day's Inn at RDU. I saw the shuttle coming in fast heading for a lady with her bags a few dozen yards ahead of me. Not wanting to miss the shuttle, I quickly hurried to catch the shuttle before it whisked away with the lady and her bags. However, half way through hustling, I realized this was no ordinary lady. She was brightly colored, well matched and properly accessorized (watching What-Not-To-Wear has paid off!) with at least four bags, one of which was about half her size – I could go to a fast walk and she would still be getting situated. By the time I'd gotten to the shuttle, she had just finished chatting with the driver, who only managed to get one piece of luggage loaded. I plopped my bag down and climbed in. Suspecting she was here for the conference, she chatted for 10 minutes during the trip (this was her introduction – she is Penny) after which I asked “So, are you here for TJ's conference?” To which she was surprised that I guessed she was! Several minutes later, we were at Day's Inn. As I entered the lobby, I noticed a group of ladies, all brightly adorned and chatting away. There was TJ, sitting among them and she welcomed me to the fold. We were too early to check in, so we stayed in the lobby while the ladies chatted away. This was my first experience being in the midst of such lively chatters. One of the ladies commented to another that she does “Keystone”, I wondered – where is Keystone?

I hadn't eaten lunch yet and right next to the Days Inn was a Waffle House (hey, we were in the upscale part of town...) and Penny, myself and Buck went to the Waffle House for lunch. Buck was from New York and was there for his retail organization. Apparently, in NYC, soup spoons are critical to eating soup or chili, the Waffle House didn't have a soup spoon and much to the chagrin of Buck, he had to eat the chili with his regular teaspoon. Penny and Buck spoke a language I'd never heard before – talked about going Tribal and something about getting Spanx. Now, I'd thought perhaps I didn't understand these boutique shops or what went on in them – but again they talked about Keystone – and I wondered, do they get tribal in Keystone and spank? The waffles were pretty good and the Buck picked up the tab, making the lunch even better!

That evening, the planned event was a social BBQ for the boutique owners and a tour of the local boutique. We rode in cars on the way over, I called shotgun citing I was as large as the rest of the riders put together and needed the space. After the 20 minute trip, I can now honestly say I know how those who aren't ubergeeks feel around us ubergeeks (not YOU, US, as in the CMX people, you're just a normal geek) when we talk shop. The conversation went from having Tribal, again with the Spanx – on to kids, family, location and the vendors and then back to Keystone again. I wondered what was Keystone all about. One woman even said she does Keystone 2! I've not even found Keystone 1 yet or know what it is and she is talking about Keystone 2 – then, much to my surprise, Tee, the driver (whom spent more time talking to the back seat than looking forward) said she's even gotten up to Keystone 3. My mind was spinning.

We arrived a little later than the rest of the attendees, 27 ladies and 3 guys. I realized, rather quickly, I stuck out like a sore thumb – not only in gender, but in attire. I'm monochromatic gray (#666666 colored shorts and #CCCCCC shirt) – the ladies are all dressed in the fashion style they sell, all sorts of colors, patterns, design, accessories, jewelry, shoes and fully made over faces. TJ calls the group to order and the chatting stops. She introduces Terre and Buck and calls on one of the ladies for an invocation for the food. I spent the rest of the evening eavesdropping on conversations trying to learn what Keystone was all about.

On the drive back, the conversation takes off again. I'm navigating because we don't have instructions on how to return to the hotel. I'm guessing on which roads and exits to take while they continue the shop talk. This time, the chat was about the product types. They were talking about camisoles and how they worked in the stores. I learned that they are used for layering and how cheap they cost the stores. One even commented that, with camisoles, Keystone isn't even in the picture. Maybe Keystone is an a cold climate... During the trip, the Tee is talking to the back seat again, paused for a second and thoughtfully mentioned to me she can't really see that well without her glasses, which she left in the hotel. Now my attention was very focused on the other cars, exits and such ahead of us as we barreled down the road at 70 miles per hour. The reason I bring this up? During this chat, they start talking about shelf bras in the camisoles. Tee mentions she doesn't like them and proceeds demonstrates the problem with the one she is currently wearing. Pulling open her top a little to pull up the shelf bra, she laughs and apologizes for digging around “in there” and such. I can't really say if she did bear anything, I was too focused on the traffic and the turn off, plus I was still thinking about Keystone.

Back at the hotel, I modify my session for the next day, join a conference call with business partners and talk geek. I once again feel like a guy! I turn in for the evening ready for my presentation the next day.

We head out to New Horizons for the conference. I show up early and setup the computer for my needs (Firefox, bookmarks, FTP program). I give the session. A few of them have chats with each other while I'm giving my speech. We take a break and I get good feedback – but I ask about the chatting. TJ says that is just how these women are, they don't ever stop. I decide to not let it bother me and continue on. We cover the basics of the web and I pull up those stores which have sites and give a light critical review. By the end, I'm thinking I have bombed. Then the questions flood in, it appears they can both talk and listen at the same time as they ask some really good questions. My session is over, I'm thankful, and we go to lunch.

At lunch, I sat with the international group (ok, two ladies from Canada...) and we discussed the session and some questions they have. Everyone says they liked it, I'm paid and I'm off to the airport.

But, before I leave, I do ask one of the ladies what is Keystone. She laughs, the same laugh we give when someone asks us what is HTML, knowing I've asked an apparent basic question, she explains it to me. Keystone is next to tombstone – if you're not marking up your product by Keystone, you will never succeed and your store will die and go to tombstone. Ah, so it all makes sense now. Further looking to understand, I ask about “going Tribal” and “Spanx” and I'm given the full product line names. I'm also told to never cross Brighton. They sue, apparently.

Content with my gained knowledge, I'm off to Delta (which means Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport) to fly through Atlanta to get back home. I hate Atlanta, every time I fly through Atlanta, I'm delayed and my 90 minute layover turns into a 30 minute layover. I go from being at gate B34 to gate B36 for my connecting flight to gate T01 to E45 (those people who travel Atlanta are groaning now, trust me) – this time, however, everything goes as scheduled for me. A connecting flight to Atlanta is canceled and I'm flying back home with no one sitting next to me – better than I expected!

TODCON 2007 RULED!

Ok, this was the best TODCon ever (exceptions listed below) and here are my top reasons:

• It was the largest so far!
• Great speaker line up with many new speakers
• Good deal of regulars attended and I always love seeing the regulars
• Adobe was there in force! (and they are a really great bunch of people, took time to speak to everyone they could and accepted everyone's suggestions and opinions to make the products better).
  • Ken - wow, managed to handle questions very diplomatically and with great patience (and yes, we want everything)
  • Randy - was sent to speak to the extension developers, which was me and Tom Muck - we had excellent conversations with some good dialog, really appreciated your time!
  • Christian - yes, Spry's code base is too big and, yes, I know you'll work on that :-) I enjoyed the conversations with you a lot and appreciate the time you spent talking with me (and the ideas you gave me for products I could make!)
  • Sharon - congrats on the promotion to manager! And thanks for the discussions on the product and helping us realize the daunting task of quality Adobe faces each cycle.
  • Greg - thanks for the dinner! And for bringing Steph in on time for her keynote session!
• I got to meet some wonderful small business people, some who'd been around for a little while (like the bike shop guys from Tallahassee - go Noles) and some who are just starting out (like Carrie Enders - CKA Creative who is transitioning from print work to web design work with a focus on small business).
• Met the crew from lucidus (or, found out they were the crew from lucidus, already having known them a little while) and that was cool!
• Found some new opportunities from several attenders via networking!
• Got to pick up the slack on giving Green a hard time.
• Several really good dinner conversations and good eats too!
• Found out that, in fact, I can survive drinking Pepsi instead of Coke products.

Some exceptions are:

• Chris Flick wasn't there, nor was Sheri and other regulars, they were really missed.
• Barbra had to leave early and I didn't get to spend any time chatting with her
• Vegas, in June, is still very very hot
• I didn't have an internet connection through the first half of my AJAX/server side presentation - but I was able to recover!
• Missed out on Chaz's BBQ dinner (heard he is a great griller!)
• Didn't get to meet with a lot of the new attenders this year.
• I have to wait another year to go to the next one (once Ray recovers from this one and wants to do the next one!)

As usual, the conference was better then the prior ones. Hopefully next year, everyone can attend and we will have a better conference then before! A special thanks to Judy for the ride to the airport!

A web buddy has just hipped me to This.

See that item down in the left corner? Safari now has a shiny new version number, and it works on the PC too. So old Stevie has entered the PC Browser Wars, eh? That should stir the pot a bit.

It's coming. In two short days, TODCon will be here once again. And I can't wait.

Bright lights, big city, geeks . . . what more could someone ask for?

And the line up looks great. Some very cool topics will be covered. No doubt much fun will be had in the city that never sleeps.

If you're attending for the first time, you're in for a treat. If you're a veteran (like me and many others) it will be great to hook up with all of you again. If ya can't make it this year, save them nickels and book your spot for next year. It's a great networking and learning experience for everyone. Not to mention the most fun a geek ever had.

I'm holding two sessions this year, one about Fireworks integration with Bridge and Photoshop and the other on working with the new pages and sub layers features in FW.

It's been fantastic to see what Adobe has done as they bring all the products into the Adobe family. New life (and I believe new respect) has been breathed into Fireworks. As the sole true web graphics program in the Adobe line, I'm seeing lots of new users coing on board. Many are skeptical, but once they see how fast they can work in Fireworks without having to switch applications, I think they'll be sold.

Old friends, I'm looking forward to seeing you. I hope to make some new friends too.  I can't wait to see everyone.

I was lucky enough to score a ticket to Flash in the Can Toronto, which opened this past Sunday and continues through till tomorrow. I haven't attended this event in years but was glad I made it down there this time.

I hooked up with Tom Green off and on over the day on Sunday and then we were off to dinner with Betsy Weber and other good people from TechSmith for dinner that evening. Techsmith is the wonderful company which has brought us great programs such as SnagIt for screen capturing (and more) and Camtasia for screen recording.

Tom was non-stop entertainment, let me tell you, as he narrated in gut-splitting humor some of his travel adventures. He really needs his own cable show.

One seminar I attended was of particular interest. Led by Kevin Airgid, the session was titled Relationships + Skills = Money. With a moniker like that, it was no wonder the room was full.

And Kevin delivered, too; for 60 minutes, he spoke and answered questions about how to be successful as a freelance web designer. It was a very enlightening seminar, and I was more than a little proud of myself to note that when it comes to billing and building client relationships, his approach is similar to mine. I also learned many things that I'm going to put into action over the next little while.

Much of his advice comes from his book and - with the support of fitc - Kevin has made his Web Designer's Success Guide freely available in PDF format. It's chock full of useful advice and definitely worth the read.

This session alone made the time spent at FITC worthwhile and I'm planning to head back again on Tuesday. Sadly, today was a teaching day so I could not attend any sessions.

Hanging out at the event has also made yearn for TODCON, coming this June. TODCon is my favorite event, and I schedule work and vacation around it so I never miss attending. It's a great opportunity to learn, network and hook up with good friends, people who I do not see nearly enough throughout the year.

So, if you've got some free time in June, mark your calendar and make sure to head over to TODCon. You'll never learn so much for so little . . . or have so much fun with a hundred or so other geeks. :-) 

It's coming! Our 2000th article.

What a milestone that is for us here at Community MX. And we couldn't have done it without you! Our loyal readership. To say "thanks" we're giving away something special tomorrow. Be sure to check out Community MX on Tuesday, February 20, to find out what the surprise is.

Members ... you rock! Thanks for supporting Community MX and helping to make us the resource for Adobe/Macromedia and web information.

Visitors ... check us out! Tomorrow's surprise is a sample of the quality information we publish each and every day. The trial subscription is free!