June 16th, 2008
A Quick Update Regarding the (End of My) Break
I wanted to write a quick note to let everyone know I’ll be back up and running next week (June 23, 2008). I’ve got some articles lined up, and everything permitting I’m hoping to put up a small-ish project I’ve been working on.
As an update to the list of things I was looking to complete during my time off, it was just the thing I needed. I was able to spend some much enjoyed quality time with Carrie (she got us a Wii!) and I was able to get a number of things done with/for my family.
Some technical details
It was good to try and unplug for a short amount of time and focus on some other things going on. At the same time, however, it was great to have some more time to read up on some things I’ve been meaning to teach myself for some time. I recently cracked open Essential ActionScript 3.0 and try to get myself more versed in that area as well as Flex and AIR. I’ve been meaning to get into Flash for (literally) years, so what better time than now? My question to you is this: are you at all interested in me writing pieces on the topic of Flash? I’d love to start writing and thinking about the general effect the technology has and will continue to have on Web development, but I’d like to know if anyone is at all interested before doing so.
On top of that, I’ve been playing a bit with the Fireworks CS4 beta and (partially) opposed to some people, I’m loving where things are headed. I’d like to post updates on the application side of things as well, including text editors, FTP clients, and some of the other tools I find myself relying on quite a bit. My issue with that, however, is that the posts would turn out to be heavily Mac oriented, and I’m not completely comfortable writing articles that aren’t useful for everyone. Are readers using Windows/Linux opposed to articles written about Mac software? Please take a second to leave a quick note regarding your stance on the matter, even if you’re a Mac user, I’ll base my decision on whether or not to write articles of that type on the comments.
Please bear with me for just one more week
All in all, I hope I didn’t lose too many subscribers, and you can expect some new articles to be posted starting a week from today. Stay tuned!
Comments
10 Comments
Joe Lencioni June 16th, 2008
While I’m not a Mac user, I’m not opposed to articles written about Mac-only software–I simply ignore them because they are not useful for me. Occasionally I’ll forward things that sound really interesting to Mac-user friends but that doesn’t happen very often.
Jonathan Christopher June 16th, 2008
Author
@Joe Lencioni: Thanks very much for your honesty — the last thing I want is to publish content that’s ignored due to a lack of usefulness. I’m sure you’re not alone in your stance (and I share the same opinion) so out of the gate my focus is going to be on more global topics for articles. Thanks again for your thoughts!
Scott Nellé June 17th, 2008
I’m in the same boat as Joe: I don’t mind a bit of Mac content in my feed reader. I can just ignore it or forward it on to my coworkers, almost all of whom are Mac users. As long as it doesn’t become the primary focus of the site (and perhaps even if it does) I’ll stay subscribed.
Ole Hook June 17th, 2008
I have the same opinion like Joe and Scott. I’m also a PC user, but it’s not a bad thing for me to have some good articles of MACS in my feedreader. Maybe they are so good, that i’ll change some day ;-)
Flash isn’t either my thing anymore (in former times it was, but i had to decide my way), but i’m always interested in new technologies… So if you can write some articles about AIR, that would please me :-)
So this is just my personal oponion, but i’m sure you will find the right mix, so you don’t will loose some subscribers.
Jared Cornwall June 17th, 2008
I am a Mac user and would be interested in your articles on applications. I would be even more interested in articles on ActionScript 3.0.
Jonathan Christopher June 17th, 2008
Author
Thank you all for the additional input; after taking a night to sleep on it I think I’m going to put any platform-specific articles on a bit of a back burner for the time being and focus on pieces that are (hopefully) globally useful. If I feel strongly enough about publishing articles which focus on a specific platform, I’ll be sure to push them sporadically. Thanks again!
I’ll be sure to document my learning process when it comes to AS3 and AIR, I think the topic itself should result in some neat posts.
Kirk Beard June 20th, 2008
I’d definately be interested in reading topics on both Flash & Mac tools. I too have been wanting to get into Flash a lot more than I have in the past, so even if your topics started off as basic topics initially, I’d still be interested in reading them.
As for OSX software, I only swapped over to mac from a lifetime of windows, so I’m still struggling to find my set of preferred apps. The only thing I’ve really stuck to is Panic’s Coda but the more I use it, the more smaller things I notice that need fixing. As for finding a decent FTP program.. that’s another story all together…
Jonathan Christopher June 20th, 2008
Author
@Kirk Beard: Based on comments like yours with an interest in Flash, I’m really going to have to kick my research into gear and come up with some article ideas. I’m glad people are interested!
I’m also glad you’ve found an editor you like on OS X. I’ve compared and contrasted Coda and TextMate for quite some time, but there are some features of TextMate which can’t be beat, so it’s the editor for me. Coda sure is beautiful though, and I’ll definitely keep tabs on the updates as they come out.
FTP has been a bit of a battle for me. By far the most popular will be Transmit (also by Panic, creators of Coda) but I’ve had some trouble with it crashing in Leopard. Flow is a new player in the FTP game, and though beautiful, it’s still a bit early in development for me to completely rely on. Currently I’m using YummyFTP and it’s a superb application. All three do have a license fee, however. If you’re looking for a free candidate, I think Cyberduck will probably be your best bet.
ilpestifero June 22nd, 2008
No problem here, but I prefer if you provide solutions for all user (in my case I’m a linux user).
bye
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