My Mac is in the shop and my Vista PC is inoperable. So I’ve wiped all of my drives clean and installed Linux for home projects.

Since I’m a Flash developer, I’ve stuck with Mac and PC mainly for the Flash IDE (which crashes constantly).  But now, SWF compilers are open and free. For graphics, I’ll be using Inkscape to export SVG.

A minimalist at heart, I’m not a fan of bloated IDEs. I think the fastest way to edit code is with Vi (invented in 1976.) Or emacs if you prefer.

Here are some software links for open source Flash development:

Flex SDK – A cross-platform Command-line swf compiler written in Java

HaXe – An ECMAscript language and compiler that compiles to the Flash player and other languages

Vim AS3 and MXML Syntax File – Sweet

Free AS2 compiler - If you’re still stuck in AS2, this compiler can give even better performance than Adobe’s compiler

Apache Ant – A command-line build tool that can replace the flash project panel

Inkscape - Open alternative to Adobe Illustrator

I went to the Adobe Refresh conference in Sydney. There is some crazy stuff in the pipeline.

The theme was Flash as a platform in the browser, on the desktop, and on devices such as phones, game consoles, toasters, etc. I think they are making Flash what Java promised to be in the late 90’s: write once run anywhere. Java never really fulfilled that promise, and became bloated and complex in the process. In contrast, the Flash Player is light and the API much smaller.

The other major theme was improved workflow. They opened a magazine layout in InDesign, and with one click, exported the whole thing as a SWF. You could even turn the pages. My wife is a journalist, so she knows how hard the publishing industry has been hit. You could export the whole thing into Flash, and add shopping carts to the ad sections. You could publish as an Air file and make a desktop magazine.

PDF now supports embedded Flash files, video, 3D, and interactivity. So you can also leverage flash inside PDF and use that as an application deployment platform.

They demoed an alpha of a new product called Flash Catalyst. This tool will allow designers to create applications without any code. While I doubt it will put me out of a job, it will allow designers to do much more without my help. And since it generates Flex code, it will allow me to perform certain functions faster.

There was a lot to take in. I need to organize my notes and write another post. It’s an exciting time to be a developer; the tools and deployment options available to us at this point are insane.

Smart Company has named us one of the Digital Dozen in a recent article. Check out the article here — we’re the next big thing online, so look out!

We’ve also launched the Salt documentary site, which premieres this month at the Adelaide Film Festival. Make sure you check out the trailer and Murray’s timelapse shots, they’re absolutely stunning.

It’s the year of Two-Thousand-and-Fine and we’ve launched two VMware Grid campaigns, created three sexy HTML sites — and it’s only January!

Check out our new work on our updated portfolio.

This last week of global economic turmoil will once again put pressure on digital marketers aiming to get a return on their interactive campaigns.

If there was pressure before on marketing budgets to capture new customers online, and maintain an ongoing relationship, it will only increase in the wake of the Wall St meltdown.

Accountability, proof of a return on investment and ensuring you have the right web-based tools to track the success of your interactive marketing campaign will increasingly become a vital part of the online marketing armoury.

Some companies will hasten the transition to full-blown digital marketing, while the others will be left behind. I expect marketing budgets will tighten in the short term, then the digital space will lift off again as companies realize they need to be in the interactive game in order to survive.

In the recent weeks we have seen a flurry of stories about how the global economic uncertainty will change the way marketers operate. Some have argued it will simply accelerate the push for more funds to be diverted online.

Analyst firm Frost and Sullivan recently predicted online marketing revenue to grow by 24 percent in Australia to $481.4 million in 2008.

However, despite the rosy growth forecast, there will be increasing pressure on marketers to create systems and structures to support digital campaigns that allow them to respond to customer trends immediately.  

The reality today is that markets move fast, consumer preferences and business fads change quickly, and companies need to find out immediately if their web-based creative campaigns are getting traction online.

A digital marketing campaign has to go beyond the initial click that a potential customer makes to enter your website. It has to engage the prospect in a relevant and personalized fashion, in order to establish a relationship.

This requires a powerful mix of creative and technical elements – the creative to hook the customer in an emotional manner, and the technical capability to ensure that the creative is different (using flash-based creative).

The technical smarts of your online marketing campaign must also include the ability to capture and monitor each individual’s interaction with your web campaign in order for you to work out what part of your online offer is compelling.

A lot of people believe that a potential customer’s click of the mouse completes the role of a digital agency’s role in driving traffic to a site – but it’s only the beginning.

The new model of engaging customers is where the creative components and message develops the lead, and the back-end lead generation tools capture the interactions thatallow you to start building the relationship. Lead generation can be applied to a corporate or product website, into integrated Internet video and direct mail, through blogs, RSS feeds, or any part of the website.

Creating multiple formats and communication touch points is the key to digital success. Real time tracking and tracing of every interaction between you and your customers in the digital space is what will give you the ability to convert communication into real sales leads.

Because of the proliferation of digital campaigns, companies need to do more to break through with a clear message and use video, audio, and flash-based creative elements to enhance the impact of their digital offering. They are in stiff competition with rivals who are pouring more money into their interactive presence and gaining higher-value customers through more sophisticated and engaging web functions and tools.

Many companies in the business market sell complex and often detailed solutions and services, whether they are in the health, financial services, and FMCG sector. Those players that have really thought about how to engage customers in an emotional and intuitive manner will win in the long-term.

What will ultimately make or break a campaign, especially in challenging economic times, will be the ability of companies to track and respond to customer interactions with your digital offering. Your digital offering had better not be a static website. If companies can isolate what has struck a chord with customers, such as an online video, they can continue to enhance and improve that particular element of the digital offering.

The final part of your success equation, however, lies in the back-end engine that provides you with the data and real-time lead generation reports that allow you to qualify new leads and follow-up with other digital communication with that prospect. Having a fancy creative website is only the start – being able to capture that data and act on it is the key. With millions, billions of eyeballs online everyday looking for something to captivate them, the opportunity is there for digital marketers to build new businesses. Monetizing those customers is the crucial element, and with Wall St on the brink and wallets being tightened everywhere, maximising your digital campaigns suddenly becomes more important.

I’ve been trying to get beyond the first 20 pages of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way for the past couple of months. On a good day I’ll get through 5 pages in the 40-minute morning commute and maybe 3 in the evening commute back home. On a bad day, poor Proust gets put aside for more bite-sized reading (today it was The Economist magazine) or another book entirely.

I have nothing against Proust. He’s a fantastic writer and I love his neuroticism. Most people who have the patience for his stream of consciousness, half-page-sentences writing style enjoy his books and detailed insights into insignificant things.

The problem is that I’ve unwittingly lost the patience to read. Last week I put aside Proust (for the 2435th time) for John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Steinbeck likes to describe as well, but not to the length and detail of Proust. East of Eden had me hooked for a week straight, but when the plot was getting slow I found myself scanning the page for the next big turn in events.

Having done a short web copywriting course earlier this year, it is becoming increasingly evident to me that people don’t read on the Internet — they scan. Maybe its that get-in-and-get-out attitude people have when browsing the ‘net. Or maybe it’s simply the back-lit glare of a screen. Whatever the reason is, eyetracking research has found that Internet users generally read the first sentence of each paragraph and move on.

The reason for this is people are scanning for the information they want; once they find a clue or indicator of what they want, users will slow down and read it. How many times have you tried to find a call to action — the submit button, link to a page on shipping rates — and discovered that you couldn’t find it? You probably also discovered that once you slowed down and methodically looked through every row and column of the site, it was sitting right in front of you. Although it’s also likely that you just didn’t bother and moved on.

What does this mean for web content writers and web designers?

• Don’t force your audience to look for something. If they can’t find it at first glance, they won’t bother.
• Split up long bodies of copy that each paragraph holds only one idea. Knowing that readers will scan, make sure that the idea is clear in the first sentence of that paragraph.
• Multiple but related items (such as in a list) are much better in bullet points than in one whole sentence.
• Bolding words also draws attention to scanning eyes.

And what does that mean for people trying to read Proust? Don’t read Proust like you’re reading on the Internet.

Wanted one of these ever since I was a kid – now to raise $100k….

The Jetpack

Programming is like martial arts; you can learn the concepts in a relatively short period of time, but it takes a lifetime to master. I’ve mastered neither.

But I’ve come to realize that it’s counterproductive to be dogmatic about languages and platforms. It’s more useful to be able to look at a piece of code in whatever language and be able to figure out what it does.

One of Bruce Lee’s motivations in creating his own form of martial art (Jeet Kune Do) was that traditional “styles” were inflexible and not adaptable to real-life situations. He said that “the worst disease of the human mind is to be for or against.”

From that, he applied Occam’s Razor and kept what was useful, discarded what wasn’t.

Development can be viewed the same way. There are a million ways to accomplish the same goal. The art is in making things as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Here’s a refresher (saw this on Mark Boulton’s blog).

The kid always starts with a forceful, vertical stroke, looks at what dad (?) is doing, and then tries to imitate him by adding an embelishment or two – usually in the wrong direction. He’s a lucky one though, ’cause he’s got a great example of assertive and beautiful handwriting to learn from.

Lots of “aww” moments in there. It’s pretty cute. There, I said it. Cute.