Marc Van Norden

I better make this short, because I have to get up in 4 1/2 hours to get in line to see Barack Obama sworn in! I actually got to see him this morning. He was doing community service a block over from where I am staying (thanks for the hospitality Samantha). I wanted to post pictures from today. I also wanted to give one last plug for the face book app Sapient (that’s me and my developers) have developed!. Tomorrow it will be huge. It will pull in twitter, youTube, sms, and Flickr photos realtime As well as stream the NPR national broadcast of the event. All I have to say is thank you Andy Carvin, NPR, and the Inauguration Report for the opportunity to create something I am proud of. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your folks! Check out the app on Facebook:

http://apps.facebook.com/inaugreport/

Update:

You can now view photos of the actual event hear.

We almost did not make it in past the gates, we were one of the fortunate few who made it past the purple gate.

Washington DC

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Finally getting around to posting a full set of photos from Adobe Max 2008. Props to Emily and Amanda for manning the Sapient booth!

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TUAW (The Apple Unofficial Weblog) is reporting that Adobe is cutting back on its booth at MacWorld. The bigger news is they are also cutting 600 jobs, including Mike Downey; The Adobe Flash, Flex, and Air evangelist.

One of the successes of Macromedia (Now Adobe) as a company was it’s connection with the developer community. I think that his exiting can have an “emotional” (I use that word, but I think it is different degrees) effect on the developer community. Their passion for technology and development is influenced by the likes Mike and his blog. At the same time, it is jarring to watch the company that produces most of the tools I use to do my job, go through this process. Just another reminder of how bad the economy currently is.

What do you think?

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/03/adobe-trimming-expo-budget-possibly-jobs/

Earlier today Mike Chambers posted on the changes at Adobe. Included is the official revised forcast for the company. It is lowered expectations due to the lower than expected  sales of CS4.

The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings

As we enter what should be a happy time (the holiday season) there is a downside to this holiday season. With the economy being what it is, you may not be as busy as you would like to be. Now’s as good a time as any to take that nervous energy and start creating something or mashing something.

I am going to try and compile a list of API’s that would be exciting to sink your teeth into (instead of another deviled egg!).

To start, here is a list compiled by Ted. It is a list of ActionScript Cloud APIs. I am going to try and get sometime myself to get into these, they seem like fun!

Actionscript Cloud APIs

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

I received an email today from Pownce stating they were ending service:

“We are sad to announce that Pownce is shutting down on December 15,
2008. As of today, Pownce will no longer be accepting new users or new
pro accounts.

Our thanks go out to everyone who contributed to the Pownce community,
The Pownce Crew”

Pownce was a free social networking and micro-blogging site. It launched on June 27, 2007, and was opened to the public on January 22, 2008. It was one of the 1st AIR applications out there. I remember trying to get an invite when it was still in BETA…..RIP Pownce, let’s see what sixapart will do with it now.