I stand corrected on my claim that Adobe Flash is the only authoring tool for Flash content. Please see Flash Magazine Open Source and free Development Tools for Flash

I am still correct in that Flash Player is still controlled by Adobe. This is less crucial than the tool from a creation point-of-view, but it doesn’t mean that I am wrong in asserting that Adobe still has a closed system, though claiming otherwise.

Jim Whimpey’s conclusion still obtains. (via Daring Fireball)

Supplemental to Adobe UI Gripes it’s worth taking a look at The Many Sliders of Photoshop CS4 and also it’s concise follow-up Slide Different.

Introduction

Hey this is fun. I am the CEO of Jon Whipple, Design Counsel so I am going to write an open letter too.

Dear Adobe,

I see today that you turned up the heat in the controversy over Flash on Apple devices. And even the founders (but not the current CEO) have weighed in.

You also sent me this message in email:

From: help_adm@adobe.com
Subject: Moderation status for your comment on Adobe.com
Date: 13 May, 2010 8:10:22 AM PDT
To: Jon Whipple

Hi Intricate Monkey,

A moderator has removed your comment to http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/835/cpsid_83578.html on 05/07/2010 because it represents a support question. Please contact Adobe Technical Support (http://www.adobe.com/support/) for resolutions of installation issues, basic usage questions, and troubleshooting unexpected behavior for documented features. For product usage and other support questions, you may also visit the appropriate Adobe forum (http://www.adobe.com/support/forums).

We appreciate your feedback. We encourage you to post contributions, corrections, and links that will help us to improve our documentation and support resources.

Thank you,

Adobe Community Help Team

So I checked the page and the several comments from other Adobe software users expressing a degree of exasperation and asking how their problem might be solved, along with my comments in the same vein, as well as my solution which described in specific easy to follow steps, how I was able to fix the problem had all been removed.

So let me get this off my chest, then I will detail a designer’s view of the entire situation.

Hey Adobe, fuck you and your insane hegemony

As a designer and creative director, I rely on Adobe’s tools every working day. As an obsessive and driven individual I rely on Adobe’s tools every non-working day too.

The text setting engine in InDesign is pure Awesome, the power of Photoshop is staggering. These along with other tools in your Creative Suite products have provided a great foundation for me to learn my craft and my profession. And I am always happy to recall when I first purchased Illustrator 5.5 and embarked on my design adventure.

And of course it just so happens as you unfurl your battle flag and shout from the rooftops WE LOVE FREEDOM, you remove posts from your users in your community, for reasons that make absolutely no sense.

The Personal Part

I went to Adobe Support looking for answers to a problem I was having. InDesign CS5 would crash on launch. All the time. The others apps in the suite all worked fine (and dare I say, even felt a little peppier?) but InDesign would crash and crash.

So I went to your site and searched for any information about this issue. There wasn’t anything at the time (this was last week), but there were some general tips. I downloaded and installed the Adobe Support Assistant app which told me there was an error in the install log and provided the link to the Support page above. I went there and read the article. I also read the comments (that you solicited at the time on page – since removed) and found another individual was experiencing the same problem. I also expressed my frutration and said I was going to try the solution outline in that article.

Which I did and it didn’t work. I updated my comments on that article to say so.

I also kept searching for a solution. I eventually found a general article about troubleshooting crashing apps. I uninstalled CS5. I created a admin new user. I installed CS5. I launched every app successfully. That was good. But I wanted to use the software in my user profile not have to switch users to use any apps. I mean YOU WOULDN’T DO THAT YOURSELF right? I hunted around. I searched. I thought about the problem.

I did all this because there’s no real help on your support site. Calling you costs hundreds of dollars. Other people were feeling my pain, and I guess I’m a sucker, but I wanted to help them. And use the software that cost me 2/3s of a month’s rent.

So I finally worked it out. The preference file in my user’s directory had been installed with the incorrect permissions. I changed the permissions on this directory and everything worked fine. I returned to your Support site and added my discovery to the comments stating that this was my experience and that others might try it and benefit. I shared with with other designers too in different contexts. They all expressed general frustration with CS5, and Adobe, and those affected by this issue (although applied to different products in the suite like Photoshop and Illustrator) tried it out with varying degrees of success.

I will also say that I made the snide remark that you owe me $300 for my time and expertise.

And then you sent me this letter. I don’t feel so snide about that any more. I’m convinced of it now. Who do I send the invoice to?

So I will spell it out for you:

The people commenting on that item in your support site are your eager and hard-core users. They adopt your upgrades as you release. They don’t hang back. They lead the way and create momentum and you NEED TO HELP THEM if you want to sell more software (and we know you do).

The comments were in a Support page. You said to go to http://www.adobe.com/support/ so I did. You removed my comments “because they represent a support issue” and I should go to the Support pages. Whiskey Tango Fuck. That’s seems pretty nuts.

You believe that somehow all this makes sense. That’s a problem for you and your psychiatrist.

The Professional Part

It’s tiring to watch you guys try to defend Flash. It’s tiring and stupid.

You say “No company — no matter how big or how creative — should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web.” (from http://www.adobe.com/choice/openmarkets.html). I want to make Flash content but I can’t unless I use the tools you dictate. I want to watch Flash content but I can’t unless I use the tools you dictate. So you are in fact dictating all of these things.

And in a single respect I don’t have a problem with that. Flash is yours and it works a certain way. If I want what Flash offers, that’s reasonable. I don’t expect to be able to use Silverlight tools to create Flash content and I don’t expect Flash tools to create Silverlight content either.

But I do have a problem with you guys posing as virtuous defenders of freedom of/and choice. You’re a huge publicly traded company and you’re nothing about defending my rights and freedoms (except maybe my freedom to give you my money). You love choice so much you bought your only real market competitor so I couldn’t have choice.

So sorry guys, your arguments are straw men and ring false.

The End Part

Ultimately, all my content and design is governed by the limits of the delivery medium. Some have physical limits. Some have programming limits. Some have philosophical limits. As a designer, I am used to limits. Limits enable me to be decisive and to balance aspects of the things I make and do. So having the freedom to choose Flash is great. I just won’t choose it for iPhone and iPad content delivery. Having HTML 5 and other tools are great too. I just won’t choose them for when Flash is required. It’s pretty simple really.

Why not focus on user experience? Make installs really work. Stop adding features and spend time tailoring your apps to the platforms on which they run instead of homogenizing them. Create a new way to support your users, instead of having them support themselves and then pulling out the rug. Make your stuff better and better. If devices and platforms don’t support you, move on. Build your markets based on the awesome experience you are creating for everybody. Leave behind universality and focus on specialization. Adopt platforms, abandon platforms, move and make and do. Read this and fix every last thing there. Use it as a bug report.

If you want to fight, then take these words to heart: “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” -Sun Tzu, the Art of War

What was particularly interesting about this email was that those who had read it and circulated it seem quietly pleased by the validation of the virtue of libraries implied in this Op/Ed piece in the New York Times. Its closing reads, “All in all, the most ecologically virtuous way to read a book starts by walking to your local library.”

“Useful in linking the public library to the sustainability agenda.” and “A little article you could print off and post at the library.” (1) are comments that were appended as it made its way to me. Which was the thing that set me off.

Really Public Library? Is this the best you can do to advocate for the library and its relevance in our modern world? Circulating an Op/Ed from the New York Times and saying, “See, we’re also kind of green”?

Sorry guys, this is weak. In a lot of ways.

Aside from the logical syllogism (books are sustainable, libraries have books, therefore libraries are sustainable) there is nothing else to say that it would be useful or even wise to view this item as useful in your communications.

In making this logical error, actual questions and answers about library sustainability are conveniently side-stepped:
• Books are printed and bound in places some distance away from libraries. Especially now that libraries do not maintain their own binderies, shipping books and their replacements is surely a significant factor in library sustainability.
• Books are treated and stamped in libraries with ink products, plastics, adhesives, magnetic tape, and specially printed barcodes, the impact of which is not explored (but if your library has around a million volumes I am sure there’s significant environmental toll).
• Many libraries, are organized in multiple locations and in order to serve their public, physical volumes must be moved around between locations daily via truck which must have some further effect on air pollution.
• Library operations are intensely electrical in nature. Lighting, computers, air conditioning, alarm systems, archival air conditioning, escalators, elevators and conveyor systems, surely this energy consumption must have some sort of impact. Especially where coal burning electric generation is in use.

Until you know that these things are sustainable, you’re simply asserting that because you have a big pile of books, you’re magically green.

But I am afraid what’s even worse in this proposition, is that the ENTIRE notion that libraries are somehow green is predicated on this simple idea: Libraries are repositories of books.

Great. You expect that kind of argument is going to sustain and grow the library role in our society over the long term?

Your stance is “See we’re still relevant.” rather than “Of course we’re relevant.”; your idea is “We deal in objects” as opposed to “we deal in information, knowledge and understanding”; and your opinions are somebody else’s.

This is a formula for success and a strong future? Did a library commission this research or conduct it themselves? Did a library even ask “Is being green a critical function of this institution? How does this fit with other civic initiatives?” (in Vancouver I know it does) and “Where are we situated in relation to this?”. They are happy to agree with others’ assertions instead of leading with questions in order to discover answers.

The rise of electronic media is Information and Library Science’s Black Swan. Their focus on physical objects as the vehicles and repositories of knowledge has left them apparently helpless in defining the agenda for libraries when it’s most crucial. Whether we call it the Information, Knowledge or Ideas Economy I would imagine that these specialists would be crucial to our society. Instead they are increasingly marginalized by software and hardware engineers who are working ceaselessly to categorize the world’s knowledge and deliver it in a real and personal way.

So beyond the argument about whether libraries are green, is what it reveals. It’s something far more fundamental. If others are setting the questions and agenda; if you accept and conflate un-verified assertions; and you leave deeply held assumptions around libraries as object repositories unquestioned; then there is a crisis of imagination and leadership in libraries. And I think it could be terminal.

1. This in itself is a sad commentary of how people imagine library communications should work. (↑ return to reading)

Well I wish I wasn’t some sort of moron. If I had been smart and able to see into the future, I would have taken a photo of my boots before. But I didn’t. You’re going to have to trust me about all the stuff I am going to tell you now.

My boots (pictured above) are very nice and I love them.

I also tend to walk pretty hard on my heel and so I’d worn though the rubber on one boot and had actually just started to grind on the wood of the heel. The other boot was about to hit the same state when I took my boots in for repair.

When I worked in downtown Vancouver, I’d take my boots to the place near the library on Robson, but in the four months since my departure from the library, he’d closed up shop because rents were skyrocketing with all the building around him. Even though the neighbourhood could use a shoe repair shop. So I couldn’t take them there.

I had a note on the fridge, and the poor design notwithstanding, the new shop that opened in my neighborhood was ready for business.

I took my boots to Hugo’s Shoes[sic] Repair.

Hugo eagerly accepted my request and suggested he replace the half sole too and told me a little bit about himself and his work.

I paid him in advance. And just less than a week later I got a call that my boots were ready.

My boots were ready, but I wasn’t.

What happened, you see, is that a man who is nothing more than a dedicated genius got a hold of my footwear and committed nothing less than pure shoemaker professionalism on them.

Yes the half sole is there, and the new heel. Very well done. The new rubber sole integrates beautifully with the leather and is sealed nicely. The seam is barely tangible. The heels are new Vibrams and seem to be well set. But that’s not even the start of it.

All of that is nice, but is just the result according to Hugo. What matters is all of this:

Care
Hugo always remembers that people wear the shoes he works on, and so every move he makes and all the work he does will affect a real person, You.

Quality
There is no substitute for real quality, and real quality is real economy because if you spend a little bit more now, the longevity of your footwear will pay time and time again. Shoes made in factories and not by craftmen last at most 6 months. Well-built and maintained shoes can last for years.

Technical Prowess
The only way to deliver the care and quality that Hugo wants you to have is to be a master and to commit to doing all the work from broad strokes to small detail.

Which is why he repaired and made good the wood of the heel. Then he planed the bottom of the boot so the boots stand truly flat and the sole and heel engage the ground with maximum coverage. He added a rubber riser. And only then he attached the half sole and the heel.

And technical prowess is why he wants to build his business so he can get to what he really loves which is handcrafting bespoke shoes and boots.

The Long Run
As important as the previous three things are, this one is crucial to Hugo’s professional outlook as well as his life.

Time and ongoing relationships matter. Over time you will be successful. Over time he will come to know you. Over time you will discover that repairing your shoes and maintaining them is far more inexpensive than buying new cheap and crappy shoes all the time. Over time we can improve but only if we pay attention and care about the things we do and the people they affect.

How often do we hear anything like this these days?

Oh like maybe never.

So here’s the deal.

You are too poor to buy cheap and crappy things. Take care of the things you have as best you can. If you have shoes and boots that need repair or some maintenance then take them to Hugo. If you need other things like jackets or purses repaired, then take them to Hugo. If you live in Vancouver then get on over here to Collingwood and bring your boots to Hugo. Don’t live in Vancouver? Send them to Hugo. Really. I am so not kidding.

Hugo is from Columbia, and speaks very accented English, so if you don’t speak Spanish give him a little room and time. If you don’t speak English or Spanish, just trust him.

Here’s his info:

He’s opened from 0900 – 1800 Monday through Saturday. Sundays are closed.

Tell him Jon Whipple sent you.

Here’s a table that describes the general balance of Good News and Bad News that in turn describes the long moral arc of the universe tending towards maximum irony.

Well, these and the fact that you really really don’t want a table still open when this theme trims off the article for posting on the front page of your site.

That’s what’s happened to me here which is why I’ve inserted all this extra text. Anybody with a clever idea on where I can set the number of characters before trimming?

Well, on with the chart…

I offer this information partly as an apology and partly as a warning. Thank you.

And the heroes we select, we choose for a particular quality, a particular design or body of work, or a particular world view.

And sometimes our heroes are simply ideas.

Go here

Press Play

Pray that you die a fast death

When you feel a bit better, pray that I die a fast death

If I get asked one more time for my ‘John Henry’ when somebody needs my signature, I am going to scream.

In the interest of clarity, and and the preservation of culture, here’s a little help.

John Henry was a steel driver for a railroad. He was the strongest man alive. He beat a steam hammer in a contest of strength and productivity, though it ultimately killed him. He is a hero of folklore. He’s easy to remember because he’s a huge guy with a big sledgehammer.

So remember: John Henry = Sledgehammer.

What I —and I suspect, you—, are really being asked for is your ‘John Hancock’.

John Hancock was a trader in the American Colonies and was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Which he signed in a huge flourish and, according to legend, quipped that he wanted to be sure that King George III could read it without his spectacles. Ultimately he was elected Governor of Massachusetts. Although he was a real guy —and for those of you who might care, an American— he’s easy to remember because he’s an average sized guy with a really big signature.

Because John Hancock did this, his name became eponymous with ‘signature’. Or to state it correspondingly: John Hancock = Signature.

Now I understand that if you’re not an American (I am a Canadian, but have the advantage of American heritage), you may not be aware of this subtle distinction. I do hope that you find this useful. In order to help you in an awkward circumstance like a banker asking you to sign for a car loan with your ‘John Henry’, please download this wallet sized information graphic to which you might refer. Or better still, print more than one and graciously share.

Battle of the Giants Infographic

John Henry
US Postage Stamp
Folk Heroes: John Henry
Oil on canvas
Artist: David LaFleur
Art director: Richard Sheaff
First day of issue: July 11, 1996
To illustrate the story of one of America’s mightiest folk heroes, David LaFleur evoked a world of bold angles and iconic imagery. LaFleur’s heroic, monumental style is rooted in murals and posters commissioned by the Works Progress Association during the 1930s.
www.postalmueum.si.edu

Sledgehammer from istockphoto.com

John Hancock
Oil on canvas
Artist John Singleton Copely, 1765
Via wikipedia.org

You’d think there might be a better or more auspicious time to start a blog, especially if you knew of your host’s chequered past in relation to this activity, but today is the day and it magically coincides with the birth a girl to my dear friends Dan and Gabriella. Congratulations guys, and welcome, small one, into one of the toughest places you’ll ever know. But your parents and sister are really great, and I’m sure I’ll be looking out for you.

These days are Strike Days, and I am starting to look for a new job and have promised myself that I will make two applications a week until I get a job. So far it’s been 4 apps and two more tonight or tomorrow and still no bites, but I chalk it up to the fact that it’s the end of summer and many design firm principals have been away and are returning to tonnes of work. That’s what I’m telling myself.

So onward, check back soon, because I’ve been thinking about things while I walk the pickets, and I’d like to share.