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Normally I only attend and speak and speak at just Acrobat and PDF conferences. That's not because I'm a conference snob. It's just a matter of practicality. In the past there were just too many conferences deal with and I figured it was better to go where people would already know what I was talking about. But this year I'm branching out.
Topics:I just want to say a few words about code reuse. Copying and pasting JavaScript code from the forums, articles, and sample docs available on this site as well as others is probably the most popular usage model. Let's face it, most people are not professional programmers, and after all, that's what those scripts are there for.
Download Movies Keaton and Hive Keb' Mo' Kebaka/Amao
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Anyway, it was a great conference. Lots of good sessions and the attendees seemed really involved. I gave two great sessions, one on automating Acrobat, and one on scripting the new Rich Media Annotation. Of course my topics are always about programming and a bit on the super nerd end of things. Which isn't normally a problem, but unfortunately Ted Padova (PDF Bible author) was there. Ted always steals my audience. He's so popular that during his key note normally mild manored office administrators were ripping thier shirts off and jumping on stage!! You know, fillable forms really get people excited. Go to the web site and see the pictures. And I shouldn't be saying this, but all of the session matierials from the conference are availible for download on the session description page. This is a wealth of info they are giving away for free. If you don't do the web site to see admins gone wild, then go for the free downloads (www.pdfcentralconference.com)
Ok, maybe I exagerated about the admins;)
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Now Back to work.
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There are plenty new changes to Acrobat JavaScript with the soon to be released Acrobat 9.
Topics:Last November, WindJack Solutions traveled to Thailand and the Philippines. We went to Thailand first for a wedding and then flew from Bangkok to Manila, then from Manila to Davao (where the Great Ted Padova lives), and then back again to Thailand before coming back to the US.
Sorry to have been gone for so long, but over the last few months things have been happening.
To start out, for the month of November WindJack Solutions took a trip to Asia. Part of that time was spent in the Philippines at the home of the world famous PDF author and all around great guy, Ted Padova. When Ted heard we were coming he immediately started finding ways to put us work. The city Ted lives in, Davao, has several higher educational institutions and a growing high-tech community. He's a member of a group of people who are very keen on making Davao the high tech center of the Philippines, what they like to call the "Silicon Gulf Coast".
I know I should have been blogging about the MAX before I actually went, but I have excuses. I had to do quite a bit of prep, 2 different sessions with complex examples. Besides, you never know how these things are going to turn out, better to wait and see. Given how things went last year, i.e. zero interest in PDF, I was a bit skeptical.
So now that I'm back, I can say that it was way better for us PDF types than last year. The traditional Adobe stuff like Acrobat and the Creative Suite were much better represented. PDF seemed to come up at every turn, have some kind of association with all the hot stuff (i.e. AIR, Flex, and ColdFusion), and the attendees seemed generally interested in knowing more about how PDF could be better integrated into their tool-sets and workflows. I take this as a sign that the Web development ecosystem is maturing.
But I'm getting too philosophical. Fact is, all my presentations Rocked, or at least I think they did. I haven't seen the evaluations yet, but I'm happy to bask in false glory until the results come in. Probably the biggest reason the sessions seemed to go so well was that people really are more interested in PDF. But, I like to think that it was because for the first time in my speaking career I had a not so boring talk. Let's face it, JavaScript can be pretty dull after lunch in a hot conference room. I'm seen my share of attendees go comatose after 20 minutes of data types and variable scope. I've even had people fall out of their chairs, not that I'm proud of it, but it just goes to show how completely devoid of entertainment value this stuff can be.
This time I had a Hip-Hop video ,a lot of really cool examples, and no code. The session was called "Pimp My PDF", which in itself is pretty entertaining. It was all about the kinds of interactive and dynamic features that can be added to a PDF. To start off the talk I did a little routine where I was confused about the name of the talk, and then I played the video. This is the First Ever PDF HipHop Song, and it was created just for me and my talk by my good friends Aki and Rachel Kumar, who are seriously creative as well as being die hard techies. Actually, Rachel was the one who wrote, scored, choreographed, made all the props, and directed it. That girls got talent. Here's a link to the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnfMuw93Uyk
After something like that the rest of the session is at serious risk of being boring by comparison. But fortunately, I had some great unboring examples provided by both Ted Padova and Bob Connolly. Bob's got an incredible portfolio of fancy multimedia PDFs (brochures, e-mags, and the like). You can see this stuff at his web site, (http://www.bcpictures.com/) .
Lots of other stuff also went on at the conference- sneak peeks, Bruce Chizen's keynote, other more interesting sessions than mine, and of course all the orgies with free food and alcohol. Whoops, I don't think I was supposed to give that bit away, NDA and all ;^) Oh well, See ya next year in San Francisco, should be wilder!
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