Why Gnomes?

From Wikipedia:

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle. The word gnome is derived from the New Latin gnomus. It is often claimed to descend from the Greek  gnosis, “knowledge”.

Growing up gnomes were never the lawn ornaments they are today. Gnomes were secretive creatures of tinkering with things arcane and things mechanical.

That’s Digital Gnomes – tinkering, prodding and creating with the digital arcane… since the days of the Radio Shack TRS-80 and a tape deck. I wouldn’t say secretive – but I do my best tinkering and learning late nights into the early dawn.
Now I’d have to drop the subterranean part – I kinda like living above ground

Fresh AIR

At first glance, I pegged Adobe’s AIR product as gimmicky and left it at that. Recently a client asked for a tool that could convert some data from CSV format to a XML format. Easy enough.

“What Platform” I asked assuming Windows.

“Well – some of my clients have Macs” my client replied. Sounds like a Job for Flash!

Only the app needed to run off the various clients desktops and once I saw the size of some of these files…better they be processed over the clients several machines than one server. I took a second look at Adobe AIR – and I am digging it! Basically it’s a Flash/Flex app right on your desktop, so I’m able to quickly develop a sharp-looking app in Flex, get local file handling for FREE and my client is ecstatic that his users, no matter the machine, can go to one place to install the tool.

AIR logo is a registered property of Adobe and is used w/o expressed permission.

One Year Ago…

I got my walking papers about this time last year from a company that outsourced it’s software development to Beijing – then was bought by a Canadian company.

I miss the folks I’ve worked with -but the lesson isn’t lost on me.  Change is a charging minotaur breathing down your back as you navigate the maze. Like it or not you’re going to have to think like Theseus – or wind up dealing with the business end of some horns. It’s the one thing you can absolutely count on, and still not be prepared. There is an African wisdom that says:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
Are you ready?