jd/adobe

The BBC has released a new desktop player for downloaded videos. I was struck by the headlines on Techmeme: "Now Install BBC iPlayer for Mac, Linux Computers", "BBC releases iPlayer for Mac and Linux", "BBC introduces CBBC iPlayer, plus beta Mac and Linux downloads", "BBC iPlayer download feature available on Linux & Macs", "BBC announces iPlayer Desktop for Mac and Linux", "BBC iPlayer for Mac arrives", "BBC iPlayer now available for Mac", "BBC iPlayer finally available for Mac, Linux", "iPlayer Released for Mac, Linux; Adobe Announces AIR for Linux".

Isn't that the way things should be? If you have a computer, it should just work.

It shouldn't be just "an Apple computer" or "a Windows OS" or whatever. They're computers; they should just work.

With AIR, you can publish an application to any popular type of computer. All it takes is some JavaScript, or some Flash.

We need to get to the same place on other devices too.

I liked reading over those headlines. No drama... Windows, Macintosh and Linux are coming to parity.

One more thing, in that original BBC article. They mention the need to time-restrict and geo-restrict the video. They can't invest in video production unless they can rationalize their ability to tax UK citizens for support. Rights-management is a vital key in making rational business decisions. But at the same time it can't inconvenience the intended audience. Things aren't perfect and invisible yet, but there's steady improvement in making doorlocks.

(Tip: On Linux, please be sure to uninstall old versions and update Player before installing AIR 1.5... more here.)

Anyway... good stuff. We're making progress. :)

Posted by John Dowdell at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Opera's MAMA is a "Metadata Analysis and Mining Application" from staffer Brian Wilson. It's a project to explore the nature of HTML tags on today's web, via a sample of 3.5 million URLs. There were some early reports in October, and recently they've released additional data on tags used for cross-browser plug-ins.

A few surprising things about plug-in tagging jumped out at me:

• The study found more EMBED tags than OBJECT tags. The difference was small -- only 2% -- but it indicates there are still some very old sites out there which specify media only in Netscape format.

• Their sample of 3.5 million pages had about a half-million OBJECT/EMBED pairs, but they found just over a half-million additional sites using external JavaScript to add these tags. This sounds a little strange to me... on the sites I visit I see much more external-JS use than in-page tagging, partly as a response to Microsoft's pre-Silverlight handling of the EOLAS patent, partly as a by-product of advertising network requirements. Anyway, these results seem to imply that 50% of SWF use is via external scripting, which feels low to me.

• The APPLET tag, used by Java, is found on just over 50,000 of those pages... about 1.5% of the sample. (SWF is found on 34% of the sample set.) These numbers feel right to me, but it's the first time in recent memory that someone has attempted to rigorously test the evidence, as Opera has done here.

• This MAMA study is the same one which ran the world's webpages through the W3C Validators and found that "145,009 out of 3,509,180 URLs passed validation -— only 4.13%!" (My takeaway from that is that there's a significant difference between idealism and realism... telling people what they "should" do isn't usually as straightforward as watching what they themselves choose to do.)
  

Some history on EMBED vs OBJECT: Netscape 2.0 introduced browser extensions in mid-1995... a half-year before JavaScript, by the way. These were embedded within the page via the EMBED tag. The next year Microsoft announced similar capability within Internet Explorer 3.0, by ActiveX via the OBJECT tag, although early versions of IE could also invoke Netscape Plugins via EMBED. In the later 1990s HTML 4.0 went with the Microsoft tag and forbade the Netscape tag, but offered no hints as to how the real world might reach such a purified state. Realistically, almost everyone followed the early Shockwave approach and nested OBJECT & EMBED to make the various browsers happy.

Brian Wilson has tons more MAMA data on the Opera site... really valuable in understanding the tagging structure of the real web today, and I appreciate that they made this info public!

Posted by John Dowdell at 3:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wall Street Journal had an article today, and it has already been picked up at Seeking Alpha and other sites. Here is the line which sounded strange to me:

"Adobe's Flash player is installed on about 98% of Internet-connected PCs, and Silverlight is only installed on about 25%, according to Adobe and Microsoft."

The first part is okay -- it's a rare computer which doesn't have Adobe Flash Player 9 or better already installed, and almost everybody already has H.264 support -- it's the "SL at 25%" which was news to me, particularly when attributed to Adobe.

Closest match I've seen was the equivocal "Over 1 in 4 computers on the Internet now have some version of Silverlight installed" quote from Scott Guthrie last month. RIAstats.com shows SL2 support at 10% on the general sites they sample.

I checked with my partners here this morning, and the Adobe speakers apparently did not offer such a Silverlight quote. Best guess is that the sentence would be more clearly phrased as "Adobe's Flash Player 9 is installed on about 98% of Internet-connected PCs, according to Adobe, and some version of Silverlight is only installed on about 25%, according to Microsoft."

Whether 10% or 25% doesn't matter much in the larger scheme of things -- the core question is "What does it cost your audience to use?", and we've only seen new Player apps start to spontaneously appear when up above 80% existing consumer support. In case you were wondering about the WSJ quote or its echoes, it seems to be a typo.

There's also an interesting bit on the pay-for-play angles of trophy-site adoption: "When CBS Corp.'s college sports group decided to build its Web site using Silverlight earlier this year, Microsoft chipped in free development and support that 'reduced our costs tremendously,' said Tom Buffolano, the CBS business unit's former chief. A CBS spokesman declined to comment."

Summary: No big thing, but we didn't say it was such a big thing, in case you were wondering.... ;-)

Posted by John Dowdell at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Adobe announced quarterly financial results today, and there was the regular financial analyst call this afternoon. Seeking Alpha has the transcript (thanks!), and I've pulled out some technology-oriented points below.

To get an overall feeling of the piece, start with Shantanu's conclusion:

"So thank you all again for joining us today. I mean, in summary, when we look at 2008, we think that in a tough economic environment, we achieved both our revenue as well as our profitability goals and more important, we put the company in a very strong position as it relates to the focus on Flash platform, the Creative Suite and Acrobat business. And as we said, we think 2009 will be a tough market. We've already taken the actions in place to help us through this tough economic climate and we continue to be really positive about the long-term prospects for the company and we are confident that as we emerge from this economic climate, that Adobe will be in a stronger position than ever before. And we look forward to sharing more at our next earnings call."

A line about Creative Suite:

"Industry and press response to CS4 has been excellent... We believe CS4 is a stellar release, with new product innovations, time-saving features, and workflow enhancements that will improve productivity... While customer feedback has been positive, given the current economic climate, we believe CS4 adoption in the short-term will be muted when compared to prior cycles."

Dynamic Media, which builds atop Flash Platform:

"Dynamic media continues to be a key growth focus for Adobe... Recent high profile wins include Disney.com, the number one ranked kids entertainment and family community destination on the web [which] has experienced record online traffic levels, as viewers logged on to watch full-length movies delivered via the Adobe Flash platform... Telecom Italia [with] live television channels and on-demand content through its web portal... And MLB.com [is using] Flash Platform to deliver all of its live and on-demand video offerings for two years [and] will provide a downloadable rich Internet application built using Adobe Air."

Shantanu closes his prepared remarks:

"In closing, as we enter fiscal 2009, we will continue to make strategic investments that will position us well for the future while managing our business to ensure consistent profitability. Our strategic priorities are advancing the Adobe Flash platform as the preferred solution for how the world engages with ideas and information; investing in our core businesses, including Creative Suite and Acrobat, to maintain our leadership position through innovation and continue our expansion into new customer segments and geographical markets; and focusing on our growth businesses, which include LiveCycle, Connect Pro, Scene 7, and Dynamic Media as areas we believe have significant potential for future growth.

"While 2009 will be a challenging year because of the macroeconomic environment, we believe the key market trends driving our business remain intact. By continuing to innovate and deliver through solid execution, we believe Adobe is well-positioned for future growth."

Question and answer session... I'll paraphrase some parts, so look for quotemarks to signify direct quotations from the text:

(Q) Why did mobile revenue drop?
(A) "The reason for the drop is, like we've been talking about for quite some time, the move to the Open Screen Project will ultimately make the royalty revenue that we have for mobile go away, and you are starting to see that in 2009 as we anticipated."

(Q) Future guidance?
(A) "We're not providing '09 guidance, primarily because of the limited visibility that most companies have right now."

(Q) What about CS4 sales?
(A) "I have gone out and talked to a bunch of customers and frankly the response to CS4 in terms of the innovation that we've done and productivity features that we have added in addition to the workflow actually remains as strong as it's ever been. CS4, as I said earlier, was our strongest product ever. There's just a tremendous amount of innovation but there's no question that the economic uncertainty is playing into the adoption rate we've seen and that's why we thought it would be muted in the short-run... We just saw some research that Omni had produced which stated that CS4 actually can save over 18% of the productivity versus CS3... But we are definitely seeing some impact due to the financial situation."

(I'll echo that one. I've never seen as positive a reception to a release, and I know the timesaving stuff in there makes it a sound economic value. I think CS4 will have a slow start and a long tail. And the wild thing is that there's more stuff brewing in the labs for CS5. There's a whole lot of new things yet to accomplish. But many businesses are, sensibly, being cautious right now.)

(Q) "You've made a swift move here with an 8% headcount reduction. How much through the year will you continue to look to keep costs very tight and preserve the margins, even if the demand continues to track, you know, maybe even worse than what we are seeing right now?"
(A) "Based on what we saw in the economic climate, as you point out, we took fairly quick action. We've already restructured and that was actually done on the day that we announced it, so I think rather than have that linger or there be uncertainty within the organization, we were able to get that all behind us... And it's not just the restructuring that we've done. We've also taken a number of other internal measures to make sure that there's a very significant scrutiny on expenses, whether it's travel where we are not doing really any travel that's not related to customers. We use Acrobat Connect and so that's a good use of travel. Every single external expense as it relates to contractors is being scrutinized by Mark. We've also made some decisions as it relates to the salary structure for employees, so we will continue to monitor all of that and balance investing in our strategic directions versus returning to shareholders."

(Q) How come you're still reporting mobile revenue? Wasn't the Open Screen Project announced awhile ago?
(A) "As it relates to mobile, you're right -- we did anticipate it starting to drop a little sooner. What happened is a lot of the OEMs burned through some of their prepaids faster than we thought. Flash Lite has done extremely well and they just couldn't wait for the OSP version of Flash to come out later in 2009, so we did some renewals with them earlier and larger than we thought we would do."

(Q) Wow, LiveCycle and enterprise is growing fast, at 46%!
(A) Yes, but we want to grow the business appropriately, "rather than investing too much ahead of the curve... I think moving people from inefficient, paper-based processes to automated processes is resonating with our customers."

(Q) Yadda yadda Silverlight?
(A) Look at the entire ecosystem around Flash. It gives you access to every computer, and already nearly a billion devices. Every creative tool now offers a Flash workflow. Every manufacturer wants to offer it. And there's an entire server system, as well as CDN support, hosting support, third-party tools. That ecosystem -- including the millions of creative professionals already earning their living through Flash -- is what makes Flash Platform work. And: "We will be very aggressive about making sure that we continue to innovate in the entire media space to keep our lead."

(I didn't really paraphrase the above text from the transcript, but made the case as I would make it, based on the ideas in the text.)

(Q) What about magazine and newspaper publishers, the print market?
(A) "The way I would characterize that entire business, frankly, is that as you look at employment, if employment exists in those publishing markets and they are spending, the Creative Suite tends to be the top of the list. I've met a number of customers who say if they are going to buy a piece of software, to increase their productivity, it's going to be Creative Suite 4. But I think the economic impact certainly weighs on them as well. So from our perspective, we've been focused on making sure that as they migrate from print to web to video to wireless, that Creative Suite is ahead of where they want to be. "

(Q) Flex Builder?
(A) "We are continuing to see a fairly good demand for Flex Builder and in addition to the Flex Builder, we are actually also pretty excited about the possibilities associated with Flash Catalyst, Steve, that as you know, we showed at our recent MAX conference. So clearly the number of people who have been downloading the Air SDK and who have been looking at Flex Builder and our other development tools to create these engaging applications, is going up."

(Q) And hey, what about that iPhone I keep hearing about?
(A) "Sure. So smartphones continues to be a category that we are focused on. We have clearly streamlined our strategic intent to make sure that we have both web browsing as well as Air support on these smartphones. We actually already deliver Flash for smartphones, such as those powered by either the series 60 from Nokia, running the [Symbian] operating system and/or running Windows Mobile, as well as in Japan we certainly have a lot of support. So I would say that already today we have a lot of smartphone category phones that are supported with Flash. That's why we've shipped over 800 million and we say we expect to reach our one billion mark sooner than anticipated... At MAX recently, we also showed a prototype of Flash running on the Android operating system that's powered by Google, and now we have also said that we are only going to focus on Flash 10 rather than Flash Lite, which is why it's taking a little time. But we fully expect to see versions running for smartphones in the middle of next year."

(Yes, I know he didn't even mention the name this time... twice burned and all that, I guess.... ;-)

My takeaways: Adobe is committed to making this Flash Platform thing work. It's a core part of the business -- the next publishing platform that the entire company can build atop. It's not a tangent or a me-too effort... establishing predictable interactive screen publishing atop any device is what Adobe must provide over the next few years. And there's an entire ecosystem -- including millions of creative professionals already earning their living through Flash every day -- working alongside Adobe to bring this capability to fruition.

Do you have thoughts, opinions, follow-ups or bounce-offs to the above...?

Posted by John Dowdell at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Helen Walker published a fascinating interview with Jeffrey Zeldman at designinterviews.com. I've been enjoying his Twitter account, particularly as he's been dealing with winter colds in NYC.

I realize it's unfair of me to cherrypick, particularly without asking his consent first, but I've pulled together a bunch of fun zingers from both sources here below. No rhyme or reason, but I like the way he puts a sentence together.

From the interview:

"Browsers are continually improving their compliance with standards that are now 10 and 15 years old."

"No browser will ever be 'completely' standards compliant because no software is perfect, and because the specifications themselves have flaws, chiefly vagueness."

"Indeed, the more you look into these subjects -- and I work with Eric Meyer, who is always investigating such arcana -- the deeper you fall into the Twilight Zone, and the more amazed you are that anything on the web actually works."

"As far as I can tell, the web's future will be driven by the same thing that drove its past: good ideas, good writing, good design. And the surprises that communities spring on the makers of sites and applications that serve them."

"I'm attracted to talented people who are also nice people... Listening is important... Curiosity counts."

"Be excited! You're inventing something new on the planet. Imitate to get started, sure, but don't settle for copying any master, because nobody has really figured this out yet, and the person who figures it out best just might be you."

From Twitter:

"With great power come high electric bills."

"Your tweet that linked to the exact same tweet on FriendFeed that linked to a two word post by Kottke linking to actual content was awesome."

"It's like a hoagie of bad user experience."

"We're reliably informed that Steve Jobs decides whether or not his employees may marry, and Jeff Bozos reserves the droit de seigneur."

"Judging by his tunes, this Beethoven dude seems to have listened to a *lot* of Kraftwerk."

"If the economy sticks to its present course, I'm going to have to lay myself off."

"Wonderful, winking Christmas lights do everything for New York Penn Station that a Glade scented candle does for a latrine."

"You had me at collapse onblur."

"I love how NY State disqualifies your jury duty form if you fail to use a No 2 pencil. Like not being called to serve is a punishment."

"Last night I cleaned feces out of a bathtub and woke drowning in my own phlegm. Now what was it you wanted to discuss about these web pages?"

"Ava's return to preschool went over like a triumph of Caesar, her schoolmates spontaneously shouting her name as we entered, late."

"My women friends on Facebook have stopped poking me. Trying not to read too much into that."

"Emergency Room visit verdict: No antibiotics, it's viral. Suck it up and try not to die."

"If it takes 17 tweets to make your point, you ain't twitterin', you's bloggin'."

"Taking advantage of our weakness, a spider bit my thumb and the dog fearlessly soils the hall. Helm's Deep has been breached."

"How very O. Henry: after we uninvited Thanksgiving dinner guests due to daughter's illness, the kid recovered. #thankful #leftovers"

"Is it possible for a dog to develop amnesia? Mine keeps forgetting I just fed him."

"When we call these brutes 'terrorists,' we boost their self esteem. From now on let's agree to call them baby killing coward fucks."

"The puckered corpse of a oversized bird, its head and feathers removed by some butcher, is taking up space in my refrigerator."

"I never understood the Amish until I had a daughter."

"A sick, mean, miserable man has taken up residence in my head. And he's not even paying rent."

"Why yes, thank you, Adobe Updater. I would love to install an updated version of the Adobe Updater every time I open any Adobe application." [Okay, I'll stop copying here.... ;-) ]

Posted by John Dowdell at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

... or anything else you read on the internet, too.

Forrester Research has a report today. They asked 5000 North American consumers "On a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you trust the following 18 information sources?" The lowest number of "generally trust" and "trust completely" votes went to "corporate blogs", and the conclusion on Techmeme was "corporate blogs are not trusted".

I don't want you to take anything I write on trust. I try to lay out novel facts, interesting hypotheses, useful tests, unusual perspectives. News. If you believe something just because I say so, then you're not reading hard enough. I suspect the world will be better off if you're more skeptical.

I do agree that a lot of "corporate blogs" are not conversational, and that they echo unsubstantiated statements made by others. A lot of techblogs are the same way, as are news sources. Salinger Syndrome is a real problem.

If Forrester asked me "which websites do you trust?", I'd have to ask them to clarify the question before I could answer. If a site provides links to source information, then there's no trust required. If a site reprints rumors, or makes unsubstantiated assertions, then their claims are indeterminate without proof. A website isn't some guru or messiah that you should follow with a papercup of Grape Flavorade in hand. A website is just someone talking, no more, no less.

Please, don't issue blanket trust to "corporate bloggers". Don't blindly trust other types of bloggers or reporters either. No need to automatically disbelieve, and no need to automatically believe. Check to see whether what someone said can be verified and survives critical questioning, instead.

Posted by John Dowdell at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Adobe had a long lead time, talking about AIR. There was some talk of "a universal runtime" when Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia was announced back in April 2005... a first Apollo public build arrived in March 2007... it wasn't finalized into a usable 1.0 release until February 2008.

That's about two-and-a-half years between announcement and delivery... a long time in this case, because "universal runtime" and "Apollo" and "AIR" was a new type of application, an old way of developing but a new way of delivering. Took a lot of conversation along the way to make sure we all understood this new thing. But Adobe was betting the company on this new publishing platform, and such a level of commitment requires a corresponding level of care. Adobe took 2.5 years between the first talk of AIR and its 1.0 delivery.

I've been hearing a lot lately about "desktop applets" and "Acme's answer to Flash" and so on. There isn't so much a need to talk about it in advance these days... lots of people already understand photo-editing in your current browser, or when it's more useful to have a desktop app than browser. It's real already. You don't need a long lead time to prepare people anymore.

For something new, it's good to talk about it beforehand, sound out people on the new ideas, reality-check the concepts. But if there's an existing realworld model, like Flash or AIR, then such a long lead time isn't necessary, and it's usually better to just deliver.

An actual new choice can be useful, but a new set of speculative debates, not so much. Better to ship.

Posted by John Dowdell at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weird item at Motley Fool today: "This year, movie rental maven Netflix rewrote its streaming video service under a new toolset. Microsoft's SilverLight has replaced the old Adobe Flash interface, and there was much rejoicing as the service became easier to use in a flash (pun intended). Some Netflix employees probably think it's too good, even. Over the weekend, company spokesman Steve Swasey announced that Netflix doesn't need 50 of its 300-odd customer support people anymore, because the SilverLight application simply doesn't need a whole lot of support."

This got picked up at Wall Street Journal and NewTeeVee, which referenced a source Netflix blogpost which doesn't mention Flash.

I don't recall that Netflix ever used Flash video. Searching their site shows few SWF, and searching on "adobe" shows only requests to move over to Flash video.

Looks like the Motley Fool conclusion may be based on an error in observation.

My best guess is that Netflix found it was easier to support Mac users for Silverlight than to try to help Mac and Linux users use Windows Media Player or Flip4Mac or other cross-platform video solutions from Microsoft. But it looks like Flash got mentioned only as a journalistic artifact, without discoverable relation to reality.

The Motley Fool writer concludes: "Microsoft seems to have hit a home run with SilverLight and is currently rounding the bases. If the product really is that much smoother and easier to support, then Adobe has a true challenge on its hands." I assume from this assertion, that if he sees the reverse relation in support costs -- that Silverlight imposes greater support costs than Flash, as we see in the forums -- that he would then conclude that Microsoft's challenges are even larger than they might first appear.

(If folks from Motley Fool stop by here, then thanks for visiting, and if you'de open up your comments and drop the registration bar, then such questions would be simpler to resolve, thanks.)

Posted by John Dowdell at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Adobe changed its economic guidance and restructured today. The press release has info.

I ran a Twitter search on "adobe" and pulled out relevant comments, oldest-first, starting from about 9am Pacific today. It misses some of the earliest ones, and any which didn't include the word "adobe".

These are all in the public record already, just aggregated and reformatted for readability, but please drop a comment here if you'd like any removed, and I'll delete both it and the comment, thanks.

tuawRSS: Adobe trimming Expo budget, possibly jobs: Filed under: Macworld, Software, Graphic DesignMacworld notes today that Adobe won't ha..

kapgar: @stillbaking I'm so sorry. He was at Adobe, right?

basictheory: layoffs at adobe?

johnrobb: @chris23 Good luck. Mass layoff at Adobe?

gever: And now for something completely different - leaving Adobe to work on Tinkering School and the book fulltime.

ellingson: the axe is swingin' here at Adobe

chris23: Thanks to all for your kind thoughts. Big layoffs @ Adobe today. Not sure how big but lot's of folks are packing up.

compwhisperer: Adobe feeling the heat? http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1083-adobe-engineer-we-gotta-beat-sil...

CoreyDotCom: Bummed for all the friends and acquaintances laid off from Adobe today.

weaseltagger: @coreydotcom Do you know how many got laid off at Adobe?

Ben_Birk: Adobe is not looking so good right now.

bobpappas: Adobe Minnesota: Is it bad?

Tymcode: is realizing he's going to miss saying goodbye to a lot of Adobe people while he's stuck in this flex class.

lsefton: Hearing that Adobe is having a 10% layoff.

TUAW: Rumor of layoffs at Adobe is, unfortunately, confirmed. http://tr.im/1sxu Best of luck to departing folk from all of us at TUAW.

OmegaSpreem: RT @TUAW Rumor of layoffs at Adobe is, unfortunately, confirmed. http://tr.im/1sxu Best of luck to departing folk from all of us at TUAW.

wisequark: Maybe if Adobe didn't write such sucky software they wouldn't need to be laying off people.

johnmorton: Adobe layoffs today. People are tweeting about it. Sorry to hear this Adobe folks. http://twitter.com/chris23/status/1036778518

cpedraza: RT @TUAW Adobe layoffs are confirmed. http://tr.im/1sxu

danielrh9: Adobe is laying off a bunch of employees. I'm sure many of them are the bunch that just finished work on CS4. Is nothing sacred?

epicenterblog: Adobe layoffs to be announced Dec. 15 [http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/12/05/HNlayoffsadobe_1.html

yobosensei: Adobe is laying off employees. I guess this is official. http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/03/adobe-trimming-expo-budget-possibly-..

ChrisGriffith: Were the layoffs @Adobe across the board or certain teams?

stevenjohansson: condolences to the adobe peeps

RevFry: Wow.. people at adobe DID get axed. Not just rumors. =/

jcyr: Hmm, wonder if any layoffs at Adobe are in groups I know? http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/03/adobe-trimming-expo-budget-possibly-...

glazou: layoffs at adobe...

Filmbot: yikes looks like Adobe just cut some jobs

DanWilson: @jcyr I wonder if there will be any layoffs. Adobe has been increasingly profitable in recent years

guywithabike: So... time to cross Adobe off my possible job application list, right? Substituting it with Burger King.

jdowdell: I heard there will be a public announcement from Adobe soon, with context.

danjoyce: Its official, Adobe is laying off employees. Bummer.

goodfather: Yup, I really did. Bye bye Adobe. Hello unemployment line. I'm cleaning out my office right now...

hlkershaw: Adobe layoffs

mrchrisallen: Hoping that all the folks that I know at Adobe still have their jobs. Layoffs suck!

Filmbot: ouch 25 percent of adobe got the axe today dang obama get in that office soon

bradhouse: "Adobe is considering laying off a significant portion of its nearly 7000 employees, including management".... INCLUDING????

phillip: to those getting the axe at Adobe: often (though not quite always) change can bring good things

newezra: Adobe just announced layoffs a few minutes ago. Rummored to be cutting 7000 people.

peteaylward: @mrchrisallen hear, hear! fingers crossed for you Adobe guys.

kristen_: Retweeting @RevFry: Wow.. people at adobe DID get axed. Not just rumors. =/ Source: http://seattlest.com/2008/12/03/big_layoffs_at_adobe_today.php

BenFeldman: Adobe layoffs that could be 'significant.' @mdowney, who I met at onAIR, is gone... my ADBE stock is going to be hurting, I would imagine...

humbearto: @danjoyce Wow, ADOBE is laying off?

kristen_: @RevFry it was harder to find than you think, adobe had layoff rumors in 2005/2000... etc :P

newezra: RT @mdowney I am no longer at Adobe. It's all for the best. More to follow.

Seattlest: Latest by Seattlest: "Big Layoffs" at Adobe Today: Adobe pink slips started arrivin.. http://tinyurl.com/65uyg

KeatonTech: Yeah, see, this is why I don't just pirate Adobe's stuff, people loose their jobs.

starnut: now that Max Milan is over Adobe starts fireing? What kind of policy is that?

Bottlerocket: RT @newezra Adobe just announced layoffs a few minutes ago. Rummored to be cutting 7000 people.

LW_Will: @Filmbot Isn't that two confs, no Adobe? WTF is happening there?

dizastor: Adobe laying off 7k people? I didn't realize they had that many people Maybe they'd sell more CS if it didn't cost as much as a used car.

jcyr: @newezra @bottlerocket @dizastor Adobe only employes 7600 people it isn't laying off 7000.

KeatonTech: @stuhelm Yeah, I know, Adobe just has to make it through right now, I just thought they'd be doing well enough to avoid layoffs.

bperry: I feel bad for my former colleagues at Adobe, 600 being laid off worldwide: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d

dizastor: Correction... Adobe had 7k total employees and 600 are being laid off... that makes more sense. Although that list of names on PS is loooong

RevFry: The market is now flooded with ex- Google and Adobe people. Making the prospect of getting laid off that much more terrifying. competition

boyglub: It's been a tough day at Adobe. Ugh.

codyo: wow ! RT @bperry: I feel bad for my former colleagues at Adobe, 600 being laid off worldwide: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d

visualrinse: RT @bperry: I feel bad for my former colleagues at Adobe, 600 being laid off worldwide: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d (

KeatonTech: @stuhelm Hmm, that's too bad though, Adobe's got some of the best R&D out there, I almost think they should focus on it more...

ravivasavan: RT: @jayemsee – adobe to lay off 600 people: http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200812/120308PrelimQ4FiscalResults.html

peymojo: adobe trimming workforce by ~600 :-( http://tinyurl.com/6c5mll

jcyr: Adobe to lay off 600 ish. Hopefully we hear about restructuring soon. Best of luck to all at #adobe! http://is.gd/a7a1

newezra: Correction... Adobe is reducing force to 7000 from 7600. I wish the best for everyone at Adobe.

dmode: Adobe Ann: Restructuring to Reduce Expenses http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200812/120308PrelimQ4FiscalResults.html

inafried: Adobe warns on sales, to cut 600 jobs. CS4 demand weaker than expected.

robertpalmer: Wow. Terrible news from Adobe. 600 miserable Christmases this year.

regen: Adobe situation sounds pretty crazy - 600 jobs cut today

stuhelm: @KeatonTech yes it is :-) On a serious note, thoughts going out to any Adobe staff who are losing their jobs

niqui: @wolfl happy about a project and who I will be working with. Sad that @mdowney will no longer be with Adobe. Simple :D

rebel: so it's DCM day at Adobe for many, sorry to hear that guys - especially to the folk that I know and may have seen at MAX

ericKontent: @Filmbot Where'd you hear about the Adobe layoff? 25%? ouuuuch?

jdowdell: Info on Adobe restructuring, guidance: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d (expand) Many good people....

kevinlcc: Retweeting @inafried: Adobe warns on sales, to cut 600 jobs. CS4 demand weaker than expected.

UnitZeroOne: Jeez, Adobe laying off 600 people ? Damn.

reboog711: Retweeting @jcyr: Adobe to lay off 600 ish. Hopefully we hear about restructuring soon. http://is.gd/a7a1

moyalynne: Oh No. Adobe. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/12/01/daily50.html

zstepek: For those of you who haven't heard yet, Adobe is laying off 600 people worldwide today. I've heard it dubbed "Red Wednesday..." Crazy.

abustin: im sure Sony (Townsend St) wouldnt mind some more ex-Adobe people

edskwarecki: 600 folks laid off here at Adobe today (~9% of workforce). I'm OK, but tough to see colleagues clearing out their offices.

bssmot: sending good vibes to all Adobe folks.

vcsangels: ( VCsAndAngels.com ) Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

vcsangels: ( VCsAndAngels.com ) Adobe Misses Q4, Terrible Guidance, Firing 600 (ADBE) http://tinyurl.com/5tcmyz

jodybrewster: @MossyBlog I don't think it was his choice, word on the street is Adobe let go of 600 people

chaupt: Bad Day at Adobe with big RIFs. Hope all is well with any friends who may be caught up in this... http://twurl.nl/nbrs7l

nuws: Cnet BizTech News Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts: The software maker says the global ec.. http://twurl.nl/h4bfbc

franDevinney: whoa...adobe making big cuts.

lkilpatrick: @simonfree Adobe has about ~7000 full time people

agentK: Adobe is giving 600 people the pink slip. That's unbelievable - "Restructuring" - yeah. right.

starnut: not knowing what to think of Adobe's layoff policy: fireing 600 people on the last night of Max Milan - what does that tell us?

johnattebury: Using TweetDeck to follow today's Adobe layoffs stream-of-consciousness. I like Twhirl for tweeting and TweetDeck for listening.

newsnet: From C-NET Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts: The software maker says the global economic woes.. http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

unclenate: @mdowney Sorry to hear about the Adobe layoff. Good Luck! #EndOfAnEra

GaryTheGeek: CNETnews: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts: The software maker says the global economic wo.. http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

mercnews: Adobe to cut 600 jobs, report lower fourth-quarter revenue: The company also said it expects earnings pe.. http://tinyurl.com/5znxoh

skoch: RT @bssmot sending good vibes to all Adobe folks.

MossyBlog: 600 employees being dismissed from Adobe is simply Adobe's short term win, long term loss...

agentK: @reboog711 Yes, have a look at the demographics of Adobe employees - I doubt there'd be many near retirement :-)

charlesclements: wow, adobe axing 600 peeps is rediculous

TechRSS: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts: The software maker says the global economic woes and weak demand for .. http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

CNETNews: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

johnattebury: RT @MossyBlog: 600 employees being dismissed from Adobe is simply Adobe's short term win, long term loss...

Magganpice: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

chrisrbailey: RT @chaupt: Bad Day at Adobe with big RIFs. Hope all is well with any friends who may be caught up in this... http://twurl.nl/nbrs7l

alleyfeed: Adobe Misses Q4, Low Guidance, Firing 600 (ADBE) http://tinyurl.com/5tcmyz

chris23: RT @jdowdell Info on Adobe restructuring, guidance: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d Many good people....

SVSJbizjournal: Online now: Adobe to cut 600 jobs, reduces fourth quarter revenue outlook http://tinyurl.com/5cbp2w

acce: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts http://bit.ly/4DQ6

RSSFeedBot: Adobe Plans to Cut 600 Jobs http://ff.im/cjPS

UnitZeroOne: @newviewnetworks official word is out in the Adobe Q4 pressrelease.

techupdates: [News] Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts http://tinyurl.com/6mmnnn

sfdesigner: I'm touched by the amazing support from the Twitter-verse about Adobe's news today. It's great to have a strong backing from the community.

Magganpice: 600 jobs to be cut @Adobe. Will they be able to do that through early retirement? I guess not.

mvannorden: Hard times everywhere even at Adobe http://tinyurl.com/5avzat

cdharrison: My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone at Adobe impacted by the layoffs. It's a tough time to be in tech. :\

mvannorden: Mike Downey the AIR, FLASH, and FLEX evangelist is no longer with Adobe http://twitter.com/mdowney/status/1036971152

bart_chanet: feeling very bad for the adobe guys/women

neilmiddleton: shit, just heard about the Adobe cuts - and wondering if anyone at #maxmilan has been affected :(

cdespinosa: Software engineers laid off from Adobe: Please check out http://snurl.com/73b6c and http://snurl.com/73b6q

bigspaceship: RT @bssmot: sending good vibes to all Adobe folks.

zstepek: I propose tagging anything related to the goings on at Adobe today with #redwednesday to make it easier to track. Thoughts?

dom: Sitting in the Adobe SF lobby to see if I can give peace to any of The Six Hundred before 5pm today -- http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d

ericKontent: @Filmbot right. Looks like slightly less than 10%. That's huge. I was at Adobe during a R.I.F. in '99. Not pretty it was a really bad day.

Anzac: Adobe layoff 600!! http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200812/120308PrelimQ4FiscalResults.html

diamondtearz: Keeping the employees laid of from Adobe in my prayers.

hourus: @jdowdell damn, headcount shortage at adobe is bad for the community. Does it mean we will get less support ?

skaura: WTF!?!?! Adobe is streamlining!!! http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200812/120308PrelimQ4FiscalResults.html

Filmbot: @ericKontent ya feel bad for the people who got canned shit Adobe at least wait till after Xmas .

nrichardson: Just heard the Adobe news! On the last day of MAX Milan - what a way to end your Europe leg of the MAX conferences! Wow!

girlie_mac: Ow... Adobe..... next big one is us.

lemay: big layoffs at adobe today. ouch.

Anzac: Looks like Adobe San Diego Office will be gone, I miss that old Ehelp building! it was great Fun

I remember what it was like at Adobe during layoffs. UGH. Everything works out for the best. It really does. My thoughts are with you all.

jkosoy: RT @bssmot: sending good vibes to all adobe folks

svnewsfeed: News from SV.Com Adobe to cut 600 jobs, report lower fourth-quarter revenue: The compa.. http://tinyurl.com/5znxoh

mercbiznews: Adobe to cut 600 jobs, report lower fourth-quarter revenue: The company also said it expects earnings.. http://www.mercurynews.com

nathanholloway: Ouch. http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200812/120308PrelimQ4FiscalResults.html

brent80301: Adobe layoffs hit today. http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/03/adobe-trimming-expo-budget-possibly-..

mg_tech: Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts: Adobe added its name Wednesday to the list of companies warning of we.. http://tinyurl.com/56e9z3

jwilker: guess MAX broke the bank. sucks to be at Adobe right now

OmegaSpreem: Looks like Adobe will be trimming 600 jobs, or almost 12% of its workforce worldwide. http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/03/adobe-trimming-expo-budget-possibly-.

jdawg: pretty bummed about the bad Adobe news. Layoffs right before the holidays are not fun but somehow everything works out. Good luck to all.

macwebdiva: retweet - @myraferguson Adobe folks who just got laid off, my heart goes out to you, especially since it's just before the holidays.

MoHDI: Oh adobe... Why?

zombrarian: Sorry to hear about the layoffs at Adobe

WSJ: Adobe Plans to Cut 600 Jobs http://tinyurl.com/6kun8x

dmode: RT @jdawg: pretty bummed about the bad Adobe news. Layoffs right before the holidays are not fun but somehow everything works out.

aprilclark: Oh, what terrible news. I wish the best to everyone at Adobe.

jnakai: Adobe layoffs: http://idek.net/ld . My best wishes go out to all affected by this.

twishes: [-O] Oh, what terrible news. I wish the best to everyone at Adobe. http://tinyurl.com/59sqor

JenFloyd08: major "bummer dude" for adobe... http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/12/01/daily50.html

mikecane: RT WSJ: Adobe lays off 600. Anyone still think this is but a mere "recession"?

ozinn: Bummer about Adobe layoffs. All these pre-holiday layoffs are really heartbreaking. I'm terrified to be job hunting right now. :(

andreatrento: RT @jdowdell Info on Adobe restructuring, guidance: http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d (expand) Many good people.

nrg: Slashing 600 Adobe jobs due to less-than-anticipated demand for CS4 is sad news, while we all know that CS4 rocks! http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d

kerner: wow, I unplug for a bit and just notice the news about big layoffs at #adobe. @mdowney & others , you guys are in my prayers.

onetake: Adobe's relative absence next Macworld explained: RT @vcsangels Adobe Misses Q4, Terrible Guidance, Firing 600 http://tinyurl.com/5tcmy

tekool: Best thoughts to you all laid off Adobe people.

maczter: RT @WSJ: Adobe Plans to Cut 600 Jobs http://tinyurl.com/6kun8x

OmegaSpreem: @goodfather @chris23 @t0fu I wish the best of luck to all you ex-Adobe employees in finding good paying jobs elsewhere.

stevek: Adobe to cut 600 jobs, or about 8% of its world-wide work force. http://tr.im/1t6k

jimhong: The Twittersphere reaction to #Adobe layoffs is warm-hearted. My old employer MSFT doesn't do much of this, so this is new to me.

campbell: @MossyBlog Yep agree, looks good on paper, reality is totally different. I have herd "Adobe is the new Microsoft" rumblings before, but....

coofuushun: Does someone have a link for the Adobe layoff announcement? I don't see that mentioned in the results or in another press release.

garyware_619: The big news floating around the office are about the layoffs at @Adobe http://ping.fm/ALNSm

basictheory: feelin the pain for all my displaced #adobe peeps. good luck.

ChrisGriffith: Do we have a list of the Adobe folks affected by the layouts?

francishopkins: the job cut roundup continues with Adobe: http://snipr.com/73cjc

jwight: Adobe not doing so well...http://tinyurl.com/5o2lle (expand) ... Doesn't surprise me, the last 2 CS packages were pretty disappointing.

ronragsag: @OmegaSpreem sad re adobe layoffs! Who''s next in layoffs?

joshtynjala: Best of luck to those saying goodbye at #Adobe today.

thomasnesse: Adobe restructuring, layoffs and lower than expected sales of CS4. http://tinyurl.com/6pcp6d (expand) no fun...

srp_sf: Adobe lays off 600: http://tinyurl.com/6d8csk

okeefe_scr: Any word on layoffs at Adobe? Anyone? Bueller??

kerner: just learned of 4 more #adobe folks I know that are losing their jobs in the layoffs. It's roughly a 9% cut in workforce which is huge.

briancaldwell: dipping into Twitterific for lunch and I see that Adobe laid off their Flash, Flex & AIR evangelist @mdowney and 599 others

jspiro: adobe is doing the layoff thing.

anupam: Adobe is laying off ppl..thats bad.. http://tinyurl.com/5avzat

agentK: I tempted to say that at least part of all this is a result of Adobe's salesforce just focussing on selling LiveCycle ES these days.

phillip: with all due respect, most of the adobe folks I know losing their jobs will do just fine. making it sound all sour makes it worse maybe

bclinkinbeard: Sending good juju to all the Adobe peeps.

jnosal: Coming up ok my 3rd year since leaving Adobe. Looks like they are about to start cutting jobs again.

peterelst: glad to hear you are fine @sjespers, @leebrimelow -- wishing all my Adobe friends the best of luck

flashmagazine: Job cuts at Adobe: http://tinyurl.com/5p753a

aprilclark: @photo_stagegeek Adobe announced 600 layoffs: http://tinyurl.com/6d8csk

newmovieclip: feeling really sad about @mdowney leaving Adobe...wish Mike all the best for the future !!!! Will really miss you @mdowney !!

branford: wow, adobe laying off 600. that sux.

oviroa: Whoa! Adobe just cut 600 jobs. Scary.

Posted by John Dowdell at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

As computing continually becomes cheaper, and as encryption becomes more efficient, it also becomes easier to guess passwords. That's the takeaway from this security note by John Landwehr of Adobe.

Acrobat 9 features stronger passwords -- longer passwords, Unicode characters -- yet opens encrypted documents much more quickly than before. That's a good thing.

But the speed increase also means it takes hackers less time to scan through a dictionary of common passwords... the faster decryption helps crack marketers. That's not a good thing.

The implications for us?

• If you're choosing a password, it should be more secure than a few years ago. It's getting cheaper to guess simple passwords.
  
• And if you're creating a system which requires a password, and if you can't use server-based authentication for that local file, then requiring some complexity in the reader's password can help protect that document from unauthorized reuse.

A self-contained file which is distributed is difficult to completely protect. Digital encryption helps make it more expensive to crack, but can't protect to the same degree as if that file communicates with your servers before opening. Standalone files can't offer the same security as server-connected files.

But even the difference between an eight-character password and a nine-character password can determine whether it's worth the time of someone to attempt to guess the password which the file includes.

Some tips on password strategy:

• Choose longer passwords, or even entire pass-phrases. (Reader 9 can use up to 127 7-bit characters.)
  
• Avoid words found in dictionaries, common names, etc.
  
• Mix alphabetics with numerics and punctuation.
  
• Remember longer passwords by using a long phrase, interspersed with other characters in a memorable pattern.
  
• Writing passwords on paper is safer with some kind of coding: something you can understand, but which someone who finds the paper cannot.
  
• CERT has more tips, as do others.

It makes sense that faster decryption of documents would be used by hackers too. The passwords we used ten years ago aren't as secure as they were. Perverse, but that's the way it is.

Posted by John Dowdell at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Robert Hansen has a paper up at SecTheory... I heard about it from Dan Goodin at The Register, as "Study spanks Adobe Flash for abuses of power". Robert attempted to measure electrical power consumption of different types of webpages, and found that ad-blocking software reduced battery drain by approximately 25% on his test machine.

(The paper is lengthy, but I don't think he described how he configured his Adblock Plus, which would have a significant impact on what the final numbers might actually mean.)

It's certainly possible that ads delivered as SWF could be piggy. Some browsers slow down CPU access by background tabs, in part because of such concerns. Adobe hasn't installed framerate chokes for the content you make, and advertising publishers have general guidelines for not being piggy. But considering that many popular webpages never stop loading due to the multitude of third-party content requests, it's definitely possible that some of the advertising on those pages could be increasing your CPU's general load to measurable degree.

I don't know how to entice people to follow Postel's Law, whether in SWF or in text... if you've got reactions, thoughts, I'd appreciate hearing them, thanks.

Posted by John Dowdell at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)