Adobe AIR vs MS Silverlight

While I like the Adobe AIR technology, I have the strong impression that MS & Silverlight is beating the pants off of Adobe. I see Silverlight "noise" in blogs, press, etc. constantly, but almost nothing about Adobe AIR. Silverlight is talking about 3.0, Adobe AIR just announced v1.5.

With that said, I've seen several Adobe AIR applications I find useful. In fact, I have three installed (Jott Express, Twirl, AlertThingy) - and I didn't go looking for something related to AIR I just found these useful applications on the web and they a /happened to be/ Adobe AIR. I've never seen anything that was useful from Silverlight. The only reason I have Silverlight installed is because I'm an MS-platform programmer and I'm learning it. So that is a great testament to the technology and maturity of Adobe AIR. It just seems Adobe isn't getting the word out.

I must admit, my blog list and reading list certainly has an Microsoft bias, but I do subscribe to several Adobe/Flash/AIR and generic RIA related blogs. Due to Microsoft's incredible breadth of marketshare and products, I think that is a fact of life and Adobe has to deal with it and should have been prepared to do so. They have to find a way to reach out to the MS-platform programmer community.   

In short, my impression is that Adobe is loosing the PR war with MS Silverlight. They're not loosing it based on technology or even tools (which while inferior to Visual Studio, aren't terrible).    What do you think? Leave a comment, lets discuss...

You Might Be a Geek If: Vacation

You might be a geek if you take a vacation to write code.

A Blogger in Gaza

There is an Aid worker in Gaza that is writing an online journal that the BBC is publishing. He writes:

I was coming home after visiting a friend at 1130 on Saturday, when I heard the horrific sound of three huge explosions. Then a series of explosions rocked Gaza City. I live in the centre near a number of police buildings which were targeted first.

As I rushed home, I saw the main Gaza police station had been destroyed. Suddenly, another missile hit it again and, along with dozens of people nearby, I ran away. When I got home I found almost all the glass from the windows and doors was shattered due to the explosions.

I ran to the Shifa hospital to check on casualties and was shocked by the number of cars and ambulances bringing in the injured. There was panic everywhere.

In less than half an hour, the hospital was full of casualties. There was no space for more, yet the casualties kept coming. At the hospital I saw something I have never seen before - dead bodies outside on the floor. Everyone in Gaza has a relative or a friend killed or injured after these attacks.

Islamic Relief is working hard to get medical aid to the hospitals, which desperately need disposable equipment. We spoke to the committee at the Shifa Hospital to find out what's needed. We are now supplying it with syringes, sponges, surgical gloves and other such equipment.

Hospitals are so overwhelmed that they are now using normal beds for intensive care patients. Everything is so desperate. Only 50% of the ambulances are working. If the attacks go on for another week the doctors are going to have to start using old and traditional ways of treating the injured - that means no anaesthetic. We have to get new supplies in!

For two years, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been witnessing daily crises over shortages of food, fuel, health services in addition to severe poverty and unemployment. We have seen the closure of crossings and the banning of patients from travelling for medical treatment.

All these restrictions have slowly sucked the life out of Gazans and it's no exaggeration when I say that trying to live daily life is a struggle. But Gaza has not witnessed anything like this onslaught since 1967.

I used to describe what was going on in Gaza as a catastrophe, now I have no words. I received news that the brother of one of my work colleagues has been killed in the attacks. They had been looking for him all day and discovered him under the ruins of a destroyed building.

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7802295.stm

That was written on December 27, 2008. He has written fourteen entries since then and each progressively more terrifying and saddening. In the latest entry he writes: "I sometimes wonder if there will be enough space to bury the dead."

Deaths

• Palestinians: 925
• Palestinian Civilians: 485
• Israelis: 13
• Israeli Civilians: 4

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–2009_Israel–Gaza_conflict#Casualties) and it's citations.

How to Help

Actually I'm not sure if anyone can actually help the Palestinians, the world is watching a very public massacre unfold by one of the most powerful and well armed militaries in the world against a group of people who hardly have a military at all, yet it is not stopping it. However, one might be able to help suffering people by donating to a civilian aid via a highly rated charity such as Islamic Relief USA at http://www.irw.org/campaigns/palestinecrisis08 .
I don't know a whole lot about Islamic Relief USA, but they appear to be very reputable with five consecutive years of being a 4-Star Rated Charity by Charity Navigator. Their is also an extensive wikipedia article on the organization at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Relief which doesn't state anything bad.

Mozilla: Please Enable Firefox to be Downloaded on Windows Server 2008

Has anyone else noticed it is next to impossible to download Firefox from mozilla.com with Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Server 2008?

The process goes something like this:

• Visit mozilla.com
• Click on link to download Firefox for Windows.
• Get a dialog that reads: "You are attempting to download a file from a site that is not part of your Trusted Sites blah, blah, blah..." and it lists the site as http://mirror.yandex.ru (for example, your site might be different).
• So you close the dialog and add http://mirror.yandex.ru to your trusted sites list.
• Then you go click on the same link to download Firefox that you clicked on before and...
• "You are attempting to download a file from a site that is not part of your Trusted Sites blah, blah, blah..." Only this time it lists site is something different (in my case it was http://ftp.sunet.se).

What's the Problem?
The problem is caused entirely mostly by mozilla. They are "magically" rotating the mirror. Presumably this is in case the visitor clicked on a download link and it didn't work or was slower than the visitor could tolerate (though I've never had that problem).

What is Mozilla Supposed to do?
Instead of rotating the link only when you click on the download link, they should rotate the download link embedded in the main Mozilla.com page. This way the download link is the same for the user if he clicks on it a second time. Adding another link to try a different download with something like "Download not working? Click Here", that would just refresh the page, and thus rotate the download link again would still help out someone who got a poor download server.

This way, once he has added the site to our trusted sites we could get the same site -now a "Trusted Site"- again and download it. It would also be nice if Mozilla gave Windows 2008/IE7 Specific instructions to the user about using the Trusted Sites mechanism, as this certainly is not intuitive for everyone. I mean hasn't anyone at Mozilla tried to download Firefox with Internet Explorer 7 on Windows Server 2008? I don't remember whether this happened to me on Vista or not, but I sure hope not, I'm sure someone at Mozilla at least tried that and it worked. (It does work, right?)

Enough Already, How Do I Fix It?
So, enough with the Mozilla rant, to download firefox with IE7 on Windows Server 2008, take the following steps:

1. Right-Click on Internet Explorer in the start menu and select "Run as administrator".
2. Once Internet Explorer opens, click on the Tools menu (in the upper right of the browser), and select "Internet Options".
3. A dialog should appear, and you should select the "Security" tab.
4. On the Security Tab, Uncheck the "Enable Protected Mode (requires restarting Internet Explorer)" checkbox.
5. Select OK to close the dialog, close all instances of Internet Explorer.
6. Open another copy of Internet Explorer (it is not necessary to select "Run as administrator" for this step) and select "Internet Options" from the "Tools" menu again to open the Internet Options dialog.
7. Select the Security Tab again.
8. With "Internet" selected in the box at the top of the security tab, click the "Custom level..." button. This should have opened the "Security Settings - Internet Zone" dialog.
9. Scroll way down in this "Settings" tree until you see an option for "File download" and ensure select the Enable option below it.
10. Press the OK button to close the "Security Settings - Internet Zone" dialog, and press OK on the next one to close the "Internet Options" dialog.
11. Now navigate back to http://www.mozilla.com in IE (you can now even ignore the popup that might notify you about blocking content from http://www.mozilla.com, just press the Close button).
12. You should see a link to download Firefox for Windows. Press it and it should prompt you normally to download files.

Now you can return to Internet Explorer's Internet Options dialog and check the Enable Protected Mode checkbox again. Apparently Microsoft thinks that is a good idea. Don't fret too much, if you do go back and enable Protected Mode you will still be able to download files because Protected Mode doesn't prevent that, it just prevents you from modifying the Internet Zone as we did in step nine above.

As always, I hope this is helpful to someone.