At work, I'm transitioning off of the Mail team into a project where we'll be prototyping some new functionality in HTML5.

While I originally thought we would be analyzing HTML5 as it will affect organizational strategy (can you imagine how much impact that would have?) it turns out that we'll be implementing prototypes for a very specific need. Either way, it's very exciting to be working in this emerging space in a team of top-notch FEs along with one of Yahoo's top UEDs. Although not an explicit thought-leadership effort per se, I'm sure engineering will inform strategy will inform engineering.

On that note, I've started to reflect on the Adobe vs. Apple fight and future of RIAs, particularly in the online advertising space. According to the Apple iPhone OS 4 keynote:

"Users spend 30 minutes a day in apps. Say an ad every 3 minutes...10 ads per day. We'll be at 100 million devices soon, so that's 1 billion ad opportunities per day."

1B impressions/day, as achieved with HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript?!? That's certainly nothing to sneeze at. Is Flash really on its way out as the default interactive media platform? How long before it's replaced by HTML5, if at all?

I don't personally think that the move by Apple will completely eliminate the need for Flash, ever, even if the company continues its rapid growth in the mobile hardware sector. As much as I - as a web developer - would like to simplify my life by having one language (for both client and server-side) on one platform, I know we won't ever get there (proof? that would imply a monopoly and current US regulation prohibits that, no?)

After some reflection on just how much has been invested in Flash as an industry standard in the last 14 years in addition to reading this article and its comments, I would tend to agree with this assessment on the future of Flash.

I have found myself wondering: "for all those developers and businesses who have legacy systems built around Flash, how will they transition from Flash to HTML5?" and that's when I remembered OpenLaszlo. It's been a while since I've looked at it, but I was duly impressed by its ability to generate both SWF and DHTML output.

For all of you developers who have never touched Flash in your life and are jumping on the HTML5 band-wagon right now, you have bright futures in 3-5 years when HTML5 matures and you're already experts on it. For all of you SMBs (and enterprises?) who have heavy investments in Flash and want to migrate to capture more market-share, I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to port your current solutions to OpenLaszlo and "compile" for both Flash- and non-Flash-enabled platforms. I think there's a real opportunity for OpenLaszlo and the company behind it - Laszlo systems - to assist in the transition and/or bridge the gap as HTML5 becomes more of an industry standard.

Disclosure: I am an Apple fanboy, in spite of everything that's happened recently with their developer policies, but I do not have any interest in Laszlo Systems.

Earlier this week, an ergonomic specialist had an interesting suggestion to help relieve some pressure in my wrist. She suggested placing velcro on the keys of the keyboard for tactile awareness.

In high school, I had a wickedly disciplined teacher for typing. He was unforgiving when it came to mistakes which, at the time, seemed extreme. Now, I'm thankful for the fact that he was so strict because I know where my hands are on the keyboard without having to look.

The difference is that now I'm starting to use my index and middle fingers for some keys for which I was using my pinky before to relieve stress in my wrist. The velcro on keys helps me locate "home."

One of the purposes of coming to the GDC was to learn more about mobile technologies and that I have. I now understand what's meant by "the deck," the importance of being "pre-loaded", J2ME vs. BREW, a breakdown of the gamer demographic, Flash Lite, interstitial ads and revenue sharing, and the carrier stack. All fairly interesting but what I feel lacking has been the intersection with web technologies. Fair enough, I didn't truly understand the industry before getting here and this conference has been all about learning new things. I was expecting that web technologies would be a more important part of the mobile architecture. I consider myself corrected. Perhaps it's related to the fact that the mobile gaming demographic represents a sliver of the total gaming population. Also, the interface and technical capabilities of mobile devices only provide a fraction of the user experience that more robust (i.e. consoles, handhelds) provide. That's not to say that their capabilities (say, using GPS) can't be further exploited but there's just not the consumer demand yet and the need for web technologies has not been realized or is not necessary.

One of my best tips in Austria in Loipersdorf. I try to convince anybody I think would like it to go. It's a great wellness experience and only a few hours from Vienna. The problem is, when I do some research in order to pass along links to help "sell" the place, I rarely find well-designed websites to do so. For all of my friends and acquaintances who aren't familiar with the Austrian wellness scene, here's some advice to Austrian businesses in general and tourist locations in specific:

1. Emphasize pictures of main attractions
2. Improve the quality of content in English

It's not just the native language English-speaking expat community who might be interested! This advice is applicable towards all potential consumer populations (read: neighboring countries) whose second language is English.

My wife came up with a project idea last year for a digital device that would help motivate people to exercise more which she presented in Quebec at CHI. I kept on saying that she should call it the "iPed" but that's water under the bridge.

Not long thereafter, Nike and Apple came out with the Nike+iPod combination. If only my wife would have had VC backing...

Now, I've found what I'd like to call the Über iPed: "The winners of Yahoo!'s first open Hack Day were Black Box Nation ... [t]hey created a blogging purse by hacking fashion (handbag and fabric), hardware (Nokia 6682, pedometer, GPS device, custom stamp, breadboard, wires, soldering iron) and software (CSS, APIs) in less than 24 hours to produce a working prototype.

The custom-designed handbag is rigged with a pedometer and a Nokia 6682. Every 10 steps (this is programmable), the pedometers triggers the 6682 to take a photo."

For Christmas, I got a National Geographic subscription as a gift. I'm trying to be a better citizen of the world and learn more about its geography and people. When I read a story like this one, I want a link to Ras Kamboni on Google Maps to see where it is. Sure, I'll go look it up myself (depending on how much time I have) but why not make it easier for users? Same goes for financial data. If I read a story about the new iPhone, can't I get Apple's financials alongside the story?

I checked out my situation in March and it does look like I'll be able to attend the IA Summit.

As much as I like web-based services for personal information management like AirSet or Gmail, at the end of the day, I agree with Velo on where applications are going. As an avid user of MS Outlook, I know the shortcuts and interface and the (rich) feature-set of this particular "heavy" client which web apps haven't replicated yet. Show me the SOA architecture to enable web-browsing via IE/Safari/Firefox/etc. as well as local client usage AND through the mobile Internet and I'll show you a winner in both Web 2.0 and 3.0.

So, I heard an interview with Missy Elliott recently and I thought, "Hmm....  She sounds interesting.  I've only heard 'Pass That Dutch' and it's a catchy tune but I can't say that I know any other songs by her." What did I do?  I turned to iTunes.  I found the 'This is Not a Test' album and decided I would give it a try, using an American bank for payment.  To make a long story short, you can't do that in iTunes.  If you live in Austria, you have to have a financial instituation in Austria for the payment.  It's not even about the billing address.  Sorry Missy, I can't buy your music.