290 Sessions posted to the Adobe TV site:

http://tv.adobe.com/#ch+MAX

This is an excellent resource. And all for free...

Take a week and learn Flex. It's a great tool.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/

Videos and exercise files available on DevNet...

Pecha Kucha is an international meetup for designers. Over 150 cities worldwide have Pecha Kucha nights monthly. And now New Orleans is adding itself to the list.

Pecha Kucha is a place for creative people to meet and show off their work. The catch? Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, giving 6 minutes 40 seconds...and no more...to each.

More info on Pecha Kucha can be found on the global website or on Wikipedia.

Info on the New Orleans meetup can be found on the global site's NOLA page or at the PKN Blog.

NOMMUG Calendar Listing

I just updated the Calendar event for this week's meeintg, adding links to the videos we watched in the "Minutes" section. Not sure how those will come out. You may need to visit the Calendar listing here to see them.

Happy Holidays!

/david

As promised, the first MAX presentations have been posted to AdobeTV. Check it out! More to come!

MAX Presos

/der

Just a quick reminder that the December NOMMUG meeting will be tomorrow (Tuesday, 9 December).

Come share the holiday spirit with other NOMMUGers! And maybe win some schwag! There are at least half a dozen people who are eligible for this 6-month software giveaway, but you have to be there tomrorow night to win!

See you then!

/david

Make sure you look at the time zones listed for any calendar event! It seems that if you are not logged into the Groups site, our events are listed in MST instead of CST!

This must be a lesson that you should Join NOMMG and always log in before participating in the site!

I've spoken about the Processing language/IDE/community before to NOMMUG. For newbie programmers, its a great way to learn how to code, especially for folks interested in the visual end of things. For more advanced coders, there's a lot of great tools, especially for visual prototyping. The project has been in development for since 2001, and they finally (after 162 revisions) released the first official, non-beta version last week. Its Java, so it certainly doesn't replace Flash for web delivery, but you can learn a lot about coding from Processing...then AS3 will be a snap!

Go and download Processing (its free) and give it a whirl. There's lots to see at their website, and most of what you see shares the code that made it so you can learn from it.

And if you want a book recommendation, I can't give a higer one than to Daneil Shiffman's Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and Interaction. Best introductory book on programming I've ever read....definitely going to use it in my classes in the future.

And if you want to go crazy with the whole physical computing thing, check out the Arduino project (built on Processing)...heck...need a holiday present for your geekiest friend (or yourself)? Make Magazine Arduino Gift Guide

Happy coding!

/der

SIGGRAPH 2009 will be held in New Orleans next August. They've just posted a Preview Video (WMV, ladies and gentleman...not always the most web friendly of formats) on their site to get you jazzed...so to speak...about going to the conference. We'll excuse the stereotypical music...for the time being...

I've posted all the deadlines for SIGGRAPH 2009 submissions in the Calendar.

Check it out and get involved!

I just posted a bunch of upcoming events for the New Orleans chapter of the AIGA in the Calendar. Some of them are as early as next week. Others go into the spring (anyone up for a road trip to Lafayette in March to see Joshua Davis?).

You can search the calendar for the keyword "aiga"...or just click here...

More good tech news for New Orleans! Greater New Orleans, Inc is launching a new effort called the Greater New Orleans Digital Media Alliance. The NO Digital Media Alliance will be modeled on a similar initiative in Baton Rouge that I blogged about here. The Alliance "will market the metro area to technology companies, advocate policies that support those firms, and work with universities to develop curricula that support the technology industry."

It's a lot of talk. Let's hope that they walk the walk. Perhaps it's time that we folks down in the trenches come out and vocally support the biz gurus in their efforts for the city.

Read the NOLA.com article for more information.

[via NOLA.com]

Speaker, place and time has been decided.

"SEO, Algorithms and Internet Integration w/ Christopher Skinner." Bridge Lounge, 6pm, Tuesday, 2 December. (see the Calendar Entry for address and map).

They ask that you RSVP.

An article over at New Orleans City Business says New Orleans is a growing tech hot spot! As Net2NO points out, the article really only scratches the surface of what's happening in New Orleans and southern Louisiana more generally, but its nice to see the coverage. Maybe a wider group of people will realize that New Orleans can offer more than just oil and tourism.

Here's another article. This one from the Baton Rouge Business Report touting tech biz there. Wherever its at, its got to be good for the state.

[via Net2NO]

I just found out about this group recently. Net2NO is a monthly meetup of "social changemakers and technological forerunners." The project is a local chapter of NetSquared, a national organization whose stated goal is "To help hundreds of thousands of non-profit organizations (NPOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) successfully utilize the community empowering capabilities of the Internet to increase their impact and achieve social change." Net2NO obviously has a local emphasis: "For New Orleans, this is a vital part of our city’s renaissance, and a way for leaders in technology to connect with one another, and with leaders of grassroots community efforts."

Sounds like a worthy cause and a good group to check out. Meetings are scheduled for the first Tuesday of each months (so it doesn't conflict with NOMMUG). The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 2 December, but a location hasn't been announced yet. I'm putting their meetings on our event calanedar. Maybe I'll see you there!

/der