Monday 15 April 2013

The HTML5 Revolution and More Frontline News

It has been a while, so a new post is in order. First, you will notice that the Java Duke which use to occupy space along the right side is gone. In his stead are some shinny new jewels (explore the linked banners along the right side), which I've brought back from my journeys in the wonderful new world of HTML5 and by extension Hybrid Apps. It is truly awesome that it is now possible to bring an app to multiple platforms with Hybrid App technology, quite right and literally the greatest thing since sliced bread for companies that mean business!

Alas, Java is not what it use to be, there was strong resistance as Javascript grew in power but the time had come for a change, the change that marks the time when the mighty web browser became king and the emergence of a Web OS based on HTML5, Javascript, CSS3 and W3C web standards came into it's own. Like Wayne Gretzky said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been".


This blog was started when Steve Jobs passed on and so my intention at the time was to leave it be with the original posts (which are still fully intact below). Yet, there is much to say and share, the year has been exceptionally progressive. There has been much progress on Virtuoso and the opportune time to bring it to market is now here.

For myself, HTML5 completes a long open circle that started for me in the early 90s, back when I operated my web publishing and promotion company like a true pioneer, at the dawning of the World Wide Web. Except, now HTML is not just for ad agencies, now the application developers are in on the action, forging robust Single Page Apps that are catching up with the power of native apps very fast. Expect this year to bring a number of performance break throughs to Hybrid mobile apps.

Some other highlights this year have been Bret Victor's most excellent presentations. There is lot of material on his site but for sure checkout his Inventing on Principle video on YouTube. Seeing this just made my day, finally someone is saying the kind of things I believe in and have also discovered during the design and engineering of my Virtuoso software. I will say it again, anything by Bret Victor is super and a great way to get your brain thinking about innovation, instead of just accepting the status quo!

I also helped to get the Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet movie to our northern city. Jason has the most incredible story to tell and everyone reading this surely needs to check it out! I love his guitar style and have been able to get a number of his arpeggio sequences under my fingers lately. Its tough work but great to learn chops from a guitar master like Jason!

There was a scene in Jason Becker's movie that really stood out to me in a unique way, no doubt because of my involvement in improving the state of music composition software. The scene showed Jason's dad playing back a whole sequence of great sounding notes he had just painstakingly entered into the computer. Then it showed Jason telling his dad to delete all but the first few notes! Jason's dad was not happy to have to wipe out all that work but Jason wanted to try a different melody.

This melody composing scene really showed how inadequate existing music software is when it comes to entering music and making changes. The scene hammered home the truth of how my Virtuoso software will eliminate the pain other music applications make you endure! And how Virtuoso will free all who use it to compose anything they imagine quickly, without the pain and regrets the users of existing music software know all to well.

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