The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution, and is used (among other things) to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services.

Participation is mandatory, and the US Government (including the President) are engaged in a campaign to raise awareness and drive participation. Indeed, they have a very modern looking website, a blog, and are even using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, flickr, downloadable widgets to get the message out (see the What You Can Do) page. And I'm really impressed with this use of the Internet, social networking, and more to get the word out.

Or rather, I *WAS* impressed. Until I saw the message "We Can't Move Forward Until You Mail It Back". Mail it back? Really? We have a really nice web site in over 50 languages, social site integration, even a slick Flash powered interactive version of the form .... and then this:

Q: Can I fill out my form online?

A: No. Not at this time. We are experimenting with Internet response for the future.

The future? Really? As in the next US Census in 2020?

2000 was still early Internet days, so back then this would have been forgivable. But this is 2010, people live online, a couple of months ago online holiday shopping $s exceeded in store shopping $s, we bank online, utilities prefer to send you e-bills, and on and on and on .... But mail back your Census form, and we'll revisit in the future!

Ouch! What a failure!

In case you missed it, Adobe Flash has been in the news lately. Seems some don't care much for it. But, a PC Magazine columnist has just weighed in on the subject in a post entitled In Defense Of Flash.

Michael Hu, Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Adobe AIR, as just noted that today is AIR's 2nd birthday!

Google Australia team member Pamela Fox explains HTML5 vs Flex for rich internet applications in this O'Reilly video from Ignite Sydney. She compares openness, UI components, vector graphics, 3D, bitmap manipulation, video, file system access, development environments, testing options, compatibility, and more - all in 5 minutes or so. Nice job, Pamela!

There's been lots of discussion about the upcoming Flash Player 10.1 and its phenomenal performance on the 1GHz processor Google Nexus One. But what about battery life? Fellow Adobe evangelist Mark Doherty weighs in on this one in a post entitled Battery Performance with Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One.

We've just posted a ColdFusion 9 performance brief entitled Improve application performance and scalability with Adobe ColdFusion 9, 13 pages with all sorts of details. Key findings show that overall server performance in ColdFusion 9 is up to 40% faster than in ColdFusion 8 and up to 6 times faster than ColdFusion MX 7. Good stuff!

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), so that pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other's work. Since then, the CODiE Awards program has carried out the same purpose - to showcase the software and information industry's finest products and services and to honor excellence in corporate achievement and philanthropic efforts.

ColdFusion has won this award previously. And ColdFusion 9 is a finalist in the Best Web Services Solution category.

Over the past few days I have really gotten to put the Google Nexus One through its paces. Search, multiple mail accounts, lots of text messaging, maps, navigation, voice commands ... I've been giving it a real workout.

And all went well until ... I have run into my first major problem with the device. I'd been using a Bluetooth headset with it all last week with no problems at all. But in anticipation of 10 hours or so of driving this weekend, I paired the phone with my car, only to find that it would not work at all. Well, it paired, but that's about all it did. It won't connect properly, when it does connect you get piercing shrieking sounds instead of audio, it won't dial ... it's basically useless (for anything but showing battery and cell strength).

Judging by the threads online, this is a common problem with lots of different cars (most of which actually use the same Bluetooth controls). It does not appear to be an Android issue, as users of others devices are reporting that all works well. This most likely is a problem with the HTC hardware. And this could be a deal breaker for me. :-(

The Creative Suite Developer Summit will take place at the Adobe offices in Seattle, WA from May 3rd to the 6th, 2010. I am scheduled to present a session entitled Flex and Flash Builder 101. Registration is now open.

Check out the Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 mobile preview videos showing off Flash (on the HTC HD2 and Nexus One, Dell Mini 5 tablet, Palm Pre, and Motorola Droid) and AIR (on NVIDIA Tegra-powered tablet, and Droid).

Title says it all. Details posted in this TechNote

TechCrunch weighs in on Apple, Jobs, iPad, Flash, etc. in a provocative piece entitled Jobs: Flash would murder the iPad. Really now, let's be realistic.

There is a Security update available for BlazeDS. ColdFusion 9.0, 8.0.x and 7.0.2 are also affected by this issue, and this technote provides fixes for the security issue along with the installation instructions.

I've done it. I've officially retired my iPhone 3GS, and have made the Google Nexus One my primary phone. Actually, I made the switch a week ago, but carried both devices until now, just in case. But no more. And having spent a week on the road with the Android powered Google Nexus One, here are some initial thoughts:

Pros

• My biggest gripe against iPhone has always been the virtual keyboard. I've been told repeatedly to just wait, give it a few months, get used to it ... And I gave it many months, and never got used to it. Between e-mail, text messaging, web browsing, I think I have yet to type a single sentence on the iPhone that did not require that I retype something. iPhone auto-correction is pathetic (one suggestion? and only after you've typed most of the word? and not if you hit the shift key by mistake?). Heck, even my old Windows Mobile 5.x and 6.x devices did a better job at suggestions! The Google Nexus One also has a virtual keyboard, and it is actually a little cramped when compared to the iPhone's. But, the suggestions work perfectly, with multiple listed, starting with the first character typed, and adapting as you go. As a result, I rarely have to type more than 3 or 4 letters to get the word I want, so less typing, and higher accuracy. Add an editable user dictionary, and faster access to commas and hyphens and more, and the Google Nexus One (well, Android) easily wins the virtual keyboard battle for me.
• The other big iPhone gripe for me is Apple's refusal to support replaceable batteries. I still need to buy a second battery for the Google Nexus One, but the fact that I can do so is reassuring.
• The Google Nexus One's screen is sharper, brighter, and much easier to read in daylight than the iPhone's.
• The Google Nexus One is really comfortable to hold. Form factor is actually very similar to iPhone's, but I find it more comfortable over extended periods, both in the hand and against the ear.
• The Google Nexus One is fast. Make that blazing fast! Really. You've got to try it to experience the difference. That 1GHz processor does the trick.
• Multitasking.
• Flash. Enough said.

Cons

• As much as I like the Google Nexus One hardware, Android itself still leaves much to be desired. The software often feels half baked, and not quite as polished as iPhone. It feels more like v0.x software, not v2.x.
• Lousy Exchange support! I've solved the problem for now by using a 3rd party tool (I'd not have been able to switch otherwise), but it's a sub-par solution at best. Really Google, Android can't succeed as a corporate smartphone without solid Exchange support. iPhone lacked Exchange support in v1, and when it was added to v2 suddenly the device became a viable corporate phone. Android had better do the same, and quickly.
• While the Google Nexus One is fast, its responsiveness can be iffy. Every once in a while it feels jerky and lagging, and then it quickly catches up, and in doing so launches the wrong app or sends you to an unintended screen. (Could this be a side effect of multitasking?).
• The apps are not quite there yet. Many of the important ones are missing. And those that do exist are usually not as clean and as polished as their iPhone counterparts.
• Google Marketplace is pathetic. There are lots of apps out there, but finding them is a pain, the marketplace UI is feeble at best, account setup to Google Checkout is horribly buggy, you get the picture.

All that said, I'm enjoying the phone, and the pros outweigh the cons. While the Android running Google Nexus One feels like it's not quite baked as a mass consumer device yet, it's definitely a lot of fun as a techie's device.

So, goodbye iPhone, and hello Flash enabled Android!

The Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher interviews Kevin Lynch and chats about Flash, Apple, HTML5, and more.

Yesterday I noted that Google had confirmed the inclusion of Flash on their mobile platform. And now, the keynote video has been posted on YouTube:

To share the love, feel free to use this link: http://bit.ly/Flash_Google_MWC.

You've got to love this quote (and not so subtle dig) from Google's keynote today at Mobile World Congress:

"The line is blurring between mobile phones and desktop computing ... one of our main goals when we embarked on smartphones at Google was to really mirror the desktop web browsing experience - but for many of you and you know who you are - there's been a critical component missing - Flash!"

We've been talking about using Flash to build apps for devices for some time now. And the AIR team has just posted a some details on doing just this in a preview of AIR on Android.

I just had a most unusual experience. Unusual in a good way. I just tried a new government program and it worked perfectly!

I landed in Detroit a few hours ago. Nothing unusual about that. The was an international flight, so I had to clear customs and immigration. Again, nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was the speed at which I got through the airport. Now, to be fair, Detroit Metro is usually one of the quicker entry ports for customs and immigration clearance (so long as you don't make the mistake of checking baggage!). But still, from the time I exited the plane to the time I got in my car was under 5 minutes!

How? A few months ago I applied for membership in GOES, Department of Homeland Security's Global Online Enrollment System. I had to submit all sorts of documentation and consent to full background checks, and then after tentative approval I was interviewed, photographed, had fingerprints taken, and more. And after a few weeks wait I was informed that I had been approved and could now use the GOES kiosks upon arrival.

And today I used the system for the first time. I inserted my passport into the kiosk, verified that the system had my correct inbound flight details (it did), looked at the camera, placed my fingers on the scanner when prompted, answered a few on screen questions, and then the kiosk spat out a receipt. I did not have to talk to anyone at immigration, I just walked through the designated entrance, handed the receipt to the customs official bypassing any lines, and walked out of the airport.

It was quick, simple, and just worked exactly as it was supposed to. Very impressive. And highly recommended for any frequent international travelers.

The Wall Street Journal is running an opinion piece entitled The Microsofting of Apple?. This one is a must read!

The entire Adobe Platform Evangelism team is in London this week. And team member James Ward has announced that he is presenting "RIAs with Java, Spring, Hibernate, BlazeDS, and Flex" to the London Java Community.

I visited China several times last year, and am planning multiple trips this year, too. China is home to the second largest population of Flash and Flex developers, and it's high time those developers had the opportunity to take part in a full-blown Flash Platform conference of their own. So I am excited that we're hosting a 2-day Adobe Flash Platform Summit, a mini-MAX of sorts, in Beijing on April 21st - 22nd, 2010. The exact agenda and speaker list is still being worked out, but I do plan on attending, and am really looking forward to the event!

Here are the slides from last week's ColdFusion 9 - Solutions For The Open Government Directive presentation.

The templates discussed will be available shortly. I'll post details when I have them.

Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch has posted his thoughts on Open Access to Content and Applications.

I'm spending a lot of time in Europe right now. I was in London a week ago, am heading back there this week, and will be back in the area in March to discuss Flash Builder 4, ColdFusion 9, and ColdFusion Builder with customers, partners, and at the following public events:

• London, UK - March 4th, 2010
• Paris, France - March 8th, 2010
• Cologne, Germany - March 9th, 2010
• Liege, Belgium - March 9th, 2010
• Amsterdam, Netherlands - March 10th, 2010

Registration for these events is now open. (And it appears as though London sold out completely, within 20 minutes of registration opening)!