After finally getting Cygwin installed on my Windows XP Pro SP 2 laptop, I discovered how difficult it can be to get large open-source projects to correctly compile under Cygwin.  This was exteremely irritating for obvious reasons.

So I decided to try and install Ubuntu 8.10 under Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.  I had previously installed older versions of Ubuntu this way, but was having some trouble getting 8.10 installed.  After some searching, I found this wonderful post and comment thread.

The short story is, I had to add vga=791 noreplace-paravirt to the grub command line for the initial boot.  Then noreplace-paravirt to /boot/grub/menu.lst after installation and any subsequent updates that modify this file.

I had been trying to get my environment set up to play with Adobe Alchemy, but kept running into problems with my Cygwin setup.  After several frustrating hours of installs, re-installs, uninstalls and some out-of-control Perl threads, I think I've got it ready to go.

The problems I was running into were largely due to two things: 1) The path of my home directory containing spaces ("C:\Documents and Settings\...") and 2) my inexperience with Cygwin.

In regards to #1 above, I think this was causing my home directory (/home/username) to not get created properly.  That meant additional difficulties in customing my environment by editing my .bashrc file.  After the initial learning curve and interpreting the less than specific Adobe Getting Started on Windows instructions for Alchemy, I was able to get the sample library compiled and working correctly.

I did run into a few other problems, but I was able to get through them.  I'll be doing a write up for getting started with Alchemy and Cygwin for Windows users with very little Unix experience when I get some more time.  Of course, now that I've got Cygwin running, I'm hoping to do try out something more significant than Hello World :)

My first thoughts on the Alchemy project were of doubt.  What would be the benefit of running C/C++ code on the AVM2?  It seemed more like a novelty, like running old school NES games on the Wii.  The more I started to think about it (and get past my bad memories of Computer Science C/C++ classes in college), the more I started to realize just how powerful this could be.  There are so many open source C/C++ libraries for a wide variety of applications that, when paired with Flash, could have an amazing impact on Flash and AIR.

I thought I would tinker with it a bit.  Of course, coming to the realization that Alchemy is still limited by the Flash player sandbox was a little disheartening, but I suppose understandable.  I found the initial download and setup quite cumbersome.  One of my biggest roadblocks was working with Cygwin.  I admit, that using Cygwin has its advantages, but configuration thus far has been a beast.  Additionally, the getting started section for Windows section left something to be desired in terms of details.  I'm the first to admit I'm no UNIX or Linux expert, but I'd like to think I know my way around a bit.

After a few hours of trying to just get my environment set up, something more important required my attention, so I have yet to get the provided examples working.  I hope to get back to this more in the next couple of weeks.  I've got a few open source C++ libraries I'd love to test out.  I'm extremely intrigued, but until I get my environment set up, I'm still skeptical.

Branden Hall has written a good overview of Alchemy.

I've ported a few free css templates to Mango Blog skins, but this is the first one I'm posting for public consumption :)  I used lotus flower from Free CSS Templates for my personal blog/website (picked by my wife, I have to add) and just swapped out the header image.

Download the skin and extract it to the "skins" directory in your Mango Blog installation.  Then just select it in the Mango Blog administration.  That's it!

One of my colleagues at Adobe MAX in San Francisco sent me a text message last night.  He was at the sneaks session and indicated that there was a preview of an Adobe product called Media Orchestrator.  This AIR application, in conjunction with existing products like Premiere and LiveCycle, will facilitate video production workflow, from production to review, feedback and rights application.

Considering that we have been spending most of our time lately at work trying to write a custom video asset management solution using Adobe products, this announcement is really bittersweet.  It's fantastic that Adobe is (or considering) releasing this as a product, however, it most likely won't be available any time soon and we need it right now.

More information and pictures on Serge Jespers and Andrew Shorten's blogs where they were live blogging the sneaks event.

can it be?