DOPEJAM::The Tariq Ahmed Experience
Tariq Ahmed

Greetings! DopeJam is my personal website aimed at keeping family and friends up to date with what's going on, but also serves as a communication vehicle to express thoughts, opinions, and experiences regarding the stuff I'm into (technology, home theater, movies, high end car audio, bass, electronic music, web applications, etc...). I also use DopeJam to host ideas that I experiment with. Read the profile if you're interested in knowing why the site is called DopeJam in the first place. Adobe Community Experts

Flex 3 In Action - Become Effective Fast
Flex 3 In Action Using your existing Web Development skills FiA ramps up your knowledge of Flex quickly and easily by giving you a foundation of understanding and the skills needed to become productive in a short timeframe. Various ways of doing the same thing are explained in depth so that you understand your options… and most importantly, FiA makes learning Flex fun!
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The DopeBLOG of Tariq Ahmed (321)
Sun's JavaFX bomb at the JavaOne Conf
Posted on May 07, 2008 09:08AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
I was reading some of the blog postings from people who went to JavaOne, where SUN demo'd their up and coming RIA technology named JavaFX.

Apparently the demos kept crashing when demo'd by Sr. VP Rich Green; being caught with his pants down he fumbled trying to recover from a brain-freeze. Which I feel empathy for - when doing a live demo that is everyone's worst fear. Obviously they took a calculated risk in trying to demo something that wasn't ready, the technology is still not mature enough and has a long way to go, but I think they had an internal mandate to make it the showcase event of JavaOne (much like Thermo was the highlight of MAX 07).

I also love how the media interprets things - they really should have a panel of nerds on standby that can double check statements for accuracy. One article I read was saying Java is already on lots of "internet servers", therefore applications can be created without complex programming. I'm not quite sure how those two statements relate to each other? :) Some articles mention that because of millions of servers using Java, and that apparently gives JavaFX a head start somehow.

The Tariq take is this: the biggest advantage for JavaFX is that if you are a Java developer you get to leverage your existing skill-set, vs. having to learn something new. The drawback of JavaFX is that it's so late to show that SUN will have to do an enormous amount of work to get caught up. The other weakness of JavaFX is that it's ecosystem is generally limited to the development aspect. I know they talked about bringing it to the creative side as well, but I'll believe it when I see it. Where as with Flex/AIR there's a seamless transition from the creative side, to the development side, to the deployment and hosting side. Adobe has the entire end to end suite. E.g on the design side they dominate with tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. Client technologies they have the AIR Runtime, Flash, and Acrobat. Then all the way to the server side they have JRUN, Coldfusion, Acrobat Connect, and BlazeDS/Live Cycle Data Services.

Silverlight is somewhere in between and has been moving blazingly fast; they have massive amounts of capital to throw at getting caught up.

I like competition, I believe it results in superior products at a reasonable price to the consumer. But I think from a marketing perspective, Sun needs to keep expectations low - Adobe and MSFT are just too far ahead and have distinct advantages that Sun can't compete on.

Once you get a tarnished reputation, it's extremely difficult to undo that. Better would be for Sun to keep a low profile, grow the technology and build a groundswell of support and let the technology earn a solid reputation - vs. trying to use a laundry list campaign and going about it in a desperate kind of way, otherwise you're just a me-too product.

There is an army of Java developers out there who'll probably give JavaFX a try; so the strategy should focus on what Sun's distinct advantage is - the massive size of the Java community.

Zafira turns 4 and gets an ear infection
Posted on May 01, 2008 09:40PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Zafira turned 4 years old recently - but we might need to cancel her birthday party. On day #3 of a fever it turns out she has an ear infection. The tough part is she doesn't want to eat at all, and doesn't want to take medicine, so it's an agonizing struggle to get either one of those inside of her.

She won't even take liquid foods like yogurt or juice - all she wants is water. She was 28lbs on the actual day of her bday, but she's regressed to 26lbs because of this infection... those were two hard earned pounds! :(

Hopefully the worst is over with the antibiotics and all.

You need a break!
Posted on Apr 28, 2008 03:55PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
All my remaining vacation time is pretty much used up for the rest of the year, gonna be making a trip to Canada. I have a week at a super kick ass vacation resort in Puerto Vallarta that I need to sell. If you know of anyone interested, let me know. This place takes luxury to insane levels… They have their own marina (you can rent boats, go deep water fishing, etc…), golf course, and even a little mini zoo.

Picture Gallery

Spend a week in Paradise at the beautiful PARADISE VILLAGE BEACH RESORT AND SPA in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. This resort has EVERYTHING you could want! Nuevo Vallarta is an upscale gated resort community about 15 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. .

If you haven't heard of this resort, check it out at www.paradisevillage.com .

We have 1 week (7 nights) available between May 1, 2008 and Oct 7, 2008. Basically give us 2 options for the dates you want and we will confirm which of those 2 are available. .

There are 2 options as far as accommodations:

Studio - $499 for the week (regular rate is $101 per night or $707 per week)

  • Area 700 sq ft approx
  • Separate kitchen
  • 1 bathroom
  • Dining bar with stools
  • Queen size bed (optional 2 twins)
  • Living area with pull-out sofa bed (n/a with optional twin beds)
  • Sleeps: 2 adults/2 children
  • Max. occupancy: 4 persons
1 bedroom suite - $699 for the week (regular rate is $150 per night or $1050 per week)
  • Area 900 sq ft approx
  • Separate kitchen
  • 2 bathrooms
  • Dining area with table and chairs
  • King size bed
  • Living area with pull-out sofa bed (n/a with optional twin beds)
  • Sleeps: 2 couples in privacy
  • Max. occupancy: 4 persons

This resort is great for the entire family and is right on the BEACH, with everything you need within walking distance of the resort. It's only five miles north of the Puerto Vallarta International Airport. All units feature views of Banderas Bay, the marina, and lush tropical gardens. On-site amenities include a full-service HEALTH SPA featuring European wellness programs and treatments, multiple dining experiences, a night club, and water sports.

We love the complex's Mayan theme is reflected in the swimming pools, which have caves and WATERSLIDES. Paradise Village's El Tigre GOLF COURSE and Paradise Plaza shopping center are within walking distance of the resort. Also, enjoy the onsite WILDLIFE PRESERVE featuring rare and endangered species.

If you have kids, they will love the pools, animals in the preserve and the Kids Club.

On-Site
• Air Conditioning (In Units) • Babysitting Referral • Bar/Cocktail Lounge • Beach • Boat Marina/Launching • Car Rentals • Cooking Facilities (In Units) • Day Spa • Entertainment, Live • Exercise Room, Equipped • Fishing • Grocery/Convenience Store • Laundry Facilities • Playground • Restaurant • Sailing/Rentals • Sauna or Steam Room • Swimming Pool, Outdoors • Television (In Units) • Tennis • Waterskiing • Wheelchair Accessible • Whirlpool Spa or Hot Tub

Nearby
• Bicycle Trails • Golf • Horseback Riding • Racquetball • Scuba Diving

Drop me an email (tariq [AT] dopejam.com) if you have any questions or are interested in visiting Paradise.

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Points of Interest
Honda Prelude SRV:: My now destroyed second car
Memories:: Photos and Old Sites
Zafira:: Our daughter

BMW 745i AC Schnitzer Bodykit

Trance/DNB Stations
DanceHance Digitally Imported
Philosomatika DNB Radio
BassDrive JungleTrain.NET
UK Bass Radio Kunnin Mindz

Coldfusion Contributions
CF_ParseOfficeCSV
Parses Office/Outlook CSV files
ReplaceURLText (UDF)
Changes/Replaces links in text whose display text is the url to something friendly.
DualSelect (CFC)
Create multiple dynamic context sensitive dropdowns/comboboxes
Session (CFC)
Working with Sessions like finding out how many Session instances exist.
convertActiveDirectoryTime
Converts Active Directory 100-Nanosecond timestamps to a UTC Local timestamp CF can use.

Movie Comments
No Country for Old Men
Wow. 9/10
30 Days of Night
Nice. 8/10
Attonement
80% of the dialogue is useless. 4/10
Hit Man
Delivered. 7/10
Doomsday
Mad Max + Escape from NY. 8/10
Beowulf
Not bad. 7/10
Legend of Black Scorpion
Crazy Slow and overly boring. 5/10

My Sites/Domains
Community Adobe Flex
CFLEX - Empowering Adobe Flex Development
Flex In Action
Become Effective Fast w/Flex
FlexCoders.NET
The International Registry Of FlexCoders
Zafira's Site
Pictures and News of my daughter
GoodBye Canada
The Resource for Canucks heading South
afterSHOX
Freelance Website and I.T Services
NIL8
An Online Gaming Team (obsolete)
X-TIB
Community of Ex TIBCO Finance Employees
Coming in the future...
accesstracy.com - Tracy City Portal
nexilo.com - Knowledge Management
nuclearbass.com - Car Audio

Friendly Links
Sosa LandScape
Tracy's Best Landscaping
WoKits
Cool & Unique Kids Toys
KambohTech
Nabeel's Technology Center
Sith Sigma
Business Management Sith Style
SilvaFUG
Silicon Valley Flex User Group

    Copyright 2008 Tariq Ahmed. All rights reserved.