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It's the end of day 2 at Adobe Max, and I have not failed to be impressed. Thermo is the big noise, as expected, and has been dubbed Flash Catalyst. CS4 is pre-configured to begin leveraging the incredible decoupled round-trip work flows between visual design tools and development tools that FC promises. I only wish it wasn't "mid 2009" before we could expect to see a production version. Still happy to have my preview copy in hand. Also being promoted is the great new component explorer, now delivered as an AIR app. And AIR deployment with 1.5 is so much slicker. Check it out:

I presented my Atomic Context slides today in L.A. for the mother of all FileMaker developer groups, FMDiSC . You can get the presentation as a PDF file (2MB), PowerPoint slide show (2MB), or QuickTime Movie with narration (appx 30 minutes and 140MB). (I made the video a downloadable MOV file, rather than a Google Video or YouTube video, because it needs high resolution to be able to read the slides.)

Today I presented The Ins and Outs of FileMaker/PHP Hybrid Solutions at php|tek in Chicago. Here are the slides from the talk in ppt format and in pdf format . The demo solution files can be found in this zip archive . It includes the FileMaker and PHP files plus a readme file and a pdf of my slides. Enjoy. NOTE: Full access username is "Admin" and password is blank on the downloadable demo FileMaker files. If you want to look at a hosted version of the demo solution, you can connect to the Mac Mini in my hallway closet (be merciful!): FileMaker Pro client "staff login" fmnet:/shn.serveftp.net/PUSD_OE_Main Test credentials pclark:pclark Web browser "user login" http://shn.serveftp.net Create your own user credentials

Global Calc fields in FileMaker are often ignored because they are poorly understood. The inimitable Ray Cologon offered the following analysis some time ago. I came across a re-post of it from Mike Kim in my FMDiSC mail archive. It's so useful, I thought I would share it back out again: 1. A global calc will update automatically if it references a global field that is located in the same table and that field is edited by the current user. 2. A global calc will update automatically if it references a regular field that is located in the same table (and referenced directly) when that field is edited on any record by the current user. In this instance, the value of the global calc will depend on the value of the referenced field in the record in which that field has most recently been edited. When the global calc references multiple regular fields, its value will depend on the values in the instances of those fields located on the particular record where the most recently edit

The key to flexible Sub Summary reporting in FileMaker Pro. Get the PowerPoint slides

I'm a big fan of Scot Finnie's Newsletter Over the last few months he has been reviewing secure USB sticks (thumb drives). Scot's current "Top Product!" designation goes to the Lexar 4GB JumpDrive Lightning USB Drive , calling it's software encryption, "easy to use and accessible from both Mac and Windows" He also makes a good case for the Corsair Flash Padlock 2GB USB memory stick , originally bestowing it with the honor due to it's non-software security feature. He mainly gave it minor dings for it's lack of curb-appeal and 2GB max capacity. Check out more of Scot's product reviews here http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/reviews.htm