Main Sterling Ledet Blog

Friends who've known me a while know that I've always been a big fan of mentoring programs and owe most of the success I've been blessed with to the kindness and wisdom of others. My dad had a library of Earl Nightingale tapes, so I started listening to those young, setting goals and trying to develop a positive mental attitude. Several years ago, I joined TEC, The Executive Committee, which later renamed themselves to Vistage. After three or four years in the program though, I found that EO (formerly YEO), met my needs for around 1/4th the annual fee. I'm still a member of EO, and recommend it highly for anyone who qualifies (basically, own a company with $1 million in annual revenue or greater). Most recently though, I joined another program called The 1 Percent Club. One of my forum members, Mike Ivey, owner of Capital City Mortgage, gave everyone in the forum a copy of The 4:8 Principle, the most recent best-selling book by Tommy Newberry, the principal and founder of the 1 Percent Club. Reading that book lead me to join the group. It is a really good and refreshing read. I highly recommend it. The 1 Percent Club group is a little more spiritually based than the others, and frequently refers to Bible quotes in the literature, although it's not overtly a Christian-only sort of thing, and it's certainly not a Bible study. I am really enjoying the 1 Percent Club program because it is much more oriented on structured goals and accountability. But the most unexpected and beneficial surprise was the delightful and product Couples Planning retreat I attended with my wife at Blackberry Farm. While the award-winning hotel was great, and we had a beautiful 1500 square foot room (that was all that was left), the best thing about it was the way my wife really enjoyed and applied herself to the goal setting principles. We are much better organized and united in our marriage and family than we ever have been. As Tommy put it, "Most people put more energy and effort into planning their wedding day than they do into planning for goals in their marriage." I highly , highly recommend this retreat. The hotel is small and the retreat is limited to under 50 couples, so it sells out quick.

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posted by Sterling @ Monday, January 28, 2008 0 comments links to this post

I signed the contract to exhibit at the ASTD 2007 Conference and Expo yesterday. I'm a big fan of Jim Collins, who is one of the keynote speakers, so I'm looking forward to it. Adobe will also have a booth. If anyone needs a free expo-only pass, send us an email and we'll make sure you get one.

Labels: ASTD expo adobe

posted by Sterling @ Wednesday, May 02, 2007 0 comments links to this post

Ars Technica has an interesting article about how Bruce Chizen is hoping the EU will help Adobe in its fight against Microsoft. There are some interesting parallels and differences between Adobe's struggle against the Microsoft monopoly and those of others who've tried to take on Microsoft before.

Like Netscape, it's not really disputable that Adobe pioneered innovation in the field of publishing. First with PostScript, then with its evolution into PDF, Adobe did things that no one before them had ever done.

Unlike Netscape, however, Adobe has a lot more resources with which to fight Microsoft when it comes to page description and the graphic arts marketplace. I tend to think of the Adobe/Microsoft battle more along the lines of Sun vs. Microsoft or possibly, Apple vs. Microsoft.

After having worked with XPS, I am thinking that this maneuvering could just be a case of Adobe drawing some battle lines so that in the actual areas where they want to fight, they have some leverage that wouldn't really hurt them to give in on. I really don't think this issue is actually as much about PDF vs. XPS as it is about positioning Adobe to have areas with which to negotiate.

While there's little doubt in my mind that Microsoft will do whatever it can to interfere with PDF's continued dominance as a file format, I personally think it's much too late. Unlike HTML or Java, which at the time of the initial battles did not have a mature product with entrenched and heavily customized business processes and workflows, PDF is well beyond the point of just being a document distribution format or even just a standardized page description language.

While it was about half a decade ago that Metro (the codename for the product that became XPS) was considered by a few industry pundits as competitive to PDF, I think it will be silly for Microsoft to position it as such and the head product manager for Windows seems to agree. XPS documents do not have anywhere near the capabilities of PDF. The latest Beta 2 release for Windows XP is not even close to the functionality Flash Paper included when Adobe acquired it with Macromedia. While it's relevant that Global Graphics (creators of the JAWS and Harlequin PDF RIPs, and arguably Adobe's largest competitor in the PostScript clone market) has a RIP available for XPS, the facts are that the graphic arts community is not only heavily committed to Adobe, it's also heavily committed to Macintosh and there's no support yet for XPS at all in a major prepress context.

Microsoft had a competitive product in Publisher toward the early 2000's but was not able to overcome the graphic arts industry bias against its products, and is unlikely to do so at this stage of the game, when PDF has already won this battle. PDF has become the standard format for not only document distribution, but for interactive, intelligent forms (that match paper workflows to electronic ones), archival, rights managed ebooks, prepress workflows, and even OS implementations of Microsoft competitors (i.e. Quartz).

The Metro/XPS format is simply a drop in the bucket. I doubt even the most persistent and pig-headed IT managers will attempt to implement a Vista/XPS document distribution scenario that excludes PDF. I personally think Metro/XPS will simply be Microsoft's current implementation of GDI. And I don't think, unfortunately, Adobe will be able to stop them by using EU sanctions.

Apple recognizes and implement's superior technology. Microsoft remains a company that is satisfied with cheap knockoffs. I don't see Microsoft's XPS technology as being any sort of serious threat to PDF within the next 10 years. In my view, arguing over XPS vs. PDF is like arguing over who won World War II. The war is over.

Microsoft was probably not willing to adopt a PDF based display engine like Quartz on Apple, so they had to develop their own. And since they are building it anyway, they might as well try to make it as much of a standard as possible. But it's not PDF, never will be, and is not all that relevant to Adobe customers. XPS is probably actually more of a competitor (primarily for mindshare) to beta Adobe labs technology like MARS.

P.S. Did you know that Adobe is the largest Windows software developer to not be using .NET?

posted by Sterling @ Monday, November 20, 2006 0 comments links to this post

I met with Dan Margulis tonight at The Capital Grille. Capital Grille is a steak house chain along the lines of a Morton's or a Ruth's Chris, only in my opinion about an order of magnitude better.

Dan just published the latest and final edition of Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction, Fifth Edition (5th Edition). He didn't commit to how long he will continue training, but did confirm that he is now officially semi-retired. If you hope to get into a class he teaches personally, as opposed to one taught by one of his understudies (like me) then I'd suggest you do so in 2007.

It's worth noting that three of the all time greats in Photoshop authoring have all announced that this year's edition will be their last book on the subject.

If anyone else besides me would like to see Dan offer his class in Washington DC on a brand new classroom set up with iMac 20" let me know via email to sjledet@ledet.com.

posted by Sterling @ Wednesday, November 01, 2006 0 comments links to this post

For my We Demo You Going to Max entry, I'm going to MAX to:

• meet other Adobe Certified Trainers and Adobe Certified Training Center Owners,
• discuss and maybe learn a thing or two about cool new Adobe technologies (like LiveCycle, Flex and ColdFusion Scorpio)
• party (private invites are welcome and possibly reciprocated, although X-rated ones will be politely declined, R-rated ones typically delightfully accepted, dutch tickets assumed if appropriate)
• gamble (particularly take as much of your money in low-limit Texas Holdem at the Venetian Tables that you care to give me)
• and further my career in order to provide for my four extremely cool MechTech sons (like maybe even get one of them a cool iRiver 10 gig who hopefully will think it is even cooler than the Mindstorms NXT his younger brother is getting??)

My LiveCycle XPAAJ / ColdFusion SDK Sample Apps (available for free and linked on Mike Potters blog at http://blogs.adobe.com/mikepotter/2006/10/adobe_xpaaj_sdk.html) is my app entry for your little unofficial contest.

Even though my entry is already posted on an Adobe website, I'm a self-employed Adobe certified trainer/training center owner/operator, not an Adobe employee, so I figure according to your no rules, rules policy, I think I should qualify!

I'll be in Vegas from Sunday to Saturday, so for those who are staying longer in order to maxmize the fun, send me an email. Poker is my main thing, but I enjoy blackjack and other non-gambling stuff too. My email is sjledet@ledet.com and my name is Sterling Ledet.

My own crazy rock star pose (please don't republish!) is below:

posted by Sterling @ Tuesday, October 03, 2006 0 comments links to this post

Till the end of 2003, there's a Macromedia MX Upgrade Special Offer that will give you 7 nice extensions for free.

posted by Sterling @ Friday, November 14, 2003 0 comments links to this post

CBT Cafe is a selection of free Quicktime walkthroughs on some popular features of Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop and Quicktime.

posted by Sterling @ Monday, March 18, 2002 0 comments links to this post

Check this one out.

posted by Sterling @ Saturday, February 23, 2002 0 comments links to this post

What D&D Character Are You? Sterling is a Neutral Good Elf Bard

Alignment:
Neutral Good characters believe in the power of good above all else. They will work to make the world a better place, and will do whatever is necessary to bring that about, whether it goes for or against whatever is considered 'normal'.

Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently conccern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.

Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.

Find out What D&D Character Are You?, courtesy ofNeppyMan (e-mail)

posted by Sterling @ Thursday, February 21, 2002 0 comments links to this post

There's a good article called Doin' Documentation - A Practical Outline which can help you document your next development project.

posted by Sterling @ Sunday, February 17, 2002 0 comments links to this post