Home | Writings | Resume | Links | RSS Feed
A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
R.I.P. LiveMotion
I've been so heads-down this fall and winter, between pushing Convoq ASAP out the door and managing my own series of personal crises, that I didn't even notice the fact that Adobe has finally cancelled LiveMotion altogether. I haven't really kept up with the news from Adobe since I left the company in 2002. This news was a lot like learning that an old friend with a terminal illness had died some months ago. And there wasn't even an obituary: Adobe didn't put out a press release, and the official LiveMotion page is pretty low-key:
Of course, this wasn't unexpected. It's been almost two years since Adobe told the LiveMotion team that the project was being cancelled. Most of us were laid off, but a few people stayed behind to work on other projects. As for LiveMotion, without a development team behind it, the product wasn't even being supported, much less updated, and it was just looking older and older. Inevitably, it had to be retired. The only real question was when.
I can't argue with Adobe's original decision to cancel LiveMotion. I think it was the right decision. (I don't know if Adobe made any money from LiveMotion; my guess would be they didn't lose money, but they absolutely didn't make a killing.) I don't begrudge the fact that Adobe laid me off, either. They were willing to relocate me instead of letting me go, after all, and if my wife and I had been willing to move out to California, I might still be working there today. And they gave me a very good severance package.
At the same time, I feel a little wistful about LiveMotion's demise. I put a lot of work into that product, and so did a lot of other people I came to like and respect. I'm proud of LiveMotion, and I'm grateful to have had the privilege to be part of its development team. It just hurts to see it all come to such an ignoble end, to see it buried without a proper funeral.
I've been so heads-down this fall and winter, between pushing Convoq ASAP out the door and managing my own series of personal crises, that I didn't even notice the fact that Adobe has finally cancelled LiveMotion altogether. I haven't really kept up with the news from Adobe since I left the company in 2002. This news was a lot like learning that an old friend with a terminal illness had died some months ago. And there wasn't even an obituary: Adobe didn't put out a press release, and the official LiveMotion page is pretty low-key:
Effective November 15, 2003, Adobe will no longer distribute LiveMotion 2.0. Though Adobe has decided to concentrate its efforts in other areas, we want to thank our loyal LiveMotion customers for their support. Adobe will maintain person-to-person technical support for LiveMotion until March 31, 2004. In addition, complimentary technical support will be available until further notice via the Adobe Support Knowledgebase and User to User Forums on the Adobe Web site.
Of course, this wasn't unexpected. It's been almost two years since Adobe told the LiveMotion team that the project was being cancelled. Most of us were laid off, but a few people stayed behind to work on other projects. As for LiveMotion, without a development team behind it, the product wasn't even being supported, much less updated, and it was just looking older and older. Inevitably, it had to be retired. The only real question was when.
I can't argue with Adobe's original decision to cancel LiveMotion. I think it was the right decision. (I don't know if Adobe made any money from LiveMotion; my guess would be they didn't lose money, but they absolutely didn't make a killing.) I don't begrudge the fact that Adobe laid me off, either. They were willing to relocate me instead of letting me go, after all, and if my wife and I had been willing to move out to California, I might still be working there today. And they gave me a very good severance package.
At the same time, I feel a little wistful about LiveMotion's demise. I put a lot of work into that product, and so did a lot of other people I came to like and respect. I'm proud of LiveMotion, and I'm grateful to have had the privilege to be part of its development team. It just hurts to see it all come to such an ignoble end, to see it buried without a proper funeral.
