Ever since Ed Finkler found out I use twitter a few months ago, he has been bugging me to install Spaz. Then, when Spaz became Spaz.AIR, he did it again.

But so far I’ve been able to resist his sexy advances.

Then one day, Adobe hosted a Lunch 2.0 with an Adobe AIR contest. I suggested to Ed that he submit that app of his that is so good that I don’t use it.

He did.

The problem was Ed and I were going to be at php|works. Whoops!

What to do if he won?

So I checked the RSVP and sent an e-mail to the two people who most remind me of Ed: Morgan and Karen asking if one of them would be West-Coast Ed.

2007-0097 57
CNET Headquarters, SOMA, San Francisco, California

Nikon D200, Tokina 16-50mm AT-X PRO f/2.8 DX, SB-800
1/60sec @ f/2.8, iso 100, 16mm (24mm)

Morgan (center) introduced me to Karen (right). Those of you who know Ed, can already see the similarity.

Karen was up to the challenge.

The strange thing is, he did win. Andrew Mager was on hand to record Ed accepting his prize:

All I have to say is, Ed you’re looking a lot hotter. (Maybe I should install Spaz.)

[AIR, Funkatron, Karenism, etc. after the jump]

Adobe AIR

You know I’ve never weighed in on AIR? I think it’ll kick SilverLight and JavaFX’s ass. Beyond that?

Well the web has affordances, as ugly as they are, they’re there. These things break those affordances. That sucks.

So if the app you’re competing against breaks every affordance known to man, no matter how cool it is, it’s going to get its lunch eaten by AIR.

Looking for some apps that might great AIR apps? Just go see what’s popular on Konfabulator or Dashboard.

WROX

At the conference, Ed mentioned that if he ever had to write a book for WROX, he’ll use a picture of Karen. I’m all over that.

I know Ed’s some some hot shit security expert, but I think he should write a book on AIR… for WROX. Don’t you?

Finkler in a Karen suit

I’ve decided that Ed and Karen are pretty much the same person.

Ed Finkler
College Park, Atlanta, Georgia

Leica M8, Cosina-Voigtländer NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical
1/22sec, iso 320, 35mm (47mm)

For one thing, I’ve never seen them together.

They’re both PHP developers who have been enticed by Adobe to developing for their platforms.

They’re both a lot cooler than me: the first time I met Ed, I dropped into his PHP Security Birds of a Feather session at OSCON in order to sober up—I failed miserably but I did leave a memorable impression. Karen hosted the first Lunch 2.0 in San Francisco.

They’re both a little bit dangerous: I first met Karen at a Trunk Fashion Show Auction Strip Tease (yeah, you read that right. “But I’m in SF now, baby!”) and Ed recently told me something about the online porn that was so shocking it actually caused my brain to shut off. :-O

They both push my buttons… by espousing frameworks. For Karen it’s Django, and for Ed it’s CodeIgniter. (Ahh, Frameworks, my old nemesis, we meet again.)

I’m beginning to think that the only reason Karen wears stripey socks and carries an iPhone is so that I don’t realize she’s really Ed Finkler. It’s like a superhero costume or something:

“karen smiling” by magerleagues

“iNerds” by flawedartist

But I’m on to you, Ed Nguyen, Karen Finkler, Funkaism, Karentron or whatever-you-call-yourself!

Adobe Max

Right now, Adobe MAX is going on this week where Spaz.AIR won Best HTML Community Application.

I can see from “their” tweets that “both” Ed and Karen are there this week. If you see one of them around, say hi for me.

(Also, if you can get photographic proof that they’re not the same person, it’ll be greatly appreciated.)

Thanks Funkatron and Karenism for being such good sports.