Since the days when I installed Slackware Linux via a stack of 3.5″ floppies, Linux has been a *nearly* suitable desktop for me. With some tinkering and with VMWare to run Windows when I need it I’ve been able to use Linux as my primary desktop OS for around 15 years. As computers and software have evolved Linux has had to keep up. In some areas it’s done exceptionally well and in others it has struggled. But based on the improvements in Ubuntu Jaunty I believe the pace of improvement is accelerating. This means that many of the niche oddities and problems with Linux should soon be ironed out.

Adobe TV has published a video I did recently about connecting Flex to a SOAP Webservice. Check it out and let me know what you think.

UPDATE: I’ve created a new version of Flex Paint with Flex 4.

It’s surprising and somewhat humbling to find out which of my blog posts are the most popular. There are some posts that I spend days on and they end up only being read by a few people. Then there are others that are simple, short, and to be honest kinda boring that end up being read by tons of people. My original Flex Paint blog is one of those simple, short but highly viewed blogs. I would never have thought that out of all my blog posts that one would be read by so many. Since it’s almost two years old and presumably being used as a reference by many people, I thought it would be useful to update it to use the new Flash Player 10 FileReference API to eliminate the need to send the image to the server.

Next week I’m off to a few more Java User Groups to talk about Flex and Java integration:

• Portland - April 21st
• Cincinnati - April 23rd

Also while I’m in Portland I’ll be speaking on April 22nd at the PDX RIA User Group about “Super fast, multi-threaded, number crunching in Flash”.

I hope to see some of you along the way!

While at Devoxx 2008 Chet Haase and I sat down with The Java Posse for an interview about Flex, integrating Flex with Spring, Flex Gumbo, and various other topics. You can listen to the interview via The Java Posse Podcast - episode #242, watch it on parleys.com (perhaps even using their awesome AIR app) or watch it right here. Let me know what you think.

Matt Raible is a legend in the world of Java web applications. In the latest episode of Drunk on Software Jon Rose and I sit down with Matt, have a few beers, and talk geek stuff. Matt has a lot of great insight into where software is going. In the video we asked him what the future looks like for web frameworks. Matt’s response brought into question the future of component frameworks. Jon and I were pretty surprised by his response. You will have to watch the video to get the whole story. :) Let us know what you think.

UPDATE: There is a new version of the Refcard available:
Flex 4, Hibernate 3, and Spring 3 Integration

DZone has just published a new Refcard “Flex & Spring Integration” written by Jon Rose and me. This is the second Refcard I’ve written. The first was “Very First Steps in Flex,” which was a few chapters from First Steps in Flex written by Bruce Eckel and me. Working on the Flex & Spring Integration Refcard was fun because I was able to learn more about the new Spring BlazeDS Integration project from SpringSource. I’ve been really impressed with how easy it is to integrate Flex and Spring together. Another great resource for learning how to integrate Flex and Spring is Christophe Coenraets’ Spring BlazeDS Integration Test Drive. It contains a bunch of great examples that will help you better understand how to get everything set up and working.

It’s great to see the concept of Portable RIAs beginning to crop up in real world applications. The latest one I’ve seen is on ESPN - allowing the user to check out the latest March Madness updates from within a PDF. Check it out:

Flex Builder is now free for not only students and educators but also for those who are currently unemployed! If you fall into this category - my sympathies - but hopefully by learning Flex you can get a job again soon. And since the Flex job market is super hot, getting a new Flex job shouldn’t be too hard. :)

All you need to do is go to freeriatools.adobe.com and (honestly) fill out the information. I hope this helps get you on your feet again!

On the road again… I’ll be talking about Flex and Java at a few more Java User Groups over the next few weeks. Here they are:

• Kansas City JUG - April 8th
• Madison, WI JUG - April 14th
• Milwaukee - April 15th
• New Orleans - April 16th

Hope to see you somewhere along the way!