Episode 6 of the Drunk on Software video podcast is now available! This one is a bit long but dives into a lot of good information. I frequently get the same sorts of questions from developers, IT managers, and architects about Flex. Jon and I discuss those questions in this episode. Let us know what you think!
February 25 - 27, 2009 Bruce Eckel and I will be hosting a Flex / Adobe AIR Jam in Crested Butte, Colorado. Anyone who needs to learn Flex or take their Flex programming skills further will enjoy the atmosphere and methodology of this event. Attendees can:
Well… The RIA Cowboy is now a published author! As of today you can purchase First Steps in Flex!
It was a great privilege to work on this book with Bruce Eckel. Much of my foundation in OO programming came from reading Bruce’s Thinking in Java book. Writing about Flex with him is like an amateur golfer being able to play a round with Tiger Woods. Luckily Bruce is patient and willing to teach novices like myself. Starting with a short book was a good way for me to begin learning about the process of writing books as well as learn about the significant time commitment required to finish a book. While First Steps in Flex is only 140 pages, I now have a much greater appreciation for those who have written much larger technical books!
I had the great opportunity to be the star of a new Duane’s World episode! In this episode Duane and I share some fine scotch and discuss all of the good reasons to attend MAX Europe. Check it out!
At Dreamforce 2008, Salesforce.com’s annual conference, I co-presented a session about integrating Adobe AIR and Flex with Force.com. A recording of that presentation is now available. Let me know what you think.
Jon and I have posted Episode 3 of the Drunk on Software video podcast. In this episode we talk about some of the real world performance issues with Flex’s ArrayCollection. We’ve also created a few demos which illustrate how in some cases ArrayCollection is 26 times slower than Array:
Let us know what you think.
Oliver Marks is reporting that Oracle has released five new CRM Gadgets built using Adobe AIR and Flex! At Oracle OpenWorld 2008 I had the chance to record a video of these new gadgets. Check it out:
This is a great innovation in the usually boring CRM software space. Great job Oracle!
Tomorrow at 3:30 at Adobe MAX 2008 there will be a session on building rich Internet applications in the cloud using Salesforce and Adobe Flex. They will even be giving away a new Macbook! The combination of Flex and Force.com (the platform side of Salesforce) is a fantastic way to build RIAs in the cloud. If you are at MAX this is a session not to miss!
Over the past few months Greg Wilson, Christophe Coenraets, and myself have been hard at work on a secret project. So today we are proud to announce the new Tour de Flex has just gone live! Tour de Flex showcases the capabilities of Flex, BlazeDS, LCDS, Adobe AIR, and Flash Player (now collectively called the Adobe Flash Platform).
Like the old Flex Component Explorer, Tour de Flex can be used to find components. But it goes way beyond just out-of-the-box Flex components. This first release contains 217 components and samples including popular Cloud APIs like Salesforce.com and Intuit, numerous community components from people like Doug McCune and Tink, commercial components from companies like ILog, and numerous other goodies. If you find something missing you can submit it!
Getting Flash Player working on 64-bit Linux systems has been a challenge. But not anymore! Today Adobe Systems released a beta of native Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux! Check it out and report bugs to the open Flash Player bug database. Here is a short video I shot of me testing the new Flash Player 10 plugin for 64-bit Ubuntu Linux. Let me know what you think!