28 February 2009

Important Flex suvey -- please read!

Adobe is collecting some high-level demographic data via a new survey to map out Flex' future. Takes about 20 minutes to complete and can help the Flex team tremendously:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=vCfoIoZ0_2bLG6CTgVcntsVA_3d_3d. Please let your friends know and post it to your blogs. Thanks :)

25 February 2009

Fiji connects Flex and JSF

Exadel's Fiji tech connects Flex and AJAX, providing some of the necessary plumbing for the two to talk to each other.

16 February 2009

Coding in the cloud

Mozilla's Bespin has a lot of potential for collaborative, cloud coding (try saying that 10 times in a row!): http://weblog.infoworld.com/whurley/archives/2009/02/cloud_computing_3.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2009-02-16. Watch the video and it gives a very good intro to the technology.


Introducing Bespin from Dion Almaer on Vimeo.

10 February 2009

IE conditional comments

Have you ever designed a web page and have it display perfectly in Firefox but not in IE? When all else fails, you can use the IE conditional comments, such as:

<![if IE]>
<style> .highlightBox {margin-top: 5px } </style>
<![endif]>

More info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512.aspx

05 February 2009

Mono does .NET open source

Ever wonder if .NET can be run on non-Windows systems? Well, the Mono Project has been around for awhile and it's got some impressive features and followers: http://weblog.infoworld.com/fatalexception/archives/2009/02/mono_mania.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2009-02-05

Windows 7 editions

Windows 7 will have two primary versions and a few others: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/02/04/a-closer-look-at-the-windows-7-skus.aspx

Also, time's running out on downloading the beta; by Feb. 10, Microsoft will no longer allow users to download the OS: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/23/general-availability-for-the-windows-7-beta-to-end.aspx

03 February 2009

Using WireShark to sniff HTTP packets

WireShark is a pretty powerful tool, especially in detecting certain issues with web apps. To start sniffing packets, follow these steps,
  1. Once you've started WireShark, go to Capture > Interfaces...
  2. Locate your machine's network adapter under the list of interfaces. Click the Options button for that adapter.
  3. In the Capture Options window, click the Capture Filter and enter a name for the filter.
  4. Provide a string for the filter with the IP address of the remote system, ensuring you put host in front of it:
    host 111.111.111.111
  5. Click OK and click Start.
Now you'll see packets between your machine and that specific server. You can also detect traffic on the localhost following these instructions: http://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/Loopback.

02 February 2009

Cloud computing best practices

Cloud computing promises to allow companies to get their IT needs met without needing IT infrastructure. One company moved most of its apps to the cloud: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/10/50FE-extreme-cloud_1.html

IT project survival guide

Great article from InfoWorld talks common sense about saving your IT projects: http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/02/02/05FE-it-project-survival_1.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2009-02-02