ubuntu 8.04 up and running

That's me just completed the installation of eclipse, cfeclipse and flex builder which brings my laptop back up to "code ready". I had been running Ubuntu 7.10 but being the new software slut that I am, I had been falling over myself to perform the upgrade to 8.04. Common sense has always told me to run linux distros a versions old to ensure they're stable but for some reason with Ubuntu I seem to be keen to throw caution to the wind!

So eager was I to do this, yesterday I rushed into work to take advantage of the super rapid connection before anyone else turned up...only thing being, i'd forgotten my power lead....arse....so the upgrade was rescheduled for today.

Rolled into work before 8am and got the upgrade underway, if you were following my twitter feed, you'll know what I thought of that process....a clean install it was then. Backed up my data while downloading the iso and then 40 mintes after running the disk I had a fresh install of Ubuntu...no driver problems, no issues at all...went to connect to the wireless network and yep...typed in the network key and away i went...piece of piss, try doing that on windows.

today's valuable lesson?....sack the upgrade unless you have a lot of time to burn, just back up your data, remember what you need to reinstall and perform a clean install of Ubuntu.

2 comments - Posted by mark at 11:15 PM - Categories: Linux | Eclipse | Coldfusion | Flex

all good for linux today

Those that know of my move to Ubuntu linux will probably be all to aware of my grumbling and ranting that there was still no Air environment for Linux... today I popped open my feed reader and saw, to my great delight, that adobe have today, released Adobe Air for Linux Alpha....not only that, they've also released the next alpha release (3) of Flex Builder for Linux too....

no more ranting from me on this subject....I am now happy.

0 comments - Posted by mark at 8:43 AM - Categories: Linux | Flex | Tools

Flex 3 and Air released

The wait is over, both Flex 3 and Air have now been released. I could babble a bit about how cool these things are but i'll leave that to Adobe: Flex 3 Air I watched a presentation on Coldfusion, Flex and Air recently with the Scottish Coldfusion Users Group and although I've been watching these products with a lot of interest, I have become much more excited about what can be done. Have been tinkering with Flex since version 2 and now feel suitably inspired so as they say, watch this space! As for Air, there seems to be more and more apps running on Air every week..I have 2 running on my PC right now, the future of desktop/online apps is still to be defined and a lot of confusion will have to be cleared up but the possibilities are huge, how's about a blog editor? or as we saw in the afore mentioned presentation, an email client...even...a web browser? I know there is a linux port of Air coming soon, I wonder if we'll see a mobile version?

0 comments - Posted by mark at 9:02 AM - Categories: General | Flex

CF_SCOTCH TOUR: Aberdeen Meet-up

Thought I'd do my bit to promote the second Aberdeen meetup. The first one was a great success and plenty of geek talk was had by all...oh and there was beer too... So the second meet-up will be happening at the RGU Union training room on the 29th Feb 2008 kicking off at 16:30. here are the details: What's Happening? Following the success of last years local Scottish ColdFusion User Group (SCFUG) meet up, we're pleased to announce that we're back for another round! Standards aren't slipping either. We'll have food laid on for everyone courtesy of our kind sponsor Fuzzy Orange who are also going to be buying everyone a 'wee hello' drink. Also, thanks to your feedback from last time, we're arranging an exclusive presentation for everyone that attends - more information on this will follow shortly. Why should I be interested in this? Our event isn't just for experienced ColdFusion Developers. Anybody interested in learning about the technology or use other Adobe related technologies (Flex, Flash or Dreamweaver etc.) can benefit. Skills, experience and backgrounds of people who have attended in the past have varied greatly. Therefore, there is plenty of opportunity for everyone to learn something new, discuss ideas & opportunities and find out if there is way of making your daily work lives easier. You'll also get an opportunity to find out about and ask questions to the organisers of this year's Scotch on the Rocks 2008 event being held in Edinburgh between June the 4th and 6th. Sounds great. How much is this going to cost me? Absolutely nothing but a few hours of your time. What more can you ask for? You'll have: - An exclusive opportunity to network with fellow ColdFusioners and other local talent - A professional presentation by a leading experts - Some lovely local food and drink put on by the staff at the RGU Union - And we may even have some giveaways Ok so what do I need to do? Before a date was even announced for this we've had some great response to its return. Will you be at this one? If you want to come along, email me * before the 22nd Feb with any dietary requirements and i'll pass your details along to the organiser (you can register after this point but you wont get any food) * (the organiser is James Buckingham but i didn't think he'd be too happy with me splashing his email address across the internet!)

0 comments - Posted by mark at 11:23 AM - Categories: Coldfusion | Flex

flex and wiimotes

Just saw this superb 3d desktop driven by wiimotes! Built on some open source stuff and flex, it really is a work of art.

Jack Keenan, if you're watching, you'll love this!

Link to the article is here: http://redmonk.com/tv/2007/10/04/majority-desk-wiimote-3d-widget-desktop-totally-sick/

0 comments - Posted by mark at 2:59 PM - Categories: Flex

Adobe Thermo

Seems to have popped up on labs here: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo

I'll reserve judgement until I can at least play with a beta but its certainly an interesting idea, particularly on the "skinning" front...forgive my apparent lack of enthusiasm, but i've not been the biggest fan of wysiwyg over my years in web design/development, there have been a lot of promises made and a lot of shoddy code generated as a result, which I've often ended up having to deal with...but thats a rant for another day ;)

I'm going to keep an open mind and wait and see...

0 comments - Posted by mark at 8:04 AM - Categories: Flex | Tools

Flex Data Services and Coldfusion/Jrun

right...I decided to have a little play around with Flex Data Services today. I popped over to http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flex to download Flex Data Services Express, which is a free, single machine version. Went through the installation process until I got to the screen asking if I wanted to install FDS with integrated jrun or the J2EE web application, I chose the latter because my development machine runs Coldfusion in its jrun configuration so I thought it could be deployed on top of that...after hours of confusion, it turns out that this is not the case.

Apparently FDS needs it own jrun instance as does coldfusion...doh!

So, due to the lack of obvious documentation to tell me this, I spent several hours scratching my head before uninstalling FDS completely and re-installing it with he "integrated jrun" configuration

I just selected "start>all programs>adobe>flex data services 2>start integrated flex server" and away it went, a quick check on http://localhost:8700/samples confirmed this.

so people if you're just starting out, don't make the same assumption as I did, select the integrated jrun version and save yourself a load of pain!

I looked briefly at a few options so here's a couple of links that may be handy depending on your configuration.

• configuring IIS, coldfusion and FDS (I use apache but some helpfull info non the less)
• information for the tomcat inclined.

1 comments - Posted by mark at 7:35 PM - Categories: Flex