If you're still on the fence about whether you are going to CFUnited 2009 now would be a good time to make up your mind. Early bird pricing ends today after which the 3 and 4 day package prices will go up by $100 and the Saturday only package price will go up by $50. Register now to lock in the better deal!

If for some reason you aren't sure if CFUnited is for you I recommend checking out the schedule which lists all the topics and speakers. I'd be willing to bet there are lots of ColdFusion, Flex, and AIR sessions you would enjoy.

Tomorrow morning the 615Flex group (Nashville Flex User Group) is hosting a Flex/Flash Camp with six speakers giving one hour talks. I'll be giving a presentation on integrating BlazeDS, Flex/AIR, with a little ColdFusion mixed in for fun. After giving an overview of the technology behind BlazeDS and how BlazeDS messaging works I'll dive into the construction of an application in real-time. The app will demonstrate the use of BlazeDS messaging from a browser application to remote AIR clients. Registration for the event is closed but given its a free event I'd be willing to bet we'd find a place for you if you want to come out. More info is here.

Andy Matthews delivered a nice presentation last night on integrating jQuery and HTML to create Adobe AIR applications. He showed several examples including how to use AIR's file system API, how to create and deploy SQLite databases, what a .air file is and what's inside them, how to access remote resources such as ColdFusion components, and how to use Aptana to create, build, and deploy a complete HTML-based AIR application. Oh, and did I mention he built an entire AIR photo slideshow app, start to finish, in 8 minutes?

If you are at all interested in HTML-based AIR applications you should check out this hour and fourteen minute presentation.

View the Adobe Connect presentation now!
http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/p99669686/

Tonight, the Nashville ColdFusion User Group is having our May meeting and the topic is jQuery and AIR: Desktop Development for the Front End Designer. Nashville's own Andy Matthews is giving this presentation which is the same one he gave recently at the cf.Objective() conference. If you missed the conference, you have a second chance to hear Andy's talk.

Folks local to Nashville are encouraged to attend in person (and RSVP here) while remote attendees can join via Adobe Connect (http://mmusergroup.adobe.acrobat.com/ncfug/). Full details of this meeting are on the NCFUG site.

Several weeks ago I was talking with Liz Frederick on Twitter about an extended CFUnited call for women speakers. I had missed the original call for speakers so I made a comment about dressing up as a woman and giving a talk on integrating AIR, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion. Liz asked me to submit my topic but I didn't hold my breath it'd be chosen given how last minute it was. Needless to say I was a little surprised today when I received a DM from Liz stating my talk had been chosen.

My session, AIR Messaging: Integrating AIR, BlazeDS, and ColdFusion, might not be as entertaining without me dressed up as a woman, but I promise you'll have a stellar time if you come. You'll learn about BlazeDS and why you should consider using it in your projects. I'll demonstrate the integration of ColdFusion and BlazeDS and I'll build an application, start to finish, that utilizes the BlazeDS messaging service for real-time business communication.

On a slightly off topic note, I might bring along my sticks and hit the links. If you're into golf and you want to play while at CFUnited, hit the Contact Blog Owner link in the footer and send me a message.

Todd Sharp has put together a very short slide deck (12 slides) detailing reasons why you should attend CFUnited 2009 in Leesburg, Virginia. The deck has information about where and when the conference will take place, video of the conference venue, what valuable content you can expect, and more. If you're on the fence about attending I recommend taking 3 minutes to view Todd's slide deck.

RIAdventure 2009 has been over for a few weeks now and I'm missing the sun and relaxation already. It was great to get away from the office and shut off the phone and laptops for a full five days. I enjoyed hanging out with those that came along and I want to give HUGE props to Joshua Cyr for arranging the trip. He was like a travel guide making sure everyone knew what was going on, where we were supposed to meet to not miss the shuttle ride to the ship and as always was a joy to hang out with. I'm definitely looking forward to the possibility of a second RIAdventure in 2010 but in the meantime I have some photos to help make the weight a little more bearable.

For those curious what RIAdventure was all about you can view all the Flickr group photos here. I've also posted my photos to Flickr as well as three videos (of a super awesome Segway tour!) in my RIAdventure Cruise 2009 set.

Here's a slideshow for those that don't want to manually click through photos on Flickr.

Flex Authority has officially announced Leif Wells as the new Editor-in-Chief. I've known Leif for several years and have gotten to know him through the Adobe User Group program. He's a super passionate guy with a lot to offer the Flex community. To learn more about Leif's background and his plans for Flex Authority read his blog post announcing his new role in the magazine.

A co-worker of mine, Andy Matthews, has released a new AIR application I think everyone should check out. Shrinkadoo, an HTML/Ajax/ColdFusion powered AIR application integrates with a slew of URL shortening services to bring the functionality to your desktop. Andy's app is super small and lightweight and makes it really easy to quickly shorten those nasty URLs you want to put in e-mail, blogposts, or on Twitter. Other than the URL shortening itself my favorite features so far are the integrated feedback form and the auto application updates. Andy has a ton of ideas on where he wants to take the application but be sure and let him know what you think after you install it. Simply hover over the minimize/close buttons to see a slide out menu of extra features (nice!). Press the envelope icon, type up your comments and press submit!

This time next week my wife and I will be somewhere in the North Atlantic on our way to the Bahamas. It's been a couple of years since our last cruise so we're pretty excited for the chance to hit the seas again. The particular cruise we're going on is part of the RIAdventure social/tech gathering. I've always enjoyed hanging out with other programmers and tech folks at conferences, but the conference always occupies most of our time. This cruise is all about the social aspects but I'm sure there will be loads of conversations on ColdFusion, Flex, AIR, and rich Internet applications in general. When you get a bunch of geeks together you can be there will be lots of tech talk.

I believe there are upwards of 30 people going including Joshua Cyr, Dan Skaggs, Dan Wilson, Yancy Wharton, Jared Rypka-Hauer, and Todd Sharp. Since I'll be arriving a day before the ship sets sail, I thought it'd be nice to have dinner with anyone else that's already in Miami. If you're going to be in Miami on Sunday the 8th and you want to have dinner, give me a ring (just press the "Call Me" button in the right margin). Or, you can always leave a comment on this post or e-mail me.

Mike Chambers has created his first iPhone application and it's been approved by Apple. If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and you write ActionScript 3 for Flash CS3 or Flex 3, you need to cruise on over to iTunes and download (iTunes link) his ActionScript 3 API reference guide!! It includes documentation on AS3 for Flash Player 10, Flex 3.2 and AIR 1.5.

Thanks for putting this together Mike.

A few days ago the latest issue of Flex Authority was released. I wrote an article for the issue (Vol 1 Issue 2) on BlazeDS, Flex/AIR, and ColdFusion integration but it had to be removed due to space issues (yea, it's long). Fortunately, my article fits well with the theme of Vol 2 Issue 1 and it'll be included in both the print and PDF versions when released.

Until then, Judith Dinowitz was kind enough to provide me with a sneak peak of my article that you can download right now. Why wait, click right here to download it. Enjoy!

Adobe announced today the Flex 3 with AIR certification. There's an exam preparation guide that includes information on the exam structure and sample questions. You can download the guide here.

To register to take the exam head over to the VUE web site. The exam will also be available on the Prometric web site in a couple of weeks.

BFusion/BFlex has been over for a month and I realized I had not blogged any comments on the event. Several folks have already blogged their thoughts with Dan Wilson's being nearly an identical mirror of my own. And while much of the below is repeating Dan I think its worth it.

General Organization
I was thoroughly impressed with BFusion/BFlex from the moment Bob Flynn asked me to speak to leaving Bloomington for home. Early on I decided to bring my wife and son with me to the conference and Bob was super helpful offering activity suggestions for them. The rest of the staff were no slouches either. Everywhere you turned there were smiling faces ready to assist you in finding a presentation room, help you get on the wireless network, or for speakers, making sure you had all the essentials for your talk. The staff all wore the same color shirts each day (speakers had colored shirts too) which helped you identify who could offer assistance.

Accommodations
I've had horrible luck with hotels this year including the hotel at Webmaniacs double-charging me and the hotel at BFusion/BFlex taking over two weeks to get my bill straight. What they did right however, was supplying a nice room during the four days we were in town. Our room was easily the largest I had ever stayed in. It included a huge open area with couch, table, and desk. The area proved to be of great use for my son to act like a wild man as well as sleep in his pack-and-play. There was also a 42'' LG HDTV that helped the room feel a little bit more like home to my wife.

Facilities
To start off, WOW! The facilities were a dream come true for both attendees and speakers. Each room was situated with ampitheatre seating fully equipped with ethernet and power. All you had to do was sit down, plug in, and go. Speakers were treated nicely with dual projectors and screens and a fully Crestron automated lighting set up. I prefer to stand up and move around when presenting and having a desk on hydraulics was super sweet! I just pushed a button to raise the desk to my preferred height and I was off. As if that weren't enough presenters were greeted with a teleprompter style screen in the middle of the room. This was useful in keeping on track with your bullets without having to turn away from the audience.

Food
Both days of the conference a free lunch was provided. Everyone knew ahead of time what food would be available and folks selected a specific sub sandwhich for the first and type of pizza for the second. The food was fantastic and there was way more than enough to go around. Folks were grabbing all kinds of extra pizza on the last day.

Speakers
Speakers for both days included several Adobe Community Experts (or past Adobe Community Experts) and Adobe employees. In the lineup was: Matt Boles, Adam Lehman, Matt Woodward, Peter Farrell, Mike Brunt, Simon Free, Adam Haskell, Mike Labriola, Zach Stepek, Elliott Sprehn, Dan Wilson, Kurt Wiersma, and Kevin Schmidt. That's a lot of top notch speakers for FREE!

Overall, I was blown away by the conference. It's just hard to believe it could be so well organized and thought out considering 2008 was just it's second year. Did I mention all the giveaways? No? Just about every person attending the 2-day event walked away with something. All-in-all, it's hard to beat an event like BFusion/BFlex and with the price of admission (FREE both years so far) you'd be crazy not to do everything you can to make it to this event in the future.

I hope I see you there next year!