I'm heading out to FITC in San Francisco in a few weeks and am starting to get excited. I've never been to an FITC event, though I've certainly heard tell of it around secluded campfires and in the back rooms of dimly-lit bars. And in the open, and on the internet, and from a lot of people on twitter who agree that this conference is going to be great.

Contexual help windows are a common way of implementing context-sensitive help in enterprise applications. These components that need to be instantiated over the main screen in a variety of places in many enterprise level applications. They're usually instantiated from a simple help button that is placed in a variety of locations around the application using whatever layout scheme makes the most sense for that area. While the contextual help pop-up itself is very similar, the placement of the help button needs to remain very flexible. In this entry I discuss a good, standard and flexible approach to building contextual help menus into any Adobe Flex-based RIA.

I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing I could take advantage of some of the yummy features in Flex 4 that make precise design and layout possible like, oh, Text Layout Framework (TLF). But some of us are working on...

Luke Wroblewski, or LukeW as he's known on the web, is a self-described "digital product design & strategy guy" who's been pushing the idea of designing for mobile interfaces first for a while now. He thinks that designing for mobile first works best because 1.) mobile is more important than desktop these days, 2.) mobile forces you to focus on what's really important, and 3.) mobile extends your application's capabilities (GPS, touch-screens, etc.). At first I thought this idea was neat. Now I'm convinced it's nothing short of revolutionary.

Yesterday the U.S. Copyright office passed down new rules under the DMCA changing making Jailbreaking legal on iPhones. This is all good and nice, but is it going to result in any real change in the mobile phone market? While the new rules might at least incent Apple to play a little nicer, will consumers benefit in any way?

The Google Innovation Method is one of the best ways to introduce new features or products into the mix. If you aren't familiar with the concept, it's allocating 20% of your engineering team's time to devote just to coming up...

The Google Innovation Method is one of the best ways to introduce new features or products into the mix. If you aren't familiar with the concept, it's allocating 20% of your engineering team's time to devote just to coming up... Tom Barker http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3751

Databinding in Flex is one of the features that has made it so popular as a Framework. You change a property in one place and, voilà, some text changes in a completely different place. However, there is a lot... Amy Blankenship http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3726

Databinding in Flex is one of the features that has made it so popular as a Framework. You change a property in one place and, voilà, some text changes in a completely different place. However, there is a lot...

For those of you fellow iPad and iPhone developers out there, a preview version of Xcode 4 has been released. I'm personally looking forward to the integrated single window in the IDE, as opposed to multiple separate applications, the enhanced debugger, and enhanced code editing and navigation tools. Not to mention, the faster LLVM 2.0 compiler. Andrew Trice http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3436

For those of you fellow iPad and iPhone developers out there, a preview version of Xcode 4 has been released. I'm personally looking forward to the integrated single window in the IDE, as opposed to multiple separate applications, the enhanced debugger, and enhanced code editing and navigation tools. Not to mention, the faster LLVM 2.0 compiler.

Today Salesforce.com announced the release of a special version of Adobe Flash Builder built specifically for integrating with their cloud service, Force.com. Flash Builder for Force.com is a custom bundle of Flash Builder that includes all the normal stuff from Flash Builder premium along with some of the Live Cycle Data Services additions and some specific tools for integrating with Force.com's cloud offering. RJ Owen http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3442

Today Salesforce.com announced the release of a special version of Adobe Flash Builder built specifically for integrating with their cloud service, Force.com. Flash Builder for Force.com is a custom bundle of Flash Builder that includes all the normal stuff from Flash Builder premium along with some of the Live Cycle Data Services additions and some specific tools for integrating with Force.com's cloud offering.

Nate Beck and Ben Garney join us to discuss PushButton Engine. We are also joined by Ben's sandwich. Most professional episode ever. Garth Braithwaite http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3618

Nate Beck and Ben Garney join us to discuss PushButton Engine. We are also joined by Ben's sandwich. Most professional episode ever.

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over - The Making Of FlashBum.com Part 3.... Jesse Freeman http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3725

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world. In this AFT I will go over - The Making Of FlashBum.com Part 3....

Google Wave is a collaboration platform that was announced by Google last year. It is a web based platform where participants can come together and collaborate both for work and fun. The developers of Wave have kept the platform open for extension where developers can write automated robots and gadgets (similar to widgets) that can participate in a wave and add value to the collaboration. In this article we will cover how you can start developing gadgets for Google Wave using Flex as your primary development environment. Romin Irani http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3731

Google Wave is a collaboration platform that was announced by Google last year. It is a web based platform where participants can come together and collaborate both for work and fun. The developers of Wave have kept the platform open for extension where developers can write automated robots and gadgets (similar to widgets) that can participate in a wave and add value to the collaboration. In this article we will cover how you can start developing gadgets for Google Wave using Flex as your primary development environment.

Adobe Max will be taking place October 23-27, and it is a fantastic opportunity to gain insight into emerging technology trends, as well as a chance to learn and interact with Adobe and those in the Adobe community (including many of Insideria.com's authors). Andrew Trice http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3436