Think you know Adobe web technologies? Do you like the idea of working on some of the world’s most interesting web engineering challenges? Do you want the freedom and variety of independent consulting, but want bigger projects and more of them? Then search no further. Universal Mind, the undisputed leader in bleeding-edge RIA development, is looking for a few good developers. 

Are you up to the challenge?

Why should you join Universal Mind?  Universal Mind offers you a unique opportunity. We focus exclusively on solving hard problems in the performance and architecture of web applications based on Adobe technologies. Not only are these problems difficult, they are the problems that keep our business customers up at night. They’re also the problems that have biggest impact on users. In short, at Universal Mind you will have the opportunity to do something great.

At Universal Mind, we want you to be both hands-on and strategic. You’ll connect the dots between business priorities and technology performance. You will also write the code, configure the servers, and run the diagnostic suites.

Your interface will be IT management, web developers, database admins, sys admins and business unit managers. You’ll be the person technologists call first when they have a web technology problem. 

You’ll feel equally comfortable working onsite, anywhere in the world, or remotely via Internet and phone. The value you bring clients will be in the business advantage you deliver, not in where you sit.

In fact, if you’re really good, you have probably already thought about working at Universal Mind.

Does this sound like a challenge you'd be interested in?  Send your resume to me at andrew.powell [at] universalmind.com and we'll get the conversation started.

 

I was having a conversation with Charlie today at lunch and we were talking about how easy it is to take an application from the browser to the desktop with AIR.  I decided that I should give you an example of how easy it is to do this.  My hotel search and call application is a good place to start.  I created a new AIR project in Flex Builder and copied the source from the Hotel Search & Call app into the project.  I copied the code from the KayakHotelSample.mxml into the main file for the AIR project.  I then changed the "mx:Application" tag to "mx:WindowedApplication" and ran the application within adl (the AIR debugger).  The app ran flawlessly the first time.  One tag is all it took to migrate a Flex app from the browser to the desktop.

Download the AIR package 

OK, so I'm really pissed off.

I'm sitting in a presentation at cf.Objective() (I will not name names) where the presenter has blatantly stolen someone else's code and passed it off as their own for the presentation. How do I know this? The person it was stolen from is sitting right next to me.

That is not cool. If you're doing a presentation, make sure you materials are you own, OR if you must use someone else's example, don't be a tool. Give credit where credit is due.

If you're going to cf.Objective this week, and want to see something you've NEVER seen ColdFusion do before, come to my session: "Enterprise Class MVC with ColdFusion And Java".

You will need to know what the MVC pattern is and nothing more. Jason Delmore's session would be a good warmup for this one, but it is not required. Oh yeah, I'll have swag to give out at my session too. I am not above bribery to bring butts into the seats.

Session Description:
This session will show you how to leverage the power of Java tools, like Hibernate, to increase the speed and scalability of your ColdFusion MVC based applications. We will look at performance differences between using Java and ColdFusion based solutions and discuss the benefits and drawbacks to both methods. The discussion will also cover when using such an approach is appropriate and why a developer would want to take this approach. Demos will also be provided to show you how to take advantage of this new technique.

I am also hosting a BOF session on Saturday night entitled: Open Source Development & Publishing. The title is a bit wack, but the premise is simple. Lots of people want to write open-source components, but don't know what it takes to publish them. Conversely, a lot of people want to know what open-source components are available to use in their applications. Well, we'll cover both of these topics and other things such as the various OS licenses available to publish under and how they work together, or with commercially released software. Come, sit down, talk. It'll be fun.

Beyond both of these sessions, I will be hanging around, going to some sessions, and generally catching up with people I've not seen since MAX. Come find me in the hall or lunch, or wherever and I promise I'll make some time to talk with you about ColdFusion, Flex, Java, the Braves, the Red Sox, whatever.

BTW, if you do come to my BOF, someone remember to bring me a bottle of scotch (single malt Islay if you have it, or Johnnie Walker Gold Label if you must bring a blend). I promise you, it will make me much more interesting.

I get asked a lot:  "What is the best book for learning 'x'?".  Well, I decided that I would post my own bookshelf, a listing of all the books I personally own (tech related).  You can browse through the listing, and, if you like, purchase the book from Amazon.

My Bookshelf