The Topic of Flex
Frameworks Is Getting Hot By Yakov Fain Yesterday, I gave a
presentation on Flex
frameworks at the New
York Flex Users Group.
More than 50 people
showed up, which proves
that this is an important
topic. By the end of the
presentation the
temperature in the room
had increased because an
innocent talk had... Jul. 25, 2008 01:00 PM |
iPhone 3G: Friday Is The
Day By Yakov Fain  Friday is a big day for
people having urge to
get a hold of the new
iPhone 3G. 8AM. Sharp.
Apple stores open their
doors and those who
didn't mind waiting in
line for a couple of days
(in Hawaii people formed
lines 6 days ago) will
get this baby. Jul. 12, 2008 12:45 PM Reads: 2,125 Replies: 1 |
Food Dial, a Facebook RIA
Application Written in
Flex By Yakov Fain Food Dial is not just a
book of recipes. Here's
the big idea - you came
back home, tired and
hungry. Start the Food
Dial application and open
the fridge. Here's the
red pepper. Turn the
dial with food
categories... Jul. 7, 2008 12:45 PM Reads: 1,850 Replies: 1 |
Integration Between Flex
and AJAX Made Easy By Yakov Fain Flex is a great way to
introduce rich Internet
applications to your
enterprise. However, in
the real world, you often
have to do it gradually.
Most business units of
any enterprise that are
sold on RIA would prefer
adding Flex-based
components to their old
but wor... Jun. 30, 2008 10:00 AM Reads: 2,664 |
Polyglot Programmers
Minus SQL By Yakov Fain In the mid nineties, IT
job market was good.
PowerBuilder or Visual
Basic plus SQL would get
you employed in no time.
Good old client/server
days. Two programming
languages was all you
need. When multi-tier
architecture became hot
and J2EE came into
picture, all ... Jun. 18, 2008 07:30 PM Reads: 2,214 Replies: 1 |
Free Guest Pass to SOA
World Conference in New
York City By Yakov Fain  I'll be speaking at the
SOA World Conference in
NYC this Monday on using
rich Internet
applications as service
consumers in SOA
architecture. As the
conference faculty
member, I can invite a
small number of people to
attend it for free
(Golden Pass). If you'd
li... Jun. 18, 2008 03:45 PM Reads: 1,499 |
Secrets Of The Masters:
Core Java Job Interview
Questions By Yakov Fain  If you are planning to
hit the job market, you
may need to refresh some
of the Java basic terms
and techniques to prepare
yourself for a technical
interview. JDJ Enterprise
Editor Yakov Fain here
offers thirty of the core
Java questions that you
might expect during ... Jun. 17, 2008 06:00 AM Reads: 746,544 Replies: 176 |
Flex Is Strong Because of
Java By Yakov Fain I received an email
stating that AOL finally
abandoned the ugly Java
applet that was used in
the ICQ2Go, the Web
version of the hugely
popular (about 30M users)
instant messaging system.
The person who sent me
this email also wrote,
'IMO this was the last
popular ... Jun. 15, 2008 06:00 AM Reads: 3,771 Replies: 6 |
iPhone 3G - The Best
Apple Keynote Ever By Yakov Fain Keynotes are often
boring, but watching
today's keynote from WWDC
conference was just
great. I do not want to
repeat the facts about
iPhone 3G. Needless to
say that I'll buy a
couple of them this
summer. I do not want to
bore you with the facts
about the countless... Jun. 12, 2008 04:00 AM Reads: 5,720 Replies: 1 |
Fresh Notes After Taking
the Flex Certification
Exam By Yakov Fain Yesterday I realized that
Friday's calendar was
wide open, so I decided
to take the Adobe Flex 2
Developer Exam. I knew
plenty of other ways to
kill a Friday, but I had
to take this exam. I had
no choice. May. 30, 2008 11:45 PM Reads: 3,409 |
AJAX World - Adobe Flex 4
Is Shaping Up By Yakov Fain  Adobe has published their
first plan of what should
be included in Flex 4
that is scheduled to
release next year. Since
Flex is an open source
product, you have a say
in this too. Obviously,
there's a hope that
upcoming Thermo release
will bring together
developer... May. 29, 2008 11:15 AM Reads: 11,990 Replies: 3 |
Clear Data Builder 3.0 is
Free Now By Yakov Fain The popular code
generator Clear Data
Builder will become
available free of charge.
Originally, Clear Data
Builder was released as a
command-line open source
code generator a.k.a.
DaoFlex. We've submitted
it to Adobe Flex
component exchange about
two years ago, an... May. 29, 2008 11:15 AM Reads: 3,230 |
AJAX World - Two Great
PDF Creators By Yakov Fain I like reading stuff in
pdf format. But it's
even better if you can
easily create pdf files.
By easily I mean a button
click. Literally.Since I
have Adobe Acrobat, my
Microsoft Word and
PowerPoint just have an
extra menu to create it.
But it's kinda boring.
Let m... May. 28, 2008 10:15 PM Reads: 7,241 Replies: 3 |
Great Indian Developer
Summit By Yakov Fain I spent last week in
India attending the Great
Developer Indian Summit
(GDIS) that took place in
Bangalore, in the
Institute of Science, one
of the most prestigious
graduate schools in the
country. May. 27, 2008 02:00 PM Reads: 4,117 Replies: 1 |
AJAX World - Cooking CRUD
with Flex and BlazeDS By Yakov Fain In today's cooking class
you'll add to your
cookbook a delicious
recipe. It's quick and
won't cost you a dime.
I'm sure you've been in
one of these situations
when you have unexpected
guests arriving in 20
minutes and need to make
a good impression. Let's
creat... May. 19, 2008 03:00 PM Reads: 8,891 |
Flex 4: My Wish List By Yakov Fain Flex 2 was released in
the Summer of 2006 and it
was a mini-revolution in
the RIA space. Almost
nobody knew about Flex
1.5, but now almost
everyone has at least
heard about this
software. Flex 3 was
released in early 2008.
It has a number of useful
new features, b... May. 7, 2008 07:00 AM Reads: 4,994 |
Additions to My Computer
Book Shelf By Yakov Fain Many young programmers
don't read books anymore.
They google. They argue,
'When I need to find a
solution it's just a
click away. Why bother
purchasing books that are
outdated by the time of
printing? Real
programmers learn by
doing - trial and
errors'. I do not agree
with this. May. 2, 2008 10:15 AM Reads: 5,052 |
Forrester Turns Its Back
On AJAX By Yakov Fain I know, it's not nice and
I should behave as if
it's not that important
to me, but I can't.
During the last two and a
half years I've been
writing, openly speaking,
whistle-blowing, and
whispering that AJAX is a
wrong way to go for
developing rich Internet
applica... Apr. 28, 2008 11:30 AM Reads: 5,012 Replies: 1 |
Sara Jessica Parker
Should Upgrade To Leopard By Yakov Fain The real bummer is that
Java 6 is not there. Who
should we blame for it?
Steve Jobs who openly
states that nobody uses
Java anymore? There are
about 5 million
professional Java
developers around the
world. Can you give them
a good reason to buy
MacBook Pro? I can't. Apr. 19, 2008 09:45 PM Reads: 20,157 Replies: 5 |
Responding to the "Adobe
Flex Shortcomings" Java
Blog By Yakov Fain  Vectors supporting types
are the part of next
release - and are billed
more of
performance/coding help
then language
enhancement. Most of the
Java 5 constructs are not
really applicable to
ActionScript 3 - for fair
comparison you need to
use Java 7/8 with dynamic ... Apr. 10, 2008 09:15 AM Reads: 6,190 |
AJAXWorld and Bear
Stearns By Yakov Fain This was the first time
I've included into the
list of the RIA players a
little known product
called Curl. Even though
this language was created
in MIT, it's mainly used
in Japan. I had a chance
to spend an hour with
Curl folks today, and it
seems that this languag... Apr. 7, 2008 09:00 AM Reads: 8,534 |
New Major Release of Flex
Is Due This Summer By Yakov Fain This caught me by
surprise. Isn't it a bit
too soon? One of the most
interesting features of
this Flex release is
configurable modules.
This new release also
features lots of new
controls. I like the
grooved panels. The Web
site to promote the new
Flex is done in Flex too
(finally!). Apr. 1, 2008 07:00 AM Reads: 4,676 |
Do We Need to Teach
Designers Programming? By Yakov Fain  Fast-spreading rich
Internet applications
require new skills for
development of what was
known as boring-looking
enterprise applications.
In the past, development
of the user interface was
done by software
developers to the best of
their design abilities. A
couple... Mar. 30, 2008 08:30 AM Reads: 12,773 Replies: 5 |
The Next Big RIA Service:
Sprout By Yakov Fain These days RIA tools are
created mainly to two
groups of people: Web
Developers and UI
Designers. The second
group is represented by
creative people who can
design screens but are
not programmers. Big guys
are trying to come with
tools that would bring
together th... Mar. 17, 2008 02:15 PM Reads: 6,533 Replies: 2 |
When Will Sun
Microsystems Start
Competing in the RIA
Space? By Yakov Fain  Sun Microsystems is a
very respectful company,
with strong engineering
spirit and talented
software developers on
staff. Sun Microsystems
was the company behind
the very first technology
to support rich Internet
applications. Yes, I'm
talking about Java
applets th... Mar. 11, 2008 12:45 PM Reads: 7,147 Replies: 1 |
Notes from Adobe
conference for educators By Yakov Fain These are the notes from
Adobe Education Designer
and Developer Conference
that Adobe put together
for people who are
teaching Adobe software
at various universities
around the country. Mar. 5, 2008 01:00 AM Reads: 4,926 |
RIA Development Update:
Flex 3, Air 1.0 and
BlazeDS Released By Yakov Fain  Eighteen months ago Flex
2 was released, which
literally changed the way
people think of rich
Internet applications.
Since then lots of things
have happened in the Flex
community. In 2007 Adobe
announced that Flex will
go open source, and now
it has happened. All
... Feb. 25, 2008 10:00 AM Reads: 15,022 |
RIA - AJAX Developers
Always Openly State that
AJAX is Difficult By Yakov Fain  If you are starting a new
AJAX project, I highly
recommend that you watch
the video of a
presentation made by an
expert AJAX developer
Joseph Smarr from Plaxo.
Joseph is very
experienced AJAX
developer, and if after
watching this
presentation you don't
get goose... Feb. 22, 2008 07:00 PM Reads: 3,585 |
Watching Java
presentations with AJAX,
Flex, AIR and JavaFX By Yakov Fain Parleys.com is a great
Web site with lots of
recoded videos of
technical presentations
on a wide variety of
Java-related topics.
While the original
version of Parleys has
been created in AJAX,
more advanced Flex and
AIR versions are now
available too. I had a
c... Feb. 18, 2008 07:00 PM Reads: 8,548 |
Car Manufacturers Go with
Adobe Flex RIA By Yakov Fain OK, car manufactures go
Flex. Will they lose or
gain customers because of
that? Car manufacturers
want to have fancy
consumer sites. It's a
world of RIA, and having
interactive Web sites
should bring more people
to car dealerships. But
poorly performing Web
site ... Feb. 16, 2008 01:15 PM Reads: 6,314 Replies: 2 |
Flex Is All About
Event-Driven Development By Yakov Fain This is the first in a
series of articles that
will cover best practices
of Flex development using
the code of the
soon-to-be-released open
source class library
theriabook. These
components were developed
by Flex and Java
architects from Farata
Systems. Over the p... Feb. 14, 2008 02:45 AM Reads: 13,512 |
Rich Internet
Applications - State of
the Union By Yakov Fain We are entering an era of
Rich Internet
Applications (RIA), and
many enterprise
development managers are
facing the dilemma -
which way to go - remain
with tried and true Java
or .NET technologies or
less known (as yet) yet
AJAX, Flex, OpenLaszlo... Feb. 10, 2008 11:15 AM Reads: 42,419 Replies: 4 |
An Alternative To Flex
Builder Is Coming:
JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA By Yakov Fain One of the best Java IDEs
on the market may become
a valid Flex Builder
alternative later this
year. I can make a wild
guess that I'll be
seriously considering
switching to IntelliJIDEA
8.0 by the end of 2008
unless Adobe will make
some major investments in
Flex Builder. Feb. 7, 2008 08:30 AM Reads: 7,153 |
Flex Bugs Déjà Vu;
Memories of Java's Bug
Parade By Yakov Fain Flex is an open source
product, which means that
you can fix the bugs on
your own. This may fork
out the product, but
that's another story
altogether. On the other
hand, developers can vote
for the bugs so the Flex
team can fix them. I
remain cautiously
optimistic... Feb. 7, 2008 06:45 AM Reads: 5,795 |
AMF 3 Specification Is
Published By Yakov Fain Action Message Format
(AMF) is a protocol that
is used to serialize the
data coming into Flash
Player or going out to
other programming
environments that need to
communicate with Flash
Player. Say, if you
create in Java an
instance of the class
MyOrder, this insta... Feb. 4, 2008 11:30 AM Reads: 4,933 Replies: 1 |
Where To Find Senior Flex
Developers? By Yakov Fain The Adobe Flex enterprise
market picks up really
fast, and it's obvious
that the need for Flex
developers will only get
bigger and bigger. The
question is what kind of
Flex developers are in
huge demand. I'll share
with you the experience
of our company, but
firs... Feb. 4, 2008 11:30 AM Reads: 6,940 |
Flex 3, AIR, BlazeDS:
Less Than One Moon By Yakov Fain Unless your Flex 2
project has to go to
production this month,
switch to Flex 3. Now.
Flex 3 final Beta days
are almost over and it
brings you lots of
goodies. If you are still
thinking of using AJAX or
JSF for your data
intensive business
application, just stop
... Feb. 1, 2008 02:45 PM Reads: 8,861 |
Does Adobe's Promotion of
Flex Put Flash
Programmers at a
Disadvantage? By Yakov Fain I ran into an interesting
blog written by a Flash
programmer who feels that
Adobe's promotion of Flex
puts him and other Flash
programmers at a
disadvantage. And he
knows how to resist! Jan. 31, 2008 04:00 PM Reads: 8,346 |
AJAX Reporting Challenges
& Solutions with Adobe
Flex By Yakov Fain  Creating reporting
applications in AJAX is
often more challenging
than developing data
entry CRUD applications.
Reporters usually need to
process lots of data,
preferably on the client
side to minimize the
amount of information
that goes through the
wire. Reporter... Jan. 15, 2008 07:30 AM Reads: 12,537 |
How to Staff Your Adobe
Flex RIA Project Team By Yakov Fain  The main concern of any
project manager is if
there are enough people
in the pool of Flex
developers to staff the
project. Yes, there is a
pool of Flex developers,
but let's look at the
creature called 'Flex
Developer' under the
microscope. If you are
considering ... Jan. 15, 2008 07:15 AM Reads: 13,162 |
About Newsfeeds / Video Feeds
Yakov Fain is a managing principal of Farata Systems, consulting, training and product company. He has authored several Java books, dozens of technical articles. SYS-CON Books released his latest co-authored book , "Rich Internet Applications with Adobe Flex and Java: Secrets of the Masters" in Spring 2007. Sun Microsystems has nominated and awarded Yakov with the title Java Champion. He leads the Princeton Java Users Group. Yakov teaches Java and Flex 2 part time at New York University. He is an Adobe Certified Flex Instructor and an Editor-in-Chief of Flex Developers Journal.