Interesting article over at money.cnn.com on the the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) platform:

“Adobe Systems wants to blur the line between Web and PC applications with a new computing platform that aims to change the way digital information is presented — and perhaps give Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows some future competition.

The Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, will let developers build and deploy rich Internet applications on the desktop. Applications made with AIR can run online or offline, and can run on Windows, Macintosh or Linux PCs.

AIR combines the speed of desktop applications with the up-to-date data capabilities of the Web, backers say. AIR applications run outside of the Web browser, so they aren’t constrained in their design.

This month at a conference for Web developers, Adobe ADBE showed off AIR applications created with a test version of the software. The first official version of AIR is due out early next year. Companies with AIR applications in the works include eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) EBAY, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) FDX, SAP SAP and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) YHOO.

AIR can be used to design consumer and business applications.

The slickest apps on display at the Adobe Max conference Oct. 1-3 in Chicago were consumer-focused. They included a digital catalog by clothing chain Anthropologie, a tool for Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) (NYSE:DCQ) DIS travel agents, an aid for eBay users, and Adobe’s own Adobe Media Player.

AIR leverages two popular Adobe products — the Flash multimedia player and the Adobe Reader for viewing documents.”

The more press like this, the better for all of us developing our apps for use with Flex/AIR.

You can read the rest of the article here.

When you start to see 32GB Flash Drives on the market, high transfer speeds become crucial! Intel and other companies have started to promote the third generation of USB which will transfer data at up to 4.8 Gbits/s, ten times faster than the current USB standard which is 480 Mbits/s.

Source 1: arstechnica
Source 2: PC Magazine

It’s now official! The eagerly awaited update to everyones favorite ColdFusion framework, Fusebox, will be available for public consumption on December, 1st 2007.

If you have not yet had a chance to take the Fusebox 5.5 beta for a spin, you have just over a month to get your hands dirty. Take this as an open call for developers to join the bug hunt.

You can find details on the open beta at the fusebox website:

http://www.fusebox.org/go/fusebox-downloads/beta-program

If your new to Fusebox or frameworks in general, now is the best time to get involved in the community. XML configuration is now optional and scaffolding is now a reality. This looks to be the greatest Fusebox release ever!

I remember stumbling upon Jonathan Coulton’s Code Monkey song sometime last year. Not only is it extremely funny, but its actually quite a well done song. Listen to the Code Monkey song. I guess I am not the only one who loves this song though! Some one has taken the time to make a music video for the song using footage from the Black Heaven anime series. The quality of editing on this is amazing! See for yourself:

NOTE: This is not a Universal Binary, It was built for Intel Macs.

While setting up a new VMWare image I found myself needing to convert an old .bin/.cue disk backup to iso format. Looking for a simple command line utility I came across BinChunker, a GPL-licensed *nix source that fit the bill to the tee. The official site has the source code and RedHat RPM’s but nothing for OS X.

A quick compile took care of that — BinChunker for OS X.

Download the utility, extract it to your Home directory and issue the following command from a shell prompt:

sudo cp bchunk /usr/bin/

To make sure your newly installed utility has the correct execute permissions and that its accessible to you through the terminal, run this code:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/bchunk

To convert a .bin/.cue pair to a .iso, you can issue this command:

bchunk myinputfile.bin myinputfile.cue myoutputfile

If you are getting a not found error, make sure that /usr/bin/ is in your path. To check this, type echo $PATH and look for /usr/bin/ in the result. If it isn’t there, type sudo nano /etc/profile and add /usr/bin; to the PATH=… line. Then press CTRL+x followed by Y to confirm and the enter key to verify the filename to save and exit nano. Then execute source /etc/profile to refresh the path.

Since Nintendo is now including Wii Remote Jackets for Wii Remotes in all new hardware being shipped, Nintendo has decided to offer existing Wii owners Wii Remote Jackets for free.

You will need your Wii serial number (found on the back of the console) to proceed to the form. Nintendo won’t start shipping these until mid October, so don’t fret if you don’t receive a confirmation email or can’t see your order right away.