This blog recently received a targeted spam comment.  While I normally would just delete the comment, the contents may be of use to Flex programmers looking for work.  Here's the quandary.  The company in question is looking for Flex programmers, 10 of them to be exact.  The company pays between $15 and $20 U.S.D. an hour (about $41K a year) and is based in China.   That's below the U.S. median income.

So basically it's an outsourcing company targeting potential employment candidates through a channel primarily read by the U.S. market willing to pay outsourcing pay rates.

I've decided to not approve the comment.  If you really need the work, contact me via email and I'll forward you the details.

The flash.net package provides a nice solution for launching the default mail client on a mailto: link in Flex,  The sendToURL() function will launch the mail client without opening a new browser window. 

 Charlie Griefer pointed out that Flex.org is making available for free Flex posters.  You just have to fill out a form and blog about it.  Thank you Flex.org!

This month's JDJ  cover story features Adobe Flex 2 and Java POJO integration.

Macromedia has two Flex training classes available For Flex, though the main training link directs you to their Fast Track 3 day class.

Developing Rich Internet Applications with Macromedia Flex .
Macromedia Flex for Web Application Developers

Macromedia states that the first class is primary intended for Java programmers. It's essentially a subset of the Macromedia Flex for Web Application Developers Class.

The additional day of the second class provides;

Unit 6:
Using the DividedBox container

Unit 7:
Using the LinkBar with the ViewStack
Using the TabBar with the ViewStack

Unit10:
Instantiating Flex Classes in ActionScript

Unit 11:
Handling results using an event handler

Unit 14:
Passing arguments to web services
Configuring the Flex proxy for web services
Retrieving data directly from ColdFusion Components

Unit 15:
Creating an ActionScript constructor with parameters
Creating a CRUD component(Create,Read,Update,Delete) handling complex data

Brandon Purcell has jumped on the Flex and CFMX integration bandwagon and will be committing some of his time to producing code bits on the various aspects of Flex/CFMX integration. I look forward to seeing what Brandon writes about it.

There has been some talk on the Blogs lately regarding integration of Flex with ColdFusion into the same server instance. If you're not aware of it, the new flash CFFORM is essentially a stripped down version of Flex. All that's needed is to merge the full flex server into the ColdFusion server. There is a great technote at Macromedia on this.

Integration of Flex with CFMX can give you the ability to run cfm and mxml files in the same root context. While you can do this with the CFMX standard edition, the real benefit occurs with the CFMX enterprise edition where you get the added functionality of JSP pages as well as the ability to import JSP tag libraries.

There is one particular advantage of integrating Flex with CFMX that I find extremely helpful and that is the built-in CFMX Flash Remoting. Flash Remoting, CFC's, along with the Application.cfm/Application.cfc makes it easy to use the already familiar application and session management features of ColdFusion within the Flex framework
Some suggestions

1. If you haven't made the jump to a CFMX/J2EE installation from the CFMX standalone, I suggest you do so. I feel that you have more control of your server environment and it is a great learning experience

2. The integration technote also discusses integration of the Flex Samples. If you are using the CFMX/J2EE installation, ignore that bit and just create a Flex samples server in the JRun servers directory using the JRun Admin Console, copy the Flex samples.war file to the newly created flex samples server folder and perform a hot deploy. You generally don't want the samples running in a production environment and you typically only need the samples on occasion. It's much easier to launch the samples server through JRun and access the samples through JRun's built-in web server i.e. http://localhost:8200/samples/