I am in the Milano Convention Centre here in Milan, Italy, location for MAX Europe 2008. We're sitting backstage, working on keynotes, tweaking demos, figuring out staging, and waiting (MAX keynote prep work involves lots of hurry-up-and-wait time). MAX Europe attendance has exceeded that of last year, just as we did in the U.S. this year. It's going to be a fun MAX!

Two ColdFusion positions this week:

• Unnamed client (Chicago, IL) is looking for a ColdFusion developer with at least 1-2 years of experience. Requirements include HTML, JavaScript and SQL skills, as well as familiarity with version and source control. Experience with Java and C/C++ a plus. Contact Dean Truemper at recruiter Solution Partners Inc.
• Interfolio, Inc. (Washington, DC) is looking for a ColdFusion developer with at least 2 years of experience. Requirements include understanding of object oriented development, and strong database skills (MySQL preferred). Details posted online.

I just arrived in Wroclaw, 4th largest city in Poland, home to about 650,000, and the location for RIA Day 2008 today. I am presenting an opening session as well as a session on data services. Other sessions are covering Flash, Flex, AIR, and ColdFusion. We're still a couple of hours from start time, so not many people here yet. But, apparently, the event sold out entirely within two days, so am looking forward to a packed room. Which reminds me, I have to finish my opening presentation ...

As a follow up to my MAX session on data services, an attendee e-mailed me to ask me to explain the differences between the various connectivity options supported by LCDS and BlazeDS. I replied with a link to a post entitled BlazeDS and LCDS: Channels, Channels Everywhere on Damon Cooper's blog, and am posting it here as well in the hope that it is useful to others.

I am in Poland for a few days, a slight detour before MAX Europe in Milan next week. While I am in Warsaw I'll get to meet partners and customers along with local Platform Evangelist Piotr Walczyszyn, and will also present at RIA Day in Wroclaw.

ColdFusion Jedi, Ray Camden, has written an article for Adobe Developer Connection entitled Developing Facebook applications with ColdFusion about, well, that should be obvious.

Popular Science has posted it's Best Of What's New 2008, and has given an award in the Computing category to Adobe AIR.

Well, two mini-me's actually. ;-) These adorable paper figurines were created by the very talented Brazilian, Cláudio Dias (the same guy who sold a Darth Vader model to help pay his way to MAX). The one on the left is me in a CF shirt, and the one on the right is everyone's favorite superhero, Scorpio Man (complete with mask, cape, and tail)! Check out Cláudio's other creations on paperinside.com, you'll be amazed at what he's created.

On, and I posted a few other MAX US 2008 pics, too.

Last week at MAX we introduced Alchemy, the project that lets you compile C and C++ code to run in the Flash Player. Branden Hall of Automata Studios (aka Agent Branden from the MAX keynote) has posted an excellent post on how Alchemy works.

And on a related note, Flash Magazine has a brief story on a very important C based application that has been ported to Flash Player, ID Software's genre defining DOOM.

It's never too early to start planning for MAX 2009. Earlier this week, during my Day 2 keynote, I announced that MAX 2009 in the U.S. will be in Los Angeles, at the newly renovated L.A. Convention Center, October 4th-7th, 2009.

MAX US 2008 is over, and the general consensus is that this ranks as one of the best to date. The venue was great, the content was superb, the special event is being praised by all ... I think that most people would be astonished if they knew how much time and work goes into creating and producing MAX, and when it all comes together as it did this year, well, that's pretty phenomenal. Oh, and among the comments I heard tonight was this one: "this was so much fun, it felt like Macromedia MAX". I agree.

And with that, I head home tomorrow for the weekend, and then it's off to Europe to do it all again!

This morning I presented a 3 hour MegaLab session at MAX, 180 minutes of LCDS, CF, Flex, and AIR. And things did not go as smoothly as I'd have liked. The 400MB ZIP file that we prepared for attendees worked fine on Windows, but would not work on Mac machines. Apparently, when the ZIP file was expanded, one folder contained files on Windows but was empty on Mac! Other that that, the session went really well. For the Mac users, as promised, I will have a corrected ZIP file built for you to download, and will post the link to it when that is done.

Serge Jespers and Andrew Shorten live blogged the MAX US keynote this morning, and are about to do the same for the MAX Awards and the sneaks. Replay available after the event.

As announced in the MAX keynote this morning, Alchemy is a project that allows users to compile C and C++ code to run on the ActionScript Virtual Machine. With Alchemy, developers can now reuse hundreds of millions of lines of existing open source C and C++ client or server-side code on the Flash Platform. The C or C++ code is compiled to ActionScript as a SWF or SWC that runs on Flash Player 10 or AIR 1.5. And Alchemy is available now on Adobe Labs.

During the MAX keynote this morning I announced that we are working on an Eclipse based ColdFusion IDE codenamed "Bolt" to be released in conjunction with the next version of ColdFusion. More details to follow, but, visit Labs to request access to both Bolt and Centaur. Oh, and yes, the name "Bolt" pays homage to the original ColdFusion lightning bolt.

Final sound checks, cue to cue, minor tweaking, security dogs sweep (yep, you read that right, it'll make sense shortly), press setting up their cameras, directors adjusting their headsets, checking the demos one last time, ushers taking positions, Ted Patrick pacing PDA in hand ... this is it, months of preparation and ... it's time for the MAX opening keynote!

Tour de Flex is an AIR based desktop application for exploring Flex capabilities and resources, including the core Flex components, Adobe AIR and data integration, as well as a variety of third-party components, effects, skins, and more. Tour de Flex was announced this morning at MAX, and platform evangelist Greg Wilson provides more detail.

I am sitting in the General Session room in Moscone West, venue for MAX U.S. 2008. We've been building up to this for months. Hundreds of us have put many thousands of hours into venue selection and sessions and keynotes and content and shirt designs and driving attendance and so much more. And now it's starting to feel like MAX ... the crowds, the excitement, the faces you've not seen in a year, the equipment tests and sound checks and, yep, the rehearsals. I don't want to give too much away, but the keynote staging is nothing short of breathtaking. MAX adrenaline is kicking in ...

I am on my way to MAX U.S. in San Francisco. MAX starts Monday morning, and this is going to be our biggest MAX yet! I hope to see you there!

Wim Dewijngaert wrote to tell me that he's launched a new website for the City of Brussels, Belgium. The site is powered by ColdFusion, and uses Flex, too.

Adobe and SitePen have teamed up to create Dojo Extensions for Adobe AIR to make it easier to create rich desktop apps using the Dojo Toolkit and Adobe AIR. More info posted on the SitePen blog.

We generally host two keynotes at MAX. The Day 1 keynote has typically contained all of the product announcements and news (the stuff attendees really want to hear), and the Day 2 keynote has been a variety of things from Tim Buntel's antics to mobile day and more. Well, we're doing things a little differently this year, and much of the really exciting product news is going to be part of the Day 2 keynote. The reason I mention this is that Day 2 attendance is often a little lighter than that of Day 1, a direct result of partying and hanging out at the bars the night before. And so consider this a friendly public service announcement - don't miss the Day 2 keynote, really! ;-)

The MAX 2008 Awards finalists have been posted, and voting is now open for the coveted People's Choice Awards.

Greg Wilson has announced that he is hosting "AIR Gone Wild" at MAX in San Francisco, an opportunity for individuals to showcase just how far they've pushed AIR.

Three ColdFusion positions this week:

• The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) is looking for a ColdFusion developer. Requirements include relational SQL experience. Details posted online.
• Pace University (Briarcliff Manor, NY) is looking for a ColdFusion developer. Requirements include experience with JavaScript, and a DBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL). Experience with the SCT BANNER ERP suite is desirable. Details posted online.
• Quality Logo Products (Chicago, IL) is looking for a ColdFusion developer. Requirements include experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL (MySQL 5 preferred), and experience with SEO. Details posted online.