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I wanted to display the Adobe AIR install badge alongside the blog post for my pixDIF app. Problem is that the AIR badge requires the use of Javascript to be displayed and you can't put Javascript inside a Wordpress blog post - for security reasons.

Actually, that last sentence should read, "you're not supposed to be able to put Javascript in a Wordpress post." There's a handy little plugin called Inline-js for Wordpress that allows you to be able to add Javascript to your posts.

Problem solved? Well, pretty much. There's still the matter of configuring the badge code. Under normal circumstances you would have a folder on the server where your AIR app resides and drop all the badge code - .htm page that holds the badge, .js files, images, etc. But with Wordpress there is no folder where your post exists so you'll have to add a few extra Javascript variables to point at the correct files/folders.

You can download the badge code from Adobe at: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR_Badge

My setup has all the common badge files are in one folder - http://polygeek.com/AIR/. And then any specific badge assets - like background image - inside the app folder.

That takes care if it.

I've created an AIR application to help developers and designers measure pixel distances on their screens. You tell if you need pixDIF if you answer yes to any of these questions:

1. Do you ever find that you need to measure the pixel distance/size of something when you're not in Photoshop? Or, put another way: do you wish you could take the guides in Photoshop with you to the computer desktop?
2. Do you ever want to know what a graphical asset will look like in the context of a website or application. For instance, do you wish you could take an image and move it around over your website to see what it would like like in various places before you start writing the code to place it there?
3. Do you ever have a website or application design that you need to break up into pieces and build into a working site/app? And then as you write the code you need to see how close to the design you are?

If any of those answers are "yes" then jump over to the pixDIF page and check out the features and overview video tutorial.

Jeremy Saenz, the guy behind the Flex Gangster video, and I sat down together at 360Flex in San Jose to chat about the Flex community and getting started with Flex.

I have a gift card - two actually - for Lynda.com totaling $400. A Premium subscription to Lynda.com is $375 a year, which gives you access to all the courses and source files. I'm getting rid of the card to help fund my trip to MAX in November otherwise I'd use it myself. There are lots of courses on Flex and lots more on Flash. Lynda is always very good at getting new video tutorials up when new products come out, like CS4 so it would be a great way to jump into the new Suite. Here's how I see this auction transpiring:

• Bidding ends on Wednesday, September 17th, at 6PM EST.
• Buy it now price is $375.
• I will notify the winner on the evening of Sept. 17 - I'll be on vacation so be patient.
• Winner and I will work out a method of payment - Paypal would work best for me.
• Once I have the $$$ I'll email the activation codes so that you can use them right away. I'll then mail the actual gift cards via USPS.
• When the winner gets the activations codes and signs up on Lynda.com I'd appreciate it if you would come back and comment that the transaction is complete. Just for public record.
• I think that does it.

Let the bidding begin.

While at 360Flex I broke out the FlipCam and recorded a few interviews. Here's the first with Jeffry Houser. He runs a consulting firm DotComIt, he's the co-host of TheFlexShow.com, a podcast he does with John Wilker and he's also editor-n-chief of TheFlexAuthority magazine. Chalk it up to my interviewing inexperience but I totally blew over asking him to talk more about Flextras. Look for more from Jeffry on that subject shortly. It's also worth noting that Jeffry's presentation at 360Flex on creating Flex components was the best presentation that I attended. He did a great job of covering the process of creating components and not just diving in deep into a perfect component right off the bat. His presentation is up on AMP. You can read how to get access to all the 360Flex presentations here.