I've been learning Flex for a presentation at my local CFUG, and I'm actually quite impressed with how much you can do with so little code.

However, most of the Flex tutorials I have found are very long and over simplified, so I've created a simple blog reader in 23 lines of MXML code to use as a tutorial. Here's what our Flex Application will look like:

Simple Flex Tutorial

The plan I pitched to STARTech WAS unfundable. I didn’t have a clue how to pitch. I didn’t have the answers investors were looking for. It took me 100 pitches to learn how to do pitch (I can be a slow learner sometimes). By the time I was ready the STARTech guys were interested, too bad they couldn’t have helped me ‘perfect my pitch’ 99 pitches earlier. There is a need for a group to help entrepreneurs ‘perfect their pitches’ in Dallas. Ironically the North Texas investment community is already helping entrepreneurs ‘perfect their pitches’ without realizing it. The only problem is that investors outside of Dallas are getting the fruit of that work. While we turn up our noses at naive and inexperienced entrepreneurs pitching their startups those same entrepreneurs are learning from their mistakes. By the time they run out of investors to pitch right here in our own backyard their pitches are getting pretty good. Of course there are even more entrepreneurs who simply give up, who don’t get on a plane and keep trying. They, wrongly, assume that it must be their deal that is bad, when it is really the market.

What if we had an angel group that instead of spending time on the frontend ’screening’ out the bad/unfundable startups, they spent time helping entrepreneurs learn how to pitch their ideas to investors? What if that were the ONLY cost of admission? My goal with the SpringStage angel/entrepreneur group is to become the FIRST place entrepreneurs from North Texas come. You may not raise the money you need, but hopefully you will learn the skills necessary to raise it right here in our backyard. I am holding our first organizational meeting on Monday at 4PM. If you are interested in helping build a more friendly entrepreneurial community in Dallas I invite you to attend.

Perhaps why Dallas doesn’t have many startups! : Texas Startup Blog

Wave of Hope

James Boppre broke all the rules of house arrest when he went for a late-night drive in his pickup truck last month.

He did not observe his curfew.

He did not remain sober.

He did not keep the peace.

And as he crashed into a Kitchener car lot -- driving naked while speeding, drunk, high on crack cocaine and next to a naked prostitute -- he was not being of good behaviour.

"This is one of the most flamboyant, flaming relapses I've ever seen," defence lawyer Brennan Smart said. "It's almost the stuff of comedy writers."

Anyone else think we should start a defense fund?

Convicted drunk driver's naked joyride with hooker

Without any hope of success I typed http://www.google.com/.jpg into my browser's adress bar, and to my big surprise I saw the page you see when you follow the link right now. The next thing I typed in was: http://www.google.com/?.jpg but that didn't work. But I went on, and found that url's like http://www.google.com/search?.jpg worked like a charm. I found that I could easily visit sites like slashdot, google, or even this weblog, when adding a ?.jpg at the end of the url. The next logical step was to automate that. I downloaded greasemonkey.xpi?.jpg (*g*) and wrote a 4 line js script that would add ?.jpg to every link in a document. That way I was able to browse most sites without a hassle.

Funny. Billy, comments?

Hackszine.com: Free airport WiFi

If the startup ecosystem in Atlanta wants to grow we need to support some experience building and experience sharing. The next generation of startup veterans will come from the rookies of today. We need to support these individuals with both time and money. Look around at the host of companies that are leading the web 2.0 revolution - many of them were started by young unprovens.

Success isn’t predicated by age, experience, or even the level of investment an individual can raise. Intelligence, hard work, ability to adapt to change, and singular vision - these are the traits of individuals who build successful startups and return not only to investors, but to the community that helped them out along the way.

I charge Atlanta, investors, mentors, and advisors to look beyond gray hairs and resumes to find great ideas with driven founders and support them in their quest to build the next great startup. I for one will be watching as the next generation of entrepreneurs matures, learns and develops. I hope that one day I might even be considered one of them.

Solid post from a first-time Atlanta technology entrepreneur.

Why the unprovens matter : Wrangling the nerds

Aloha America! The road to the White House can be found on the water...

I'm gonna replace the figure with Elvis or something funny and get this large on my back.

Wave of Hope

Cloud Computing. Delivered.

RightScale provides a platform and expertise that enable companies to create scalable web applications running on Amazon’s Web Services that are reliable, easy to manage, and cost less. Amazon has created a new model of computing with EC2, S3, and SQS. RightScale lets you harness that power while keeping your focus on what matters most—your own core application.

RightScale is your easy to use portal to Amazon’s Web Services. It is the only end-to-end management platform for AWS that includes everything you need to get a scalable, reliable, performance web application up and running quickly. With RightScale you’ll save time, and breathe easier knowing that your deployment follows best practices.

* Dashboard – manage, maintain, and monitor all AWS activities
* Manager for MySQL– manage replicated MySQL setups
* RightSite – load balancing and DNS for scalable web sites
* Auto-Scaling – automatically scale the number of virtual servers up and down
* RightScripts – dynamic configuration of virtual servers on boot
* Deployments – launch and manage multi-server systems

Key Features of RightScale

I painted this for the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown when George Washington and the Continentals traunched the British. The county would not dignify it with a response, however, George Washington's Mount Vernon estate kindly wrote me an e-mail saying they would "pass it along to the staff".

Holy Surreal.

The Surrender

To celebrate the coming launch of Dawn of War II we’ve teamed up with Games Workshop to recreate a life-sized replica of the Rhino Space Marine transport vehicle from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

An integral part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Space Marine transport unit is renowned on the battlefield. With its signature arches and armoured skirts protecting the tracks it strikes an imposing figure both in Dawn of War and the table top game.

But what would this look like in real life? Let’s find out! Over the next four weeks we’re going to be converting a real tank into the infamous tabletop icon.

THQ UK - News Centre - News - Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II - Rhino Diary 1