I ran across a site called FillColors.com that is promoting the separation of style and layout in Flex applications.

The concept isn't new; CSS Zen Garden has been using a similar tactic for ages to generate buzz around CSS styling in HTML pages, but I think this could be a great way to derail the idea that all Flex applications have to have the same basic, default, out-of-the-box look and feel.

Fill Colors is also sponsoring a contest to encourage new entries. The winner will receive a license for Flex Builder 2.

For those that don't know, your Window's "hosts" file can be used to map a domain name to an IP address to trick your browser into thinking routing requests for a particular domain to a different server.

This file is not typically needed in development, but if you ever need to map a domain to the IP address of a another server (i.e. a development server or QA server), then knowing how to edit this file may come in handy.

In Windows XP, this file is located here:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

There are plenty of resources out there on how to edit this file, so I won't elaborate on that, but I wanted to point out a trick that is handy if you are editing this file on a regular basis.

Since the hosts file doesn't have a file extension, by default, you have to choose which program you would like to use to open it, when you double click on it. You can fix this annoying behavior by following these steps:

1. Create a shortcut to the hosts file on your desktop.
2. Right Click on the shortcut and choose properties.
3. Before continuing, you may wish to change the ugly icon by clicking the "Change Icon" button.
4. Next, edit the field called "Target" to say this:

   C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe 'c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts'

5. Then click ok to save.

That's it, now double click the icon and it will open your hosts file in notepad.

Check it out! Unusual use of technology.
Need to ask Buddy if we can get one...

The Flex Bug and Issue Management System is now available publicly for the Flash community. Adobe has opened the doors on the internal development efforts and provided a powerful tool for direct feedback from developers. Permission is granted to all users not only browse reports, but create new ones. Equally important, Adobe engineers use this same tracking system and all issues are reviewed and maintained by QA on a daily basis.

Since so many issues and feature requests are reported, the Jira tracking system provides a clever way to rank issue importance. Developers who find a particular issue of high importance, can vote for that issue. More votes equals higher priority. QA has done a nice job of tagging those issues that need more votes to be implemented.

I can think of no more proactive way to mold a product release than by participating here. It's a good idea to check on issues regularly and vote for what best helps you develop better applications. If you don't find what you need, submit a new issue. If you don't like how Flex 3 turns out, you should have seen it coming...

I've been messing with the Google Custom Search functionality lately and so far I'm impressed.

It is a very useful for your site to add on if you don't have strong search capabilities (and I'm sure it wouldn't hurt your sites indexing as well.)

One of the uses that I think it might have would be to add to your Google Homepage. This could be used to enter in several sites that you search regurally for information. So say for example you enjoy searching for tech.... So you might have it search specifically (cnet, macworld, blogna, yada yada) Would be cool if you were searching for the same sites consistently and it was super easy to setup and add to my google homepage.

So when you get some time you should check it out. You'll need to have a google account but come on who doesn't?

I'm sure some of you have probaly seen this software, but I thought I would mention it because it looks like it could be really useful. I installed the trial on my home machine and it works great.

From the website: "Parallels Workstation is a powerful, easy to use, cost effective desktop virtualization solution that empowers PC users with the ability to create completely networked, fully portable, entirely independent virtual machines on a single physical machine."

It allows you to run virtual computer inside your existing OS...inside a window. This could be great for setting up virtual servers, or virtual testing environments on a single machine. For example, we could install Windows Vista, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows ME on top of any other Windows installation, then boot up the virtual machines(inside windows), and use it as a testing environment for applications that we create. Read more about it here:

http://www.parallels.com/

There is also a feature that allows you to run Windows applications inside of OSX, as if they were native OSX apps! Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9jNNeEd98

The virtual machines are portable as well. Once you set up a VM, it basically creates 2 files: a config file, and a simulated Hard Disk Image file. So, after setting up the OS, you can copy or move the 2 files to another location or another machine, and run them.

Nice!