I put together the following presentation with the blessing of Liz and Nafisa to combine a lot of their hard work into a single resource that answers the question:

Why should I attend CFUnited 2009?

Lately I've been unable to install any AIR applications on Vista. When double clicking on the AIR file I'd be presented with the error:

Something went wrong trying to install this application. Please install the latest version of Adobe AIR from http://www.adobe.com/go/getair and then try again.

Which looks like this:

So I tried to play along and go download AIR thinking that somehow I missed an update along the way. I was then greeted with this lovely message when I tried to install the new runtime:

This version of Adobe AIR is already installed on your system.

Which looks like this (if you're playing along at home):

The solution was to find the Adobe AIR Application Installer.exe file, mine was located at:

When you run the installer executable you will be able to browse and select the AIR application that you would like to install and the process should work as expected from there on out. You may have to right click the AIR Application Installer and 'Run As Administrator' if it doesn't work straight away.

A bit of a pain, but I'm glad I can at least install AIR apps again. Anyone know why I can't install them straightaway anymore?

We've all heard the news about Adobe layoffs this week. Some of our friends have even lost their jobs due to poor economic conditions and slumping sales. So what can we do about it? I for one believe that as an avid fan of many of Adobe's technologies that it is my responsibility to evangelize the technologies that I appreciate - since they do after all make my life easier. I'd like to think that we all feel some sense of responsibility to help our favorite tools grow.

To that end I'd implore folks to help spread the word about Adobe technologies. One way we can do that is to embrace and actually use those web sites and applications that are built on those technologies. Instead of singing the praises of sites built on PHP and Rails, use one built on ColdFusion. If it's not as good as a competitor, make suggestions! File bug reports, submit ideas to the developers! I understand this is easier said then done. I don't expect anyone to drop Twitter or Facebook when there is not a comparable or superior alternative. But when comparable alternatives exist, lets embrace them! Another way we can spread the word about these technologies is to nominate some applications/sites built on Adobe technologies for the 2008 Crunchie Awards. Click on the badge above and nominate SlideSix, or click here to nominate Broadchoice Workspace (or heck, click both!). Let's put our technologies on the map and in the spotlight. It's our community, we can stick together and promote it or we can let it remain in the dark. Who/what else would you nominate? Feel free to post a link in the comments - but only after you vote for me ;)

I'm happy to announce the release of the SlideSix Uploader AIR application.

I've been looking for some AIR inspiration lately and just stumbled onto AIRpollo which seems to be a nice collection of cool little AIR apps.  I noticed a comment or two from some known CFers so I'm obviously not the first to find it, but I don't remember anyone blogging on it yet so I thought I'd share.  I seem to also remember someone (Ryan Stewart?) blogging on a list of AIR apps but I can't seem to find that now.  Anyone remember?