Best Free software

In keeping with the focus on Cloud Computing, here are some apps that anyone (consumer or businesses) can make use of  -

Evernote – this desktop and web app, allows you to keep track of notes and anything else you may come across.

From their website “Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.”

DropBox – a desktop app that allows you to sync, store and share your files securely online.

Instapaper – a fantastic website that allows you to mark weblinks to read later. It is more simplier in functionality than Delicious but that is what makes it many more times useful. You don’t even have to register – just supply a username. iPhone and iTouch apps are provided as well.

Aptana Studio – a free IDE that is based on Eclipse that provides excellent development environment for Php, Ruby and Ajax. It also is integrated with Aptana’s Cloud Studio and Jaxer (an AJAX server).

SlideRocket – the best web app for making presentations online.

MindMeister – online mind mapping.

Please feel free to add your favourite web-based applications.

Learn Adobe Flex in a week

Adobe Flex is an open source platform that allows you to create RIA (rich internet applications) easily that can run on all browsers and uses the Adobe Flash Player. This platform is of special interest to Salesforce users because Salesforce provides a flex toolkit that eases integration between Flex and the Salesforce APIs.

Adobe provides a easy to follow course that will get you up to speed with Flex at Flex in a Week.

Salesforce developers can go to the ADN website to learn more about integrating Flex with Salesforce.

Create a Salesforce Case from outside Salesforce – Web to Case

Would you like to be able to let your customers create cases using pages familiar to them or within another application?

Using the Web to Case feature in Salesforce, this is not only possible but also very easy.

Now is a great time to be a developer!

The state (past to present) of development – or now is a great time to be a developer

At start there was the mainframe with central deployment and support but with COBOL and CICS

Then we had the client-server model that used the powerful pc as the client which allowed better user experience and development tools but had the difficult deployment and support model.

The internet ushered a return to the simpler central deployment and support model. No more installations on separate client machines.

But the development and user experience also returned to page-based environment.

With the new slew of RIA environments (Flex, AIR, Ajax), and the corresponding frameworks, we are now returning to rich user experience with the development tools to match, while still keeping the central deployment/support model.