The Flex 2 Beta is now available for download!

Go get it!

(Still no Mac-native version but that hasn’t stopped some of the alpha-testers from making it work — let us know if you have any luck.)

Stay tuned to MXNA for up-to-the-minute posts by just about everyone; we’ll chime in with anything that seems especially noteworthy tomorrow.

Gotta love the love the latest Flash Player ubiquity report… version 8 is at 50% and climbing! As noted by Mike Chambers and Emmy Huang, Flash Player 8 is being adopted much more rapidly than previous versions and is on track to hit that magic 80% threshold within a year of its release. (And a good thing too since by then we’ll all be using 8.5!)

The stats in our own little ecosystem are even better — as you can see in the image above, 80% of our visitors already have Flash 8, and 99% have Flash 7 or better (as measured by Mint since some time in October ‘05… and we suspect some of you 7s have become 8s in the mean time.)

How do your site visitors measure up? What tools do you find helpful for testing such things?

Flex 2 is coming — are you ready?

Edit on 1/31: CNET says it will be tomorrow…

Edit 2: Confirmed, and the Flex Framework SDK will be free even post beta!

The public alpha was made available a few months ago, and the usual Flash community luminaries have been testing and refining it ever since. Last week Adobe’s John Dowdell noted that the Public Beta is “expected Very Soon Now.” If that news motivates you to finally get up to speed on the Flex front, here’s what you should do:

• Review the Flash Platform overview to see where Flex fits in the overall Flash Platform puzzle.
• Read Mike Chambers’ original article introducing Flex 2 and Christian Cantrell’s recent post Clarifying the Term “Flex”.
• Read John Dowdell’s posts from last week, Flex 2: Tell a Friend and Out of the Ghetto, in which he explains how Flex enthusiasts can help ensure Flex 2 is quickly taken seriously by the RIA development community (and why that’s important.)
• Register for Flashforward2006 Seattle, less than a month away now, where we’ll have an all-day workshop, an Adobe-led session, and many other opportunities to see Flex 2 and ActionScript 3 put through their paces.
• Watch the Adobe Labs page and be ready to download the beta when it becomes available! (Or check back here and we’ll let you know.)

Larry Lessig appeared in a Second Life event last week, and a full illustrated transcript is now available. (Part IV was published yesterday.) If you’re planning to attend Lessig’s Flashforward session, Flash®: Building the Read/Write Internet, this is a fascinating introduction to some of the topics he will discuss. Did any of you attend the event? What was it like?

Today’s interview is with Jeremy Thorp, who will be presenting “Flash in Generative Art and Design” at Flashforward2006 Seattle.

Flashforward: Can you introduce yourself briefly?

JT: Hi. I’m Jeremy Thorp, freelance flash developer, digital artist and all-around decent guy. I’m based out of Vancouver where I’ve been working with and teaching Flash since 1999. I like to make pretty things with computers.

FF: Tell us a bit about your session, and why people will want to attend.

JT: I’m really excited about my session. Having the opportunity to talk to a bunch of people about Generative Art is going to be great — my hope is that the session will spark the creation of a few new GA fanatics in the Flash world. We’re going to see a lot of cool things that are being done with Flash and other technologies by artists around the world, and we’re also going to look at some concepts being harnessed by GA artists that are pretty amazing. Most importantly, I’ll also show and share a lot of source code that people will be able to take home and tinker with and hopefully use to create some interesting things.

FF: Are you using any new features of Flash 8 that you’d like to share?

JT: Where to start? I guess the obvious place is with the BitmapData Class, which is absolutely wonderful. We’ve seen a flood of really exciting things come out of pixel access and I think we’re only just beginning. Honestly I think Flash 8 has been the most exciting version upgrade for the experimental Flash community since we escaped the frame loop.

FF: What projects do you have in the pipeline?

JT: I’m off to Budapest in April to take part in an exhibition for a workshop on evolutionary computation techniques in the creation of creative systems. There are a few new projects that I’m working on that I’d like to show off there, which means there’s a good chance we’ll see a sneak peak at Flashforward as well. On the commercial front, I am working on the coolest project ever, which I can’t talk about right now but might be able to spill a few beans about when I see you in Seattle. On a geek-cred scale of 1-10, it’s an easy 25.

FF: What inspires you these days?

JT: I’ve been reading a lot about the theories that neurobiologists have about how consciousness arises. It’s pretty amazing stuff, and actually some of the first non-fiction that I’ve been able to absorb. Maybe I’m getting old. Also, I’m learning to play the blues, which I think is a really amazing example of a simple system that produces complex results. If I could just re-wire my brain so that I could learn a bit faster…

FF: Care to share what excites you about Flashforward or the Film Festival?

JT: Any time there’s a chance to get together with like minds, it’s exciting. This will be my first Flashforward, so I am interested in seeing and experiencing as much of it as I possibly can.

FF: Any sessions that you’re looking forward to attending?

JT: I’m looking forward to being inspired by Erik Natzke and humbled by Grant Skinner. But to be truthful, I’m looking forward to just about every session. I wish I could split myself into three.

FF: Any parting words to encourage people to attend your session and/or the conference?

JT: My session lives right on the boundary between technology and creativity — so everyone will be able to get something out of it. Plus, I’ll have prizes.