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Windows Live Messenger Virus Warning
2008-01-24 18:30:00
If you use MS Instant Messenger (windows live messenger) at all be careful not to fall for a bad link which installs a virus.  You will be IM'd something like: Hey, isn't this YOU??   http://mainmsn.com/images/viewimage.php?= [my email here] [More]
More About: Personal , Windows , Virus , Technology , Windows Live

Notchup Review - Job Search Site With a Twist
2008-01-23 00:21:00
I recently was invited into the beta test for new start up Notchup.  They are a job search site with an interesting twist.  People create profiles and companies search those profiles for interesting candidates.  As a candidate you provide a public price of how much money it will cost to be interviewed.  Thats right, you can charge for an interview.  Think of it as a way to get back at those employment agencies that waste your time and deliver nothing. Creating a profile was very easy.  In fact there is a handy import utility to suck the data from your linked in account.  It can also bring in your linked in contacts and invite them (which I DIDN"T do).  Once done you set your price (I set mine at $250) and you are ready to go. [More]
More About: Technology , Review , Search , Site , Twist

RIP Heath Ledger
2008-01-22 23:07:00
Just read that Heath Ledger passed away today.  Apparently just a couple hours ago.  I am a big fan of his.  Not for the movies many may like him for such as  Brokeback Mountain, but for 10 Things I Hate About You.  I don't know why I like that movie and I don't know what it was about that character, but at some point in my life I will sing "I love you Baby" to my wife while a marching band plays along.  In fact, I think I may watch that movie tonight. Here is the poem from the movie: [More]

Seacoast of NH ColdFusion and Flex Meet 'N Greet - Thursday 24th 6pm
2008-01-22 22:26:00
Just a quick reminder about this Thursday (24th)  at 6pm.  It is an informal hey how ya doin meeting for Cold Fusion and Flex developers in the Seacoast New Hampshire area.  Hopefully the first of many.  No speakers, no prizes, just some food and drink, friends and peers. We will meet at Coat of Arms.  Once you walk up the stairs there is a snooker table to right.  I will get us a big table near there somewhere.  I will bring CF book with me and put it on table so it will be clear who we are. :-) The coat of arms is on 174 Fleet St., Portsmouth. Across from the parking garage and just around the corner from Legends (pool hall).  It has good food, and a great British pub beer selection.  Google Map Here
More About: Local , Meet

Preventing Blog Scrapers
2008-01-21 19:44:00
I read Problogger's blog every once in a while as I often find good tips in there.  Today I noticed just such a post. The post is about Blog Scrapers and it is something that I have often wondered about.  Scrapers are people or bots that take your RSS feed and use it as their own blog or content.  Often with no link or mention of you.  They do so purely for the advertising revenue.  They hurt us by doing two things.  1) they dilute your web site ranking by causing search engines to think your content is duplicate content.  2) they are making money off your work. [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion , Eventing

Going to CFObjective
2008-01-11 21:59:00
I am quite excited to go to cf.Objective() this year.  Just booked the flight and hotel room. Small hint: [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion

Contract Work Available - Interested?
2008-01-11 18:19:00
I was about to just post the blog entry below when a thought occurred to me.  Is there a bidding system out their for CFML projects?  Meaning if I have a simple 'take this design and build out a 15 page site using our cms' project, is there a place to post that project and get people to make offers for price and such? Would there be interest in our happy little CF community for something like that? Update: I found this site, however it brings up an issue of trustability.  I was just thinking of maybe making this kind of invite only.  Trusted developers resource to help eachother, so that there is no issue of trust and experience. Basically there can be a large pool of known and trusted contractors/freelancers/companies that can log in and see whats available and pick up a project for an agreed price.  It would be password protected, and invite only, or the applicants would be vetted by peers or something.  Thoughts?   [More]
More About: Work , Cold , Fusion , Contract , Eres

RPM Challenge 2008 - Time to get your music on.
2008-01-10 20:12:00
RPM Challenge is one of those brilliant things in life that asks for nothing but energy, creativity and passion and in return delivers it all back to us ten fold.  It is a challenge to musicians of all genres and skill levels to write and record an entire album in the month of February.  It sounds like a daunting task, and frankly it is, however it has also proven to be completely doable.  Not just for music veterans but for musical newbies like myself.  In 2006 I signed up for this crazy challenge along with 170+ other people/bands.  In a fit of a few afternoons/evenings I managed to pull off 10 improvisational saxophone movements and completed the challenge with about 6 hours to spare.  Due to the success of its inaugural year and the enthusiasm from the 2006 participants the challenge grew quite a bit last year (2007).  Bands from every continent signed up.  Yes every continent.  Over 850 albums were completed and thousands of musici...
More About: Music , Time , Cold , Fusion , Crazy

your upper lip
2008-01-10 01:19:00
Please comment below if you know what this comment is referring to.  My beer went through my nose when my wife told it to me. Hint: it isn't dirty. [More]
More About: Crazy

Voting for Vice President?
2008-01-08 20:31:00
I voted today ( I live in NH ) and was surprised to see a column for Vice President on the ballot.  Yes, VP.  On the Democrat ballot were two people (no big names) and the republican ballot has one name (a local state senator). So what happens to the person who wins the VP primary race?  Nothing.  [More]
More About: Politics , Voting , Vice President

Blog Design Update
2008-01-06 03:17:00
Since so many others had updated their blog for the new year I figured I would get in on the act. I kept blogcfc and really just modified the CSS and a bit of the layout.  I also made room for a 'featured posts' section, which is really just 3 random posts.  Blog cfc caches pages, so they are random to when it caches, but they show different 3 posts per page.  I figure this will be good for SEO an also for people finding old posts of mine.  [More]
More About: Design , Cold , Fusion , Update

Preventing Brute Force Login Attack - Input Requested
2008-01-04 19:58:00
How  do you prevent a brute force attacker (bot) from using a dictionary to attempt to log into your web application?  I have chatted a bit with others in the bloggoshere and read various sites and haven't come up with a solution.  (that doesn't require special web server software) Here is a good article reviewing the issue and possible options. Obviously one of the best ways to protect against the dictionary attack is to force strong passwords.  However, that doesn't prevent the bot from trying anyway.   Plus we all know users say one thing and then do another when we are not looking.  So step one is writing code that forces strong passwords. [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion , Force , Attack , Atta

Savvy CMS Presentation Available
2008-01-03 15:30:00
Just a quick note to let people know that the hour long presentation on our CMS is now available.  Actually it was available almost right away, I just got busy with the season and am just getting around to posting about it now. I thought the presentation went pretty well.  It is a good overview of how to setup and get started with Savvy CM from install to templates to page building all the way to some basic implementation of custom code. One thing I should have discussed is licensing though.  We are a low priced commercial CMS.  We do have a very good pricing structure for developers through our partner program.  Lemme know if you want to learn more. [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion , Presentation , Resent

Political Junkmail
2007-12-31 21:04:00
This is the season for political visits, calls and junkmail. (I live in NH) This weekend we were phoned  by 3 different candidates.  Well, my wife was.  I don't count for some reason.  We had one door to door visitor (Obama and Edwards volunteers love to visit us apparently). Today we (my wife) got, and I kid you not... 3 giant glossy junkmails from Hillary.  Not 3 of the same mind you, 3 different mailers today.  [More]
More About: Politics , Political

Goodbye Netscape
2007-12-28 22:23:00
I have just learned that AOL will discontinue support and development of the Netscape browser.  On the one hand I am sad.  Options are always a good thing.  On the other I am happy.  Netscape was really just Firefox (lately) and was another browser to test everything with on various OS's. So should we stop supporting Netscape officially?  If so when?  A quick look at my stats for the month of December tell me that Netscape users are very small in number right now, and sure to shrink further. Firefox 2.0   42.21%   IE 7.0   25.54%   Internet Explorer 6.0   18.66%   other   9.39%   Mozilla 1.8   1.99%  ...
More About: Cold , Fusion , Goodbye

2007 CFeMmy Results - Savvy Content Manager wins best Commercial App Built
2007-12-21 20:53:00
Our Cold Fusion CMS, Savvy Content Manager has won best Commercial CF App in the 2007 CFeMmys. This has been a great year for Savvy and myself and I am really looking forward to 2008.  A great big thank you to those that voted for us, and also to Todd Sharp, who organized the nominations and voting process.   Also a big thumbs up to all those nominated.  There were some difficult decisions to be made when I voted.  So many good projects, resources and blogs these days.  Keep it up!
More About: Results

Quick Reminder on Presentation at Noon
2007-12-20 16:47:00
Just a quick reminder that I will be doing a presentation for the Online Cold Fusion Meetup Group this Thursday at noon (Eastern).  It is titled "Configuring, Using and Extending Savvy Content Manager", which I hope pretty well explains what I will be doing.  I plan on taking everyone from the basic install to setting up templates to building out pages and then how to extend with your own CFML. I have been given some simple templates for a local non-profit that wants to use Savvy, so I am actually going to be building a real site during the demo.  [More]
More About: Quick , Presentation , Reminder

Want to learn more about our CMS?
2007-12-18 14:40:00
I will be doing a presentation for the Online Cold Fusion Meetup Group this Thursday at noon (Eastern).  It is titled "Configuring, Using and Extending Savvy Content Manager", which I hope pretty well explains what I will be doing.  I plan on taking everyone from the basic install to setting up templates to building out pages and then how to extend with your own CFML. So if any of you have wondered a bit about our CMS, have no idea what a CMS is, or if you are looking for something to do this Thursday be sure to drop by.  I suspect attendance will be a bit low as this is a commercial product demo and its also a very busy time of year for everyone.  That just means there will be more time for me to focus on your questions/comments! [More]
More About: Learn

Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate
2007-12-13 18:16:00
The RC for SP1 of Vista has been released today.  I wont bother with the RC, but am looking forward to getting the final SP. Lots of people are talking about the compatibility issues with Vista, and how the RC doesn't really fix many.  I haven't had issues with that (though I am sure they exist).  My main issue has been performance with basic tasks.  Specifically copy/extracting files and hibernate. [More]
More About: Technology , Service , Release , Pack

CF Contractor Needed
2007-12-13 16:00:00
A client of ours is looking for a CF Contractor for part of a project we are too busy to handle.  They are a good client to work with, so if your fit their needs (see below) give them a shout.  To be clear, the project will be using our CMS, however there are many sections of the site where they need cool CF custom work done.  You don't need to worry much about the CMS integration as it is incredibly easy.  Also, while onsite is preferred the client is willing to consider offsite.  From what I am told the work will begin soon and storyboards etc. have already been developed. Update: I do encourage you to apply, even if you don't live in Chicago or know the CMS.  While that is preferred having options is even more preferable! [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion

Calling all ColdFusion Developers in Seacoast of New Hampshire
2007-12-11 20:24:00
At flex camp (which was great) last Friday I ran into a few people who live in the Seacoast of New Hampshire (or on the border in Main and Massachusetts) and do Cold Fusion development.  It is always nice to meet new CF people and it surprised me that there were so many I hadn't known about right here in my back yard.  If I had been thinking I would have gotten your business cards so we could continue to network later. So this is a quick call to all you CF'ers.  How many of you are out there and in the Seacoast area?  Would it make sense to try to organize a CF meet 'n drink some night to all get together say hi and so forth?  I am all about organizing stuff like that if enough people would be interested. [More]
More About: Coldfusion

How to make money on the web in 10 easy steps.
2007-12-06 20:44:00
This is a proven formula.  100% Guaranteed.  If you can prove me wrong, and also convince me that you really tried and show that you are 100% committed to success... I will buy you a beer. (does not apply to anyone outside of Portsmouth NH, may be PBR) Just follow these steps to make your millions, then watch the video below. [More]
More About: Money , Make Money , Cold , Fusion , Make

IE nested list item whitespace solution: vertical-align:bottom
2007-12-03 19:43:00
I have been struggling for a bit now to get a nested list item menu to display correctly in IE.  Specifically when using the strict doctype.  My menu would show fine in FF and Netscape, but in IE there would be whitespace below some of my nested list items. For a while I thought I was dealing with the haslayout bug.  And in fact I am sure that there were a couple issues fixed by applying zoom: 1 to my items and links.  However I still had some mysterious whitespace show up around my nested items.  I was about to give up and get rid of my doctype (ack!). [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion , List , Item , Solution

cftextarea richtext - change toolbar on the fly with js
2007-11-28 18:58:00
ColdFusion 8 has a handy new tag to instantly create a rich text editor in your forms.  It uses FCK editor. Anyone who has spent a few minutes with it has noticed that the two toolbar configs that it comes may not fit your needs.  In fact the Basic toolbar has a Link option in it.  This link option creates a popup window that presents a button to browse the server and on another tab a form to upload documents.  Don't panic, the functionality to actually browse or upload has been rmoved (file not found error).  Why did they leave in the buttons and form?  Who knows.  This is not acceptable to present to any end user or client, however. [More]
More About: Change , Cold , Toolbar

upgrading from CF6 to CF8 - verity reminder
2007-11-25 23:35:00
Today I upgraded one of our servers from CF6 to CF8.  Over all the server upgrade went well.  One big gotcha for me however, and I figured this may happen to others. CF6 handles verity collections differently than cf7 or cf8.  Because of this difference the amount of RAM used is MUCH MUCH larger with cf7 or cf8.  Before if you had a bunch of empty verity collections, no big deal.  Now each collection, regardless of data in it or not will take a minimum of a few megs of ram or more.  Doesn't sound like a big deal, but this has caught many people by surprise and something I forgot to check for during my upgrade. [More]
More About: Cold , Fusion , Reminder , Remi

Rock Band Review xbox360
2007-11-21 03:46:00
I really should be working on my many projects, but I took tonight off to play with my new game Rock Band .  It arrived a day earlier than expected (ordered last week from amazon), which is always a good thing when it comes to new games. I ordered the Special Edition, which comes with a drum kit, guitar and microphone.  The setup was easy enough.  The guitar is new and improved.  It looks better than the last one and has buttons to press up and down the neck to make playing feel a bit more authentic.  There are also game controls built in, which makes maneuvering around the menus easier than previous games. [More]
More About: Review , Rock Band

Coldfusion Hosting with Network Solutions
2007-11-20 17:17:00
Did you know Network Solutions offers coldfusion web hosting?  I didn't either.  A client of ours wanted us to try it to see if our CMS could run on it.  Sure, why not. I never got direct access to the control panel, so I can't speak to how it is for controlling aspects of your site.  You can set up a db with it, but you can't set up a datasource.  To set up a datasource you must call tech support and request it.  They respond that it will take 1 to 3 business days to set up the data source.  [More]
More About: Hosting , Cold , Fusion , Coldfusion

New Project: Live View of Visitors On Your Site
2007-11-17 17:24:00
(Update: I meant for this to be posted on Monday.  Sorry for the bad link some of you got in the aggregators.) I am working on a new project and would like some feedback. I was inspired by the handy WhosOnCFC authored by Shane Zehnder.  It does a good job of delivering totals of visitors and tracking sessions on now, purging old data, etc.   However what I really want is a nice interface to track live traffic on my site.  Who is visiting, where are they located, where did they come from, what pages are they visiting, etc.  Why?  Because google analytics is great, but not live.  I want to know what is going on now.  I can use other tools for data mining and analysis. [More]
More About: Project , Site , Cold , Fusion , Live

mythbusters flip taxi and bus with jet
2007-11-17 17:00:00
This clip is kind of long, but worth it.  I saw this on TV a couple nights ago and it renewed my vow to someday have enough money that I could just do cool stuff like this for the 'educational' value and fun of it. Basically the myth was 'if a jet lands at the same time a car drives by right behind it the car will flip over'.  Not many airports around here are set up like that, but I am sure some have a road/highway right next to the landing spot. [More]
More About: Crazy , Flip , Mythbusters , Taxi

new high tech pr blog
2007-11-14 22:59:00
A client of mine just recenly launched their new high tech pr site and blog.  The blog uses blogcfc as the engine and I think it turned out pretty well.  As always I am interested in feedback.
More About: High Tech , Tech , Blog , High , High-Tech