Here is the ColdFusion and Fusebox news:
* ColdFusion Open Source Code-off
* CFBugHunt - help us find CF 7 bugs - http://www.cfbughunt.org/
* CFLive - TODAY Charlie Arehart New in CFMX 6 and 7: What Did You Miss?
* New CFUNITED podcasts released http://cfunited.com/blog/index.cfm/podcast
- Dave Watts - CFMX Server Configuration and Troubleshooting
- Michael Smith - Mindmapping for Better Programs
* Adobe After Effects 7.0 Review
* Pre-conference clases filling up
* Fusebox 6 - a status update
* Interview with with Michael Smith on "Selling ColdFusion to Clients"
"Learning more, networking more, getting NEW ideas...and now, to
support
CF's continued existence."
-Howard Perlman (CFUNITED attendee)
Other great quotes from attendees about "Why people should attend CFUnited"
http://cfunited.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/4/30/Survey-Contest-Winner
* ColdFusion Open Source Code-off
Win awesome prizes by creating something free for our beloved ColdFusion
community. One lucky
ColdFusion coding champion will win a shiny new Nintendo Wii as well as
a free ticket to CFUnited.
Second and Third runner up will receive 50% off registration.
But, not just anything for free; find something that currently costs
money, duplicate the described
functionality, then publish your open source version for free.
All entries must be submitted by June 5th. One winner will be chosen by
the CFUnited Advisory Board
and will be given a free ticket to CFUnited and a special prize. All
entries will be recognized
publicly along with the winner after June 5th.
Thank you Ben Nadel for hosting this contest. See more at his blog
http://www.bennadel.com/index.cfm?dax=blog.cfunited
* CFBugHunt - help us find CF 7 bugs - http://www.cfbughunt.org/
There aren't many issues reported on CF 7 on CFbughunt. Is it that CF 7
is bug free or do you know a
bug that should be reported on it?
We have updated http://www.cfbughunt.org/ to prepare for the upcoming
CF8 release and to fix some
old bugs in the site. Report CF7 issues prior to the CF8 release so that
they are publicly
documented. This will help people who are stuck on a problem caused by a
server bug rather than
their code bug to find these bugs rather than banging their heads
against the wall.
PS Please do not report issues with CF8 beta on this site - use the
Adobe beta site for that. Thanks!
* CFLive Schedule
CFlive is a weekly half hour technical talk from CFUNITED speakers. It
is hosted by Raymond Camden
and Charlie Arehart of the Meetup virtual CFUG. The current schedule is
every Thursday at 12:30pm -
1pm EDT.
* 5/10/07 Charlie Arehart New in CFMX 6 and 7: What Did You Miss?
* 5/17/07 Simon Horwith - Architecting and Optimizing CF
Applications for Performance and
Scalability
* 5/24/07 Rob Gonda Flex Intensive for ColdFusion Developers
* 5/31/07 Oguz Demirkapi Multi Language Applications in CF in
Theory and Practice
* 6/7/07 Peter Bell "Practical Code Generation: By Example"
* 6/14/07 Patrick Quinn UI design concepts
* 6/21/07 Mark Drew "CFeclipse Plus!"
* 6/28/07 Live from show
You can get details on each talk, as well as RSVP, at:
http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/.
.. The URL for each Acrobat Connect meeting will be
http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/, where you
would sign in as a guest.
The talks are on Adobe Acrobat Connect so you can listen in remotely via
your PC with sound via the
internet. We are planning to record the talks and will provide URLs for
later viewing after each
event. Looking forward to seeing you there!
* IPv6 Conference 5/10/07
There are less than 8 days left register for The New New Internet: IPv6
Conference coming to
Arlington VA on May 10th! The event covers the most important and
timely IPv6 issues with some
first time appearances including:
* First-time panel with the entire CIO Council IPv6 Working Group
* Carol Bales - Senior Policy Analyst, OMB
* Fred Schobert - Networx Program Manager, GSA
* Dr. Ray Johnson - CTO Lockheed Martin
* Dr. John D. Howard - Deputy Director of National Intelligence for
Intelligence Community
Enterprise Services
* Jim Bound - CTO IPv6 Forum
* Brad Ryan - Chief Technical Architect, Juniper Networks
For the most up-to-date information and registration visit:
http://www.IPv6.TheNewNewInternet.com
Please use the following link to get $25 off your registration by using
my promotion code "JDK07":
https://www.execbizevents.com/ExecutiveBiz/events/register.php?event_id=60&promo=JDK07
* New CFUNITED Sponsor, Savvy Software
We have a new Bronze LevelSponsor! Savvy Software is the developer of
Savvy Content Manager - rapidly becoming the go to solution for web
content management
More at
http://cfunited.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/4/27/New-Sponsor-Savvy-Software
* New CFUNITED podcasts released
- Dave Watts - CFMX Server Configuration and Troubleshooting
- Michael Smith - Mindmapping for Better Programs
Since CF became a Java application, many aspects of CF server
configuration and troubleshooting have
changed dramatically. This session will cover CFMX server configuration
options, and will provide
useful diagnostic processes for JVM configuration and tuning, and
troubleshooting CFMX server
stability problems.
http://cfunited.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/5/10/Dave-Watts--CFMX-Server-Configuration-and-Troubleshooting
Michael Smith - Mindmapping for Better Programs
Do you want to write better programs? Maybe thinking about programming
in a different way would
help. Mindmapping is a way to visually work with ideas that was invented
in 1970. Now used by
millions of people worldwide, mindmapping uses both the left (logical)
and right (visual) sides of
the brain - so that we can more than double our productivity! Learn how
to create effective mindmaps
for requirements gathering, program architecture, project management and
more. I will demo some
mindmapping tools and given an interactive mindmapping exercise for
attendees too. Don~'t miss it!
http://cfunited.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/5/6/Michael-Smith--Mindmapping-for-Better-Programs
* Adobe After Effects 7.0 Review
If you are interested in video editing and special effects read the
review of
the new version of Adobe After Effects at MDCFUG by Nafisa
http://mdcfug.org/blog/index.cfm/2007/5/4/Adobe-After-Effects-70-Review
* Pre-conference clases filling up
Monday 6/25
CU221 Rob Gonda Flex Intensive for ColdFusion Developers
CU222 Kurtis D. Leatham Creating Your First Cold Fusion Application
CU223 Oguz Demirkapi Multi Language Applications in CF in Theory and
Practice
CU224 Nate Nelson Advanced Database
Tuesday 6/26
Code Speaker Topic
CU225 Peter Bell Practical Code Generation: By Example
CU226 Simon Horwith Architecting and Optimizing CF Applications for
Performance and Scalability
CU227 John Paul Ashenfelter Best Practice Bootcamp for Developers
CU228 Charlie Arehart New in CFMX 6&7: What Did You Miss?
More at http://cfunited.com/go/classes
* Fusebox 6 - a status update
Based on lots of feedback about Fusebox and different versions, we
arrived at two themes for the
Fusebox 6 release:
1. Simplify. Remove barriers. Make it easier for newbies. Make building
applications faster by
favoring convention over configuration.
2. Extend through extensibility. Provide new functionality outside the
core. Add plugins, lexicons,
even standardized circuits.
More info and a way to make your own suggestions for Fusebox 6 features at
http://trac.fuseboxframework.org/fusebox/wiki/FuseboxCoreFiles
If you want to help out with Fusebox then reply to this email.
* Interview with with Michael Smith on "Selling ColdFusion to Clients"
Clark Valberg: Michael thanks for joining me today
Michael Smith: Good to talking with you again Clark.
CV: So is this your first time attending a CFUNITED event , or just your
first time presenting?
MS: Actually it is my 9th time presenting at CFUNITED - my first time
was in 1999 on ColdFusion
security. I have presented at about 80 conferences and user group
meetings over the years.
CV: Ok, so I'm sure our readers know you're the "head honcho" of
TeraTech, and "proud parent" of the
CFUNITED conference. But I think there are few who know the story of
how it all got started. Tell
us a little about the first CFUNITED event.
MS: It was back in 1999 at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda
Maryland. We had 900
attendees over two days (on a weekend) in a single track (much easier to
organize than the seven
tracks we have now). The previous year Rob Sen had run a ColdFusion
conference in Colorado but
didn't want to run it again so I volunteered to organize one. I am so
glad that I did! With the help
of the CFUNITED advisory board we have increased the number of speakers
and tracks and now provide a
sponsor area and evening parties too.
CV: As a developer you've been working with ColdFusion for a long time -
how were you first introduced?
MS: We were working on a FoxPro database contract at the World Bank in
Washington DC and they needed
to have an intranet database created for displaying mainframe project
data. They were an early user
of ColdFusion 1.5 so they asked us to create the site using that. We
didn't have a DBML (the earlier
name of CFML) editor back then so it was editing in notepad and fixing
any typo in our code. I was
also learning HTML at the same time so spend plenty of time fixing
errors in my HTML syntax,
forgetting pound signs and more. What a great way to embed the language
in my brain! The project was
a big success and I met other CF programmers at the Maryland CFUG which
I later volunteered to run.
CV: So that brings us to your talk, "Selling ColdFusion to Client", are
we talking about good old
fashioned evangelism?
MS: Well while I am enthusiastic about ColdFusion I won't be pounding on
the CF bible in my talk! I
think there are rational reasons for using ColdFusion on a clients
project. It is a rapid
development (RAD) tool, it is tag based so easy to learn from HTML and
there is a great ColdFusion
community on lists, at user groups and conferences.
CV: With so many other languages capturing peoples attention these days,
Ruby (and by extension,
Rails) and ASP.NET come to mind, what keeps you so dedicated to the
ColdFusion platform?
MS: The high productivity of ColdFusion and it easy extensibility for
one. Also the fact that Adobe
has worked hard over the years to keep each release backwards compatible
with earlier versions. I
know that ColdFusion will be around for years to come.
CV: Have you had any difficulties as of late convincing your consulting
clients that ColdFusion is
the way to go?
MS: No and to be honest clients are often more concerned about whether
the application will do what
they need and can be delivered by the due date that they have. I find
that our using the Fusebox
FLiP process where the client can see and play with the application
months before we finish building
it is the most important part of our process. In my experience it is
very hard for any one to
understand what software will do before it is build and this FLiP
modeling approach gives our
clients lots of chances to give feedback on the software before we build it.
CV: What kinds of things do you hear from those who are unsure that
ColdFusion is the way to go?
Any popular objections?
MS: Well there is the cost of CF server at over $1000. Then I hear
complaints about CF being too
easy to write poor code in. Some folks say it is slow. Then some people
say "It isn't made by
Microsoft".
CV: How do you respond to their concerns - is there any message you find
to be particularly compelling?
MS: On the cost of the CF server at as there are many CF hosting
services for less than $50/month I
don't think this argument hold water.
On CF being too easy to write poor code in I will say that there is some
truth to this because CF is
so easy to learn that some bad programs have been written in it. But
when in the hands of good
software developers ColdFusion can be efficient and maintainable code as
any other language.
On ColdFusion being slow. This isn't true of the language but again
poorly written code will be slow
in what ever language you use and CF does make it easy for beginning
programmer to write
applications. In my experience most slow websites can be fixed by
improve the SQL and database
organization - which are not depended on the application language being
CF or ASP or Java or whatever.
On ColdFusion not being made by Microsoft yes this is true! I see this
as a political rather than a
technical choice and if it is important to your organization to have
absolutely all code done in
Microsoft tools even at higher development cost then good luck to you.
To summarize ColdFusion is a great programming language that is easy to
use. If you are a
professional programmer the applications written in ColdFusion are
faster, more maintainable and
quicker to develop than other languages. If you are a poor programmer
then you can write bad
programs in any language.
CV: I guess we'll have to attend your session to find out more eh?
MS: Yes I will talk about other issues such as security, portablity and
scalability. I will also
compare CF to other languages such as ASP.Net, JSP RoR and PHP. Finally
most importantly I am
looking for any feedback or questions readers have on Selling CF to
clients. I have set up a survey
at to hear more. You can find it at:
http://mdcfug.org/surveys/survey.cfm
CV: Anything you'd like us to be thinking about before attending your
session?
MS: ColdFusion is one of the most tested languages for web development
with over 2 GB of test bed
code that the new CF 8 is running through to make sure that it is
reliable and backwards compatible
with earlier code. It is supported by the forth largest software company
in the world (Adobe). It is
here for the long haul.
CV: One last thing. Recently TeraTech has committed to putting a
significant amount of energy and
resources into helping Fusebox grow.
I've heard a rumor that something new was coming in time for CFUNITED.
What's up?
MS: We are part of Team Fusebox that is working on completely rewriting
the Fusebox website so that
it is easier to use and provides more help to both new and experienced
Fusebox users. We also plan a
way for the Fusebox community to easily contribute new articles and code
samples. In fact over 170
people worldwide have volunteered to help with Fusebox. The leader of
the website rewrite is Sandra
Clark, who is well know in the Fusebox community and has been working
hard with volunteer help to
rewrite the website in the open source Farcry CMS using ColdFusion. We
plan to release the new site
at CFUNITED.
CV: Sounds like you've got some pretty exciting stuff in store. Thanks
again for chatting with me
today Michael.
MS: My pleasure Clark. See you at CFUNITED.
Bio
Michael Smith is the President of TeraTech, a 18-year old Rockville,
Maryland consulting company
that specializes in web and database development. TeraTech has developed
sophisticated data-driven
web sites for a wide range of organizations, from corporations to
government agencies. In addition
to ColdFusion, the TeraTech staff also have extensive experience in SQL
databases, ASP, HTML,
Access, Foxpro, Visual Basic and more. Michael has been programming for
over 25 years and has been
coding in ColdFusion since version 1.5 ten years ago. He obtained his MA
and BA from Cambridge
University, England and graduated in the top 10 of his year. Michael
runs the Maryland ColdFusion
User Group and organized many very successful CF events including
CFUNITED-06 with over 900
attendees. Michael volunteers at ByteBack, a non-profit organization
provides computer training for
unemployed and under-employed inner city residents. He also is a
frequent contributor to Fusion
Authority, the ColdFusion Developer Journal and the CPCUG monitor.
Selling Coldfusion to Clients
What strategies do you use for selling the ColdFusion platform to
clients? Particularly when there
are multiple possible platforms in the running. This is a topic that is
often discussed on the
various CF lists. I will compare various platforms and discuss where CF
"sits". We will look at how
RAD (Rapid Application Development) helps and hinders. Combating the
"PHP is Free" or "ASP is Free"
argument. How can Java developers look at ColdFusion in a positive
light? Different ways to talk
about ColdFusion depending on your audience.
---
Come to the premier ColdFusion conference of 2007 in Washington DC area
6/27-6/30/07
(Four whole days). Note that you could spend the whole CFUNITED
conference at Advanced CF topics, or
learning CF in the bootcamp or learning Flex and Apollo in our Flex
track. Or deployment issue or
empowered programming or SQL! Plus in depth pre-conference classes from
nationally know experts.
Check it out at
http://www.cfunited.com/
* Speakers include top names like Simon Horwith, Charlie Arehart,
Hal Helms, Michael Dinowitz, Ray Camden, Ben Forta and many more respected
CF authors and presenters.
* Great tracks:
* Bootcamp - Basic ColdFusion and Flash topics
* Advanced - Advanced ColdFusion topics
* Manager/Empowered - Fusebox and Project management topics
* Flex/RIA - Flash, Flex and other technologies integrated with CF topics
* Accessibility / usability - section 508, CSS and disabled access
* Deployment/Platform - tuning, install issues, OS, picking a database
* Included in your full conference registration is the following:
* Attendance for 4 days (6/27/ - 6/30/07)
* Keynote and General Sessions
* All conference sessions including repeat sessions on Saturday
* Entrance to Expo Area
* Networking Events
* Badge and Badge holder with bar scan code
* Free Lunch for each show day (Dinner is not included)
* Access to all presentations after the event, including all the
recordings.
* Promotional bag with materials including show guide, CD, coupons,
etc.
* Opportunity to participate in all raffle drawings
* Can't stay 4 days Wed - Sat? Optional 3-day and Saturday only packages
available too. Saturday will consist of repeats the most popular
sessions
from the week - something many attendees asked for last year!
--
Michael Smith, TeraTech Inc - Tools for Programmers(tm)
TeraTech voted Best Consulting Service by CFDJ readers!
CF/ASP Web, VB, Math, Access programming tools and consulting
405 E Gude Dr Ste 207, Rockville MD 20850 USA
Please check out http://www.teratech.com/ - email
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED],
or call us for more information; in the USA at 1-800-447-9120,
+1-301-424-3903 International, Fax 301-762-8185 Thanks!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
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